The High Demand for the Raw Materials, Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice in Europe

Mercantilism is a theory based on trading with Europeans that lasted from 1500s to the 1800s. It started as a way to pay other nations due to low funds and because nations were too weak to lead economies. Money was a necessity to armies and supplies Money could be accumulated if colonies gave raw materials to others and could be sold to as finished goods to the colonies. A couple of the raw materials that were in demand was cotton, tobacco, and rice.

The first raw material that was traded or sold was tobacco. Tobacco was mainly grown in southern colonies of the United States, Later, Europeans came, traded, and brought back tobacco to Europe. Eventually, they started planting their own and selling it.

Tobacco became so popular and people wanted it for themselves because of the rumors that were spread about it being a healing source for everything. At one point, it was used as money to pay for finances.

Over time, Europeans made it a habit by not just using it as a medicine but also by chewing and smoking it, and that alone made Europeans rich, The next material is cotton. Cotton is a soft fluffy material that people use as fabric for clothing, Colonist had the ability to produce more cotton without picking the lint out by coming up with the cotton gin. This invention was very important because it reduced the manual labor for slaves, cotton production was quicker, and made it faster to sell.

In the early 1700‘s, The British Empire said it was against the law to import and manufacture any clothes from cotton.

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This law kept the cotton industry from expanding across the nation to the colonies. The last material that was beneficial was rice. Rice would be the most important raw material out of all three of materials because it was one of the main resources of food No one really know where rice came from but some believe it originated in Asia. From there, rice expanded all throughout China, Middle Eastern, Europe, and South America. Rice was easily sold because it was one of the main food sources and it could be easily grown in any kind of tropical weather, Because of this, rice was one of the popular foods for most colonies.