CHAPTER IV 



COTTON GROWING IN BRITISH WEST AFRICA AND 

 OTHER PARTS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 



AN account of cotton growing in Egypt and India has 

 already been given. In the following pages, brief 

 reference will be made to the position and prospects 

 of the industry in other parts of the British Empire. 



It has already been pointed out (page 51) that the 

 Lancashire cotton industry is mainly dependent on 

 the United States for its raw material. A diminution 

 in the supply from this source is therefore liable to 

 entail serious consequences. Such an occurrence was 

 brought about by the American Civil War (1861- 

 1864) when the price of cotton advanced to an 

 extremely high figure and, as a result, thousands were 

 thrown out of employment and much distress was 

 produced throughout the country. During recent 

 years, considerable inconvenience and anxiety have 

 been occasioned in the cotton trade by a deficiency 

 in the supply, aggravated by artificial fluctuations in 

 price due to the manipulations of American speculators. 

 The shortage is attributed to the fact that during the 

 last thirty or forty years, the world's consumption of 

 cotton has been increasing more rapidly than the 

 supply. The greater part of this increase has taken 

 place in the United States where the quantity of 

 cotton used advanced from about 892 million Ib. in 

 1880 to 2,830 million Ib. in 1914 (cf. p. 51). 



The danger to which the British cotton industry is 

 exposed by its dependence on the United States led 

 manufacturers to consider the possibility of obtaining 

 supplies from other sources, and in 1901 a committee 

 was appointed for the purpose of making the neces- 



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