Cheap material.

Cheap labour.

teration.

Bombay mills have always again started upon a career of renewed activity.

Their advantages over the English manufacturer are manifest. The crop of raw material and the market for the manufactured article are both at their very doors, thus saving a double freight, Labour is cheap, abundant, docile, and not liable to strike. A certain amount of prejudice exists in favour of their products, No adul partly because of their freedom from adulteration, and partly from the patriotic pride naturally felt for a native industry. Lastly, up to March 1882, they had the slight protection of a moderate customs duty of 5 per cent. ad valorem (imposed for fiscal purposes solely) upon imported goods. The cotton import duties were finally abolished, together with the general import duties upon all but a few excepted articles of mer chandise, such as arms and ammunition, liquors, etc., by the Indian Tariff Act, xi. of 1882.

The draw. backs.

Cost of erection.

High interest.

Short staple.

Only

coarse

qualities made.

On the other hand, they labour under not a few countervailing disadvantages. The cost of erection, including spindles and fitting up, was said (1877) to be about three times as much in India as in England. Thus a mill containing 50,000 spindles, which in Lancashire might be set up for about £1 per spindle, or a total of £50,000, would cost at Bombay about £150,000. On this capital the initial charge for interest would be only £2500 a year in England, calculated at 5 per cent., as compared with £13,500 in India, at the rate of 9 per cent. Again, the cost of fuel, and all stores which require to be imported from England, tells greatly against the Bombay mills. Another important consideration which it is difficult to estimate in all its bearings, is the quality of Indian cotton, known as 'short stapled,' which does not admit of being spun into the finer kinds of yarn. Consequently the Indian mills can only turn out the lower counts' of yarn, and the coarser fabrics of piece-goods, leaving English imports of the higher classes without competition.

Adopting the technical language of the trade, the great bulk of the yarn spun in Indian mills consists of numbers 6, 10, and 20 mule twist. Water twist is spun in smaller quantities, generally of number 16. The maximum of either kind is number 30. The mills are capable of spinning up to 40; but as a matter of fact, they never attempt this number, owing partly to the inferior quality of the cotton, and partly to the carelessness of the work-people. As regards piecegoods, the kinds principally woven in the mills are those known as T cloths, domestics, sheetings, drills, and jeans,

STATISTICS OF COTTON MANUFACTURE. 613

made entirely from the yarn spun in the same mills. Longcloths, chadars and dhutís, are also manufactured; and recently attempts have been made to turn out drawers, stockings, nightcaps, and towelling. But Manchester still possesses a practical monopoly both of the higher counts' of yarn which are used by the hand-loom weavers, and of the superior qualities of cloth.

mills.

The Indian mills are almost without exception the property Joint-stock of joint-stock companies, the shares in which are largely taken cotton up by natives. The overlookers are skilled artisans brought from England, but natives are beginning to qualify themselves for the post. The operatives are all paid by the piece; and, as compared with other Indian industries, the rates of wages are high. In 1877, at Bombay, boys earned from 14s. Bombay to £1 a month; women, from 16s. to £1; and jobbers, from wages. £3 to £6, 10s. Several members of one family often work together, earning between them as much as £10 a month. The hours of work are from six in the morning to six at night, with an hour allowed in the middle of the day for meals and smoking. The Indian Factories Act, xi. of 1881, regulates the hours of work for children and young persons, and enforces the fencing of dangerous machinery, etc.

cotton

Besides supplying the local demand, these mills are gradually Statistics beginning to find a market in foreign countries, especially for of Bombay their twist and yarn. Between 1872-73 and 1882-83, the manuexport of twist from Bombay increased from 1,802,863 lbs. factures. valued at £97,162 in 1872-73, to 21,271,059 lbs. valued at £883,665 in 1878-79, and to 42,598,400 lbs. valued at £1,705,978 in 1882-83, or an increase of twenty-four-fold in quantity and nearly eighteen-fold in value in eleven years. Within the same period, the export of grey piece-goods from Bombay increased from 4,780,834 yards valued at £75,495 in 1872-73, to 14,993,336 yards valued at £198,380 in 1878-79, and to 30,730,396 yards valued at £357,320 in 1882-83. The total foreign exports of Indian twist and yarn, and of Indian manufactured grey, white, and coloured piece-goods from all Indian ports amounted to £2,578,382 in value in 1882-83.

