Description
Book SynopsisPresents an analysis of the international cotton trade and argues for a novel understanding of global markets. This book examines the arrangements, institutions, and power relations on which cotton trading and production depend, and provides an alternative approach to the analysis of pricing mechanisms.
Trade Review"All in all, an intellectually exciting book which I thoroughly enjoyed reading."--Brenda Jubin, Reading the Markets blog "Market Threads' great scholarly contribution is in highlighting and minutely describing the empirics of power in market settings."--William Davies, Journal of Cultural Economy
Table of ContentsPreface xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: How to Study a Global Market 1 A Review of Literature on the Market 2 Social Studies of the Market 3 New Directions in the Social Study of Markets 6 Commodity Chains, Systems of Provision, and the Social Lives of Things 9 Why Cotton? 11 How to Follow Cotton? 13 Where to Follow Cotton? 14 Summary of Arguments 16 Chapter 1: What Is a World Price? The Prosthetic and Actual Worth of Cotton 22 How Much Does an Actual Bale of Cotton Really Cost? 24 The Price Disappears Again 31 Making Sense of the Price 33 Market Reports 35 Optional Prices of Cotton 49 Conclusion 54 Chapter 2: Market Maintenance in the Worlds of Commodity Circulation 59 The World of Cotton 60 We Have on This Day Sold to You as Follows 61 The Shipment Is Brought Together 64 Two Thousand Bales to Go 66 We Hereby Confirm the Arrival of ... 75 The Market Platform: Capital, Knowledge, and Network 76 Conclusion 80 Chapter 3: Markets' Multiple Boundaries in Izmir, Turkey 84 Pit Trading in the Izmir Mercantile Exchange 85 The Rehearsal Price of the Pit 88 The Transaction Price of Postpit Trading 94 Making the Market Price of Turkish Cotton 97 Another Market Place: The Permanent Working Group on Cotton 99 Conclusion 102 Chapter 4: A Market without Exchange: Cotton Trade in Egypt 105 The World's First Cotton Futures Market and Its Historical Setting 106 Alcotexa and Cotton's Associate Price 108 We Spend All Our Time in Search of the Price 115 Three Traits of Trade 119 Cotton Comes to the Market 122 Conclusion 128 Chapter 5: Growing Cotton and Its Global Market in a Turkish Village 131 Field Preparation and Sowing in Pamukkoy 133 Mechanical and Manual Sowing 136 Irrigation 140 The Harvest 141 The Market: Exchanging Cotton in Pamukkoy 144 The Traders' Price 145 The Farmers' Price 148 Conclusion 152 Chapter 6: Cotton Fields of Power in Rural Egypt 156 Cotton Is Disappearing in Egypt 158 An Illegal Alien in the Egyptian Countryside 159 Growing Cotton in the Fields of Kafr Gaffar and ?Izbet Sabri 161 So Your Egyptians Are Kurds, No? 164 The Struggle to Survive: Farmers, Animals, and Stock 166 Financing the Plant Stock with Livestock 169 The Gamoosa Dies, the Cotton Grows 171 Research in the Wild Countryside 174 The Harvesting and Marketing of Cotton 177 Conclusion 185 Conclusion: What Is a Global Market? 188 Bridging the Global and the Regional 193 The Rural Fields of Global Markets 198 The Production and Exchange of Cotton 200 The Market Fields of Power 202 What Is to Be Done with the Market 205 Glossary 209 References 213 Index 223
