Identifier: ridpathshistoryo01ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men ..
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history Ethnology
Publisher: New York, Merrill & Baker
Contributing Library: Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston University

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is also a na-tive of India. Ithas been foundfrom the earliesttimes, and theproduct has sup-plied the localwants of the coun-try within the his-torical era. Untilthe last centurycotton was not ex-ported as a prod-Here we touch upon cirCUm- The Indian cot- uct from India,that remarkable stance in the commercial Western toter-history of modern times, ests-balancing and unbalancing the cottontrade of the world during; the American THE INDICA NS. —RESO URCES. 703 Civil War. It will be remembered thatin Lancashire, England, seat of the greatcotton factories of the United Kingdom,a crisis was reached in 1861 by the clos-ing of, the ports of the confederatedSouthern States. The American marketwas thus hermetically sealed, and the portation of cotton had been less thanthree million of pounds a year, but thecotton industry suddenly sprang up un-der the tremendous stimulus, until 1866,when the exportation amounted to thirty-seven million. With this year, how-ever, the stress was removed by the
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INDIGO FACTORY AT ALLAHABAD.—Drawn by E. Therond. English factories suddenly stopped forwant of raw material. At this juncture Great Britain turnedeagerly to the cotton fields of India,cotton produc- With an open market, the £ th^can <&&** °f COtt°n Policed Civil war. m the East was not equal to the American product, and could notbe, but in this time of extreme strin-gency it sufficed to supply the demand.Prior to i860 the average Indian ex- opening of the American market, andthe Indian exportation immediately felloff to eight million a year. Perhaps noother world market of a great product,balancing at its two poles eight thou-sand miles apart, has ever exhibited soremarkable a fluctuation. Next after cotton may be ranked thejute of India. It is virtually a hemp,though the fiber is somewhat coarser.The region of its production is confined 704 GREAT RACES OF MANKIND. to Bengal, on the north and east. The ehief seat of the product is in the valley of the Brahmaputra, whe

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