Sarong, the Malay word for a garment wrapped round the lower
part of the body and used by both men and women, is now
applied to plain or printed cloths exported to the Indian or
Eastern Archipelago for this purpose.
Jean, said to be derived from Genoa where a kind of fustian with this title was made, is a kind of twilled cloth. The cloth is woven “one end up and two ends down,” and as there are more picks of weft per inch than ends of warp the diagonal lines pass from selvage to selvage at an angle of less than 45 degrees. The weft surface is the face or wearing surface of the cloth. Jeans are exported to China and other markets, and are also used in the home trade. Jeanette is the converse of jean, being a twill of “two ends up to one down”; the diagonal passes from selvage to selvage at a greater angle than 45 degrees and the warp makes the wearing surface.
Oxford is a plain-woven cloth usually with a coloured pattern, and is used for shirts and dresses. The name is comparatively modern, and is, no doubt, arbitrarily selected.
Harvard is a twilled cloth similar to the Oxford.
Regatta is a stout, coloured shirt cloth similar in make to a jeanette. It was originally made in blue and white stripes and was used largely and is still used for men’s shirts.
Fancy cotton goods are of great variety, and many of them have trade names that are used temporarily or occasionally. Apart from the large class of brocaded cloths made in Jacquard looms there are innumerable simpler kinds, including stripes and checks of various descriptions, such as Swiss, Cord, Satin, Doriah stripes, &c. Mercerized cloths are of many kinds, as the mercerizing process can be applied to almost anything. Lace and lace curtains are made largely at Nottingham. Various light goods are made in Scotland, such as book muslin, a fine light muslin with an elastic finish, so called from being folded in book-form.
Among the fancy cloths made in cotton may be mentioned: matting, which includes various kinds with some similarity in appearance to a matting texture; matelassé, which is in some degree an imitation of French dress goods of that name; piqué, also of French origin, woven in stripes in relief, which cross the width of the piece, and usually finished stiff; Bedford cord, a cheaper variety of piqué in which the stripes run the length of the piece; oatmeal cloth, which has an irregular surface suggesting the grain of oatmeal, commonly dyed cream colour; crimp cloth, in which a puckered effect is obtained by uneven shrinkage; grenadine, said to be derived from Granada, a light dress material originally made of silk or silk and wool; brilliant, a dress material, usually with a small raised pattern; leno, possibly a corrupt form of the French linon or lawn, a kind of fancy gauze used for veils curtains, &c.; lappet, a light material with a figure or pattern produced on the surface of the cloth by needles placed in a sliding frame; lustre, a light dress material with a lustrous face sometimes made with a cotton warp and woolen weft; zephyr, a light, coloured dress material usually in small patterns; bobbin-net, a machine-made fabric, originally an imitation of lace made with bobbins on a pillow.
Some fancy cloths have descriptive names such as herringbone stripe, and there are many arbitrary trade names, such as Yosemite stripe, which may prevail and become the designation of a regular class or die after a few seasons.
Cotton linings include silesia, originally a linen cloth made in Silesia and now usually a twilled cotton cloth which is dyed various colours; Italian cloth, a kind of jean or sateen produced originally in Italy. Various cotton cloths are imitations of other textures and have modified names which indicate their superficial character, frequently produced by finishing processes. Among these are sateen, which, dyed or printed, is largely used for dresses, linings, upholstery, &c.; linenette, dyed and finished to imitate coloured linen in the north of Ireland and elsewhere; hollandette, usually unbleached or half-bleached and finished to imitate linen holland; and interlining, a coarse, plain white calico used as padding for linen collars.
