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Foreign News
November 27, 1854
The Daily Minnesota Pioneer
Saint Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota
What is this article about?
Charles Dickens' Household Words highlights Britain's economic dependence on American cotton, warning that any calamity in the US would devastate UK shipping, mills, and livelihoods for two million people.
Clipping
OCR Quality
95%
Excellent
Full Text
Dickens on Great Britain.
There is truth in the following confession contained in Dickens' Household Words:
'Let any social or physical convulsion visit the United States and England would feel the shock from Land's End to John O'Groats.- The lives of nearly two million of our countrymen are dependent upon the cotton crops of America; their destiny may be said, without any sort of hyperbole, to hang upon a thread. Should any dire calamity befall the land of cotton, a thousand of our merchant ships would rot idly in dock. Ten thousand mills must stop their busy looms, and two million of mouths would starve for lack of food to feed them.'
There is truth in the following confession contained in Dickens' Household Words:
'Let any social or physical convulsion visit the United States and England would feel the shock from Land's End to John O'Groats.- The lives of nearly two million of our countrymen are dependent upon the cotton crops of America; their destiny may be said, without any sort of hyperbole, to hang upon a thread. Should any dire calamity befall the land of cotton, a thousand of our merchant ships would rot idly in dock. Ten thousand mills must stop their busy looms, and two million of mouths would starve for lack of food to feed them.'
What sub-type of article is it?
Economic
Trade Or Commerce
What keywords are associated?
American Cotton
British Economy
Trade Dependency
Cotton Calamity
What entities or persons were involved?
Dickens
Where did it happen?
United States
Foreign News Details
Primary Location
United States
Key Persons
Dickens
Outcome
hypothetical: merchant ships rotting, mills stopping, two million starving if calamity in america.
Event Details
Quote from Dickens' Household Words confesses Britain's vulnerability to US events due to dependence on American cotton for two million lives, with potential for ships to idle, mills to halt, and widespread starvation.