The above figures refer to Indian produce and manufactures only; and are exclusive of 1 million sterling of re-exported British cotton manufactures. Including these re-exports, the total exports of cotton twist, yarn, and manufactures amounted to just under 4 millions in 1882-83 from all Indian ports.

Sent to

The twist and yarn is mostly sent to China and Japan, the China and piece-goods to the coast of Arabia and Africa.

Africa.

Future of the trade.

Wool mills.

Jute mills.

Number

The figures for the coasting trade show a slower growth, the total value of twist carried from port to port in 1878-79 having been £804,996, and of piece-goods (including handloom goods), £654,553. In 1882-83, cotton twist and yam to the value of £896,369, and piece-goods to the value of £633,316, were exported in the coasting trade, apart from exports to foreign countries.

Mr. O'Conor, who has devoted much attention to the matter, thus summarizes his opinion regarding the future of the Indian cotton mills in his Review of Indian Trade for 1877-78:- Whether we can hope to secure an export trade or not, it is certain that there is a sufficient outlet in India itself for the manufactures of twice fifty mills; and if the industry is only judiciously managed, the manufactures of our mills must inevitably, in course of time, supersede Manchester goods of the coarser kinds in the Indian market.' The correctness of this opinion is further shown by Mr. O'Conor's Review of Indian Trade for 1884-85, in which he states-'The importation of the coarser kinds of twist has long been unimportant, the yarn of the Indian mills having driven it out of the market. Even the medium kinds are now diminishing, an indication that the Indian mills are beginning to make them too.' Besides cotton mills, wool-weaving by steam machinery has recently been established in India, the principal mills being the Egerton Mills in Gurdaspur District, Punjab, and the Cawnpur woollen mills in the North-Western Provinces.

The jute mills of Bengal have sprung up in rivalry to Dundee, as Bombay competes with Manchester; but in Bengal the capital for jute-manufacturing is almost entirely supplied by Europeans. The jute-mills cluster round Calcutta, and on the opposite side of the river in Howrah District. The industry has also taken root at Sirajganj, far away up the Brahmaputra, in the middle of the jute-producing country.

In 1882-83, the total number of jute mills in India was in 1882-83. 21, of which 19 were in Bengal, 1 at Kolába on Bombay island, and I at Chittivalása in Vizagapatam District, Madras. The weaving of jute into gunny cloth is an indigenous handloom industry in Northern Bengal, chiefly in the Districts of Purniah and Dinajpur. The gunny is made by the semiaboriginal tribe of Koch, Rájbansí or Páli, both for clothing and for bags; and, as with other industries practised by nonHindu races, the weavers are the women of the family, and not a distinct caste. The mills turn out bags, and

JUTE MILL STATISTICS.

615

also cloth in pieces to a limited extent. The bags vary in Jute. size, according to the markets for which they are intended. Varieties The largest are the twilled wool packs sent to Australia, of gunnybags. which measure 56 inches by 26, and weigh about 10 lbs. each. The smallest are the Hessian wheat bags for California, measuring 36 inches by 22, and weighing only 12 ounces. The average weight may be taken to be from 2 to 2 lbs.

Calcutta

jute mills,

The mills in Calcutta and its neighbourhood were estimated Out-turn of in 1878 to keep about 4000 looms at work; the total amount of raw jute worked up annually was about 1 million cwts., which 1878; yielded about 90 million bags. The 21 steam jute mills in India in 1883 worked 6139 looms and 112,650 spindles, the and 1883. total quantity of raw jute worked up in the year being returned at 2,831,778 cwts. These figures are below the mark, as certain companies and private individuals have not supplied full information. The jute manufacturing industry afforded employment to 47,868 men, women, and children in 1882-83.

