Final answer:
The statement that American trade policy depended on cotton in the Virginia colony during the 1600s is false.
Step-by-step explanation:
The assertion that much of American trade policy has depended on the happenstance of cotton being the original source of the Virginia colony's economic survival in the 1600s is False. The Virginia colony's early economy was actually based on tobacco, cultivated primarily by indentured servants and later by enslaved Africans. Cotton did not become the dominant crop in the American South until the antebellum era of the 19th century. It was at this time that the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 made the mass production of cotton possible, which heavily relied on the institution of slavery for labor. Cotton's emergence as a major commercial crop drastically shaped the South's economy and influenced American trade policy.
By 1860, the Southern states had established a near monopoly on the cotton market, supplying two-thirds of the world's cotton and the majority of Britain's imports. The cotton industry and slavery became so interwoven in the Southern economy that they defined the cultural identity and economic practices of the region, making the prospect of change widely resisted.