White Gold

Cotton in Bombay during the time of American civil war under was refered to as ‘White Gold’ as people dealing in its trade made unprecedented amounts of money. With the American Civil war, the supply of cotton from America to Birmingham was cut and thus the Mills over there had to depend on Bombay for its supply of cotton. The average exports prior to the war were 528,000 bales - they expanded to over 1.2 million bales by 1865.