OF INDUSTRIES. 55 



In 1860 they consumed only 23,000,000 Ib. 

 of raw cotton, but the quantity was nearly four 

 times as much in 1877, and it trebled again within 

 the next ten years : 283,000,000 Ib. of raw 

 cotton were used in 1887-1888. The number of 

 cotton mills grew up from 40 in 1887 to 147 

 in 1895 ; the number of spindles rose from 

 886,100 to 3,844,300 in the same years ; and 

 where 57,188 workers were employed in 1887, 

 we found, seven years later, 146,240 operatives. 

 And now, in 1909-1910, we find 237 cotton mills 

 at work, with 6,136,000 spindles, 80,000 looms, 

 and 231,850 workpeople. As for the quality of 

 the mills, the blue-books praise them ; the 

 German chambers of commerce state that the 

 best spuming mills in Bombay " do not now 

 stand far behind the best German ones " ; and 

 two great authorities in the cotton industry, 

 Mr. James Platt and Mr. Henry Lee, agree in 

 saying " that in no other country of the earth 

 except in Lancashire do the operatives possess 

 such a natural leaning to the textile industry as 

 in India." * 



The exports of cotton twist from India more 

 than doubled in five years (1882-1887), and 

 already in 1887 we could read in the Statement 

 (p. 62) that " what cotton twist was imported 

 was less and less of the coarser and even medium 

 * Schulze Gawemitz, The Cotton Trade, etc., p. 123. 



