24 



WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



India's 



India 



cotton 8 

 goods. 



England's 



be threat- 



For the ten years ending 1859, Great Britain imported an average 

 of 2,318,575 bales of cotton (each 400 Ibs.), and of that amount 

 India supplied 405,291 bales. But the ten years ending 1869, which 

 included the troublous times of the American War, Great Britain 

 imported an average of 2,736,661 bales, of which India supplied 

 1,282,172 bales the record year being 1866, when India furnished 

 1,847,759 bales. Thirty years later (1899) Great Britain took 

 4,065,617 bales, of which India furnished only 77,297 bales, and in 

 1903 the Indian portion slightly improved, Great Britain having 

 taken 203,550 bales of Indian cotton. The immediate response 

 made by India during the cotton famine shows her capabilities, but 

 as in the United States, so in India, the demands of her own mills 

 have now become the chief controlling factor in the amount available 

 for export. The outcry in Europe was against the adulteration, not 

 the low-grade staple. The position of Indian cotton in the European 

 markets was as a mixing fibre, or as a fibre to be used in up- 

 holstery. The success of Western intelligent agriculture over 

 Eastern ignorance and greed was rapidly assured, and in time the 

 Indian cotton fell so low that it was practically debarred from being 

 imported into Liverpool. But the century closed with India, 

 instead of exporting cotton goods, having become the largest single 

 market for English manufactured cottons, its demands having been 

 just under 20,000,0002. 



The Twentieth Century. This may be characterised by a new 

 ^ ea ^ ure > namely, the rise of Continental, American, and Indian 

 cotton-manufacturing enterprise, seriously threatening the supre- 

 macy of England in the cotton markets of the world. The Tariff 

 Commission's Eeport of June 6, 1905, may be said to have been 

 written with a view to establish this new phase. From that 

 publication the following may be abstracted : In 1876-80 the 

 annual consumption of cotton in the United Kingdom exceeded that 

 of the Continent by 2,030,000 cwt., and that of the United States 

 by 5,070,000 cwt. In the period 1901-4 the annual consumption 

 in the United Kingdom was 8,020,000 cwt. less than on the 

 Continent and 2,950,000 cwt. less than in the United States. 



