How did the colonial cities reflect the mercantile culture of the British rulers? Explain.

The colonial cities reflect the mercantile culture of the British rulers in the following way:

(i) Population : After 16th century new European merchants reached from different directions in India. Changes in the network of trade reflected in the history of urban centers. The European commercial companies had setup base in different places early during the Mughal Era : the Portuguese in Panaji in 1510, the Dutch in Masulipatnam in 1605, the British in Madras in 1639 and the French in Pondicherry (present day Puducherry) in 1673. With the expansion of commercial activity, towns grew around these trading centers. By the end of the eighteenth century the land-based empires in Asia were replaced by the powerful sea-based European empires. Forces of international trade, mercantilism and capitalism now came to define the nature of sociery.

The new kinds of public places emerged in the colonial city. They performed different types of functions for different people and agencies.

(ii) Ports : By the 18^th century, Madras Bombay and Calcutta had become ports. Traders, merchant agents, labourers, boilers, clerks and other employees used to provide different services and functions.

The settlement that cause up here work convenient points for collecting goods.

(iii)Factories : The Europeans fortified their different factories (i.e. mercantile offices). These forts were used for the protection of goods, European settlers and other things.

(iv) Railway Stations : Railway stations were developed in all the three colonial cities and some important towns or cities nearby these cities. Railway stations were used by government official, Sepoys, traders, merchants and tourists. With the expansion of network of railways, links between major cities and rest of the country develop.

(b) Although Calcutta, Bombay and Madras supplied raw materials for industry in England, and had emerged because of modern economic forces like capitalism, their economies were not primarily based on factory production. The majority of the working population in these cities belonged to what economists classify as the tertiary sector. There were only two proper “industrial cities” : Kanpur, specialising in leather, woollen and cotton textiles, and Jamshedpur, specializing in steel. India never became a modern industrialised country, since discriminatory colonial policies limited the level of industrial development.