28 



COTTON-WOOL. 



No. 17. 



Extract Letter from the Court of Directors to 

 the Governor in Council at Bombay, dated the \st 

 June 1803. 



Letter Par. 9. The six bales of cotton, the produce of 



to Bombay, ^ 



1 June 1803. Rhaudatcrra plantation, were of very excellent 

 quality, and we indulge the hope that its culti- 

 vation will reimburse with profit the expenses of 

 forming the Rhaudaterra plantation. The Bour- 

 bon sort sold for 2^. 2d. and the native at l^^d. 

 per pound ; but we have reason to believe that, 

 even in the present very depressed state of the 

 cotton market, if there had been a quantity suffi- 

 cient to have excited competition among the 

 dealers, the selling price would have been higher. 

 The native sort was not so much inferior to the 

 other in quality as the difference in price would 

 seem to point out, but was not so well cleared 

 from seeds and extraneous matter. Surat cotton 

 has for several months past been at the low price 

 of 96?. to \ \d. per pound, and we understand that 

 large importations of cotton are expected from 

 the Southern Provinces of North America, the 

 cultivation of indigo having for some time ceased 

 to be profitable there. 



10. The sample of Malabar cotton, referred to 

 in your Revenue letter of 22d December 1801, 

 was so small that no manufacturing experiment 



could 



