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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| OLD MAN SPINNING COTTON |
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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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| MAHALA MODERN TEXTILE FATORY |
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| 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!
Information and pictures from Internet
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.
