MANUFACTURE OF COTTON. 
135 
says of it, 'that England and the United States are 
bound together by a single thread of cotton, which, weak 
and fragile as it may appear, is, nevertheless, stronger than 
an iron cable.' 
" No wonder, then, that the question of the adequate 
supply of this mighty and all-powerful agent soars at this 
day so far above many which, at the beginning of the 
present century, far outranked it in their bearings upon 
the interests of civilized man ; and it may not, in this con- 
nection, be deemed out of place to allude, briefly, to the 
history of the supply in Great Britain, which has long 
been the principal receiver of the raw material, not only 
to meet her own growing demands, but to be distributed, 
to some extent, among those European countries which 
commercial supremacy has made tributary to her. 
" Cotton planters and manufacturers are alike under 
great obligations to Joseph Rudworth Sharp, R H. S., of 
London, for his valuable tables, published in September 
last, which exhibit in a clear and comprehensive manner 
the gross amount of receipts per year, with quinquennial 
averages, and the countries of production of the cotton 
received in the United Kingdom, &c., from the year 1821 
up to 1855. These tables are admirably arranged, and 
must have cost an immense amount of labor to their com- 
piler ; and with full acknowledgment of the very great aid 
they have been to me, the second of them is annexed 
hereto, as affording, in a clear and succint form, the best 
information attainable on that subject 
" It will be seen from this statement how vast has been 
our own contribution of the raw material to Great Britain 
and Europe generally, and how much more reliable as a 
source of supply our cotton fields are than those of any or 
all other countries, as their production between 1851 and 
