The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans,

The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans, by Bruce E. Baker, Barbara Hahn

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The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans, by Bruce E. Baker, Barbara Hahn

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The Cotton Kings relates a colorful economic drama with striking parallels to contemporary American economic debates. At the turn of the twentieth century, dishonest cotton brokers used bad information to lower prices on the futures market, impoverishing millions of farmers. To fight this corruption, a small group of brokers sought to control the price of cotton on unregulated exchanges in New York and New Orleans. They triumphed, cornering the world market in cotton and raising its price for years. However, the structural problems of self-regulation by market participants continued to threaten the cotton trade until eventually political pressure inspired federal regulation. In the form of the Cotton Futures Act of 1914, the federal government stamped out corruption on the exchanges, helping millions of farmers and textile manufacturers.Combining a gripping narrative with the controversial argument that markets work better when placed under federal regulation, The Cotton Kings brings to light a rarely told story that speaks directly to contemporary conflicts between free markets and regulation.

The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans, by Bruce E. Baker, Barbara Hahn

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1684761 in eBooks
• Published on: 2015-11-05
• Released on: 2015-11-05
• Format: Kindle eBook

The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans, by Bruce E. Baker, Barbara Hahn

Review "An instant classic. Baker and Hahn show us the gambling, fraud, and tragedy at the heart of American capitalism. In this gripping narrative we learn how a futures market worked, how one man could influence cotton prices by controlling information, and how a modern state crushed the operation, ruining thousands. This book is vital for understanding the paradoxes at the heart of the Progressive Era."-Scott Reynolds Nelson, author of A Nation of Deadbeats: An Uncommon History of America's Financial Disasters

"This is a wonderful study, exemplary of the New Financial History: rigorously attentive to market microstructure while richly contextualized with wider implications for those of us concerned with the political economy of financial markets regulation. And they've given us a rip-roaring good read to boot! With skill and imagination, the authors have brought those 'bloodless statistics and tiresome technicalities' to life."-D'Maris Coffman, University College London

"Entrepreneurs' greatest dream is to corner the market--and no market was a more tempting target in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century United States than the cotton market. In this fascinating history, Bruce Baker and Barbara Hahn tell the story of the cotton bears and bulls, and how a more assertive federal government eventually tamed their epic struggles."-Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton: A Global History

About the Author Bruce E. Baker teaches at Newcastle University in England and is co-editor of the journal American Nineteenth Century History. His previous books include What Reconstruction Meant: Historical Memory in the American South, This Mob Will Surely Take My Life: Lynchings in the Carolinas, 1871-1947, After Slavery: Race, Labor, and Citizenship in the Reconstruction South, and The South at Work: Observations from 1904. Barbara Hahn is associate professor of history at Texas Tech University and associate editor of Technology and Culture. She is the author of Making Tobacco Bright: Creating an American Commodity, 1617-1937.

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Most helpful customer reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. How do you corner the market, anyway? By Jonathan M. Bryant Wow, who knew the agricultural futures markets could be so interesting. Baker and Hahn detail schemes and plots that ultimately and unintentionally reshaped the function, structure, and reputation of Agricultural futures. If you have any interest in agriculture as a business, this book is recommended!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Capitalism and Corruption in Turn of the Century New York and New Orleans shows that it is possible to put capitalism in the tit By Bradley A. Hansen Brian E. Baker and Barbara Hahn’s new book The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn of the Century New York and New Orleans shows that it is possible to put capitalism in the title and still write a good history book. I am not going to write a full review, but I will say that I like the book. I’m not sure they are considered part of the new history of capitalism; if they are, the field has taken a turn in a positive direction. Their objective is not to make any sweeping generalizations about capitalism, but to examine how it actually functioned in a particular instance. Their focus is first and foremost on understanding what happened. How did people at the cotton exchanges manipulate prices and why did it matter?In The Cotton Kings people do things. People create the rules that govern markets, they manipulate the rules of those markets, and they form networks and use courts and legislatures to pursue their goals. Sometimes they create rules that bring great benefits to a small number of people; at other times they create rules that spread the benefits more broadly.I also thought they did two interesting things in terms of the telling of the story. Historians generally struggle with the tension between telling a story so that historians in their field will appreciate it and telling a story so that others will appreciate it. Stories about business, especially those that involve finance, can be particularly difficult to tell. We can’t all have Selena Gomez get people to pay attention to explanations of financial instruments. Baker and Hahn use two devices to try to ease this tension. The first is that terms regarding markets are highlighted throughout the text and defined in a glossary at the end of the book. The approach provides the necessary information without long interruptions in the story. The second device is to place an essay on sources at the end of the book. The term essay on sources may be a bit misleading; it is not about the primary sources. The essay on sources is actually a historiographical essay. It places the book in the literature for other historians. Typically, this discussion would be at the beginning. Telling historians why the book is important. Baker and Hahn try to sell the story on its own merits as an interesting and important chapter in American history. I would have actually liked more discussion of the primary sources and how they were used, but that may just be my preference. I find historians stories about how they write history almost as interesting as the history itself.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. The fix is in By David Wineberg The Cotton Kings tells the story of how cotton was traded in the USA at the turn of the century – roughly 1895 to the First World War. Colorful characters ran amuck, making fortunes for themselves. The Bulls pushed prices artificially higher and sold off to make big money, while Bears pushed prices lower, buying cheaply at the bottom to cover themselves. Three attempts to corner the whole market, and have sellers beg to buy product at any price to fulfill their contracts, occurred in 1903 and 1904. One was completely successful. An odd condition of the time was “commercial differences”, which required the settlement of contracts at the last price, not the price at the time of contract. Farmers and spinners, who needed these markets to give some stability to their very lives, were victims on the sidelines. The trader/bankers of the era were in control. Gordon Gekko’s ancestors could teach him a thing or two.The book is remarkably dry for all that. Congressional hearings alone usually provide wonderful color, amusing stupidity, and compromised outcomes. So too Supreme Court hearings and decisions. But precious little of that made it through the filters. This is a straightforward story of the rise and fall of the cotton exchanges in New York and New Orleans. There is a long and winding introduction and then just 130 pages of story. There is no buildup, no drama – just a recounting of the facts. The “Essay on Sources” at the end is a much better introduction than the introduction. It is terribly misplaced at the back.There is a far greater point than the mere machinations and manipulations by the key players. The whole concept of Efficient Markets and Rational Expectations is (once again) tossed out the window, as men prove, once again, to be more devious and greedy than the markets are capable of handling. The lesson – that the fox should not be running the henhouse – is still being debated in places like Davos, despite constant revolting revelations such as the VW Diesel Scam. Markets do not and cannot regulate themselves. The Cotton Kings shows this is nothing new, and far from being the problem, government is critical to keep the playing field at least somewhat level.David Wineberg

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The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans, by Bruce E. Baker, Barbara Hahn

The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans, by Bruce E. Baker, Barbara Hahn

The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans, by Bruce E. Baker, Barbara Hahn