Would cotton really work as currency?

           Looking back on my first blog post, I talked about the use of cotton as a reliable form of currency. Throughout the semester in Economic Botany, i have to come to a realization that in American societies cotton may not be the best alternative. In class we have learned tons of information on plants and how they correlated with currency. One of the major concepts i have noticed, when it comes to money is that it must be consistent to thrive in societies. I do not believe cotton would be stable enough for a society to thrive with. They are many different types of cotton, therefore to use cotton as currency, you would have to label and identify every type of cotton. Also, cotton is easily grown. Everyone could start to grow their own cotton. It would be the exact same thing as counterfeit money in today's American societies. In addition, if we adopted cotton as our new form of currency, we would have to take extra precautions to keep the plants safe, and growing. Factors like natural disasters, storms, and pests could have a huge affect on cotton plants, and completely cause chaos among societies. When i started in my Economic Botany course, i did not think about all the factors that should be considered when choosing a new form of currency. Now as my course comes to an end, i realize there may be a more appropriate choice out there, to replace our current form of currency. Cotton, for now, is suitable for many other things.