Abominable Tariffs:#4: Domestic Cotton

Cotton Reels by Jeanne Arnieri

Tariffs or Import Taxes are believed by some economists to encourage domestic manufacture. Whether that is a good or practical idea depends on the trade. We are interested in cotton prints.

Before you have prints you have cotton yardage. In the 1878 ad above you can see that plain "Sea Island" yardage was more expensive than "Quilt Lining." Sea Island cotton meant fine cotton. 

We do not print cottons in the United States. Naive and/or gullible fabric customers may think taxes on cotton yardage from Japan, Korea, India and other Asian nations will return U.S.-produced cottons to our quilt shops. Below and next post: Two major reasons why that will not happen:

1) Domestic production for quiltmaking stashes and garments would mean the cotton is grown in the U.S. One has to understand the agricultural needs of the fussy cotton plant to know why that will not happen. 

Vinay Shekhar's slide showing types of cotton and their quality----

measured by the length of the "staple."

Historically, problems began with the boll weevil.

We used to grow quite fine cotton (long staple) in the Sea Islands off the Carolinas & other parts of the Lowland South but this hardy insect upended those economics in the early 20th century.

1914 advice for cotton farmers

With strong insecticides you can kill the weevils that destroy the cotton but it's not a healthy prospect for the humans and animals in the area. Rather than poison the neighbors and their dogs the American cotton industry just gave up on fine cotton agriculture over 100 years ago. Southern Asia does not have the weevil problem and they have taken over the finer cotton production.

Employees of the Coats Cotton Knitting Mill, Lake City, Florida,

Early-20th-Century

Teddy Pruett who lives in North Florida discovered that cotton mills in her area once produced cotton yarn for knitting. "When the boll weevil wiped out cotton crops throughout the south, we were out of business. This area produced cotton all through my growing up years, but thousands of acres of cotton in the fifties and sixties is all gone now."

She adds: "It’s my understanding that the weevil eradication programs have been extremely successful. I have read some articles from University of Florida and it would appear there’s really nothing to keep us from growing cotton."

After a century we have vanquished the weevil. So why do we not grow fine cotton?

A recent harvester from John Deere

Virginia Berger found an answer. Sea Island cotton, the fine stuff, requires some TLC that machine harvesting cannot provide. Skilled farmworkers in Asia harvest fine cotton by hand, carefully pulling the bolls from the plants.
https://knowingfabric.com/what-is-sea-island-cotton-fabric/

India

Americans do not want those kind of jobs. When I worked at a Chicago hospital many years ago my friends used to tell me about their teen-age years picking cotton in Arkansas. They were happier in Chicago---much happier.

                                    Cotton Reels by Jeanne Arnieri

Cotton, once a principal foundation of the U.S. economy and a major excuse for slavery, remains a very useful commodity worldwide and an important export in our international trade. But not fine cotton.

1939 article on California Cotton

The U.S produced 14.4 million bales of cotton last year and exported a good deal of it. Some goes for clothing but other industrial uses include cottonseed oil, tires & furniture. We also see sturdy cottons in items such as canvas cotton bags - a good use for American-grown cotton===bags printed and stitched overseas.

Even if we developed modern, efficient American technology for printing on cotton yardage we would still be importing the goods. Those who tell us we should return to raising high-quality cotton know very little about the cotton industry.

Machine-stitched reverse-applique quilt from 1908 of short staple cotton,

 coarse fabric not viable for fine sewing

Links to all 5 posts about Tariffs:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs1-free-trade.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs2-civil-war.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs-3-de-minimus-import.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs4-domestic-cotton_0520044382.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs-5-printing-technology.html

Abominable Tariffs #3: The De Minimis Import Tax Exemption

 

Art Square by Jeanne Arnieri

The De Minimis Tariff Exemption expires soon.

 The De Minimis Exemption!?!?

Hard to understand....

... but it will affect you IF

you sell your artwork or goods across international borders or buy

 artwork or goods from other countries.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ExcellQuilts

Last month you might have decided to buy a small quilted piece from an Etsy artist like Kayleigh Excell of Clevedon, United Kingdom. Here's one of her landscapes listed then for $451. Being under $800 your purchase would have qualified for the "Under $800 Exemption (de minimis) and you would have paid no tariff tax on the piece of art and Kayleigh wouldn't have had to bother with tax forms.

Seems practical.

That exemption benefitting artists, small businesses and the customers who supported them and enjoyed their work ends on August 29th. International trade at this small level will now be more complicated and expensive.

