What is meant by the Proto industrialisation? Discuss any four features of this period.
Ans. Even before factories began to dot the landscape in England and Europe; there was a large-scale industrial production for an international market. This was not based on factories. This phase is referred to as the proto industrialisation. The proto industrial system was a part of a network of commercial exchanges. Merchants controlled it and goods were produced by a vast number of producers within their family farms, not in factories.
1. Large-scale production for the international market due to the acquisition of colonies in parts of world and expansion of world trade.
2. Merchants could not expand production within towns. This was because here urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful. So, they turned to the countryside, where they employed poor peasants and artisans household and supplied them money to produce goods.
3. It also allowed them full use of their family labor resources in the houses and not in the factories. Rural people could now supplement their shrinking incomes from cultivation from small land holdings.
4. A close relationship developed between the town and the countryside. Merchants were based in towns but work was done in the countryside.
Q2. Define the following:
1. Proto – Indicating the first or early form of something
2. Stapler – A person who ‘staples’ or sorts wool according to its fiber.
3. Fuller – A person who ‘fills’, that is, gathers-cloth by pleading
4. Carding – The process in which fibers, such as cotton or wool, are prepared prior to spinning.
Q3. Why was there a boom in the production of cotton in the 19th century?
Ans. The first symbol of the new era was cotton. Its production boomed in the late nineteenth century. In 1960, Britain was importing 2.5 Million pounds of raw cotton to feed its cotton industry. By 1787, this import soared to 22 Million Pounds. This increase was linked to a number of changes within the process of industrialization.
1. A series of inventions in the eighteenth century increased the efficiency of each step of the production process (carding, twisting, spinning and rolling)
2. They enhanced the output per worker, enabling each worker to produce more, and they made possible the production of stronger threads and yarn (better quality). Then Richard Arkwright created the cotton mill.
3. Now, the costly new machines could be purchased, set up and maintained in the mill. Within the mill all the processes were brought together under one roof and management. This allowed a more careful supervision over the production process, a watch over quality and the regulation of labor, all of which had been difficult in the countryside.
4. Invention of new technology like steam, power, machines, etc, also helped to bring boom in the production.
Q4. Why did some industrialists in the 19th century in Europe prefer hand labor to machines?
Ans. Some industrialists in 19th century in Europe preferred hand labor to machines because:
1. In England, there was plenty of labor, thus wages were low. So, industrialists had no problem of labor shortage or high wage costs.
2. They did not want to introduce machines that got rid of human labor and required large capital investments.
3. In many industries like bookbinding, printing etc, the demand of labor was seasonal. Gas works and breweries were especially busy through the cold months. In all such industries where production fluctuated with the season industrialists usually preferred hand labor employing workers for the season.
4. A range of products could be produced only with hand labor. Machines were oriented to producing uniforms, standardized goods for the mass market. But in the demand in the market was often for goods with intricate designs and specific shapes.
5. In Victorian Britain the upper class – the aristocrats and the bourgeoisie – preferred things produced by hand. Hand made products came to symbolize refinement and class. They were better finished individually procured and carefully designed.
Q5. What were Trade Guilds? In what ways they were powerful in the towns of England?
Ans. Merchants could not expand production within towns because here urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful.
1. These were associations of producers that trained crafts people.
2. They maintained control over production.
3. They regulated competition and prices.
4. They restricted the entry of new people into the trade.
5. Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly right to produce and trade in specific products.
6. It was therefore difficult for new merchants to set up business in town.
Q6. How did Industrialization affect people’s lives?
Ans. 1. When open fields were disappearing and commons were being enclosed, cottagers and poor peasants who had earlier depended on common lands for their survival, gathering their firewood, berries, vegetable, hay and straw, had to now look for alternate sources of income.
2. Many had tiny plots of land, which could not provide work to all members of the household. So when merchants came around and offered advances to produce goods for them, peasant households eagerly agreed.
3. By working for the merchants, they could remain in the countryside and continue to cultivate their small ploys. Income from proto industrial production supplemented their shrinking income from cultivation.
