Empire of Cotton

Cotton sits at the centre of global capitalism in this sweeping history of how a single fibre helped shape modern industry, trade, and economic change. It traces cotton’s influence across centuries and continents, showing how one commodity connected producers, markets, and empires.

The book offers a broad account of the growth of capitalism and the human costs involved in its expansion. It is a study of power, wealth, and transformation through the history of a material that helped remake the modern world.