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ADVANCES IN COTTON SCIENCE
Botany, Production, and Crop Improvement
ADVANCES IN COTTON SCIENCE
Botany, Production, and Crop Improvement

Ratikanta Maiti
Ch. Aruna Kumari
Abul Kalam Samsul Huda
Debashis Mandal
Sameena Begum
Apple Academic Press Inc. Apple Academic Press Inc.
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Advances in cotton science : botany, production, and crop improvement / Ratikanta Maiti,
Ch. Aruna Kumari, Abul Kalam Samsul Huda, Debashis Mandal, Sameena Begum.
Names: Maiti, R. K., 1938- author. | Aruna Kumari, C. H., 1972- author. | Huda, Abul Kalam Samsul, author. |
Mandal, Debashis, author. | Begum, Sameena, author.
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190222719 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190222751 | ISBN 9781771888196 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9780429283987 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Cotton. | LCSH: Cotton growing.
Classification: LCC SB249 .M35 2020 | DDC 633.5/1—dc23
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Maiti, R. K., 1938- author. | Aruna Kumari, C. H., 1972- author. | Huda, Abul Kalam Samsul, author. |
Mandal, Debashis, author. | Begum, Sameena, author.
Title: Advances in cotton science : botany, production, and crop improvement / Ratikanta Maiti,
Ch. Aruna Kumari, Abul Kalam Samsul Huda, Debashis Mandal, Sameena Begum.
Description: Palm Bay, Florida, USA : Apple Academic Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
| Summary: “Cotton is one of the most important fiber and cash crops throughout the world, and it plays a dominant
role in the industrial and agricultural economies of many countries. This volume, Advances in Cotton Science:
Botany, Production, and Crop Improvement, is a rich resource of information on the cultivation and production
of cotton. It provides an overview of its origin and evolution, and its physiological basis and characterization, and
goes on to discuss methods of cultivation, biotic stresses, harvesting and postharvest technology, and new research
on breeding and biotechnology. The authors take an interdisciplinary approach, providing a multi-pronged
approach to information necessary to increase cotton productivity to meet the world’s growing demands. The
volume answers the need to understand the roles of cotton, the nature of the crop, and advancements in research for
best cultivation methods, effective utilization of resources, and operations for achieving higher yields, thus
achieving higher productivity. The volume will be immensely helpful for growers, students, academicians,
teaching faculty, and other professionals in the field to gain knowledge and understanding of the crop”-- Provided
by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019054172 (print) | LCCN 2019054173 (ebook) | ISBN 9781771888196 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9780429283987 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Cotton. | Cotton growing.
Classification: LCC SB249 .M24 2020 (print) | LCC SB249 (ebook) | DDC 633.5/1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054172
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054173
Apple Academic Press also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be
available in electronic format. For information about Apple Academic Press products, visit our website at www.appleacademicpress.
com and the CRC Press website at www.crcpress.com
About the Authors

Ratikanta Maiti, PhD, DSc, was a world-

renowned botanist and crop physiologist. He
worked for nine years on jute and allied fibers
at the former Jute Agricultural Research Insti-
tute (ICAR), India, and then he worked as a
plant physiologist on sorghum and pearl millet
at the International Crops Research Institute for
the Semi-Arid Tropics for 10 years. After that he
worked for more than 25 years as a professor and
research scientist at three different universities in Mexico. He also worked
for six years as a Research Adviser at Vibha Seeds, Hyderabad, India, and
as Visiting Research Scientist for five years in the Forest Science Faculty,
Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Mexico. He authored more than
40 books and about 500 research papers. He won several international
awards, including an Ethno-Botanist Award (USA) sponsored by Friends
University, Wichita, Kansas; the United Nations Development Programme;
a senior research scientist award offered by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y
Tecnología (CONNACYT), Mexico; and a gold medal from India in 2008,
offered by ABI. He is Chairman of the Ratikanta Maiti Foundation and
Chief Editor of three international journals. Dr. Maiti died in June 2019.

Ch. Aruna Kumari, PhD, is an Assistant Professor

in the Department of Crop Physiology at Agricultural
College, Jagtial, Professor Jaya Shankar Telangana
State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), India. She
has seven years of teaching experience at PJTSAU
and seven years of research experience at varied
ICAR institutes and at Vibha Seeds. She has received
a CSIR fellowship during her doctoral studies and
was awarded a Young Scientist Award for best
thesis presentation on at the “National Seminar on Plant Physiology.” She
vi About the Authors

teaches courses on plant physiology and environmental science for BSc

(Ag.) students. She has taught seed physiology and growth, and yield and
modeling courses to MSc (Ag.) students. She also acted as a minor advisor
to several MSc (Ag) students and guided them in their research work. She
is the author of book chapters in four books. She is also one of the editors
of the book Glossary in Plant Physiology and an editor of six international
books, including Advances in Bio-Resource and Stress Management;
Applied Biology of Woody Plants; An Evocative Memoire: Living with
Mexican Culture, Spirituality and Religion; and Gospel of Forests. She has
published over 50 research articles in national and international journals.
Her field of specialization is seed dormancy of rice and sunflower.

Abul Kalam Samsul Huda, PhD, is Associate

Professor in the School of Science & Health,
Western Sydney University, Australia. He did his
doctoral degree in Agronomy at the University
of Missouri, Columbia, USA. He was previously
a research scientist in the South Australian
Department of Primary Industries and Agro-
climatologist and Modeller, International Crops
Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
(ICRISAT), Hyderabad, India. In addition, he acted as visiting professor
and scientist in academic and research institutes, including University of
California, Davis, USA; the University of Sydney, Australia; Texas A&M the
University, Temple, Texas, USA. His research work spans the fields of agro-
climatology, agronomy, modeling, and systems thinking. He is specialized
in using climate information to improve agricultural productivity while
reducing production risks and maximizing opportunities. He has published
more than 286 research articles in highly reputed journals and handled 24
research projects while working for more than two decades in Western
Sydney University and attracted research funding over $5 million. He is an
internally renowned scientist in climate-smart agriculture and working in
multiple countries like Australia, India, China, Qatar, Cambodia, Indonesia,
and Zimbabwe for extensive agro-climatological research. For his enormous
contribution in the field, he was conferred as Fellow, at the American Society
of Agronomy.
About the Authors vii

Debashis Mandal, PhD, is an Assistant Professor

in the Department of Horticulture, Aromatic and
Medicinal Plants at Mizoram University, Aizawl,
India. He is a young academician and research
fellow working in sustainable hill farming for
the past nine years. He was previously Assistant
Professor at Sikkim University, India, and has
published 35 research papers and book chap-
ters in reputed journals and books. He has also
published four books. He is currently chief editor
for four volumes on fruits: production, processing, and marketing, and asso-
ciate editor for four volumes on production, processing, and therapeutics of
medicinal and aromatic plants. In addition, he is working as a member in
the working group on Lychee and Other Sapindaceae Crops of the Inter-
national Society for Horticultural Science, Belgium, and is also a member
in the ISHS section on tropical-subtropical fruits and organic horticulture
and the commission on quality and postharvest horticulture. Currently he
is working as Editor-in-Lead (Horticulture) for the International Journal
of Bio Resources & Stress Management (IJBSM). He is also the founding
Managing Editor for a new international publication Chronicle of Biore-
source Management. Dr. Mandal is an editorial advisor for Horticulture
Science for Cambridge Scholar Publishing, UK, and a regular reviewer of
many journals. He is also a consultant horticulturist to the Department of
Horticulture & Agriculture (Research & Extension), Govt. of Mizoram,
India, and Himadri Specialty Chemicals Ltd. He also is handling exter-
nally funded research projects. He was the Convener for the International
Symposium on Sustainable Horticulture, 2016, India; and Co-Convener,
International Conference of Bio-Resource and Stress Management, 2017,
Jaipur, India. He was a session moderator and keynote speaker at the ISHS
Symposium on Litchi, India, 2016; on Post Harvest Technology, Vietnam,
2014 and at South Korea, 2017; and AFSA Conference, 2018, Cambodia.
He has visited many countries for professional meetings, seminars, and
symposia. His thrust areas of research are organic horticulture, pomology,
postharvest technology, plant nutrition, and micro irrigation.
He did his PhD from BCKV, India, and was postdoctoral project scien-
tist in IIT, Kharagpur.
viii About the Authors

Sameena Begum, young researcher, has

completed a BSc Agriculture with distinction in
the year 2016 and and an MSc in Genetics and
Plant Breeding with distinction in the year 2018
from the College of Agriculture, Professor Jayas-
hankar Telangana State Agricultural University,
Hyderabad, India. During her master’s degree
program, she conducted research on combining
ability, gall midge resistance, yield, and quality
traits in hybrid rice (Oryza sativa L.) and identified two highly resistant
hybrids.
Contents

About the Authors ......................................................................................v

