26 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Among other nations, the Egyptians have, within 

 the last few years, enormously increased the produc- 

 tion of this article, and have become formidable rivals 

 to other cotton cultivators. A very large quantity of 

 an excellent quality is annually exported thence, to 

 the great prejudice of the Smyrna and other markets. 



Jn 1825 more than a hundred thousand bags of 

 cotton were exported from Egypt to Great Britain; 

 and although the supply has not continued so exces- 

 sive as in that year of excitement and speculation, yet 

 the importation thence still continues much beyond 

 that from the whole West-India islands. In the same 

 year, and in 1826 and 1827, the exports of Egyptian 

 cotton to France, entirely through the port of Mar- 

 seilles, were immense. In 1828 and 1829 there was 

 a glut. The immense department of the lazaretto 

 of Marseilles, devoted to the reception of this and 

 other products from plague countries, 'was then 

 literally crammed with Egyptian cotton. 



The cultivation of cotton is very extensively pur- 

 sued in China; and in the time of Alexander the 

 Great it was grown and spun in the Penj-ab. This 

 valuable indigenous production did not become an 

 article of commerce from the Indies to this country 

 until many years after the British had possessed 

 their widely-extending eastern territory. It must be 

 remembered, however, that antecedent to this period, 

 though the Europeans did not import raw cotton 

 from the East Indies, they imported a vast quantity 

 of muslins and other manufactured cotton stuffs, 

 which were superior to what we could produce until 

 we called in the aid of machinery. 



When the enterprising French traveller Bernier 

 was in Hindostan (about the year 1666), Bengal 

 was the mart for these cotton goods. " There is in 

 Bengal," says he, " such a quantity of cotton and 

 silks, that the kingdom may be called the common 



