The trade of India with foreign countries is conducted partly by sea and
partly across the land frontiers; but the frontier trade, though capable
of much extension, is only a small fraction of the whole. The sea-borne
trade is carried on chiefly through the four great ports of Calcutta,
Bombay, Karachi, and Rangoon, of which Calcutta serves the fertile
valley of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, Bombay serves the cotton-trade of
western India, Karachi exports the wheat crop of the Punjab, and Rangoon
the rice crop of Burma. Madras, which has been supplied with an
artificial harbour, serves southern India, and Chittagong is rising into
prominence as the point of departure for the tea and jute of eastern
Bengal and Assam. The land trade is carried on with Persia, Afghanistan,
Nepal, Tibet and western China. The new caravan route to Persia from
Quetta by way of the Nushki railway offers facilities to traders, of
which increasing advantage has been taken, but the trade is still small.
Afghanistan under Abdur Rahman imposed prohibitive imposts upon trade,
and the present amir followed his father's policy, but his visit to
India in 1907 may result in improved relations. The trade with the
tribes lying north of the Malakand Pass has improved considerably since
the frontier war of 1897-98, but they are a poor community. Nepal takes
the largest share of the frontier trade. The trade with Tibet has
slightly improved since the treaty of Lhasa of 1904, but it still
amounts to only £90,000 annually. The trade with western China is about
half a million annually, and shows signs of development.
Exports.
A review of Indian trade by the director-general of the statistical
department in India is annually presented to parliament, and therefore
it is only necessary here to mention the main channels that it has
taken of recent years. The chief exports are raw cotton, cotton goods
and yarn, rice, wheat, oil-seeds, raw jute and jute-manufactures,
hides and skins, tea, opium and lac. In 1905-1906 there was great
activity in both the cotton and jute industries. In Bombay new cotton
mills were erected, and old ones extended, high-speed machinery was
widely introduced, and 12,000 new looms were set up. Similarly the
jute trade far surpassed all records. The crop was a record one, but
the demand far exceeded the supply, the cultivators reaped profits of
eight millions more than the previous year, and 2000 new looms were
set up in Calcutta. The tea outlook was good, and the coffee industry
was recovering from the effects of plant disease and Brazilian
competition. But both the indigo and opium trades are declining
industries, which mean a serious loss to the Indian exchequer. Indigo
fell to about one-tenth of its value in the previous decade; and an
agreement was come to with China in 1907, by which the area under
opium is to be gradually reduced. The total exports for 1905-1906 were
valued at £112,000,000.
Imports.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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