Abbreviations ........................................................................................... xi

Preface ................................................................................................... xiii

Acknowledgment ....................................................................................xvii

1. Background and Importance ..................................................................... 1

2. World Cotton Production and Factors Affecting Production ............... 15
3. Origin, Evolution, and Domestication..................................................... 27
4. Cotton Ideotype ......................................................................................... 39
5. Cotton Botany and Characterization ...................................................... 47
6. Physiological Basis of Cotton Growth and Productivity ....................... 65
7. Research Advances in Abiotic Stress Resistance in Cotton ................. 171
8. Cotton Biotic Stress................................................................................. 209
9. Methods of Cultivation ........................................................................... 233
10. Harvest and Postharvest Technology and Factors
Affecting Fiber Quality ........................................................................... 261
11. Research Advances in Breeding and Biotechnology ............................ 305

Index ................................................................................................................. 337

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Abbreviations

ABA abscisic acid

AF alternative furrow
AFIS analysis information system
APEP alkaline peroxide extrusion pulping
AVG amino ethoxy vinylglycine
BI border irrigation
CAT catalase
CEF cyclic electron flow
CFML cotton fiber middle lamellae
CLCuD cotton leaf curl disease
CLCuKoV-Burcotton leaf curl Kokhran virus strain Burewala
CLCuMB cotton leaf curl Multan beta satellite
CLCV cotton leaf curl virus
CT conventional plough tillage
DEGs differentially expressed genes
DPA days postanthesis
GA gibberellic acid
GCA general combining ability
GFP green fluorescent protein
GM genetically modified
GMS genetic male sterility
HNR height to node ratio
HV high volume instrumentation
IAA indole-3-acetic acid
IPM integrated pest management
LAI leaf area index
LIR light interception rate
MAPK mitogen-activated protein kinase
MDA malondialdehyde
MTA leaf inclination angle
NAWB nodes above white bloom
NCC nanocrystalline cellulose
PB permanent raised beds
xii Abbreviations

POD peroxidase
PPO polyphenol oxidase
PVP polyvinylpyrrolidone
QTL quantitative trait loci
QTL quantitative trait loci
RFLP restriction fragment length polymorphism
ROS reactive oxygen species
SCA specific combining ability
SDI surface drip irrigation
SEM scanning electron microscopy
SFC short fiber content
SLW specific leaf weight
SOD superoxide dismutase
SWC soil water content
TrAP transcriptional activator protein
TUE thermal use efficiency
VPD vapor pressure deficit
WAE weeks after cotton emergence
WUE water use efficiency
Preface

Cotton (Gossypium sp. L.) is one of the most important fiber and cash
crops across the world and plays a dominant role in the industrial and
agricultural economy of most countries. It provides the basic raw material
(cotton fiber) to the cotton textile industry, but also plays a role in the feed
and oil industries with its seed, rich in oil (18–24%) and protein (20–40%).
Worldwide cotton provides a direct livelihood to several million farmers,
and an estimated 350 million people are employed in cotton production
either on-farm or in transportation, ginning, baling, and storage.
In terms of global production, cotton is the foremost fiber crop. Present
world production is some 25.5 million tons of seed cotton from 34.8
million ha. China, the United States, and India are the world’s major cotton-
producing countries, accounting for nearly 60% of the world production.
Cotton is grown in more than 100 countries, accounting for 40% of the
world fiber market. Cotton is a major export revenue source for several
developing and some developed countries. The cotton is grown in diverse
climates such as tropical, sub-tropical, and temperate climates. Australia
and Egypt generate the best quality cotton in the world. The world’s lowest
cost cotton producers are Australia, China, Brazil, and Pakistan.
The history of the domestication of cotton is very complicated and
is not known accurately. Several isolated civilizations in both the Old
and New World independently domesticated and converted cotton into
fabric. Gossypium barbadense, known as “Pima” or “Egyptian” cotton,
was domesticated in the Peruvian Andes between 4000 and 5000 years
ago. “Upland” cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, makes up the bulk of the
world’s cotton crop and was domesticated at approximately the same
time in the Yucatan Peninsula. During last two decades, tremendous
progress and innovations have been attained in all fields of cotton science,
including “development of high-yielding varieties and hybrids, lodging
resistant, big boll size, excellent boll opening, easy picking, improved
fiber quality, hybrids suit for high-density planting, Bt genes for worm
control commonly known as boll guard technology, mechanical harvesting
(synchronous flowering), herbicide resistance commonly known as
Round-up Ready®, multiple disease resistance including Lygus, or plant
xiv Preface

bug resistance, Reniform nematode resistance and drought tolerance gene

for arid regions, and all these attempting to create desirable traits and
increase production of cotton to meet the world’s demands. Based on the
importance of the crop, farmers, students, and the scientific community
(like researchers, scientists) need to understand about the role, nature
of the crop and advancements in research for best cultivation methods,
effective utilization of resource, and operations for getting higher yields,
thus achieving higher productivity.
From the above point of view, the authors decided to provide a resource
of complete information and research literature of several disciplines on
cotton in the form of book as a guide for students, teachers, researchers,
as well as scientists.
The authors have provided information on all aspects of several disci-
plines of cotton and recent literature together under one umbrella, namely
Advances in Cotton Science: Botany, Production, and Crop Improvement.
This book attempts to bring together recent advances in different disci-
plines of cotton science. This book covers almost the aspects of cotton
starting from background, production, origin to domestication, ideotype,
botany, physiology of crop growth and productivity, abiotic and biotic
factors affecting crop productivity, methods of cultivation, postharvest
management, fiber quality analysis, improvement of cotton crop, research
advancements in breeding and biotechnology till 2018. Researchers need
to be concerned that the productivity of cotton is affected by several biotic
and abiotic stresses, which require a concerted interdisciplinary research.
Every aspect of each chapter is described extensively and enriched with
recent research literature.
This book was written in a lucid style and in a mode of presentation
will help students graduates, academicians, and teaching faculty to gain
knowledge and understanding about the crop. Especially this book guides
researchers working on cotton and cotton scientists to understand the rela-
tion between several disciplines and implementation of new methods and
technology covered in recent literature in cotton crop for crop improve-
ment in order to get higher productivity. A multi-pronged approach needs
to be used to increase cotton productivity to meet the world’s demands.
The authors strongly believe that libraries of schools or colleges of
undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate, research institutes of public and
private sectors must have this book. It also should occupy a distinctive
place in libraries for its versatile contents, extensive descriptions, and
Preface xv

enriched research literature of recent advancements. This book effectively

is helpful in the aspect of gaining knowledge and explaining subject matter.
It will also be a quick reference for teaching staff, professors, the research
community, and cotton scientists. It fulfills most of their requirements.
Some problems were faced during the course of writing this book. But
the authors’ dedication and determination played major driving force in
overcoming the problems and successfully completing the book.

Ratikanta Maiti
Ch. Aruna Kumari
Abul Kalam Samsul Huda
Debashis Mandal
Sameena Begum
Acknowledgment

The authors sincerely thank Apple Academic Press for accepting the
manuscript and publishing this book within the prescribed timeline. The
authors also thank Deasaru Rajkumar for his courtesy in supplying original
photographs of cotton plants, Miss R. C. Lalduhsangi for the compilation
of research abstracts, and Ing. Jeff Cristopher González Diaz for organizing
photographs and references. We heartily thank our chief author, Dr. Ratikanta
Maiti, eminent dedicated scientist for his continuous efforts, motivation, and
initiation in writing this book and making this book unique, and providing
important information for future generations.
Most of the books published on cotton are on specific aspects; very few
books have attempted to bring together all disciplines in a concrete form like
the present book, and of those, some of them are old. We believe this volume
will be a valuable resource.
The authors acknowledge several public and private institutes for
playing an important role in society and for providing an excellent plat-
form for their carriers and continuous support in the area of research and
publications:

1. ICRISAT, Patancheru, Telangana State, India

2. Jute Agricultural Research Institute, Barrackpore (ICAR), Kolkata,
West Bengal, India
3. Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Forest Science Faculty,
UANL, NL., Mexico
4. Research and Development Centre, Neo Seeds India Private
Limited, Hyderabad, Telangana State, India
5. Vibha Agro tech Pvt. Ltd, Madhapur, India

—Ratikanta Maiti
Ch. Aruna Kumari
Abul Kalam Samsul Huda
Debashis Mandal
Sameena Begum
CHAPTER 1

Background and Importance

ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the importance of cotton (including its various

industrial products) at global level and discusses a brief outline of research
advances in various aspects of cotton crops. Cotton has high demand
across the world for manufacture of comfortable dresses. Additionally,
various products of high economic values are derived from cotton plants.

