THE COTTON PLANT. 



407 



come an article of commerce from the Indies to 

 this country until many years after the British 

 had possessed their widely-extending eastern ter- 

 ritory. It must he rememhered, however, that 

 antecedent to this period, though the Europeans 

 did not import raw cotton from the East Indies, 

 they imported a vast quantity of muslins and 

 other manufactured cotton stuffs, which were 

 superior to what we could produce until we 

 called in the aid of machinery. 



When the enterprising French traveller Ber- 

 nier was in Ilindostan (ahout the year 1666), 

 Bengal was the mart for these cotton goods. 

 " There is in Bengal," says he, " such a quantity 

 of cotton and silks, that the kingdom may be 

 called the common storehouse for those two 

 kinds of merchandize, not of Hindostan only, 

 but of all the neighbouring kingdoms, and even 

 of Europe. I have been sometimes amazed at 

 the vast quantity of cotton cloths of every sort, 

 fine and coarse, white and coloured, which the 

 Dutch alone export to different places, especially 

 to Japan and Europe. The English, the Por- 

 tuguese, and the native merchants, deal also in 

 these articles to a considerable extent." 



The first importation of raw cotton from the 

 East Indies into England did not take place until 

 the year 1798, and it was not even then imported 

 by the chartered company, but by privileged 

 merchants. The first cargo of this material 

 which was brought to London was valued in 

 India at £10,000, and it cleared the large sum 

 of £60,000, having been sold at 2s. 2cl. per lb. 

 During the following year the price fell to lOd.; 

 and the cotton of India is now the lowest priced 

 that is brought to the English market. It can 

 at present be purcliased at 6jd. to 7id. per lb., 

 while the best cotton from Georgia commands 

 from Is. 4^. to Is. 6d. per lb. Notwithstanding 

 this very low price of East India cotton, a con- 

 sidei-able quantity is still annually shipped to this 

 country, where, in 1832, more than 35,000,000 

 lbs. were retained for home consumption. 



During the late war, when it was the policy 

 of the French ruler to render his country inde- 

 pendent of foreign commerce, efforts were made 

 by him to introduce the cultivation of cotton 

 into Italy, Corsica, and some of the southern 

 parts of France. The attempt was attended by 

 partial success as long as other supplies were cut 

 off; but as soon as the cessation of warfare hap- 

 pily restored freedom- to commerce, the culture 

 of cotton was gradually abandoned, since the 

 product obtained could not at all compete with 

 that of foreign growth, as regarded either price 

 or quality. 



The part of Italy where the cultivation of cot- 

 ton was most successful was the kingdom of 

 Naples, particularly in that fine plain which ex- 

 tends between Mount Vesuvius, the sea, and the 

 Tifate mountains by Castellamare. Here a new 



and important trade was created, and carried on 

 successfully as long as the continental system 

 was in force, chiefly by French and Swiss mer- 

 chants, who had establishments for the purpose 

 at the neighbouring towns of La Torre deU'An- 

 nunziata and La Ton-e del Greco. These estab- 

 lishments closed with the coercive system that 

 had produced them, and generally to the ruin of 

 those who had largely engaged in them. Some 

 small quantities of cotton are still produced there ; 

 but of late years it has only been used in the 

 very limited manufactories of the Neapolitan 

 kingdom, and not exported. 



An eminent spinner of Manchester, in the year 

 1824, imported a small quantity of this Neapo- 

 litan cotton by way of experiment. The defect, 

 as compared with the American cotton, was the 

 shortness of its fibres. During the eruption of 

 Vesuvius in 1822, some of these cotton grounds 

 suffered much, from being covered to the depth 

 of twelve or fifteen inches by a dry impalpable 

 powder ejected by the volcano. 



The Neapolitan cotton was known in com- 

 merce by the name of cotton of Castellamare. 

 The agriculturists of the kingdom had also be- 

 gun to cultivate cotton in some districts of Apu- 

 lia, under very favourable circumstances of soil 

 and climate, but had made no great progress 

 when the system of Bonaparte fell. In 1824 all 

 these Apulian cotton grounds bore wheat and 

 Indian corn. 



About the commencement of the present cen- 

 tury the cultivation of the cotton plant had been 

 introduced with success into the southern parts 

 of Spain, by Mr Kirkpatrick, while acting as 

 consul for the United States of America at Ma- 

 laga. The environs of the village of Churriana, 

 at the foot of La Sierra de Mijas, which before 

 had been an uncultivated waste, was converted 

 by him into a flourishing cotton plantation. 

 Success in this apparently unpromising situation 

 caused the cultivation of the plant to be quickly 

 extended from Motril to Almeira, along the coast 

 of the Mediterranean sea ; and the pursuit has 

 become at once a beneficial employment for na- 

 tive industry, and a source of considerable foreign 

 commerce. 



When the French armies occupied the southern 

 parts of Spain, in 1810, the exportation of cot- 

 ton was so considerable as to lead the French 

 government to suspect that the whole of that 

 which went under the name of Spanish cotton 

 was not the produce of Spain. Orders were 

 therefore received by the military authorities to 

 institute inquiries concerning the cotton planta- 

 tions at Malaga, and to ascertain the quantity 

 which these actually furnished. 



Restricted in the exportation of his produce, 

 the indefatigable Kirkpatrick transferred his 

 energies to the erection of spinning factories, and 

 3,000 workmen were soon employed in a village. 



