5T 



low enough to compete with the natural dye. The Badische Com- 

 pany was able to sell their product at a profit at the cost price of 

 natural indigo, which was then about Rs. 120 to Rs. 150 per maund 

 of 74 lb. 



This competition naturally resulted in the closing of most indigo 

 factories in Bengal and Northern India which were dependent for 

 financial assistance on Calcutta houses and only those iManters who 

 had land of their own, on which they could very profitably utilize the 

 excellent manure which indigo refuse yields, were able to keep their 

 heads above water. 



The export of indigo, which in 1896 was 187,337 cwt, valued at 

 nearly 4 million pounds sterling, had fallen in 1910 to l8,o6l cwt. 

 valued at a little over 200,000 pounds sterling. 



Indigo continued to be grown in Behar and elsewhere in India, 

 but chiefly for the sake of manure it yields, the dye coming to be 

 looked upon almost as a by-product. It v/as at the darkest period of 

 the Indian indigo industry that Sir Edward Law, Finance Member of 

 the Indian Council, in his Budget speech, March, 1904, spoke hope- 

 fully of a possible revival of the industry, if planters would only put 

 their factories on a sounder financial basis, practise economy in the 

 management of their estates, select the best yielding variety of the 

 indigo plant, and adopt more scientific methods of manufacture. It 

 is due to a few of the more enterprising planters of Behar that pro- 

 gress has been made in these directions. 



The great increase in the yield of dye obtained by the latest 

 developments of the industry will be more fully realised by compa- 

 ring a maximum outturn of ^ lb. of dry from 100 lb. green plant 

 in 1887, which was then spoken of as " marvellous," with the H lb, 

 of dry dye which lOO lb. of green plant can be made to yield now, an 

 increased outturn which, 20 years ago, would have been regarded as 

 impossible. But quite as important has been the advance in the 

 marketing of the dye in the more convenient form of a paste of such 

 qualities and of such an atomically fine division of the dye that — 

 speaking from practical experience — as much yarn can be dyed a 

 certain shade with one pound of Indigotine in the Standard Natural 

 Indigo paste than can be dyed with l^ lb. of Indigotine in the 

 synthetic dye. 



We arrive now at the question of how this development of the 

 indigo industry affects Ceylon, where it has never been considered 

 profitable to grow the plant, even at the flood tide of prosperity in 

 that industry. In those days the yearly outlay of an indigo factory — 

 for supervision, rent of land, cultivation, manufacture, and the 

 marketing of the dye — used to be in Behar about Rs. 36 per acre, and 

 the outturn was 24 lb. of the dye per acre, selling at Rs. 3 per lb. 

 This gave a cent, per cent, profit. 



Cheapness of labour and cheapness of land were then the essen- 

 tial elements in the profitable cultivation of indigo, and on this basis 

 •Ceylon could not hope to compete with India. But now these items 

 iire not of such importance, since the industry has developed on lines 



