Productivity is the amount of goods and services a worker can produce in a given period of time, such as an hour or day. Advances in technology increased productivity in the 1800’s. Before the invention of the cotton gin, a worker could produce 1 pound of cotton a day by hand. With the cotton gin, a worker could produce 50 pounds of cotton a day. This increase in productivity meant a) farmers could grow more cotton to sell, and b) the use of slave labor increased. By the mid-1800’s, cotton made up more than 0ne-half of US exports. Question: How do you think increases in productivity affected the price consumers paid for a cotton shirt? Why?