Introduction

Abstract

For over five hundred years cotton has been woven into the economic and political fabric of global capitalism. Cotton cultivation has created immense wealth and despair. For centuries, its commercial cultivation depended on slavery and other forms of repressive labor systems coupled to government intervention to protect large producers and control prices. Cotton grew to be one of the world’s most important commodities before facing stiff competition by synthetic fibers in recent decades. Cotton remains a prominent global commodity grown by millions of farmers around the world, but its importance to the global political economy now stems from the politics of its production and marketing. This importance is underscored by the cotton dispute, and expressed through its emergence and resolution. This chapter explores the emergence of the trade dispute, how scholars have approached explanation of its sources and evolution, and describes the organization of the book.