52 



INDIGO. 



Letter to The aniiual consumption of this article in all 



Bengal, 



28 Aug. 1800. Europe during the war, is computed by intelligent 

 persons at about three millions of pounds weight, 

 and we see not why, with good management, our 

 own provinces may not furnish the whole of this 

 demand. 



19. The only quarter besides whence indigo 

 now comes in any considerable quantity, is Spa- 

 nish America, including Florida. Carolina and 

 Georgia, we are told, have nearly abandoned the 

 cultivation of this article, substituting for it cot- 

 ton, which they soon bring to great perfection. 

 St. Domingo at present raises no indigo ; so that, 

 in fact, it is owing to the importations from India 

 during the war, that the manufacturers of this 

 country have not been stopped. But there is a 

 probability that order will be restored in that fine 

 island, and if high prices and short importations 

 of indigo from the East should continue at this 

 market, they may again encourage both North 

 America and St. Domingo to return to the culture 

 of it ; the present, therefore, is the time to secure 

 this trade to our own territories. 



20. The statements transmitted with our letter 

 of the 27th July 1796 were not before our Board 

 of Trade when they recorded their minute of the 

 28th October 1796, on the respective pretensions 

 of the indigo manufacturers of our provinces and 

 those of Oude ; but they had received them long- 

 before the month of March 1798, when they made 



a 



