— BENGAL.
310
consumption of jute, by 5263 looms at work, is not less than 100,000 and that the total value of the annual production of the mills is about ^?, 600,000. It does not seem probable that cotton-spinning by machinery will attain to equal proportions in Bengal. There are,
tons,
however,
seven
cotton
factories
near
Calcutta,
employing
85,334
spindles or throstles.
for
—
The position of the classes engaged in trade and Bengal is very prosperous. The boat trade on the rivers is, magnitude and variety, quite unique in India. Some of these country
Inter7ial Trade
commerce craft,
.
in
with their strong gear and equipment and their skilled navigators,
and waves of the estuaries of the great rivers, under sail, carry a heavy cargo against the current ; others, again, can only ply in the sheltered creeks and channels which spread their network over the country. In Eastern Bengal every husbandman keeps his boat, just as in other countries he keeps his cart. The registration which, prior to January 1878, was carefully carried on face the wind, storms,
and
will,
some
at
of the
river-side
traffic
stations,
disclosed authoritatively the vast extent
on the navigable highways.
Since the beginning of 1878,
a change in the system of registration has been introduced, and the
whole of the traffic coming into and going from Calcutta is now tabulated by a cordon of stations round the city, and by the different railways and river steamers. The import trade into Calcutta from the interior (exclusive of opium and railway materials) in 1881-82 was valued at ^^39,07 1,119. Goods to the value of it millions sterling came by country boats, 3^ millions by river steamers, 14^ millions by the East Indian Railway, 6 millions by the Eastern Bengal Railway,
- ^9o,ooo by the Calcutta and South-Eastern State Railway, and
3f millions by road. The principal imports are rice, ^^3,060,000
—
tea,
^3,680,000; 830,000
silk,
jute,
mustard
^^5, 670,000; seed,
indigo,
^980,000;
- ^2, 970,000; linseed,
wheat, 830,000 ; and
- ^i,o4o,ooo.
The landward country in the
^27,841,540.
export trade from Calcutta into the interior of the
same year amounted to an estimated value of Goods to the value of 4J millions were e.xported by
country boats, ^,^136, 000 by river steamers, 15I millions by the East Indian Railway, 4 millions by the Eastern Bengal Railway, ^^14,000 by
748,000 by road. The most important exports are European cotton piece-goods, 13! millions; The largest salt, ;^3, 510,000 284,000. and European cotton twist, the Calcutta and South-Eastern Railway, and
—
rice-supplying Districts, arranged in the order of their importance, are
Bakarganj, the Twenty-four Parganas, Bardwdn, Midnapur, Dinajpur, Nearly half of the wheat brought to Calcutta for
Bi'rbhum and Hugh.
export comes from the North-Western Provinces, the principal Bengal pro-
ducing Districts being
— Patna, Shahabad, Bhdgalpur, Monghyr, Saran,