1.1 ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE

Cotton is a popular fiber crop grown widely across the globe. It is popu-
larly referred to as “White gold” because of the silky white fibers that
are produced. These silky white cotton fibers are popular as “Kapok” and
since the olden times, they were put to use in the filling up of mattresses,
cushions, and pillows. Accordingly, during World War II in Europe, cotton
fibers were used as padding sources of jackets (which were life saving
during the war), aiding in providing buoyancy. The cotton seeds are rich
in oil and protein, both edible and are useful for soap and lighting. The
remnants of cotton seeds are used as feed for livestock. Most of the prod-
ucts of cotton have different industrial uses. They are used in chemicals,
food, and in textile production.
The fruits of cotton are often called capsules or bolls. These contain
many seeds. Two types of fibers cover seeds, namely, those which are of
short length fuzz and long length, lint (Fig. 1.2). Among these short and
long fibers, only the lint (Fig. 1.3) have a major use in the textile industry
in the production of clothes. In many areas since man began its cultivation,
it is harvested manually, is ginned, and later processed.
After the completion of the ginning process, these cotton fibers are
made flexible by padding with a wooden bow. Before the commencement
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2 Advances in Cotton Science

of the spinning process, the fibers are carded by the use of a hand comb so
that these get separated from one another. And finally during the spinning
process, these individual fibers are twisted into yarn. This can be achieved
by a hand spindle or on a spinning wheel.
Figure 1.1 shows a cotton plant ready for harvest.

FIGURE 1.1 Cotton plant at boll bursting stage, ready for harvest.
Source: Photo courtesy of Dr. Sadasivan Manickam, Central Cotton Research Institute,
ICAR, India.

Across the world, cotton is the only fiber being utilized to a large
extent. This acts as a leading cash crop in the US, earning much of the
economy to the country. Cotton at the farm level every year involves a
large amount of purchase of produce of worth greater than $5.3 billion.
Because of its various industrial uses, it acts in stimulation of business
activities for most of the industries spread within the country. More busi-
ness activity is rendered after its processing. More than $120 billion is
earned as revenue in the United Sates from cotton and its products.
Monthly Economic Letter (2018) reveals that cotton is extensively used
in our daily lives for its multiple uses. It has its main usage in clothing and
in several household items. Cotton production reaches several thousands of
bales, it is used widely in the production of many industrial products also.
Background and Importance 3

FIGURE 1.2 Boll fully burst.

FIGURE 1.3 Cotton fiber.

4 Advances in Cotton Science

As mentioned before, all parts of the cotton plant are used for one
purpose or the other, often, most widely used part is the fiber or lint,
which is commonly used for the manufacture of cotton cloth. The textiles
prepared from cotton are comfortable to wear in all seasons because of
their light texture and weight.
Similarly, the short fuzz fiber on the seed, the linters are rich in cellu-
lose. These are therefore used for the manufacture of plastics, explosives,
and other products. Fuzz fibers have their utility even in the production
of high quality fabricated paper and its product, materials in padding
mattresses, furniture and automobile cushions.
Three products are extracted from the crushed cotton seed, namely, oil,
meal, and hulls. The seed oil of cotton has its high utility in salad dressing
or sometimes used as cooking oil, while rest of the two products are used
as poultry, livestock, fish feed, or as fertilizer source. After harvesting of
cotton, left out plant debris are plowed under to increase the soil nutrients.
Some of the baked food products also use cotton seed as a source of high
protein concentrate.
Since the beginning of the Harappan civilization and much before that
in the Indian subcontinent, the domestic and Asiatic cottons (G. herba-
ceum L. and G. arboreum L.) were under domestication or under commer-
cial cultivation in this country, which is a traditional home of cotton and
its textiles. All the four popular species of cotton, namely, G. arboreum, G.
herbaceum, G. hirsutum, and G. barbadense are under commercial culti-
vation in this country.
Although the diploid cottons such as G. arboretum L. and G. herba-
ceum L. are mainly cultivated in dryland tracts, the Bengal desi is grown
to a large extent mostly under the irrigated conditions in the northern states
of West Bengal. G. hirsutum L., known as the American cotton, is most
popular, with a number of varieties and hybrids. On the other hand, G.
barbadense L. is popularly known as the Sea Island cotton.
Even though it is a widely cultivated fiber crop, its cultivation also
faces unfavorable climatic conditions which are prevalent in most of the
cotton growing regions. The cotton production in India is limited owing
to the extreme variability in rainfall patterns and stream flows involved as
the sources of water supply. There was a drastic reduction of 40% decrease
in prices of world cotton during the period of 2001 and 2002 (Minot and
Daniels, 2005). This has drawn the attention of Governments across the
world to provide subsidies to all the cotton growing farmers who were
upset with decreased world prices of cotton.
Background and Importance 5

Van Esbroeck and Bowman (1998) studied about the germplasm diver-
sity in cotton and its utility in the development of cultivars. In general, it is
presumed in many crops that the parents which are genetically diverse have
a great potential in serving as the parents for the creation or development
of a superior progeny. In cotton, however, only a few existing studies have
given information in establishing the relationship that existed between the
parental genetic distance and the development of suitable cultivars which
can perform successfully at different environmental conditions. One of
the theories of genetic distance advocates that the matings that have been
carried between the distantly related parents could generate more of trans-
gressive segregates than that resulted from the parental lines which were
related closely. In most crops, yield improvements were obtained in many
cases from the matings that have been obtained from the closely related
genotypes, rather than those which were distantly related. Van Esbroeck
and Bowman (1998) undertook a study to establish a relationship between
the parental genetic distance and the development of successful cotton
(Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivars. They observed the pedigrees of culti-
vars, these cultivars occupied greater than 1% of the total planting of US
in 1987–1996. Then they estimated in final crosses, the genetic related-
ness of the parents. It is expressed as coefficient of parentage. Sixty final
crosses were found to be successful. These cultivars were obtained by two
ways cross (60%) reselection products/germplasm lines (25%)/complex
crosses (15%). In final cross, average coefficient of percentage is 0.29. It
is more compared with random pairing of parents. They could success-
fully demonstrate the diversity and its level that was existing within these
cotton cultivars which were more locally/regionally adapted.
Soyoung Kim et al. (2003) investigated Asian–American Consumers
in Hawai’, they studied their attitude and tendency toward ownership of
apparels of ethnic nature. This research investigated the strength of ethnic
identification, its influence, the attitudes of people toward apparel quality,
etc. Approximately 167 of these consumers who had a frequent visit to
apparel store were interviewed. They emphasized toward clothing and its
features and also on display of apparels in the shop. The results high-
lighted that attitude about an apparel is much more important rather than
understanding or attributes of display.
Cotton clothes with their majestic colors have earned glamor in Iranian
and Indian cultures. Moraveji (2016) undertook a comparative study of
graphic aspects of textiles in Indian Gurakani and Iranian Safavid eras. In
6 Advances in Cotton Science

