About Dundee
Jute and Dundee: this association and bond is a very special one. Dundee is a modern, vibrant city in Scotland with incredible history. It is situated in Eastern Scotland, on the northern bank of the North Sea inlet (known as the Firth of Tay).
The fourth largest city in Scotland, this amazing area is popular as a progressive cultural hub, and for immense creativities in design, science, technology and entertainment (especially video gaming).
Dundee is a cool place – with long hours of sunshine than any other city in Scotland- with idyllic bike and walking routes along the glistening Tay River, miles upon miles of sandy beaches, and meandering, open, verdant spaces.
Charming and beatific Dundee is renowned both for its historical as well as ongoing contemporary contributions to the world.
History of Dundee
Let’s delve into Dundee’s fascinating history.
The 3 “Js”:
Dundee is the place that will forever be known for the “3 Js.” The city’s rapid growth throughout the 1800s, with heavy modernization, centered around these three hallmark “J” industries.
The first of the ‘Js’ is for Jam, the fruit jam, specially marmalade, which originated here. The second ‘ J’ is for Journalism. Dundee still retains its rich tradition of creative journalism. And the third ‘J’, a very significant one, is for Jute.
Towards the later part of the 18th century, Dundee became known for just one commodity– Jute. The city quickly gained monopoly, holding and controlling the world’s jute production and trade. Not surprisingly, Dundee earned a nickname “the jute capital of the world.”
Let’s see how Dundee got there.
Dundee’s Association with Jute:
Flash back to before the 1800s, Dundee was famous as a textile processing hub, mainly for flax and wool weaving. Textile mill workers in Dundee were highly skilled at processing and weaving the smooth, pliable and soft flax fibers into yarn and ultimately to canvas.
A variety of woven canvas products like bags, totes, sacks, cloth etc. made in Dundee were exported to other countries.
Dundee firms traded with India heavily then as India was a British Colony. Ships regularly sailed to and fro between the two shores. It was sometime in the early 1800s that the Dundee traders discovered jute.
Indian farmers cultivated jute crop along the fertile wetlands of the Ganges river. The Scottish traders realized the potential of the golden jute fibers. They experimented with the crop fibers and were able to spin into yarn.
However, the process initially was not easy because unlike flax fibers, jute fibers were coarse and rough. They had to come up with a way to soften the jute fibers.
What happened next was a game-changer.
The Whale Oil:
Dundee had another important industry – whaling. Dundee merchants were all too familiar with the fact that whale oil could be used to soften fibers. So, they used whale oil on jute fibers to soften them.
That became an important turning point in Dundee’s industrial growth; not only were jute fibers softer with the application of whale oil, but much cheaper and hence economical when compared to flax.
The process of spinning raw jute fiber was first developed in Dundee.
Dundee traders succeeded and were able to make all kinds of Jute products as they did with flax or cotton. And jute products were way cheaper, with high utility, durability and popularity.
Jute production in Dundee took off and within no time Dundee became the center stage in the world’s jute trade.
Dundee Jute Mills
Come 1838, the first jute mill opened its doors in Dundee. That marked the starting point for many more to open their doors – from then, until 20th century, Dundee heavily grew dependent on its prosperous jute industry. As numerous jute mills began operations in Dundee, more and more dwellers and Scottish immigrants got employed, and became a part of Dundee’s thriving jute industry.
Cox Brothers owned the largest jute mill in the world, employing tens of thousands of workers, and even had its own railway to transport jute, with its majestic chimney (which is still standing today).
Women in Dundee Jute Industry:
Women surprisingly were the mainstay of the workforce as compared to men. Notably, 70% of the workers’ population comprised of women. The unemployed men stayed at home, nicknamed the kettle bilers (kettle boilers). It is remarkable that more than 50,000 people in Dundee worked in the jute industry.
The Jute Trade:
From bare cloth, to bags, to burlap, twines, the simple sack, to the much needed sandbag, Dundee became the “sole supplier” of jute to the entire world. Jute products were versatile, strong and cheap and very much in demand.
Production and trade continued well in the nineteenth century with channels expanding and reaching all nooks and corners of the world’s marketplaces from far off Scotland.
Jute manufacturing catapulted Dundee onto the world stage, making it an ultra progressive, mega-urbanized, globalized, and industrialized city of the 1800s.
Shift from Dundee to Eastern India:
All the raw jute was shipped to Dundee from the Eastern part of India (Calcutta, now Kolkata) and Bangladesh over 9000 miles away from Dundee, where the crop was cultivated.
In the early 1900s, Indian traders noticed how jute fibers were used by British firms to manufacture a variety of essential products.
The Dundee Jute Barons and the British East India Company started setting up jute mills in India closer to the crop fields. The advantages of cheaper Indian labor and closeness to the jute fields made the jute industry much more cost economical in India rather than in Dundee. Hence, the British started closing down the mills in Dundee.
Dundee’s Jute Barons provided the much needed expertise, and management to these Indian mills, and held control over the mills, up until India’s Independence from Britain.
Verdant Works Jute Museum:
Dundee’s association with Jute was thus very special. It is no wonder that Dundee was called juteopolis. A spectacular museum, Verdant Works, honors the city’s jute manufacturing heritage and houses a small jute factory today in Dundee.
And among the archives of University of Dundee, lies a wide collection of jute articles, records and artifacts.
Today, jute mills in India are autonomous, owned by local traders, but still retain the rich Dundee industrial history, British legacy, architectural art and design, and jute manufacturing tradition.
Based in Southern California, USA, Madi Décor is a premier product designer, wholesaler of a diversified range of sustainable jute products in USA.