By 1905 the mills increased to 17, the spindles to 620,000 and the looms to 2250, but there is little inclination to expansion. Yarns for the hand-looms are obtained primarily from India and secondarily from Japan. The following are the recent figures relating to imported yarns:—
In million ℔
| 1898. | 1899. | 1900. | 1901. | 1902. | 1903. | |
| ℔ | ℔ | ℔ | ℔ | ℔ | ℔ | |
| British | 9.1 | 7.8 | 4.1 | 7.0 | 4.3 | 2.2 |
| Indian | 186.7 | 254.2 | 131.5 | 228.9 | 251.6 | 250.8 |
| Japanese | 64.7 | 104.0 | 62.9 | 66.4 | 69.7 | 110.9 |
| Hong-Kong | · · | · · | · · | .7 | .8 | 1.2 |
| Tongkinese | · · | · · | · · | · · | · · | .01 |
| Total | 260.5 | 366.0 | 198.5 | 303.0 | 326.4 | 365.1 |
Japan.—If in China the factory cotton industry reveals no prospects as yet of a great future, the same cannot be said of Japan.
The chief centres of spinning with their outputs in value of yarn for a year at the beginning of the 20th century are stated beneath:
| Thousands. | Thousands. | ||
| £ s. | £ s. | ||
| Osaka | 1226.5 | Nara | 111.5 |
| Hyogo | 495.5 | Hiroshima | 91.3 |
| Okayama | 374.4 | Kyoto | 82.2 |
| Miye | 238.1 | Wakayama | 79.2 |
| Tokyo | 227.9 | Ehime | 70.5 |
| Aichi | 224.3 | Kajawa | 36.4 |
| Fukuoka | 168.1 |
The following table gives other valuable information:—
| Year | Gross Amount of Capital invested. | Average Number of Spindles used daily. | Quantity of Raw and Ginned Cotton demanded. | Total Production of Cotton Yarn. | Average Number of Male Operatives daily employed. | Average Number of Female Operatives daily employed. | Annual Working Days. | Daily Working Hours. | Average Daily Wage of Male Operatives | Average Daily Wage of Female Operatives |
| 1892-1894 | 1123 | 420 | 112.9 | 97.9 | 6,916 | 21,695 | 290 | 22 | 4d. to 4¼d. | 2d. to 2¼d. |
| 1900-1902 | 3569 | 1209 | 335.3 | 288.0 | 13,373 | 50,271 | 312 | 19 | 7½d. | 4½d. to 5d. |
| 1903 | 3441 | 1290 | 375.5 | 322.7 | 13,160 | 57,166 | 308 | 20 | 7½d. to 8d. | 4½d. to 5d. |
| 1904 | 3470 | 1306 | 332.1 | 285.9 | 10,967 | 52,115 | 309 | 20 | 8d. | 5d. |
With amazing adaptability the Japanese have assumed the methods of Western civilization as a whole. But hand-weaving more than holds its own, and power-weaving has as yet met with little success. The custom already mentioned as a cause of the continued triumph of the hand-loom in India and China is strong also in Japan, and the economy of the factory system is greater relatively in spinning than in manufacturing. In Japan it is ring-spinning which prevails: 95% of the spindles are on ring-frames. Ring-spinning entails less skill on the part of the operative, and ring-yarn is quite satisfactory for the sort of fabrics used most largely in the Far East. The counts produced are low as a rule. Generally mills run day and night with double shifts, and the system seems to pay, though night-work is found to be less economical than day-work there as elsewhere. More operatives are placed on a given quantity of machinery in Japan than in Lancashire—possibly more “labour” as well as more operatives, because labour as well as operatives may be cheaper. On the same work the output per spindle per hour is less in Japan than in England, even when day-shifts only are taken into account. Japanese work has been severely criticized, but the recency of the introduction of the cotton industry must not be forgotten.
Bibliography.—The literature relating to the cotton industry is enormous. The most complete bibliographies will be found in Chapman’s Lancashire Cotton Industry (where short descriptions of the several works included, which relate only to the United Kingdom, are given); Hammond’s Cotton Culture and Trade; and Oppel’s Die Baumwolle. The list of books set forth here must be select only.