COTTON HAND-BOOK. w INTRODUCTION. BEFORE proceeding to treat in detail the more obvious and specific subject of this Hand-book, I have thought that it would be useful to present, in the form of an Introduction, a brief abstract of certain facts, which, although long known, are not universally recognized, and the conclusions legitimately deducible from which, although more than once clearly pointed out, are not very generally accepted in practice. This seems the more desirable, as there appears to be some reason for supposing that on the practical application of some of them, the future success or failure of the Indian Cotton Trade may turn. A knowledge, moreover, of these facts, and an opportunity of forming an opinion on the conclusions which they suggest, is an almost necessary preliminary to a correct appreciation of the detailed information to follow. will be taken in the following order : They 1st. The general question of the state of the Indian Cotton Trade, past and present. 2nd. The prospects of the trade, and specially whether the cultivation in India of Indigenous Cotton for the European market can be made profitable. 3rd. Some of the difficulties which have been supposed to impede the profitable cultivation of Cotton in India. 1st. THE STATE OF THE INDIAN COTTON TRADE. In the year 1783 it is stated that 114,133 lbs. of East Indian Cotton were sent to England. * 66 'Reports and Documents in regard to Cotton Wool, &c.," 1836. B 66 General J. Briggs however informs us that "Cotton reached the English market from India for the first time in 1789, through the "circuitous route of Flanders and Denmark, and not direct through "the English East Indian Company;" it had been exported from Surat, and exertions were at once made by the English traders in the East, to procure it direct. In 1790 there were 422,207 lbs. imported,† and General Briggs states that it was not until "ten years afterwards "(that is after 1789) that it became an article of considerable import to Great Britain, from the British Territory in the East." Subsequently larger quantities were sent, and 1818 may be taken as the date about which India and America entered into competition for the command of the English Cotton market: in that year 247,000 bales of Indian Cotton appeared there, against 207,000 bales of American. The result of the contest is too well known to need even the briefest recapitulation here: it did not long remain doubtful: the respective quantities of Indian and American Cotton in the English market never again approached each other: in the latter there was a steady, yet rapidly progressive increase, in the former extraordinary fluctuations; thus in 1822 the Indian imports had fallen to 20,000 bales, in 1841 they had risen again to 278,000 bales, in 1848 sunk again to 49,000 bales, and in 1857 they amounted to 28,000,000 lbs. America, in short, soon gained command of the market, and Indian produce obtained a place there, only as a supplementary source of supply, resorted to in the event of a short crop from the Western Continent.‡ * Cotton Trade of India, page 5. † Reports, &c., 1836. Although, as stated, the quantity of Indian Cotton which appears in the English market has sunk into utter insignificance relatively to the American, yet there has been a positive increase, small and fluctuating, but perceptible, when the figures representing it are arranged in quinquennial averages. This is well shown by a diagram of prices and quantities from 1806 to 1849, appended by Dr. F. Royle to his admirable work on the Culture and Commerce of Cotton in India. London. 1851. Character and quality of Indian Cotton. We find that long before America had presented herself as a rival, the quality of the East India Company's Cotton had become a subject of complaint. In 1803 the Court lament that dirt and leaves, mixed with the wool, had depreciated the value of the Cotton sent them. In 1810 they wrote to Bombay "that no 66 excuse will hereafter be admitted by us for the foulness, dirt, and "seeds which are permitted to remain mixed with the Cotton: and "it is our positive orders that the commission be not paid to any "commercial resident whose provision of Cotton shall be faulty in this particular." 66 In 1829 they again remind their agents that cleanness is all-important, and promise to send to India some "Whitney's gins," with a view to improvement in this respect. In this same letter they state that their Indian Cotton has hitherto been sent to Europe in highly compressed bales, whereas that from America had only lately been packed in bales at all, having until then come loose in bags, and they order a portion of the next consignment forwarded to them to be prepared in this way, in order that they may have an opportunity of seeing if the iron screw presses in use had really injured the staple or not.* The attention of the Indian Government is drawn to the importance of the indigenous short-stapled varieties, and it now sounds strange that the one selected, and recommended for trial throughout India, was a Bengal kind, called Bhyratta †: far more strange however does the reason now appear which is assigned for the preference shown for * Bengal Cotton they state reached England pressed to 1,517 lbs. to the ton of 50 feet, Bombay Cotton 1,312 lbs. to the same cubic space. The New Orleans bales were only 844 lbs. to 50 cubic feet, and it was ordered that at least one-tenth of the coming consignment should be put up in bales of about 900 lbs. to the ton-that is, that the bale which hitherto weighed 363 lbs., should now weigh only about 249 lbs. This was the finest of the Dacca Cottons, and was, in consequence of this order, experimentally planted in many places throughout Bengal: without success however. short staple Indian Cotton. The letter goes on to state, that of the experiments instituted with a view to improve the quality of Indian Cotton, up to that time (1829), all those that had been on "a scale of commercial usefulness" had been confined to the Bourbon variety, "which," they say, "yields a longer staple than any other kind of Cotton, "and the demand for which has been checked by the unexpected 66 difficulty of finding a market for the increased supplies of long-stapled silky Cottons, as, since 1823, the Egyptian and other long-stapled "Cottons had overstocked the market." The Upland Georgia is given as a standard of value, and certain India indigenous kinds are stated to be, if properly cleaned, equal to this: besides the Bhyratta, a Broach Cotton, and one from Tenassérim, are instanced. If we pass over these anomalies, (which might be multiplied to a vast extent,) as, however interesting in themselves, rather connected with the archeology of the Indian Cotton Trade, than of direct importance in the present state of the question, and hasten on to the year 1838, when a great movement took place in reference to the possibility of obtaining from India a large and constant supply of Cotton for the English market, we shall find that then, and ever since, the quality of the produce was complained of, on the score of the same dirtiness which so early characterised it, as well as on that of its shortness of the staple as to the foulness, the fact is so notorious, that it might almost be passed over without citing any testimony in confirmation, one however is given : Of the dirtiness of Indian Cotton. Mr. A. Turner, President of the Commercial Association of Manchester, informed a Committee of the House of Commons, that the firm of which he was the head, largely used Indian Cotton, and that they annually threw away as refuse cleaned out of it, a quantity of filth for which they had paid no less than £7,000, and that this consisted of extraneous matter, such as clay, sand, &c., |