257 



COTTON CULTIVATION AND SUPPLY. 



COTTON MANUFACTURE. 



268 





What was done in this matter, we shall see presently, in connection 

 with the Cotton Supply Association. 



Egyptian Cotton. Until about thirty years ago, Egypt produced 

 cotton only in small quantities ; but the introduction of good seed and 

 improved methods of culture by the energetic paflia, Mohamet Ali, led 

 to a marked advance. England first imported cotton from Egypt in 

 1823. In 1 855, Mr. Clegg, from inquiries made at Alexandria, computed 

 that there were 60,000,000 Ibs. of cotton grown annually. England 

 takes far more than half the produce, the next best customers being 

 France and Austria. The small excess above the quantities so exported 

 is worked up in the cotton mills of Egypt. 



North African Cotton. It was in the year 1850 that the French 

 government first began to direct attention to the cultivation of cotton 

 in Algeria. A portion of the coast was found to possess a soil and climate 

 fitted for this plant. In 1855 there were 150 exhibitors of Algerian 

 cotton at the Paris Industrial Exposition. In that year, about 9000 

 acres of land were under cotton culture. In 1856 and 1857, the pro- 

 duce fell off in quantity, supposed to be owing to a rush of cultivators 

 into the trade who had neither the requisite capital nor skill. There 

 is, however, no reason to doubt that a steady increase of produce will 

 be exhibited in future years, even though it may never reach any 

 important amount. Along the further portion of the African coast, 

 towards the Atlantic, there is not at present cotton grown hi a regular 

 way for the European market ; but the English manufacturers are 

 endeavouring to encourage it, by sending good seed, and making known 

 better modes of culture ; and the sovereigns of Morocco and Tunis 

 seem well disposed to second these endeavours. 



West African Cotton. Considering the nature of the climate and 

 the abundance of labour at the west, or rather north-west, coast of 

 Africa, there is every reason to think that cotton might be extensively 

 grown in that region. Mr. Clegg, on the part of the Lancashire 

 manufacturers, in conjvinction with the Church Missionary Society, 

 has brought this subject under the notice of the authorities at Sierra 

 Leone, Lagos, Fernando Po, Liberia, and the interior. In the year 

 1852 there were 1810 Ibs. of cotton brought to Liverpool from that 

 region ; it gradually rose, until the first four months of 1858 exhibited 

 an import of Ofi/lOOltw. Mr. Clegg's own account of his operations, 

 communicated to the Society of Arts in December, 1858, is full of 

 interest : " Some ten years ago, seeing the importance of the subject, 

 he thought he would, as an individual, see if he could not get cotton 

 from somewhere else than America. He turned his attention to 

 Africa ; and he asked the Church Missionary Society, of which he was 

 a member, to select for him suitable agents, to whom he could entrust 

 money for the purchase of cotton from the African natives. He made 

 arrangements always to have money on the spot, in the hands of the 

 agent* ; and his instructions were, that they should purchase the 

 cotton of the natives in however small parcels it might be brought to 

 them ; if only half a pound had been plucked from the plants, they 

 were to buy it. The consequence was, that in a short time the women 

 brought small quantities of cotton to the stations : this was commu- 

 nicated to their neighbours ; and in a little while afterwards seed was 

 planted, and the cotton growth became more and more plentiful. He 

 sent out a number of cotton gins, which the natives soon learned to 

 use. He also erected a store, and placed a large number of gins in it. 

 The natives brought the cotton in pods and in seed, and they learned 

 to clean it ; and after using a gin sufficiently long to pay the expense 

 of it, they shouldered the implement and carried it off as their own 

 jip>lTty, to be used hereafter in dressing the cotton they brought for 

 sale. He had introduced three young African natives into his mill at 

 Manchester, where they had been taught the use of machinery gene- 

 rally ; and they had been sent back to their own country, to carry out 

 the preparation of cotton upon a larger scale." Mr. Clegg estimates 

 that West African cotton can be sold at Liverpool for 4\il. per lb., 

 up thus: 



a. 



4 lb. of cotton in the ced, at \t ! 



Cleaning it into 1 lb. of (rood tibrc . . . . I. 



Packing and canvas ...... J 



Carriage to port and shipping . . . . 



Freight to England 1 



Charges at LiTerpool J 



If the cotton were of fairly good quality, and moderately clean, it 

 would meet with eager purchasers at anything near this price. 



Xn,,il, African Cnil,,n. Whether the region around the Cape of 



Hope could produce cotton of a quality and price that would 



te with that of America in the English market, is a problem not 



-wered; there is not at present an organisation sufficient for 



ng a due and steady supply of labour. Attention is, however, 



sent directed to a part of Africa north of the Cape, scarcely 



'i'lp'j,!; until Dr. Livingstone visited it. This skilful and 



vullcr, in [laming through the country of Angola, saw the 



ii with spindle and distaff. "The cotton 



i Ut for sale, and I bought a pound for a | 



t ' li-l " * demanded, and probably double what they ask from 



each - " iw cotton growing luxuriantly all around the market- 



place from seed dropped accidentally. This ix seen also about the 

 ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL. III. 