The activity of the jute trade, and the general direction of Indian and foreign the exports, will be seen by comparing the figures for 1877-78 consumpand 1882-83 in the two following paragraphs.

tion.

In 1877-78, 3 million bags were brought into Calcutta from 1878, Pabná District, being the product of the Sirajganj mills. The total exports from Calcutta by sea and land of both power-loom and hand-made bags numbered 80 millions in 1877-78, of which not more than 6 millions were hand-made. The East Indian Railway took 20 millions for the grain marts of Behar and the North-Western Provinces (chiefly Patná and Cawnpur); and 1 million went as far as Ludhiana in the Punjab. The total exports by sea in 1877-78 exceeded 57 millions, of which 32 millions represent interportal, and 25 millions foreign trade. Bombay took as many as 16 millions, and British Burma 12 millions. In fact, Calcutta supplies bagging for the whole of India.

In 1882-83, besides the local manufactures in Calcutta, and 1883. 28,972,920 bags were imported into that city from the interior Districts, of which 12,494,243 were power-loom and 16,478,677 hand-made. The total exports from Calcutta of power-loom and hand-made bags numbered 123,219,477 bags. Of the internal trade, the East Indian Railway carried 16,808,855 bags for the following marts and Districts :-Patná (3,189,970), Cawnpur (2,583,210), Faizábád (959,455), Delhi (676,375), Santál Parganás (623,945), Monghyr (609,875), Bírbhúm (558,915), and Bardwán (544,355). The total internal

exports by rail, boat, and road amounted to 18,877,715 bags The exports by sea numbered 104,341,762 bags, of which 45,018,189 represented coasting, and 59,323,573 foreign exports.

The foreign jute trade may be given in greater detail, for gunny-weaving is perhaps the single Indian manufacture that Sea-borne has secured a great foreign market. The sea-borne export exports of of jute manufactures (bags and cloth) in 1872-73 was jute. valued at £188,859. By 1878-79, the value had risen to Growth of £1,098,434, and by 1882-83 to £1,487,831, or an increase the trade. of £389,397 in four years. These figures seem to justify Mr. O'Conor's statement in his Review of Indian Trade for 1878-79, that there is little room to doubt that in course of time India will be able, not only to supplant the manufactures of Dundee in the American and other foreign markets, but to supply England herself with bags more cheaply than they can be made in Dundee.' On the other hand, it must be recollected that large figures, and even growing figures, do not necessarily show that a business is remunerative. Calcutta, like Bombay, sometimes suffers from the mismanagement incidental to joint-stock enterprises. The principal countries which take Indian gunny-bags are:-Australia, £714,747 in 1882-83; Straits Settlements, £189,869; United States (California), £164,405; China, £173,295.

Brewing.

of Indian brewing, 1877-83.

Brewing has been established on a large scale at the hill stations for several years. There were in 1882-83, 22 breweries Statistics in India; 12 in the Punjab and the North-Western Provinces, at Mari (Murree), Simla, Solon, Kasauli, Dalhousie, Masuri (Mussoorie), Náini Tál, Chakráta, and Ráníkhet; 2 in Bombay, at Moody Bay and at Bandorá; 3 in Madras, at Utakamand and Coonoor; 4 at Bangalore in Mysore; and I at Rangoon. The total quantity of beer brewed was returned at 2,162,888 gallons in 1877, and 2,597,298 gallons in 1882-83. The quantity imported into India in 1878-79 was 2 million gallons by Government, and I million gallons on private In 1882-83, the Government imports were just under million gallons, and the private imports a little over I million gallons, total 2,656,788 gallons; so that the Indian breweries now satisfy one-half of the entire demand. Indian brewed beer is rising in public favour, and is rapidly superseding imported beer for commissariat purposes. In 1875, 349,095 gallons of Indian beer were purchased by the Bengal Commissariat Department; in 1883, the quantity thus

account.