Monday, July 30, 2018

The History behind Egyptian Cotton


      Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the "genus Gossypium in the mallow family Malvaceae”. The fibre is almost pure cellulose. 

COTTON PLANT
The plant is a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa, Egypt and India. The greatest diversity of wild cotton species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia and Africa. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds.

COTTON HARVEST
The fibre is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. The use of cotton for fabric is known to date to prehistoric times; fragments of cotton fabric dated to the fifth millennium BC have been found in the Indus Valley Civilization. Although cultivated since antiquity, it was the invention of the cotton gin (a machine that separate the cotton from the seed) that lowered the cost of production that in turn led to its widespread use, and it is the most widely used natural fibre cloth in clothing today.

COTTON FEILDS
Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tones or 110 million bales annually, accounting for 2.5% of the world's arable land. China is the world's largest producer of cotton, but most of this is used domestically. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years.



The earliest evidence of cotton use in the Indian subcontinent has been found at the site of Mehrgarh and Rakhigarhi where cotton threads have been found preserved in copper beads; these finds have been dated to the Neolithic (5th millennium BC). Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, which covered parts of modern eastern Pakistan and northwestern India between 3300 and 1300 BC. The Indus cotton industry was well-developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the industrialization of India. Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread across much of India. For example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka dating from around 1000 BC.


OLD MAN SPINNING COTTON

LONG FIBRE
EGYPTIAN COTTON
For thousands of years cotton has grown in Egypt yet they used flax to create linen.

They would turn almost ripe stems into yarn after soaking them in water for around a week. Then they would carefully separate the fibres and by using a spinning tool they would expertly twist and spin the fibres into yarns then weave them into fabric on a loom. Back in the early 1800s a guy named Jumel from France persuaded Egypt’s head of state Muhammad Ali to sample a piece of cotton he had named Maho an extra-long cotton staple

Muhammad Ali was so impressed he made him a plantation manager and then built up his cotton crops and spread them all over the Delta region of the River Nile. 

HARVESTING COTTON
He dominated the cotton business and started selling his crops for a set price annually. This gave a huge boost to the economy and also sparked interest from Europe. Muhammad Ali continued to dominate the industry and developed Egypt into a cotton colony connecting with the textile industry in Europe.  Egypt under Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century had the fifth most productive cotton industry in the world, in terms of the number of spindles per capita which brought huge profits for Egypt.

Chourbagy & Aboud are some of the big names associated with the cotton industry when the industry of cotton was flourishing in El-Mahala El-Kobra and Zakazik.


COTTON SOLD LOCALY BY THE POUND
After Muhammad Ali passed away the next generation of heads of state used the cotton success and started to get loans from some banks in Europe. They wanted to modernize the production of cotton so they could increase the exports. These loans had high interest rates but because of the vast amount of cotton being produced Egypt could manage the debt. This revolutionized Egypt in to a modern country that became knowledgeable in credit systems.

COTTON PLANTATION
Unfortunately the American civil war cut off Europe from their cotton exports and so in Egypt the prices went crazy and in the space of just two years the price rose to many folds, Egyptian exports reached 1.2 million bales a year by 1903.. Muhammad Ali’s grandson Ismail decided to do something and so he looked to develop a part of Cairo into a city like Paris which he did and later was called ‘Paris on the Nile’ he also build the Suez Canal which became a valuable resource for Egypt. But once the war ended America started exporting cotton back to Europe which was a disaster for the cotton industry in Egypt.

MAHALA MODERN TEXTILE FATORY

SPINNING FACTORY
Finally when France and England forced Ismail to abdicate in 1879 they ruled Egypt and turned it into a colony. They gained control of the Egyptian cotton industry right through until Egypt gained independence.

Many will remember the famous "Linon" an Egyptian cotton made into a fabric in Switzerland and made to measure for fancy dress shirts at tailors like Swelam in Cairo.  

Today raw or manufactured cotton is still one of Egypt’s major exports!


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