The cotton question in Europe and Asia.
How cotton may be brought from India.
[from the London times, (city article,) Sept. 18]
If the Indian producer could be sure of present prices, there would be no doubt of sufficient quantities (of cotton) being raised, and the proposition is, that for one season the Imperial Government might undertake the responsibility of furnishing that security.
But, although there is nothing in this but what may be considered fairly to come within the scope of discussion, since it is perfectly legitimate for a Government to attempt to confront a national emergency, the crisis is, after all, not of such magnitude or uncertainty as to be beyond control or mitigation by ordinary means.
The low price of cotton goods, and the largeness of the stocks held at nearly all the markets of the world, may reconcile us to a pause in the rate of production; and although during this pause the contingency may have to be met of supporting a large unemployed population, the cost in that respect will be in no small degree compensated by the rise in the value of the goods in question.
At the same time, each account we receive from distant parts tends to show how every available bale from countries capable of producing the plant is likely to find its way to us. Moreover, although the Confederate States still assert that they will meet the blockade of the enemy by a self-imposed blockade, and not allow a pound of cotton to leave their territory, it is seen that this declaration does not harmonize with the last news — that at the taking of the Hatteras forts, a vessel fully laden with cotton was found waiting to run out and evade the Federal cruisers.
From Texas, therefore, a moderate supply is still expected.
The great argument, however, for abstinence on the part of our people and Government from incurring at the moment any heavy liabilities in distant quarters, consists in the circumstance that the lapse of a very few weeks is now likely to show either that the American crop will come forward, or that, on the contrary, India may set to work to take the place of that country and to supply henceforth all our tremendous requirements.
If the policy inaugurated by General Fremont in Missouri is to be adopted by the Federal Government, the war will then be one of Abolition, and in that case, whether peace be delayed or attained immediately, the production, not only of cotton, but of sugar, in the U. S., will temporarily share the fate that attended the productions at Jamaica.
If, on the other hand, the Democratic party in the North become alarmed at the Union being committed to such a result, and are able, notwithstanding the force by which the expression of their opinions is now kept down, to reassert themselves and to insist upon a compromise or adjustment with the South, there will then be no impediment to an early resumption of the ordinary course of traffic.
Meanwhile it is, of course, satisfactory to weigh the subjoined statement, and to observe that so far from American cotton being the arbiter of our destinies, our emancipation from all need of it is, perhaps, simply a question of £8,000,000 or £9,000,000 sterling.
Cost of carrying cotton in India.
[from the friend of India.]
We have been so blinded, since the secession of the Southern States of America, by clouds of complaints and reports of facts and figures regarding Indian cotton, that we hail with satisfaction the resolution of the Government of India to entrust to a competent authority in each Presidency the publication of a handbook of information regarding Indian cotton, compiled from every available source, whether Indian records, Parliamentary bluebooks, scientific transactions, or independent works on the subject.
At present the only trustworthy books to which the public can refer for information are the report of the select committee of 1848, and the volumes of Mr. Alexander Mackay and Mr. John Chapman, issued ten years ago. The discussions of the past six month have ended, as they began, in the unanimous opinion that the export of sufficient cotton from India is merely a matter of price, and that price is largely a question of roads. When a pound of cotton fetches as much in Calcutta as it would in Liverpool, there is no inducement to send it home. The question to be determined is, whether we shall wait till Manchester is compelled by dire necessity to give us a higher price, or set to work to reduce the cost of production and conveyance to port and improve the quality. The former remedy is indefinite; the latter is so much in our own hands, that it at once recommends itself as the one which should be adopted. Could a reduction be effected in the price at which cotton can be laid down in England, an immediate and incalculable impetus would be imparted to the export. A large quantity of even such cotton as we are now sending, would be a benefit to the manufacturers of Manchester, as well as to the producer and exporter here. To raise a better quality of the article would certainly be desirable; but this is an end that cannot be attained in a day. It will be many years before there are sufficient European planters in India to give a new name to Indian cotton, and it may be many more before the natives will adopt any other system of cultivation and preparation of the staple, than that which has been handed down from generation to generation, even though Lord Ellenborough's chimerical scheme were adopted.
