WOOL 

 KASHMIR AND PAISLEY SHAWLS ** 



-I. I (matan) may be of one piece (when the shawl is called a Mali 

 matan) or consist of four squares of differently coloured ptukmina (when 

 it is described as a char-baghan). If in the <-Mitr is placed a medal 

 of flowers, the shawl is spoken of as a chand (moon), and if it has only 

 >nu>r flowers, it is a kunj. Lastly, when one end has a deeper band of 

 embroider v than the other, and both ends are much broader than the 

 side strips, the shawl is spoken of as a thahjxuand or paUedar. 



The chief rent r-s of the Kashmir shawl manufacture to-day are Kash- on 

 inir, Amritsar, Sialkot, l.u.lln.uui, Gurdaspur and Lahore. The returns ' 

 given below of the exports of Indian woollen goods afford the only 

 dication available of the extent of the traffic. But for centuries past 

 expensive Kashmir shawls have been much sought after by the princes 

 and nobles of India. The possession of one or more of priceless value 

 was an admitted mark of nobility, and accordingly such shawls were 

 treasured and handed down from generation to generation. Some of old 

 the finest known examples of Kashmir shawls are, accordingly, those 

 belonging to the older families. It was perhaps an unfortunate 

 cumstance when the French nobility sought out these expensive garments. 

 French traders visited Kashmir to purchase their annual supplies and 

 year by year dictated the changes in style which they deemed necessary 

 to meet the ever changing fashions of Paris. An incalculable injury to 

 the art conceptions of the Kashmir people was a necessary consequence 

 of this new trade, and when the Franco-Prussian war put a complete 

 check on the demand, the Kashmir weavers who had become dependent 

 on their French customers were ruined. Meantime Paisley had imitated 

 completely and successfully the Kashmir shawls, and at a price far below 

 what the hand-weavers could accept. Although these imitation shawls 

 had the severity of all power -loom fabrics, they reproduced every detail 

 of the originals and were marvellously woven and extremely beautiful 

 and delicate in texture, so much so that by many they were preferred 

 to the more clumsy though more artistic shawls of Kashmir. The cheapen- 

 ing process soon, however, effected its own ruin. Paisley shawls became 

 so common as to cease to be popular. The demand terminated and the 

 Paisley new industry had to be abandoned, its expensive and ingenious 

 machinery sold as old iron, and its weavers converted into sewing-thread 

 spinners, just as the bulk of the Kashmir shawl-weavers had to become 

 either carpet-weavers or agriculturists. But Paisley has recovered from caipH-ww 

 the loss of its shawl-weaving industry : Kashmir has not. And this is 

 ever the story of art and industrial instinct. The Utter lives by conquest, 

 the former dies by contest. [Cf. Andrew Blair, The Paisley Shawl, 1906.] 



INDIAN TRADE IN RAW WOOL. 



Prof. Clapham of Leeds, in an address to the Yorkshire Association Trade. 

 for Promoting Commercial Education, gave some striking facto regarding 

 the wool trade of Great Britain. In 1840 the imports from Australia were 

 40,000 bales ; in 1850, 140,000 bales ; in 1860, 200,000 bales ; and in B*J~ 

 1870, 500,000 bales of wool. If by "bales" was meant "sacks" of &**. 

 364 lb., the imports mentioned for the last year would have been 

 182,000,000 lb., or just one-half the amount recorded thirty years later. 



Up to the opening of the Suez Canal, London was the world's chief sa^cwuL 

 emporium for wool, but the establishment of steam shipping and of cable L 

 communication, when taken in conjunction with the .juick route through 

 the Canal, had the natural effect of bringing the sellers in Australia into 



1127 