4. With the possibility of new jobs, hundreds tramped to the cities. The actual possibility of getting a job depended on existing networks of friendship and Kin relations that are they were not sure of getting jobs.
5. Many jobs seekers had to wait weeks, spending nights under bridges or in night shelters. Some stayed in the night refuges that were set up by private individuals; others went to Casual wards maintained by the Poor law authorities.
6. Also, there was a fear of unemployment due to seasonality.
Q7. Name one inventions devised in 1764 which speeded up the spinning process. Who invented it? How did it affect the lives of the workers in general?
Ans.1. Spinning Jenny- Devised by James Hargreaves in 1764, these machines speeded up the spinning process and reduced labor demand. By turning one single wheel a worker could set in motion a number of spindles and spin several threads at the same time.
2. When the Spinning Jenny was introduced in the woolen industry, women who survived on hand spinning began attacking the new machines because many women became unemployed and lost their way of earning.
3. This conflict over the introduction of the Jenny continued for a long time.
Q8. Why is the period up to 1750 A.D before the Machine Age called ‘ Age of Indian textiles’?
A8.
1. India dominated the international market in textiles- both silk and cotton.
2. Finer varieties of cotton often came from India while many countries produced coarser cotton.
3. The control of land trade routes enabled American and Persian merchants took the goods from Punjab to Afghanistan, eastern Persia and Central Asia (from passes and deserts)
4. A vibrant sea trade operated through the main pre-colonial ports likes Surat on Gujarat coast, Masulipatnam on Coromandel Coast, Hoogly in Bengal, which had a flourishing trade link with south East Asian and Gulf countries.
5. Organized networks of Indian textile export trade activities by a variety of Indian export and supply merchants, big shippers and brokers, suppliers of raw materials and finished goods, farmers, weavers, bankers and financiers of production. The weaving villages in the inland regions were well connected by these people with the ports in this cabin.
Q9. How did the English East India Company procure regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from Indian weavers?
OR
How did the English East India Company successfully establish monopoly over Indian textile trade?
Ans. 1. By establishing political power, the English East India Company could assert the monopoly right to trade. It developed a system of management and control that would eliminate competition with the existing traders. It would also control costs and ensure a regular supply of cotton and silk goods.
2. By fighting competition, they established direct contact with weavers through gomasthas who collected supplies, examined quality, supervised weavers, often physically punishing weavers.
3. It prevented the weavers from dealing with other brokers and buyers through a system of advances. The loans tied the weavers to Gomasthas as they could only supply to him.
4. As loans flowed that in and demand for fine textiles expanded weavers eagerly took the advances. Now they leased out their lands and the whole family devoted all their time to weaving.
5. The weavers lost space to bargain for prices and were forced to accept the miserably low prices offered by the Company. In some places, they revolted and went back to agricultural labor.
Q10. How rapid was the process of Industrialisation?
Ans. 1. The most dynamic industries in Britain were clearly cotton and metals. Growing at a rapid pace, cotton was the leading sector that is the first phase of industrialisation up to 1840’s.
2. After that the iron and steel industry led the way. With the expansion of railways (England-from 1840’s, colonies- 1860’s), the demand for iron and steel increased rapidly. By 1873, Britain was exporting iron and steel worth about ₤ 77 million, double the value of its cotton export.
3. The new industries could not easily displace traditional industries. Textiles were a dynamic sector, but a large position of the output was produced not with the factories, but outside, within domestic units. (By end of 19th century less than 20% of the total workfare was employed in technologically advanced industrial sectors)
4. The pace of change in the ‘ traditional’ industries was not set by steam- powered cotton or metal industries, but they did not remain entirely stagnant either. Seemingly ordinary and small innovations were the basis of growth in many mechanised sectors such as food processing, pottery, glasswork etc.
5. Technological changes occurred slowly. They did not spread dramatically across the industrial landscape. New technology was expensive and people were cautious about using it. Machines of ten broke down and repair was costly. They were not as effective as their inventors and manufactures claimed.
Q11. What was the result of the import of Manchester cloth to India?
