ns inconsiderable. American
cotton is sent to almost all those European countries which spin and
weave.

Such a movement had of course a profound effect upon the currents of
world trade. The cotton crop is the second in value of all the crops
produced in the United States, and such a large part of it is exported
that the credit it gives to its sellers enables them to buy in return
some of the most valuable of the products manufactured in Europe.

The following table gives the amount of cotton, expressed in the
equivalent of 500 pound bales, exported to the various countries named in
the decennial years:

======+=========+=========+========+=======+========+========+=========
|_United | | | | |_Nether-|
_Year_| Kingdom_|_Germany_|_France_|_Italy_|_Russia_| lands_ |_Belgium_
------+---------+---------+--------+-------+--------+--------+---------
1821 | 175,438| 1,496| 54,878| 1,796| 609 | 8,372|
1830 | 419,661| 2,246| 150,212| 471| 223 | 17,135|
1840 | 989,830| 18,317| 358,180| 7,805| 4,406 | 21,698| 25,780
1850 | 863,062| 10,090| 251,668| 18,707| 8,677 | 8,590| 25,492
1860 |2,528,274| 132,145| 567,935| 54,037| 43,396 | 25,515| 29,601
1870 |1,298,332| 173,552| 306,293| 14,549| 30,341 | 17,050| 3,452
1880 |2,433,255| 308,045| 359,693| 59,126|204,500 | 65,325| 17,896
1890 |2,905,152| 837,641| 484,759|129,751|193,163 | 17,438| 93,588
1900 |2,302,128|1,619,173| 736,092|443,951| 54,950 | 74,635| 148,319
1910 |2,444,558|1,887,657| 968,422|393,327| 67,203 | 18,823| 102,346
1917 |2,387,101| | 658,553|369,213| 15,945 | 10,098|

CHAPTER II

Where Cotton is Grown and Spun and Why

We have seen (page 5) that the world's cotton crop is produced chiefly by
the United States, with 56%; India, with 17%; China, with 13-1/2%; Egypt
and Russia with 4-1/2%, the remaining 4-1/2% being made up by Brazil,
Mexico, Peru, Turkey, Persia, Japan, and several other countries.

Primitive Methods of
Growing in India

India is the first country wherein, so far as we have record, the growing
of cotton reached the stage of an industry. There conditions are almost
ideal, apparently, for the production of a great crop; yet, for many
years the crop was a small one, and was utilized locally in the domestic
manufacture of the light clothing worn by the people. Nothing re