Farm trade wars are wild because we've already done similar things in the past, and it did NOT work out for the US farmers in question.
Let's talk about the trade war part of the US Civil War, one of the biggest farmer self-owns in world history.
Let's talk about the trade war part of the US Civil War, one of the biggest farmer self-owns in world history.
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Other places grew cotton. But only the US South grew enough to ship to England & feed its Industrial Revolution textile boom.
US planters knew this! They thought it meant the British Empire would have to join their side in the war.
They really thought they could force the British Empire to come to their rescue & fight the North for them.
How? By withholding their cotton, & bringing English textile manufacturing to its knees. AKA starting a trade war with the British Empire.
What can I say. Growing up on plantations surrounded by people they could beat & threaten without consequences? It didn't build good negotiating skills.
They started a very expensive trade war, right as they started a very expensive civil war.
They weren't about going to war to save some other country's slavers from themselves.
Up until 1861 US cotton had been so cheap, there was no way for anyone else to grow cotton competitively.
All that changed when the South stopped exporting!
These words struck my brain like lightning and made me think SO MUCH about certain people, from Karens to the younger generation of techbros.