ARTICLE V.

From De Bow's Review.

Culture and Commerce of Cotton in India.

By Dr. J. F. ROYLE of England.

MATERIALS for food and for clothing, both equally necessary for men in a civilized state of society, are yielded in probably equal proportions by the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The flesh of various animals, wool and silk of different kinds being contributed by the former, as the cereal grains, pulses and roots, with flax, hemp and cotton, are yielded by the latter, and form the food and clothing of millions of the human race. Though the first coverings of men may have been formed of skins, the wool of sheep and the hair of goats were early employed for such purposes in Northern Asia and Southern Europe, as silk no doubt was in China. Hemp was cultivated in the north of Europe, and flax in Egypt, while COTTON has, from the earliest periods, been considered to be characteristic of India. Though the uncertain nature of Hindoo chronology prevents us from guessing at the period when it was first employed, there is little doubt that it must have been so from the earliest ages of Hindoo civilization: for being indigenous in their country, it could not fail to be noticed by its inhabitants; first, from the brilliancy of its golden inflorescence; and secondly, from the dazzling whiteness of its bursting fruit. This being filled with seeds, enveloped in a material so soft, so white, and so fibre-like as cotton, could hardly fail to be gathered even by the most incurious. On gathering, one would almost involuntarily twist it into a thread, and thus appear to re-discover the patriarchal art of spinning. Other plants have their useful flax-like fibres concealed under bark, or in other vegetable matter: but cotton, on the bursting of the pod, like wool at the birth of the lamb, is at once revealed to view. As this must be separated from its skin, so the other requires only to be pulled off its seed, to be ready for being spun into thread. The father of History, in his account of India, says: "The wild trees in that country bear fleeces in their fruit, surpassing those of sheep in beauty and excellence; and the Indians use cloth made from these trees."

Having a thread, the art of weaving would be readily discovered, as that of platting rushes, slender stems and strips of leaves, seems to have been universally practised. But much ingenuity must have been expended before even the most common loom was invented. Weaving was well known to all the civilized nations of antiquity: as, to the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Chinese, and Hindoos. The culture of flax, and the processes of weaving, are represented in the ancient monuments of Egypt; and Joseph was by Pharaol: arrayed in fine linen. The Israelites, on their departure from that country, were acquainted not only with weaving, but with dyeing. The curtains of the Tabernacle were blue, purple, and scarlet. The former art is sometimes stated to have been discovered in Assyria, and its results we see represented in the monuments disinterred by the energy of a Layard, and interpreted by the genius of a Rawlinson. They are

noticed in the not less creditable relics of the ancient Hindoos, that is, their Vedas and the Institutes of Menu.

But the art of weaving was not confined to the Old World, for Columbus found cotton abundant on his first arrival in the West Indies; and the early Spanish historians describe it as forming the chief clothing of the Mexicans; and cotton fabrics of different kinds formed a part of the presents sent by Cortez to Charles V. Magellan saw it among the Brazilians and it has of late years been discovored in the ancient Peruvian tombs, along with cloth of a black and white check, not unlike some modern patterns. We may, therefore, readily concede, what botanists maintain, that the Indian and American cotton plants are perfectly distinct as species. Though a common kind was grown at an earlier period, the United States are described as receiv ing their fine cotton seeds from one of the West India Islands about the year 1786. The culture was soon carried from the sea islands of the coast of Carolina into the interior and uplands of Georgia, and shortly afterwards from the Atlantic States to those which lie along the Gulf of Mexico, and latterly into Texas.

Celebrated as India has been, from all antiquity, for the production of cotton, and for the excellence of her calico, as well as for the marvellous beauty of her musline manufacture, it seems unaccountable to see Indian cotton occupying the lowest place in price currents, and described as inferior in quality, dirty in condition, and deficient in supply. We hear, moreover, of her hitherto matchless fabrics, and the much-desired objects of commerce for probably 3,000 years, beaten out of even her home market by the comparatively recent but now gigantic cotton manufactures of England. The latter effect has no doubt been produced by the joint influence of the persevering ingenuity of her mechanics, and the untiring power of steam, aided by an abundant supply of the raw material from a variety of sources. The alleged failure of India to produce increasing quantities of superior cotton has been ascribed to a variety of causes-to the depressing effects of fiscal regulations, and to the want of easy means of transit; sometimes to the baneful influence of middlemen, and the extortionate demands of money-lenders; seldom to poverty of soil or to unsuitableness of climate, or to the unfitness of Indian cotton for English machinery. Some who complain seem to forget the possibility of change, even in an age of innovations, for they adduce grievances which have years before been abolished, and state as general facts what, on examination, prove to be only local incidents. Few inquire whether the native cultivator participates in the anxiety which is displayed for his improvement or is likely to be rewarded for any extra labor he may bestow on a new culture, or the merchant for the risk he incurs in exporting to an ever-varying market. In such a case, the difficulty in ascertaining the truth is as great as it is important that it should be ascertained, in order that impediments should be removed, and exertion applied to improve the culture of the plant and to the careful picking of its produce, as this could hardly fail to be of benefit to the natives of the country, and to the extension of their commerce.

