Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/785

761 INDUSTRIES,] INDIA 761 1877-78 was valued at 16,000&quot;, 000. But perhaps the significance of such enormous totals will become plainer if we take the case of a single mart, Patna, which may claim to be considered one of the most important centres of inland traffic in the world. Favourably situated on the Ganges, near the confluence of the Son arid the Gogra, where the principal trade routes branch off to Nepal, it has become a great changing station for the transfer of goods from river to rail. In the year 1876-77 the total registered trade of Patna (excluding the Government monopoly of opium, and pro bably omitting a good deal besides) was valued in the aggregate at 7| millions sterling. Many articles are included twice over, both ns exported and imported, but the imports alone amounted to more than 4 millions. Among the principal items on one side or the other may be mentioned European piece-goods, 1,217,000; indigo, 789,000; oil-seeds, 557,000; salt, 389,000; sugar, 274,000; food grains, 258,000; hides, 185,000; saltpetre, 156,000. MANUFACTURES. Though India may be truly described as an agricultural and not a manufacturing country, yet it would be errone ous to infer that it is destitute of the arts of civilized life. It has no swarming hives of industry to compare with the factory centres of Lancashire, nor a large mining population, living under the soil rather than on it. In short, it has not reached that modern stage of industrial development which is based upon the use of coal and the discoveries of physical science. But in all manufactures requiring manual dexterity and artistic taste India may challenge comparison with England in the last century. The organization of Hindu society demands that the neces sary arts, such as those of the weaver, the potter, and the smith, should be practised in every village. The pride and display of the rival kingdoms, into which the country was formerly divided, gave birth to many arts of luxury that have not yet been entirely forgotten in the decayed capitals. When the first European traders reached the coast of India in the 16th century, they found a civilization among both &quot;Moors&quot; and &quot;Gentoos&quot; at least as highly ad vanced as their own. In architecture, in fabrics of cotton and silk, in goldsmith s work and jewellery, the people of India were then unsurpassed. But while the East has stood still, or rather retrograded (for, in the face of keen competition, to stand still is to retrograde), the West has advanced with a gigantic stride which has no parallel in the history of human progress. On the one hand, the downfall of the native courts has deprived the skilled workman of his chief market, while, on the other, the English capitalist has enlisted in his service forces of nature against which the village artisans in vain try to compete. The fortunes of India are bound up with those of a country whose manufacturing supremacy depends upon a great export trade. The tide of circumstances, more in exorable than artificial enactments, has compelled the weaver to exchange his loom for the plough, and has crushed out a multitude of minor handicrafts. Political economy, judging only by the single test of cheapness, may approve the result ; but the philosopher will regret the in creasing uniformity of social conditions, and the loss to the world of artistic tendencies which can never be restored. Historically the most interesting, and still the most im portant in the aggregate, of all Indian industries are those conducted in every rural village of the land. The Hindu village system is based upon division of labour quite as much as upon hereditary caste. The weaver, the potter, the blacksmith, the brazier, the oil-presser, are each mem bers of a community, as well as inheritors of a family occupation. On the one hand, they have a secure market for their wares, and, on the other, their employers have a guarantee that their trades shall be well learned. Sim plicity of life and permanence of employment are here happily combined with a high degree of excellence in design and honesty of execution. The stage of civilization below these village industries is represented by the hill tribes, especially those on the north-east frontier, where the weaving of clothes is done by the women of the family, a practice which also prevails throughout Burmah. A higher stage may be found in those villages or towns which pos sess a little colony of weavers or braziers noted for some specialty. Yet one degree higher is the case of certain arts of luxury, such as ivory carving or the making of gold lace, which chance or royal patronage has fixed at some capital now perhaps falling into decay. One other form of native industry owes its origin to European interference. Many a village in Lower Bengal and on the Coromandel coast still shows traces of the time when the East India Company and its European rivals gathered large settle ments of weavers round their little forts, and thus formed the only industrial towns that ever existed in India. But when the Company abandoned its manufacturing business in 1833, these centres of industry rapidly declined ; and the once celebrated muslins of India have been driven out of the market of the world by Manchester goods. Cotton weaving may be called the oldest indigenous in- Cotton clustry of India. The Greek name for cotton fabrics, sin- weaving. don (o-ivScoi/), is etymologically the same as that of India or Sind ; in later days Calicut on the Malabar coast has given us &quot; calico.&quot; Cotton cloth, whether plain or orna mented, has always been the single material of clothing for both men and women, except in Assam and Burmah, where silk is preferred, perhaps in reminiscence of an extinct trade with China. When European adventurers found the way to India, cotton and silk always formed part of the rich cargoes they brought home. The English, in especial, appear to have been careful to fix their earliest settlements amid a weaving population at Surat, at Calicut, at Ma- sulipatam, at Hooghly. In delicacy of texture, in purity and fastness of colour, in grace of design, Indian cottons may still hold their own against the world ; but in the matter of cheapness they have been unable to face the competition of Manchester. In 1870 the Madras Board of Revenue published a valuable report upon hand-loom weaving, from which the following local figures are taken. The total number of looms at work in that presidency, with its general population of 31 millions, was returned at 279,220, of which 220,015 were in villages and 59,205 in towns, showing a considerable increase upon the corresponding number in 1861, when the mohtarfa or assessed tax upon looms was abol ished. The total estimated consumption of twist was 31,422,712 Ib, being at the rate of 112 ft) per loom. Of this amount, about one- third was imported twist and the remainder country-made. The total value of the cotton goods woven was returned at 3^ millions sterling, or 12, 10s. per loom, but this was believed to be much under the truth. The export of country-made cloth in the same year was about 220,000. In the Central Provinces (population 8 millions), where hand-loom weaving is still fairly maintained, and where statistics are more trustworthy than in other parts, the num ber of looms is returned at 87,588, employing 145,896 weavers, with an annual out-turn valued at 828,000. In 1878-79 the export of Indian piece-goods from the Central Provinces was valued at 162,642. As regards Bengal, hand-loom weaving is generally on the decline. The average consumption of piece-goods throughout the province is estimated at about 5s. per head, and the returns of registered trade show that European piece-goods are distributed from Calcutta at the rate of about 2s. 5d. per head. In Midnapur, Nacliya, and Bardwan the native weavers still hold their own, appears from the large imports of European twist ; but in the eastern districts, which have to balance their large exports of jute, rice, and oil-seeds, the imports of European cloth rise to the high figure of 2s. 7d. per head. No part of India has suffered more from English competition than Bombay, where, however, the introduction of steam machinery is beginning to restore the balance. Twist from the Bombay mills is now generally used by the hand-loom weavers of the presidency, and is largely exported to China. But it is in the finer fabrics produced for export that the west of India has suffered most. Taking Surat alone, the export by sea of piece-goods at the beginning of the century was valued at 360,000 a year. By 1845 the value had dropped to 67,000, rising again to 13^4,000 in 1859 ; but in 1874 it was only 4188. Silk weaving is also a common industry everywhere, silk Silk fabrics, or at least an admixture of silk in cotton, being weaving. XII. - 06