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Cotton is a resource in Civilization VII.
Strategy[]
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Civilopedia entry[]
From the Neolithic on, humans began creating textiles from plant fibers, and cotton was a clear candidate for manufacture. Cotton has been discovered as a cultivar in both the New World and Old, indicating that its unique properties were recognized independently, at multiple times. The boll of the cotton – the fluffy fibrous mass where its seeds are embedded – holds the real prize, but teasing out the sticky seeds is a labor-intensive problem. These fibers can be woven into cloth, or processed into prized materials such as velvet.
India and Egypt were ideal locations for cotton cultivation, and it became a prime crop for colonial empires. In India, this became a point of contention. Before the British arrived, India had a local cotton manufacturing system. Afterward, Indian cotton was exported to textile mills in Britain, and finished textiles were re-imported at sizeable markups. In the United States, cotton is bound up with the story of slavery – enslaved people were tasked with growing, picking, and processing cotton bolls, so the introduction of the cotton gin (which automated the laborious picking) led to a crash in the price of labor, leading to even worse conditions.
See also[]
- Cotton in other games