Mandy Patullo lives in Northern England. Her lovely pieces go for about $100.

https://mandypattullo.bigcartel.com/

Recent note from British pattern company to US residents:

"The United States administration is suspending the trade threshold below which US customers would be exempt from customs duties on imported goods. What this is looking to mean is that, in the next 6 months, if you buy a physical sewing pattern or book from us that requires shipping, you may be charged an additional $80. 

Obviously, this is the last thing we want for our lovely customers across the pond! Not to mention the impact it is going to have upon us as a small business…. If you've been thinking about ordering any printed sewing patterns from us, we would highly recommend you place your order in the next few days to avoid this charge."

UPDATE: A DAY LATER

Knowing little about international shipping I was rather shocked to see that our international trading partners have suspended shipping of any kind of package to the United States in anticipation of the suspension of the de Minimis exemption. No more fabric or patterns being sold to US customers. I didn't see this coming---but then again I don't make US trade policy. Didn't anybody see this coming?

-----

Michelle in the comments asks: 
"I've received quite a few emails from British designers who have said they will no longer be shipping to the U.S. I'm wondering if there might be a loophole for pdf patterns? I haven't found an answer for that. Can you share if you do?"

I sell my patterns as PDFs on Etsy (US Postal Service too unreliable for actual paper shipping.) I looked up Etsy's policies on the new import taxes and the sentences that apply:

"Tariffs apply to physical items, so digital listings are not subject to additional tariffs. Note that other taxes may apply."

https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/1355662653395

Note: "Other taxes may apply"

UPDATE: 5 Days Later

Import taxes will vary by country with the exemption suspended tomorrow.

Packages from countries taxed at 15% will be charged $80 extra.

Those taxed at 16-25% = $160 extra

Those taxed at 25% or more = $200 extra

Jeanne Arnieri has made a top with 12 of the projected 20 Tariffs & Troubles blocks---No Template Cutting is her rule this week.

Prior Posts on Import Taxes

Free Trade by Jeanne Arnieri

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs1-free-trade.html

Fort Sumter by Jeanne Arnieri

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs2-civil-war.html

Links to all 5 posts about Tariffs:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs1-free-trade.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs2-civil-war.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs-3-de-minimus-import.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs4-domestic-cotton_0520044382.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs-5-printing-technology.html

Abominable Tariffs:#2: Civil War

Tariffs paid a significant amount of government expense before the income tax became the government's major permanent support with the 16th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913.

                                              

Tariffs are a tax on the customer who spends money.

Economist Robert Reich prefers the term "Import Taxes," which is easier to understand than

"Tariffs." But that's the point. Those advocating "Tariffs" don't want you to understand.

Income taxes tax those who earn money. A graduated income tax means the more one makes the higher the percentage and the higher the amount paid to the treasury.

Tariffs: "Infant industries cry for it," 1921

"As of [August 7th], import taxes (aka tariffs) have hit their highest level since the Great Depression. Americans are now expected to pay an average of 18.3% more for imported products." Robert Reich.

Tariffs are hyped as a benefit for domestic industry---encouraging and protecting American manufacturers. When foreign goods cost too much, domestic production should increase because, "We can do it cheaper."

We err when we think of the current administration as full of smarmy idiots.

Rather, they are smarmy ideologues with an old agenda favoring the rich

who do not like to pay income taxes.

1890,  McKinley & Import Taxes

Lessons from history illustrate the problems with tariffs.

President William McKinley dispensing tariff tonic to residents of

a psych ward, cartoon from 1897

In the early-19th century the North and the South fought over many moral and economic policies, particularly slavery. Tariffs were a matter of serious dispute too. Northerners with their newly built factories favored tariffs but the agricultural South, which bought much from the rest of the world, abhorred the taxes. 

Cotton remains an agricultural mainstay in the American South

Demagogue John C. Calhoun made a political career out of what he called the Tariff of Abominations in the 1820s. (That's what demagogues do---make a career out of hot-button issue with overblown rhetoric.) Thirty years later the South persisted in feeling marginalized by tariffs that benefitted the industrial North.

Mid-century Southern-leaning cartoon---still smarting 

25 years later over South Carolina's Calhoun

losing the political game on tariffs in 1832 to

King Andy Jackson..

Resentment over differing economic interests and a good deal of 

fire-eating demagoguery led to the attack on Fort Sumter in 1861 

and the beginning of a 5-year Civil War.