these periods, valuable textiles played a significant role in expressing the

individuals’ social dignity provided with valuable fibers, rare colors, and
particular designs. The authors made a comparative analysis of the Iranian
textiles designs in Safavids and Indian ones in Gurkani dynasties during
9–11th centuries (AH), which enabled the assessment of similarities and
differences in term of designs and color of the textiles in these two coun-
tries, and the level and reason for their effectiveness. Investigation into the
political–cultural relationship between these two dynasties, techniques, the
materials, and instruments used in textiles, itineraries and historical and
research books and designs analysis on the basis of the available images and
pictures were performed. The findings revealed that the level of effective-
ness of technique and Iranian textile design were more than its vice versa
state. Although in India and Iran colors of the textiles were often similar,
more emphasis was placed on some Indian colors. There was a greater Euro-
pean influence on Indian designs compared with Iranian samples. However,
the influence of religion and literature on Iranian artists and textile designs
was greater, compared with those of Indian artists and textile designs.
Kern (2018) conducted research on the background, importance, and
production volumes of fatty acids. The research observed that much impor-
tance of establishment of industry for fatty acid production was based on
the production and economic gains that were realized during 1978 in the
United States, wherein the production of fatty acid oils was 956 M lbs.
The 1978 US production of various fatty acids was broken down into nine
saturated categories and five unsaturated categories. These were (1) stearic
and 127.2 M lbs. (13.3%); (2) hydrogenated animal and vegetable acids
(2a) 97.3 M lbs. (10.2%), (2b) 158 M lbs. (16.5%), (2c) 32 M lbs. (3.4%);
(3) high palmitic, 14.6 M lbs. (1.5%); (4) hydrogenated fish, 6.5 M lbs.
(0.7%); (5) lauric acid types, 88.8 M lbs. (9.3%); (6) fractionated fatty
acids, (6a) C10 or lower, 18.5 M lbs. (1.9%), (6b) C12 and C1455% 17 M lbs.
(1.9%); (7) oleic acid, 158.3 M lbs. (16.6%); (8) animal fatty acids other
than oleic, 156.3 M lbs. (16.3%); (9) vegetable or marine fatty acids, 0.1
M lbs. (less than 1%); (10) unsaturated fatty acids, 57 M lbs. (6.0%); (11)
unsaturated fatty acids IV over 130, 24.2 M lbs (2.5%). Reported 1977
fatty acid derivative production from fatty acids (not fats and oils) was
1980 M lbs. It was observed that the average price of fatty acids increased
from 23¢/lb to 60¢/lb. within a short span in last 5 years.
In view of the great importance of cotton globally, enormous research
inputs have been directed on various aspects of cotton such as world
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 State of the Balance between
England and Holland.
Sir Charles Whitworth, in his State of the English Trade, rates the
annual balance due by Holland to Great Britain, at 1,372,258l. upon
an average of 10 years: This is the most considerable. There can be
no illusion, in regard to the effect this balance has upon the money
in England; it is well known that it does not increase it; nay, it is
thought that the debt due to Holland, lessens it annually, not only by
the whole amount of the favourable balance which would revert to
England were she not indebted to the Dutch, but of one million
more, which must be found to pay them off.
I have already said, and repeated, that in every circumstance
where it is necessary to borrow or to displace a capital, it is better to
borrow, even at 5 per cent. than to remove a capital which returns
double that sum; and that, on the other hand, it is more
advantageous to lend any sum abroad upon good security at 5, or
even at 3 per cent. than to lend the same sum at home, where it
would yield only 2 per cent. or to bury it in the abyss of a Bank,
whence nothing returns. Now what proves that Great Britain and
Holland are in this case with regard to each other, is, that England
seldom or never opens a loan, but what the Dutch take a share in.
What do they give for the purchase? Nothing more than the surplus
of the ordinary profits arising from a trade, which they cannot
extend sufficiently to employ the whole amount of their savings. And
why has this part of the English loan been given up to the Dutch by
the national capitalists? Because the latter could find in their own
trade, susceptible of a farther extension, a way of employing their
capitals to greater advantage, that is to say, of reaping a benefit
superior to the interest offered by the loan: How can this be
doubted, when we see that the loan falls into the hands of a small
number of merchants, who soon afterwards make over their debt?
Would they transfer it to any one, were not the interest it brings in,
interest secured by the nation, inferior to the ordinary profits of their
commerce?
Therefore, if the balance due to the Dutch is thought burdensome,
only in the supposition that it serves to pay burdensome interests, it
cannot be looked upon in the same light, when the matter rests
upon a debt, by which the borrower clears a benefit superior to the
interest that he has to pay.—I shall present this question under
another point of view.
In the war which was terminated by the treaty of Paris, the most
considerable part of the debt contracted for its support, was
acquired by the Dutch: Why so? Because the English, carrying on,
without any opposition, an exclusive trade with every part of the
world open to them alone, found therein the opportunity of
employing their capitals to a far greater advantage, than that held
out by government in the interest of the loan. During the last war,
on the contrary, the English, being more narrowly circumscribed in
regard to their commercial operations, by a navy, the possibility of
which they did not even suspect, much less its real existence, and
being kept more circumspect by a new system which opened a free
navigation to all the powers not involved in war, thought themselves
happy to find, in the national loan, an employment for that portion
of their capitals, which, from circumstances, was become useless.
The interests of the last debt are then due and paid within, and by
Great Britain; but will it be said, that England would not be so rich,
were the 3 millions additional interest, with which she is burdened,
due to Holland, and had the English, instead of employing their
capitals, as they have done, in support of the last war, made use of
them in the same profitable manner as in the year 1755? had that
money, for instance, been laid out in the improvement of their waste
lands in Europe, whilst Dutch cash should have fought against
French money, to determine how many European nations ought to
be permitted to carry to North America, the goods of the other parts
of the globe!
 As to the full acquittal in money, real and effective, of the
2,000,000l. interest, due to Holland for her previous loan, it is
improbable, impossible, and useless.
It is improbable, because Holland, being already overstocked with
money, and carefully intent on getting rid of her surplusage in this
particular, at the first opportunity of placing it with security, would
still lower the price of it at home, were she to increase its mass; and
that, on the contrary, whilst Holland takes in goods instead of
money, she keeps up the interest of the one, by securing to herself a
benefit upon the other.
It is impossible, because England importing bullion from Spain and
Portugal, to the amount only of one third, and being very cautious,
as observed before, not to import more than one third of what she
owes to the Dutch, and this, not to pay them, but because this third
answers sufficiently to the five articles of which I have spoken
before;—England, then, cannot give to the Dutch what she has not
received from another, and which she has not of her own.
It is useless, in fine, because all accounts whatever are balanced
with more ease, in the age we live in, by bills of exchange, than with
cash, and because the claims of Holland are more naturally paid off,
by another debt due to Great Britain, for the produce of her exports
to some other parts of Europe, from whence the Dutch carefully
avoid, as much as possible, to import any thing but merchandise.
But would it not be better to owe nothing to foreign nations? For
to this one point we ought to confine all the lamentations about
Dutch creditors.
The above question, so apparently simple, so readily to be
resolved in the affirmative, would grow perhaps more intricate, were
it ushered in by some previous queries, which might permit us to
foresee the effect of the national wish, when accomplished, if it
could be obtained by the easiest answer that could be given; for the
case, no doubt, is not to examine, whether it would not be better to
have borrowed, without being obliged to return, than to pay an
interest after the money has been borrowed. In the state of things,
the question alluded to, to be fair and within the pale of common
sense, must mean nothing more than this: Would it not be better,
that the proprietors of the two millions interest, paid to a foreign
nation, should make their residence in England? And in this case it
leads us, by degrees, to the following query: Would it not be better,
if all and every man in the world, who has money to spare, should
come to spend it in London? Then indeed London would be a dear
place to live in! And this is, methinks, the most dreaded effect
arising from taxes. O ye, whose covetousness knows no limits but
the bounds of the earth! do ye pretend to be the sole inhabitants
thereof? Can ye draw off the capitalists of a country, without
completing its ruin? Can ye effect its ruin, without losing both that
portion which the produce of your soil secures to you in the produce
of that nation’s industry, and the share which the produce of your
industry has secured for you in those of her soil?
What then appears to me to be the result of this fatal interest of
two millions due annually to Holland?—That the latter is essentially
interested, not in an increase of the power of England, who might
make a bad use of it; not in an increase of specie in England, which,
by lowering its value, must compel her to return that of the Dutch,
already so much disparaged in their country; but to a further
extension of the English trade, or rather of the general commerce,
which can alone, by advancing constantly, and every where, the
quantity and price of the objects that are to circulate, increase in the
same proportion the necessity of the instruments indispensable to
every kind of circulation and undertaking, and keep up in every part,
for the interest of Spain and Portugal, as well as for that of Holland,
the value of the sign intended for a general representation, which
Holland in her proportion will ever have in greater plenty than all
other nations, thanks to the narrow limits of her territories, and to
the manners of her inhabitants, which, in all probability, are the
consequence of that limitation.
 Balance of France with England.
Of all the balances of England summed up by Sir Charles
Whitworth, that which is most to be wondered at every where but in
Japan and China, where foreign trade is but poorly encouraged, is
the balance between England and France, these two nations being
parted, as they are, only by a simple brook.
The wonder cannot but increase, if we consider with what
eagerness those two countries are intent upon improving their trade.
The wonder will still increase, when it is observed, that the French
carry to the highest pitch their rage for English modes, whilst the
English experience the same kind of frenzy for French fashions.
The wonder must increase still further, when it is observed, that
the same nations, in possession of the most active and most
intelligent industry, are also possessed of all the cash necessary to
give an additional activity to that industry, which might be required
to carry on a branch of trade, as it were, at their door, but which is
neglected, out of regard for old and absurd prejudices.
Still must the wonder increase, if it is observed, that a first capital
of 200,000l. laid out in that trade by the two nations, would occasion
in both, more work in cultivation, as well as in the arts, than
600,000l. which each of them might employ in a trade to China, if it
were possible to lay out such a sum upon it?
The wonder will be still greater, when we consider that, by
favouring, with equal care, the imports and exports to and from one
country into the other, the two nations would, without the least
inconvenience, acquire the means of increasing the revenue of their
customs respectively, according to their wants, by agreeing mutually
upon a tarif, which would be rated upon the average of those wants;
a tarif, which the rest of Europe might adapt to its circumstances, if
it were the general intention to increase, every where, the revenue
of the State and the industry of the people, in a like proportion.
This is certainly what the two nations might have compassed. That
which follows, is what they have done.
In the year 1699 the exports of England to France amounted to
287,050l. and her imports from France to 94,641l:—
In 1773, the period at which Sir Charles Whitworth closes his
statements, the exports from England were rated at 285,776l. and
the imports from France at only 44,484l.—On this the enthusiastic
admirers of the Balance in favour bless their stars that their country
imports now 50,157l. less in French goods, than it did in 1699, and
that, in order to secure this advantage, England experiences no
other damage than that the French are fallen in their imports from
England only 1274l. since the year 1699.
 Further Reasons why all Ideas of a
favourable Balance in Money,
different from that which I have
supposed, should be rejected.
Great-Britain is not the only nation that claims a right to that kind
of favour, which would reduce all Europe, in all transactions, to the
