166 



REPORT 1864. 



with the supply and demand ; and there could he no doubt that the present high 

 rate was produced by an activity of speculation which had caused a great demand 

 for capital, and by the heavy exports of specie to the East. There was no cause 

 for alarm if the demand for borrowing still continued. The remedy could only be 

 the rise of price to such a point as would check those who wished to borrow, and 

 gradually, as the rate rose, money would be attracted from foreign countries to 

 England, and in time we should obtain all that we required. There was every 

 reason to expect that a much higher rate of interest was likely to prevail for some 

 years to come than had prevailed for years past ; because the export of capital was 

 "likely to increase rather than decrease, owing to the establishment of so many 

 banks of late in all parts of the world. 



Notes on a Cotton-Chart, slioiving the Effect on Cotton of the Civil War in 

 America. Bij Colonel C. W. Gkant, B.E., late Bombay Engineers. 



The cotton-chart exhibited at the Section showed, by diagrams of ascending and 

 descending lines of red, blue, and black, the quantity of cotton imported respectively 

 from India and America, and the total imports from its earliest introduction to the 

 present time ; the fluctuations in the prices were sho-mi by thin red and blue lines, 

 and at the sides of the chart were the actual number of bales and prices corre- 

 sponding to these lines, with the years and dates below ; the proportionate quantity 

 of cotton received from all parts was also shown by circular areas of dift'erent 

 colours ; the cost of cultivation in India and America of slave- and free-grown 

 cotton, &c. 



The following Table will best show the chief results elicited in the chart : — 



There is some discrepancy in the quantity of cotton from America, as the greater 

 portion is blockade-run cotton from the Bahamas. The Indian bales are reduced to 

 400 lbs. per bale to admit of a comparison with the Ameiican. 



The following remarkable facts connected with the cotton-trade, and the efiect 

 upon it of the ci\il war in America, were elicited : — 



The imports of cotton into England rose from 7 bags, valued at £25, in 1747 to 

 3,477,346 bales of 400 lbs., of the value of £36,000,000, in 1860, or in little more 

 than a centurv ; the supplv of cotton from America fell from 2,490,527 bales in 

 1860 to 43,800 bales in 1862, the total supply falling from 3,477,346 bales in 1860 to 

 1,309,925 in 1862, the year of the cotton famine ; the price of cotton rose from 6|rf. 

 per lb. for American and A^d. per lb. for Surat in 1860 to 27 Id. per lb. for American 

 and Egyptian and 20if7. per lb. for Dhollera or Surat in 1864 ; in August 1864 the 



* The reaction has commenced ; on May 15, 1865, DhoUera cotton was selling in Bom- 

 bay at 9rf. per lb., including freight. 



