[VOL II] COTTON PLANTATIONS AT NING-PO

COTTON PLANTATIONS AT NING-PO

Cover Image: Cotton Plantations at Ning-po / NingBo ZheJiang China / Drawn by T. Allom Engraved by A.Le Petit – ALAMY Image ID:2X4BD33

*Ningbo is the earliest commercial port in Zhejiang Province. Since the late Ming Dynasty, it has become the center of handwoven cotton textile industry in eastern Zhejiang. Cotton was widely cultivated in the rural areas near Ningbo, and the cotton prices in Ningbo were heavily influenced by Japan.

“Arkwright taught from cotton pods to cull
And stretch in lines the vegetable wool;
With teeth of steel its fibre knots unfurled,
And with its silver tissue clothed the world.”

DARWIN.

THE vicinity of Ning-po is not only celebrated for its picturesque character, but as having once been the emporium of an active and flourishing foreign trade. Imperial reserve, rather than national prejudice, closed the Tahea river against commerce with barbarians; but British gallantry burst those bonds which jealousy had thrown over the intercourse of nations; and one of the conditions of the late treaty with China is, that the flag of England shall be honoured and welcomed in the waters of Ning-po.

Aroused to a sense of their local advantages, and of the knowledge to be attained from experience, foreign intercourse, acquaintance with the productions and pursuits of other countries and people, the inhabitants of this part of the rich province of Che-kiang availed themselves, at an early period, of the advantages attending the cultivation of the cotton plant. The manufacture of cotton has probably been established in India, certainly in Tartary, for upwards of three thousand years. The gossypium being indigenous to Hindoostan, and to Persia, the cradle of the human race, was transported thence into other parts of Asia; and the light clothing formed from it being so very suitable to the climate, cotton became as universal an article of comfort in India as linen was in Egypt.It has been conjectured that the material mentioned in Exodus, as employed in the coats of Aaron and his sons was cotton, not “fine linen,” which the Hebrew word is generally rendered in the English Bible. Herodotus speaks distinctly of cotton, as one of the species of cloths in which mummies were enwrapped by the Egyptians; but we know that linen was also used for a similar purpose. Pliny supports the assertion of Herodotus, that cotton as well as linen was known to the early Egyptians. He writes that “in Upper Egypt, towards Arabia, there grows a shrub which some call gossypium, and others xylon. It is not large, but bears a fruit resembling the filbert, which contains a great deal of wool. The yarn spun from it is manufactured into stuffs, which we call cottons (xylina). There is nothing softer or whiter than the garments made from it, particularly those which are worn by the Egyptian priests.” This accomplished naturalist relates also, that Semiramis, the Assyrian queen, was the reputed inventress of the art of weaving, and that the city of Arachne, in Babylonia, had always been celebrated by Greek and Roman writers as the place where it was first practised.

Whatever foundation ancient authors may have had for the preceding statement, there is very ample evidence of the existence of this useful invention in the earliest ages of the world; and, indeed, it has been observed that weaving was known and practised amongst many barbarous nations in various parts of the globe, whose intercourse with the East cannot be readily traced. Clavigero informs us that the Spaniards, on the conquest of Mexico, found that the art of weaving was there perfectly understood, and saw large cotton-webs as delicate and fine as those of Holland, woven with different figures and colours, representing various animals and flowers. Mungo Park, a traveller of unquestionable veracity, describes the people of Interior Africa as acquainted with the arts of spinning, weaving, and dyeing cotton.

It is supposed that the Chinese, and the analogy of other nations seems to justify the supposition, were early acquainted with the existence of the cotton plant, and with its valuable qualities; but that their prejudices, especially against the Tartar nation, caused its continued exclusion. Down to the third century before the Christian era, no mention of the gossypium occurs in Chinese writings; but, under the Han dynasty, it is noticed as a rare and curious exotic; and, in the year of our Lord 502, it is recorded that the emperor Ou-ti was clothed in a robe of cotton cloth, which is minutely described by his biographer. From this period to the eleventh century, the cultivation of the cotton plant did not extend beyond the borders of the mandarins’ pleasure-grounds, the beauty of its flower being its only recommendation; but, at this period, the tree was introduced from the province of Si-fan in Tartary, and its cultivation for the purpose of manufacture commenced. The immutability of Chinese customs, and hatred of foreign inventions, operated long against its general introduction; but the descendants of Zingis, the conqueror of China, rejected these stupid pleas for exclusion, and the Ming, who restored the native government, followed the salutary example of the Tartar princes.

From this period to the present, cotton has been extensively cultivated, and constitutes the principal clothing of the majority. A soil rich, yet moist, is most suitable; and wherever it shall happen to be arid by nature, irrigation is found necessary. Much care and skill are requisite in the cultivation of a farm; the ground must receive three ploughings, be well manured, the seedlings dibbled in rows, the spaces between the rows hoed or dug with the spade, and the plants headed down when they reach the height of twelve inches. Decandolle has enumerated thirteen species of the gossypium, but these are only interesting to the most profound scholars in the study of botany. Merchants make but two distinctions—black-seeded and green-seeded; the former remarkable for resigning its downy produce by the simple mechanism of two rollers, revolving nearly in contact with each other, and worked by the human arm; the latter only yielding to the operation of a circular saw, turned by powerful machinery. Two kinds are known in China; the one, coarse and colourless—the other, produced chiefly in Kiang-nan, of a superior fineness, from which the celebrated stuff called nankeen is made. This description, the produce of which exhibits a yellowish tint, has been transplanted into other provinces, but with indifferent success, and the failure of the experiment materially injured the reputation of the original Nanking cotton. Experiment has shown, however, that the soil and climate of the Cape of Good Hope are also suitable to the culture of the yellow-tinted cotton, but the loss of its popularity has rendered the continuance of the practice in our colony of but little importance.

Neither is the cotton plant indigenous to China, the art of weaving a native invention, nor are the modes of freeing the down from seeds, and of ultimately cleaning the wool, peculiar to China. The machine for separating the seeds, already noticed, has been in use among the Hindoos from time immemorial; and the elastic bow, for freeing the cotton from knots and foreign substances, is also of Hindoo origin, and is employed in England by hatters, in preparing the fur for being worked up into the compact mass technically denominated a bat.