Acland Mill

The Acland Mill was the first jute mill established in India, founded in 1855 in Rishra, Bengal Presidency, by British entrepreneur George Acland and Bengali financier Babu Bysumber Sen. Acland, an English businessman who had previously owned coffee plantations in Ceylon, originally intended to grow rhea grass as a substitute for the flax and hemp whose supply from the Russian Empire had been disrupted by the Crimean War, but machine manufacturer John Kerr advised him to manufacture jute products in Bengal instead, leading to the mill's establishment as a manufacturing enterprise.