Ans: i) It ruined the cloth industry in India because the Manchester cloth was both cheap showy and durable.
ii) The weavers were forced to give up their ancestral profession of cloth weaving and had to work as
labourers in urban areas.Q12. Explain the meaning of term ‘Industrial Revolution’.
Ans: The term ‘Industrial Revolution’ stands for those developments and inventions which revolutionized the technique and organization of production in the latter half of the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution in face replaced the domestic system, by the new ‘factory system’. In place of animal and manual power, new machines and steam-power were used for producing things. This revolution replaced the cottage industry by the factories, the handwork by the machine-work and the craftsmen and the artists by the capitalist and the factory-owners.
Q 13. Explain the factors responsible for the Industrial Revolution in England.
Or
Give reasons why Industrial Revolution started first of all in England.
Or
Explain those factors which were responsible for the Industrial Revolution in England.
Ans: The Industrial Revolution began in England in the later half of the 18th century as favourable conditions for such a development were present there:
1) Men like Walpole, who was a great economist, encouraged the foreign trade which brought more and more wealth to England. The British traders had thus accumulated sufficient capital that was needed to establish new factories.
2) England had plenty of natural resources like iron and coal which are essential for industries.
3) England had established many new colonies from where they could easily get cheat raw-materials and which could also serve as best markets for finished goods.
4) England had developed a large shipping industry which solved their problem of transporting things to distant lands.
Q14. How did the British manufacturers attempt to take over the Indian market with the help of advertisements? Explain with three examples.
OR
Explain four ways that helped the British to take over the Indian market with the help of advertisements.
Ans. (i) When Manchester industrialists began selling cloth in India, they put labels on the cloth bundles. The label served two purposes. One was to make the place of manufacture and the name of the company familiar to the people. The second was that the label was also a mark of quality. When the buyers saw “Made in Manchester” written in bold on the label, they felt confident about buying the cloth.
(ii) Besides words and texts, they also carried images. Beautifully illustrated images of Indian Gods and Goddesses appeared on these labels. For example, images of Kartika, Laxmi, Saraswati were shown on imported cloth label.
(iii) Historic figures like those of Maharaja Ranjit Singh were used to create respect for the product. The image, the labels, the historic figures were intended to make the manufacture from a foreign land appear somewhat familiar to Indian people.
(iv) Manufacturers printed calendars to popularise their products calendars could be used ever by people who could not read. Advertisement could be seen day after day, throughout the year, when hung on the walls.
Q 15. Why the system of advances proved harmful for the weavers?
Ans. 1. No chance of bargaining – The weavers lost any chance of bargaining.
2. Leasing of land – most of the weavers had to lease out the land and devote all their time to weaving.
3. Dependency for food on others – most of the weavers after losing their land became dependent on other for the food supplies.
4. Clashes with Gomasthas – Gomasthas acted arrogantly, marched into villages with police and punished weavers for delay in supply.
Q 16. Who was a jobber? Explain his functions.
Ans. Industrialists usually employed a jobber to get new recruits. Very often the jobber was an old
and trusted worker.
1. He got people from his village ensured them jobs, helped them settle in the city and provided them money in time of crisis.
2. Jobbers became persons with authority and power. He began demanding money and gifts for the favor he did and started controlling the lives of workers.
Q 17. Why did industrial production in India increase during the First World War?
Ans. Till the First World War, industrial growth in India was slow. The war created a dramatically new situation. Manchester imports into India declined due to the war. The British factories became busy with producing things needed for the army. Indian mills now suddenly had a large market to supply. The long war made the Indian factories supply them with jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, tents and leather boots, horse and mule saddles and a host of other items. Many workers were employed for longer hours. After the war Manchester goods lost their hold on the Indian market. British economy collapsed as it could not compete with the USA, Japan and its European rivals. The Indian industrialists captured the local market. Small scale industries prospered.
Multiple Choice Questions:
Q.1: - Guilds were associations of-
(a) Industrialization (b) Exporters (c) Traders (d) Producers
Q.2: - Which of the following best defines a Jobber?
