MANUFACTURES of the south and east of Asia are largely articles for personal or domestic use. Compared with the industries of Europe and America, there are no great shipbuilding estab lishments, or metal foundries, or glass-works. The people of India make excellent glass, but they turn out only prettily-tinted bangles for women's bracelets. Candles, clocks, watches, machinery. and mill-work are all imported from foreign countries, as also are much of their cotton and silk and woollen goods, porcelain, hardware, malt liquor, and paper.
In 1882-83, the British India total imports from and exports to foreign countries were respectively to the value of 65 and 84 kror. as under :— The people of several of the races in the south and east of Asia are skilled in many of the industrial arts, and they are diligent in their respective callings, but they are not producing the manufactures needed by foreign nations. In field and garden cultivation, in the economy of water, and the utilisation of manures, no nation excels the Chinese, and they are stimulated by the example of the imperial family, the head officials annually ploughing the first field, and the empress and her attendants taking an interest in the silk-worms and their produce. In spinning, in the weaving of shawls and carpets, and dyeing of cotton and silk stuffs, of such kinds as are suitable for the clothing that they wear and to their habits, the weavers and dyers in South Eastern Asia are not approached by any Euro pean race. Nevertheless, as will be seen by the above lists, India has to import Rs. 24,81,00,625 worth of cotton goods ; but yet holds its own in the finer artistic work of its mushroo and kim khab, its satins and brocades of Ahmadabad and Benares, and its delicate muslins of Dacca and North Arcot. The shawls of Kashmir and the Panjab have no rival ; the carpets of Persia, Kirtnan, and Turkestan are readily bought by the wealthy of Europe, and • the Rampur chadars from the Himalaya are to be purchased in the fashionable shops' of London. It is the highly finished, machine-made aitielei of ' Europe and America that are imported into India. The
manufactures of Europe have a mechanical per fection of finish, which is quite out of place in the bold free-hand composition of colour and form characteristic of the best native work. The barbaric splendour of Indian jewellers' Work, in jewellery proper and as seen on arms and armour, is due to the lavish use they make in it of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other gems. Their work being manual, they need use only-fiat diamonds, mere scales so light that they will float on water, and rubies and emeralds full of flaws —stones, in fact, which have no value as gems. But European jewellers' work necessitates the use of gems only of the purest water, and far too costly to be used as mere decoration, or except for their own effect solely.
Cotton-weaving is a very ancient industry of India. Cotton cloth has always been the single Material of Indian clothing for both men and women, except in Assam, Burma, and China, where silk is preferred. The author of the Periplus enumerates a great variety of cotton fabrics among Indian ex ports. Marco Polo, the first Christian traveller, dwells upon the cotton and buckram of Cambay. But the productions of the handlooms of to-day are undersold by the machine-made fabrics of Europe ; and without foundries and millworks the cost of erecting even a spinning mill in India is treble what would be required for one in Great Britain, and the erection of weaving mills hab been almost avoided. The peopli of India are importing twist and yarn, and are weaving these . into the fabrics they require. These are chiefly the stout cloths used by the labouring classes. The cotton carpets of India, called shatranji and darri, are usually white, striped with blue, red, or chocolate, and sometimes ornamented with squares and diamonds. Their woollen or pile carpets, known as kalin and kalicha, have attained So much popularity in Great Britain by reason of the low price at which they can be placed on the market.