The craft of the _thathera_ or brass worker is naturally most prominent in the Eastern Panjab, because Hindus prefer brass vessels for cooking purposes. Delhi is the great centre, but the trade is actively carried on at other places, and especially at Jagadhri. Unglazed pottery is made practically in every village. The blue enamelled pottery of Multan and the glazed Delhi china ware are effective. The manufacture of the latter is on a very petty scale. [Illustration: Fig. 54. Carved windows.] [Illustration: Fig. 55. Papier mache work ~of~ Kashmir.] ~Factories.~--The factory industries of the Panjab are still very small. In 1911 there were 268 factories employing 28,184 hands. The typical Panjab factory is a little cotton ginning or pressing mill. The grinding of flour and husking of rice are sometimes part of the same business. The number of these mills rose in the 20 years ending 1911 from 12 to 202, and there are complaints that there are now too many factories. Cotton-spinning has not been very successful and the number of mills in 1911, eight, was the same as in 1903-4. The weaving is almost entirely confined to yarn of low counts. Part is used by the hand-loom weavers and part is exported to the United Provinces. Good woollen fabrics are turned out at a factory at Dhariwal in the Gurdaspur district. There were in 1911 fifteen flour mills, ten ironworks, three breweries, and one distillery. [Illustration: Fig. 56. The Potter. (_From a picture book said to have been prepared for Maharaja Dalip Singh._)] ~Joint-Stock Companies.~--The Panjab has not reached the stage where the joint-stock business successfully takes the place of the family banking or factory business. In 1911 there were 194 joint-stock companies. But many of these were provident societies, the working of which has been attended with such abuses that a special act has been passed for their control. A number of banks and insurance companies have also sprung up of late years. Of some of these the paid up capital is absurdly small, and the recent collapse of the largest and of two smaller native banks has drawn attention to the extremely risky nature of the business done. Of course European and Hindu family banking businesses of the old type stand on quite a different footing. Some of the cotton and other mills are joint-stock concerns. CHAPTER XVI EXPORTS AND IMPORTS