Dundee is known for its 3 J’s Jute Jam and Journalism. Jute is a natural fiber that is spun from the plant fibers soaked in whale oil. The resulting fiber is often called hessian and is better as Burlap. The main uses of jute are in the manufacture of Burlap sacs, pile carpet and more recently as an eco-friendly car seat covering.
Three of the most famous Jute Barons were David Lindsay, Joseph Grimond and James Caird. At its height there were around 130 mills in Dundee with the Camperdown Mill being the largest textile factory in Europe employing around 6000 people.
Dundee was the ideal location for Jute mills with a large Irish immigrant population already skilled in the production of Linen and a whaling fleet providing all the necessary oil for production. The city’s shipyards that built the RSS Discovery created a vast export market on board these new ships.
In the mid 19th century the Jute industry was established in India by Dundee’s Jute barons looking to expand their profits. The history of jute in Dundee is a relatively short one lasting not much over a century with the last mills closing in the 1970s ironically being killed by the competition which the faced from the now independent Indian Jute markets.
The historic Jute industry in Dundee will be examined this week with the launch of the book Jute no more by local author Jim Tomlinson. Our university rector Brian Cox who in 2009 recorded a program for the BBC recording the changing fortune of Dundee’s Jute Industry had touched on the subject before.
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