42 



most of the technical difficulties have either already been overcome, or 



are sure to be so if once a lower price should render its use sufficiently 

 remunerative. 



It is the high price of the raw material which explains the fact that 

 ramie, although brought to notice in this country only about fifteen 

 years later than jute (introduced in England, in the last decade of the 

 present century), is still, notwithstanding its superior qualities, in 

 very much the same position as it was in 1816, when the Court of 

 Directors considered it as proved that it could be used for the finest 

 Brussels lace,. and when they sent out to India machinery for the pre- 

 paration of the fibre ; whilst jute, in the meantime, has become one 

 of the leading Indian staples, the value of the exports of jute and jute 

 manufactures from Calcutta in the year 1872-73, amounting to more 

 than £5,000,000. 



But from the very beginning, jute took its stand at the bottom of 

 the price list as the cheapest of fibres, its price about the year 1830, be- 

 fore it had yet received any extended application, being between £10 

 and £12 per ton, and for many years subsequently it never, except for 

 short periods, rose beyond £15 or £16 per ton. This low range of prices 

 supplied the stimulus which led the manufacturers to incessant expe- 

 riments with it until about 1850, when, after an experimental period 

 of almost twenty years, all the mechanical difficulties of itsworking had 

 been surmounted, its special uses ascertained, and the new manufacture 

 established on a firm basis. It must be remembered also, that even 

 with the stimulus of low prices, forty-three years passed between 

 1796, when it was first imported into England, and 1839, when it 

 was first utilised on a large scale, that is to say, not merely as an 

 occasional adulterant of other fibres, but for the manufacture of fa- 

 brics siii generis. It was only in that year that Mr. Rowan, of 

 Dundee, succeeded in persuading the Dutch Government to employ 

 bagging made from jute as a substitute for that made from flax tow, 

 for the use of the Dutch coffee plantations in the East Indies. 



The stimulus which, in the case of jute, was afforded by low prices, 

 will, in the case of ramie, be sufficiently supplied by its own high- 

 qualities, if only the prices do not become prohibitive. Ramie pos- 

 sesses qualities which will always make it a comparatively high-priced 

 fibre, standing as it does between the vegetable fibres, hemp and 

 flax, ranging from £30 to £70 per ton, and the usually much higher 

 priced animal fibres, wool and silk, ranging from £130 per ton 

 upwards. It is only in competition with these latter that ramie will 

 have to rely on its cheapness ; since, as regards the other vegetable 

 fibres, it has already been noticed that, at equal or even superior prices, 

 it may yet in man} 7 cases be used with advantage instead of hemp and 

 flax. The details supplied prove, however, that the prices of the raw 

 material have in reality been hitherto prohibitive. On any greater de- 

 mand for it, the prices of the raw fibre rose at once to £70 or £80 per 

 ton, which corresponds to £100 or £120 per ton of available fibre, ex- 

 clusive of costs of preparation. Prepared or combed fibre was usually 

 sold at 2s. 6d., sometimes 3s. 6d. per lb., or £280 to £392 per ton, 

 prices such as, with the exception of the best kind of Sea Island cotton 

 and of some superfine kinds of flax, which may almost be called fancy 

 varieties, no vegetable fibre commands. The combing wastes or noils 



