King Cotton and His Retainers: Financing and Marketing the Cotton Crop of the South, 1800-1925

King Cotton and His Retainers: Financing and Marketing the Cotton Crop of the South, 1800-1925
By Harold D. Woodman

2000/08 - Beard Books
1893122514 - Paperback - Reprint - 418 pp.
US$34.95

A stark reminder of the difficulties of financing a one-crop agrarian economy.

Publisher Comments

Category: Biographies & Memoirs | History

This title is part of the Business Histories list.

Although historians have acknowledged the dominant influence of cotton on the Southern economy, they have paid scant attention to the marketing of this staple crop. In this thorough study of the cotton factorage system of the old South and the post-Civil War crop lien system crop, the author reveals not only the economic intricacies of the systems, but also the far-reaching effects on Southern political and social life.

From Booknews
Reprinted as a classic (with a new introduction by the author) despite its relatively recent date of original publication (1968, U. of Kentucky Press). As the first systematic examination of the middlemen who financed and marketed the region's all-important cotton crop, Woodman's has become the standard work on the subject. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

From Southern Classics, http://www.cla.sc.edu/ISS/classics/titles.html

A thorough study of the cotton factorage system of the Old South and the crop-lien system of the postwar era, King Cotton and His Retainers traces the economic, political, and social implications of the processes by which the dominant southern staple came to market. Harold D. Woodman's new introduction explains the context in which he wrote his authoritative monograph, outlines its connections to the historiography of the past three decades, and identifies promising opportunities for new research.

Harold D. Woodman is Professor Emeritus of History and American Studies and Program Chair from 1981-1993 at Purdue University

	Preface	vii
	Acknowledgments	xi
ANTE BELLUM
Part 1.	The Cotton Factorage System	3
Chapter 1.	The Rise of Cotton Factorage	8
Chapter 2.	Selling the Crop	15
Chapter 3.	Providing Plantation Supplies and Credit	30
Chapter 4.	Banker, Bookkeeper, and Friend	43
Chapter 5.	Commissions, Service Charges and Internet	49
Chapter 6.	Planter-Factor Relations: The Law, Tradition and Expediency	60
Part 2.	Storekeepers, Itinerants and Bankers: Attendants to the Factor	73
Chapter 7.	The Country Storekeepers	76
Chapter 8.	Itinerant Merchants	84
Chapter 9.	Bankers and Planters	98
Chapter 10.	Bankers and Factors	114
Part 3.	Cotton Marketing and the Southern Economy	127
Chapter 11.	The Need for Credit	132
Chapter 12.	The Dependent South	139
Chapter 13.	Cotton Factors and Storekeepers in a Dependent South	154
Chapter 14.	Bankers in a Dependent South	165
Chapter 15.	The Costs and Risk of Cotton Marketing	176
Chapter 16.	Cotton Factorage and Southern Economic Development: Conclusions	187
CIVIL WAR AND AFTER
Part 4.	Wartime Cotton Trade	199
Chapter 17.	Business, Not Quite as Usual	204
Chapter 18.	Blockade-Running and Trade with the Enemy	217
Chapter 19.	Internal Trade and Speculation	225
Chapter 20.	Profits Realized and Profits Lost	235
Part 5.	Economic Reconstruction	243
Chapter 21.	The Return of King Cotton	246
Chapter 22.	The Resurrection of the Cotton Factorage System	254
Chapter 23.	The Decline of Cotton Factorage	269
Chapter 24.	The Furnishing Merchant	295
Part 6.	Cotton Marketing and the Economy	315
Chapter 25.	An Agrarian "New South"	319
Chapter 26.	The Farmer's Quest for Economic Independence	334
Chapter 27.	The South Remains Dependent: Conclusions	345
	Appendix	361
	Bibliographical Notes	369
	Index	375

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