Next to the grain of the cereal grasses, Cotton is probably the natural product upon which the comfort and prosperity of several nations depend more than upon any other. It may be sufficient to observe

that if it is beneficial for America to produce, and for England to purchase, the raw material for her gigantic manufacture, it is equally so for India to consume what she produces within her natural limits, with the aid and for the use of her hundred millions of cotton-clad inhabitants. To those who have not paid attention to the subject, it may appear that we exaggerate its importance, when we connect the welfare of nations with what may to them appear so very trivial a matter as the hair, or rather wool-like covering, of a seed; but let us for an instant, without on the present occasion mentioning all the countries where cotton is produced, take a glance at the great producers and consumers of this not less elegant than useful product of the vegetable kingdom.

§ 1. RISE OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN.

To England, a regular supply of cotton, and its price, is a subject of paramount importance, even though the manufacture here is of comparatively recent origin; for any interruption in the supply of the raw material is not a question of mere inconvenience, or of the profitable employment of capital, but one of vital statistics; for it deprives hundreds of thousands of her industrious population not only of regular employment, but of their daily bread. In order fully to appriciate the importance of this manufacture, we may briefly notice its origin and rapid extension, as well as connect this with the effects on India.

The cotton manufacture was no doubt established in India long before we find it noticed in any reliable history. The natives of that country early attained excellence in the arts of spinning and weaving, employing only their fingers and the spinning-wheel for the former; but they seem to have exhausted their ingenuity when they invented the hand-loom for weaving, as they have for ages remained in a stationary condition. From India the culture of the plant and manufacture of cotton spread into the south of Persia and into Egypt. By the Mahomedans both were carried wherever their arms extended their conquests. Mr. Baines, whom we have chiefly consulted for the historical facts, observes it as "extraordinary, that a branch of industry so apt to propagate itself, should have lingered 1,300 years on the coast of the Mediterranean, before it crossed that sea into Greece or Italy."* Cotton seems to have been first cultivated in Spain by the Mahomedans as early as the 10th century, and the manufacture to have been established in Italy in the beginning of the 14th century.

It has been stated that the cotton manufacture has existed in England for three centuries, for the making of cottons at Manchester and Bolton is spoken of in the years 1520 and 1552; but there is undoubted evidence that the "cottons" of Manchester, like the Kendal and Welsh "cottons" of the present day, were a coarse kind of "woolens." The exact period of the introduction of the cotton manufacture into England is unknown, but cotton-wool, for the purpose of making candlewicks, was imported as early as 1298, and from the Levant frequently at the beginning of the 16th century. Though no mention earlier than 1641 has been found in the true cotton manufacture, Mr. Baines is of opinion that the art was imported from Flanders by the

Esq.

History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain. By E. Baines, jun.,

crowd of Protestant artisans who fled from Antwerp in 1585, some of whom settled in Manchester, and were patronized by the clergy of its church. In 1641 the manufacture seems to have been well established at Manchester, for several kinds of cotton goods were supplied for the home as well as for the foreign market. About 1739 and 1740, East Indian yarns, we learn, were commonly used for the finer kinds of goods, and "to the year 1760, the machines employed were nearly as simple as those of India." In 1766, the annual value of the cottons made was estimated at £600,000.

But at this period a rapid increase was about to take place, from the numerous happy inventions which were to abridge labor and multiply produce. In 1738 Wyatt and Paul took out a patent for spinning by rollers; thirty years latter, Arkwright perfected a similar machine; carding by cylinders was invented by Paul in 1748, and from 1764 to 1767, Hargreaves completed the spinning-jenny. When these several machines were invented, yarns could be supplied in any quantity and of improved quality, so that weavers could obtain as much as they required and at a reasonable price, and manufacturers could use warps of cotton; for up to about the year 1773 linen yarn was used as the warp for nearly all cotton goods in this country. About this time, the imitation of Indian calicoes was successfully attempted, and "Blackburn became the principle mart of that description of goods" which "now constitutes by far the largest branch of the manufacture." (Baines, I. c., p. 332.) The machines hitherto invented not being adapted for the finer kinds of yarns, the mule-jenny was invented and completed by Crompton in 1779.

