CORCHORUS 



Trade 



THE JUTE PLANT 



Extreme 

 Cheapness. 



Labour. 

 Price. 



Export 

 Duty. 



Fraudulent 

 Watering. 



Burlaps. 



Vera Cruz 

 Mills. 



One-sided 

 Traffic. 



To the figures of exports would have to be added the value of the 

 fibre and manufactures consumed locally. It has been already explained 

 that about one-third the produce of the mills is used up in India itself. 

 It may be a surprise, however, to learn that India actually imports raw 

 jute. It comes from Ceylon, and is received by Bengal. Of the manu- 

 factured jute the cloth comes from the United Kingdom, Hongkong, the 

 Straits Settlements and Italy. Then again, under the heading of jute 

 canvas Bombay imports a fair amount annually from the United Kingdom. 

 Economic Aspects. But prosperous though the jute trade is, and 

 although it is perhaps the most valuable single crop other than food 

 crops possessed by the people of Bengal, it cannot be upheld that the 

 extreme cheapness of the fibre has been an unmixed blessing. It seems 

 highly likely that its absurdly low price has enabled the manufacturers 

 in their competition for weavers to raise the wages of the operatives until 

 it has come about that they have rendered it all but impossible for other 

 textile industries to exist in the Lower Provinces. And what is more 

 surprising still is that in spite of high wages a sufficiency of desirable 

 labour is not attainable. It has been estimated that jute can be produced 

 at Rs. 2 a maund, and that with freight and agency charges it might be 

 landed at Calcutta at Rs. 3 a maund, or Rs. 82 a ton (or say 5 10s. 

 a ton overhead, or for the first marks say at 7 10s. per ton f.o.b.). The 

 London quotations of Messrs. Ide & Christie, July 15, 1907, are, spot 

 values Good White to best, 27 to 34 ; Good, 22 to 24 ; Medium, 19 

 to 21 ; Common, 15 to 17 ; Rejections, 10 to 13 ; and Cuttings, 

 6 to 8. In view of this remarkable state of affairs it has been recently 

 suggested that an export duty might easily enough be placed on jute 

 without doing any harm to the industry, since Bengal enjoys an absolute 

 monopoly and no other fibre can be produced anything like so cheaply. 

 The Bengal Chamber of Commerce issued on March 12, 1897, a 

 flyleaf on procedure rules for jute arbitrations between mills and sellers. 

 These, it is believed, are still in force and are ordinarily recognised ; but, 

 as already intimated, a bill to prevent fraudulent watering seems earnestly 

 desired by all those most interested in the trade. 



In the Dictionary and other publications will be found details of the 

 classes of goods produced both in India and Europe. In the Consular 

 Reports (more especially of the United States) jute-sacking usually ap- 

 pears under the name " Burlaps," the traffic in which is very considerable. 

 Of Vera Cruz (Dipl. and Cons. Rept., Sept. 1905, No. 3,503, 20), mention 

 is made of two highly successful jute mills that hitherto have depended 

 for their supply of raw jute on supplies drawn from Calcutta. They 

 manufacture the bags used for coffee, sugar, grain and minerals. Re- 

 cently attempts have been made to grow the fibre locally, and high 

 expectations are held of ultimate success in that direction. It is some- 

 wh~at significant that in the Indian trade statistics no mention is made 

 of exports to Mexico, though the United States last year received nearly 

 2 million cwt. 



Speaking generally it would seem that the Indian mills run for the 

 inferior, and the European for the superior goods for which jute has 

 been found suitable. It is often affirmed that the Indian mills would 

 perhaps hold a more secure position against the future were they less 

 exclusively concerned in the gunny and sackcloth trades. It has, more- 

 over, been often pointed out that a rise or fall in the price of raw jute 



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