'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎541r] (1083/1386)

21
Coal is the only article of any particular importance in this group, and its Coal.
importance tends to diminish as the output of Indian coal fields increases.
The importations of the last five years are :
Tons.
790,930
765,668
848,878
833,478
601,670
The imports into Bombay have fallen materially, the Great Indian Penin
sula Railway Company having adopted the use of Indian coal to a considerable
extent. The Bengal-Nagpur, Indian Midland, and Rajputana-Malwa lines also
now consume Indian coal more or less largely. In Burma the rice mills have for
some time past been using rice husks for fuel and the timber mills sawdust.
Burma also obtained over 55,000 tons of Bengal coal from Calcutta in the year.
These facts tend to account for some of the decline in the imports of coal :
1888-89.
18S9-90.
Tons.
Tons.
Bombay .
. 642,762
435,755
Sindh
• 46,596
32,279
Burma
■ 77,878
47,800
But the imports of the two preceding years had been heavy and high prices
and high freights prevailed. Though there is no indication of it yet, the present
year may see a recovery, especially if rates of exchange keep high. The extinc
tion of the import trade in coal is, however, only a question of time and of
greater facility and cheapness of transport in India.
Cotton is the article next in importance in this group. Imports last year Cotton.
amounted to the comparatively large figure of 116,000 cwt., mainly from Persia
and the Mekran Coast, and practically all brought to Bombay. The Customs
authorities at Bombay say : " Persian cotton is white in appearance, but the
“ fibre is poor, and it does not fetch so high a price as cotton grown on this side
“of India. It is freely used for mixing with superior descriptions and the ad-
“ mixture is then offered for sale as the produce of certain districts in India.”
Ivory is next in importance to Cotton, but more than half of it is reshipped Ivory, wool,
to London. Out of 2,687,000 lbs. imported from Zanzibar and the East African St"
Coast in the last five years, 1,590,000 lbs. have been reshipped. It is probable
that the exploitation of Eastern Africa will be followed in due course by direct
transit for this article to Europe, so far as it is not required in India for manufac
ture into bangles, combs, and the other forms in which it is used. The average
consumption for India in the last five years would appear to be about 219,000 lbs.
annually. Wool, which is imported, like cotton, from Persia and the Mekran
Coast, is all reshipped to England, with a considerable quantity of other foreign
wool brought to Karachi by land from across the border. Silk, from China and
the Straits, is brought to Bombay and Burma for local manufacture : the quantity
imported last year was 2,360,467 lbs.