December, 1909.] 



491 



Fibres. 



in accordance with fact, and yet 1'roin a 

 financial point of view the disasters or 

 failures locally have been in an excep- 

 tional degree limited. This is to be 

 attributed in some degree to good 

 financing: — 



Certain it is that the far seeing and 

 judicious or mayhap lucky, manufac- 

 turer could emerge with a profit. His 

 contemporary in the spinning depart- 

 ment of the trade had not the same 

 chance, for his trade obliges him to 

 secure a portion of his jute in advance, 

 and everybody knOws what that signified 

 in the current season. On the other 

 hand, he had too often to sell his yarn 

 in a glutted market, and take the best 

 price he could get. It may be hinted 

 without prejudice that the spinner who 

 completes the year without loss has per- 

 formed a greater feat than the manu- 

 facturer who nets his 5 per cent, or more 

 of profit. Balance-sheets, as a rule, 

 must present a sorry spectacle, and those 

 who have come well out of the present 

 year deserve to be congratulated. 



United States and Argentina, 

 If the situation here was bad, on the 

 other side it was, if possible, worse, and 

 as an instance of the unparalleled state 

 of the burlap stock in New Yoik, it may 

 be mentioned that the warehouse accom- 

 modation was taxed to its utmost, and 

 thousands of bales for which room could 

 not be found had to be sent to Brooklyn. 

 This will give a slight idea of the 

 amount of reckless trading that had 

 been in vogue. When the United States 

 market, the most important for the con- 

 sumption of jute goods in the world, 

 failed to implement its contracts by 

 asking their suspension until further 

 notice, and when a considerable pro- 

 portion of machinery was employed in 

 the production of those goods, it is 

 obvious that a crisis is arrived at. And 

 the crisis was intensified by numerous 

 other markets eitlier delaying deliveries 

 or cutting down their orders. 



Dealing with the position of Argentina, 

 the Advertiser remarks that at certain 

 periods of the year Buenos Ayres bought 

 largely, and, what was more, Calcutta, 

 who is our arch competitor for the busi- 

 ness, pursued on occasions a line of 

 policy that suited Dundee admirably, 

 and saw meet to adhere to a fuller price 

 for ten-porter quality than her rival was 

 quoting, and the latter most fortunately 

 scooped thousands of bales. By and by 

 there came a time when Calcutta began 

 to realise what had been done, and took 

 a rectifying step ; still later news came 

 of damage to the crop, and no Plate firm 

 has had the hardihood to buy in bulk of 



standard hessians since. It is believed 

 there will be a ca rry-over of some ten 

 thousand bales. Calcutta exported 

 94,472 bales, so between Calcutta and 

 Dundee the Place receipts cannot be far 

 short of 100,000 bales— a record by a long 

 way. 



It has been shown that Dundee now 

 and again had the advantage in com- 

 peting against our Indian friends for 

 ten-porter hessians. Happily, where still 

 lighter qualities are concerned, the ad- 

 vantage to Dundee is yet more decided, 

 and is in fact becoming perennial. The 

 reason of our light hessians being so 

 systematically preferred to Calcutta 

 make is that usually there are too many 

 holes about the Calcutta goods, and other 

 evidences appear of the work being 

 driven through by some of the mills. As 

 the outcome of this the large lots of 

 to 8£ oz. cloth placed throughout the 

 season by the United States, Scandi- 

 navia, South Europe, home trade, Canada, 

 and West Coast of South America are 

 coming more and more to Dundee. 



The Question op Over- Production. 



In regard to the attempts made to 

 restrict production the review states 

 that unanimity among the Dundee 

 millowners was hopeless from the first. 

 A couple of mills have been dismantled, 

 the one by fire and the other by the 

 hammer, and the Dundee extensions, 

 except in a couple of cases, have not been 

 appreciable. The burned mill is being 

 restored. Continental extensions have 

 been considerable, and in Calcutta they 

 have been so thoroughly overdone as to 

 make it questionable whether the serious 

 delay in the recovery of the jute trade 

 is not due more to the immense increase 

 in the volume of goods being manu- 

 factured in Calcutta than to the rate 

 of progress in America, for, be it observ- 

 ed, that New York firms complain by 

 every mail of the impossibility of getting 

 business into a normal state, whilst their 

 markets are being deluged by Calcutta's 

 over-production. 



Apparently, the review continues, 

 there is now no doubt of the 1908-9 

 harvest being ample for all needs. 



That Dundee got far more than she 

 consumed last season there can be no 

 manner of doubt, and that she is to 

 have plenty of material in the current 

 season is as unquestionable. Even in 

 early June a Is. rate was paid for ware- 

 house room, and now the general figure 

 is Is. 6cZ, per ton per month. Every one 

 who looks sees how warehouse accom- 

 modation has been augmented in the 

 last few years, and with it all and the 

 manifold additions built this year ware- 



