Explain the three types of movements or flows within international economic exchange. Find one example of each type of flow which involved India and Indians, and write a short account of it.

 

Three types of movements or flows in international trade and commerce:

(i)Trade in goods like cloth and wheat.

(ii)Migration of people in search of employment.

(iii)Short and long term investments over long distances.

Examples: each type of flow from India and Indians:

(i)Trade in goods:Here the British Indian government built a network of irrigation canals to transform semi-desert wastes into fertile agricultural lands that could grow wheat and cotton for export. The Canal Colonies, as the areas irrigated by the new canals were called, were settled by peasants from other parts of Punjab. Britain took wheat and cloth—cotton, silken and woollen of extraordinary quality and having demand in European countries from India. 

(ii)Migration of people in search of employment: In the nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Indian labourers went to work on plantations, in mines, and in road and railway construction projects around the world.

(iii)Short and long term investments over long distances: Hyderabadi Sindhi traders ventured beyond European colonies. From the 1860s they established flourishing emporia at busy ports worldwide, selling local and imported curios to tourists whose numbers were beginning to swell, thanks to the development of safe and comfortable passenger vessels.