Crop+Lien+System

The Crop Lien system was an economic system that sprang up after the Civil War. Farmers with little to no money borrowed cash to live off of during the year. After the harvest, farmers turned over their harvests to the merchants who had loaned them money. When cotton prices lowered later on, merchants had to recoup losses from bad sales of the cotton, meaning that farmers ended up being in debt after borrowing another years money. it compounded the debt load on many farmers, who not only had to pay off this year's loan, but ended up owing some for last year, due to the slump in cotton prices.

Eventually, the merchants became the dictators of farm production. this mean that farmers were forced to grow the only crop that was worth anything in a market, cotton. This crippled farming in the south for years, as farmers grew nothing but cotton and more cotton. And of course, [|something]happened to cotton.

this book is about that. and this is that wonderful plant all the cool farmers were growing.