☰
The Age of Industrialisation
The port of Surat declined by the end of the eighteenth century.
By the 1750s the network, controlled by Indian merchants, was breaking down.
(i)The European companies gradually gained power – first securing a variety of concessions from local courts, then the monopoly rights to trade.
(ii)This resulted in a decline of the old ports of Surat through which local merchants had operated.
(iii)Exports from these ports fell dramatically, the credit that had financed the earlier trade began drying up, and the local bankers slowly went bankrupt.
(iv)In the last years of the seventeenth century, the gross value of trade that passed through Surat had been Rs 16 million.
(v)By the 1740s it had slumped to Rs 3 million.Trade through the new ports came to be controlled by European companies, and was carried in European ships.
Sponsor Area
In the seventeenth century, merchants from towns in Europe began employing peasants and artisans within the villages.
The port of Surat declined by the end of the eighteenth century.
The East India Company appointed gomasthas to supervise weavers in India
Write true or false against each statement:
Explain what is meant by proto-industrialisation.
Why did some industrialists in nineteenth century Europe prefer hand labour over machines?
How did the East India Company procure regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from Indian weavers?
Imagine that you have been asked to write an article for an encyclopaedia on Britain and the history of cotton. Write your piece using information from the entire chapter.
Why did industrial production in India increase during the First World War?
Select any one industry in your region and find out its history. How has the technology changed? Where do the workers come from? How are the products advertised and marketed? Try and talk to the employers and some workers to get their views about the industry's history.
Sponsor Area
Sponsor Area