The Travel of T-Shirt

The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade By Pietra Rivoli, Ph.D.

Petra Rivoli, tells us in her book "The Travels of a T Shirt in the Global Economy," the story of the travels of a T-shirt from the time the cotton is grown in Texas, to its journey to a Chinese manufacturing plant where the shirts are sewn, then back to the U.S. where the shirt is marketed and sold, and then in the last stage of its long life to the global market for second-hand T-shirts in Africa. Rivoli explains each step on this journey in an interesting way. Her thesis is that the American cotton and textile industries benefit so much from government aid and protectionist policies that it is only in the last stage of a T-shirt’s life, when it enters the African market, that free market policies control the product.

Rivoli tells the story of a T-shirt dating from the time when England first started manufacturing textiles during the Industrial Revolution. Cotton had become popular in England because it was cooler and more comfortable than wool, plus it could be dyed in many colors and patterns. However, English manufacturers had to battle the Indian cotton textiles, which were much cheaper. Therefore, the British government enacted protectionist tariff and barriers against Indian cotton that allowed the infant British textile industry to grow and nourish. The United States did the same thing to grow its own textile industry in the northeastern part of the country. The U.S. government enacted tariffs to protect its infant industry against British textile imports, the textile industry sparked the Industrial Revolution in the U.S..

The tradition of government protection and help to the textile industry is remaining to this day, although, it will probably not last much longer, because foreign cheap textiles are gaining inroads into the American market. From the beginning, the American cotton industry benefited from...