146 



every other industry, imperilled by Germany and the United States ; 

 combination and reform in methods. The question is very im- 

 portant to India, and I therefore venture to deal with the subject 

 at some length. 



Decreased Imports at Marseilles. 



Indigo imports have steadily decreased in the last few years. 

 Ten years ago the Marseilles market received 1,400 to 1,500 cases 

 annually, whereas in 1899 direct imports did not exceed 600 cases. 

 The import rose slightly during 1900. Of the 600 cases imported 

 in 1899, 130 came from Java, 50 from Bengal, the remaining 420 

 from the coast of C6romandel. The causes of this decrease were 

 as follows : European buyers no longer care to compete against 

 the relatively higher prices paid by Japan and the Levant for Coro- 

 mandel indigo of which they have no^v become the principal buyers. 

 The few Java planters of indigo who used to send their produce 

 here, have now 'completely given up the cultivation of indigo, 

 which no longer paid, for the cultivation of tobacco and sugar. 

 Imports at Marseilles from Bengal have almost completely ceased 

 because, in the first instance, consumers buy from the growers 

 direct more than they used to, smill dyers receiving one or two 

 cases direct from Calcutta during the season of public sales in that 

 town, and lastly because the Havre market now almost monopo- 

 lised Bengal indigo, on which quality term sales are based. 



The above mentioned figures refer solely to indigo actually sold 

 on the Marseilles market. Lastly, German competition in artifi- 

 cial indigo has already decreased the demand for natural indigo by 

 at least 10 per cent at the close of the first year's operations of the 

 German manufacturers in France. This proportion is bound to 

 increase with the output of artificial indigo. The artificial dye 

 already regulates prices. The small crops of last year, would have 

 justified a rise in prices of natural indigo, but owing to the artifi- 

 cial produce put on the market, this has not taken place. 



Artificial Indigo. 



The researches of German Chemists, with unlimited means 

 placed at their dispossal for that purpose, begun in 1865 by Herr 

 Von BAYER, resulted in 1890 in the chemical production, at com- 

 mercial prices, of a dye having nearly all the qualities of Indian 

 indigo, the substance obtained being chemically similar to that 

 produced by the indigo plant. In 1897 HERR Heuman succeeded 

 in producing this dye to which the name of " artificial 5 ' or " syn- 

 thetic indigo " was given, from a cheap chemical substance of 

 unlimited supply, napthaline, by an easy process. One thing only 

 appears wanting to make this dye perfect, it is not yet impervious 

 to chlorine. But science as practised in Germany, with such emi- 

 nently practical results, is expected to cope before long with this 

 last remaining difficulty. 



Two German firms are now operating in France in the Lyons 

 district. The first to start was the Bedische Anilin und Soda 

 Fabrik of Ludwig-shaven-am-Rhein, holders of the first patent. 

 They established a branch house at Neuvill-sur-Saone, near Lyons, 



