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was the production of silk in the countries of the East. Its limited extent, however, and the monopoly of this valuable traffic in the hands of the Phoenicians, and afterwards by the Persians, restricted its employment within the most confined limits. Until the time of the Roman empire, its very existence appears to have been unknown in the West; and when Dionysius, the imperial geographer, who visited the East in the first years of the Christian era, wrote an account of this new and beautiful product, he speaks of it as a precious web, finer than that of the spider, combed by the natives from flowers, and spun into rich garments of great price.

Of the precise period when silk was first introduced into the West we are not informed; but that it must have been excessively dear, and limited in use to but a few persons of great wealth, may be judged from the fact of the Emperor Aurelian refusing to purchase a single dress of purple silk for his empress on the plea of its great cost, as it could not be bought at the price of gold. The very jealousy with which the silk-trade of the East was guarded, proved in the end fatal to its prosperity. Its extreme scarcity and dearness induced two travelling monks, despite the danger of the act, to bring away from the country of their production, a quantity of the eggs of the silkworm, which they contrived to conceal within a hollow cane; and from this first supply were at length produced the vast broods of those valuable worms, whose labours have enriched not only Italy and France, but the manufacturers of many other countries.

Previous to the middle of the eighteenth century, Indian raw silk formed a very inconsiderable portion of the trade from the East. Its great inferiority to the Italian and French article was for a long period a great barrier to the profitable extension of this branch of Indian trade. The factors of the Company did no more than purchase the silk as it reached their hands from the three filatures, whence alone it came in those days. At Cossimbazar, Rungpore, and Commercolly, the natives grew large tracts of the common mulberry-plant, reared their worms, and reeled the produce of the cocoons; but with so small regard to the exigencies of the worms, and so little care bestowed upon the preparation of the silk, as to render it a most unprofitable and troublesome article in the hands of the European manufacturer; so much was this felt, that until the latter part of the last century, Indian silk was employed but for the manufacture of certain inferior minor articles of haberdashery, and never entered into the composition of satins, or silk piece-goods of any kind. One great cause of this inferiority was to be found in the careless method of winding the

silk from the cocoons, which produced such inequality in the thread as to render it all but unserviceable. Besides this, it was loaded with gummy and other extraneous substances, and reeled without the least attention to colour or quality; so that it reached the buyer's hands in hanks comprising all sorts of shades.

This part of their trade proved so annoying, and was attended with such fruitless results, that the Company were at one time on the point of issuing orders to cease all purchases of the article. Instead of acting on this first impulse, the Directors wisely made an effort to remedy the evil complained of, by sending to Bengal one or two persons acquainted with the Italian mode of reeling and assorting silk; these instructors were placed in the heart of the silk-districts, and appear, from after results, not to have laboured in vain. Inducements were at the same time held out to the ryots to extend the cultivation of the mulberry-plant, by allowing them all lands so used free of rent for two years, and afterwards assessing them very moderately. In this manner the silk-trade received an impulse hitherto unknown to it, and the exports of the raw article rose from 80,000 lbs. in 1750, to 320,000 lbs. in 1770.

The partial success which had attended the introduction of a better mode of reeling silk induced the Company to attempt still further reforms; and we accordingly find that in the year 1771 a second supply of practical silk-reelers and mulberry-cultivators from Italy were dispatched to Bengal; proper filatures were established; a better mode of rearing the insects and growing the plants was introduced; and, in addition to these measures, steps were taken to secure a supply of eggs from China, with the view of improving the breed of the Indian worms. Several years elapsed before these improvements were beneficially felt in the quality of the silks imported from Bengal; but that such was the case may easily be seen by the steady increase in the quantity taken by the manufacturers of England, which in 1785 amounted to 576,175 lbs.

The greatest improvement effected by the Company at this period was the total abolition of the contract system, and the substitution for it of agencies throughout the silk-districts, by means of which supplies of the cocoons were constantly obtained from sub-agents called pykars, who received advances in money, and who, in their turn, engaged by similar means for the supply of silkworms from the rearers in the different villages.

The vast improvements effected in England towards the end of the last century in the manufacture of cotton goods tended in a great

GROWTH OF THE SILK-TRADE.

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measure to check the consumption of the more costly article of silk; and we find that from 500,000 lbs. weight of raw silk sold in 1785, the Company did not dispose of more, on the average, than 300,000 lbs. weight in the years 1800 to 1805.

So much better were the silk transactions of the Company managed at this time, that in spite of this decline in the demand for their goods, their yearly profits gradually increased from a few thousands to the enormous amount of 132,9827. in 1801. The gradual decline to a certain date, in the imports of Bengal raw silk, from the cause already assigned, may be seen by the following list of exports to Great Britain, taken at intervals of ten years; and in the same may be observed the effect of the gradual relaxation of the Company's trading monopoly in favour of private merchants. In 1782 there were shipped to England from Bengal, 611,071 lbs.; in 1792, 401,445 lbs.; in 1802, 114,744 lbs.; in 1812, 982,427 lbs. ; in 1822, 1,042,617 lbs. ; and in 1832, 956,453 lbs.

