ENGLISH INDIOO-DYEINd 



INDIGOFERA 



Stock Improvement 



aroused the jealousy of Europe. The wnad grower* and merchant* of Germany, 



tigland were threatened with ruin, and to protect them nearly every 



...MM! i\ paaaed edicts rendering tli Importation or ue of indigo a orhninAloffenoe 



pimishaMe I'V death. 



In I md learned the art of indigo-dyeing, mid in the reign of Queen 



uas permitted alnim with woad. Cur. 



ul u nli indigo Hurvives to the present day, and to meet thin demand a 

 amount of tin- \\->.id is grown here ami there <>MT Kurope, and e\.-n in l!n_'land. 

 i ion to in- : iiowovor, so strong that it was a^.iin. -m tin- pi 



isonoiis. prohibited, and in 1(5(50 CharUH II. lial to procure dyeM fretn 



mi (i> on.-.- in.iri teaeh tin- Kni/lish tin- art of using the dye. As already 



i i.i tin* persistent export of tho dyo from India, I..U.IIK |. 

 I he K.iM India ( 'onipany. had llio oiToct of stimulating t ho Spanish, l-'n-m-h, 1'i.rtu- 



an<l English colonists to make strenuous efforts to produce the dyo in many 

 eonntrie-. outside India. And so successful were they that for a time they ruined 

 the ancient Indian traffic. But Macpherson (Hist. Europ. Comm. Ind., 1812, L'"<>) 



- ..I tho Eiust India Company having voluntarily given up the importation "f 

 indigo into England "in order to avoid a competition with the Mi -iti.-h ( 'oloi,. 

 the West Indies and the southern provinces of North America. About theyear 1747 



of iht! planters in the West Indies, particularly in Jamaica, gave up the culti- 

 n of indigo in consequence of the high duty imposed upon it " ; " tho planters 



r. .Imu and Georgia were never able to bring thoir indigo to a quality equal 

 to that of Guatimala or St. Domingo." But political difficulties occurred with 

 America and France, and at the same time sugar and coffee had proved even m un- 

 profitable in the West Indies than indigo. The impetus was thus given for a 

 re-establishment of the Indian traffic, and, as one of the many surprises of tho 

 industry, the province of Bengal was selected for this revival. It had no sooner 

 been organised, however, than troubles next arose in Bengal itself through mis- 

 understandings between the planters, thoir cultivators, and the Government, 

 which may be said to have culminated in Lord Macaulay's famous Memorandum 

 of 1837. This led to another migration of the industry from Lower and Eastern 

 Bengal to Tirhut and the United Provinces. Here the troubles of the industry 

 did not end, for, just as indigo had ruined " the Waid Herrn," so the researches 

 of the chemical laboratories of Germany threatened the very existence of any 

 natural vegetable dye. They first killed the maddar dye of Europe, then the 

 safflower, the lac and the al dyes of India, and are now advancing rapidly with 

 synthetic indigo, intent on the complete annihilation of the natural dye. Opinions 

 differ 011 many aspects of the present vicissitude ; meantime the exports from 

 India have seriously declined, and salvation admittedly lies in the path of cheaper 

 production both in cultivation and manufacture. These issues ore being vigor- 

 ously faced and some progress has been accomplished, but the future of the 

 industry con scarcely help being described as of great uncertainty. The issue 

 is not the advantage of new regulations of land tenure, but one exclusively of 

 natural versus synthetic indigo. 



IMPROVEMENT OF STOCK. Sir Edward Law (formerly Finance 

 Minister of India), in a letter to The Pioneer in December 1905, refers to 

 his views regarding the future of the indigo industry: " It would appear 

 to be assumed," he says, " that because unfortunately the production of 

 indigo continues to fall off, my belief in the possibility of recovery of the 

 industry is a mistaken one. In my last budget speech in March 1904, I 

 enumerated the following improvements as necessary to effect a reduction 

 in the cost price of indigo and thereby secure a profit to growers and 

 manufacturers : (1) that the plantations should be placed on a sound 

 financial basis, and cease to remain in a position where requirements for 

 e;ish in seasons of dear money could only be satisfied by transferring profits 

 from the pockets of the planters to those of the money-lenders ; (2) economy 

 in management; (3) selection of seed and propagation of the qualities 

 yielding the highest percentage of indigotin ami best suivd to local con- 

 ditions of climate and soil ; (4) rotation of crops to obtain good profits 

 from the land when not under indigo, and thereby reduce the cost of culti- 

 vut ion of the plant ; (5) chemical improvements in manufacture." " When 



669 



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Ito-eBtablinli- 



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Troubles 

 in Baogftt 



Migration to 

 Tirhut. 



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Improve- 

 ment. 



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Economy. 

 Stock. 



Rotation. 



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