If the most effectual method of increasing the trade is to reduce the cost of carriage from the cotton-growing provinces, we must agree as to the cheapest mode of transport, and then consider how that may soonest be rendered available. However valuable railways may be as channels for the rapid conveyance of goods from one place to another, they will never absorb one-tenth of the traffic which the cotton trade must create. At present their rates are too high. Cotton is carried on the East Indian line for 1½d. per ton per mile; on the Great Indian Peninsula line for 1¾d., and on the Madras line for 1¼.--But Mr. Baziey stated in the House of Commons that he hoped the railways would not charge more than one-third of a penny per ton per mile on cotton making its way to the seaboard. Whatever be the cost, however, at which the railways can carry cotton, it is evident that for long distances railway carriage is too expensive, and that some other mode of conveyance must be looked for. The present native mode of land carriage is out of the question. The only other mode of conveyance, and the one best suited to this country, is water. Railways may supersede the existing mode of land transport, and create a new traffic in goods and passengers wherever they permeate, particularly in localities to which water communication does not extend; but they must not be expected to supersede the use of rivers and canals. India is said to be like America in many of its physical aspects. If we wish to make India to resemble her still more by becoming in turn the great cotton supplier of England, we must study the means by which America has attained to her present position. We find from Capt. Haig's letter to the Secretary of State, dated September, 1859, when no one had the least suspicion of the events which have since transpired in that country, that most of the transpired in that country, that most of the traffic of America is carried on by means of the large and numerous rivers, and at prices with which the cheap railways cannot compete. This is especially the case with cotton. The rates at which goods are carried on American rivers are so low that she possesses in this respect an immeasurable advantage over India. On Lower Mississippi the rates are 1-7d. to ½d. per ton per mile; on the Upper Mississippi, ½d. to 7-10d.; on the Ohio, 1-5d. to 1-3d.; on the Missouri, 4-5d to 11-10d.; on the St. Lawrence, 2-5d. to 3-5d. and on the Hudson, 2½d. The rates on indian rivers vary from 2½d. to 3d. per ton per mile. Captain Haig, who is so enthusiastic on the navigation of the Godavery, estimates the rate at Êd, to 3/8d. per ton per mile. Supposing it to cost at first ¾d. per ton to send cotton from Hinginghat, on the Godavery, to Coringa, a distance of 440 miles, the total expense will be about £1 7s. 6d. The cost of sending cotton to Calcutta from Jubbulpore via Mirzapore, which is a distance of 460 miles by land and 700 by river, is stated to be not less than £11 per ton. The difference between the two is so great as to be almost in credible. The whole of the northern bank of that river is now in our territory, and all tolls and transit duties have been abolished. The cotton capabilities of Berar are so enormous, and its proximity to the East coast is so tempting, that the Bombay Railway from Nagpore or Comrawuttee will not suffice to take one-half of the produce, even if it can carry cotton for 500 miles as cheaply as the native boat for 1,500. The best cotton, we are told in Mr. Stanbrough's letter recently published by the Government, is grown on the banks of the Wurdah, a tributary of the Godavery. We do not believe now, any more than we have ever done, that any engineering will remove the rocks which impede the navigation of the Godavery, so as to permit steamers to ascend its upper waters. But native boats find these rocks no impediment, and Captain Haig may succeed in opening the river to steamers by cutting his sixty miles of canal parallel with the most difficult parts of the channel. The Ohio river at Louisville is obstructed by rocks somewhat resembling those on the Godavery. Water communication was urgently wanted. A company was formed, and a lateral canal cut along the obstructed part at a cost of a million of dollars. In twelve years the whole capital was returned, besides interest. Sir. W. Denison, who has just returned from visiting the spot, should once for all settle this vexed Godavery question.
Having by a wise policy now secured extensive trunk lines of railway, which are as much a political necessity as a commercial boon, and having spent or pledged ourselves to spend more than fifty millions stapling of English capital upon them, it is time to der vote all our attention to those smaller and less Imposing projects of canals, locks, Trailways, and roads, both as feeders to the railways and as means of transit where no railways exist. For this purpose there are road and ferry funds, and one per cent. cesses in every district of India, which have hitherto been wasted or misapplied by each district officer or committee, according to their own fancy. For the first time the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal collected these funds and applied them on a system, supplementing them by State grants. This should be done throughout India, and every district officer should be made to feel that, to stand well at headquarters, he must be as zealous in opening up communications which will create revenue as in collecting revenue already made. We hope little from our Public Works Department, which Mr. Smollett, a retired civilian, lately described in the House as ‘"the most expensive, the most corrupt, and the most profligate in the world."’ We do not go so far, but none are more ready than the department itself to admit that, for little works such as every square mile of India now wants, and private enterprise supplies in England, the ‘"P. W. D."’ is hopelessly useless.
Cotton cultivation in Portugal.
[from the Annales du commerce Exterieur of Paris, Sept. 15.]
It has been proved by repeated experiments that the cultivation of this important article would succeed, not only in the Portuguese settlement on the coast of Africa, but on certain parts of the Peninsula, particularly in the Algarves and Alemtigo.
The maritime part of the former province, the lands of Almargem and Trofal in the cantons of Louie and Albuginea, and those of Ludo, in the canton of Faro, are mentioned as the best suited to the cotton plant.
Some cotton grown in the last-named place figured in the Universal Exhibition of 1851.
The land in the Algarves may be purchased at very moderate prices in consequence of the new law in Portugal, which allows in certain cases the sale of majorats, and the cultivation of cotton there would tend to retain in the country a great part of the laborers who now annually emigrate into Spain in search of employment.
