File:Cotton (1900) (14767952934).jpg

Identifier: cotton00nati (find matches)
Title: Cotton
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: National association of cotton manufacturers
Subjects: Cotton manufacture
Publisher: (s.l. : National Association of Cotton Manufacturers)
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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m. No Europeansknew as much regarding cotton as the Spaniards and Italians, sincecotton fabrics from the East, or made under Eastern influence inMoorish Spain, were familiar, if expensive, luxuries. Columbusbrought back with him to Spain cotton plants in fruit to prove toFerdinand and Isabella that his first voyage had been successful. Very soon after Cortez conquered Mexico, cotton fibre and fabricwere exported to Spain and formed no inconsiderable part of thewealth of this romantic commerce. And within a few years the fibrefrom this part of the world began to supplant the cotton of Indiaand the Levant. Cortez was profoundly impressed with the greatamount of cotton fabrics and fibre paid as tribute to the Aztec rulersby their conquered cities. It has been estimated that this amountedto a sum equivalent to $33,000,000, basing the price of cotton on aneight cent a pound average. Within a single decade the annual ship-ments of cotton fabrics from Mexico to Spain exceeded 1,500,000vards.
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Embroidered strips from Mexico slwunug Spanish andMoorish design. (American Museum of Natural History) (27) A BRIEF NARRATIVE OF A GREAT FIBRE In all the conquests that followed, the Spaniards speak withunstinted praise of the skill of the natives in cotton spinning, dyeingand weaving. They were stern critics, more often than otherwiseunduly severe on their conquered peoples. But the exquisite fabrics,the rich colors, the vigorous designs, swept away all prejudices. The natives very quickly adapted not only Spanish design, butSpanish looms and spinning devices. They copied with amazingfidelity the figures on coins, the ornaments in the churches and allelse possessed by their white masters. In many instances, admirationfor the exotic designs completely overshadowed their own arts. Todayin many parts of Latin America, the native craftsmen producedesigns that came originally from the Moorish invaders to theSpaniards, and finally to this New World beyond the Atlantic. The pre-Columbian ma

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