オランダの独占に挑む : 工芸振興協会によるアカネ栽培の奨励、1754〜75年(下)(吉瀬征輔先生退職記念号)

概要

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Madder was an indispensable plant for dyeing and calico printing industry in the eighteenth century and the large quantities were imported from Holland. The Society of Arts undertook to encourage the cultivation of madder in England by their premiums from the founding year of 1754. In 1758 some of their members who had seats in parliament applied to the legislature, and obtained an act(31 Geo.2, 1757, c, 12),by which the payment of tithes for madder was fixed at five shillings per acre. As the Society changed their policy into the subsidy system under the act, the cultivation of madder made some progress particularly in Kent and Surrey in 1760s. Although the Society paid over fifteen hundred pounds for about fifty cultivators in total, the cultivation of madder was on wane in England in latter half of the 1770s at last. The large import of Dutch madder continued between 1750s and 1770s. The Society could not break the Dutch monopoly of madder because many of English cultivators planted madder experimentally in small land notwithstanding the profit obtained from the large scale of cultivation only, and most of English cultivators did not erect any proper buildings for drying the madder. Thus, the encouragement of madder cultivation by the Society of Arts illustrated the results of a 'social' experiment.
2005-03-30