Summer Reading Assignment 1

Mason Hatch

The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy

By Pietra Rivoli
(2009 Edition)

Preface, Prologue, and Chapter 1

These sections simply give you information that may be required to understand the rest of the book.
They talk about the author’s intentions for writing this piece and how she hopes it may serve as a better
reference for future debates and discussion. The first chapter ends as the author is talking with the owners of the
Reinsch cotton farm, Nelson and Ruth Reinsch.

Chapter 2: The History of American Cotton

This chapter started off by explaining one the main sources of America’s success in cotton production:
slave labor. Obviously slavery is not accepted now and was not widely accepted even at that time, being the
cause of the American Civil War. While it was a controversial topic at the time, one slight pro was it allowed
for free labor on plantations. This protected American cotton growers from the competitive labor market,
allowing us to gain so much of the market. With slave labor, American plantations could also become larger and
more productive. However, slave labor was not the only reason for our success. The demand for affordable yet
comfortable clothing from the consumer class helped greatly.
The next part of this chapter discusses the expansion of cotton production to the west. Westward
expansion was halted by the fact that the conditions there could not accommodate the Sea Island cotton that the
British wanted. The cotton that would grow in the west, Upland cotton, was much stickier. Because of this seeds
had to be extracted by hand. Even by hand the average slave could pick no more than a pound a day, whereas
upwards of 300 pounds could be produced with Sea Island cotton. Obviously this decrease in production
would’ve been a very bad thing for western cotton growers. This chapter did not, however, tell why Sea Island
cotton would not bloom. I assume it was because of the climate.
Then along came Eli Whitney. It was a stroke of luck that Mrs. Greene happened upon Eli. If it weren’t
for this, it may have taken much longer for anyone to develop his cotton gin. By 1820, Eli’s design had raised
production by 90-fold.
So if the consumer class was such a growing group, and America was slightly slowed down from our
westward expansion, why did other countries’ cotton production not boom as America’s did? Well this next
section answers my question. This was because there were no modern markets in these other countries. Firstly,
there were no property rights. What I get from the book is that no citizen actually owned anything. Because of
this nobody wanted to gain more, to be more. If they had gained wealth, it would be seized by their rulers.
Second, especially in China, the culture was not acceptant of anything modern. To invent something new would
be pointless.
Now one might say that our success was thanks to only slavery, but in these heavily populated countries,
ruled by tyrants, nearly everyone was a slave to their rulers. If the dictator said work, they worked. So yes,
slavery did help America grow in the cotton industry, but many other countries had millions of workers. Thus,
another reason for America’s success was that other cotton producing countries had no governance.
The next section explains how labor on the farms worked after the war. You would receive a share of the
work that you did in exchange for furnish. Furnish means housing and food. You would never be out of debt,
because they would charge you all of the profit that you’d made for the year. This was an endless cycle, and
was nearly the same as slave labor, as it gave the plantation owners power.
The final section covers the arrival of factories in Texas. These factories became the basis of company
towns. You would not work off your debt. From what the book seems to be telling me, you started working
there and you never left. This essentially avoided the labor market, removing the problem of no slavery.
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Chapter 3: Back at the Reinsch Farm

Current day farms in America are still thriving by continuing to limit market risks. They’ve done this
through mechanization, research, and public policy. The Reinsch farm specifically, is also in the center of what
the book describes as the “Silicon Valley of cotton farming”. They’re in an area where they can communicate
with the researchers, other farmers, private companies, the USDA, and the U.S. government.
This chapter also goes on to describe the semi-recent history of Texas Technical University. It goes on
to tell about the outrage of the removal of the cotton bolls from the seal, and it shows how dedicated the
community and the rest of Texas Tech are to the cotton farms. The farms help the Tech, Tech helps the farm.
The next section talks about the history of the Reinsch farm. Nelson and his parents moved to western
Texas in the 1930s. This allowed them to leave behind the old traditions of the south and to move forward with
innovation. These innovations always have moved from west to east. While Old South farmers were still using
mules to plow, others moved west with tractors. The west used tractors from the beginning, whereas the east
was slowly accepting it. Thus the west obviously became more efficient and productive. The book goes on to
explain stages of technology, and how the west was, again, more advanced than the Deep South. However, until
the final stage of the mechanization of cotton picking, the labor in the fall, during harvest time, on farms that
used fertilizer and all other mechanized utilities, besides a harvester, was double that required in pre-Civil War
time because they had more crops but no efficient way of harvesting it besides by hand.
During the beginning of World War II, the government issued a program allowing Mexicans into the
country to work for a short period of time. This program went up until the time that cotton farms were nearly all
mechanized. This, again, shows the U.S. cotton industry’s ability to avoid labor markets. However, even with
large amounts of Mexican workers, there would still be minor problems with the labor market. What if the
workers were not there exactly when you needed? What if they left to look for higher wages? The farmers also
didn’t want to compete with each other for prices. So, the government fixed all of these issues. Workers came in
for a set time, a set price, and worked at a set farm.
The government also issued programs to try to help farms financially. This helped many farms.
However, some farms were doomed because of this. In the example of Ned Cobb, if you couldn’t read, you
couldn’t farm.
The next part of the chapter talks about how the backbreaking work of cotton picking should never be
done by hand. It goes on by describing in detail how the cotton is harvested. The only point I can see to all this
is that it showcases how hard it is to farm cotton. It then tells of the mechanization process of farming. The
book also details how an herbicide was produced for the weeds, and how they had to be ahead of evolution
itself. The book tells of how the next step in cotton’s future was genetic modification. Finally, it ends with
talking about the moral and traditions part of all of this.

