21 



can be employed without previous crushing; but this operation, 

 with the old plant in use, gives still more profitable results. 

 (4) It meets the requirements of small dyers, who can purchase 

 it in small quantities as needed. The German manufacturers 

 are confident that as alizarine red has taken the place of madder 

 in the course of ten years, so their synthetic indigo will oust 

 the Indian plant sooner or later. 



This German opinion is, perhaps, somewhat too optimistic. 

 I give at the close of these notes some opinions of experts on 

 the other side ; but, and this is the most important part of the 

 whole matter, improvements of the Indian methods of cultiva- 

 tion and preparation will have to be made. The fight will be a 

 hard one. 



Demand, Output, and Prices. — The present output of artificial 

 indigo in Germany is said on good authority to equal the natural 

 product supplied by plantations of 100,000 hectares (247,000 

 acres) in India. Germany expects to make from 50,000,000 

 to 60,000,000 marks (£3,000,000) value of artificial indigo per 

 annum. The appearance of this artificial indigo on the market, 

 chemically similar to the chemical substance extracted from the 

 plant, brought down prices to an alarming extent. In 1897 the 

 product containing 60 per cent of pure indigo sold at fr. 30 per 

 kilo, (10s lOd) per lb, in 1883 prices came down to 20 fr per 

 kilo (7s 2d, per lb.) Prices now ruling are 17 fr 50 c. per kilo, 

 (6s 4d per lb) delivered free at consumers works. It costs the 

 manufacturer about 10 fr per kilo. (3s 7d per lb.) Mark the 

 profit. . 



The plant of the Badische Anilin and Soda Fabrik cost no 

 less than £9,000,000. Acetic acid one of the chemical substances 

 required in the process, which is obtained from wood, is used to 

 the extent of 2,000 tons annually. This means a consumption 

 of 130,000 cubic yards of wood. The reader of these notes will 

 thus be able to get a fair idea of the colossal nature of this 

 German enterprise, the object of which is to wrest from the 

 British Indian Empire the indigo market. With the discovery 

 of new processes by competing German firms, an inevitable 

 lowering of prices will follow, which natural indigo will find it 

 hard to cope with. But the lowering of prices will not greatly 

 aft'ect the German industry, for pure indigotine could be sold in 

 France at 12 fr per kilo {4s 4d per lb) at a profit. There can be 

 no question of any rises in the prices of the substance, it is 

 extracted from of sufficient importance to cause a rise in indi- 

 gotine, the supply of coal-tar being illimitable. The demand for 



