Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/520

Rh 488 COTTON the people of India were divided into castes. The trans mission of the same employment from father to son (which is the invariable practice in India), while it has the effect of conveying unimpaired the knowledge acquired in any art, tends to check its farther advancement. To tli3 same cause, however, which thus prevented improve ment in India, is to be attributed that dexterity in his particular employment which the Indian artizan possesses. From tha earliest age he learns to spin and weave under the direction of his father ; and having no hope or desire of advancement in any other line, he gains, through constant practice, that wonderful skill which may thus be considered almost as a family inheritance. To be able to manage his ill-constructed loom, even in the pro duction of ordinary fabrics, he is obliged to acquire such a sleight of hand, that it is not surprising if, out of the multitude trained in this manner, a few should be found capable of producing those muslins which are said, when spread upon the grass, to appear like the gossamer web. From the superiority of these goods, and from their retaining the beauty of their appearance longer than European muslins, it has been supposed that the cotton of which they are made is of better quality than any known to the European manufacturers. This, however, is a mistake ; there is no cotton in India of a quality superior to the best Sea Islands. As the largest country in the world producing cotton, it was reasonable to expect that India would also at an early period engage in its manufacture, and to such a degree of perfection was this branch of industry carried, that some of the fabrics produced have never been equalled, and have nttained a world-wide celebrity. The kind of manufacture for which Manchester is famous bears a name which indicates its Eastern origin, and Calicut has supplied the designation o our English calico. Formerly the East India Company was in the habit of making a great part of its remittances in manufactures, and actually advanced, through its resident, the funds required to enable the workmen to pro duce the goods. The resident, when not engaged in providing goods for the Company s investment, was authorized to employ the weavers on his own account. This state of things, which was often attended with abuses, has disappeared, and for a long period British manufactured cottons have been largely imported into India. Common muslins were made in every village throughout the Peninsula. Orme says, &quot; When not near the high road or a principal town, it is difficult to find a village in which every man, woman, and child is not employed in making a piece of cloth.&quot; The very fine muslins made at Dacca, and which were of such exquisite texture as to be poetically designated &quot; webs of woven wind,&quot; were intended chiefly for the use of the potentates of the country, who kept agents to superintend the workmen employed in the manu facture ; but since the assumption by Government of the territories of these Indian princes, the demand has fallen off, and a considerable part of the population have betaken themselves to the cultivation of indigo. The cotton from which the Dacca muslins are woven grows in a district of not more than forty miles in length by three in breadth, and in so limited a quantity as never to have become an article of commerce. 1 Long cloths and fine pullicats were 1 The wool is equal in fineness to the very best Sea Islands, and of still stronger staple, but so short as to preclude the possibility of its being spun by our machinery. The district in which the cotton is grown is stated to be periodically overflowed. The yarn is of different grists, the coarsest greatly finer than the highest number spun in England (No. 250), while the finest has been rated by an experienced spinnerto be not under 350. How this yarn can be spun by the distaff and spindle, or woven afterwards by any machinery, is almost beyond con ception. Machine-spun cotton yarn has, however, more recently been produced in Manchester which very greatly exceeds in fineness any yarn ever known to have been produced by the hand labour of India. made in the Madras Presidency, coarse piece goods and! pullicats in Surat, the finest calicoes at Masulipatam, and table-cloths of a superior quality at Patna. The apprehension often expressed that the inhabitants of India, in possession of the raw material, would, by the introduction of machinery, and by their cheaper labour and superior manual dexterity, be enabled some day to undersell us so as greatly to injure, if not to ruin, and put an end to the Indian demand for English manufactures, has to some extent been realized. The most important industry in the Bombay Presidency is now the manufacture of cotton cloth and yarn. Whilst this has always existed in nearly every village, it is only in recent years that steam spinning and weaving mills have been introduced. The first factory was started in 1863 at Kurla, Bombay, and in 1874 the number had increased to thirteen in the town and island, employing 60,000 spindles and 848 looms. These, together with other mills at Surat, Broach, and Ahmedabad, with an aggregate of 405,000 spindles and 4500 looms, had furnished employment for 10,000 people. Since then the number has been still further increased both in Bombay and other parts of the country, as well as in the presidencies of Bengal and Madras, and in some of the native states. It is probable that at present there are nearly 1,250,000 spindles and upwards of 10,000 looms employed in the various mills scattered over different parts of the country. Encouraged by the protective import duty on foreign manufactures, the number of mills is constantly on the increase, and the English trade in certain heavy and coarse descriptions of goods has consequently sustained serious injury. The import duty on English manufactures has been repeatedly condemned by Government, and its abolition has been expressly promised, but it is still retained for the convenient season when the Indian treasury shall be able to dispense with this small source of revenue. Meanwhile new mills, supported to a large extent by English capital, and fitted with English machinery, such as that recently estab lished at Nagpore, are constantly springing up, which will doubtless, under all changes, obtain a share of the trade of the country, and will not probably be seriously injured by the free importation of English manufactures. They have an advantage both in their proximity to the raw material and in the cheapness of native labour. The manufacture of cotton cloth has long been diffused all over the Central Provinces, hand-looms may be found at work in every considerable village, and the agricultural and labouring classes have hitherto preferred the home manu factures to any other. The increase of foreign importations, however, has led to a growing taste for English piece-goods, and the productions of Indian mills have materially affected the local industry. The cotton manufacture in China is of immense extent, and is carried on almost entirely for home consumption. Almost the only cotton goods exported from China are nankeens. Owing to greater encouragement on the part of the Government, and a less rigid adherence to an cient usages by the people, there has been considerable increase in native manufactures in China, and it will be seen from the table of exports that there has been a remarkable increase in the extent and value of English trade with that country during recent years. In this trado we have now to encounter American competition, which, however, is less formidable than it might be, on account of the protective policy of the United States. In the interior of Africa, Clapperton and Landers found Afria that cotton was not only grown but also spun and made into cloth. It would be interesting to know the methods which the natives have adopted, and from what source they obtained their acquaintance with the art of weaving. The settlers in Liberia appear to have established