Government of India Review of the Trade of India in 1904-05

In the former year the :ity of raw cotton th the cotton manufacturing industry of the whole world out of gear and so checked the imports of cotton goods the principal article of Indian trade while at the same time it caused exports of raw Indian cotton of unprecedented magnitude. [...] This trade was the outcome of the advantages conferred on cane sugars by the repressive legislation against the introduction of bounty-fed beet sugar but with the withdrawal of restrictions on the latter the advantages of refining cane.sugars for the Indian market ceased and the British trade therein declined. [...] The imports from the United States and Russia referred to in the Review of the Trade of 1993-04 represented the value of the tins in which case oil (kerosene) was imported into Bombay and Madras and the misclassification dates from January 1903 when the tins were first assessed to import duty in addition to the duty on the oil which they cotain. [...] The great fall in the price of cotton resulting from the gigantic American crop and the activity in the Indian cotton industry are the immediate causes of the growth of the imports for 113 301 cwt of the total was received during the last quarter of the year. [...] The restoration of confidence and the attenuation of stocks caused art eager demand from India and as the contracts were made and imports on a large scale began before the great drop in the price of raw cotton in the latter part of the year they were arranged on the basis of dear cotton and the average values for the year were therefore exceedingly high.