MIGRATION AND THE TACTORY WORKER.
and metal works fo m three groups of about the same size, an number
about a million in the aggregate, while the remaining perennial factories,
which are scattered over a large number of industries, employ possibly
a quarter of a million persons in all.
Cotton Textiles.
Since the middle of last century, Bombay, on account of its excel-
fent shipping and railway facilities and business ;enterprise, has dominated
the cotton textile industry. There are still about 118,000 workers in the
mills of Bombay City and Island. The second centre of the industry is
Ahmedabad, in Gujerat, with about 70,000 operatives ; other centres in
the Bombay Presidency include Sholapur, Surat, Broach and Jalgaon.
The 203 cotton mills of the Presidency employ in all about 232,000 per-
sons. The remaining 92 mills with about 106.000 operatives are
distributed over many provinces and towns. Most important
among these are Madras, Madura and Coimbatore in the Madras
Presidency, Nagpur in the Central Provinces, Cawnpore in the United
Provinces, and the vicinity of Calcutta. There has recently been a ten-
dency for the industry to push into the smaller towns in the cotton-
growing tracts. These have the advantage, not possessed by Bombay,
of proximity to recruiting grounds for labour and to the markets for both
the raw material and the manufactured article. Generally speaking,
the industry has been expanding nearly everywhere except in Bombay,
and the decline in employment in that city has been balanced
by the expansion elsewhere. as the following figures show :—
Operatives
10,200
67,000
24 10
327,000
324,000
325,000
332,000
339,000
343,000
319,000
238.000
10
1099
20,
There has also been an expansion in Indian States, which are not included
in any of the figures given above. The industry is largely in Indian hands.
In Bombay, Parsees, who were responsible for its initiation, and Gujerati
Hindus have the biggest interests and the latter class control nearly all
the mills in Ahmedabad. Europeans control some mills in both these
centres and they and Hindus of various provinces are responsible for most
of the mills in the smaller centres. Musalmans control some mills in
Bombay, but few, if any, elsewhere. A considerable number of English-
men. drawn mainly from Lancashire. are amnloved in the mills as managers