Stamenti, or Estates. COTTAGE SYSTEM. [ALLOT MENTS.] COTTON CULTIVATION AND TRADE. Cotton is called, in French, Coton; German, Baumwolle; Dutch, Katoen, Boomwol; Danish, Bomuld; Swedish, Bomull; Italian, Cotone Bambagia; Spanish, Algodon; Portuguese, Algodao; Russian, Chlobtschataja Bumaga ; Polish, Bawelna; Hindustani, Rûhi; Malay, Kapas; Latin, Gossypium. wards, are qualified if they pay 200 reals | this day in Sardinia under the name of (21.) a year direct taxes. When the number of electors in a district does not amount to one hundred and fifty, that number is to be made up by adding the highest tax-payers. Both deputies and electors must be twenty-five years of age. The number of persons who pay 400 reals direct taxes is said to be very small in many parts of Spain, and the admission to the electoral franchise of persons in the employment of government with a salary of 150l. a year is calculated to neutralize the independent opinions of the country, and may sometimes have the effect of keeping in power a government adverse to the general interests. By this electoral law the country is to be divided into 306 electoral districts, each to contain about 40,000 inhabitants, and each district will return one member. This is considered an improvement upon the plan of returning the deputies by provinces. The history of the cortes of Portugal is nearly the same as that of those of Spain, only that the towns which sent deputies were comparatively fewer, seldom more than ten or twelve at a time, and the influence of the privileged orders greater in proportion. The nobles having by degrees become courtiers, as in Spain, the kings reigned in fact absolute. In latter times there were less remains of popular freedom observable in Portugal than in Spain. In 1820, while King João VI. was in Brazil, a military insurrection broke out in Portugal, and a Constitution was framed in imitation of the Spanish one of 1812, but it was soon after upset. For an account of these transactions see Kinsey's Portugal Illustrated, 1828. After the death of King João, his son, Don Pedro, gave a charter to Portugal, establishing a system of popular representation, with two houses; this charter was afterwards abolished by Don Miguel, and again re-established by Don Pedro; but some changes have subsequently been made in it. The Aragonese, during their period of splendour, extended their representative system by brazos or estamentos to the island of Sardinia, then subject to the crown of Aragon, and the institution, although on a contracted basis, remains to The distinctive names by which cotton is known in commerce are, with the following two exceptions, derived from the countries of their production. The finest kind, which commands the highest price, is called sea-island cotton, from the circumstance of its having been first cultivated in the United States of North America, in the low sandy islands on the coast, from Charlestown to Savannah. It is said that its quality is gradually deteriorated in proportion as the plants are removed from "the salutary action of the ocean's spray." The seed is supposed to have come originally from Persia. It was taken from the island of Anguilla to the Bahamas for cultivation, and was first sent thence to Georgia in 1786. The annual average crop does not exceed 11,000,000 pounds. Upland or Bowed Georgia cotton, the green-seed kind, has received its name of upland to distinguish it from the produce of the islands and low districts near the shores. The expression bowed was given as being descriptive of the means employed for loosening the seed from the filaments, which was accomplished by bringing a set of strings, attached to a bow, in contact with a heap of uncleaned cotton, and then striking the strings so as to cause violent vibrations, and thus open the locks of cotton and cause the seeds to be easily separable from the filaments. A few years ago Mr. Woodbury, secretary of the United States' Treasury, prepared some tables which showed the cultivation, manufacture, and trade in cotton throughout the world. According to these tables, which must be considered as rough estimates, though probably not far from Bales. 1832-33 1,070,438 1833-34 1,205,394 1834-35 1,254,328 1835-36 1,360,725 1836-37 1,422,930 1837-38 1,801,497 Bales. that in 1834 rather more than two-thirds (68 per cent.) of all the cotton sent away from all the places of production were shipped to England. About five-sixths of all the cotton brought into the United Kingdom is of the growth of the United States of North America. Above onehalf in value of the exports of the United States consists of cotton wool-47,090,000 out of a total of 92,000,000 dollars in the year ending 30th September, 1842, and 49,000,000 out of a total of 77,000,000 dollars in the nine months ending June 30th, 1843. 1838-39 1,360,532 1839-40 2,177,835 1840-41 1,634,945 1841-42 1,683,574 During the period in which the in1842-43 2,379,000 creased production has been going forward 1843-41 2,030,000 with the greatest rapidity in America, the In the ten years preceding 1845 the In the table of prices given by Mr. Woodprices have been continually declining. average annual rate of increase in the growth of cotton in the United States bury as those of the United States, at the has been about 100,000 bales. The dis-kinds of cotton, it is shown that the places of exportation, and including all tribution of the cotton crops of the United States was as follows in 1843 and 1844: Great Britain: Other parts of Eu average price of each period of five years, from 1791 to 1835, has been as follows, viz. : 194,000 144,000 1801 to 1805.12 d. per lb. 1816 to 1820.13d. 1821 to 1825. 