Chapter 4: All God’s Danger’s Ain’t the Subsidies

This chapter discusses the many uses of the byproducts of cotton production. I was unaware of how
many foods use cotton oils in them. It then goes on to talk about how the farmers are paid. They get a dividend
from each step in the cotton’s chain of production, as well as massive amounts of subsides from the
government. I’m not sure why they currently need this much money. It seems like they’re given too much. It
then goes on to discuss how the Farm Bill expired, how a new one was to be passed, and how debates over it
went about. In the end, the new Farm Bill was the same as the old one, but with more coverage for everyone.
This is how they got people on board with the Bill. Congress is very tricky indeed.

Chapter 5: Cotton Comes To China

This chapter is about what happens to the cotton in China and how the cotton industry in China has
evolved. The cotton starts off by being shipped by truck or train to the west coast. From there it’s shipped across
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the Pacific by boat to the ports of China. Once in China, it’s taken to a yarn factory. There, the cotton is first
blown apart from its compressed state into a fluffy mess. That fluff is then carded, essentially meaning combed
out, into thin, careful strands called slivers. Those slivers are then twisted together repeatedly into a big coil of
yarn. The yarn is then taken to a garment factory where it’s knitted together into sheets of fabric. That fabric is
cut out into the shapes of whatever garment, in this case, a t-shirt, and sewn together by hand to make your
clothing. Now, when some people think of factories in China, they think stereotypical sweatshop labor with
unlivable conditions. While I’m sure there are some shady factories like that, the one described in the book is
not. While, yes, it’s not the best job, it pays the bills. The workers aren’t treated badly from what the writer has
seen, and the situation reminds me more of sitting in class doing busy work in some boring packet. In fact, the
author made this comparison as well, shortly after describing the conditions in the factory. You don’t care for
it, but it’s not terrible. You’re more just looking at the clock, waiting for something to happen or for the class to
be over.
It also talks about how it’s very possible that the conditions aren’t as they seem, they could just be
hiding it. While, again, I’m sure some factories are like this, for some reason I doubt that this one is. It just
seems that if they were like that, why let the author come there in the first place? At that time she was, as she
says, a "nobody". The only reason she got into any of the factories is most likely because of the Chinese’s
general hospitality and their love of education, as the author is, or was, a professor. So if they had something to
hide, why go through the work of hiding it so that some random lady could see it? Also, since they worked for a
name brand, I would think that that brand would thoroughly check the conditions in the factory so that any bad
conditions don’t come back to them for “encouraging” it.
The book then goes on about the history of these factories and facts about China’s production. With the
rising demand for cheap clothing in the U.S., more garments are produced in China, with these numbers rising
each year. This means more cotton from the U.S. This reminds me of the second chapter, where it was shown
that the British demand for cheap clothing rose, thus raising the demand for cotton from the U.S.

Chapter 6: The Long Race to the Bottom

This chapter begins by discussing China’s eligibility for industrial revolution in the 1700s. Obviously it
was not China where this took place, but China was as advanced as Europe, if not more so, at the time before
the revolution. The main reason for China straying away from industrialization was that the Chinese were so
efficient in their production already. This led them away from changing their ways. In Europe problems
occurred often in production, leading to new inventions and ideas to fix them.
The book continues to talk about the Industrial Revolution. To me the only point of this is to inform the
reader, as it mostly doesn’t affect the rest of the book. One important subject however, was that industrialization
in England led to the American Industrial Revolution. In a desire for American success, many people stole
inventions from the British. This allowed America to build textile factories. As our industrial era began, it ended
most of the cotton manufacturing in Brittan.
The book continues to talk of the Industrial Revolution, and how cotton shaped the south. Cotton
production caused many mill towns to start in the South. The mills weren’t exactly supported in the south. As
we shut them out, the Japanese were taking them in. Cotton led to the industrialization of
Japan. After World War II, Japan fell far in clothing exports, and other places in Asia, such as Korea, Hong
Kong, and Taiwan, were rising in the clothing industry. At this time, China’s leader was dying, thus ending the
Cultural Revolution and beginning industrialization.

