Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/423

Rh One of the most important incidents in the history of the cotton industry was the great depression produced in the English manufactures by the civil war in America, known as the “cotton famine.” In 1860, immediately preceding the beginning of the war, this industry had attained in England a degree of prosperity not before known. The imports of raw cotton for that year reached the unprecedented amount of 1,390,938,752 lbs., valued at £35,756,889, of which 1,140,599,712 lbs. were retained for home consumption. The number of cotton mills in Great Britain was 2,650 (of which 1,920 were in Lancashire), with more than 30,000,000 spindles and 350,000 power looms, and employing 440,000 hands, of whom 56 per cent. were females and 10 per cent. were children. The capital invested in mills and machinery was £54,000,000, while the wages paid in that year amounted to £11,500,000. The cotton goods manufactured for home consumption were valued at £24,000,000; and the exports, consisting of calico, muslin, yarn, hosiery, &c., amounted to £52,000,000; making the total value of all cotton manufactures £76,000,000, a sum which exceeded the total imperial revenue for that year. Of the vast amount of cotton imported in 1860, 1,115,890,608 lbs. came from the United States. This, the greatest source of supply, was now cut off by the war, which opened early in 1861. The price of American cotton rose rapidly from £3 4d. per cwt. in 1860 to £10 2s. 4d. in 1862, £11 5s. 8d. in 1863, and £13 11d. in 1864; and there was a corresponding advance in the price of cotton from other countries. The extent of this increase in value is better indicated by a comparison of the quantities and values of the total imports of cotton during the years of the depression:

Moreover, the extended operations of the factories in 1860 had produced in the markets a supply of manufactured goods far beyond the demand. This fact, in conjunction with the unprecedented increase in the price of the raw material, rendered manufacturing less profitable than before, and led to the closing of many mills and the reduction of the hours of labor in others. Many persons were thus deprived of employment, and great suffering ensued. In November, 1862, there were 208,000 persons in the Lancashire district receiving out-door parochial relief, and 144,000 others received aid from subscribed funds; there were at the same time 20,000 mill girls at the sewing schools which had been organized to teach them sewing as a means of subsistence.

The subscriptions to meet the distress reached the sum of £2,000,000, while more than £1,200,000 had been advanced by the government for public works in the cotton districts, chiefly to yield £600,000 or £700,000 wages to the unemployed cotton hands. No precise date can be given as the termination of this depression, since the change to the normal state of affairs was gradual. In 1866, however, the usual supply of cotton was again received from the United States. The losses for three years consequent on this calamity were estimated by Dr. Watts of Manchester, in his work on the “Facts of the Cotton Famine,” at £66,225,000; being £28,500,000 losses by employers, £33,000,000 by employees, and £4,725,000 by shopkeepers. Other authorities estimated the money losses at £70,000,000. The great decrease in supply of American cotton caused a marked increase in the imports from other countries, India, Egypt, Brazil, and the West Indies, as indicated in a preceding table; but as the cotton from these countries is inferior to American cotton for manufacturing purposes, Great Britain is still supplied mainly from the United States.  COTTONWOOD, a S. W. county of Minnesota, watered by the Des Moines and affluents of the Big Cottonwood river; area, 725 sq. m.; pop. in 1870, 534. The St. Paul and Sioux City and the Winona and St. Peter railroads are to traverse it. The estimated value of farm productions for 1870 was, $14,900; of live stock, $12,420.  COTTON WORM, the caterpillar of an owlet moth, of the tribe of noctuæ (N. xylina, Say). The perfect insect is of a triangular shape, about an inch in length; the upper wings reddish gray, a dark spot with a whitish centre in the middle; the under wings are darker. The caterpillars have 16 legs, but the foremost prop legs are so short that in creeping they arch up the back like the geometers or span worms; the color is green, with light yellow stripes and black dots along the back; the second and third generations are darker than the first; they grow to the length of an inch and a half. The eggs, from 10 to 15, are deposited on the under surface of the tender leaves, to which they are firmly attached, and 

