94* COTTON IN THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY. [!ST. SEASON. 



CHAP. Chetties, who again sell it to the European Agents on the 



'. Coast, who again are not buying it for themselves, but for 



European merchants in England. Thus the Chetty cheats 

 the Kyot from whom he buys, and the Agent to whom he 

 sells, and the price of the Cotton is further swollen by the 

 charges of the European houses of Agency. In Tinnevelly, 

 upwards of 50,000 candies of Cotton are shipped every year 

 at a cost of some 25 lakhs of rupees, or ^250,000 ; the mere 

 shipment of which occupies eight Agency houses on the 

 Coast, whose charges alone are equal to 12 per cent, on the 

 whole. All this Cotton, he represented, might be shipped 

 by one or two Agency houses, which would so far reduce the 

 expenses as to encourage the home merchants to largely in- 

 crease their trade. Again, by purchasing direct from the 

 Ryots, the iniquitous services of the Chetties would be dis- 

 pensed with, and the Ryots would reap the full reward of 

 their labours. 



130 Nothing however would induce the Ryots to adopt 

 the American Saw Gin. As regards separating the 

 staple from the seed and cleaning it for the home market, 

 Mr. Finnie believed that nothing, not even an agency, 

 would induce the people of India to recognize the advan- 

 tages of the American saw gin. The circumstances of 

 America and India, in respect to the use of this machine, 

 were altogether different. In America, where slave labour 

 j was valuable and time was money, a Planter could invest his 

 capital profitably in machinery. In India, on the contrary, 

 the bulk of the people were not employed for one third of 

 their time, and a man was willing to labour for three rupees 

 a month, during which period he would in his own rude 

 way clean a candy of Cotton, or 500 Ibs. Was it likely there- 

 fore, that a Native would pay four rupees for having a candy 

 of Cotton cleaned in six hours by an American gin ? If the 

 man could get no employment during that month, he would 



