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49-452: The Atlanta Hotel , also known as Thompson's Hotel , was one of the original hotels in antebellum Atlanta , Georgia , United States. It stood at the northwest side of State Square , pre-war Atlanta's central square, on the northwest side of Pryor Street between Decatur Street (then Marietta Street) and what is now Wall Street (which before the war was the railroad track). The hotel was run by Joseph Thompson . The future vice-president of

98-460: A subtropical climate , oil-yielding crops (e.g. soybeans ), cotton , rice , tobacco , indigo , citrus , pomegranates , and some vegetables and herbs are the predominant cash crops. In regions with a tropical climate , coffee , cocoa , sugar cane , bananas , oranges , cotton and jute are common cash crops. The oil palm is a tropical palm tree, and the fruit from it is used to make palm oil . The impact of climate change on

147-513: A farm's total yield, while today, especially in developed countries and among smallholders almost all crops are mainly grown for revenue. In the least developed countries , cash crops are usually crops which attract demand in more developed nations, and hence have some export value. Prices for major cash crops are set in international trade markets with global scope , with some local variation (termed as "basis") based on freight costs and local supply and demand balance. A consequence of this

196-536: A landmark study published in the Journal of Political Economy . Their arguments were further developed by Robert Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman , who argued in their 1974 book, Time on the Cross , that slavery was both efficient and profitable, as long as the price of cotton was high enough. In turn, Fogel and Engerman came under attack from other historians of slavery. As slavery began to displace indentured servitude as

245-501: A lesser extent the rest of the country. In the 18th century, the Atlantic slave trade brought enslaved Africans to the South during the colonial period as a source of labor for the harvesting of crops. There were almost 700,000 enslaved persons in the U.S. in 1790, which equated to approximately 18 percent of the total population or roughly one in every six people. This would persist through

294-524: A political issue between North and South, but as a social and economic system. He focused on the large plantations that dominated the South. Phillips addressed the unprofitability of slave labor and slavery's ill effects on the Southern economy. An example of pioneering comparative work was A Jamaica Slave Plantation (1914). His methods inspired the "Phillips school" of slavery studies, between 1900 and 1950. Phillips argued that large-scale plantation slavery

343-476: A pre-competitive environment to change market conditions. Sustainable intensification focuses on facilitating entrepreneurial farmers. To stimulate farm investment, projects on access to finance for agriculture are also popping up. One example is the SCOPE methodology, an assessment tool that measures the management maturity and professionalism of producer organizations as to give financing organizations better insights in

392-540: A significant number of people on the continent struggle with hunger has been blamed on developed countries, including the United States , Japan and the European Union . These countries protect their own agricultural sectors, through high import tariffs and offer subsidies to their farmers, which some have contended is leading to the overproduction of commodities such as cotton, grain and milk. The result of this

441-487: A situation in which they cannot invest much in upscaling their businesses. In general, farmers lack access to agricultural inputs and finance, and do not have enough knowledge on good agricultural and business practices. These high level problems are in many cases threatening the future of agricultural sectors and theories start evolving on how to secure a sustainable future for agriculture. Sustainable market transformations are initiated in which industry leaders work together in

490-415: Is an agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm . The term is used to differentiate a marketed crop from a staple crop ("subsistence crop") in subsistence agriculture , which is one fed to the producer's own livestock or grown as food for the producer's family. In earlier times, cash crops were usually only a small (but vital) part of

539-503: Is exported to the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. Italy's Cassa per il Mezzogiorno in 1950 led to the government implementing incentives to grow cash crops such as tomatoes, tobacco and citrus fruits. As a result, they created an over abundance of these crops causing an over saturation of these crops on the global market. This caused these crops to depreciate . Cash cropping in

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588-504: Is known as dumping , and is illegal in most nations. Controversy over this issue led to the collapse of the Cancún trade talks in 2003, when the Group of 22 refused to consider agenda items proposed by the European Union unless the issue of agricultural subsidies was addressed. The Arctic climate is generally not conducive for the cultivation of cash crops. However, one potential cash crop for

637-496: Is that a nation, region, or individual producer relying on such a crop may suffer low prices should a bumper crop elsewhere lead to excess supply on the global markets. This system has been criticized by traditional farmers. Coffee is an example of a product that has been susceptible to significant commodity futures price variations. Issues involving subsidies and trade barriers on such crops have become controversial in discussions of globalization . Many developing countries take