use of paper-money; but I only speak of England in this place.
Money is not hid under ground in a country where administration
is convinced, both of the impossibility of the people paying
exorbitant taxes, without proportionable riches, and of the
impossibility of being as rich as is requisite for the discharge of
enormous taxes, when individuals are compelled to appear less rich,
that they may be less burdened with imposts.
Money is not laid under ground in a country, where the smallest
sum, as it were, equally with the largest, may be placed most
securely, till the very moment, when, led by fancy or want, one may
think well to withdraw it, and which, from the time when it has been
placed, to that of recalling it, produces nevertheless a sure interest,
which never was delayed a single minute; an interest, which is a
matter neither of reproach nor of shame.
Money is not laid under ground in a country, where the reputation
of being rich exposes not the subject to an arbitrary taxation, nor to
demands equally ruinous, to informations, extortions, or at least to
some injustice in case of a refusal.
Money is not laid under ground in a country, where regard is the
appendage not only of wealth, but of credit also, which carries the
appearance of, and can procure the former.
 Nor is money hid under ground in a country, where it shews the
value of a man as positively as that of a piece of goods; in a country,
where it is frankly said, this man is worth a million; whether this
expression be made use of to signify that the possessor of a million
is, at least, by the whole extent of that million, far from being guilty
of meanness and injustice, or that it be understood that nothing but
the offer of another million could tempt him to commit anything
base or unjust. Money is never buried under ground in a country,
where it acts so essential a part; it cannot then be its fate in
England: all the money in the possession of England stands in full
evidence; it consists,—1st, in objects of private luxury, the quantity
of which is by no means extravagant;—2dly, in the mass of cash in
circulation. Now this very mass is despotically determined by the
number of affairs transacted, and likewise by the prices and quantity
of the property which is to be circulated; yet this mass is, perhaps,
in England one half less than it would prove any where else,
supposing the same objects to be attained; that universal mobile is
too justly appreciated there, to be lavished, that is to say, to be
turned into cash, beyond what is required to give credit to the paper
currency substituted to cash.
I shall therefore ask, In what public funds abroad the English
merchants vest annually the four or five millions of that pretended
favourable balance in money, since they do not bury it at home?—
There might, it is true, still exist another resource; the general
balance is only the aggregate of all private balances.⸺But is it
very certain that, upon an average, the private balances of all the
merchants in Europe, who correspond with England, are annually
charged by one fourth of the amount accruing from that
correspondence? For if the English send them 16 every year, and
every year import only 12, their correspondents are consequently
indebted to them annually 4 more than they were the preceding
year.
The favourable balance, as it is commonly understood, is then a
mere chimera, which, if realised, would produce no other effect than
to advance, at some period or other, the price of a pound of bread to
that of a pound weight of gold; yet it results, methinks, from the
exports of England, almost trebled within a century, that each
nation, with whom the former has trebled her trade, has increased
her own, at least, by the whole amount of the balance due by her to
England; for it is beyond a doubt, that one must have three times
more to sell, in order to be able to purchase constantly, and pay
three times more than he used to do. But from this principle may it
not be inferred also, that every nation, wishing to increase her trade,
is interested in an increase of the commerce of all those with whom
she means to correspond?—If, in order to reduce into practice, if to
establish on the most equitable and most solid foundation, a system
so truly advantageous to society, Nature had nothing more to
combat than private cupidities—they balance each other. But how
many national prejudices, how many maxims sacred to each nation,
how many absurd regulations, springing from those very maxims
and prejudices, is she not obliged to modify, as it were, underhand,
in their effects! What a number of smugglers does that good mother
employ, for the purpose of bringing all things nearer to that
equilibrium, from which many are still persuaded it is so very
material to deviate!
 Equilibrium necessary in all things.
—On the surest means of
establishing it.
It is a difficult matter to guard against a prejudice in favour of
liberty, when we consider, that, thanks to the freedom which has
always very generally prevailed in those parts of Science, wherein
policy disdained to restrain it, we have been taught to weigh air,
before any precise idea was obtained on the rule of proportion,
which ought to regulate matters of exchange. Every thing, in this
last particular, is even still merely mechanical; and perhaps if the
matter were thoroughly examined, it would be found that there is
never too much, nor too little in one of the scales of the balance, but
from an effect of the means devised to establish or preserve the
Equilibrium. I do not pretend to lay down, for an absolute principle,
that the hand of man, like that of the harpies, is only capable of
poisoning whatever comes within its reach, and that the wisest
conduct would be, to keep it with care from every thing that one
should wish to preserve from corruption; such a proposition would,
no doubt, prove rather too general; yet one cannot help observing,
that there are but few countries where administration has not often,
owing to the grossest ignorance, or some principle of injustice, or of
a cupidity almost equally blind, restrained some very lucrative
cultures, to which the nature of the soil and of the climate would
have given a perfection that could be attained no where else; or
have not encouraged some costly produce, to which Nature refuses
those qualities which she liberally bestows under another sky.
Neither can one refrain from remarking also, that from those
regulations, and from many more of the same kind relative to
manufactories, no other effect can result than that of buying up at
home, very dear, and often of a bad or indifferent quality, that which
might be purchased abroad of an excellent kind, and at a cheaper
rate, and which might be paid for with the productions of the earth
and industry, better suited to the climate of the purchaser.
It is also observed, that, without the interference of administration
or of philosophy, the balance between want and the relative quantity
of the different productions of the earth, is always, upon a medium,
admirably supported by the sole interest of the cultivator, ever
perfectly and solely guided by the common demand for each of
these productions.
It is also remarked, that a second balance, and a very necessary
one, between the mean price of those different productions, is also
mechanically established, on the difference of labour and of the
capitals, which the same cultivator lays out upon each of them,
without any other motive but that of employing with discernment,
his hands and his capital, to derive from them the greatest benefit.
He never thinks of restoring the equilibrium between the general
prices, when the price of the product A has fallen, and when a
continued advance on the product B invites him to multiply the latter,
by transferring to its cultivation, a more considerable share of his
labour and of his capital. Nor does he think of it, when laying out
new supplies of labour and money if the price of the product B keeps
up whilst that of the product A goes on increasing; he does not think
of it; and yet, without any other reason or motive than his own
interest, he restores that necessary equilibrium. Much less still does
he think that an increase maintained in the price of one object,
without diminution in that of other articles, bespeaks an increase of
the general consumption, which soon must raise the price of every
thing. Nay, it is very probable that he will not take notice that he
sells all his goods at a higher rate, and that he will soon complain of
the general advance in the price of all those which he buys, because
his interest is his only guide: but this interest is opposed by that of
industry; and from this clashing, in spite of the two opponents,
arises a new balance, more loaded, no doubt, than the first, but not
less necessary, not less equitable, and yet no one has meddled with
it.
All these things may be easily observed; but what ought to be
more particularly attended to, and what is most overlooked, is the
impossibility of ascertaining the difference between the hand-labour
and capitals to which we owe the productions of the earth, the
knowledge of which is within the reach of every one, and the labour
and capitals to which we owe the productions of industry, in which
the workmanship of an article often constitutes the half, and
sometimes 99 hundredths of its value: it is a disadvantage against
which agriculture cannot be effectually protected but by a
competition, which can be the result only of the greatest freedom.
The absolute passiveness, which, in the above stated circumstances,
is sufficient, on the part of Government, to effect the greatest good,
appears here indispensable, to avoid acts of injustice. Why should
the trading part complain of that passiveness, whilst a number of
cultivators, proportioned to that of the artisans, produce in the State
a revenue equal to the maintenance and support of industry? Now
the fact appears the more certain, as, upon the least reflexion, one
may be sensible, that if an epidemic disorder should break out
amongst the husbandmen only, and thus deprive cultivation of one
half of its proper number of hands, the survivors would not fail to
increase the price of their labour, and the farmer that of his farm, by
so much as would indemnify agriculture for the loss which she might
have sustained, and that the advance in her prices would fall off only
in proportion as the handicraftsmen without employment, by the
uselessness of that portion of the produce of industry, hitherto
consumed by the cultivators who fell victims to the disease, would
themselves turn cultivators; an operation which would soon restore
the proper balance between the two revenues, as well as between
the prices of labour, from which all kinds of produce originate. Let
the effects of the disease be transferred from the cultivators to the
handicraftsmen, the same manœuvre will be played off by those
who preside over industry.
 Should another reason be wanted to strengthen my argument in
its most essential part, I could adduce an incontestable fact, as little
controverted in France as it is in England, namely, that in both
countries the whole of the landed property does not yield three
fourths of what it ought to produce.—Then, either the respective
industry of the two nations ransoms agriculture, and binds her up,
without being suspected of doing so, to that state of mediocrity to
which she is reduced; in which case, single out of your regulations,
those which favour industry at the expence of cultivation, and
endeavour to expunge them, since agriculture stands clearly in want
both of hands and capitals; or your industry and agriculture are
neither of them nearly arrived to that degree of perfection which
they are calculated to reach; that is to say, you have not the number
of cultivators which your land can nourish, nor of course, so many
artificers as your land can maintain; in this case also, revise your
regulations; there is not one of them which does not affect your
agriculture in a direct or indirect manner; by her you must begin:
cultivators, unthinkingly and without regret, give birth to a race of
artisans;—it is, on the contrary, as it were in spite of industry, and by
a kind of reaction which she spares no endeavours to retard, that
cultivators are produced by artisans. Never will industry lay out a
shilling upon the land if she can employ it in any other enterprise.
But, would the inland trade, without which agriculture cannot
subsist, flourish, if foreign commerce should not be encouraged in a
particular manner? And were any circumstances whatever, combined
together so as to occasion such an alteration in the price of
necessaries, as would deprive industry of the proper means to
support abroad a competition which cannot possibly subsist but by
an equality of means; would it not then become necessary for
government, to shew a special favour to commerce, intrusted with
the care of that competition? The manufacturers, in all countries,
insist so forcibly on such a necessity! The ruling powers in every
nation are so convinced of the truth of the above maxim!
This question, truly important, requires some details on the
different causes productive of the alteration in the prices.
 Although I may often appear, in the following suppositions, to lose
sight of the revenue arising from industry, and pay attention to that
of the land only, we must not forget the mechanical principle, or
rather the force of Nature, who, sooner or later, in spite of all the
subtilty of man, keeps an exact balance between those two sources
of national wealth, and causes all the revolutions of the one to be
unavoidably felt by the other.
 Various Causes of the Alteration in
the Prices.
As long as we shall suppose, in a country standing by itself, the
same products, the same consumption, the same quantity of money,
the same freedom, no reason can ever be assigned for an increase
or falling-off in the price of any article generally known, and of
general use; but,

