ABSTRACT
THE MECHANISATION of the textile industry, advances in dyeing and printing on cotton and American intensive cotton production all made cheap popular products available. Industrialisation had spread spending ability as never before. The world market responded strongly. By 1868 world madder exports had reached £3,500,000. 1 After long Dutch domination of the market, France caught up in 1848. If the substantial Russian figures are typical of world trade, the two countries controlled about 90 per cent of the Russian and world markets. From the late 1840s French settlers began to cultivate the extra raw material from her newly subjugated Algerian and Tunisian colonies. 2 The excellent and plentiful madder roots were shipped to France for processing. France’s industry had become massive, exporting over £1,200,000 in 1868, yet this was only a fraction of the roots that were used in her domestic textile industry. 3