686-476: Is that the global price of such products is continually reduced until Africans are unable to compete in world markets, except in cash crops that do not grow easily in temperate climates. Africa has realized significant growth in biofuel plantations , many of which are on lands which were purchased by British companies. Jatropha curcas is a cash crop grown for biofuel production in Africa. Some have criticized

735-701: The Arctic is Rhodiola rosea , a hardy plant used as a medicinal herb that grows in the Arctic. There is currently consumer demand for the plant, but the available supply is less than the demand (as of 2011). Cash crops grown in regions with a temperate climate include many cereals ( wheat , rye , corn , barley , oats ), oil-yielding crops (e.g. grapeseed , mustard seeds ), vegetables (e.g. potatoes ), lumber yielding trees (e.g. Spruce , Pines , Firs ), tree fruit or top fruit (e.g. apples , cherries ) and soft fruit (e.g. strawberries , raspberries ). In regions with

784-551: The Confederate States of America , Alexander H. Stephens , was stabbed in 1848 on the hotel's steps ("piazza") by Judge Francis H. Cone over a political argument. The hotel was destroyed during General Sherman 's burning of Atlanta . 33°45′14″N 84°23′23″W  /  33.75389°N 84.38972°W  / 33.75389; -84.38972 Antebellum era Society was stratified, inegalitarian, and perceived by immigrants as lacking in opportunities. Consequently,

833-652: The baby boomer generation and the end of World War II. It was seen as a way to feed the large population boom and continues to be the main factor in having an affordable food supply in the United States. According to the 1997 U.S. Census of Agriculture, 90% of the farms in the United States are still owned by families, with an additional 6% owned by a partnership. Cash crop farmers have utilized precision agricultural technologies combined with time-tested practices to produce affordable food. Based upon United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) statistics for 2010, states with

882-612: The 17th and 18th centuries, but it was not until the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in the 1790s that slavery grew very profitable and that the large plantation system developed. In the 15 years between the invention of the cotton gin and the passage of the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves , an increase in the slave trade occurred, furthering the slave system in the United States. The Antebellum South saw large expansions in agriculture, while manufacturing growth remained relatively slow. The Southern economy

931-465: The American South in large numbers to support European demand. By 1670, more than half of all tobacco shipped to England was being re-exported to other countries throughout Europe at a premium. In similar ways Britain was able to profit from other American staple crops, such as cotton, rice, and indigo. As Russell Menard puts it, Britain's capitalizing on increased European demand for these crops "fueled

980-524: The American colonies for economic gain was tobacco . When tobacco was first discovered as a recreational substance, there was a widespread social backlash in England, spearheaded by King James I himself. By the middle of the 17th century, however, Parliament had realized the revenue potential of tobacco and quickly changed its official moral stance towards its use. As a result, tobacco plantations sprung up across

1029-524: The North, which more eagerly embraced women and child labor in its factories to push forward industrialization due to their relative value to Northern agriculture being lesser than in Southern agriculture. While the South still attracted immigrants from Europe, the North attracted far more during the early-to-mid 1800s, such that by the time of the American Civil War, the population of the North far exceeded

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1078-505: The South in a precarious economic situation. This was the subject of the highly influential 1857 book The Impending Crisis of the South : How to Meet It , by Hinton Rowan Helper . Following the end of the Civil War and into Reconstruction era (1865–1877), the South experienced economic devastation. Some states that relied less heavily on the plantation system managed to fare better following its downfall. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips contends that

1127-479: The South included land- and slave-owners and slaves, various strata of social classes existed within and between the two. In examining class relations and the banking system in the South, the economic exploitation of slave labor can be seen to arise from a need to maintain certain conditions for the existence of slavery and from a need for each of the remaining social strata to remain in status quo. In order to meet conditions where slavery may continue to exist, members of

1176-481: The Southern domestic market consisted primarily of plantations, Southern states imported sustenance commodities from the West and manufactured goods from England and the North. The plantation system can be seen as the factory system applied to agriculture, with a concentration of labor under skilled management. But while the industrial manufacturing-based labor economy of the North was driven by growing demand, maintenance of