Second Hypothesis,
Let us suppose, that population is doubled as well as the revenue;
no alteration can certainly take place in the real value of things;—
that value will remain for each article, the same as it was before;
that is, the sum of the labour requisite for the production of that
article:[5] neither will the relative value undergo any change; the
quantity of labour known, or supposed, in two different objects of a
certain consumption, will remain, as at first, the sole criterion for
fixing the difference of value in the one and the other. The essential
relation of general correspondence between the wants, and the real
resources, remaining also the same, there can likewise be no real
difference in the situation of any individual whatever; if there are
every where two consumers to one, the same increase will be found
in the number of productors. The only palpable, and unavoidable
alteration, always grievous when it is sudden, is that which, in the
present hypothesis, must have taken place in the nominal value, that
is to say, in the money-price of every thing; for the quantity of coin
which was in circulation, being always the same in that country,
standing by itself as we have supposed, and without mines, whilst
the objects representing the said quantity, had successively doubled,
it had been indispensable, successively, either by degrees, or by
starts, to come to the point of giving for 2 in money, that which
could not be given before for less than 4, or rather of denominating
4, that same quantity of money which hitherto had been
denominated 2.—If you look for a precedent of the first effects of a
disproportion too considerable or too rapid, between the wants and
the demands, or between the mass of coin in circulation, and the
number of articles to be circulated, it will be found, in the revolutions
which took place in England, during the space of two years only,
1288, 1289, the quarter of wheat rose from 1s. to 2s. then to 3s. 9s.
12s. came down again to 2s. was then raised all at once to 20s. and
fell at last to 16s. where it seemed to support itself for some years
(see the excellent Inquiry of Mr. Smith, into the Nature and Causes
of the Wealth of Nations); this is the man truly capable of dissecting,
as it were, that subject, of which I can, at best, but mangle the
epidermis.

Third Hypothesis.
To remedy the evil in such circumstances, how many expedients
are tried, which only serve to increase it! How many avowed
depredations upon pretended usurers, before the Sovereign boldly
ventures to partake with them in the public execration by ordering a
re-coinage, which, under the same denomination, will give but a part
of the weight, or of the quality of the former coin! Yet this cannot be
avoided. But by ascertaining, as we have done before, a two-fold
increase in the revenue, and supposing one million and a half to
have been sufficient to the circulation of the first revenue; if the
Prince with his 1,500,000l. instead of a coinage of three millions,
should have struck only 2,400,000l.—after some fluctuation, the
balance will be restored between the price or nominal value of the
negociable articles, and the quantity of money in circulation;—but
what had been sold for 5 heretofore, will then go for 4; the prices
will have fallen one fifth, and the circulation will be clogged:—But
above all, it should be observed, that no one will be the poorer,
notwithstanding the diminution of the nominal value.
 Fourth Hypothesis.
If the re-coinage has been in the proportion necessary to re-
establish exactly the former facility in all the channels of circulation,
the former prices will return after the inevitable fluctuations; the
quarter of wheat, for instance, which at some period of the
revolution, will have been raised to 20s. will fall back to 5s. as it was
at the beginning, although the shilling contains only half the silver
that it contained at that time, 130 grains we shall say, instead of the
260 or 264 it contained in the year 1300.

Fifth Hypothesis.
Now let us suppose, what has happened in all countries, that the
Prince and his Ministers have laid hold of the opportunity, the former,
to pay the debts he had incurred in the time of national distress and
confusion, the latter, to procure a more rapid increase of their
fortunes, and that, with the 1,500,000l. supposed in circulation, they
have struck 6 millions, instead of the 3 wanted to answer the real
increase of the revenues and of population;—certainly when the
calm returns, 10s. will be the price of a quarter of wheat, which sold
for 5s. in the first hypothesis;—a most decisive argument this, for
the manufacturer to sell at 8 that very cloth which went for 4, and
an uncontrovertible ground of right in the working people to charge
4d. for that which before they performed at 2d.—In these two points
center all the practical inferences in which any individual in the State
can be concerned: yet the shilling will contain only 65 grains of
silver, instead of 260;—and if the price of every thing be doubled, it
is not on account of the shilling containing only 65 grains in lieu of
260, since, upon this principle, the quarter of wheat must have
fetched 20s. instead of 10s.—but it is because, in all cases, there are
two pieces of money to answer the purpose of one, and that it was
necessary, in order that the second might acquire one half of its
former value, that the first should lose that very half.
 Sixth Hypothesis.
At this period, let it be supposed, that an epidemical distemper
sweeps off three-fourths of the inhabitants, and consequently takes
away as much from the revenue:—After the terrors usual in such
cases, and a score of prophecies, foretelling that Doomsday is at
hand, yet will it appear that the world is not destroyed: it will also
appear, that the epidemical disorder has not carried off the money,
and that it would be wrong not to make use of it.—The specie must
of course, lose nearly three fourths of its value if the whole should
continue in circulation, because 4 pieces will present themselves to
do the office which 1 could perform before the time of the
distemper;—the quarter of wheat, at first rated at 5 shillings, sunk to
4 in the second hypothesis, then sold for 10 in the fifth, will in the
present one, rise up to 40, without any one growing richer or poorer
for it; for, most assuredly, the price of labour will have increased in
proportion to that of its own produce.

Seventh Hypothesis.
The effect would have been the same, if, instead of the distemper
just supposed, the general enthusiasm on the discovery of a gold or
silver mine, had induced the Sovereign to add to the circulation
three times the quantity of specie which had hitherto been sufficient.

Eighth Hypothesis.
In the supposition of an event the most opposite to that of an
epidemic disease, viz. of the revenue being increased one half, one
third, nay, three fourths, if you please, as well as the population; yet
the mine yielding a great deal above what is necessary to answer to
an increase in all kinds, and the Sovereign being resolved upon a
recoinage of the specie, on principles entirely different from the
former, that is, by preserving exactly the same number, standard,
and denomination of the coin; the number, because it is sufficient;
the denomination, because there must be one, and that it is
indifferent which it bears; and the standard, because there is no
further danger in fixing it; but, by advancing the weight of a shilling
from 65 to 86 grains, there will certainly be no alteration in the
prices; the wheat will keep up at 40 shillings, and other articles in
the same proportion;—and none will be richer or poorer for it,
although, at the price of 40s. the quarter of wheat, they give,
without hesitation, 3440 grains of silver for an article for which they
gave 650 only, previous to the epidemic disease, or the opening of
the mine, which has produced the same effect.

