Chapter 4
The Age of Industrialisation
Write in brief
(চমুকৈ লিখক)
1. Explain the following:
(নিম্নলিখিতবোৰ বৰ্ণনা কৰক)
a) Women workers in Britain attacked the Spinning Jenny.
(ব্ৰিটেইনৰ মহিলা কৰ্মীসকলে স্পিনিং জেনীক আক্ৰমণ কৰিছিল।)
Ans: Women workers in the UK attacked the spinning jenny as it sped up the spinning process, and consequently reduced the demand for labour. This created a legitimate fear of unemployment among women working in the wool industry. To date, they’d survived the turn of the hand, but the new device put it at risk.
b) In the seventeenth century merchants from towns in Europe began employing peasants and artisans within the villages.
(সপ্তদশ শতিকাত ইউৰোপৰ চহৰসমূহৰ ব্যৱসায়ীসকলে গাওঁসমূহৰ ভিতৰত কৃষক আৰু শিল্পীসকলক নিযুক্তি দিয়া আৰম্ভ কৰিছিল।)
Ans:
In the seventeenth century, merchants in European cities began to employ farmers and artisans within the villages
Merchants in European cities began moving to the countryside in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Merchants provided funds to artisans and farmers, and successfully motivated them to produce for the international market.
• There was massive industrial production for international markets, even before factories began to spring up in Europe, including England.
• was not based on this large production factory for the international market.
• This phase of industrialization is referred to by historians as proto-industrialization.
• This was controlled by the merchants and the goods were produced by a large number of producers, not in factories, but by producers working within their family farms, but producers working within their family farms,
the reasons behind businesses moving to rural areas
• With the acquisition of colonies in different parts of the world and the expansion of world trade, the demand for goods began to increase.
• In the cities, these were organizations of producers that limited newcomers to the trade, controlled prices and competition, maintained control over production, and trained artisans.
• In the cities, trade guilds and urban crafts were strong, therefore merchants could not expand production within the cities.
• The rulers granted the various guilds the monopoly rights to trade and manufacture and trade in specific goods.
• It was therefore very difficult for new traders to set up businesses in the cities, so they turned to the countryside to find an alternative.
The reason behind working for farmers – businesses
• In rural areas, merchants provided work for poor artisans and farmers.
• Shrinking earnings from farming were supplemented by earnings from proto-industrial manufacturing.
• This was a time when the open fields had disappeared and the commons were trapped.
• Poor peasants and cottagers now had to seek alternative sources of income, collecting their ribs, wood, straw, straw and berries, who had previously depended on the common land for their survival.
• Not all household members could find work as many of them owned small plots of land.
• Farming families eagerly agreed, when merchants came over and made progress to produce goods for them.
• This new work given by merchants enabled full utilization of their family labor resources.
• Poor peasants can continue their small farming and they can live in the countryside working for merchants.
c) The port of Surat declined by the end of the eighteenth century.
Answer:
The port of Surat declined by the end of the eighteenth century
India had a vibrant maritime trade. The port of Surat was a very important trading port in India.
• Surat on the Gujarat coast connected India with the Red Sea and the Gulf.
• Hooghly in Bengal, Machulipatam on the Coromandel coast had trade links with Southeast Asian ports.
• Supply traders connected port cities with the hinterland.
• The merchants led the artisans and collected the clothes from the village weavers.
• Merchants carried supplies to the ports.
• At the port, prices were made by export merchants and big shippers with supply merchants who were managing the internal.
• Various types of Indian bankers and merchants were involved in networks of export trade – supplying exporters, transporting goods, providing finance for production.
• knots of fine textiles were carried on the backs of camels across the desert through mountain passes along the north-western frontier.
• Persian and Armenian merchants took the goods from Punjab to Central Asia, Eastern Persia, and Afghanistan.
Decline in trade – Port of Surat
• The Indian merchants who controlled the above trade began to collapse by the 1750s.
• European companies slowly gained strength.
