1.
Pine
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A pine is any conifer in the genus Pinus, /ˈpiːnuːs/, of the family Pinaceae. Pinus is the genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The Plant List compiled by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts 126 species names of pines as current, together with 35 unresolved species, the modern English name pine derives from Latin pinus, which some have traced to the Indo-European base *pīt- ‘resin’. Before the 19th century, pines were often referred to as firs, the genus is divided into three subgenera, which can be distinguished by cone, seed, and leaf characters, Pinus subg. Pinus, the yellow, or hard pine group, generally harder wood. Ducampopinus, the foxtail or pinyon group Pinus subg, strobus, the white, or soft pine group, generally with softer wood and five needles per fascicle Most regions of the Northern Hemisphere host some native species of pines. One species crosses the equator in Sumatra to 2°S, in North America, various species occur in regions at latitudes from as far north as 66°N to as far south as 12°N. Various species have been introduced to temperate and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, where they are grown as timber or cultivated as ornamental plants in parks, a number of such introduced species have become invasive and threaten native ecosystems. Pine trees are evergreen, coniferous trees growing 3–80 m tall. The smallest are Siberian dwarf pine and Potosi pinyon, and the tallest is a 81.79 m tall ponderosa pine located in southern Oregons Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the bark of most pines is thick and scaly, but some species have thin, flaky bark. The branches are produced in regular pseudo whorls, actually a very tight spiral, the spiral growth of branches, needles, and cone scales are arranged in Fibonacci number ratios. The new spring shoots are sometimes called candles, they are covered in brown or whitish bud scales and point upward at first, then turn green. These candles offer foresters a means to evaluate fertility of the soil, pines are long-lived, and typically reach ages of 100–1,000 years, some even more. The longest-lived is the Great Basin bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva, one individual of this species, dubbed Methuselah, is one of the worlds oldest living organisms at around 4,600 years old. This tree can be found in the White Mountains of California, an older tree, now cut down, was dated at 4,900 years old. It was discovered in a grove beneath Wheeler Peak and it is now known as Prometheus after the Greek immortal, pines have four types of leaf, Seed leaves on seedlings, born in a whorl of 4–24. Juvenile leaves, which follow immediately on seedlings and young plants, 2–6 cm long, single, green or often blue-green and these are produced for six months to five years, rarely longer. Scale leaves, similar to bud scales, small, brown and non-photosynthetic, needles, the adult leaves, are green and bundled in clusters called fascicles
2.
Cash crop
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A cash crop is an agricultural crop which is grown for sale to return a profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm, the term is used to differentiate marketed crops from subsistence crops, which are those fed to the producers own livestock or grown as food for the producers family. In earlier times cash crops were only a small part of a farms total yield, while today, especially in developed countries. In the least developed countries, cash crops are usually crops which attract demand in developed nations. Prices for major crops are set in commodity markets with global scope, with some local variation based on freight costs and local supply. A consequence of this is that a nation, region, or individual producer relying on such a crop may suffer low prices should a bumper crop elsewhere lead to excess supply on the global markets and this system has been criticized by traditional farmers. Coffee is an example of a product that has been susceptible to significant commodity futures price variations, Issues involving subsidies and trade barriers on such crops have become controversial in discussions of globalization. The practice of exporting at artificially low prices is known as dumping, the Arctic climate is generally not conducive for the cultivation of cash crops. However, one potential cash crop for the Arctic is Rhodiola rosea, there is currently consumer demand for the plant, but the available supply is less than the demand. Cash crops grown in regions with a temperate climate include many cereals, oil-yielding crops, vegetables, tree fruit or top fruit, in regions with a subtropical climate, oil-yielding crops and some vegetables and herbs are the predominant cash crops. In regions with a climate, coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, bananas, oranges, cotton. The oil palm is a palm tree, and the fruit from it is used to make palm oil. Around 60 percent of African workers are employed in the agricultural sector, for example, in Burkina Faso 85% of its residents are reliant upon cotton production for income, and over half of the countrys population lives in poverty. Larger farms tend to grow crops such as coffee, tea, cotton, cocoa, fruit. These farms, typically operated by corporations, cover tens of square kilometres. Subsistence farms provide a source of food and a small income for families. Africa has realized significant growth in plantations, many of which are on lands which were purchased by British companies. Jatropha curcas is a crop grown for biofuel production in Africa
3.
Cotton
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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 family of Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will tend to increase the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa. The greatest diversity of wild species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds, the fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, China is the worlds largest producer of cotton, but most of this is used domestically. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years, in the United States, cotton is usually measured in bales, which measure approximately 0.48 cubic meters and weigh 226.8 kilograms. Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, the Indus cotton industry was well-developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the industrialization of India. Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread across much of India, for example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka dating from around 1000 BC. Cotton fabrics discovered in a cave near Tehuacán, Mexico have been dated to around 5800 BC, the domestication of Gossypium hirsutum in Mexico is dated between 3400 and 2300 BC. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and this may be a reference to tree cotton, Gossypium arboreum, which is a native of the Indian subcontinent. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Cotton has been spun, woven and it clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, in Iran, the history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era, however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. The planting of cotton was common in Merv, Ray and Pars of Iran, in Persian poets poems, especially Ferdowsis Shahname, there are references to cotton. Marco Polo refers to the products of Persia, including cotton. John Chardin, a French traveler of the 17th century who visited the Safavid Persia, during the Han dynasty, cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. Mohamed Ali Pasha accepted the proposition and granted himself the monopoly on the sale and export of cotton in Egypt, and later dictated cotton should be grown in preference to other crops
4.