Some idea of the commercial value of this branch of Indian trade may be formed from the fact, that between the years 1776 and 1785, the raw silk imported by the Company, and in the privileged tonnage by private traders, was worth 3,446,7577.; from 1786 to 1803, it amounted to 5,221,5967. ; and from 1804 to 1810, to 3,115,0447.; being during these thirty-five years almost equal to 12,000,000l. sterling.

Upon the last renewal of the East India charter in 1833, which provided that the Company should no longer engage in mercantile operations, their extensive and well-organised filatures were put up for sale, and after some delay disposed of to private parties.

These establishments were eleven in number, of which the following gave their names to the particular kinds of silk produced by each of them, and by which those varieties are to this day known in commercial circles; they are Bauleah, Commercolly, Cossimbazar, Hurripaul, Jungypoor, Radnagore, Rungpore, Santipore, and Surdah. Besides the above, the Company possessed a number of hired filatures of less note.

The exportations of Bengal raw silk in 1814-15 amounted in value to 231,271.; in 1827-8 to 855,398.; and in 1837-8 to only 465,451. Bringing down these figures to a more recent date, we find that the silk exports of Calcutta were, during the years 1848-9 and 1849-50, to the value of 714,000l. and 655,000l. respectively.

Besides the China, or mulberry silkworm, there are several varieties of silk-spinning worms indigenous to India, of which mention is made in some of the earliest records of that country. These have been

described by several scientific writers, and are known amongst the natives as the mooga, the armidy, the tussah, and the joree worms, all producing fibres, which, if not equal in commercial value to those of the mulberry-worm, are nevertheless esteemed and largely employed amongst the inhabitants of the districts in which they are found. These insects inhabit vast tracts of forest in Upper Assam, in the Madras Presidency, and in that of Bombay; and the cloths made from the raw material are in extensive use amongst not only natives but Europeans, who find them most economical and durable for many purposes.

Some idea may be formed of the extent to which these kinds of indigenous silk are produced, when it is stated that in 1837 there were in one district alone not less than 318,772 pieces of tussah silk manufactured. The food of the wild silkworm is obtained from the trees of the forests inhabited by them, and amongst those known as affording them nourishment are the leaves of the jujube, the castor-oil plant, the peepul, or banyan-tree, some of the laurels, and a few other plants.

So early as 1795, some attempt appears to have been made at Bombay to introduce the silk-worm, but evidently without effect; for until 1823 we hear nothing more of the matter, and then it seems to have been attempted at one of the public jails by the labour of the prisoners, the result of which appears to have been the preparation of a few bales of silk for local consumption. Later still, the zeal and industry of an Italian gentleman were brought to bear upon the subject, and under his directions a better cultivation of the mulberry plant, and an improved method of feeding and reeling was introduced, with slow but perfect success.

In Madras this branch of industry met with great encouragement so long since as 1791. No efforts were spared to induce the natives to enter fully into the rearing of the worm and the growth of the plant; and, as the result shews, the success was, if not so great as in Bengal, still sufficiently encouraging.

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FEW

CHAPTER IV.

THE COTTON INDUSTRY OF INDIA, ITS HISTORY, EXTENT, AND

PROSPECTS.

NEW subjects have occupied so much or public attention of lateyears, have been so frequently discussed in books, in newspapers, and in parliamentary debates, as that of the production of cotton. within the territories of the East India Company. None will be disposed to question the great importance of the subject. Whether we regard cotton in its broadest aspect, as affording ample employment to vast numbers of persons in its growth, transport, and shipment; whether we look at it as furnishing food for gigantic manufacturing establishments in the parent country, scattering wealth and happiness in its path; or whether we view it as an article of social moment, ministering to the health and comfort of the entire human race; whether we consider it as a source of revenue, as a staple of trade and manufacture, or as a great help to civilisation and progress, -we cannot but feel that we have to deal with a most important subject.

India was unquestionably the birth-place of cotton cultivation and cotton manufacture. It is mentioned in the institutes of Menu, a work composed eight centuries before the Christian era, with many details relative to its manufacture and uses; and although not named in the Rig Veda, of still higher antiquity, there is no doubt that in more than one place the thread alluded to was composed of cotton.

Possessing, therefore, so much antiquity, we need not feel astonished that, until the last half century, the culture, trade, and manufacture of cotton in India should have occupied a most important position in the commercial annals of the world. That the production of cotton goods in India would still have stood forward pre-eminently as a branch of industry, had not the modern improvements of machinery in Europe snatched from it all its ancient prestige, there can be but little doubt; although, as regards the cultivation of the raw material, other causes

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