'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎537v] (1076/1386)

14
brought up to date. It will be seen that prices were on the whole lower last year
for cotton goods and yarn than in the year preceding it.
Taking the prices of March 1873 as = 100, the following table shews the
variations in the prices of staple imports since then at Calcutta:
■■
Grey shirtings, 84 lb.
Mule twist, white,
No. 40.
twist, Turkey
No. 40.
Copper, sheathing.
Iron, flat, bolt, &c.
Total.
Mule
red.
March 1873 .
100
100
100
100
100
500
June 1874
97
92
106
95
108
498
March 1875 .
86
92
102
103
93
476
„ 1876 .
86
9°
92
99
79
446
January 1877 .
78
90
85
92
67
412
„ 1878 .
73
78
87
86
60
384
» 1879 .
76
75
78
80
56
365
„ 1880 .
81
84
75
83
73
396
„ 1881 .
82
82
69
• 81
56
37°
„ 1882.
78
84
69
89
71
391
» 1883 .
82
74
54
80
60
350
„ 1884.
75
74
62
77
62
350
» 1885 -
76
72
58
64
54
324
„ 1886.
84
67
57
57
50
315
» 1887.
81
62
57
65
53
318
„ 1888 .
79
75
59
. 9°
61
364
» 1889.
81
75
57
98
65
376
» 1890 .
76
74
57
69
79
355
August 1890 .
67
71
55
72
64
329
In the review of the trade of 1888-89 the following remarks were made :
The great feature of the year was the expansion of the trade in cotton manufactures,
the increase in which was over 400 lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees , or but little less than the total increase in the
import trade generally. It was in the main a speculative increase justified by the condi
tion of the English manufacturing industry rather than by the condition of the Indian
consuming market. Imports in the present year of yarn and of white piece goods are
smaller than in the same period of last year, and it is probable, considering the condition
of the Indian market and that manufacturers in England have agreed to work short time,
that other kinds of cotton goods will decline too.
The anticipation has proved to be tolerably well founded, the trade in
cotton yarn and goods last year having declined by 16,300,000 rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. . Among
other fluctuations in the import trade the most noticeable are : a very large
increase in the imports of copper; a continued increase in machinery and mill
work, aniline and alizarine dyes, kerosene oil and apparel; and a decrease in
railway material and coal.