fore 1920, and in April of that year it was agreed that future increases should be proportioned to the cost of living.
In Germany we have the computation shown in Table XVIII. (Labour Overseas, Ministry of Labour, London, Oct.-Jan. 1920, p. 51):—
Table XVIII.
| Date | Average weekly earnings of male adult |
Weekly minimum cost of living (four persons) |
Earnings in proportion to cost of living |
| Marks | Marks | ||
| Aug. 1913 to July 1914 | 35 | 29 | 1.21 |
| Aug. 1919 | 100 | 130 | .77 |
| Feb. 1920 | 170 | 254 | .67 |
| Nov. 1920 | 210 | 316 | .76 |
The Official Year Book of New Zealand (1919) gives figures which are shown in Table XIX.:—
Table XIX.
| Year | Average minimum hourly rates |
Weekly hours |
Weekly rates |
Retail food prices |
| 1911 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 |
| 1912 | 1006 | 1000 | 1006 | 1035 |
| 1913 | 1036 | 998 | 1034 | 1055 |
| 1914 | 1087 | 986 | 1072 | 1102 |
| 1915 | 1094 | 985 | 1078 | 1218 |
| 1916 | 1152 | 983 | 1132 | 1290 |
| 1917 | 1200 | 982 | 1178 | 1384 |
| 1918 | 1258 | 982 | 1135 | 1513 |
| 1919 | 1418 | 979 | 1288 | 1537 |
More than the minimum may have been paid in skilled trades and other items of expenditure may have risen less than food.
Table XX. shows how earnings (as distinguished from rates of wages) moved in New York state in relation to the cost of living:—
Table XX.
| Average weekly earnings in factories in New York state |
Cost of living index number for the United States | |
| 1914 Dec. | 100 | 100 |
| 1915 Dec. | 107 | 101 |
| 1916 Dec. | 123 | 115 |
| 1917 Dec. | 140 | 139 |
| 1918 Dec. | 185 | 170 |
| 1919 Dec. | 209 | 193 |
| 1920 May | 224 | June 210 June |
COTTON, SIR HENRY JOHN STEDMAN (1845-1915), Anglo-Indian administrator (see 7.254), lost his seat in Parliament in 1910. He died in London Oct. 23 1915.
COTTON, JAMES SUTHERLAND (1847-1918), British man of letters (see 7.255), died at Salisbury July 10 1918. He contributed articles on Indian subjects to the E.B. and spent the later years of his life cataloguing European MSS. relating to India in the India Office library.
COTTON, AND COTTON INDUSTRY (see 7.256, 281). The chief problems which faced the cotton industry after the beginning of the 20th century centred in the question of the supply of the raw material. Up to the outbreak of the World War the outstanding feature was the steady increase of the demand. The industry is unique in possessing fairly reliable statistics of the consumption throughout the world, these having been compiled with increasing completeness by the International Federation of Master Cotton Spinners' and Manufacturers' Associations since 1904. The last issue before the war (March 1 1914) contained actual returns from the owners of 132 million spindles out of an estimated world's total of 145 millions, or 91% of the world's total mill capacity. These figures do not, of course, include domestic spinning, which in many countries, especially India and China, accounts for a large part of the local consumption, so that they must always be incomplete; but this does not greatly affect comparative statistics from year to year.
The possession of such statistics offered an opportunity to attempt a balance sheet of the world's production and consumption such as is given in Table A. During the war it was impossible to continue the world statistics of consumption of cotton of all kinds, but other figures for the American crop alone are available to bring the table down to date as far as was possible in 1921.
The causes of the increase of consumption may be briefly tabulated as follows:—
(1) The increasing wealth of the world, especially of those tropical and subtropical countries whose products are largely raw materials such as cotton, and which for climatic reasons happen to be also the largest cotton-using countries in the world.
(2) Improved methods of manufacture, and the discovery of new processes which made it possible to produce cotton fabrics of an entirely different character, quality and finish from those previously known. The old process of “mercerising,” reapplied with new success, produced cotton fabrics with a finish and appearance closely resembling silk, while the additional process known as “schreinering” produced a surface like satin.
(3) Similar developments enabled cotton to be used not merely as an adulterant of, but as a really satisfactory substitute for, fabrics made from other textile materials, such as wool and linen, e.g. the raising process made it possible to produce cotton goods as much superior to the early attempts at woollen imitations as these were inferior to the real article. Cotton “damask” was also taking the place of the original linen.
Table A.—Balance of the World's Production and Consumption, 1904-20.
| World's Commercial Crops and Mill Consumption.[1] | American Crop and World's Consumption thereof. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mean Crops. | Mean Consumption. |
Balance. | Average Price of American, Indian and Egyptian. |
Commercial Crop.[2] |
Consumption.[2] | Balance. | Average Price American Middling. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bales (000's omitted). | Pence per lb. | Bales (000's omitted). | Pence per lb. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
17,726 | +1,922 | 5.66 | 13,656 | 12,664 | + 992 | 4.93 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 18,214 | − 948 | 6.73 | 11,443 | 12,081 | − 638 | 5.94 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 19,523 | +1,292 | 7.21 | 13,735 | 13,203 | + 532 | 6.38 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 19,393 | −1,829 | 6.68 | 11,456 | 12,112 | − 656 | 6.19 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 19,828 | + 401 | 6.29 | 13,831 | 13,157 | + 674 | 5.50 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 19,148 | −1,932 | 9.10 | 10,592 | 11,754 | −1,162 | 7.86 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 20,222 | −1,368 | 8.54 | 11,986 | 12,054 | − 68 | 7.84 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 21,495 | + 662 | 7.09 | 16,108 | 14,515 | +1,593 | 6.09 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 22,302 | − 799 | 7.57 | 14,106 | 14,715 | − 609 | 6.76 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 22,296 | +1,013 | 7.52 | 14,882 | 15,541 | + 341 | 7.26 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [3] | [3] | [3] | 15,108 | 13,834 | +1,274 | 5.22 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12,038 | 14,812 | −1,874 | 7.51 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12,941 | 13,906 | − 965 | 12.33 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11,907 | 12,282 | − 375 | 21.68 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11,640 | 10,600 | +1,040 | 19.73 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12,443 | 12,735 | − 292 | 25.31 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