Chapter 7: Sisters in Time

This chapter starts off by explaining how the labor in China works. It goes on about how laws and such
disallowed workers to move from their area where they reside to work elsewhere. For example, city workers
used to not be able to work in rural areas. These rules have slightly been lifted. Now there are rules in place
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that protect migrant workers. This system doesn’t really work, however, because many people won’t hire
workers unless they forfeit their protections.
The name of this chapter has a meaning. The next part of this chapter tells about how life for a girl
working in England in the mid-1800s is hard and uncomfortable, just like the workers in China. Many workers
wished to work in factories over farms. As stated earlier, this wasn’t allowed until more recent years.
Next, it talks about how in the present, old cotton mills are being turned into new factories for things
like cars and big companies like Amazon. I am reading this book on an Amazon kindle which could’ve been
produced there. Although, I’m thinking it was made in China, as old mills were also converted into new things
such as car factories or even newer mills. Also it says assembled in China on the back.

Chapter 8: The Unwitting Conspiracy

The introduction to this chapter tells about how human rights activists and global capitalism are
unknowingly allies in improving the human condition. While the factories produce cheap goods, it benefits the
consumers. It also slightly benefits the workers by giving them a job, but the activists improve the working
conditions and lives of the workers. Pretty much everybody wins.
The next section is about the author’s time in Georgetown. Students demanded to know where their
school’s shirts were produced. After the companies refused, Georgetown contacted other schools across the
country. They all refused to purchase the apparel until they were told where the factories were. With all this
pressure, Nike, a big producer in the universities apparel, posted the locations of all their factories on the
internet. The schools then went on to help found organizations like the Fair Labor Association.
Then it discusses the environmental repercussions of apparel production. One might think that as global
trade rose, the pollution would too. But the book says that the opposite is occurring. As companies become
richer and more powerful, they have taken measures to reduce the pollution. There are already carbon neutral
factories in the world. The main source of pollution in the apparel industry is the consumer. They use the most
energy by washing the products.
Finally, we see how China has been reacting to these changes. Most factories can’t compete with others,
so they don’t adhere to the regulations. Some would dump waste into rivers. Others hired people to find
backdoors to the labor regulations. They would create programs that faked payrolls and benefits. China’s
government has been enforcing the regulations more as time goes on. The environmental aspect is very
important to them.

Chapter 9: Returning to America

This chapter attempts to explain a few of the immense amount of crazy rules on apparel imports. Most
of the rules make no sense to me. There are certain countries that can import certain products without tariffs and
other expenditures, but some countries that pay higher tariffs and all sorts of insanely specific rules. There are
many different organizations mentioned in this chapter, with many different acronyms. I find it impossible to
keep track of who did what or which act does what.

Chapter 10: Dogs Snarling Together

This chapter explains how all the crazy rules and regulations came into place and how they affect the
people. At the forefront of the army against foreign imports is Auggie Tantillo. Opposing him is Julia Hughes,
who is for free trade. These two, along with many other organizations with confusing acronyms and government
officials, are the people responsible for the hysterical regulations regarding quotas and tariffs and etcetera.
Auggie wants to keep textile jobs in the U.S. and he has fought long and hard for it. It is inevitable that jobs will
be lost to other countries like China with their textiles at falling prices and rising quality.
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Throughout many presidencies, Auggie has been there, along with his army of organizations, to
persuade and argue with our government to prevent textile trades with other countries. As stated, he wanted to
keep the textile industry in the U.S. and keep textile trade with other countries away. One of the many acronym
groups, The American Cotton Manufacturers (ACMI), got the Eisenhower administration to create the
Voluntary Export Restraint (VER). The VER was the basis for many other acts similar to it. After the VER
expired, the Short Term Arrangement on Cotton Textiles (STA) was created. Next, the Long Term Arrangement
(LTA) was enacted, and then the Multifiber Agreement (MFA). These were essentially the same thing, just
extended over time. Now, there have been multiple MFAs. The original VER limited the exports of cotton
textiles from Japan to the United States. The STA was a bigger VER, and the LTA was a bigger STA, covering
more countries and products for a longer time. The MFA is an LTA for other fibers, hence the multifiber part of
its name.
Many people oppose Auggie, such as Julia Hughes, importers, and retailers. They don’t want to have
these quotas and tariffs on textiles. It costs the importers and retailers more money. So instead of standing idly
by, they’re fighting back, and they’re succeeding.