Ninth Hypothesis.
When such revolutions are brought about by slow degrees, no one
is sensible either of the effect, or of the cause; but, at last, both are
attended to. Let us then suppose, that the generality of the people
reflect that gold and silver, considered as coin, derive all their value
from imagination;—that money is, strictly speaking, nothing more
than a medium adopted to facilitate the division and transport of all
other kinds of property;—that it is but a sign, the place of which may
be easily supplied by any other, which by general consent may be
honoured with the same distinction, or ordered for the same use;—
that its value, in this point of view, rises or falls unavoidably,
according to its quantity, without influencing the intrinsic or relative
value of the articles it represents, a value constantly determined by
the sum of the labour that produces them, just as their relative,
common quantity follows, servilely and closely, the demand.—All
these remarks cannot prevent us from observing a value far more
essential in gold and silver, considered as metals susceptible of all
the forms that can be useful, or can please the eye, while the nature
and texture of their parts secure them from accidents equally
disagreeable and dangerous, to which all other metals are liable: we
should not therefore be surprised, if some reflexions, suggested by
wisdom and humanity, were to lead us to that point which first
originated in the extravagance of ambition, and the rage of politics; I
mean, that, after having considered that no manner of good was
produced by that disparagement of coin, which always resulted from
its multiplication, and that the health of man was, on the contrary,
interested in putting to a better use those metals, the quantity of
which, being doubled in circulation, only served to double the price
of every thing;—we should not be surprised, I say, not only that
nothing was spared to encourage the goldsmith’s trade, but even,
that half of the coin was melted down, and transformed into plate,
and the deficit supplied by a quantity of paper-currency, answering
to that of the coin thus employed; a paper-currency, which it would
be sufficient to distinguish by some mark or token agreed upon, to
give it in circulation, exactly the same properties as that part of the
metals which was transferred to a more advantageous purpose.
In regard to the danger of paper-currency increasing above the
quantity wanted, it is as little to be feared, and its superabundance
would soon be made as sensible by its effect, as that of a superfluity
of coin.—If you double the mass of money intended for circulation,
how will you prevent such articles as sold for 4 only, from rising to 8,
or the additional 4 from becoming useless?—And if paper-currency
be in question, how will you prevent the extravagantly-avaricious
wretch, who envies others the enjoyments he denies to himself, how
can you prevent him, I say, from observing that paper rots in the
ground, and that to bury his wealth he must exchange it for cash?—
how will you prevent this want of money, immediately felt, from
destroying, without resource, the credit which that mass of buried
money had hitherto given to paper-currency? So long, therefore, as
the paper keeps up its credit, one may rest assured that the public is
not over-loaded with it. I shall, in the sequel, venture some
reflexions on the true cause of that part of the increase in prices,
which is attributed to the quantity of paper-currency in circulation;
contenting myself here with a recapitulation of what I have just said
on the different causes of the alteration in prices, according to the
foregoing hypothesis, by concluding,
 First, That a nation which should rejoice in being possessed (for
the convenience of covetous individuals) of a vortex, into which they
could cast, at pleasure, without profit, but also without anxiety, an
immense treasure, which was the produce of the pains taken by so
many useful and industrious hands, would, in fact, only congratulate
herself on being possessed of the effectual means of robbing the
present and succeeding ages, of all the advantages that must have
accrued from the use made of that money, in any part of the world,
where it might have produced, and encouraged a new branch of
industry, the reaction of which would have turned to the profit of the
nation in possession of such vortex.
Secondly, That a nation, which should rejoice in being the owner
of an immense quantity of coin in circulation, would, in fact,
congratulate herself on that want of credit which renders such
quantity indispensable.
Thirdly, That as soon as government, in such a nation, should
have solemnly given up the right, supposed to be unalienable, of
paying its debts, from no other motive but that of extreme honour
and benevolence, the nation might then part with half her coin, and
without impeding the circulation, increase her enjoyments and her
wealth, which can be nothing more than the total of her annual
labour, together with the monuments still subsisting of the labour of
preceding years: a total, which could not but increase in the case
now supposed.
Fourthly, That, in regard to the coin, the most wretched paper-
factory, assisted with that credit which is founded, not on kindness,
but on justice and interest, is far preferable to the richest mine in
America.
Fifthly, That the difference in the real value between one article
and another, is only the difference of the labour which produces it;
and that all regulation, tending to throw a veil on the quantity of
labour contained in one article, is unjust; since it turns to the
prejudice of any individual in the community, who is not the author
of this unknown labour.
 Sixthly, That the nominal price of the essential article, to which
that of the others must finally revert and conform, fixed at first by its
proportion in the quantity of articles to be represented, and by the
divisions and subdivisions of the mass of money then existing for
that use, this nominal common price will certainly rise or fall,
constantly, and without the least inconvenience, just as that first
quantity of coin shall cease to answer, by more or by less, to the
quantity of the objects of which it was calculated to transfer the
property.
Seventhly, That, supposing it to be a fact, proved incontestably by
the mint-registers, and the average price at Windsor, that from the
year 1300 to 1309, wheat, at its highest rate, was not above 7s. per
quarter, the shilling weighing 264 grains of silver, which made the
quarter come only to 1848 grains; that in the year 1551, the same
sold for 8s. the shilling containing then only 60 grains, which made it
exactly 160 grains per quarter; and that the same sells now, I will
say, at 40s. the shilling containing 86 grains, which is 3440 grains for
a quarter of wheat; yet, from these facts no inference can be drawn
that could affect any individual whatever, unless it should be proved,
that money makes part of our food, or that it is impossible, at this
present time, to procure, with any given labour, more or less wheat
than that identical labour could procure at that period.
Eighthly, That the real difference between 1848 grains of silver,
and 3440, which is perceivable between the prices of the years 1300
and 1785, would not even be sufficient, were it considered by itself,
to invalidate, or confirm this futile proposition, that the mass or
stock of money is nearly doubled in England; for we have already
found, that, supposing the case of an epidemic distemper, which
would have carried off three fourths of the people, and consequently
reduced the revenue in the same proportion, the price of every thing
must have increased fourfold, if the three fourths of the coin had not
been buried under ground; we have seen, on the contrary, that it
has been possible to withdraw from circulation half of the current
cash, and make good this substraction in a very advantageous
manner, by introducing scraps of paper in its stead, without making
any alteration in the general prices, or in the least affecting the
circumstances of any one, poor or rich, unless some collateral
incident should intervene to bring about a change; and the least
reflexion will convince us, that the mass of specie might be
quadruplicated in a nation, without any material variation in the
prices, if the sum of labour, and of its products, as well as of the
consumption, should augment proportionably.
But, in stating that the only—the infallible reason for the variations
of common prices in the foregoing hypotheses, is the change of
proportion between the mass of specie, or of the paper-currency
which represents it, and the articles of which the one, or the other, is
to transfer the property, there is no inconsistency in persisting to
pretend that taxes add to the former prices, both the amount of the
impost, and the profit due to the trader who advances it. But, in
both cases the progress is different: in the former, it is the quantity
of the specie actually in being which necessitates and fixes the
prices; in the latter, it is the necessary advance in the prices, that
necessitates and fixes the quantity of specie, or paper-money which
is substituted to it.—Luckily, as we have already observed, it has
been enough for England to find, once for all, money to the amount
of 5 millions sterling, (cash and paper) for discharging to the end of
time, the interest of a debt computed at 238 millions, the same
currency.—But upon a supposition that the debt incurred by France,
from the year 1774, should amount to 15 or 1600 millions tournois,
and the yearly produce of French industry in all its branches, (at the
common rate of 1775) be of 2,400,000,000l.—the interest of 80
millions and upwards, to be paid for such a debt, requires an
adequate increase of taxes:—now, 80 millions tournois constitute
about the 30th part of the annual revenue produced by French
industry, the nominal value of which must be increased by those
taxes;—but as paper-money does not supply in France the place of
cash, it has been, of course, necessary to augment by one 30th, the
mass of specie, which proved sufficient before the rise in the prices,
occasioned by the impost;—this mass, it is said, was rated at
2,400,000,000 of livres, the 30th part of which is 66,666,666 13s.
and 4d. tournois, a very considerable sum indeed; but nevertheless
nothing more has been necessary, to prevent any inquietude on the
subject, than to procure that sum, once for all; and, once for all
likewise, to add thereto the effect of some re-actions, of which I
shall speak presently; nothing more, I say, was wanted to secure, in
an indefensible manner, the interest of a loan of 1500 millions, and
to secure it so as to raise in the minds of the holders of stock to so
immense an amount, no other apprehension than that of their being
reimbursed.
Some will say, perhaps, “this reasoning is frivolous, and founded
on the absurd supposition of a general combination, a kind of
universal conspiracy, in order to raise the price of every thing
proportionably to the taxes.” I know that such a combination, such a
conspiracy is impossible; I know that there is not in France a single
