TttE COAL-TAR INDUStRY IN ENGLAND AND GERMAFi'. 259 



dyewoods has greatly decreased, whilst at the present moment logwood 

 and indigo are seriously threatened. Regarding the indigo question so 

 much has been written that I do not propose to occupy space in its further 

 discussion, but will only point out that tiie complete capture of the indigo 

 market by the synthetic product, which would mean a loss to our Indian 

 dependencies of 3,000,000^. a year, is regarded by the Badische Company as 

 so absolutely certain that, having already invested nearly a million pounds 

 in the enterprise, they are at present issuing 750,000/. of new debenture 

 capital to provide funds to extend their plant for this purpose ! In the 

 last annual report of the company they say : ' As regards plant indigo, 

 the directors are prepared and determined to meet this competition in all 

 its possible variations in value. Much strange matter has been published 

 in India as to improvements in tlie cultivation and preparation of natural 

 indigo, but the illusions of the planters and indigo dealers are destined to 

 be dispelled before facts, which, although they are not known to them, 

 will make themselves more felt the larger the production of artificial 

 indigo becomes.' 



Besides the loss of material wealth which the neglect of the coal-tar 

 trade has involved to the country, there is yet another aspect of the ques- 

 tion which is even of more importance than the commercial one. There 

 can be no question that the growth in Germany of a highly scientific 

 industry of large and far-reaching proportions has had an enormous effect 

 in encouraging and stimulating scientific culture and scientific research in 

 all branches of knowledge. It has reacted with beneficial effect upon the 

 universities, and has tended to promote scientific thought throughout the 

 land. By its demonstration of the practical importance of purely theo- 

 retical conceptions it has had a far-reaching effect on the intellectual life of 

 the nation. How much such a scientific revival is wanted in our country 

 the social and economic history of the past ten years abundantly testifies. 



The position with which we are confronted is in truth a lamentable 

 one, and the way out is not so easy to find. In 1886 it could perhaps 

 still be maintained that we held the key to the situation if we chose to 

 make use of it, inasmuch as the principal raw products of the colour 

 manufacture (tar oils, naphthalene, anthracene, soda, ammonia, iron, tkc.) 

 were in great measure imported from England. In a speech to the 

 Academy of Sciences of Munich in 1878 Professor von Baeyer had said : 

 ' Germany, which in comparison with England and France possesses such 

 great disadvantages in reference to natural i-esources, has succeeded by 

 means of her intellectual activity in wresting from both countries a source 

 of national wealth. Germany has no longer to pay any tribute to foreign 

 nations, but is now receiving such tribute from them, and the primary 

 source from which this wealth originates has its home, not in Germany, 

 but in England. It is one of the most singular phenomena in the domain 

 of industrial chemistry that the chief industrial nation and the most 

 practical people in the world has been beaten in the endeavour to turn to 

 profitable account the coal tar which it possesses. We must not, how- 

 ever, rest upon our oars, for we may be sure that England, v/hich at pre- 

 sent looks on quietly while we purchase her tar and convert it into colours, 

 selling them to foreign nations at high prices, will unhesitatingly cut off 

 the source of supply as soon as all technical difficulties have been sur- 

 mounted by the exertions of German manufacturers.' ' Professor von 



' Quoted by Mr. Levinstein, Jour. S^o. Chem. Tnd.. 1886, p. 350. 



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