Chapter 11: Perverse Effects and Unintended Consequences

While the goal to save U.S. textile jobs has failed, it has succeeded in keeping U.S. production up. While
jobs have been lost, it’s more to mechanization and technological advancements in the mills than by
competition from other countries. Not only that, but China is losing textile jobs too as mechanization occurs. So
textile jobs aren’t moving to China, they’re just gone. Not only have the regimes failed in protecting U.S. textile
jobs, they’re also crippling textile jobs here by limiting the amount of materials available to American textile
and apparel producers. The regimes also mean that producers have to be able to predict what congress will enact
when the regimes expire. With new regimes, they have to figure out how they’ll be crippled. They don’t want to
research new printing tech just to have it become useless. Finally, when countries have quotas they’re
incentivized to produce higher quality products versus cheap apparel, earning them more money and a better
reputation.
Today, trade barriers are more a way of protecting U.S. allies than protecting ourselves. It allows our
friends to import at much lower tariffs or at no charge at all. This can also be used as a trading tool. For
example, after the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, Pakistan wanted looser restrictions on textile and
apparel trade with the U.S. Now, the acronym armies didn’t agree with this. In the end Pakistan wasn’t given
much. Some quotas were loosened, but none for high-volume products like t-shirts.
To avoid quotas many companies move to other locations. Quotas also cause mass cheating in the
market. Many Chinese manufacturers label their products as though they were made elsewhere. This means that
the U.S. has to have more customs workers. They also create jobs in other countries when China runs out of
quota, and more jobs are created from the bureaucrats who administer the rules.
So if these quotas aren’t helping the U.S., and they aren’t saving jobs, why doesn’t the public do
something about it? Well, first off, most people don’t want massive amounts of cheap products flying through
the ports from China. Second, people don’t look at it from a global standpoint; they view it from a local view.
They want to know how it affects their everyday lives. They also view it as giving big corporations like Wal-
Mart an advantage over local shops, and people don’t like that. Small apparel stores are virtually gone. I know
that I’ve never seen one.

Chapter 12: 45 Years of “Temporary” Protectionism Ends In 2009─Now What?

In 2005, when textile and apparel quotas were lifted, there was an expected rush of products from China.
This was not a permanent end, so the surge of products was most likely because exporters wanted to raise future
quotas, and they were successful.
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When the quotas were removed, Auggie Tantillo went to work with petitions to reinstate specific quotas.
His past battles in D.C. were met with high cost and risk, but at this time, President Bush needed help as well.
While President Bush received endorsement from the National Council of Textile Organizations, he agreed on
an agreement limiting textile and apparel imports from China. This put the quotas back into place, but only in
China.
With China being limited, and other countries free to do as they wish, many poorer countries were doing
well. Lots of countries producing lower quality apparel were shipping to poorer countries. This gave them more
business, and so they did better. Of course, countries producing higher quality goods were still shipping to the
U.S., and doing better while they were not limited by quotas. Even though China had quotas, it wasn’t
hampering them. China still had quota left in the end.
The end was coming in 2009. John McLain and Barack Obama were neck and neck. So Obama sent the
NCTO a letter stating his support for them. This could have possibly decided North Carolina’s vote.
Now we move back into history. Many people think of quotas and import limits as a bad thing, but if it
weren’t for these limits, the world would be a different place. For example, in mid-1600s England there was a
rush of imports from India. They were importing cotton garments, which were much softer than the wool
apparel produced in England at the time. The import of these items were forbidden, but only if they were dyed.
So plain garments were imported and print and dyes were brought to England. Then, import of these garments
was forbidden altogether. So Englanders learned to create their own. Thus, cotton was brought to England,
starting the Industrial Revolution.

Chapters 13 & 14: Where T-Shirts Go After the Salvation Army Bin; How Small
Entrepreneurs Clothe East Africa
After you toss your old clothes into the Salvation Army bin, it’s off to a small company that specializes
in used clothing. There, it’s sorted and graded. Ratty old clothes are made into rags or ground into fibers to be
recycled into other fabrics like carpet padding or even cheap clothing. New clothes go on sale or are shipped off
to Africa. Certain clothes in between are resold at higher prices as “vintage” clothing in America and Asia.
In Africa, the used clothes business is all about the customer. U.S. companies ship what the African
consumer wants, the consumer is happy, they order more, and profit is made. But just like with new clothing
here, there are fads. Certain clothing is hip and some isn’t. And of course, no one wants a torn up or stained
shirt.
Even in one of the poorest countries in the world, Tanzania, uses our old t-shirts. They buy them at
markets in booths geared toward certain consumers, like a shopping mall. The salesmen are small businesses,
too small for the five hundred or more pound bales of clothing, so often parties are held at the opening of the
bales. It’s almost like a game to see who can find the best clothing that will fetch high prices. Even here there
are clearance tables full of clothes no one will buy.
As stated in the title of chapter fourteen, small businesses do well. It’s the small size that allows them to
be in the know with their consumer base. They need to know what the customers want. They need to know what
they can price it at. They need to build the friendships and trust between them and the customers to ensure
repeat business. To be successful, you have to be a people person.