8 - Private investment in the jute industry

Summary

THE JUTE INDUSTRY, 1900–14

The jute industry in India was established within twenty years of its establishment in Dundee and by the turn of the century it had definitely out-stripped its Dundee counterpart in production. Dundee did not give up its earlier supremacy without a struggle, which found its expression in the use not only of the usual economic weapons but also of political pressure. Around 1894 the Hastings Mills introduced a night shift and this sparked off protest by the Dundee Chamber of Commerce to the Secretary of State for India, alleging violation of the Factory Act and the lack of trained inspectors to enforce the observation of the Factory Act by Indian mills generally. Sir John Leng, the senior M.P. for Dundee, visited India and inspected Indian jute mills. He ended up with the tribute that ‘the hands in these mills are among the best paid native workers in India. The silver ornaments worn by the women and girls show that they consider themselves amongst the aristocracy of labour.’ Not all Dundee interests were appeased by Sir John's acquiescence in the views regarding labour welfare held by the jute-mill managers in India; for a handbook on Dundee published in 1912 commented acidly on the ‘unwisdom’ of the growth of the jute-mill industry in India as shown by the short-time working in Indian mills.