The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-09-07
American and Indian Cotton.

~ SOhhuIbs
The increase in the production Of cot
ton in the Southern States of the Amer
lean Union during the last fifty years is
something marvellous. The total crop
in 1920 was 569,2 5 bales. Four years
later, 1928 and 1929, the exports Of cot.
ton from the United States amounted
to $4,000 bales, of which Great Britain
took 49S,00l bales. The total crop for
the year ending Aug. 81, 1876, of which
we will have exact returns in about
three weeks, is estimated a 1850, 600
bales. The exports to Great Britain
from Sept. /, 1875, to Aug. ~, 1876,
were 1902, 900 bales, and to the cont.
ncnt ~1,ll6,000 bales; total exports to
Aug. l2, 3,2Os, 900 bales.
Tho crop for the year ending Aug.
81, 1875, was 3,S27,Sl5 bales, repre-
senting n money value Of $l9l, 392, $50.
1t will thus be seen that the r Of
1876 exceeds by 522, 16j bales the crop
of 1915, which would at $50 bale rep
resent an excess in value Of the crop of
the present year wei that of last rear
OF S2G, lO1, $50. This very satisfactory
exhibit is fact of no small consequence
as bearing on the general prosperity of
the country. 1t is more especially of
interest to those who look to these agri-
cultural producers as the customers of
manufactured goods, since It affords a
Measure of the surplus produce over
and above the ne~cossaries of life
which these growers of what
our cotton factories and
the cotton factories of Great Britain and
continental Europe want, may devote
to the payment of their debts, or to the
purchase of manufactured goods. Nor
need we feel any apprehension that our
rate OF increase in the power Of produce
ing manufactured goods should outstrip
their rate Of increase in the power of
giving us and giving the foreigner all
the cotton necessary to supply our re-
spectire wants. Between 1860 and 1870
the United States added to its popula-
ton 1,ll5,O50 persons; 4,963, 7s7 were
counted to the States of the Mississippi
Valley, whose population they raised
from l9,5S3,l2 which it was in 1860,
to ~24,54O,9O7, a growth Of nearly &c
per cent. Yet, during a considerable
part of this period the Southern States
along the great river were devastated
by this civil war, whose influence in re.
tarding the influx of population did not
cease with the capture of Richmond.
Under all the adverse circumstances in
cidental to the reorganization of the
whole system of labor throughout the
former slave States, the production of
cotton has constantly increased, and is
now greater than it ever was before.
Our exports have been steadily incrcas-
ing since 1872, rs will be seer by q
glance at the following figures.
Total exports of United States cotton
to foreign ports during the past four
years:
Boles.
From ,oj7 ,3li
FROM ,619, 0Sf
From lsi3.i.......... .................. $40, ISL
From 1856, to August ?...............3 ,2Os 600
For the year ending Aug. 81, 1875,
the average weight of the bales was
400 pounds; of these our domestic spin
ners took 1905 9i3 bales, leaving a
stock on hand Of 1OS,l52 bales. North
and South America, Egypt, and India
produce most of the cotton consumed
in the factories of the world, by far the
greater part of which is manufactured
in Great Britain and the United States.
Cotton vas found indigenous in Amer
lea. The earliest seat of the manufac-
of cotton known to us was lIindOs-
tan, where it still continues to be car
ried on by hand labor in all its original
simplicity. Since 1868, when the first
Indian cotton mill was built, the manu-
of cotton in the Bombay Presi-
iency has increased Sc rapidly, and as
sumed such vast proportions, as to seri-
Dusly alarm the Lancashire spin
ners. Concurrently with the extension
Of the factory system in bombay,
there had been up to the end of
a reduction of sixty per
cent. in the imports of the class of En-
ylish goods made in that Presidency.
India is to-day by far the largest con-
of British cottons. 1t must not,
however, be forgotten, that less than
three generations ago India not only
herself with cotton manufac-
lures, but largely exported them to
other countries. The Times of India
Of March %, 1876, gives the number of
cotton mills at work in the Bombay
Presidency as having increased from
he beginning to the end of 1875, from
twenty-five to forty. Protected by a
i've per cent. duty on imported cotton,
he Indian manufacturer has the add
.ional advantage of finding a market for
MS coarse goods in the immediate vi
Unity of the fields which supply him
with low-priced native cotton. The
indian cotton mills are exceedingly prof
table; they have taken deep root in the
soil, and it becomes more than doubt
'ul if, even were the five per cent duty
'emoved, the English manufacturer can
much longer hold India as the chief
outlet for British cottons, against the
'apid and astounding growth of the ma
i've Indian industry.
The next greatest producer of cotton
ifter the United States is India. 1t is
impossible to form any correct opinion
concerning the total Indian cotton crop.
Enormous quantities are manufactured
md consumed in the interior, of which
We have no accurate statistics. Our
thief concern is with the Indian cotton
which finds its way to the English
markets, and there completes with the
A mo,;oan ~art;ola Tho total obinn,ant,