The Age of Industrialisation

Activity (Problems of Modern Development)

Q1. Give two examples where modern development that is associated with progress has led to problems. You may like to think of areas related to environmental issues, nuclear weapons or disease.

Answer:

Two examples where modern development has led to problems:

1. Environmental issues: Rapid industrialisation and the spread of factories have led to severe air and water pollution, deforestation, and climate change. While industrialisation is seen as a sign of progress, it has caused environmental degradation that threatens the planet.
2. Nuclear weapons: The development of nuclear technology, though a sign of scientific progress, led to the creation of nuclear weapons that can cause mass destruction. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War are examples of how modern technology can lead to catastrophic human suffering.

Activity (Historians' Focus)

Q1. The way in which historians focus on industrialisation rather than on small workshops is a good example of how what we believe today about the past is influenced by what historians choose to notice and what they ignore. Note down one event or aspect of your own life which adults such as your parents or teachers may think is unimportant, but which you believe to be important.

Answer:

One event or aspect of my life that adults may think is unimportant but I believe is important:

The time I spend playing online games with friends. My parents and teachers often think this is a waste of time and unimportant. However, I believe it is important because it helps me develop strategic thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. It also helps me maintain social connections with friends, especially during times when we cannot meet in person. Just as historians choose what to notice and what to ignore, adults may overlook the value of activities they do not fully understand.

Activity (Comparing Images of Industrialisation)

Q1. Look at Figs. 4 and 5. Can you see any difference in the way the two images show industrialisation? Explain your view briefly.

Answer:

Differences in the way the two images show industrialisation:

My view: Fig. 4 glorifies industrialisation as a symbol of progress, while Fig. 5 presents a more ambivalent view, showing both the power of industry and its environmental consequences. Together, they show that industrialisation had both positive and negative aspects.

Activity (Merchant's Letter)

Q1. Imagine that you are a merchant writing back to a salesman who has been trying to persuade you to buy a new machine. Explain in your letter what you have heard and why you do not wish to invest in the new technology.

Answer:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your letter recommending the new spinning machine. I have heard much about it, but I do not wish to invest in this new technology at present. Here are my reasons:

• The machine is very expensive to purchase and install.
• It often breaks down, and repairs are costly and time-consuming.
• It is not as effective as you and other inventors claim.
• I have plenty of human labour available at low wages, so there is no shortage of workers.
• Many of my workers are hostile to new machines because they fear losing their jobs. The introduction of the Spinning Jenny in the woollen industry led women who survived on hand spinning to attack the new machines.
• The demand in the market is often for goods with intricate designs and specific shapes, which require human skill rather than mechanical technology.
• The upper classes prefer handmade products, which symbolise refinement and class.

For all these reasons, I believe it is wiser to continue with hand labour rather than invest in new machinery.

Yours faithfully,
A Merchant

Discuss (Spinning Jenny)

Q1. Look at Figs. 3, 7 and 11, then reread source B. Explain why many workers were opposed to the use of the Spinning Jenny.

Answer:

Many workers were opposed to the use of the Spinning Jenny because:

• Fig. 3 (Spinning in the eighteenth century): Shows each member of the family involved in the production of yarn, with one wheel moving only one spindle. This was labour-intensive and provided employment to many.
• Fig. 7 (A spinning factory in 1830): Shows how giant wheels moved by steam power could set in motion hundreds of spindles to manufacture thread. This meant that fewer workers were needed to produce the same amount of yarn.
• Fig. 11 (A Spinning Jenny): Shows a machine with multiple spindles that could be operated with one wheel. By turning one single wheel, a worker could set in motion a number of spindles and spin several threads at the same time.
• Source B: A magistrate reported in 1790 about an incident when workers attacked a manufacturer's property. The wives of colliers had lost their work to spinning engines. The workers avowed their intention of cutting to pieces the machine lately introduced in the woollen manufacture, which they supposed, if generally adopted, would lessen the demand for manual labour.

Conclusion: Workers opposed the Spinning Jenny because it reduced the demand for manual labour, threatening their livelihoods. The machine could do the work of many workers, leading to unemployment and lower wages.

Activity (Map of Textile Trade)

Q1. On a map of Asia, find and draw the sea and land links of the textile trade from India to Central Asia, West Asia and Southeast Asia.

Answer:

The sea and land links of the textile trade from India to Central Asia, West Asia, and Southeast Asia were:

• Land routes: Armenian and Persian merchants took goods from Punjab to Afghanistan, eastern Persia, and Central Asia. Bales of fine textiles were carried on camel back via the north-west frontier, through mountain passes and across deserts.
• Sea routes: A vibrant sea trade operated through the main pre-colonial ports. Surat on the Gujarat coast connected India to the Gulf and Red Sea ports. Masulipatam on the Coromandel coast and Hoogly in Bengal had trade links with Southeast Asian ports.

Discuss (Why Industrialists Preferred Hand Labour)

Q1. Why did some industrialists in nineteenth-century Europe prefer hand labour over machines?