Coffee
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Coffee is a brewed drink prepared from roasted coffee beans, which are the seeds of berries from the Coffea plant. The genus Coffea is native to tropical Africa, and Madagascar, the two most commonly grown are the highly regarded arabica, and the less sophisticated but stronger and more hardy robusta. Once ripe, coffee berries are picked, processed, and dried, dried coffee seeds are roasted to varying degrees, depending on the desired flavor. Roasted beans are ground and brewed with boiling water to produce coffee as a beverage. Coffee is slightly acidic and can have an effect on humans because of its caffeine content. Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world and it can be prepared and presented in a variety of ways. It is usually served hot, although iced coffee is also served, the earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking appears in the middle of the 15th century in the Sufi shrines of Yemen. It was here in Arabia that coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed in a way to how it is now prepared. Coffee seeds were first exported from East Africa to Yemen, as the coffea arabica plant is thought to have been indigenous to the former, yemeni traders took coffee back to their homeland and began to cultivate the seed. By the 16th century, it had reached Persia, Turkey, from there, it spread to Europe and the rest of the world. Coffee is an export commodity, it is the top agricultural export for numerous countries and is among the worlds largest legal agricultural exports. It is one of the most valuable commodities exported by developing countries, green coffee is one of the most traded agricultural commodities in the world. Consequently, the markets for fair trade coffee and organic coffee are expanding. The first reference to coffee in the English language is in the form chaona, dated to 1598 and understood to be a misprint of chaoua, equivalent, in the orthography of the time, to chaova. This term and coffee both derive from the Ottoman Turkish kahve, by way of the Italian caffè and it has also been proposed that the source may be the Proto-Central Semitic root q-h-h meaning dark. Alternatively, the word Khat, a plant widely used as stimulant in Yemen and Ethiopia before being supplanted by coffee has been suggested as a possible origin, the expression coffee break was first attested in 1952. The term coffee pot dates from 1705, other accounts attribute the discovery of coffee to Sheikh Omar. According to the ancient chronicle, Omar, who was known for his ability to cure the sick through prayer, was exiled from Mocha in Yemen to a desert cave near Ousab
5.
Tea
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Tea is an aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis, an evergreen shrub native to Asia. After water, it is the most widely consumed drink in the world, Tea originated in Southwest China, where it was used as a medicinal drink. It was popularized as a drink during the Chinese Tang dynasty. Portuguese priests and merchants introduced it to Europe during the 16th century, during the 17th century, drinking tea became fashionable among Britons, who started large-scale production and commercialization of the plant in India to bypass the Chinese monopoly. The term herbal tea usually refers to infusions of fruit or herbs made without the tea plant, such as steeps of rosehip, chamomile and these are sometimes called tisanes or herbal infusions to prevent confusion with tea made from the tea plant. The tea industry often uses the term fruit tea to refer to what are in fact fruit-flavored black teas. The Chinese character for tea is 茶, originally written with a stroke as 荼. The word is pronounced differently in the different varieties of Chinese, such as chá in Mandarin, zo and dzo in Wu Chinese, there were other ancient words for tea, though ming is the only other one still in common use. Most Chinese languages, such as Mandarin and Cantonese, pronounce it along the lines of cha and these two pronunciations have made their separate ways into other languages around the world. Starting in the seventeen century, the Dutch played a dominant role in the early European tea trade via the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch borrowed the word for tea from Min Chinese, either through trade directly from Fujian or Formosa where they had established a port, or from Malay traders in Bantam, Java. The Dutch then introduced to other European languages this Min pronunciation for tea, including English tea, French thé, Spanish té and this pronunciation is also the most common form worldwide. The Portuguese adopted the Cantonese pronunciation chá, and spread it to India, the Korean and Japanese pronunciations of cha were borrowed into Korean and Japanese during earlier periods of Chinese history. A third form, the increasingly widespread chai, came from Persian چای chay, both the châ and chây forms are found in Persian dictionaries. English has all three forms, cha or char, attested from the 16th century, tea, from the 17th, however, the form chai refers specifically to a black tea mixed with honey, spices and milk in contemporary English. Tea plants are native to East Asia, and probably originated around the points of the lands of north Burma. Tea drinking may have begun in the Yunnan region during the Shang Dynasty in China, Chinese legends attribute the invention of tea to Shennong in 2737 BC, although evidence suggests that tea drinking may have been introduced from the southwest of China. The earliest written records of tea come from China, in the Chronicles of Huayang, it was recorded that the Ba people in Sichuan presented tu to the Zhou king
6.
