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In the 17th century, shortly after colonization by the Spanish Conquistadores, Southern American countries started growing cotton for commercial purposes. Peruvian cotton, which has long staples and a high lustre fibre, is one of the highest quality cottons in the world; although Peru, land of the Incas, exported a comparatively small quantity of cotton. Argentina, now the largest cotton producer in South America, and Brazil, now the second largest, exported raw cotton and imported cotton goods from Lancashire while Colombia and Chile mostly just imported cotton goods. Argentina and Brazil make up most of what is known as Latin America (so named because of their conquest by the Spanish and conversion to Roman Catholicism which used Latin in its services and catechism). From the late 18th century both countries had begun exporting cotton to Lancashire and by 1820 Latin America was second only to the European continent as a market for Lancashire's export of cotton piece-goods ('fabrics made and sold in standard lengths'). After liberation from Spanish rule in 1808, Latin America became an important export market for Lancashire. The market for piece-goods peaked in 1840 and again in 1895; and from 1834-1894 Brazil was Lancashire's largest market for printed fabrics; although the country did not import much cotton yarn before the mid 1890s. It was large volume, not high value, which was uppermost with exports to Latin America. The population was large and comparatively poor and the only textile manufacturing industry above cottage industry level was in Brazil; although Mexico in Central America also had a commercial manufacturing industry. Most handlooms were used for the production of woollen cloth, not cotton fabric, which further encouraged cotton imports, particularly in Argentina which did not have its own factories. From the 1870s onwards, helped by the building of a railway system with British expertise to increase facilities for exporting grain, Argentina increased imports of cotton goods from Lancashire, though its imports of piece-goods did not peak until 1912; after exports to Brazil, Chile and Mexico had declined. Argentina showed a preference for cheap dyed and heavily sized (stiffened) cotton fabrics. Until 1903 Brazil was 'the single most valuable market of Lancashire by virtue of its size, its tropical climate, its large population, the concentration of settlement on its coastal fringe, the export-orientation of its economy, and the absence of competition from Portuguese textiles its imports of cotton manufactures were also facilitated by the favourable tariff granted under the Treaty of Commerce of 1810, and by the shipping links developed with Liverpool' (The English Cotton Industry and the World Market 1815-1896. Farnie.D.A. 1979). However, from the 1880s onwards, Brazil began to supply her people from home manufactured cotton products and to show a preference for importing cotton goods from the USA rather than Lancashire. GG View the South America collection to find out more > |
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