Globalization of Production in the Textile and Clothing Industries:

Do you think that English textile factories were bad for the health of working class families. Use evidence from at least two of the documents to support your claim.

The book Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli is about the journey of a plain cotton shirt internationally through the economy. This book consists of a plain, cheap t-shirt bought at Wal-Mart, is split into four important parts. The first part is about the source of the t-shirt: cotton. The second part is about the creation process the t-shirt goes through while being created in China. The third part is consists of explaining what happens after the t-shirt goes to the United States and faces the American protectionist policies. Lastly, the fourth essential part of this t-shirt is what happens to the shirt when it is finished in America (or other developed nations).

2a. Consumers would certainly see a hike in prices on the imported product and in turn could affect the consumer’s ability to afford neither the domestic made clothing nor foreign made clothing.

Document _2 states that _”Italian merchants had kept these trade routes open….sugar, cotton, and rice ...the trade goods involved.”

Although globalization allows for most products to be produced at a more efficient rate, it also has the capability to mar the economies of municipalities in first world countries. In Pietra Rivoli’s book The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, she discusses the different viewpoints of opposing sides of an on-going battle to reduce the amount of tariffs and quotas put on the textile industries of foreign countries. For decades the textile industry in America has been on a noticeable decline, with outsourcing to third-world countries to blame. Although both faction’s viewpoints on the benefits of such outsourcing, both realize that there is only one way to gain the results they seek; which is to petition to the congressmen, including high ranking officials such as the president, in Washington D.C.

The relevance of this book can be measured by its ability to speak to the everyday individual, who may or may not know anything about economics, and plant the seed toward global economic education. It provides a keen social awareness to people who may or may not ordinarily care about international economics and can have an eye-opening effect toward what really happens in the textile industry.

In many ways, Italy had benefits over northern Europe in detaching from the feudal system and accumulating enormous amounts of wealth. I think that above all else, geography was Italy’s anchor in this respect. Being a projecting land mass sticking out into the Mediterranean Sea, and beneficially located between the main part of Europe and the Byzantine Empire, cities within Italy had little choice but to weave endeavors of commerce into every day life while engaging in the market and foreign trade. Therefore, Italy became prone to the extensive continuity of goods and novelties earlier than other European areas. Accordingly,

Although the Chinese apparel manufacturers would lose profitability due to rising cotton prices and competition from emerging countries, they stand to gain the most from the removal of U.S. quotas and tariffs. According to the author, in 2007, 95% of the 20 billion garments Americans made were purchased overseas. Due to U.S. trade barriers, China’s share of the U.S. apparel import was only 30%. Once these barriers were removed, Chinese apparel would flood the American market due to their low cost and dominance in garment manufacturing. Experts predict that China could eventually supply 85% of U.S. apparel. As they increase their market share in the

First, MIT’s Observatory of Economic Complexity 2015 China export visualization also shows that garments account for 16% of the goods imported by Americans.

Italy, positioned in southeastern Europe, is a beautiful country that is faced with high unemployment, corruption and massive debt. Although it appears to be one of the most developed countries in Europe, Italy is somewhat of a laggard in globalization. Ranking twenty-third in world population, Italy stands at 56,126,212 people as of July 2009. The north and south seem to be split in economic terms with the north being well developed industrially and the south facing high unemployment and poverty. Italy is a democratic republic that replaced a monarchy back in 1946. Although it ranks seventh in world GDP and public debt and attracts millions of tourists every year, its current debt to GDP ratio continues to skyrocket. World economists

There are segmented clothing and retail industries around the world. Therefore, there are provisions for a smaller number of firms in the industry. Although Creación has direct competitors like Jovian and

Administrative differences in Italy are the most important to look at. The “constitution provides the basic freedoms of thought, speech, press and the right to work (Welcome to Italy)”. Furthermore, workers have the right to form and join unions as well as the right to strike. As a result labor unionization is very high; in 2002, 40 percent of Italy’s labor force was unionized (Italy - Labor). Geographic differences also increase the costs and risk of doing business. Italy is divided into geographic and administrative regions, some of which are autonomous and have different regulations (fig. 3). Generally however Italy is divided into two regions the Northern Region and the Southern Region. The north is characterized by high industrialization and urbanization while

Rivalry among existing competitors: The apparel industry is highly competitive with a great number of both local and global competitors. As the market is mature, its growth is small. Accelerated growth and expansion to new markets are not easy goals to achieve. The barrier to get out of the industry is quite low for distributors, but high for producers. Most fashion manufacturers moved their production base to low-cost countries like China as wage and raw materials in developed markets like Western Europe are high. Besides, there is no great discrepancy in terms of quality of products, so customers make their purchase choices based on price and brand recognition.

According to the data, the total volume of textiles exported from China has started a continuous rapid growth since 2001 (the year of China’s accession to the WTO) as shown in the first graph above, which roughly

Now Italy has many problems in economic sector. The first is that it has very high debt level. Because of it Italy now is in crisis situation. Also Italian living standards have a considerable north-south divide. Italy suffers from structural weaknesses due to its geographical conformation and the lack of raw materials and energy resources. The country has an inefficient state bureaucracy, low property rights protection and high levels of corruption, heavy taxation and public spending that accounts for about half of