26
commodity to Astrakhan. The localization of the madder in Khiva as cash crop started during the
reign of Muhammad Rahim Khan (I) who consolidated the central authority of Khan by
subjugating surrounding territories such as theAral region. He
also implemented economic
reforms and expanded the irrigationsystem by opening new canals and reviving old ones.
11
Asa
result, irrigated territories and the volume of arable land increased during the first two decades of
the 19
th
century in Khiva. Madder was introduced as a new cash crop andit soon became an
important part of the agricultural development in Khiva.
It‘s not yet clear from the available documents how the cultivation of madder initially
started in Khiva and which regions of Khanate were specialized in madder growing. However, it
must have taken at least a decade period until madder cultivation to became popular in Khanate
as cash crop. According to Nebol‘sin‘s trade statistics of the Russian Empire, the early madder
imports from Khiva started in the 1830s and thenincreased dramatically. In the 1840s, madder
root became one of the biggest
export cash crops in Khiva, if not the biggest. The quantity of
madder export to Russia reached to almost 12000
puds in 1845 and Khiva became the largest
madder producer in Central Asia.
12
The Khivan madder root export contributed to 20% of madder
root imports of the Russian Empire during the 1840s, which is
a significant amount when
compared to cotton and other raw materials.In 1848, FedorPichugin, a well-known Russian
textile merchant in Central Asia since 1816, wrote that he and his companions increased the
trade of madder for 20.000
puds a year within the last 7 years.
13
These facts show that, Khivan
madder export to Russia significantly rose during 1850s andRussia became the main destination
of Khivan madder export until the 1860s. Madder was also grown in
Bukhara and the Kokand
Khanate; however, their export quantity was very limited when compared to Khiva during this
time.
In late 1860s synthetic dye was invented in Europe by extracting alizarin from coal tar.
14
Since then, synthetic dyes began replacing the natural dyes as an important ingredient for the
textile industry throughout the world. Once thisformula was created,
the synthetic dyes began
manufactured massively and the price was four times cheaper than natural dyes. However,
synthetic dyes could not replace the natural dyes immediately and it took decades for
transitioning from natural to chemical dyes in textile industry. Madder remained as an important
local crop in Khiva during the last quarter of the 19
th
century as well.
15
According to the archival
materials of Alexander Kuhn, a Russian Orientalist who had immediate access to palace
documents after annexation of Khiva, there were at least 16 madder root selling booths in Khiva
in 1873.
16
Despite losing its export capacity, madder continued to be an important crop in Khiva
anda valuable source of dyes for local carpet producers.
The textile boom of the 19
th
century triggered tremendous
demand for natural dye
products. Being a main ingredient of popular Turkey red color, madder root became popular
11
Shir Muhammad MirabMunis and Muhammad Riza MirabAgahi
, Firdaws al-Iqbal: History of Khorezm.
Translated from Caghatay and Annotated by Yuri Bregel (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 183
12
Nebol‘sin,
StatisticheksiyObozrenie, 341
13
FedorPichigun, ―O NastoyashempolojeniyaRusskoyTorgovli v SredneyAzii I o BudushixVygodaxotneya,‖
Severnaya Pchela, April 6, (1848), 1
14
Murrey Eiland, ―Problems Associated with the Dissemination of SyntheticDyes in the OrientalCarpet
Industry,‖
International Committee for the History of Technology 5, (1999): 140;
Judith Lopez, ―The Transition
From Natural Madder to Synthetic Alizarin in the American Textile Industry, 1870-1890,‖(PhD diss., Iowa State
University, 1898), 19-20
15
In 1891 Khiva exported more than 700
poods of madder root
to Turkestan, see MDA
f-3,
op-1,
d-47, 1-12
16
Alexander Kuhn‘s archive in IOM RAS,
f-33,
op-1,
d-96, 2
27
product among textile manufacturers. Its cultivation technique prevailed in Russia, the Caucasus
and the Middle East. Khiva was responding to this global demand by introducing the crop to
local peasants and cultivating it massively as a cash crop. It soon became one of the main crops
that the khanate cultivated in its expanding irrigational fields and became the biggest madder
producer in the region.It shows that, the authorities and merchants in Khiva were well aware of
the dynamics of the global trade in Eurasian continent and actively involved in it by benefiting
from increasing demand for dyes.
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