Page:Allan Octavian Hume, C.B.; Father of the Indian National Congress.djvu/157

 to Calcutta, but more often only Mirzapoor ; and then it passes through one or two more hands before it is finally shipped for England. Surely the direct agency properly managed, by which the cotton is cleaned without injury to the fibre, packed at once and exported without there being any middleman to absorb the profits, would be amply remu- nerative when the present ill-managed system affords profits sufficient to support five or six different parties.

Cotton of the quality of the raw sample herewith sent might I calculate on the average, if bought in large quan- tities, cleaned by good gins, properly packed and sent down the Jumna in boats, be put on board ship at Calcutta at Rs. 10 8 ans. per maund, or at £i is. per 80 lb. avoir- dupois, or 3*15 per lb. (exclusive of cost of agency and risk of insurance). The question is what will the freight home cost, and what would the average value of cotton of the quality of the raw sample herewith sent be in Manchester if it had been properly cleaned by a good gin ?

I must however note that the price of cotton here is liable to most extraordinary fluctuations : at the present moment if I had to buy cotton, clean it, etc., it would cost (even supposing I had all the means and appliances above suggested) at least 4^ per lb. before it got on ship board at Calcutta. This I take to be owing in great measure to the extreme uncertainty of the demand. Were there a regular agency for its purchase here, I do not think the price would ary as much as it now does or average higher than that above quoted.

13. The actual price of the cotton cleaned at Etawah is usually under the present retail system about Rs. 7 12 ans., or 15s. 6d. (it is much more at the present moment) per maund of 80 lb., but if bought and cleaned by horse or steam gins, on a large scale, would, besides being much better, stand in some 8 ans. or is. less. It costs now 8 ans. or is. to pack one maund of it very badly — with a good screw press it could be packed so as not to require reopening till it reached England for 4 ans. or 6d., and it is carried from here to Calcutta in boats via the