The extraordinary quantity imported in 1862, we hardly need remark, was due to the demand for consumption in army cloths. Indigo imported directly, was made free of duty in 1861. The duty which appears by the above table to have been charged since that period, was upon indigo, the product of India, imported by way of England, which was subject to an extra duty of ten per cent. The indigo consumed in the United States is generally supplied by the Boston and New York Calcutta houses, who have either an American partner resident in Calcutta, or who employ a resident American as agent. Indigo, like other Calcutta goods, is sold through the agency of brokers, who receive on this article a commission of one per cent. The value of the article is known almost daily in these cities by telegrams, giving exact information of the state of the trade, transmitted from Calcutta as often as every five days. Some of the brokers publish monthly circulars, showing the stock of indigo with other Calcutta goods on hand in our market. The regular trade reports issued by the India merchants show that The higher qualities of indigo do not come to our market. The following is an extract from a report of Whitney, Brother, & Co., of 1871:— Indigo for Continent fine 350 to 362 rupees. „ „ „ good 330 „ 345 „ „ „ „ middling 310 „ 325 „ American consuming fine 280 „ 300 „ „ „ good 250 „ 275 „ „ „ middling 200 „ 240 „ „ „ low and ordinary 150 „ 170 „ At the present moment there is great depression in the trade in this article. The last telegrams show a decline of price in the Indian trade in this article of from fifty to seventy-five per cent from the prices of last year; and the apprehension is even entertained that indigo is going out of use, the dreaded competitors being the aniline dyes, and particularly the Nicholson blue. We maybe presumptuous in giving our opinion on the question, but we hazard the prediction that, notwithstanding the temporary popularity of the cheap substitutes, a reaction will take place in favor of that “wonderful and most valuable production,” whose importance as a dye has been held in India for thousands of years and Europe for two centuries, “greatly to exceed any other.”[2] ------------------------------------------------------------- [2] The “Dictionnaire Universel du Commerce,” &c., published in 1861, contains an exhaustive article on the commerce in indigo, by M. S. Beekrode. From the statements of this writer, it appears that the consumption of indigo was estimated, in 1835, as follows:—