Cocoa bean
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The beans are the basis of chocolate, and of such Mesoamerican foods as mole and tejate. The word cocoa comes from the Spanish word cacao, which is derived from the Nahuatl word cacahuatl, the Nahuatl word, in turn, ultimately derives from the reconstructed Proto Mije-Sokean word *kakaw~*kakawa. It originated in Central America and parts of Mexico, more than 5,000 years ago, it was consumed by pre-Columbian cultures along the Yucatán, including the Mayans, and as far back as Olmeca civilization in spiritual ceremonies. It also grows in the foothills of the Andes in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America and its range may have been larger in the past, evidence of its wild range may be obscured by cultivation of the tree in these areas since long before the Spanish arrived. The cocoa bean was a currency throughout Mesoamerica before the Spanish conquest. Cacao trees grow in a geographical zone, of about 20° to the north and south of the Equator. Nearly 70% of the world today is grown in West Africa. The cacao plant was first given its name by Swedish natural scientist Carl Linnaeus in his original classification of the plant kingdom. Cocoa was an important commodity in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, flavored with vanilla or other spices, his chocolate was whipped into a froth that dissolved in the mouth. No fewer than 60 portions each day reportedly may have been consumed by Moctezuma II, chocolate was introduced to Europe by the Spaniards, and became a popular beverage by the mid-17th century. They also introduced the tree into the West Indies and the Philippines. It was also introduced into the rest of Asia and into West Africa by Europeans, in the Gold Coast, modern Ghana, cacao was introduced by an African, Tetteh Quarshie. Due to heat buildup in the process, cacao beans lose most of the purplish hue and become mostly brown in color. This skin is released easily after roasting by winnowing, white seeds are found in some rare varieties, usually mixed with purples, and are considered of higher value. The three main varieties of plant are Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. The first is the most widely used, comprising 80-90% of the production of cocoa. Cocoa beans of the Criollo variety are rarer and considered a delicacy, Criollo plantations have lower yields than those of Forastero, and also tend to be less resistant to several diseases that attack the cocoa plant, hence very few countries still produce it. One of the largest producers of Criollo beans is Venezuela, Trinitario is a hybrid between Criollo and Forastero varieties
7.
Sugarcane
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It has stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in the sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the stalk internodes. The plant is two to six meters tall, all sugar cane species interbreed and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family Poaceae, an important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and sorghum. Sucrose, extracted and purified in specialized factories, is used as raw material in the food industry or is fermented to produce ethanol. Ethanol is produced on a large scale by the Brazilian sugarcane industry, sugarcane is the worlds largest crop by production quantity. In 2012, The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates it was cultivated on about 26×106 hectares, in more than 90 countries, Brazil was the largest producer of sugar cane in the world. The next five major producers, in decreasing amounts of production, were India, China, Thailand, Pakistan, the world demand for sugar is the primary driver of sugarcane agriculture. Cane accounts for 80% of sugar produced, most of the rest is made from sugar beets, sugarcane predominantly grows in the tropical and subtropical regions. Other than sugar, products derived from sugarcane include falernum, molasses, rum, cachaça, bagasse, in some regions, people use sugarcane reeds to make pens, mats, screens, and thatch. The young, unexpanded inflorescence of tebu telor is eaten raw, steamed, or toasted, the Persians, followed by the Greeks, discovered the famous reeds that produce honey without bees in India between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. They adopted and then spread sugarcane agriculture, merchants began to trade in sugar from India, which was considered a luxury and an expensive spice. Sugarcane is a tropical, perennial grass that forms lateral shoots at the base to produce multiple stems, the stems grow into cane stalk, which when mature constitutes around 75% of the entire plant. A mature stalk is composed of 11–16% fiber, 12–16% soluble sugars, 2–3% nonsugars. A sugarcane crop is sensitive to the climate, soil type, irrigation, fertilizers, insects, disease control, varieties, the average yield of cane stalk is 60–70 tonnes per hectare per year. However, this figure can vary between 30 and 180 tonnes per hectare depending on knowledge and crop management approach used in sugarcane cultivation, sugarcane is a cash crop, but it is also used as livestock fodder. Sugarcane is indigenous to tropical South and Southeast Asia, different species likely originated in different locations, with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule and S. officinarum in New Guinea. It is theorized that sugarcane was first domesticated as a crop in New Guinea around 6000 BC, New Guinean farmers and other early cultivators of sugarcane chewed the plant for its sweet juice. The exact date of the first cane sugar production is unclear, the earliest evidence of sugar production comes from ancient Sanskrit and Pali texts
8.
Sisal
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Sisal, with the botanical name Agave sisalana, is a species of Agave native to southern Mexico but widely cultivated and naturalized in many other countries. It yields a fibre used in making various products. The term sisal may refer either to the common name or the fibre. It is sometimes referred to as sisal hemp, because for centuries hemp was a source for fibre. The sisal fibre is used for rope and twine, and has many other uses, including paper, cloth, footwear, hats, bags, carpets. The native origin of Agave sisalana is uncertain, traditionally it was deemed to be a native of the Yucatán Peninsula, but there are no records of botanical collections from there. They were originally shipped from the Spanish colonial port of Sisal in Yucatán, the Yucatán plantations now cultivate henequen. Gentry hypothesized a Chiapas origin, on the strength of local usage. Evidence of a cottage industry there suggests it as the original habitat location, possibly as a cross of Agave angustifolia. Sisal plants, Agave sisalana, consist of a rosette of sword-shaped leaves about 1. 5–2 metres tall, young leaves may have a few minute teeth along their margins, but lose them as they mature. The sisal plant has a 7–10 year life-span and typically produces 200–250 commercially usable leaves, each leaf contains an average of around 1000 fibres. The fibres account for only about 4% of the plant by weight, Sisal is considered a plant of the tropics and subtropics, since production benefits from temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius and sunshine. Sisal was used by the Aztecs and the Mayans to make crude fabrics, in the 19th century, sisal cultivation spread to Florida, the Caribbean islands, and Brazil, as well as to countries in Africa, notably Tanzania and Kenya, and Asia. The first commercial plantings in Brazil were made in the late 1930s and it was not until the 1960s that Brazilian production accelerated and the first of many spinning mills was established. Today Brazil is the major producer of sisal. There are both positive and negative impacts from sisal growing. These methods offer no potential for genetic improvement, in vitro multiplication of selected genetic material using meristematic tissue culture offers considerable potential for the development of improved genetic material. Fibre is extracted by a known as decortication, where leaves are crushed, beaten
9.