native huts ; and so far as I could learn, it was the American cotton 

 so influenced as to be perennial." He found an abundance of willing 

 labourers ; but no roads from the cotton-fields to the sea-coast. " I 

 found the people were anxious to engage in commerce with us ; but 

 they had no roads, nor pathways down to the coast ; and although 

 100,000/. worth was annually exported in ivory, bees'- wax, and palm- 

 oil, yet every ounce thus procured was taken down to the coast on the 

 heads and shoulders of men." M. Canto, Portuguese commandant of 

 Gelanjo Alto, on one occasion said to Livingstone, " If I had possession 

 of a few hundred pounds, I would create a complete revolution in the 

 commerce of this country; I would purchase all the cotton now 

 produced, and certainly next year they would produce much more ; 

 and then the third year I could make myself rich with a few hundred 

 pounds." When Dr. Livingstone returned to Africa in 1858, he took 

 with him a few bushels of very fine cotton seed, to encourage the 

 natives to grow cotton fitted for the English market, hoping that roads 

 and other facilities would gradually be obtained. In a debate in the 

 House of Commons on the Slave Trade, on July 12th, 1858, Lord 

 Palmerston expressed himself thus strongly : " I venture to say that 

 your commerce with the (south) western coast of Africa in the article 

 of cotton will, in a few years, prove to be far more valuable than that 

 of any other portion of the world the United States alone excepted." 



MixriUaneous Cotton Districts. All the remaining cotton-growing 

 districts may be passed over briefly. Asiatic Turkey used formerly to 

 be a great source of supply for England ; but the portion furnished 

 has now become very small partly because the inhabitants of Asia 

 Minor and Syria have introduced the cotton manufactures among 

 themselves, and partly because the portion exported goes to France 

 rather than to England. It is believed that, so far as natural capa- 

 bilities are concerned, the produce in Western Asia might be immense; 

 but to develope this produce would require irrigation, good seed, 

 capital, energy, and skill. Spain and Italy grow a little cotton, but it 

 is too little to need attention here. A ustralia has been examined in 

 certain places, with a view to ascertain whether the soil and climate 

 are suited for cotton culture. There is a district, measuring about 

 300 miles by 100, near Moreton Bay, which is believed to possess 

 many of the requisite qualities ; but the scarcity of cheap labour is at 

 present an insuperable difficulty. 



To what extent the several countries of the world consume the 

 cotton thus grown, is a subject treated in a separate article [COTTON 

 TH.VDK AND CONSUMPTION] ; we have here purposely confined our 

 attention almost exclusively to growth and supply. 



' and Second Annual Re/mrts of the Cotton Supply Assoriali'in, 

 1853 and 1859; Ellison, Handbook of the Cotton Trade, 1858 ; Royle, 

 Culture of Cotton in India ; Mackay, Reports of Cotton Culture in 

 //"I'd; Livingstone's Travels in Africa; Jury Reports on the 

 (ireat Exhibition*, of London and Paris in 1851 and 1855; M'Culloch's 

 Commercial Dictionary, last edition; Liverpool and Manchester Trade 

 Circulars ; New York and New Orleans Trade Circulars ; Baynes' and 

 Bazley's Lectures on the Cotton ifaiuifartures ; Consular Reports on the 

 Trade of Foreii/n Countries ; Hoard of Trade Tables : Parliamentary 

 Puiii-n ; United States' Xi<ii'i.iiir:tl Tatla.) 



COTTON" MAXUFACTURE. We now arrive at the second of the 

 three divisions into which it has been deemed desirable to group the 

 information concerning cotton ; namely, the manufacturing processes, 

 in their history and their practice. 



The use of cotton as a material for the production of woven fabrics, 

 was known in India and China for many centuries before its intro- 

 duction into Europe. The earliest mention of cotton by the Greek 

 writers is by Herodotus (iii. 106) in his brief notice of the usages of 

 the Indi : he calls it (iii. 47) by the significant name of tree-wool 

 (tlpiov &*!> (uAou), apparently not being acquainted with the native 

 name. In the reign of Amasis, B.C. 5iJ3-525, cotton was known in 

 Egypt ; but it must have been imported, for there is no reason for 

 supposing it was then grown in Egypt. Cotton cloths were, according 

 to Arrian, among the articles which the Romans received from India ; 

 and there is no doubt the manufacture had been carried on in many 

 parts of Asia, long before any extant notice of that quarter of tho 

 world being visited by Europeans. The perfection to which the 

 weaving of cotton had then been brought by the natives of many 

 parts of India, notwithstanding their rude and imperfect implements, 

 attests at once their patience and ingenuity. In China, this manu- 

 facture is supposed not to have existed at all before the beginning 

 of the sixth century of the Christian era. The cotton plant was 

 indeed known in that country at a much earlier period, but continued 

 till then to be cultivated only as a garden shrub, and was not indeed 

 propagated on a large scale until the eleventh century ; at the present 

 time nearly all the inhabitants of that populous empire are clothed in 

 cotton cloths of home manufacture, made from cotton brought in part 

 from India, but mostly of home growth. 



Before the discovery of the passage to India round the Cape of Good 

 "tton wool is said to have been spun and woven in some of 

 the Italian statiw, the traders of which were the channels through 

 which the cotton fabrics of India wore distributed to the different 

 countries of Europe. Becoming thus acquainted with these goods, 

 and having near at hand the raw material of which they were formed, 

 it was natural that they should apply to the production of similar 

 goods the manufacturing skill they had long possessed. 



