ment in England, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Calcutta, and Hongkong, so that the actual imports from the United States are larger than the statistics show, although there is no means of ascertaining the value of the indirect trade.

PRINCIPAL ARTICLES IMPORTED.

The table below shows the principal articles imported into the Bombay Presidency (excluding the Province of Sind) during the years ended March 31, 1914 and 1915:

By far the most important item in the import trade is cotton manufactures, followed by metals, ores, and metal manufactures, railway materials and rolling stock, sugar, silk and silk manufactures, hardware and cutlery, mineral oils, pearls (imported chiefly from the Persian Gulf), dyeing and tanning materials, coal and coke, glass and glassware, fruits and vegetables, and apparel. In normal years articles classified as "wholly or mainly manufactured" account for about 75 per cent of the total imports, and the remainder is fairly evenly divided between "food, drink, and tobacco" and "raw materials and produce and materials mainly unmanufactured." This is due to the fact that the people produce a large part of the foodstuffs required for their sustenance, but depend mostly on foreign countries for manufactured articles.

PRINCIPAL ARTICLES EXPORTED.

The exports in the fiscal years 1914 and 1915 are shown by articles in the following table:

The exports are confined to comparatively few articles. Raw cotton is the largest item, and in 1913-14 it represented more than 40 per cent of the total shipments to foreign countries. Seeds (chiefly castor, cotton, linseed, and groundnuts) rank second in importance, and other principal articles in the trade are cotton yarn, grain, pulse and flour, opium, hides and skins, raw wool, and manganese ore. More than 70 per cent of the exports consist of raw materials, 20 per cent are manufactured articles, and about 10 per cent are articles classified as food, drink, and tobacco.1

1 More detailed information in regard to the general trade of Bombay will be found in the annual reports of the American consul at Bombay and in Special Consular Reports No. 72, "British India, with notes on Ceylon, Afghanistan, and Tibet," by Henry D. Baker and other consular officers, which is obtainable from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, at $1 per copy.

II. GENERAL SURVEY OF COTTON-GOODS TRADE.1

IMPORTANCE OF THE MARKET.

As will be seen from the statistics given, cotton manufactures take first rank in the imports into the Bombay Presidency and constitute about 28 per cent of the total imports of all kinds of merchandise. The value of the trade in the year ended March 31, 1914, was $58,431,922, a sum exceeded only by the imports of cotton goods into the Bengal Presidency, which in the same year amounted to $97,307,293. There was a heavy decline in the imports for the fiscal year 1908-9, owing to the large imports in the preceding years, the failure of the crops in the interior, and the effect of the financial crisis in the United States in 1907 and 1908. Since that year, however, the value of the imports has steadily increased and in the year 1913-14 they exceeded all previous records. The outbreak of the European war intensified a severe depression that had already been felt in the trade, owing to heavy imports and large stocks of accumulated goods. Consequently the imports in 1914-15 were nearly 30 per cent less than in the previous year. According to preliminary returns, there was a further decline in 1915-16, during which period the imports of cotton manufactures of all kinds amounted to only $32,294,865. There has been only a slow recovery since the close of the fiscal year (Mar. 31, 1916), because the high prices of raw cotton and the resulting excessive cost of goods in the fall of 1916 have restricted purchases. Unquestionably, however, the market is in a more healthy condition than it has been in many years, and if prices decline to a point within reach of the great mass of the consumers an improvement in the trade is almost sure to follow. According to figures of the Chamber of Commerce, the stocks of cotton piece goods in Bombay on December 31, 1916, were only 21,401 bales and 28,744 cases, as compared with 40,554 bales and 39,538 cases on the same date in 1915, and 63,027 bales and 106,767 cases in 1914. These figures include the goods in Government and importers' warehouses but not those in the hands of native dealers.

DISTRIBUTION OF COTTON GOODS FROM BOMBAY.

All the cotton goods imported direct from foreign countries are entered at Bombay. There is not, as in Calcutta and Madras, a very large indirect trade by rail or sea from other Indian ports. In the year 1912-13, for example, when normal conditions prevailed, the imports of foreign piece goods by rail into Bombay were valued at less than $100,000. Only a very small part of the cotton goods imported into the port of Bombay is retained for consumption. The

This report is based on information collected in November and December, 1916, and January and February, 1917.

goods are distributed by rail to other parts of the Presidency, including Native States, and particularly to other Provinces in India. In 1912-13 foreign piece goods to the value of about $5,800,000 were shipped by rail from Bombay to other parts of the Presidency and the shipments_by_rail to other parts of India amounted to nearly $35,000,000. In the latter trade the United Provinces, the Punjab, the Central Provinces, Rajputana, Madras, Hyderabad, Calcutta, and Mysore, in the order named, were the principal markets.

SHIPMENTS BY WATER TO OTHER INDIAN PORTS.

There is also a considerable reexport of foreign cotton goods by sea, both coastwise to Indian ports and to foreign countries. In 1912-13, 104,784,789 yards of foreign piece goods, valued at $6,810,000, were reexported from Bombay to other Indian ports. The distribution of the coastwise shipments of foreign grey, bleached, and colored goods in the years ended March 31, 1913, 1914, and 1915 was as follows:

Grey goods go mostly to Karachi, Madras, Kathiawar, Travancore, and Cutch; bleached goods to Karachi, Kathiawar, Madras, and Burma; colored printed or dyed goods to Karachi, Kathiawar, Cutch, Goa, Madras, and Burma.

5870°-17- -2

SHIPMENTS TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

The reexports of foreign piece goods to foreign countries in the years ended March 31, 1913, 1914, and 1915 are shown below:

• Principally Red Sea markets, Island of Henjam, Egypt, and Seychelles.

674, 440 1,884, 965

969, 545

49, 677,258 45,076, 732 24, 299, 022

The value of the reexports of piece goods in the three years was $4,415,950, $4,020,380, and $2,173,264, respectively, and the total reexports of all kinds of foreign cotton manufactures $4,626,568, $4,270,759, and $2,303,610. Aside from piece goods the only important item is yarn, which is reexported chiefly to Persia.

The two preceding tables indicate the extent to which Bombay acts as a port of distribution, not only for India but for foreign countries.

1913

71, 193

398,057

1914

250, 412

472,028

1915

128, 797

248, 275

1913

3,361, 166

7,571, 656

1914

3, 199, 944

6, 677, 470

1915

1,793, 503