British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 844

CHAPTER XIX. (d) Linen, etc.

Some 70 tons of linen goods came into the country during 1938.

The following table summarizes the above :-

Table 1.

Cotton Woollen Silk and Linen I
Products goods goods rayon goods 'fotal
goods tons
tons tons tons tons
---
Locally woven
and knitted goods 708 120 126 - 954
Imported goods ~~ 418 580 70 4,851
Total 4,491 538 706 70 5,805
63. The settled population of Palestine in 1938 amounted to 1,368,732 persons (not including the nomadic population). On the basis of the above total population, therefore, average consumption per capita might be estimated to have been :-

Cotton goods Woollen goods

Si1k and rayon goods Linen goods etc.

Total

Kg;i. 3.281 0.393 0.516 0.051

1.241

64. The fact that the population in Palestine is composed of two communities with different standards of living and clothing makes it necessary to ascertain not so much the average "general per capita" consumption but the average per capita consumption of each community. In attempting an approximate calculation of "national per capita" consumption in Palestine it is assumed that the average consumption of the rural Arab and persons of a like habit of consumption in Palestine (of which an estimate for 1938 is 740,000) is equivalent to that of the Egyptian, while it is assumed that the Arab and other non-Jewish urban consumers (in round figures 210 ,000) and the whole Jewish population (in round figures 410 ,000) consume the remaining supplies available. A calculation based on these assumptions gives rise to the results shown in table 2.

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