ANNUAL AND PERENNIAL PL A NTS 



GOSSYPIUM 



History 





I 



mil/ lii.ii. in .111.1 I :_'\ i .1 1 an oottorw almost all point to perennial, not annual 

 1 so persistently aa to suggest that the annual stock may have been a 

 ubaeqii.'iit di-ic-overy obtained very possibly from Arabia. 



In tin' Uth century Sinly was taken l>y the Saracens, and according to Abu 

 :i .'I \\vuin (Banqueri, truriHl., ii., cfi. 'Jii, lo:{) they at ", 'duoed 



tin- cult iviition of cotton. From tho account given of the methods of cultivation 

 tii-- plant must have been tho annual stock, n\v kn.vn us t. i,,,i,,, ,,,,,,, In 

 I!..' loth contury the Muhammadans carried tho solf-name cotton plant (as I 

 it) .UTOSS the Meditorrunean to Spain, and for three c,Mitui i.-s thereafter 

 [iiu hud u flourishing cotton industry. There would thus seem no d>nl>t 

 ih.' i/l.mi -li .-miniiti',1 by the Muhammadans WOH . /i. .../....,,., the species 

 itly mil i\ ut.-d in the regions indicated. Whore they obtained that plant may 

 matter of uncertainty, but to-day the centre of its area of cultivation might 

 utmost be given as the northern tracts of Arabia and Mesopotamia, where it stands 

 t\ i>ry chance of being indigenous. There is no doubt, however, that the Levantine 

 (not the Indian) plant was closely associated with the early Saracens ; their re- 

 ligion, their cotton and their sugar might be spoken of as the triple agents of their 

 civilisation. As a cultivated plant, that cotton was carried by them to Constanti- 

 nl>!i\ and very possibly through Turkey, Asia Minor, Armenia, Kurdistan and 

 ; iotamia to Persia, if not even to the frontier of India. So also they in time 

 may have conveyed it to Egypt, in connection with their Baghdad trade, which 

 on the conquest of Spain went via Alexandria. But before passing away from 

 this subject it may be added that there would seem no doubt a limited culti- 

 vation of cotton had been established in Crimea and South Italy some short 

 time prior to the European conquests of the Saracens, so that it is just possible 

 it may have existed, if it was not indigenous in some of the islands of the Medi- 

 terranean, prior to the knowledge of its utilisation as a textile, just as the tea 

 "ant existed in Assam prior to its being brought from China by Gordon and 

 brtune. It is not surprising, therefore, that Dioscorides should make no mention 

 of cotton. The cultivation of <'. iirrbarrnm in time, however, was diffused 

 throughout the countries bordering both shores of the Mediterranean, and a cotton 

 trade was established which held sway for several centuries. 



It may perhaps suffice for the purpose of this work to indicate very briefly the 

 chief historic facts in the rise and present position of the cotton production and 

 trade of the New World and of the cotton manufacturing enterprise of Great 

 Britain. The earliest mention of the English cotton trade appears to occur in 

 a little poetic work entitled The Politie of Keeping the Sea. This is given by 

 Hakluyt in his Voyages, etc. (i., 213), and was apparently originally published in 

 1430. The merchants of Genoa are spoken of as carrying silk, pepper, woad 

 and cotton to England, and as taking back woollen goods. It is thus probable 

 that at an even earlier date than indicated England procured cotton from the 

 Levant, since the fibre is spoken of as an ordinary commodity. In 1492 

 Columbus discovered the West Indies and America. The Spaniards on their arrival 

 in the New World found cotton being cultivated and manufactured, from the 

 West Indies to Peru and from Mexico to Brazil. In 1498 Vasco da Gama sailed 

 for India round the Cape of Good Hope. The success of that expedition gave 

 to Western Europe a direct route to India, and struck a severe blow at the com- 

 lercial supremacy of Venice and Genoa. " Thus previous to the discovery 

 f America and the West Indies and for some time afterwards, England, and 

 robably all Europe, were supplied with cotton from the Levant " (Milburn, 

 Gomm.. 1813, ii., 279-82). Down to the close of the 16th century England 

 obtained her cotton (a small demand) from the Levant, and her supplies of 

 Indian cotton goods via the Mediterranean ports. As late as 1641 we read that 

 " the town of Manchester buys cotton-wool in London, that comes first from 

 Cyprus and Smyrna." The supply, if any, from the West Indies must accord- 

 ingly have been very insignificant. The early historians of Brazil affirm that 

 a cotton plant was found indigenous there, and that the Natives made use of 

 it to supply the cotton of their simple needs. In Bahia it must have been culti- 

 vated, however, since De Souza speaks of it (1570-87) as' cleaned with the hoe, 

 two or three times a year. Pizarro in 1522 found cotton in Peru, and it has 



.since been recognised in the ancient tombs of that country. De Vica is re- 

 ported to have discovered, in 1536, a wild cotton in Texas and Louisiana. Thus 

 then, when first made known to Europe, the American continent, as also the West 

 Indi"~. p, >--,<-, > ( I not only a cotton industry but both wild and cultivated cottons, 

 ind.'pondent of those of the Old World. But we know nothing for certain of 



57o 



Indication of 



' i . /i/r' :''/ f /i. 



lUKarly 

 Cultivation in 

 Kurope. 



England's 

 Position. 



Discovery of 



Direct Route to 

 India. 



English Supply. 

 Brazil. 



Pern. 



United 



States. 