Vegetable oil
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A vegetable oil is a triglyceride extracted from a plant. For this reason, vegetable oils that are solid at room temperature are sometimes called vegetable fats, in contrast to these triglycerides, vegetable waxes lack glycerin in their structure. Although many plant parts may yield oil, in commercial practice, Oils extracted from plants have been used since ancient times and in many cultures. Archaeological evidence shows that olives were turned into oil by 6000 BC and 4500 BC in present-day Israel. Many vegetable oils are consumed directly, or indirectly as ingredients in food – a role that they share with some animal fats, including butter, ghee, lard, the oils serve a number of purposes in this role, Shortening – to give pastry a crumbly texture. Texture – oils can serve to make other ingredients stick together less, flavor – while less-flavorful oils command premium prices, some oils, such as olive, sesame, or almond oil, may be chosen specifically for the flavor they impart. Flavor base – oils can also carry flavors of other ingredients, secondly, oils can be heated and used to cook other foods. Oils suitable for this objective must have a flash point. Such oils include the major cooking oils – soybean, rapeseed, canola, sunflower, safflower, peanut, cottonseed, etc. Tropical oils, such as coconut, palm, and rice bran oils, are valued in Asian cultures for high-temperature cooking. Unsaturated vegetable oils can be transformed through partial or complete hydrogenation into oils of higher melting point, the hydrogenation process involves sparging the oil at high temperature and pressure with hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst, typically a powdered nickel compound. As each carbon–carbon double-bond is chemically reduced to a single bond, the elimination of double bonds by adding hydrogen atoms is called saturation, as the degree of saturation increases, the oil progresses toward being fully hydrogenated. An oil may be hydrogenated to increase resistance to rancidity or to change its physical characteristics, as the degree of saturation increases, the oils viscosity and melting point increase. The use of hydrogenated oils in foods has never completely satisfactory. Because the center arm of the triglyceride is shielded somewhat by the end fatty acids, most of the hydrogenation occurs on the end fatty acids, a margarine made from naturally more saturated oils will be more plastic than a margarine made from hydrogenated soy oil. Partially hydrogenated oils and their trans fats have been linked to a risk of mortality from coronary heart disease. In the US, the Standard of Identity for a product labeled as vegetable oil margarine specifies only canola, safflower, sunflower, corn, soybean, products not labeled vegetable oil margarine do not have that restriction. Vegetable oils are used as an ingredient or component in many manufactured products, many vegetable oils are used to make soaps, skin products, candles, perfumes and other personal care and cosmetic products
10.
Elaeis
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Elaeis is a genus of palms containing two species, called oil palms. They are used in agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African oil palm Elaeis guineensis is the source of palm oil, it is native to west and southwest Africa. The American oil palm Elaeis oleifera is native to tropical Central and South America, mature palms are single-stemmed, and can grow well over 20 m tall. The leaves are pinnate, and reach between 3–5 m long, the flowers are produced in dense clusters, each individual flower is small, with three sepals and three petals. The palm fruit is reddish, about the size of a large plum, each fruit is made up of an oily, fleshy outer layer, with a single seed, also rich in oil. The two species, E. guineensis and E. oleifera can produce fertile hybrids, the genome of E. guineensis has been sequenced, which has important implications for breeding improved strains of the crop plants. Since palm oil contains more saturated fats than oils made from canola, corn, linseed, soybeans, safflower and it contains no trans fat, and its use in food has increased as food-labelling laws have changed to specify trans fat content. Oil from Elaeis guineensis is also used as biofuel, human use of oil palms may date back about 5,000 years in coastal west Africa. Palm oil was discovered in the late 19th century by archaeologists in a tomb at Abydos dating back to 3000 BCE. It is thought that Arab traders brought the oil palm to Egypt, Elaeis guineensis is now extensively cultivated in tropical countries outside Africa, particularly Malaysia and Indonesia which together produce most of the world supply. Especially in Indonesia, there is growing pressure for palm oil producers to prove that they are not harming rare animals in the cultivation process. Attalea maripa, another oil-producing palm Journal of Oil Palm Research Energy and the environment List of Arecaceae genera Social and environmental impact of palm oil
11.
Hevea brasiliensis
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Hevea brasiliensis, the Pará rubber tree, sharinga tree, seringueira, or, most commonly, the rubber tree or rubber plant, is a tree belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae. It is the most economically important member of the genus Hevea because the milky latex extracted from the tree is the source of natural rubber. H. brasiliensis is a deciduous tree growing to a height of up to 40 m in the wild. The trunk is cylindrical and may have a swollen, bottle-shaped base, the bark is some shade of brown, and the inner bark oozes latex when damaged. The leaves have three leaflets and are spirally arranged, the inflorescence include separate male and female flowers. The flowers are pungent, creamy-yellow and have no petals, the fruit is a capsule that contains three large seeds, it opens explosively when ripe. In the wild, the tree can reach a height of up to 100 feet, the white or yellow latex occurs in latex vessels in the bark, mostly outside the phloem. These vessels spiral up the tree in a helix which forms an angle of about 30 degrees with the horizontal. The tree requires a tropical or subtropical climate with a minimum of about 1,200 mm per year of rainfall, if frost does occur, the results can be disastrous for production. One frost can cause the rubber from a plantation to become brittle. Harvesters make incisions across the vessels, just deep enough to tap the vessels without harming the trees growth. This process is known as rubber tapping, latex production is highly variable from tree to tree and across clone types. As latex production declines with age, rubber trees are generally felled when they reach the age of 25 to 30 years, the earlier practice was to burn the trees, but in recent decades, the wood has been harvested for furniture making. The Pará rubber tree initially grew only in the Amazon rainforest, increasing demand and the discovery of the vulcanization procedure in 1839 led to the rubber boom in that region, enriching the cities of Belém and Manaus. The name of the tree derives from Pará, the second-largest Brazilian state and these trees were used to obtain rubber by the natives who inhabited its geographical distribution. The Olmec people of Mesoamerica extracted and produced similar forms of primitive rubber from analogous latex-producing trees such as Castilla elastica as early as 3,600 years ago, the rubber was used, among other things, to make the balls used in the Mesoamerican ballgame. Early attempts were made in 1873 to grow H. brasilensis outside Brazil, after some effort,12 seedlings were germinated at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. These were sent to India for cultivation, but died, a second attempt was then made, some 70,000 seeds being smuggled to Kew in 1875, by Henry Wickham, in the service of the British Empire
12.
