184647.] MR. FINNIE ON INDIAN COTTON TRADE. 125 



and if there was a market for the ginned article. Hitherto, CHAP. 



they said, they had found the dirty Cotton sell almost as ' 



readily as clean Cotton, with but a very trifling difference in 

 the price ; and certainly the dirty Cotton was more profit- 

 able than the best and cleanest article they could get. The 

 ginned Cotton, they admitted, was certainly superior to their 

 own churkaed Cotton ; but then they always engaged to de- 

 liver their Cotton with the dirt in it, and if that dirt were 

 removed by the thresher and gins, then it would have to be 

 made up with additional Cotton ; and unless a much higher 

 price could be obtained for the ginned article, they would 

 be absolute losers by the improvement. Mr. Finnie consi- 

 dered that this argument was conclusive. Dr. Wight had Para no. 

 already stated that ginned Cotton only brought in England 

 one farthing more per pound than the common churkaed 

 Cotton ; and the loss in dirt alone amounted nearly to that 

 sum. Mr. Finnie admitted that the use of the gin was merely 

 a question of profit and loss. If the Natives could realize a 

 profit by it, they would adopt it at once. Its success there- 

 fore rested solely upon the willingness of the merchant and 

 manufacturer to pay a higher price for the improved article. 

 Hitherto the men in England, who had been loudest in their 

 cry for clean Cotton, had been only anxious to secure all 

 the advantage for themselves, and to take the clean Cotton 

 from the poor Ryot, at the same price as they had hitherto 

 given for the dirty article. 



MR. FINNIE' S NOTES ON THE PECULIARITIES OF THE 

 COTTON TRADE IN TINNEVELLY. 



Systematic adulteration of Indian Cotton: tran- 175 

 sactions between the Ryots, the Brokers, the Chit- 

 ties, and the European Agent. In order to explain the 

 causes of the systematic adulteration of Cotton, Mr. Finnie 

 entered at considerable length upon the manner in which 

 the Indian Cotton trade was conducted. The results may 