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Attempts were made as early as 1780, both in Lancashire and Glasgow, to manufacture the more delicate and beautiful muslins of India, with weft spun by the jenny; but the "attempt failed, owing to the coarseness of the yarn. Even with Indian weft, muslins could not be made to compete with those of the East. But when the mule was brought into general use in 1785, both weft and warp were produced in this country sufficiently fine for muslins," and they soon so completely succeeded as to banish all fear of the competition of Indian goods." In this year Arkwright's machines were thrown open to the public. Though invented by others, they owed their perfection to his finishing hand. The astonishing extension of the manufacture which immediately followed, showed that the nullification of he patent was a great national advantage.

Water was early substituted for hand-power in turning the machines. This was, in its turn, supplanted by the all-pervading agency of steam, and the factory system became, by degrees, established in England.

Hitherto the cotton manufacture had been carried on almost entirely in the houses of the workmen, as it still is in India, and has been from the remotest period. The series of ingenious inventions seem to have reached their culminating point in the self-acting mule, which seems a thing instinct with life-drawing out, twisting, and winding-up many thousand threads with infallible precision and unfailing strength. But the cotton manufacture would necessarily have been brought to a check, from the difficulty of training hands fast enough to weave al the cotton that was spun into thread. But the invention of the power

loom by Dr. E. Cartwright, not himself a mechanic or a manufacturer, overcame even this difficulty, and the only impediment then experienced was, from the necessity of frequently stopping the machinery, in order to dress the warp with starch.* This was at first effected by a dressing-machine, and now by an improved sizing apparatus. Every difficulty, as it occured, was overcome, and each then assisted in still further extending, and, at the same time, cheapening the cotton manufacture, and thus magnifying the power and prosperity of Great Britain; at the same time inflicting disastrous consequences on even so anciently established and apparently perfect a manufacture as that of calicoes and muslins of India. So early as 1793 we find a Select Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company upon the subject of the cotton manufacture, stating that "every shop offers British muslin for sale, equal in appearance, and of more elegant patterns than those of India, for one-fourth, or perhaps more than onethird, less in price."

Having thus taken a cursory view of the history of the manufacture in this country, we may briefly notice the different operations to which the cotton is subjected, and, for this purpose, we shall use Mr. Baines's words: "Let us briefly review the different processes through which the cotton gocs, in its conversion into cloth, all of which are performed in many of the large spinning and weaving mills. The cotton is brought to the mills in bags, just as it is received from America, Egypt, or India, and is then stowed in warehouses, being arranged according to the countries from which it may have come. It is passed through the willow, the scutching-machine, and the spreadingmachine, in order to be opened, cleaned, and evenly spread. By the carding-engine the fibres are combed out, and laid parallel to each ather; and the fleece is compressed into a sliver. The sliver is repeatedly drawn and doubled in the drawing-frame, more perfectly to straighten the fibres, and to equalize the grist. The roving-frame, by rollers and spindles, produces a coarse and loose thread, which the mule ar throstle spins into yarn. To make the warp, the twist is transferred from cops to bobbins, by the winding-machine, and from the bobbins at the warping-mill to a cylindrical beam. This beam being taken to the dressing-machine, the warp is sized, dressed, and wound upon the weaving-beam. The latter is then placed in the power-loom, by which machine the shuttle, being provided with cops of weft, the cloth is woven."—(Baines, 1. c., p. 243.) It is obvious that if the fibre, or staple, as it is called, of different cottons vary in length or in strength, some may be able to undergo this rough treatment, while others may escape from it, and yet be well suited to the delicate fingering of the human machine.

§ 2. IMPORTS OF COTTON INTO GREAT BRITAIN.

Every difficulty that has occured has been successively overcome;

"The consumption of flour in the cotton manufacture is estimated at not less than 42,301,584 İbs. a year, or 215,824 barrels (of 196 lbs.) or 177,256 loads (of 240 lbs. each.)"-Burn's Commercial Glance for 1832. "Bengal flour (then), lately introduced into this country, is found to answer well for dressing "-E Baines. “If 24 oz. for flour be allowed for sizing each pound of twist yarn, it will make 28,437,500 lbs. of flour, or 118,500 packs, or 79,000 quarters of wheat per annum; being nearly per cent., or 1-200th part of the whole wheat consumed in the United Kingdom."—J. Baynes.