Protectionism
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Protectionist policies protect the producers, businesses and workers of the import-competing sector in a country from foreign competitors. According to proponents, these policies can counteract unfair trade practices, protectionists may favor the policy in order to decrease the trade deficit, maintain employment in certain sectors, or favor the growth of certain industries. In recent years, protectionism has become closely aligned with the anti-globalization movement, There is a broad consensus among economists that the impact of protectionism on economic growth is largely negative, although the impact on specific industries and groups of people may be positive. The doctrine of protectionism contrasts with the doctrine of free trade, a variety of policies have been used to achieve protectionist goals. Tariff rates usually vary according to the type of goods imported, import tariffs will increase the cost to importers, and increase the price of imported goods in the local markets, thus lowering the quantity of goods imported, to favour local producers. Tariffs may also be imposed on exports, and in an economy with floating exchange rates, however, since export tariffs are often perceived as hurting local industries, while import tariffs are perceived as helping local industries, export tariffs are seldom implemented. Import quotas, To reduce the quantity and therefore increase the price of imported goods. The economic effects of a quota is similar to that of a tariff. Economists often suggest that import licenses be auctioned to the highest bidder, administrative barriers, Countries are sometimes accused of using their various administrative rules as a way to introduce barriers to imports. Anti-dumping legislation, Supporters of anti-dumping laws argue that they prevent dumping of cheaper foreign goods that would cause local firms to close down, however, in practice, anti-dumping laws are usually used to impose trade tariffs on foreign exporters. Direct subsidies, Government subsidies are given to local firms that cannot compete well against imports. These subsidies are purported to protect jobs, and to help local firms adjust to the world markets. Export subsidies, Export subsidies are often used by governments to increase exports, Export subsidies have the opposite effect of export tariffs because exporters get payment, which is a percentage or proportion of the value of exported. Export subsidies increase the amount of trade, and in a country with floating exchange rates, have similar to import subsidies. Exchange rate control, A government may intervene in the exchange market to lower the value of its currency by selling its currency in the foreign exchange market. Doing so will raise the cost of imports and lower the cost of exports, international patent systems, There is an argument for viewing national patent systems as a cloak for protectionist trade policies at a national level. Peter Drahos explains that States realized that patent systems could be used to cloak protectionist strategies, There were also reputational advantages for states to be seen to be sticking to intellectual property systems. In the modern trade arena many other initiatives besides tariffs have been called protectionist, for example, some commentators, such as Jagdish Bhagwati, see developed countries efforts in imposing their own labor or environmental standards as protectionism
13.
Comparative advantage
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One does not compare the monetary costs of production or even the resource costs of production. Instead, one must compare the opportunity costs of producing goods across countries, the closely related law or principle of comparative advantage holds that under free trade, an agent will produce more of and consume less of a good for which they have a comparative advantage. The general industry of the country, being always in proportion to the capital which employs it, but only left to find out the way in which it can be employed with the greatest advantage. The lace that remains, beyond what the labour and capital employed on the cloth, in 1817, David Ricardo published what has since become known as the theory of comparative advantage in his book On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. In a famous example, Ricardo considers a world consisting of two countries, Portugal and England, which produce two goods of identical quality. In Portugal, the a more efficient country, it is possible to produce wine. However, the costs of producing those two goods differ between the countries. In this illustration, England could commit 100 hours of labor to produce one unit of cloth, meanwhile, in comparison, Portugal could commit 90 hours of labor to produce one unit of cloth, or produce 98 units of wine. So, Portugal possesses an absolute advantage in producing cloth due to fewer labor hours, England is more efficient at producing cloth than wine, and Portugal is more efficient at producing wine than cloth. Consequently, both England and Portugal can consume more wine and cloth under free trade than in autarky, the Ricardian model is a general equilibrium mathematical model of international trade. The earliest test of Ricardian model was performed by G. D. A MacDougall, in Ricardian model, trade patterns depend on productivity differences. The following is a modern interpretation of the classical Ricardian model. In the interest of simplicity, it uses notation and definitions, such as opportunity cost, the world economy consists of two countries, Home and Foreign, which produce wine and cloth. Labor, the factor of production, is mobile domestically but not internationally. The total amount of wine and cloth produced in Home are Q W and Q C respectively and we denote the same variables for Foreign by appending a prime. For instance, a L W ′ is the amount of labor needed to produce a unit of wine in Foreign and we dont know if Home is more productive than Foreign in making cloth. That is, if a L C < a L C ′, similarly, we dont know if Home has an absolute advantage in wine. However, we assume that Home is more relatively productive in cloth than Foreign
14.
