The Rise of Cotton Mills in the South — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Rise of Cotton Mills in the South
John Stuart Mill · en
This is not the place to remark at length how economic interests are
changing the South back, in partial measure, to the first position. Cotton
is again central. Cotton factories are largely responsible for the little
leaven that is working in a large loaf, producing in the heart of the
Solid South Republican adherents and voices for protection. "Slavery has
been abolished. The South has re-established manufactures. Its interests
in free trade and protection are changed from what they were in 1860. We
need not only domestic trade, but foreign markets. We need, apparently,
protection and free trade at the same time.... The South is as much
interested in protection to home markets as New England is. New England is
as much interested in export markets as the South is. In this situation we
ought all to get together. We ought to get together for 'Protection and
Reciprocity.'"[121]
In summary of the ante-bellum years, which have just been under review,
Mr. Clark writes:
"Between 1810 and 1860 three periods of progress marked the factory
development of the cotton states. During our last war with England ...
mill builders from the North migrated to the Southern highlands, and with
local co-operation established small yarn factories at several places in
the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky.... During the decade
ending with 1833, when hostility to the tariff made the Southern people
bitterly resent economic dependence on the North, there was a second
movement towards manufactures, especially in South Carolina and Georgia,
directed mainly towards the erection of larger and more complete
factories. This agitation bore fruit in some corporate enterprises, most
of which had but qualified success. Finally, in the late forties real
factory development began simultaneously at several points, and had not
two financial crises and a war checked its progress, we should probably
date from this time the beginning of the modern epoch of cotton
manufacturing in the South."[122]