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Madras), writing in 1793, states that the mortality occasioned 

 by the famine that had occurred just then fell heaviest on the 

 weaving and spinning classes. They were in the best of times 

 a poverty-stricken class. The fluctuations in the weaving trade 

 of India are very instructive. Cotton manufactures before the 

 seventeenth century were practically unknown in England, 

 and woollen manufacture was the great national industry, so 

 much so, that cotton cloths were designated "linens" and 

 raw cotton was believed to be a kind of " wool." In 1621, 

 Mr. Munn, one of the Directors of the East India Company, 

 estimated the annual importation at 50,000 pieces of cotton 

 cloth, the average cost of each piece on board in India being 

 7s. and the selling price in England 20s, The importation in 

 1674-75 had increased to the value of £160,000. The silk 

 and wool weavers became alarmed for their trade and serious 

 riots took place in various parts of England, and in consequence 

 the further introduction of Indian goods into England was 

 interdicted in 1700. In 1721, another statute was enacted, 

 enforcing the prohibition by a penalty of £5 for each offence 

 on the part of the wearer of Indian goods and a penalty of 

 £20 on the seller of such goods. The exports of cotton goods 

 to England were thus much restricted. In 1767 and 1769 

 Hargreaves' and Ai'kwright's inventions — spinning jenny and 

 spinning frame — came into use, and England began to manu- 

 facture cotton cloth on an extensive scale. India's export 

 trade was then confined to supplying some of the Asiatic 

 countries, and soon after, England took possession of these 

 markets. This dealt the first blow to the weaving classes in 

 India and the effect of it was enhanced by the breaking up 

 of the trading establishments of the East India Company when 

 its trading privileges were abolished in 1813 and 1833. The 

 rapid development of machinery and manufactures and the 

 cheapness with which cotton cloths were produced in England 

 led to India being flooded with Manchester goods to the 

 further injury of the weaving classes here. Now the tide has 

 turned, aad the development of factories in India bids fair 

 to enable her to manufacture the goods required for her own 

 population, even more cheaply than England, and to compete 

 with England in foreign markets. This means that India, by 

 means of the advantages conferred by foreign trade, has been 

 enabled to organize her productive powers on the most econo- 

 mical basis ; but as every factory hand will displace 30 or more 

 weavers and spinners, it is clear that the deterioration of these 

 classes will be even more rapid than in the past. Spinning as a 

 bye industry may be carried on by agriculturists to 'provide 

 themselves with the coarse but durable cloths which mills do 



