This article explore the shifting global trajectories of Europe’s trade in raw cotton between 1772 and 1791. This period was characterized by major change in Europe’s cotton trade, including the disruptions caused by the American revolution and war, the trade’s recovery and drama- tic expansion in the 1780s, and the global revolutions that brought it to a close. By employing fresh historical sources, we offer original insights that correct and complement Sven Beckert’s pioneering account of Europe’s global cotton trade in his widely discussed Empire of Cotton. First, we present a much more systematic quantitative analysis of the trade in raw cotton for Europe’s leading importers, showing Britain’s growing dependence on foreign sources of cotton and France’s often-overlooked importance as cotton importer, consumer, and re-exporter. Se- cond, we move beyond quantities of raw cotton to explore the changing demand for different qualities of raw cotton as well as their implications for the prices and quantities of cotton wool purchased by European manufacturers. Finally, we insist on the exploitation of enslaved people to the profits from cotton growing, but show that these profits were conditioned by systematic characteristics of ecology and political economy in different regions.