The Frontier of Hell: Sicily, Sulphur and the Rise of the British Chemical Industry

• In Event: 3555 - Section on the Political Economy of the World-System Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 2. Environmental Disaster, Power, and Conflict

Abstract

Sicilian sulphur was an important commodity for the Industrial Revolution (1750-1840). It was used for the finishing of textiles and soap- and glass-making. Innovations in finishing were essential for the textile industry, so that the productivity increases in spinning and weaving as well as in cotton plantations did not encounter a bottleneck. Eventually, it gave occasion to a spin-off, the chemical industry as a separate branch of production. These developments rested on the appropriation of uncommodified labor-force and nature in Sicily. Such process unfolded in a trajectory determined by value relations, in which the investment in fixed capital in Britain was tied to the supply of cheap circulating capital (raw material) in the commodity frontier. When necessary to guarantee the supply of cheap sulphur, the British mobilized their navy. It is argued that the Sicilian frontier should be incorporated into the history of the Industrial Revolution.

Author

• Daniel de Deus Cunha, Binghamton University