(a) Employed by industrialists to get new recruits (b) Old trusted worker (c) Person of authority and power (d) Controlled lives of workers
Q.3: - First country to undergo industrial revolution is-
(a) Japan (b) Britain (c) Germany (d) France
Q.4: - 18th Century India witnessed the decline of which port town?
(a) Surat (b) Bombay (c) Calcutta (d) Madras
Q.5: - The paid servants of the East India Company were:
(a) Seth (b) Mamlatdar (c) Gomastha (d) Lambardar
Q.6: - Who devised the Spinning Jenny?
(a) Samuel Luck (b) Richard Arkwright (c) James Hargreaves (d) James Watt.
Q.7: - When was the first cotton mill set up in India in?
(a) 1814 (b) 1824 (c) 1854 (d) 1864
Q.8: - In India, the first cotton mill was set up in:
(a) Madras (b) Bombay (c) Kanpur (d) Surat
Q.9: - What was the fly shuttle used for-
(a) Washing (b) Weaving (c) Drying (d) Sowing
Q.10:- Who invented the steam engine-
(a) James Watt (b) New Comen (c) Richard Arkwright (d) None of the above
Factories come up:
Industries were set up by different groups in different places. Most of the entrepreneurs began
as investors in trade with China, Burma, Middle East and East Africa.
l Prominent entrepreneurs were :
1. Bengal : Dwarkanath Tagore
2. Bombay : Dinshaw Petit and Jamshedji Nusserwanjee Tata
3. Calcutta : Seth Hukam Chand
4. Father and grandfather of G. D. Birla
Time line of Indian Mills:
Year -- Mills -- Place
1854 -- 1st Cotton Mill -- Bombay
1855 -- 1st Jute Mill (East) --Bengal
1860 -- Elgin Mill -- Kanpur
1861 -- Cotton Mill -- Ahmedabad
1862 -- 4 cotton mills -- Bombay
1874 -- 1st spinning and weaving mills -- Madras
1917 -- 1st Jute Mill -- Calcutta
Q 18. Explain why women workers attacked spinning jenny.
Ans. Many workers, especially women, were opposed to the use of spinning jenny and thesemachines were targetted and destroyed in many instances of rebellion.Spinning jenny was capable of speeding up the spinning process and reduceing the labourdemand. A worker could set in motion a number of spindles and spin several threads at thesame time by turning one single wheel.Naturally, the fear of unemployment which was the biggest problem of England in those daysmade them hostile to spinning jenny. Women who survived on hand spinning attacked themand the conflict continued for a long time.
Q 19. Explain the miserable conditions of Indian weavers during the East India Company's regime in the eighteenth century.
Ans. Once the East India Company established political power, it started asserting monopoly right to trade. It proceeded to develop a system which gave it control to eliminate all competition, control costs and ensure regular supply of cotton and silk goods. It took the following steps. First, it eliminated the existing traders and brokers and established direct control over the weaver. It appointed a special officer called the 'gomastha' to supervise weavers, collect supplies and examine the quality of the clothes.
Second, it prevented the Company weavers from dealing with other buyers. They advanced loans to weavers to purchase the raw materials, after placing an order. The ones who took loans had to give their cloth to the gomasthas. They could not sell it to any other trader. Weavers took advance, hoping to earn more. Some weavers even leased out their land to devote all time to weaving. The entire family became engaged in weaving. But soon there were fights between the weavers and the gomasthas. The latter used to march into villages with sepoys and often beat up the weavers for delays in supply. In many places like Carnatic and Bengal, weavers deserted the villages and had to migrate to other villages. In many places they revolted against the Company and its officials. Weavers began refusing to accept loans after some time, closed down their workshops and became
agricultural labour.
Q 20. Explain with examples how an average worker in mid-nineteenth century was not a machine operator but a traditional craftsperson and labour.
