The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade. New Preface and Epilogue with Updates on Economic Issues and Main Characters, 2nd Edition

6The Long Race to the Bottom

Inventive Brits versus Thrifty Chinamen

The gaping divide between the poor sweatshop workers of the East and the rich consumers of the West is a relatively recent phenomenon. Kenneth Pomeranz has convincingly shown that until at least 1750, China rivaled Europe in virtually all measures of well-being and development.¹ Meticulously examining data ranging from life expectancy to technological development, to consumption of sugar and cloth, to the sophistication of markets, Pomeranz finds that China, if anything, was more favorably positioned for industrial development than even the most advanced regions of Europe until the middle of the eighteenth century. Early travelers to China agreed, finding the country superior to Europe in prosperity, politics, and art.² But though they may have been evenly matched at the starting line, Europe took a great leap forward in the late 1700s. Though scholars continue to debate the underlying causes of what Pomeranz has called ‘‘The Great Divergence'’ that occurred at this time, there is no debate that Europe's leap forward began with the Industrial Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution in turn was ignited by cotton textile factories that clothed much of the world in cheap, serviceable cotton garments that were similar in function though not in form to today's cotton T-shirts.

In China, most early textile production took place at the level of the family. Families were generally self-sufficient in textiles and ...