8d. 1826 to 1830. 5d. 1831 to 1835. 6d. rope American consumption 326,000 346,744 The progressive average annual increase in the consumption of American cotton in the ten years from 1835 to 1845 has been about 43,609 bales in Great Britain; 12,448 in the United States of North America; and 27,187 on the Continent of Europe and all other places. In the same period the consumption of cotton from all other countries, except North America, has increased at an annual average rate of 14,107 bales. The cotton wool imported into Great Britain from Brazil, India, Egypt, &c. in 1843 and 1844 was as under: Brazil. Demerara and Berbice Egypt. East Indies West Indies, Cartha gena, &c. Mr. Woodbury states that "where rich lands and labour were low, as in Mississippi and Alabama a few years ago, two cents (one penny) per pound for cotton in the seed, or eight cents when cleaned, would pay expenses. It is supposed to be a profitable crop in the South-western States at ten cents per pound." Mr. Bates, of the house of Baring and Co., stated before a Parliamentary Committee, in 1833, that "even six cents, or threepence per pound, is a price at which the planters can gain money in the valley of the Mississippi." Land fresh brought under cultivation in the United States will yield on an average from 1000 to 1200 pounds per acre of cotton with the seed, which will yield of clean cotton from 250 to 300 pounds. Bengal cotton of inferior quality can, it is said, be raised for three half pence It appears from Mr. Woodbury's tables per pound, and delivered in England at 1800, lbs. 1837, 368,445,035 1838, 455,036,755 1839, 352,000,277 1840, 528,142,743 5 The growth of the cotton trade has been rapid beyond all commercial precedent. In 1786 the total imports were somewhat less than 20,000,000 pounds, no part of which was furnished by North America. Our West India colonies sup plied nearly one-third, about an equal quantity was brought from foreign colonies in the same quarter, 2,000,000 pounds came from Brazil, and 5,000,000 pounds from the Levant. In 1790 the importations amounted to 31,447,605 pounds, none of which was supplied by the United States. In 1795 the quantity was only 26,401,340 pounds. In this year a commercial treaty was made between the United States of North America and Great Britain, by one article of which, as it originally stood, the export was prohibited from the United States in American vessels of such articles as they had previously imported from the West Indies. Among these articles cotton was included, Mr. Jay, the American negotiator, not being aware that cotton was then becoming an article of export from the United States. In 1800 the imports had more than doubled, having reached 56,010,732 pounds. This was the first year in which any considerable quantity was obtained from America; the imports from that 646,874,816 The quantities actually employed in our manufactories in different years during the same period have been as under : lbs. 51,594,122 1805, 58,878,163 1810, 123,701,826 1815, 92,525,951 1820, 152,829,633 1825, 202,546,869 1830, 269,616,640 1835, 326,407,692 1836, 363,684,232 1841, 437,093,631 1842, 473,976,400 1843, 585,922,624 1844, 558,015,248 The rapid increase in the consump tion of cotton has altogether resulted from the inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, and others, in spinning machinery, and more recently from the invention by Dr. Cartwright, since perfected by other mechanicians, of the power-loom. But for these inventions it would have been impossible for our artisans to have competed successfully with the spinners and weavers of India, from which country we previously received our supply of muslins and calicoes. Not only have we ceased to import for use the muslins of India, but have for many years sent great and continually increasing shipments of those goods to clothe the natives of India. In 1814 our looms supplied 818.202 yards of cotton goods to India. Two years afterwards the shipments were doubled. In 1818 they amounted to 9,000,000 yards; in 1835 the markets of India and China took from us 62,994,489 yards, the declared value of which amounted to 1,660,806., exclusive of 8,233,142 lbs. of cotton yarn, valued at 603,2117. In 1842 we exported to India and Ceylon 155,506,914 yards, of the declared value of 2,480,031., besides 12,050,839 lbs. of cotton yarn, valued at 545,075l. Considerable shipments of cotton piece goods are still made from India to this country, but nearly the whole are re-exported. | mestic goods 30 to 45 per cent.; on yarns spun for printed calicoes 25 per cent.; on yarn for ordinary muslin 10 per cent.; while on the finest lace-yarns the fraction of duty upon the wages of labour was almost inappreciable. On No. 100 twist the pressure of the tax was 24 per cent. on the material, and 1 on the cost of twist; on No. 12, the coarsest kind, the tax was 12 per cent. on the material and 7 per cent. on the cost of twist. On a coarse cotton shirt or stout piece of calico, the duty, small as it might really be, was 200 times greater than on fine muslins. In 1843 the gross duty on cotton-wool amounted to 736,5461., and in 1844 to 672,6147. (Messrs. Blackburn and Co.'s Annual Statistics of the Cotton Trade, 1844.) COTTON MANUFACTURE AND TRADE. The use of cotton as a material for the production of woven fabrics was known in India and China for many centuries before its introduction into Europe. The earliest mention