Farmhouse
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A farmhouse is a building that serves as the primary residence in a rural or agricultural setting. Historically, farmhouses were often combined with space for animals called a housebarn, other farmhouses may be connected to one or more barns, built to form a courtyard, or with each farm building separate from each other. Types of farmhouses in Europe include the following, A Bresse house is a type of farmhouse found in the Bresse region that is characterized by its length, brick walls. A Mas is a traditional farmhouse unique to Provence and Southern France, historically there were three main types of German farmhouses, many of which survive today. The Low German house or Niedersachsenhaus is found mainly on the North German Plain and it is a large structure with a sweeping roof supported by two to four rows of internal posts. The large barn door at the gable end opens into a hall, or Deele, with cattle stalls and barns on either side. The Middle German house may also be a unit, but access is from the side. Later this type of mitteldeutsches Haus was expanded to two or more buildings around a farmyard, often with a second story. The South German house is found in southern Germany and has two variants, the Swabian or Black Forest house and the Bavarian farmstead. A Cascina a corte is a building whose arrangement is based on the Roman villa found in the Po Valley of northern Italy. A house called Casa colonica in Italy is a type of farmhouse where the work the land. Ta Tabibu farmhouse and Ta Xindi Farmhouse are two typical Maltese farmhouses built in the times with the use of Limestone material. In Maltese a farmhouse is called Razzett, other examples of Maltese farmhouses are the Ta Cisju Farmhouse and The Devils Farmhouse. Norwegian farmhouses used timber or logs and built using Scandinavian vernacular architecture, the first examples are traced back to the 13th century. In some cases farmhouses are built on steep hillsides of the such as the Me-Åkernes farm. An Alqueria is a complex named from the historical, Muslim region of Al-Andalus. The Baserri is found in the Basque Country in Northern Spain, the Cabaña pasiega is a two-level dwelling for farmers and livestock found in Cantabria. The Masia originates from the Catalan Countries, and the Palloza is a primitive, a Hacienda also occasionally functioned as a farmhouse
15.
King Cotton
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Meanwhile, the other eight slave states, with little or no cotton production, remained in the Union. To demonstrate the power of King Cotton, Southern cotton-merchants spontaneously refused to ship out their cotton in early 1861. By summer 1861, the Union Navy blockaded every major Confederate port, since the British mills had large stockpiles of cotton, they suffered no immediate injury from the embargo, indeed the value of their stockpiles soared. For Britain to have intervened would have meant war with the U. S. about one fourth of Britains food supplies came from the United States, and American warships could destroy much of British commerce, while the Royal Navy was convoying ships full of cotton. The British never believed in King Cotton, and they never intervened, consequently, the strategy proved a failure for the Confederacy—King Cotton did not help the new nation, but the blockade prevented earning desperately-needed gold. Most important, the false belief led to assumptions that the war would be won through European intervention if only the Confederacy held out long enough. The American South is known for its long, hot summers, by 1860, Southern plantations supplied 75% of the worlds cotton, with shipments from Houston, New Orleans, Charleston, Mobile, Savannah, and a few other ports. European and New England purchases soared from 720,000 bales in 1830, to 2.85 million bales in 1850, Cotton production renewed demand for slavery after the tobacco market declined in the late 18th century. The more cotton grown, the slaves were needed to pick the crop. By 1860, on the eve of the American Civil War, cotton accounted for almost 60% of American exports, what would happen if no cotton was furnished for three years. England would topple headlong and carry the whole civilized world with her save the South, No, you dare not to make war on cotton. No power on the earth dares to make war upon it, Confederate leaders made little effort to ascertain the views of European industrialists or diplomats until the Confederacy sent diplomats James Mason and John Slidell in November 1861. That led to a diplomatic blowup in the Trent Affair, besides that, in the spring of 1861, warehouses in Europe were bulging with surplus cotton—which soared in price. So the cotton interests made their profits without a war, the Union imposed a blockade, closing all Confederate ports to normal traffic, consequently, the South was unable to move 95% of its cotton. Yet, some cotton was slipped out by blockade runner, or through Mexico, as Union armies moved into cotton regions of the South in 1862, the U. S. acquired all the cotton available, and sent it to Northern textile mills or sold it to Europe. Cotton production increased in India by 70% and also increased in Egypt, when war broke out, the Confederates refused to allow the export of cotton to Europe. The idea was that this cotton diplomacy would force Europe to intervene, however, European states did not intervene, and following Abraham Lincolns decision to impose a Union blockade, the South was unable to market its millions of bales of cotton. The production of cotton increased in parts of the world, such as India and Egypt, to meet the demand
16.
