=======+=======+============+=========+=============+============== |_Number| |_Cotton | | | of | _Number | Used | _Number | _Value of _Year_ | Estab-| of | in | of | Product in | lish- | Spindles_ | Million | Employes_ | Dollars_ | ments_| | Pounds_ | | -------+-------+------------+---------+-------------+-------------- 1810 | | 87,000 | | | 1820 | | 220,000 | | | 1830 | 795 | 1,200,000 | 77.8 | 62,177 | $32,000,000 1840 | 1240 | 2,300,000 | 113.1 | 72,119 | 46,400,000 1850 | 1094 | 3,600,000 | 276.1 | 92,286 | 61,700,000 1860 | 1091 | 5,200,000 | 422.7 | 122,028 | 115,700,000 1870 | 956 | 7,100,000 | 398.3 | 135,369 | 177,500,000 1880 | 756 | 10,700,000 | 750.3 | 174,659 | 192,100,000 1890 | 905 | 14,200,000 | 1,118.0 | 218,876 | 268,000,000 1900 | 973 | 19,000,000 | 1,814.0 | 297,929 | 332,800,000 1910 | 1208 | 27,400,000 | 2,332.2 | 371,120 | 616,500,000 1918 | | 34,940,830 | 3,278.2 | | =======+=======+============+=========+=============+============== [A] This tabulation includes spinning and weaving establishments only. The North, having this growing interest in an industry struggling against the experience and ability of the more firmly established English market, sought naturally for the protection given by a high tariff. The South, having definitely dropped manufacturing, pleaded with Congress always for a low tariff, and the right to deal in human chattels. There is little need to go further into the rift which began to develop almost immediately. In 1861 the split occurred. The war between the States caused hardly more suffering than the blockade which cut off the spinners of Manchester from the vegetable wool which supplied them the means of living. Cotton proved its power and its domination. It was a beneficent monarch, but it brooked no denial of its overlordship. Early Exports to England Heavy The invention of the Whitney Gin, as we have just said, found the United States able to use but a small part of the cotton grown. What became of the remainder? Obviously, it was exported to provide the means for operating the English mills. Here is a table which shows how American cotton left the Southern ports for England and the Continent in the alternate decennial years beginning in 1790, three years before the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney. The figures are exclusive of linters. _Exports in Equivalent of 500 _Year_ Pound Bales_