East Indies.—After the United States, the most extensive cotton-producing country is India. The plant is indigenous to the soil, and the culture and manufacture have existed from prehistoric times. A century ago, the western world was almost entirely dependent upon the east for its C. goods, but within the past 100 years the order of things has been almost reversed. The mills of Lancashire are now in successful com petition with the famed looms of India, and the natives of that vast empire find it cheaper to take our calicoes in exchange for their raw C., than it is to manufacture their own clothing. The first import of East Indian C. into Great Britain took place in 1783. The average receipts, from that year to 1792, were 65,550 lbs.; from 1793 to 1800, 2,223,039 lbs.; 1801 to 1810, 6,357,000 lbs.; 1811 to 1820, 24.016,805 lbs.; 1821 to 1S30, 18,835,567 lbs.; 1841 to 1850, 79,815,403 lbs.; and 1851 to 1859, 23,017,310 lbs. In 1820, only 224 pounds-weight of cotton-yarn, and 14,191,177 yards of goods, were exported to India; but in 1874, the figures, including shipments rid Suez, were 38,000,000 lbs. yarn, and 1,263,000,000 yards of calico! It is impossible to ascertain the total amount of C. raised in India; but we may observe that the fiber is grown all over the peninsula, and is used for all the purposes for which we employ C., flax, wool, and mostly hemp. The following figures will give the reader some idea of the extent of the export branch of the trade; they also show the marvelous expansion incidental to the American war.
Prior to the American war, the supply of C. from India was merely supplementary to that from the United States. With a small crop in America. prices advanced, and the imports from India increased; but with a large American yield, prices drooped, and the receipts from India fell off; the surplus produce finding its way to China, or being consumed in the interior. This is in a measure still the case (as is shown in the above figures), though not to the same extent as formerly. By the introduction of improved methods of cultivation, cleaning, etc., the quality of Indian C. has been greatly improved; and it is now much more generally used than it was 12 or 15 years ago.
Brazil.—The C. trade of Brazil has undergone a most extraordinary development during the past 10 years, owing to the impetus given to the cultivation of the plant during the American war, and to the general adoption of the saw-gin in place of the roller-gin; this substitution of the American gin has produced quantity at the expense of quality; but the demands of fine spinners have been met by increased supplies from Egypt. The subjoined statement shows the progress made by this branch of Brazilian trade: Egypt.—The C. plant has been known in Egypt from time immemorial; but the trade, properly so called, was first introduced by the celebrated Mehemet Ali, about 50 years ago. The first exportation took place in 1821, and amounted to 944 cantars.
During the seven years ending 1827, 1,011,697 cantars were produced, or 144,528 cantars per annum. In the next septennial period, there was a falling off, owing to the with drawal of a large number of laborers to carry on the wars of the pasha in Saudan, etc., and Syria; the exports therefore only reached 900,521 cantars, or 128,646 per sear. The transactions of the subsequent seven years show a considerable improvement. the total shipments being 1,498,049 cantars, and the annual average 214,006 cantars. D,nring tho years 1842-48, the total rose to 1,549,909 cantars, being an annual average of 221,415 cautars. Since then, the trade has continued to augment. The average shipmefits of the years 1849-59 were 473,282 eantars. The cantar is equal to 94 lbs., and there are about 5} cantars to the bale of the present (1873) average size; so that the exports in 1849-59 represented 86,000 bales per annum. In 1865, the shipments reached 406,000 bales; in 1875, they amounted to 347,000 bales—or 2,020,000 and 1,908,000 cantars respectively. Great Britain is the principal consumer of Egyptian C., after which comes Austria, then France. The following figures show time destination of the C. exported from Alexandria during the six years ending Sept. 30, 1875.
Other Conntries.—In addition to the districts just passed in review, C. is grown in numerous other countries. During the infancy of the trade our spinners received 75 per cent of the C. consumed from the West Indies, and the remainder from the Levant; with time great expansion of the culture in America, the supplies from the West Indies gradually fell off, the planters finding it more profitable to occupy their labor and capital in the production of sugar and other growths. Early in the present century, the imports into Great Britain from the West Indies averaged 80,000 bales per annum; but by 1858, the arrivals had dwindled to only 6.500 bales, of which only about 2.200 bales were from the West Indies, properly so called. Under the stimulus of the high prices which ruled during the C. famine, the supplies from miscellaneous sources—that is. from all countries except the United States, East Indies, Brazil. and Egypt—rose from 6,500 bales in 1858. and 9,800 in 1860, to 23,000 in 1863, and 131,000 in 1865. With the decline in prices, the import fell to 100,000 in 1868. There was an increase to 106,000 in 1872, owing to the high prices ruling in that year, but the increase was chiefly from Peru. Since that year, with a falling market, the import from " other countries" has annually diminished, being only 89,000 bales in 1875, against 166,000 in 1872, the decrease, like the previous increase, being principally in Peruvian. Twenty years az°, Peruvian cotton was almost unknown in the Liverpool market: in 1864, the imports reached 27.000 bales; in 1872, they amounted to nearly 105,000 bales; but in 1875 they fell to 56.000 bales.