History of the Southern United States
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The history of the Southern United States reaches back hundreds of years and includes the Mississippian people, well known for their mound building. European history in the began in the very earliest days of the exploration and colonization of North America. Spain, France, and England eventually explored and claimed parts of what is now the Southern United States, in Pre-Columbian times, the only inhabitants of what is now the Southern United States were Native Americans. The Mississippian way of life began to develop around the 10th century in the Mississippi River Valley, notable Native American nations that developed in the South after the Mississippians include what are known as the Five Civilized Tribes, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. Spain made frequent exploratory trips to the New World after its discovery in 1492, rumors of natives being decorated with gold and stories of a Fountain of Youth helped hold the interest of many Spanish explorers, and colonization eventually followed. Juan Ponce de León was the first European to come to the South when he landed in Florida in 1513. Hernando de Soto, a Spanish explorer and conquistador led the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day southern United States searching for gold, de Sotos group were the first documented Europeans to cross the Mississippi River, on whose banks de Soto died in 1542. More successful was Pedro Menéndez de Aviléss St. Augustine, founded in 1565, spain also colonized parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Spain issued land grants in the South from Kentucky to Florida, there was also a Spanish colony location near King Powhatans ruling town in the Chesapeake Bay area of what is now Virginia and Maryland. It preceded Jamestown, the English colony, by as much as one hundred years, the first French settlement in what is now the Southern United States was Fort Caroline, located in what is now Jacksonville, Florida, in 1562. It was established as a haven for the Huguenots and was founded under the leadership of René Goulaine de Laudonnière and it was destroyed by the Spanish from the nearby colony of St. Augustine in 1565. Later French arrived from the north, having established agricultural colonies in Canada and built a fur trading network with Indians in the Great Lakes area, they began to explore the Mississippi River. The French called their territory Louisiana, in honor of their King Louis, France claimed Texas and set up several short-lived forts there, such as the one in Red River County, built in 1718. In 1817 the French pirate Jean Lafitte settled on Galveston Island, the most important French settlements were established at New Orleans and Mobile. Only a few came from France directly, with others arriving from Haiti. Just before they defeated the Spanish Armada, the English began exploring the New World, in 1585 an expedition organized by Walter Raleigh established the first English settlement in the New World, on Roanoke Island, North Carolina. The colony failed to prosper, however, and the colonists were retrieved the following year by English supply ships, in 1587, Raleigh again sent out a group of colonists to Roanoke. From this colony, the first recorded European birth in North America and that group of colonists disappeared and is known as the Lost Colony
17.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
18.
Globalisation
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Globalization or globalisation is the action or procedure of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture. Advances in transportation and in telecommunications infrastructure have been factors in globalization, generating further interdependence of economic. Large-scale globalization began in the 1820s, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the connectivity of the worlds economies and cultures grew very quickly. The term globalization is recent, only establishing its current meaning in the 1970s, further, environmental challenges such as global warming, cross-boundary water and air pollution, and overfishing of the ocean are linked with globalization. Globalizing processes affect and are affected by business and work organization, economics, socio-cultural resources, academic literature commonly subdivides globalization into three major areas, economic globalization, cultural globalization, and political globalization. The term globalization is derived from the word globalize, which refers to the emergence of a network of economic systems. One of the earliest known usages of the term as a noun was in a 1930 publication entitled Towards New Education, a related term, corporate giants, was coined by Charles Taze Russell in 1897 to refer to the largely national trusts and other large enterprises of the time. By the 1960s, both began to be used as synonyms by economists and other social scientists. Economist Theodore Levitt is widely credited with coining the term in an article entitled Globalization of Markets, However, the term globalization was in use well before this and had been used by other scholars as early as 1981. Levitt can be credited with popularizing the term and bringing it into the mainstream audience in the later half of the 1980s. Due to the complexity of the concept, research projects, articles, sociologists Martin Albrow and Elizabeth King define globalization as all those processes by which the people of the world are incorporated into a single world society. Globalization can be located on a continuum with the local, national and regional, without reference to such expansive spatial connections, there can be no clear or coherent formulation of this term. A satisfactory definition of globalization must capture each of these elements, extensity, intensity, velocity and it pertains to the increasing ease with which somebody on one side of the world can interact, to mutual benefit, with somebody on the other side of the world. The ideological dimension, according to Steger, is filled with a range of norms, claims, beliefs and they have also argued that four different forms of globalization can be distinguished that complement and cut across the solely empirical dimensions. According to James, the oldest dominant form of globalization is embodied globalization, a second form is agency-extended globalization, the circulation of agents of different institutions, organizations, and polities, including imperial agents. Object-extended globalization, a form, is the movement of commodities. He calls the transmission of ideas, images, knowledge, and information across world-space disembodied globalization and he asserted that the pace of globalization was quickening and that its impact on business organization and practice would continue to grow. Economist Takis Fotopoulos defined economic globalization as the opening and deregulation of commodity, capital and he used political globalization to refer to the emergence of a transnational elite and a phasing out of the nation-state
19.