edict, nor any particular act of parliament in England, to enforce, or
even to permit it; but I am sensible that such an act, and such an
edict, would be perfectly useless, when I see, that in either of those
countries there is not a rational being, capable of reflexion, who will
not say, Taxes occasion a dreadful advance in the prices of every
thing: it is true that the order is sometimes inverted, and then the
cry is—How cruel it is that the price of every article is increased,
whilst the taxes diminish our means of purchase!—But if every
article rises in a due proportion, we must conclude that there is no
alteration in the state of the balance; for if every individual in a
nation buys up, every one sells also, one his labour, another his
wares, a third his corn; and if every thing grows dearer, except the
article you have to sell, you must own yourself completely in the
wrong: luckily the landed proprietors are as little in the wrong as
they possibly can be; for as often as they renew a lease, they
increase their rental, just as if they had got possession of my little
secret, or as if there were corporations also in agriculture.—The
agents of industry are still less liable to be in the wrong, for all their
operations are founded on the following rule:—For purchase so
much,—for freight so much,—so much for taxes,—to these add my
commission or profit—The balance is so much, which I must be paid,
as I shall settle with the members of my corporation. Besides, the
commercial part of the nation is too well persuaded how necessary it
is to secure a favourable general balance, to be mistaken in the
means of equipoising their private ones.
It is my opinion, therefore, that one may, without being a conjurer,
foretell that the last dreadful and convulsive shock, almost generally
felt all over the world, will finally, and in a very little time, end in the
loose remembrance of some thousands of hands having been,
foolishly enough, taken from their peaceable occupations, very
favourable to population, to employ them in forwarding destructive
plans, to which many thousands of men have fallen a sacrifice; one
might also add, thousands of depredations, some of which, the most
pardonable in their nature, have been punished at the gallows:
perhaps even they will say modestly in France, We have reduced the
English, but we were four to one—and then England will proudly
answer, We have been reduced, but we were only one to four; nor
would it be at all unreasonable to lament, that the value of 4 or 5
millions sterling in gold and silver, fatuously ornamented with the
escutcheons of England and France, to consolidate for ever the
interest of 140 or 150 millions, which constitute the last debts
contracted by the two rival nations, be not humbly stamped with the
puncheon made use of to mark the plate in London and Paris ... but,
to suppose that there will be in London or Paris a single carriage
less! that France will lessen her importation of English goods, or that
the demand for French wines will be less from England—is an idea
which cannot, in my mind, coincide with that of a population and
industry which, hitherto had sufficed in both nations to answer all
those different purposes; of a population, I say, and of an industry,
which will, in all likelihood, go on still increasing every day, wherever
they shall not be checked by the laws.
One of the most fatal effects that spring from that increase in the
prices, occasioned by the impost, is, as they say, the impossibility to
which a country is reduced, of supporting abroad the rivalship, the
competition of a nation less burdened with taxes, who of course can,
they say, undersell every thing.
 Such is, in fine, the question which I thought the fastidious details
I have entered into, ought to preface, and might render of more
easy solution. But I request the reader to examine previously,
1st, Whether an accession of wealth, an addition of gold and
money to the circulation, would not increase the prices of every
thing, as necessarily as taxes must do it;—2dly, If that increase in
prices, procured by wealth, would not be accompanied with the
same inconveniences in regard to the supporting of a competition
abroad;—and, 3dly, If the stranger to whom we should declare
ourselves compelled to sell him our goods dearer, because we are
grown richer than the rival nation, would not have the same answer
to give us, as if he were told, that the cause of the advance in the
price is, our being loaded more heavily with taxes.
If these three questions cannot be answered but in the
affirmative, we should then be obliged to suspect that there is
something inexplicable, ill judged, and not better grounded in the
clamours which resound in every part of England on this subject;
and this surmise might perhaps incline the reader to peruse, without
prejudice, what I am going to set down, with no other view, than to
find out some useful truths.
 On the Influence of the National
Prices on the Sales in Foreign
Markets.
The impossibility of a competition in trade with those who can
afford cheaper, in money, the articles which are to be the object of
such a trade, is so affirmatively maintained, and this principle is so
self-evident, when applied to two manufacturers in the same town,
circumscribed in their selling as well as their buying, within the
precincts of the same country, where the one should always procure
for 3, what the other would have the stupidity to buy constantly at
4, that it becomes pardonable (if one carries the examination no
farther) to admit of this idea, taken in a most comprehensive
manner, as one of those trivial truths, which are not worth being
searched into. But I must own, that my reflexions on the pretended
necessity of keeping the commercial balance constantly in favour,
have made me rather circumspect in giving credit to opinions the
most generally received.
It will not be in regard to the situation of a country, which might
allege a difference of 7 or 8 per cent. in its prices, as an
insurmountable bar to competition, that I shall examine in what
manner that very competition might be established; I shall suppose
a nation in the 6th, 7th, and 8th hypotheses, wherein wheat is rated
at 40s. per quarter, by a series of revolutions in the coin, or a
multiplication of taxes, or by an increase in wealth; and I shall place
it in opposition to another nation, considered as paying few or no
taxes, and humbly consuming her wheat at the rate of 26 or 27s.
the quarter.
In order to render the effects of the disproportion more sensible, I
shall further suppose, that the shilling in both nations equally
contains 86 grains of silver at the same standard.
Before these two nations be represented as vying with each other
in the foreign markets, I shall, in the first instance, examine,
whether it might not be possible to settle between them a direct
trade, equally advantageous to both; for if this be practicable, why
should not the competition be so likewise?—Is not the trade of each
competitor a direct one with the nation, in which he vies?—And if, in
this case, there be a sure and equitable principle for one of the
competitors, why should it not be so for the other?
 A necessary Principle of Trade,
considered both as direct, and in
Competition.
In all imaginable suppositions, Commerce is nothing more than
the exchange of one want against another want, or of one fancy
against another fancy; or, in fine, of a fancy against a want. All idea
of a commerce between two nations, as between man and man,
carries with it two objects different in their nature, or their form; and
the relative value of these objects must essentially be previously
determined by some general principle, if we mean not to transact
business in the dark.
Now, the nation so rich, or, in other words, so over-loaded with
money, as to have raised, at home, the quarter of wheat to 40s. can
certainly have no real interest in taking away the small portion of the
other, so scantily provided, that she is obliged to sell for 24 or 27s.
that which fetches 40s. to the former; for, after all, what would be
the consequence of this spoliation? It would serve only to lessen, in
the opulent country, the value of the precious metal already so much
disparaged there. What then will be the case, if both have sense
enough to prefer real enjoyments to chimerical possessions, or
rather, profit to loss?
After the first years, destined, since the establishment of Societies,
to be spent in endeavouring, if possible to cheat each other, it will
certainly become indispensable to agree upon a fixed rule of
appraisement, as unexceptionable for one country as for the other.
Now, in the supposed state of the question, money cannot be that
rule; for one of them demands none, and the other is not willing to
part with any, not out of regard for the favourable balance, but
because she would get less by the exportation of her money, than of
her goods; it will therefore become necessary, for the respective
advantage of the parties concerned, to agree, that the labour of 10,
of 100, of 1000 men in one country, shall be looked upon as repaid
by the labour of the same number of hands from the other, upon a
tacit proviso nevertheless, that the respective merchants in both
nations shall have it in their power to ransom their countrymen,
according to the proportions established in both countries, a little by
the degree of estimation in which commerce is held, but a great deal
by the degree of foreign competition by which the natives are or will
be kept or called to order.—And what is required to prevent any
injustice, and, above all, any mistrust from the merchant of one
nation towards the merchant of the other?—Nothing more than to
follow the practice almost generally established all over Europe.—The
merchant in Rome, I suppose, will send his son to his friend in
London, and vice versâ. Now if the Roman perceives that in London,
where a quarter of wheat costs 40s. the article he proposes to buy is
commonly sold at 80s. he will readily conceive, without having gone
through a course of algebra, that some other article, which is
bespoke of him in exchange, going for 54s. in Rome, where wheat is
at 27s. per quarter, he will exactly pay, value for value, according to
the balance and weight of the commercial sanctuary, the 80 of
London with the 54 of Rome.
It appears to me that matters thus settled, might remain so for
ever, without inconvenience, without any alteration of prices, in
either of the two nations, had not Nature, either from mere caprice,
or to make men, in spite of themselves, dependent on each other,
and oblige them to look on one another as brethren, established
certain unknown rules, in consequence of which, that very same
wheat, which would cost only 26 or 27s. at Rome, we have
supposed, and 40s. in London, this same wheat I say, the staff of life
all over Europe, every where accounted the standard of labour, and
every where cultivated in proportion to its common necessity, is at
times nevertheless at one place in great plenty, and very scarce at
another. Now it seems to be a matter of perfect indifference, that in
regard to any other article a merchant should ransom his wealthy