1225-435: The United States dates back to the colonial period with crops like tobacco, indigo, cotton and others farmed on massive scales on southern plantations primarily fueled by black slave labor, even after the end of slavery this system continued in some form with the share cropping system where farmers would live and work on large plantations for a share of the crop to sell themselves. Crash cropping of fruits rose to prominence after

1274-403: The concentration of landholding and slave holding, which were highly correlated, six percent of landowners ended up commanding one-third of the gross income and an even higher portion of the net income. The majority of landowners, who had smaller scale plantations, saw a disproportionately small portion in revenues generated by the slavery-driven plantation system. While the two largest classes in

1323-490: The country's population lives in poverty. Larger farms tend to grow cash crops such as coffee , tea , cotton , cocoa , fruit and rubber . These farms, typically operated by large corporations, cover dozens of square kilometres and employ large numbers of laborers. Subsistence farms provide a source of food and a relatively small income for families, but generally fail to produce enough to make re-investment possible. The situation in which African nations export crops while

1372-577: The expansion of the American plantation colonies, transformed the Atlantic into an English inland sea, and led to the creation of the first British Empire ." Many claim that being a part of the British mercantilist system was in the best economic interest of the American colonies as well, as they would not have been able to survive as independent economic entities. Robert Haywood, in his article "Mercantilism and South Carolina Agriculture, 1700–1763", argues that "it

1421-421: The highest fruit production quantities are California , Florida and Washington . Coconut is a cash crop of Vietnam . Coconut palms are cultivated in more than 80 countries of the world, with a total production of 61 million tonnes per year. The oil and milk derived from it are commonly used in cooking and frying; coconut oil is also widely used in soaps and cosmetics . Approximately 70% of

1470-423: The large plantation owner's wealth, often reflected in the number of slaves they owned, afforded them considerable prestige and political power." Phillips contended that masters treated enslaved persons relatively well; his views on that issue were later sharply rejected by Kenneth M. Stampp . His conclusions about the economic decline of slavery were challenged in 1958 by Alfred H. Conrad and John R. Meyer in

1519-453: The manufacturing base lagged behind that of the non-slave states. Wealth inequality grew as the larger landholders took the greater share of the profits generated by enslaved persons, which also helped to entrench their power as a political class. As the country expanded westward , slavery's propagation became a major issue in national politics , eventually boiling over into the Civil War . In

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1568-405: The master class (e.g., white, landowning, slave-owning) had to compete with other members of the master class to maximize the surplus labor extracted from slaves. Likewise, in order to remain within the same class, members of the master class (and each subsumed class below) must expand their claim on revenues derived from the slave labor surplus. Mercantilist ideologies largely explain the rise of

1617-589: The non-enslaved population of the South per the 1860 United States census . Colin Woodard argued in his 2011 book American Nations that the South was relatively less successful in attracting immigrants due to the South's reputation as a more stratified society. Striving immigrants who sought economic advancement thus tended to favor the more egalitarian North, compared to the more aristocratic South, where there were fewer perceived opportunities for advancement. Cash crop A cash crop , also called profit crop ,

1666-476: The northern and western states, much of the social spectrum was dominated by a wide range of different laboring classes. The conclusion that, while both the North and the South were characterized by a high degree of inequality during the plantation era, the wealth distribution was much more unequal in the South than in the North arises from studies concerned with the equality of land, slave, and wealth distribution. For example, in certain states and counties, due to

1715-428: The plantation "sadly restricted the opportunity of such men as were of better industrial quality than was required for the field gangs." Essentially, men who would have been otherwise capable of performing other skilled jobs were nonetheless relegated to field work because of the nature of the system. A 1984 journal article by Claudia Goldin and Kenneth Sokoloff suggested that the South misallocated labor compared to

1764-485: The plantation economic system depended upon slave labor, which was abundant and cheap. The five major commodities of the Southern agricultural economy were cotton, grain, tobacco, sugar, and rice, with cotton the leading cash crop . These commodities were concentrated in the Deep South (Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana). The leading historian of the era was Ulrich Bonnell Phillips , who studied slavery not so much as

1813-450: The plantation system in the United States. In the 16th and 17th centuries under mercantilism, rulers of nations believed that the accumulation of wealth through a favorable balance of trade was the best way to ensure power. As a result, several European nations began to colonize the Americas to take advantage of rich natural resources and encourage exports. One example of England utilizing