• In the beginning, European companies obtained various concessions from local courts.
• Later, European companies gained trade monopolies.
• These factors led to the decline of Surat Port and Hooghly Port which were earlier managed by local traders.
• from Surat port, exports began to decline dramatically.
• local bankers were beginning to go bankrupt.
• The business, financed through earlier loans, was beginning to dry up.
• To understand the extent of the decline in trade in the port of Surat, by the 1740s the value of trade in the port of Surat had declined from Rs. 16 million to Rs. 3 million in the last years of the seventeenth century.
• As the old ports of Surat and Hooghly declined, the new ports of Calcutta and Bombay grew, signaling the development of colonial power in India.
• Trade through new ports of Bombay and Calcutta was carried by European ships and European companies.
d) The East India Company appointed gomasthas to supervise weavers in India.
(অষ্টাদশ শতিকাৰ শেষৰ ফালে চুৰাট বন্দৰ হ্ৰাস পাইছিল। ঘ) ইষ্ট ইণ্ডিয়া কোম্পানীয়ে ভাৰতত শিপিনীসকলৰ তত্বাৱধানৰ বাবে গোমস্তানিযুক্ত কৰিছিল।)
Ans:
The English East India Company appointed Gomasthas for:
• to eliminate the existence of merchants and brokers and establish direct control over artisans.
• removing artisans from dealing with other buyers through progress and control. Thus, artisans who took loans and fees in advance were obliged to the British.
2. Write True or False against each statement:
(প্ৰতিটো মন্তব্যৰ বিপৰীতে সঁচা বা মিছা লিখক:)
a) At the end of the nineteenth century, 80 per cent of the total workforce in Europe was employed in the technologically advanced industrial sector.
(ঊনবিংশ শতিকাৰ শেষত, ইউৰোপত মুঠ কৰ্মশক্তিৰ 80 শতাংশ প্ৰযুক্তিগতভাৱে উন্নত ঔদ্যোগিক খণ্ডত নিযুক্তিত হৈছিল।)
Ans: False
b) The international market for fine textiles was dominated by India till the eighteenth century.
(অষ্টাদশ শতিকাৰ আগলৈকে সূক্ষ্ম বস্ত্ৰৰ আন্তৰ্জাতিক বজাৰত ভাৰতৰ আধিপত্য আছিল।)
Ans:
c) The American Civil War resulted in the reduction of cotton exports from India.
( আমেৰিকাৰ গৃহযুদ্ধৰ ফলস্বৰূপে ভাৰতৰ পৰা কপাহৰ ৰপ্তানি হ্ৰাস হয়। )
Ans: False
d) The introduction of the fly shuttle enabled handloom workers to improve their productivity.
(ফ্লাই শ্বাটলৰ প্ৰৱৰ্তনে হস্ততাঁত কৰ্মীসকলক তেওঁলোকৰ উৎপাদনশীলতা উন্নত কৰিবলৈ সক্ষম কৰিছিল)
Ans: True
3. Explain what is meant by proto-industrialisation.
(প্ৰটো-ঔদ্যোগিকৰণৰ অৰ্থ কি বৰ্ণনা কৰক।)
Ans: Proto-industrialization is the stage of industrialization that was not based on the factory system. Before the advent of factories, there was large scale industrial production for an international market. This part of industrial history is referred to as proto-industrialization.
Discuss
1. Why did some industrialists in nineteenth-century Europe prefer hand labour over machines?
(ঊনবিংশ শতিকাৰ ইউৰোপত কিছুমান উদ্যোগপতিয়ে যন্ত্ৰতকৈ হাতৰ শ্ৰম কিয় পছন্দ কৰিছিল?)
Ans: Proto-industrialization is the stage of industrialization that was not based on the factory system. Before the advent of factories, there was large scale industrial production for an international market. This part of industrial history is referred to as proto-industrialization.
