1845-46.] ME. FIKNIE's TOUR YEARS IN TIKNEYELLY. 83 



the price of the Cotton is further swollen by the 

 charges of the European houses of Agency. In Tinne- 

 velly, upwards of 50,000 candies of Cotton are shipped 

 every year at a cost of some 25 lakhs of rupees, or 

 £250,000 ; the mere shipment of which occupies eight 

 Agency houses on the coast, whose charges alone are 

 equal to 12 per cent, on the whole. All this Cotton, 

 he represented, might be shipped by one or two Agency 

 houses, which would so far reduce the expenses as to 

 encourage the home merchants to largely increase their 

 trade. Again, by purchasing direct from the Eyots, 

 the iniquitous services of the Chetties would be dis- 

 pensed with, and the Eyots would reap the full reward 

 of their labours. 



Nothing however would induce the Eyots to adopt 130 

 the American Saw Gin. — As regards separating the 

 staple from the seed and cleaning it for the home mar- 

 ket, Mr. Einnie believed that nothing, not even an 

 agency, would induce the people of India to recognize 

 the advantages of the American saw gin. The circum- 

 stances of America and India, in respect to the use of 

 this machine, were altogether different. In America, 

 where slave labour was valuable and time was money, 

 a Planter could invest his capital profitably in ma- 

 chinery. In India, on the contrary, the bulk of the 

 people were not employed for one-third of their time, 

 and a man was willing to labour for three rupees a 

 month, during which period he would in his own rude 

 way clean a candy of Cotton, or 500 lbs. Was it 

 likely therefore that a Native would pay four rupees 

 for having a candy of Cotton cleaned in six hours by an 

 American gin ? If the man could get no employment 

 during that month, he would lose the whole four rupees ; 

 and even if he did get work elsewhere, he would still be 

 the loser of one rupee. Again, when the Cotton was 

 separated from the seed, the seed was still useful to the 

 people as food for cattle, but it could be of no value to 

 an Agency. If however an Agency were established in 

 the Cotton districts for the purchase of the Cotton 

 seed, and if the Natives agreed to give a fair price for 

 the seed after it had been separated from the Cotton, 



g2 



