“The Fabric Of Our Lives”-part 1

 

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber  that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds.

“Old wealth” “Cotton Money” established and monopolized by control of cash crops and slave labor, in particular cotton & the transatlantic slave trade

From the late 18th century on, the British city of Manchester acquired the nickname "Cottonopolis" due to the cotton industry's omnipresence within the city, and Manchester's role as the heart of the global cotton trade.

In the United States, growing Southern cotton generated significant wealth and capital for the antebellum South, as well as raw material for Northern textile industries. Before 1865 the cotton was largely produced through the labor of enslaved African Americans. It enriched both the Southern landowners and the new textile industries of the Northeastern United States and northwestern Europe. In 1860 the slogan "Cotton is King" characterized the attitude of Southern leaders toward this monocrop  in that Europe would support an independent Confederate states of America in 1861 in order to protect the supply of cotton it needed for its very large textile industry.-Cotton - Wikipedia

James Hammond, a southern plantation owner, and U.S. Senator extolled Southern power. In his speech to the United States Senate on March 4, 1858, he put words to a long-brewing Southern philosophy: “Cotton is King.” :

“Without firing a gun, without drawing a sword, should they make war on us we could bring the whole world to our feet […] What would happen if no cotton was furnished for three years? I will not stop to depict what everyone can imagine, but this is certain: England would topple headlong and carry the whole civilized world with her, save the South. No, you dare not make war on cotton. No power on earth dares to make war upon it. Cotton is king.” 

Amongst these debates, the “Cotton is King,” of “King Cotton,” concept perforated into the Southern consciousness. Elites believed that the North would bow to Southern demands because of their reliance on Southern products in their manufacturing industry. This concept wasn’t constrained by national borders, the South believed that they could gain international recognition because foreign markets, specifically European markets, relied on their Southern goods. -"Cotton is King" | American Battlefield Trust

Cotton Inc:

 The slogan for cotton Inc. is and has been : “The touch the feel of cotton the fabric of our lives” 

• According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing , US paper currency is made up of 75% cotton and 25% linen. That is, there are three-fourths of a pound of cotton in each pound of dollar bills:

…Cotton Money,

I present to you: Every one is a “Cotton picker” , US paper currency is 75% cotton  and 25% linen, the cash crop literally became the cash. 

“Lets Unpack”

Cotton picker: 

A Black person. A reference to Africans, used as slave-labor, picking cotton on Southern United States plantations prior to the American civil war (1861 - 1865).-Urban dictionary 

Re-defined :

Cotton Picker: Everyone 

Money:

“Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes in a particular country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange a, unit of account a Store of value and sometimes, a standard of deferred payment. Any item or verifiable record that fulfills these functions can be considered as money.

Money is historically an emergent market phenomenon establishing a commodity money but nearly all contemporary money systems are based on fiat money. Fiat money, like any check or note of debt, is without use value as a physical commodity. It derives its value by being declared by a government to be legal tender; that is, it must be accepted as a form of payment within the boundaries of the country, for "all debts, public and private”

Many believe a digital fiat currency could not exist yet by definition  money “derives its value by being declared by a government to be legal tender..” and as also stated above The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange a, unit of account a Store of value and sometimes, a standard of deferred payment. As stated above any item or verifiable record that fulfills these functions can be considered as money.

“The recent investment in and popularity of NFT’s represents the psychological framework needed for the ecosystem of a digital fiat currency.”-vw

“Investing is not the study of finance. It’s the study of how people behave with money. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people. You can’t sum up behavior with formulas to memorize or spreadsheet models to follow. Behavior is inborn, varies by person, is hard to measure, changes over time, and people are prone to deny its existence, especially when describing themselves.”-Morgan Housel ;”The Psychology of money”.

If investing is the study of how people behave with money a digital fiat currency is on the horizon, because exploring non fungibility on and through a blockchain is a clear pathway to achieve the ability to build and create trust around  a decentralized process of storing and transferring unique values. The recent investment in and popularity of NFT’s represents the psychological framework needed for the ecosystem of a digital fiat currency, kind of like a digital economic priming. In fact all digital currencies are a part of that priming. Minting is The process of making coins. Minting generally consists of pressing pieces of metal with images and metaphorically the process of crypto currency’s becoming popular (along with each individual currency’s unique features) is similar to minting in that the impression/image or “branding” of the currency builds trust and that trust is leveraged to build infrastructure and value. From whips and chains in cotton fields to blocks and chains in data Field’s, yet these new blocks, chains and data fields have the “promise” of freedom and Decentralization attached to them, But  it will take more than Byzantine fault tolerance to create trust, protect and liberate humanity from its woes. There are many critical fault lines Interwoven into our societal dna. Like cottons connection to “paper” money, while we’re all out here “picking cotton” in our respected career “fields” maybe the question should be...did we put the word “career” in front of the “field” to make ourselves feel better about the field we were harvesting our cotton from for a living?  And as the cotton stays in our clothes, the Protective equipment we use and the swabs we use to help detect viruses and many other staple items in our lives, will “paper money” fade and become a relic? will a fungible replacement with non fungible hybrid like features in the form of a digital fiat currency rise in its place?

