colloq. [f. COTTON, after aristocracy: see -CRACY.] The class who have risen to wealth through the cotton trade; the cotton-planting or cotton-spinning interest.

1

1845.  Ford, Handbk. Spain, I. II. 343. To believe that he [Espartero] was the tool of the Manchester Cottonocracy.

2

1864.  Webster, Cottonocracy, the cotton planters, or cotton-planting interest, in the Southern States of the American Union.

3

a. 1876.  M. Collins, Pen Sketches, I. 201. The great gulf between the aristocracy and the cottonocracy.

4

  So Cottonocrat, nonce-wd. [cf. aristocrat: see -CRAT], a member of the cottonocracy; a cotton-lord.

5

1845.  Ford, Handbk. Spain, II. 616. One little white slave of a Manchester cottonocrat.

6