624 U. S. Consul WIcDougalVs Report on Oils and Jute at Dundee. 



" It will be observed fiom the above statement that the whole of the British 

 vessels engaged ia the Davis Straits and Greenland seal and whale fisheries now 

 belong to this Consular district, and of these the largest number belong to Dun- 

 dee, and are all steamers ; indeed, sailing-vessels are quite the exception, Peter- 

 head being the only port that has two or three old sailing-shij)s which go to 

 Greenland, and it is predicted that in the course of a year or two these will either 

 be turned into screw-steamers or laid aside for steam-vessels," 



2. JUTE TRADE. 



" The staple industry of Dundee and neighborhood is the manufacture of jute 

 fabrics, chiefly of a coarse kind, such as double wrap-bagging, sacking, burlaps, 

 &c. The bulk of the jute used here is turned into this class of goods, or yarns 

 suitable to make the same (these yarns being mainly exported to the European 

 Continental factories, to be there woven into cloth), and the balance into a great 

 variety of other stuffs of a finer description, called duck-i^adding, canvas, carpets, 

 hearth-rugs, matting, «S:c. 



"The introduction of jute into Dundee with the view to its manufacture was 

 in 1823 or early in 1824 ; but the first experiments made with it were not satis- 

 factory. Some years elajDsed before any further attempts were tried to manijm- 

 late the fiber. About the beginning of 1832 repeated efforts were made to over- 

 come the difiiculties in spinning jute by machinery, and by perseverance, skill, 

 and improved machinery these obstacles were successfully surmounted, and now 

 jute manufacturing has risen to be the principal business in this town, and has 

 also been a soui-ce of great wealth to this comnmnity. 



" The first noticeable impetus given to the jute trade was caused by the 

 Russian war in 1854. The belligerents on both sides consumed vast quantities 

 of coarse linens. This, together with the supply of flax from that country being 

 cut oft", created a strong demand for jute material to take the place of that for- 

 merly made from flax. The jute trade still retains in a great measure the ad- 

 vantage it gained at this time, jute fabrics, by their cheapness and strength, 

 having i)ermanently supplanted various kinds of flax-cloth, which it was only 

 considered they would substitute in the emergency. The profits then realized 

 stimulated enterj)rise very much, and led to the erection of new works in Dundee 

 for spinning and weaving jute exclusively by power, and to substantial additions 

 to those works already in existence. 



" Tlie following tables show how many jute factories there were in the United 

 Kingdom in 1862, with the number of spindles, power-looms, amount of moving- 



