INDIGOFERA 



History 



THE INDIGO PLANT 



"West 

 Indies. 



Browne's 

 Account. 



Engine for 

 Beating. 



Use of Heat. 



Edwards' 

 Account. 



Lunan's 

 Account. 



Lime. 



Dried in the 

 Shade. 



East India 

 Company. 



Migration of 

 Industry. 



Tirhut Industry. 

 Severe Losses. 



Direct Support. 



Native 

 Investments. 



Recapitu- 

 lation. 



Western 

 India. 



Dutch 



Eastlndfc 



Company. 



cuttings may be made every six weeks, and the plants continue to bear for 

 two years. 



Browne (Hist. Jam., 1789, 302-5) describes two forms the wild indigo and the 

 Guatimala indigo. He views the wild as only the survival of a still earlier cultiva- 

 tion, the buildings of which often "remain very perfect to this day." Browne gives 

 interesting particulars of the "best engine " seen by him for beating; this was in 

 design much the same as some of the contrivances patented in India a century later. 

 He is one of the first authors to mention the use of heat in drying the indigo. 

 " The Magma or mud " is by some put into a cauldron and heated over a gentle 

 fire, but not so far as to boil, and is then emptied into little " ozenbrick" bags to 

 drain ; by others it is not heated, but immediately put into the like bags to drain. 

 Edwards (Hist. British West Ind., 1793, ii., 280-8) speaks of three species of indigo, 

 vi/,. the wild, the Guatimala, and the French. Of these the " French surpasses 

 the Guatimala in quantity but yields to it in fineness of grain and beauty of colour." 

 Lurian (Hort. Jam., 1814, i., 41926) gives a most instructive account both 

 of the plant grown and the method of manufacture pursued in Jamaica, but 

 quotes very largely from both Browne and Edwards. The plants are regularly 

 laid in the steeper with the stalks upwards, which, he says, hastens the ferments 

 tion. None of these West Indian writers, let it be specially noted, speak of the 

 dry-leaf process the whole plant is carried at once to the steeping vats. Aft 

 being beaten by various contrivances a little clear lime-water is gradually let in 

 to augment and precipitate the fcecula. Too large a quantity of lime would 

 render the indigo hard and of a greyish colour. The fcecula is placed in bags and 

 allowed to drain ; these are then placed within a press and the remainder of the 

 water squeezed out. The dye is next removed from the bags, placed on a table, 

 cut into square cakes and dried in the shade the sun being regarded as hurtfi; 



The East India Company published in 1836 a series of reports and letters 

 regarding the indigo industry, the preface to which records (what may have been 

 inferred from the above series of quotations) the migration from and return again 

 to India of the industry. That work will be found of the greatest possible in- 

 terest, and should be consulted for historic details. Mr. Minden Wilson has 

 written in the Indian Planters'" Gazette a series of graphic historic sketches of 

 the introduction of Indigo in Bihar. From these it would appear that Mr. 

 Grand, the husband of the lady who subsequently married Prince Talleyrand, 

 was one of the founders of the industry. Wilson gives the dates of several 

 concerns Contai was opened out about 1778 and Singia in 1791 ; but the 

 last mentioned, as already stated, originally belonged to the Dutch East India 

 Company. These are representative, the Tirhut industry having been mainly 

 established between 1778 and 1800. The Court of Directors of the East India 

 Company sustained severe losses, however, by their endeavours to re-establish 

 the Indian industry, though they obtained the satisfaction of knowing that 

 they had been successful. In time they accordingly threw the traffic open to 

 all, and hoped that their servants might find in indigo " a mode of remitting 

 their fortunes to Europe which would be legal, advantageous and adequate." 

 For twenty-two years (from 1780 to 1802) the Company directly supported 

 the indigo industry and placed India once more in "the foremost rank among the 

 indigo-producing countries of the world. They, however, continued to make 

 purchases of indigo for the purpose of remittances, and to ensure the supply 

 they even made advances to the special factories that had contracted to sell their 

 produce to the Company. About this time also it was recognised that the in- 

 dustry could not be regarded as successfully established in Bengal so long as it 

 was exclusively held by the Anglo-Indian community. It was accordingly ar- 

 ranged that purchases should be made from, and advances given to, factories 

 owned by Natives provided the security was " sufficiently respectable and the 

 quality fit for the European market." 



^ u * *he 8 t rv f the indigo industry is more entertaining historically and more 

 pathetically instructive than that of almost any other Indian agricultural or 

 industrial substance. The main facts may, therefore, be here briefly recapitu- 

 lated : There is abundant evidence in support of the belief that when Europeans 

 first began to purchase and export the dye from India, it was procured from the 

 Western presidency and shipped for the most part from Surat. It was carried 

 by the Portuguese to Lisbon and sold by them to the dyers of Holland. It was 

 ^ ne desire to secure a more certain supply of dye-stuff that led to the formation, 

 in 1631, of the Dutch East India Company, and shortly after to the overthrow 

 o f fa Q Portuguese supremacy in the East. The success of the Dutch merchants 



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