Are you wearing anything made in the United States?
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If you’re wearing socks, they were likely made in Datang,
China, a small city near the Vietnamese border. Datang
manufactures 8 billion socks annually, about one-third of
the world’s output. Within Datang, companies specialize
in different aspects of sock production: some buy yarn,
dye it, or weave it into cloth; some sew in toes or heels;
some press the socks or bind them with metal clips; some
put socks into packages. Because of the huge scale and
specialization, Datang manufactures a pair of socks for
twenty-five cents, about half the cost of socks made in
the United States.
That a single city provides socks for much of the world
illustrates the global character of the modern economy.
The emergence of a global economy has been going on
for centuries. A global market for Asian spices was well-
established at the time of Columbus, a reason for his voy-
age in 1492 (see the introduction to Chapter 1, pp. 18–19).
As late as the 1700s, American farmers still produced
much of what they needed—food, soap, candles, cloth-
ing, and even their socks: Farm women working in their
homes spun locally-produced flax, wool, and cotton into
thread and yarn; knitted the yarn into fabric; and sewed
the pieces into socks.