[460] Ormes’s Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire, p. 413.
Mr. Mill thus explains the unequalled manual skill of the Indian weaver:—“It is a sedentary occupation, and thus in harmony with his predominant inclination. It requires patience, of which he has an inexhaustible fund. It requires little bodily exertion, of which he is always exceedingly sparing; and the finer the production, the more slender the force which he is called upon to apply. But this is not all. The weak and delicate frame of the Hindu is accompanied with an acuteness of external sense, particularly of touch, which is altogether unrivalled; and the flexibility of his fingers is equally remarkable. The hand of the Hindu, therefore, constitutes an organ adapted to the finest operations of the loom, in a degree which is almost or altogether peculiar to himself[461].”
[461] Mill’s History of British India, book ii. c. 8.
It is, then, to a physical organization in the natives, admirably suited to the processes of spinning and weaving; to the possession of the raw material in the greatest abundance; to the possession also of the most brilliant dyes for staining and printing the cloth; to a climate which renders the colors lively and durable; and to the hereditary practice, by particular castes, classes, and families, both of the manual operations and chemical processes required in the manufacture;—it is to these causes, with very little aid from science, and in an almost barbarous state of the mechanical arts, that India owes her long supremacy in the manufacture of cotton.
Bengal is celebrated for the production of the finest muslins; the Coromandel coast, for the best chintzes and calicoes; and Surat, for strong and inferior goods of every kind. The cottons of Bengal go under the names of casses, amâns, and garats; and the handkerchiefs are called Burgoses and Steinkirkes. Table cloths of superior quality are made at Patna. The basins, or basinets, come from the Northern Circars. Condaver furnishes the beautiful handkerchiefs of Masulipatam, the fine colors of which are partly obtained from a plant called chage, which grows on the banks of the Krishna, and on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The chintzes and ginghams are chiefly made at Masulipatam, Madras, St. Thomé, and Paliamcotta. The long cloths and fine pullicats are produced in the presidency of Madras. The coarse piece-goods, under the name of baftas, doutis, and pullicats, as well as common muslins and chintzes, are extensively manufactured in the district of which Surat is the port. Besides all these, there is an endless variety of fabrics, many of which are known in the markets of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The commerce of the Indians in these fabrics has been extensive, from the Christian era to the end of the last century. For many hundred years, Persia, Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia, and all the eastern parts of Africa, were supplied with a considerable portion of their cottons and muslins, and with all which they consumed of the finest qualities, from the marts of India. This commerce existed in the last age, and is described by the Abbé Raynal[462] and Legoux de Flaix. The blue calicoes of Guzerat were long bought by the English and Dutch for their trade with Guinea. The great marts of this commerce on the west coast of India were Surat and Calicut, the former of which is near to Baroche, the manufacturing capital of Guzerat, in which province a considerable part of the exported cottons of India were made; and on the east coast, Masulipatam, Madras, and St. Thomé, whence the varied and extensive products of the Coromandel coast are exported.
[462] Histoire Philosophique et Politique des Etablissements du Commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes, tom. ii. liv. iv. ch. 4.
Owing to the beauty and cheapness of Indian muslins, chintzes, and calicoes, there was a period when the manufacturers of all the countries of Europe were apprehensive of being ruined by their competition. In the seventeenth century, the Dutch and English East India Companies imported these goods in large quantities; they became highly fashionable for ladies’ and children’s dresses, as well as for drapery and furniture, and the coarse calicoes were used to line garments. To such an extent did this proceed, that as early as 1678 a loud outcry was made in England against the admission of Indian goods, which, it was maintained, were ruining the woollen manufacture,—a branch of industry which for centuries was regarded with an almost superstitious veneration, as a kind of palladium of the national prosperity, and which was incomparably the most extensive branch of manufactures till the close of the eighteenth century. A few extracts from pamphlets published in the seventeenth and at the beginning of the eighteenth century, will not only afford amusement, but will show the wonderful commercial revolution which has since been effected by machinery. In the year 1678, a pamphlet was issued under the title—“The Ancient Trades Decayed and Repaired again,” in which the author thus bewails the interference of cotton with woollen fabrics.
“This trade (the woollen) is very much hindered by our own people, who do wear many foreign commodities instead of our own; as may be instanced in many particulars; viz. instead of green sey, that was wont to be used for children’s frocks, is now used painted and Indian-stained and striped calico; and instead of a perpetuana or shalloon to line men’s coats with, is used sometimes a glazed calico, which in the whole is not above 12d. cheaper, and abundantly worse. And sometimes is used a Bangale that is brought from India, both for linings to coats, and for petticoats too; yet our English ware is better and cheaper than this, only it is thinner for the summer. To remedy this, it would be necessary to lay a very high impost upon all such commodities as these are, and that no calicoes or other sort of linen be suffered to be glazed.”—pp. 16, 17.
The writer, with equal wisdom, recommends the prohibition of stage coaches, on account of their injuring the proprietors of the inns on the road, by conveying the passengers too quickly, and at too little expense to themselves. A pamphlet entitled “The Naked Truth, in an Essay upon Trade,” published in 1696, informs us that—