Country. | 1903. | 1904. | 1905. | |||
Thousands of Yards. | Price per Yard. |
Thousands of Yards. | Price per Yard. |
Thousands of Yards. | Price per Yard. | |
Germany | 60,650 | 3.77 | 60,129 | 4.02 | 65,842 | 3.98 |
Netherlands | 47,570 | 3.57 | 46,187 | 3.68 | 56,639 | 3.47 |
Belgium | 52,199 | 4.34 | 56,237 | 4.42 | 67,509 | 4.41 |
France | 17,552 | 4.61 | 17,759 | 4.39 | 14,875 | 4.65 |
Portugal, Azores and Madeira | 32,824 | 2.70 | 29,440 | 2.92 | 29,867 | 3.03 |
Italy | 6,363 | 5.07 | 7,904 | 5.19 | 8,746 | 5.31 |
Austria-Hungary | 2,405 | 3.44 | 2,102 | 3.40 | 1,905 | 3.60 |
Greece | 40,973 | 2.64 | 32,658 | 3.11 | 28,190 | 3.20 |
Turkey | 305,611 | 2.45 | 379,557 | 2.53 | 376,209 | 2.53 |
Egypt | 229,704 | 2.41 | 283,521 | 2.57 | 272,737 | 2.53 |
Algeria | 709 | 2.74 | 438 | 2.71 | 455 | 2.63 |
Morocco | 52,368 | 2.28 | 51,262 | 2.44 | 44,407 | 2.44 |
Foreign West Africa | 64,589 | 2.92 | 55,131 | 3.12 | 69,163 | 3.08 |
Persia | 34,859 | 2.46 | 33,119 | 2.67 | 38,647 | 2.59 |
Dutch East Indies | 156,905 | 2.45 | 185,196 | 2.72 | 226,586 | 2.57 |
Philippine Islands | 25,558 | 2.59 | 25,969 | 2.86 | 42,876 | 2.66 |
China, including Hong-Kong | 477,691 | 2.83 | 548,974 | 3.34 | 799,732 | 3.06 |
Japan | 67,315 | 3.08 | 42,373 | 3.34 | 128,725 | 2.99 |
United States of America | 72,360 | 6.80 | 52,391 | 7.18 | 65,563 | 7.40 |
Foreign West Indies | 86,349 | 2.08 | 98,797 | 2.21 | 80,679 | 2.24 |
Mexico | 19,327 | 3.10 | 21,679 | 3.42 | 21,028 | 3.31 |
Central America | 40,879 | 1.97 | 53,018 | 2.21 | 49,523 | 2.29 |
Colombia and Panama | 44,299 | 2.25 | 44,648 | 2.54 | 31,798 | 2.41 |
Venezuela | 52,330 | 1.87 | 52,934 | 2.07 | 32,717 | 2.11 |
Peru | 28,962 | 2.66 | 32,430 | 2.85 | 39,035 | 2.78 |
Chile | 84,118 | 2.50 | 80,836 | 2.57 | 96,996 | 2.62 |
Brazil | 152,402 | 2.64 | 134,841 | 2.89 | 131,504 | 2.50 |
Uruguay | 44,062 | 2.79 | 35,670 | 2.85 | 56,770 | 2.95 |
Argentine Republic | 151,003 | 2.91 | 186,022 | 3.04 | 159,115 | 3.24 |
Gibraltar | 11,961 | 2.39 | 10,578 | 2.47 | 3,960 | 2.73 |
Malta | 4,065 | 3.11 | 3,659 | 3.45 | 4,006 | 3.31 |
British W. Africa | 69,795 | 3.27 | 69,308 | 3.43 | 74,392 | 3.40 |
British S. Africa | 61,778 | 3.61 | 29,670 | 4.03 | 50,592 | 3.69 |
British India— | ||||||
Bombay | 678,684 | 2.07 | 818,261 | 2.23 | 908,619 | 2.24 |
Madras | 132,825 | 2.48 | 141,675 | 2.63 | 131,145 | 2.62 |
Bengal | 1,122,004 | 1.97 | 1,215,607 | 2.18 | 1,280,314 | 2.18 |
Burma | 64,654 | 2.84 | 79,765 | 3.10 | 72,528 | 3.13 |
Straits Settlements* | 112,006 | 2.61 | 100,230 | 2.84 | 121,690 | 2.71 |
Ceylon | 17,395 | 2.75 | 19,336 | 2.95 | 24,991 | 2.94 |
Australia | 106,000 | 3.83 | 128,247 | 4.01 | 136,481 | 3.85 |
New Zealand | 38,499 | 3.58 | 33,538 | 3.81 | 32,315 | 3.63 |
Canada | 47,439 | 4.15 | 49,903 | 4.25 | 45,189 | 4.47 |
British West India Islands, | ||||||
Bahamas and British Guiana | 49,614 | 2.49 | 43,487 | 2.61 | 47,173 | 2.21 |
Other countries | 188,662 | 2.84 | 197,339 | 3.14 | 226,971 | 3.03 |
Total | 5,157,316 | 2.57 | 5,591,822 | 2.75 | 6,198,200 | 2.74 |
Various cotton imitations share the name of the original, such as lawn, batiste, serge, huckaback, galloon, and a large number of names are of obvious derivation and use, such as umbrella cloth, apron cloth, sail cloth, book-binding cloth, shroud cloth,