Well according to Atlantic Council.org, In April 2020, China became the first major economy to pilot a digital currency. The People’s Bank of China is aiming for increased domestic use of the digital yuan by the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. We estimate that over RMB 150 million (US$23 million) of the digital yuan is in circulation. The United States lags behind in its own research. However, both Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Secretary Janet Yellen have recently signaled that the US may start moving faster on a digital dollar. 

***Update according to CNBC.com as of June 9th 2021 El Salvador has become the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. 

Fungibility is the ability of a good or asset to be interchanged with other individual goods or assets of the same type. Fungible assets simplify the exchange and trade processes, as fungibility implies equal value between the assets.

Non-fungible” more or less means that it's unique and can't be replaced with something else. For example, a bitcoin is fungible — trade one for another bitcoin, and you'll have exactly the same thing. A one-of-a-kind trading card, however, is non-fungible.

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable.

“From whips and chains in cotton fields to blocks and chains in data Field’s”

The evolution of Cotton Money

Minting

The process of making coins. Minting generally consists of pressing pieces of metal with images. These images usually show the denomination of the coin, contain security features, and may say something about the country minting it. For example, the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom appears on all British coins. Coins generally are minted in small denominations, but this is not always the case.-

Minting. (n.d.) Farlex Financial Dictionary. (2009). Retrieved June 8 2021 from https://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Mintin

Crypto minting:

Minting is defined as the computer process of validating information, creating a new block and recording that information into the blockchain.-decrptionary.com

With cryptocurrency’s the history of transactions or the “ledger”is the currency. This ledger history is accomplished/secured through one of two processes :

Proof of Work: or PoW is defined as a process for achieving consensus and building on a digital record known as a blockchain. With PoW, users compete with each other via their computers to solve a puzzle. 

Or

Proof of Stake: or PoS is defined as a process for achieving consensus and building on a digital record known as a blockchain. With PoS, users put up a collateral of tokens (or a “stake”) and use a process that is more energy and cost-efficient than previous solutions.-decrptionary.com

Since in crypto currency’s the history of the ledger or transaction history is the currency, for a moment let’s imagine the same were true for America’s history of chattel slavery and the transatlantic slave trade as well as countless other atrocities committed through state and government violence against natives and Africans bought to America. What would be the quantifiable value of that history? We seem to understand historical value in every other instance, even when it pertains to computer science, to the extent that this technology (blockchain) is changing our world as we know it, but yet we can’t seem to understand we’re we are as a nation in the context of we’re we were as a nation. Guess we can’t see the elephant in the room because we’re ridding on it’s back. 

"Labour is not a commodity" is the principle expressed in the preamble to the International labor organization founding documents. It expresses the view that people should not be treated like inanimate commodities and capital another mere factor of production , or resources, Instead, people who work for a living should be treated as human beings and accorded dignity and respect.-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resources

According to the definition above chattel slavery isn’t even an option, it’s not even factored into the conversation as it pertains to labor being a commodity so what’s the recourse when all of the labor is chattel slave labor? 

According to Karl Marx,

Under capitalism, labour-power becomes a commodity– it is sold and bought on the market. A worker tries to sell his or her labour-power to an employer, in exchange for a wage or salary. If successful (the only alternative being unemployment), this exchange involves submitting to the authority of the capitalist for a specific period of time. During that time, the worker does actual labour, producing goods and services. The capitalist can then sell these and obtain surplus value; since the wages paid to the workers are lower than the value of the goods or services they produce for the capitalist.-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_power

But what if it’s forced chattel slavery? And we agree with the International labor organization that people who work for a living should be treated as human beings and accorded dignity and respect. But we disagree with them in the fact that they say that labor isn’t a commodity, because we also agree with Marx when he stated that Under capitalism, labour-power becomes a commodity.  If chattel slave labor was considered to be a fungible commodity what would the weight/value of that be in “cotton money”? Then again there is no true payment that could ever fully atone for the inhumanity of the transatlantic slave trade and the systems of oppression that have directly spawn from it. 

“The fabric of our lives”

Cotton Money 

(Part1)

To be continued...

V.W

LGGM

Locally Grown Globally Minded 

https://www.instagram.com/locally_grown_globally_minded/?hl=en