Colonialism
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Colonialism is the establishment of a colony in one territory by a political power from another territory, and the subsequent maintenance, expansion, and exploitation of that colony. The term is used to describe a set of unequal relationships between the colonial power and the colony and often between the colonists and the indigenous peoples. The European colonial period was the era from the 16th century to the century when several European powers established colonies in Asia, Africa. At first the countries followed a policy of mercantilism, designed to strengthen the economy at the expense of rivals. By the mid-19th century, however, the powerful British Empire gave up mercantilism and trade restrictions and introduced the principle of free trade, collins English Dictionary defines colonialism as the policy and practice of a power in extending control over weaker peoples or areas. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers four definitions, including something characteristic of a colony, in the book, Osterhammel asks, How can colonialism be defined independently from colony. He settles on a definition, Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of the people are made. Rejecting cultural compromises with the population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority. Historians often distinguish between two overlapping forms of colonialism, Settler colonialism involves large-scale immigration, often motivated by religious, political, exploitation colonialism involves fewer colonists and focuses on access to resources for export, typically to the metropole. Surrogate colonialism involves a settlement project supported by a colonial power, internal colonialism is a notion of uneven structural power between areas of a state. The source of exploitation comes from within the state, as colonialism often played out in pre-populated areas, sociocultural evolution included the formation of various ethnically hybrid populations. In fact, everywhere where colonial powers established a consistent and continued presence, notable examples in Asia include the Anglo-Burmese, Anglo-Indian, Burgher, Eurasian Singaporean, Filipino mestizo, Kristang and Macanese peoples. In the Dutch East Indies the vast majority of Dutch settlers were in fact Eurasians known as Indo-Europeans, the Other, or othering is the process of creating a separate entity to persons or groups who are labelled as different or non-normal due to the repetition of characteristics. Othering is the creation from those who discriminate, to distinguish, label, several scholars in recent decades developed the notion of the other as an epistemological concept in social theory. For example, postcolonial scholars, believed that colonizing powers explained an ‘other’ who were there to dominate, civilize, political geographers explain how colonial/ imperial powers othered places they wanted to dominate to legalize their exploitation of the land. During the rise of colonialism and after, post colonialism, the Western powers perspectives of the East as the other, different and this viewpoint and separation of culture had divided the Eastern and Western culture creating a dominant/ subordinate dynamic, both being the other towards themselves. The word metropole comes from the Greek metropolis —mother city, the word colony comes from the Latin colonia—a place for agriculture
20.
Indentured servitude
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An indentured servant or indentured labor is an employee within a system of unfree labor who is bound by a contract to work for a particular employer for a fixed period of time. The employer is permitted to assign the labor of an indenturee to a third party. Indenturees usually enter into an indenture for a payment or other benefit or to meet a legal obligation. Upon completion of the contract, indentured servants were granted freedom or occasionally plots of land, in many countries, systems of indentured labor have been outlawed. Until the late 18th century, indentured servitude was very common in British North America and it was often a way for poor Europeans to emigrate to the American colonies, they signed an indenture in return for a costly passage. After their indenture expired, the immigrants were free to work for themselves or another employer, the consensus view among economic historians and economists is that indentured servitude occurred largely as an institutional response to a capital market imperfection. In some cases, the indenture was made with a ships master, most indentured servants worked as farm laborers or domestic servants, although some were apprenticed to craftsmen. The terms of an indenture were not always enforced by American courts, although runaways were usually sought out, between one-half and two-thirds of white immigrants to the American colonies between the 1630s and American Revolution had come under indentures. Indentured people were numerically important mostly in the region from Virginia north to New Jersey, other colonies saw far fewer of them. The total number of European immigrants to all 13 colonies before 1775 was about 500,000, of the 450,000 or so European arrivals who came voluntarily, Tomlins estimates that 48% were indentured. About 75% of these were under the age of 25, the age of adulthood for men was 24 years, those over 24 generally came on contracts lasting about 3 years. Not all European servants were sent willingly, several instances of kidnapping for transportation to the Americas are recorded. An illustrative example is that of Peter Williamson, one spirit named William Thiene was known to have spirited away 840 people from Britain to the colonies in a single year. Historian Lerone Bennett, Jr. notes that Masters given to flogging often did not care whether their victims were black or white. Indentured servants could not marry without the permission of their master, were subject to physical punishment, to ensure uninterrupted work by the female servants, the law lengthened the term of their indenture if they became pregnant. But unlike slaves, servants were guaranteed to be released from bondage. At the end of their term they received a payment known as freedom dues, one could buy and sell indentured servants contracts, and the right to their labor would change hands, but not the person as a piece of property. The American Revolution severely limited immigration to the United States, but economic historians differ on the long-term impact of the Revolution
21.
Slavery
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A slave is unable to withdraw unilaterally from such an arrangement and works without remuneration. Many scholars now use the chattel slavery to refer to this specific sense of legalised. In a broader sense, however, the word slavery may also refer to any situation in which an individual is de facto forced to work against his or her will. Scholars also use the generic terms such as unfree labour or forced labour. However – and especially under slavery in broader senses of the word – slaves may have some rights and/or protections, Slavery began to exist before written history, in many cultures. A person could become a slave from the time of their birth, capture, while slavery was institutionally recognized by most societies, it has now been outlawed in all recognized countries, the last being Mauritania in 2007. Nevertheless, there are still more slaves today than at any point in history. The most common form of the trade is now commonly referred to as human trafficking. Chattel slavery is still practiced by the Islamic State of Iraq. An older interpretation connected it to the Greek verb skyleúo to strip a slain enemy, there is a dispute among historians about whether terms such as unfree labourer or enslaved person, rather than slave, should be used when describing the victims of slavery. Chattel slavery, also called traditional slavery, is so named because people are treated as the chattel of the owner and are bought, although it dominated many societies in the past, this form of slavery has been formally abolished and is very rare today. Even when it can be said to survive, it is not upheld by the system of any internationally recognized government. Indenture, otherwise known as bonded labour or debt bondage is a form of labour under which a person pledges himself or herself against a loan. The services required to repay the debt, and their duration, debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation, with children required to pay off their parents debt. It is the most widespread form of slavery today, debt bondage is most prevalent in South Asia. This may also include institutions not commonly classified as slavery, such as serfdom, conscription, Human trafficking primarily involves women and children forced into prostitution. And is the fastest growing form of forced labour, with Thailand, Cambodia, India, Brazil, in 2007, Human Rights Watch estimated that 200,000 to 300,000 children served as soldiers in current conflicts. A forced marriage may be regarded as a form of slavery by one or more of the involved in the marriage
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