of cotton by the Greek writers is by Herodotus (iii. 106) in his brief notice of the usages of the Indi: he calls it (iii. 47) by the significant name of tree-wool (eptov and Cúλov), apparently not being acquainted The duty on cotton wool was wisely with the native name. In the reign of abandoned in 1845, although it amounted Amasis, B.C. 563-525, cotton was known to only 5-16ths of 1d. per lb. This ap- in Egypt, but it must have been imported, parently small duty constituted a tax of as there is no reason for supposing it was 10 per cent. on the New Orleans price of then grown in Egypt. Cotton cloths middling cotton most extensively used in were, according to Arrian, among the this country. It placed the English cot-articles which the Romans received from ton spinner on very unequal terms with the cotton manufacturers of the United States, who were already in possession of advantages arising from contiguity to the cotton-market, saving in freight, and other diminished charges, which were estimated at 14 per cent., making a total difference of 24 per cent. In 1844 the cotton-spinners of the United States of America were larger consumers of the raw material than the spinners of Great Britain in 1815. The duty pressed most heavily on the coarsest kind of manufactures. Comparing it with the wages of the spinners, the duty of 5-16ths of 1d. was 50 per cent. upon the wages of the operatives employed in producing the coarsest heavy yarns; on yarn for do India, and there is no doubt the manufacture had been carried on in many parts of Asia, long before any extant notice of that quarter of the world being visited by Europeans. The perfection to which the weaving of cotton had then been brought by the natives of many parts of India, notwithstanding their rude and imperfect implements, attests at once their patience and ingenuity. In China, this manufacture is supposed not to have existed at all before the beginning of the sixth century of the Christian æra. The cotton plant was indeed known in that country at a much earlier period, but continued till then to be cultivated only as a garden shrub, and was not indeed propagated on a large scale until the eleventh century; at the present time nearly all the inhabitants of that populous empire are clothed in cotton cloths of home manufacture. Before the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, cotton wool is said to have been spun and woven in some of the Italian states, the traders of which were the channels through which the cotton fabrics of India were distributed to the different countries of Europe. Becoming thus acquainted with these goods, and having near at hand the raw material of which they were formed, it was natural that they should apply to the production of similar goods the manufacturing skill they had long possessed. Mr. Baines has shown (Hist. of Cotton Manufacture,') that the cotton plant was extensively cultivated, and its produce manufactured, by the Mohammedan possessors of Spain in the tenth century. This branch of industry flourished long in that country. In the thirteenth century, the cotton manufacturers formed one of the incorporated companies of Barcelona, in which city two streets received names which point them out as the quarter in which the manufacturers resided. The cloths made were mostly of coarse texture, and a considerable quantity was used as sailcloth. The name fustians, from the Spanish word fuste, siguifying "substance," was borrowed from the Spanish weavers, and is still used to denote a strong fabric made of cotton. In consequence of religious prejudice, the arts which long flourished among the Mohammedan possessors of Spain did not extend themselves to the Christian inhabitants of other European countries: the traffic of Andalusia was all carried on with Africa and the East. From Italy the art made its way to the Netherlands, and about the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century was brought thence to England by protestant refugees. Lewis Roberts, in The Treasure of Traffic,' published in 1641, makes the earliest mention extant of the manufacture in England. He says, "The town of Manchester buys cotton wool from London that comes from Cyprus and Smyrna, and works the same into fustians, vermillians, and dimities." There is abundant evidence to show that in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and probably before that time, cotton was cultivated and converted into clothing in most of the countries occupying the southern shores of the Mediterranean. The European conquerors of Mexico in their first invasion of that country found in use native manufactures of cotton, both unmixed and mixed with the fine hair of rabbits and hares. Some of these fabrics were sent by Cortes to Spain as presents to the Emperor Charles V. Cotton was cultivated and manufactured at an equally early period by different nations on the coast of Guinea, and it is stated by Macpherson in his Annals of Commerce,' that cotton cloths were imported into London in 1590 from the Bight of Benin. Previous to the introduction of Arkwright's inventions the cotton manufacture was of small importance, as is evident from the quantities of the raw material then brought into the country. Arkwright's first patent for the mode of spinning by rollers was taken out in 1769, and the following account of the importations of cotton at different periods preceding and speedily following that event will show how rapid was the progress occasioned by it, and by the other inventions for which it prepared the way : |