618 Marliham on tJie Use of Oils in Making Jute. 



THE USE OF WHALE AND SEAL OIL IX THE MANUFACTURE OF JUTE. 



The reports of Mr. C. R. Markham, one of the Secretaries of the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, London, on the new demand for animal oils in the manufacture 

 of the important article of jute, are in i)oint as regards the new uses and new de- 

 mands of the day upon the whaler. 



Mr. Markham's paper (Parliamentary) awakened an interest in this direction 

 which prompted a request for statistics on the whale trade and its connection 

 with the jute manufacture at Dundee. The full reply to these inquiries made by 

 United States Consul McDougall, through the State and Na\^ Departments, is 

 here appended as of interest in this twofold relation. 



[Extract from Parliamentary Paper 150 ou the Moral antl Material Condition of India during the 

 year 1872-7:5, presented to Parliament by C. R. Markham, Esq., 1874.] 



" The most valuable special article of export from Calcutta, next to cotton, 

 opium, and rice, is jute. The quantity of jute exported in 1828 was 3G4 cwt., 

 worth £G2, and the extraordinary increase that has since taken place is due 

 solely to the energy of the Eyots of Bengal. They found it profitable, engaged 

 in it with alacrity, and created the trade. The large import of cheap Russian 

 flax into this country at first kept down the demand for jute, but this source of 

 supply was destroyed when the Russian war broke out in 1854, and the demand 

 for jute became brisk. The Ryots seized the opportunity without any prompting 

 or assistance. 



" From 1858 to 1863 the average exportation of jute from Calcutta was 

 907,724 cwt. From 1863 to 1808 it had risen to 2,628,110 cwt. The quantity of 

 raw jute exported in 1872-'73 was 7,080,912 cwt., worth £4,142,547, an increase of 

 nearly a million hundred-weight as compared with the i)revious year. Thus the 

 Ryots have created and extended an industry in forty-five years to a value of 

 more than four and a quarter millions, without uny official encouragement or aid 

 whatever. 



''In 1872 there were 3,955,455 cwt. of jute imi)orted into the United Kingdom 

 from India and 69,000 cwt. from other countries. Of this quantity 3,200,455 cwt. 

 are used in Great Britain, almost entirely in Dundee. The remaining 755,000 arc 

 re-exported. France takes 148,870 cwt. direct from Calcutta and 550,500 cwt. 

 from England; Trieste takes 9,000 cwt. direct from India; Holland receives 

 5,357 from India and 58,610 cwt. from England. In 1872 Germany took 77,831 ; 

 Belgium, 31,192; Spain, 20,708; and other countries, 16,176 cwt. by re-exporta- 



