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Calico is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick than canvas or denim. However, it is still very cheap owing to its unfinished and undyed appearance.
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 fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor percentages of waxes, fats, pectins, and water. Under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will increase the dispersal of the seeds.
Muslin is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It is commonly believed that it gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq.
Percale is a closely woven plain-weave fabric often used for bed covers. Percale has a thread count of about 180 or higher and is noticeably tighter than twill or sateen. It has medium weight, is firm and smooth with no gloss, and washes very well. It is made from both carded and combed yarns, and may be woven of various fibers, such as cotton, polyester, or various blends.
A palampore or (Palempore) is a type of hand-painted and mordant-dyed bed cover or hanging panel that was made in India for the export market during the eighteenth century and nineteenth century.
Longcloth refers to a plain cotton cloth originally made in comparatively long pieces.
Broadcloth is a dense, plain woven cloth, historically made of wool. The defining characteristic of broadcloth is not its finished width but the fact that it was woven much wider and then heavily milled in order to shrink it to the required width. The effect of the milling process is to draw the yarns much closer together than could be achieved in the loom and allow the individual fibres of the wool to bind together in a felting process, which results in a dense, blind face cloth with a stiff drape which is highly weather-resistant, hard wearing and capable of taking a cut edge without the need for being hemmed.
The role and scale of British imperial policy during the British Raj on India's relative decline in global GDP remains a topic of debate among economists, historians, and politicians. Some commentators argue that the effect of British rule was negative, and that Britain engaged in a policy of deindustrialisation in India for the benefit of British exporters, which left Indians relatively poorer than before British rule. Others argue that Britain's impact on India was either broadly neutral or positive, and that India's declining share of global GDP was due to other factors, such as new mass production technologies or internal ethnic conflict.
The history of cotton can be traced from its domestication, through the important role it played in the history of India, the British Empire, and the United States, to its continuing importance as a crop and commodity.
Muslin, a Phuti carpus cotton fabric of plain weave, was historically hand woven in the areas of Dhaka and Sonargaon in Bangladesh and exported for many centuries. The region forms the eastern part of the historic region of Bengal. The muslin trade at one time made the Ganges delta and what is now Bangladesh into one of the most prosperous parts of the world. Of all the unique elements that must come together to manufacture muslin, none is as unique as the cotton, the famous "phuti karpas", scientifically known as Gossypium arboreum var. neglecta. Dhaka muslin was immensely popular and sold across the globe for millennia. Muslin from "India" is mentioned in the book Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, authored by an anonymous Egyptian merchant around 2,000 years ago, it was appreciated by the Ancient Greeks and Romans, and the fabled fabric was the pinnacle of European fashion in the 18th and 19th century. Production ceased sometime in the late 19th century, as the Bengali muslin industry could no longer compete against cheaper British-made textiles.
Bafta is a kind of calico, initially made in India.
Khasa was a high-quality variety of calico cloth that was manufactured and used for clothing in the Mughal Empire.
Piece goods were the textile materials sold in cut pieces as per the buyer's specification. The piece goods were either cut from a fabric roll or produced with a certain length, also called yard goods. Various textiles such as cotton, wool, silk, etc., were traded in terms of piece goods. The prices were determined as per the fabric quality.
Mughal karkhanas were the manufacturing houses and workshops for craftsmen, established by the Mughals in their empire. Karkhana is a Hindustani language word that means factory. These karkhanas were small manufacturing units for various arts and crafts as well as for the emperor's household and military needs. karkhanas were named and classified based on the nature of the job. For example, 'Rangkhana' and 'Chhapakhana' were for textile dyeing and printing work. The term 'tushak-khana' was used to describe workshops that made shawls and embellished them with embroidery or needlework. Imperial or Royal Karkhanas were for luxury goods and weapons. The karkhanas were the place for various production activities and also for the exploration of new techniques and innovations. Some operations such as weaving, embroidery work, and brocade work were often done under one roof, resembling an integrated assembly line.
Chautar or Chaotaer is an old cotton fabric of the Mughal period. The chautar was a mulmul variety, and the finest mulmul was termed as "Mulmul Shahi" in Hindi and Persian languages. It was produced in Eastern India. Way back, Chittagong was exporting this cloth. Conceivably then cloths were produced in smaller pieces only since the Chautar is described as a piece good. It has been recorded with specific dimensions, i.e., length 12.44 meters and width 77.75 centimeters. Chautar was compared with sansuo, which was a three shuttle cloth, type of fine cotton variety produced at Songjiang.
Salampore (salempore) was a kind of cotton cloth produced in India. It had been in use since the 17th century and was exported to Europe and Africa.
Gurrah (garat) was a kind of calico produced in Northeast India during the 18th century. Gurrah was one of the cotton piece goods exported to England and France.
Tapsel was a coarse cotton and silk cloth. It was a woven variety with a striped pattern, and usually a blue color. The fabric dated back to the 18th century and was made in western India.
Dorea was a type of striped or check patterned cloth made in the Indian subcontinent. The continued striped Dorea was a simplest form of Dorea.
Punjum was a type of Indian cotton cloth. It was produced in the Northern Circars, on the Coromandel Coastal region in South East India. Punjum was a kind of cotton longcloth that was produced in a variety of thread counts.
References
- 1 2 Tortora, Phyllis G.; Johnson, Ingrid (2013-09-17). The Fairchild Books Dictionary of Textiles. A&C Black. p. 528. ISBN 978-1-60901-535-0.
- ↑ Sangar, Pramod (1993). Growth of the English Trade Under the Mughals. ABS Publications. pp. xv. ISBN 978-81-7072-044-7.
- ↑ India, National Archives of (1949). Fort William-India House Correspondence and Other Contemporary Papers Relating Thereto. Manager of Publications. p. 1146.
- ↑ Journal of Indian Textile History. Calico Museum of Textiles. 1955. p. 71.
- ↑ Montgomery, Florence M. (1984). Textiles in America 1650-1870 : a dictionary based on original documents, prints and paintings, commercial records, American merchants' papers, shopkeepers' advertisements, and pattern books with original swatches of cloth. Internet Archive. New York; London : Norton. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-393-01703-8.
- ↑ Milburn, William (1813). Oriental Commerce: Containing a Geographical Description of the Principal Places in the East Indies, China, and Japan, with Their Produce, Manufactures, and Trade, Including the Coasting Or Country Trade from Port to Port :also the Rise and Progress of the Trade of the Various European Nations with the Eastern World, Particularly that of the English East India Company from the Discovery of the Passage Round the Cape of Good Hope to the Present Period :with an Account of the Company's Establishments, Revenues, Debts, Assets, and C. at Home and Abroad [...]. author and published. p. 46.