The first cotton revolution: a centrifugal system, circa 1000–1500

From the beginning of the second millennium and over the following six centuries, the cultivation of cotton fibres, the production of cotton textiles and their trade developed across Eurasia. During these centuries, South Asia emerged as the key producer of cotton textiles. Although several other areas came to produce, trade and consume cotton textiles on a large scale, India was the core of a ‘global system’ that was only loosely coordinated by the subcontinent. Whilst India enjoyed competitive advantages provided by high-quality production, most of the areas with which India interacted engaged in their own right in the cultivation of raw cotton, its processing and manufacture into cloth. Together they formed a system of competition as well as symbiosis. By ‘system’ I mean the logic that connects different areas through products, technologies and economic relationships. The world's first cotton revolution was ‘centrifugal’, a difficult word indicating it was based on diffusion. Chapter 1 considers the wide reach of Indian cottons and their ability to complement as well as to compete with similar local products and substitutes. Chapter 2 considers the diffusion of cotton cultivation across Asia to form several poles of production and trade with which India interacted. Finally, Chapter 3 elaborates upon the spread of technologies across most of Asia, Africa and Europe.