When tariffs disapeared so did the American Textile Industry. So now Viet-nam makes our shirts, and the rest of SE Asia makes the rest. But we are told this benefited all. True?
Tom you spend less on clothes than did your 1960s counterpart, and the clothes have designer labels. This may have helped a bit when you bid-up house prices.
Relatedly, although this cartoon doesn’t mention it, cotton was a cheaper in the 1850s before we elected Lincoln with his anti-business, pro-labor bias.
Mike good question and, based on data that I can find, your suspicions are correct that cotton prices weren’t affected much by freeing slaves–the price spiked up and down before the Civil War and went up after the war but not for long. Other factors were more important in driving the price up and down. So I guess slave labor didn’t keep the price down, or at least that’s true given that this labor entered into the country to work the cotton fields and its population grew (to about 4 million) without the costs of having to entice them by offering good wages.
Massive unemployment?
Hmmm.
I wonder what happened to the American Textile Industry?
When tariffs disapeared so did the American Textile Industry. So now Viet-nam makes our shirts, and the rest of SE Asia makes the rest. But we are told this benefited all. True?
What new labor rights law?
I assume your not talking about the right to organize unions without a secret ballot correct?
Islam will change
Tom you spend less on clothes than did your 1960s counterpart, and the clothes have designer labels. This may have helped a bit when you bid-up house prices.
Relatedly, although this cartoon doesn’t mention it, cotton was a cheaper in the 1850s before we elected Lincoln with his anti-business, pro-labor bias.
PJR,
I’d like to see the data on cotton prices.
That said, I’m assuming freeing the slaves was one of those anti-business pro-labor biases that affected the price of cotton.
Mike good question and, based on data that I can find, your suspicions are correct that cotton prices weren’t affected much by freeing slaves–the price spiked up and down before the Civil War and went up after the war but not for long. Other factors were more important in driving the price up and down. So I guess slave labor didn’t keep the price down, or at least that’s true given that this labor entered into the country to work the cotton fields and its population grew (to about 4 million) without the costs of having to entice them by offering good wages.