Many experienced purchasers in this country pay no regard to this mould, as it weighs scarcely any thing.—Ed.
COMMERCE IN INDIGO.
Before proceeding to a consideration of the practical applications of indigo in manufacturing, we must pause to make some general observations upon the commerce in indigo.
The first European impulse given to this commerce was made by the Spanish and Portuguese. They not only imported indigo from the Indies, but established its fabrication in their colonies. To them we owe its production in Guatemala, Caraccas, and Brazil. The French exported from the Island of San Domingo, only, in 1774, 2,350,000 pounds weight of this commodity. British influence was exerted in favor of the development of this article in the American colonies, and, in 1773, in the space of twelve months, over a million pounds of indigo were exported from South Carolina. The production in India was at that time of little importance. It was not until 1783 that the attention of the English was directed to the culture of indigo in India for European consumption, that produced by the natives being all consumed in their own manufactures. In the hands of the English this product rapidly rose to be the most important of India, in a commercial view, except that of rice. The small cost of a factory, and the comparatively small capital required for this production, caused the indigo culture to be preferred to sugar planting. The importation and sale of this commodity at the East India House, in 1792, amounted to 581,827 lbs., while the importation into Great Britain from other parts of the world amounted to 1,285,927 lbs. In 1806 the importation from the East Indies, and sales at the East India House, amounted to 4,811,700 lbs., and produced in sterling money £1,685,275. In the year 1862–63, the export from India, and the destination of supplies, were as follows:—
| Destination. | Quantity. | Value. | |
| United Kingdom | 8,537,133 | lbs. | $1,627,035 |
| America | 134,064 | 26,949 | |
| Arabian and Persian Gulfs | 343,037 | 33,385 | |
| France | 1,922,120 | 371,396 | |
| Germany | 85,680 | 15,504 | |
| Suez | 295,269 | 51,730 | |
| Other places | 9,577 | 815 | |
| Total | 11,326,880 | lbs. | $2,126,814 |
The value of exports in 1866 was £1,861,501. In the same year the imports of indigo from the whole of Central America, including Honduras, was 672,480 lbs. The consumption of indigo in Great Britain did not increase during the ten years ending with 1867. This stationary demand, notwithstanding the fall in the price of the drug and increase of population, is attributed by McCulloch principally to the decreasing use of blue cloth. It is more probably due to the substitution of cheaper dyes. The average home consumption in Great Britain for seven years ending in 1867, was 1,675,072 lbs. per year.
The importation into this country for the twenty years last past is shown by the following table, kindly prepared at our request by the chief of the Bureau of Statistics:—
Statement of Imports of Indigo into the United States during the Fiscal Years ended June 30, 1853–1872.