2. How did the East India Company procure regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from Indian weavers?
( ইষ্ট ইণ্ডিয়া কোম্পানীয়ে ভাৰতীয় শিপিনীসকলৰ পৰা কপাহ আৰু ৰেচম বস্ত্ৰৰ নিয়মীয়া যোগান কেনেকৈ ক্ৰয় কৰিছিল?)
Ans: After establishing political power, the East India Company successfully purchased regular cotton and silk textile exports from Indian artisans through several initiatives. These measures were intended to eliminate competition from other colonial powers, control expenditure and ensure regular supplies of cotton and silk goods for Britain. First, it employed gomstas or paid servants to supervise artisans, collect materials and check the quality of textiles. Second, it refused to allow the company’s artisans to deal with other buyers. This was ensured by a system of giving priority to artisans for the collection of raw materials. Those who took this loan could not sell their clothes to anyone but the gomsta.
3. 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.
( কল্পনা কৰক যে আপোনাক ব্ৰিটেইন আৰু কপাহৰ ইতিহাসৰ ওপৰত বিশ্বকোষৰ বাবে এটা প্ৰবন্ধ লিখিবলৈ কোৱা হৈছে। গোটেই অধ্যায়টোৰ পৰা তথ্য ব্যৱহাৰ কৰি আপোনাৰ টুকুৰাটো লিখক।)
Ans: Britain and the History of Cotton
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants would trade with rural people in textile production. A clothier would buy wool from a woolstapler, take it to a spinner, and then, take the yarn to weavers, fullers and dyers for higher volume production. London was the finishing center for this product. This phase of British manufacturing history is referred to as proto-industrialization. At this stage, factories were not an essential part of industry. What was present instead was a network of commercial exchanges.
Cotton was the first symbol of the new era of factories. Its production increased rapidly in the late nineteenth century. Imports of raw cotton increased from 2.5 million pounds in 1760 to 22 million pounds in This happened due to the invention of cotton mills and new machinery, and better management under one roof. Cotton was the leading sector until the 1840s, in the first phase of industrialization.
Most inventions in the textile manufacturing sector were met with contempt and hatred by workers as the machines implied less manual labor and less recruitment. Spinning Jenny was such a find. Women in the wool industry opposed and tried to destroy it because it was usurping their place in the labor market.
Before such technological advances, Britain imported large quantities of silk and cotton goods from India. England had a high demand for fine textiles from India. When the East India Company gained political power, they exploited India’s artisan and textile industries for their full potential, often by force, for the benefit of Britain. Later, Manchester became a center of cotton production. Later, India became the main buyer of British cotton goods.
During the First World War, British factories were too busy providing for war needs. Hence, demand for Indian textiles rose once again. The history of cotton in Britain is replete with such fluctuations of demand and supply.
4. Why did industrial production in India increase during the First World War?
(প্ৰথম বিশ্বযুদ্ধৰ সময়ত ভাৰতত ঔদ্যোগিক উৎপাদন কিয় বৃদ্ধি পাইছিল?)
Ans: Industrial development in India was slow until World War I. World War I created a new situation.
• Imports from Manchester to India suddenly declined, as the mills had to cater to the needs of the army. British mills were therefore busy producing goods for the army.
• The above factor suddenly opened up a large Indian domestic market for Indian mills.
• As the First World War dragged on, and the demands of the army grew, factories in India were called upon to meet the needs of the British Army.
• Indian industries therefore started producing and supplying various products such as saddles for mules and horses, leather boots, tabernacles, cloth for army uniforms, linen bags and many others.
• All these factors resulted in old Indian factories running in multiple shifts and new factories being set up in India.
• Factory workers had to work long hours.
• Many new workers were recruited and hired in the factories in India.
• Hence the industrial production in India boomed during the First World War, which went on for a period of 4 years.
• After the 1st world war, the economy of Britain collapsed.
• Export of cotton clothes to India from Britain reduced drastically.
• Manchester was never able to recapture its old position in the Indian market after the First World War.