1862-473: The plantation system, largely agricultural. With the exception of New Orleans , Charleston , and Richmond the slave states had no large cities, and the urban population of the South could not compare to that of the Northeast , or even that of the agrarian West. This led to a sharp division in class in the southern states, between the landowning "master" class, yeoman farmers, poor whites , and slaves; while in

1911-479: The position that the current international trade system is unfair because it has caused tariffs to be lowered in industrial goods while allowing for low tariffs and agricultural subsidies for agricultural goods. This makes it difficult for a developing nation to export its goods overseas, and forces developing nations to compete with imported goods which are exported from developed nations at artificially low prices. The practice of exporting at artificially low prices

1960-482: The potential loss in investment of owning slaves from death, disability, etc. was much greater for small plantation owners. Accentuated by the rise in price of slaves seen just prior to the Civil War , the overall costs associated with owning slaves to the individual plantation owner led to the concentration of slave ownership seen at the eve of the Civil War. Much of the Antebellum South was rural, and in line with

2009-454: The practice of raising non-food plants for export while Africa has problems with hunger and food shortages, and some studies have correlated the proliferation of land acquisitions, often for use to grow non-food cash crops with increasing hunger rates in Africa. Australia produces significant amounts of lentils . It was estimated in 2010 that Australia would produce approximately 143,000 tons of lentils. Most of Australia's lentil harvest

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2058-450: The principal supply of labor in the plantation systems of the South, the economic nature of the institution of slavery aided in the increased inequality of wealth seen in the antebellum South. The demand for slave labor and the U.S. ban on importing more slaves from Africa drove up prices for slaves, making it profitable for smaller farms in older settled areas such as Virginia to sell their slaves further south and west. The actuarial risk, or

2107-602: The ranges of pests and diseases  – especially those of coffee, cocoa, and banana – is commonly underestimated. Limiting temperature rise to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) is vital to maintaining productivity in the tropics. Around 60 percent of African workers are employed in the agricultural sector, with about three-fifths of African farmers being subsistence farmers . For example, in Burkina Faso 85% of its residents (over two million people) are reliant upon cotton production for income, and over half of

2156-509: The risks involved in financing. Currently, agricultural finance is always considered risky and avoided by financial institutions. Coca , opium poppies and cannabis are significant black market cash crops, the prevalence of which varies. In the United States, cannabis is considered by some to be the most valuable cash crop. In 2006, it was reported in a study by Jon Gettman , a marijuana policy researcher, that in contrast to government figures for legal crops such as corn and wheat and using

2205-488: The world's food is produced by 500 million smallholder farmers. For their livelihood they depend on the production of cash crops, basic commodities that are hard to differentiate in the market. The great majority (80%) of the world's farms measure 2 hectares or less. These smallholder farmers are mainly found in developing countries and are often unorganized, illiterate or have only basic education. Smallholder farmers have little bargaining power and incomes are low, leading to

2254-465: The years that followed the Civil War, the war was romanticized by historical revisionists to protect three central assertions: that the Confederate cause was heroic, that enslaved people were happy and satisfied, and that slavery was not the primary cause of the war. This phenomenon has continued to the present day to contribute to racism , gender roles , and religious attitudes in the South, and to

2303-509: Was characterized by a low level of capital accumulation (largely slave-labor-based) and a shortage of liquid capital, which, when aggravated by the need to concentrate on a few staples, the pervasive anti-industrial and anti-urban ideology, and the reduction of Southern banking, led to a South dependent on export trade. This was in contrast to the economies of the Northern and Western U.S., which relied primarily on their own domestic markets. Since

2352-528: Was inefficient and not progressive. It had reached its geographical limits by 1860 or so, and therefore eventually had to fade away (as happened in Brazil ). In The Decadence of the Plantation System (1910), he argued that slavery was an unprofitable relic that persisted because it produced social status, honor, and political power . "Most farmers in the South had small-to-medium-sized farms with few slaves, but

2401-403: Was unthinkable that any trade could prosper in the straight-jacket of regimented and restricted international trade, without the guiding hand of a powerful protecting government." The plantation system created an environment for the South to experience an economic boom in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. However, reliance on both the plantation system and more widespread slave labor, left

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