122 



COTTOJS-WOOL. 



State of Culture Bengal, it IS Well known, does not produce, and 



and Trade of ^ tit 



Cotton in India, probably nevcr did produce, a greater supply or 

 cotton than is required for its internal consump- 

 tion; and during the periods when the Company's 

 investment of cotton manufactures for exportation 

 to London w as in its once large and flourishing 

 state, and at the same time there was an active 

 demand for the like goods by the French, Dutch, 

 and Danish merchants, the quantity of cotton 

 grown in the Bengal provinces did not equal one- 

 eighth part of the quantity worked up there into 

 piece-goods. The necessary supply was imported 

 from the Deccan, the Doab, and various parts of 

 the Mahratta country ; and it appears that the 

 value of the quantities of cotton which passed the 

 then frontier custom-house of Manjee, at the con- 

 fluence of the river Gogra with the Ganges, 

 amounted in one particular year to a crore of 

 rupees. But a great portion of this foreign 

 cotton was exported from Calcutta by sea. 



The treaty of the Nabob Vizier of the year 

 1801, and treaties with other Native Princes, have 

 however transferred to the Company the sove- 

 reignty over some of the Central provinces of 

 India, which afford cotton in great abundance, and 

 the supplies of cotton which arrive at Calcutta are 

 now classed as British produce, very little cotton 

 produced in countries beyond the British frontier 

 being now imported into the Company's pro- 

 vinces. 



