Coincidentally last night I was reading about the role of the cotton gin of the expansion of slavery in the American South [0]. Such mechanical inventions were

Coincidentally last night I was reading about the role of the cotton gin of the expansion of slavery in the American South [0]. Such mechanical inventions were the stuff of the era's startups. The cotton was largely shipped to the UK, which had outlawed slavery, where it was used in their most important industry [1]. There was some debate about the morality of this, but as we know, slavery was not ended for lack of demand for its products. [0] "The Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World 1776-1914" Gavin Weightman [1] The book quotes Karl Marx "Without slavery, no cotton; without cotton, no modern industry"