TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 151 
on the day of sale of the raw cotton from which it was made. These facts may be 
taken as sufficient to indicate the unparalleled extent of the present cotton crisis. 
It has frequently been asked why the cotton manufacturers have allowed them- 
selves to be to so large an extent dependent on one source of supply. It may be 
answered that cotton-spinners, like all other tradesmen, have gone to the best and 
cheapest market. The Southern States of America have hitherto supplied cotton 
of a better and more uniform quality, in larger quantities, and at a cheaper rate than 
any other country. Why should the cotton manufacturer be blamed for doing that 
which every other good tradesman does? But Lancashire has not been unmind- 
ful of the rapid increase in the consumption of cotton, and the danger of depending 
so largely on one source of supply. Mr. Bright’s committee on India twenty years 
ago, the Manchester Chamber of Commerce for the last twenty-five years, and the 
Cotton Supply Association during the last few years have been continuously call- 
ing the attention of all the countries capable of growing cotton to the necessity of 
new sources of supply. India affords the means of supplying us with three-fourths 
of all the cotton consumed in Great Britain, and the remainder of our wants could 
be well supplied by Brazil, West Africa, Egypt, Turkey, and Australia. The mis- 
government of India, as shown by the want of roads, ports, and irrigation works, 
and of that security for capital which will induce private enterprise, is the cause 
of the vast resources of that great country remaining for so long a period compa- 
ratively undeveloped. If contracts could be legally and more promptly enforced, 
and the restrictions on the purchase of land removed, as recommended by Lord 
Canning, Lord Stanley, and Mr. Laing, there would be some hope that India would 
be able to compete successfully with America in the cotton markets of the world. 
Two years ago the Manchester Cotton Company was established, with a capital of 
£1,000,000. The company entered into negotiations with the government, who 
promised to make a new road leading from Darwhar to the new port of Sedashegur, 
and to improve the harbour at the latter place. On the faith of these promises, 
the company sent a special commission to India, a staff of engineers, mechanics, 
wotkmen, and clerks, and have forwarded two shiploads of improved machinery 
for cleaning and packing cotton. The cotton company find that the road and the 
pier are not made as promised, and no reasonable progress is being made with the 
work. The company’s efforts have thus been frustrated, and an immense loss 
sustained by the vexatious delay which has been occasioned. With such a result, 
is it surprising that private capitalists refuse to embark in commercial enterprises 
in India? Other cotton companies have been started, viz., The Jamaica Cotton 
Company, East India Cotton Agency Company, Venezuela Cotton Company, West- 
ern Australian Cotton Company, East India Irrigation and Canal Company; and 
ate have been made for a Natal Cotton Company, an Asia Minor Cotton 
ompany, an Ottawa Cotton Company. How has the cotton famine affected 
the working classes? There are upwards of 500,000 persons etree in the 
cotton manufacture, of which nearly 400,000 are employed in Lancashire. It may 
convey a better idea of this number to say that it is equal to 25 towns of 20,000 
inhabitants each, all wholly engaged in the cotton trade. The engineers, mecha- 
nics, and the workers in iron, steel, brass, copper, tin, and wood, and the shop- 
keepers and other tradesmen supported by them, may be reckoned in addition at 
half that number (250,000). The women and children and those not able to work, 
and dependent entirely on the cotton operatives, may also be taken at 250,000. 
The total number of persons dependent upon the cotton manufacture may therefore 
be taken at 1,000,000 persons, of which 800,000 are in Lancashire and the imme- 
diate neighbourhood. Lancashire, in 1861, contained 2,464,592 inhabitants, or 
about one-eighth of the population of England and Wales. Of the 400,000 per- 
sons usually employed in Lancashire, more than 150,000 are now entirely out of 
employment, and more than 120,000 are working short time. Taking those working 
short time at three days a week, and reckoning them at half the number (60,000), 
it gives 210,000 persons now totally unemployed. By a careful investigation into the 
rate of wages in 200 trades and occupations in Lancashire in 1859-60, the author 
found that the average wages paid to the cotton factory operative was 10s. 33d. each 
per week, reckoning men, women, and children. Taking the average earnings of the 
210,000 persons now thrown out of employment at 10s. per week, the total loss 