Links to all 5 posts about Tariffs:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs1-free-trade.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs2-civil-war.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs-3-de-minimus-import.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs4-domestic-cotton_0520044382.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs-5-printing-technology.html

Abominable Tariffs:#1 Free Trade

 

Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilts #1137 

Free Trade versus Tariffs? International trade is an economic concept not easy to understand. Having been in the fabric business for over 30 years and an amateur historian I thought I might try to explain what is going on in the rag trade with tariffs. I'll do a few posts here with history illustrated by some vintage cartoons and relevant quilt blocks from my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilts and its digital companion BlockBase+. You could make a pieced sampler quilt with the blocks to record the interesting times we are currently enduring.

"Crowning the Abomination"

1897 Cartoon by Darymple in Puck magazine depicting

"Tariffs" as a giant devilish king with a patchwork cape made of

varying taxes on various products.

Why "Crowning the Abomination?" The artist was satirizing South Carolina's 

overdramatic Senator John C. Calhoun's term for the Tariff of 1828 

Tariffs----domestic taxes on imported goods---have been related to two extremely unpleasant events in American history: the Civil War and the Great Depression. What next!

I know little about the economics of the 1930s Great Depression. I'll let Stephen Colbert and his writers speak about tariffs in the 1930s and today.

They raise import taxes to the highest level since the Great Depression. Never a great sign. Never a great sign to be compared to the worst thing ever.” — STEPHEN COLBERT

I'm not adding actual patterns for these sampler blocks.

They are relatively easy to draw and

 Hey, Why don't you have BlockBase+

that will draw them for you any size????

New York Times graph with addition

We quiltmakers are concerned about the current tariffs on cotton fabrics,

 taxes on us customers who are now paying more for

 our stash than we did a year ago.

The basic argument over the centuries: "Tariffs or Free Trade."

American Tariffs of 1828 meant the death of "Free Trade" between nations.

Retailer Jill Cherry, whose Modern Quilt Co. Facebook page has thousands of followers, did a post a few months ago about the economic aspects of the recent tariffs on printed cotton imports from countries like Japan, Korea and India who manufacture the fabric she sells and you buy. Reading the comments after she announced that her sales reps told her fabric prices are going up made me realize many of her customers have no idea how cotton is manufactured, what tariffs are or how they are going to affect our fabric budgets.

Who can blame them? Economics has long been known as the "dismal science." It's BORING and really not easy to understand since it's often based on contradictory theories. However, as quiltmakers we should understand some basics about the economics of fabric production, which I will try to explain in this post through a couple of Jill's customer comments. I'll try here and in the next few posts to outline how tariffs work, the damage they've caused in the past and how the new taxes will affect the cotton market.

Drama in an American mill in a 1927 movie

Comment #1: Is any [quilt] fabric made in U.S.?

Jill: "Not that I sell." 

A commenter who apparently thought she might be helpful directed us to this website headed: "Best 15 Quilt Fabric Manufacturers in USA You Need 2025"

https://fandafabrics.com/quilt-fabric-manufacturers-in-usa/

There you will find the names of familiar companies. Like much of the internet this website is a big fat LIE. If you don't want to be fooled you have to analyze information. The American companies listed there import cotton fabric from foreign manufacturers and wholesale it in the U.S.

Don't just believe it because you want to. 

WE DO NOT PRODUCE QUILT-QUALITY COTTON PRINTS IN THE U.S.

Comment #2: Maybe some of these companies will ship some production stateside.

Mary: I know that’s the notion people have but that’s just not feasible. Not only would it take years to create a plant to do that job we would still pay the higher prices because workers here expect to be paid much more. Any savings would be years away and would evaporate due to costs of doing business.

Me: Not going to happen. We cannot grow high-quality cotton here. We abandoned our own infrastructure thirty or forty years ago to let the rest of the world print with modern technology.

Comment #3: Hoping the short term pain leads to long term gain.

Krystal: Very unlikely outcome. The President and those around him seem to have a complete lack of understanding about how manufacturing actually happens as well as how global supply chains work. This is in addition to their complete lack of understanding about what a tariff actually is. A tariff is a TAX on American consumers.

Me: What would be a good long-term gain? We are not going to start printing quiltmakers' cotton that  we grow here. Over the posts in the next few weeks I'll cover more history, agriculture and economics to explain why tariffs have the consequences they do. And show you a few more pieced blocks.

UPDATE: Reading this I fear I am implying that the current administration is full of bumbling idiots---

this is indeed true, but do not think this tariff conflict is naiveite or confusion. 

Tariffs VS. Income Taxes: It's a balance and guess which way the scale will tilt?

Links to all 5 posts about Tariffs:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs1-free-trade.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs2-civil-war.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs-3-de-minimus-import.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs4-domestic-cotton_0520044382.html

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2025/08/abominable-tariffs-5-printing-technology.html