Ans. The most dynamic industries in Britain were cotton and metals. But these industries did not displace traditional industries. Even at the end of 19th century only 20% of the total workforce was employed in technologically advanced industries. Ordinary and small innovations were the basis of growth in many non-mechanized sectors such as food processing, buildings, pottery, glasswork, tanning etc. Again, technological changes occurred slowly. New machines were expensive and broke down often. Repair was costly. Take the case of steam engine. James Watt improved the steam engine produced by new comer in 1781. But for years there were no buyers. There were only 321 steam engines in England at the beginning of the 19th century. Of these 50 were in cotton industry, nine in wool and rest in mining. Steam engines were used much later so a typical worker in the mid-19th century was not a machine operator but a traditional craftsperson.
Q 21 Explain any three problems faced by the Indian weavers by the turn of the 19th century.
Ans. The three problems faced by weavers by the turn of the 19th century were:
(i) Decline in export market: By 1860s insufficient supply of raw cotton of good quality affected the Indian weavers. Due to the American civil war, the supply of raw cotton from USA had stopped. Britain turned to India for new cotton export. This resulted in price rise and the Indian weavers suffered. In the beginning of the 19th century, there was a sharp decline in Indian export of cotton piece exports. In 1811-12, 33% of exports were made in price goods. In 1850-51, it was no more than 3%.
(ii) The British started dumping mill-made and machine-made British goods in India. British exports to India for textile goods increased from 31% to over 50% in the 1870s. The local markets collapsed as they were glutted with Manchester imports. Machine-made goods were sold at lower prices and Indian weavers could not compete with them.
(iii) Another problem cropped up for weavers. At the end of the 19th century, India started producing cotton textiles in factories and punished and the weavers for delays in supply, often beating and flogging them. The weavers lost the power to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers. The Company paid them a miserably low price. The loans tied them to the Company. It led to deserted villages and migration to other cities
‘HOTS’ QUESTIONS:
Q 1. Vasant Parkar, who was once a mill worker in Bombay, said :
‘The workers would pay the jobbers money to get their sons work in mill .... The mill worker was closely associated with his village, physically and emotionally. He would go home to cut the harvest and for sowing. The Konkani would go home to cut the paddy and Gahti, the sugarcane. It was accepted practice for which the mills granted leave.’
i)Why do workers pay a jobber?
Ans.Workers paid a jobber because he got jobs for them, helped them to settle in the city and provided them money in times of crisis. For these favours he was paid.
(ii) In what ways did the mill workers remain associated with the village?
Ans. The workers in the mill came from the villages or neighbouring districts. For example,50% workers in the Bombay cotton industries in 1911 came from neighbouring districtsof Ratnagiri, from mills of Kanpur, from surrounding districts of Kanpur.
(iii) Why did mill workers go to the village?
Ans. Most often mill workers moved between the villages and the city, returning to their village
homes during harvests and festivals.
Q 2. Why did Indian industrialists begin to shift from yarn to cloth production? Give three reasons.
Ans. Indian industrialists began to shift from yarn to cloth production for the following reasons:
(i) The Swadeshi Movement mobilised people to boycott foreign cloth. This encouraged Indian industrialists to produce cloth, as Indian mills had a vast home market to supply, and Manchester imports into India declined.
(ii) Export of Indian yarn to China declined from 1906 as produce from Chinese and Japanesemills flooded the Chinese market. So Indian industrialists to began to shift from yarn to cloth production.
(iii) After the First World War, Manchester could not capture its position in Indian markets.
This enabled the local industrialists in the colonies to capture the home market, and consolidate their position.
Q 3 Discuss four factors responsible for the decline of the cotton textile industry in India inthe mid-nineteenth century.
Ans. The four factors responsible for the decline of cotton textile industry in India were :
(i) European managing agencies which dominated industrial production in India, were interested in certain kinds of products. They established tea and coffee plantations, invested in mining, indigo and jute. These products were required for export trade and not for sale in India.
(ii) Indian businessmen set up industries in the late 19th century which avoided competition with the Manchester goods. The Manchester goods were cheaper and mill-made.
(iii) The British disallowed Indian merchants to trade with Europe in manufactured goods. They had to export raw materials and food grains — raw cotton, opium, wheat and indigo.
(iv) The British monopolised and controlled a large sector of Indian industries. Their agencies mobilised capital, set up joint stock companies and managed them. They made all the decisions in their favour though the Indian businessmen provided the finance.