Answer:

Some industrialists in nineteenth-century Europe preferred hand labour over machines because:

• Abundance of labour: In Victorian Britain, there was no shortage of human labour. Poor peasants and vagrants moved to cities in large numbers in search of jobs. When there is plenty of labour, wages are low, so industrialists had no problem of labour shortage or high wage costs.
• Seasonal demand: In many industries, the demand for labour was seasonal. Gas works, breweries, bookbinders, printers, and ship repair yards needed more workers during peak seasons. In such industries, industrialists preferred hand labour, employing workers for the season.
• Need for intricate designs: A range of products could be produced only with hand labour. Machines were oriented to producing uniforms and standardised goods for a mass market. But the demand in the market was often for goods with intricate designs and specific shapes. In mid-nineteenth-century Britain, 500 varieties of hammers and 45 kinds of axes were produced, requiring human skill, not mechanical technology.
• Preference of upper classes: In Victorian Britain, the upper classes – aristocrats and bourgeoisie – preferred things produced by hand. Handmade products came to symbolise refinement and class. They were better finished, individually produced, and carefully designed. Machine-made goods were for export to the colonies.
• Labour shortage in other countries: In countries with labour shortage, like nineteenth-century America, industrialists were keen on using mechanical power to minimise the need for human labour. Britain, however, had no problem hiring human hands.

Q2. How did the East India Company procure regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from Indian weavers?

Answer:

The East India Company procured regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from Indian weavers through the following steps:

1. Elimination of existing traders and brokers: The Company tried to eliminate the existing traders and brokers connected with the cloth trade and establish a more direct control over the weaver. It appointed a paid servant called the gomastha to supervise weavers, collect supplies, and examine the quality of cloth.
2. Prevention of dealing with other buyers: The Company prevented its weavers from dealing with other buyers. One way of doing this was through the system of advances. Once an order was placed, the weavers were given loans to purchase the raw material for their production. Those who took loans had to hand over the cloth they produced to the gomastha. They could not take it to any other trader.
3. Control through advances: As loans flowed in and the demand for fine textiles expanded, weavers eagerly took the advances, hoping to earn more. Many weavers had small plots of land which they had earlier cultivated along with weaving. Now they had to lease out the land and devote all their time to weaving.
4. Use of gomasthas: The new gomasthas were outsiders, with no long-term social link with the village. They acted arrogantly, marched into villages with sepoys and peons, and punished weavers for delays in supply – often beating and flogging them. The weavers lost the space to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers.

Q3. 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.

Answer:

Britain and the History of Cotton

Cotton was the first symbol of the new industrial era in Britain. Its production boomed in the late eighteenth century. In 1760, 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 series of inventions in the eighteenth century that increased the efficacy of each step of the production process – carding, twisting, spinning, and rolling. These inventions enhanced the output per worker, enabling each worker to produce more, and made possible the production of stronger threads and yarn.

Richard Arkwright created the cotton mill, which brought all the processes of production together under one roof and management. This allowed a more careful supervision over the production process, a watch over quality, and the regulation of labour. In the early nineteenth century, factories increasingly became an intimate part of the English landscape.

The most dynamic industries in Britain were cotton and metals. Cotton was the leading sector in the first phase of industrialisation up to the 1840s. After that, the iron and steel industry led the way. With the expansion of railways, 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.

However, the new industries could not easily displace traditional industries. Even at the end of the nineteenth century, less than 20 per cent of the total workforce was employed in technologically advanced industrial sectors. Textiles was a dynamic sector, but a large portion of the output was produced not within factories, but outside, within domestic units. Technological changes occurred slowly. New technology was expensive, and merchants and industrialists were cautious about using it.

In Victorian Britain, there was no shortage of human labour, so industrialists preferred hand labour over machines in many industries. The upper classes preferred handmade products, which symbolised refinement and class. Machine-made goods were for export to the colonies.

As cotton industries developed in England, industrial groups pressurised the government to impose import duties on cotton textiles so that Manchester goods could sell in Britain without facing competition. At the same time, industrialists persuaded the East India Company to sell British manufactures in Indian markets. Exports of British cotton goods increased dramatically in the early nineteenth century. By 1850, cotton piece-goods constituted over 31 per cent of the value of Indian imports; by the 1870s, this figure was over 50 per cent.

Thus, cotton played a central role in Britain's industrialisation and in its colonial trade with India.

Q4. Why did industrial production in India increase during the First World War?

Answer:

Industrial production in India increased during the First World War because:

• Decline of Manchester imports: With British mills busy with war production to meet the needs of the army, Manchester imports into India declined. Suddenly, Indian mills had a vast home market to supply.
• Supply of war needs: As the war prolonged, Indian factories were called upon to supply war needs: jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, tents and leather boots, horse and mule saddles, and a host of other items.
• New factories and multiple shifts: New factories were set up and old ones ran multiple shifts.
• Employment of new workers: Many new workers were employed and everyone was made to work longer hours.
• Boom in industrial production: Over the war years, industrial production boomed.
• Post-war consolidation: After the war, Manchester could never recapture its old position in the Indian market. Unable to modernise and compete with the US, Germany, and Japan, the economy of Britain crumbled after the war. Cotton production collapsed and exports of cotton cloth from Britain fell dramatically. Within the colonies, local industrialists gradually consolidated their position, substituting foreign manufactures and capturing the home market.

Write in Brief

Q1. Explain the following: a) Women workers in Britain attacked the Spinning Jenny. b) In the seventeenth century merchants from towns in Europe began employing peasants and artisans within the villages. c) The port of Surat declined by the end of the eighteenth century. d) The East India Company appointed gomasthas to supervise weavers in India.

Answer:

a) Women workers in Britain attacked the Spinning Jenny:

• The Spinning Jenny was devised by James Hargreaves in 1764. It speeded up the spinning process and reduced labour demand. By turning one single wheel, a worker could set in motion a number of spindles and spin several threads at the same time.
• When the Spinning Jenny was introduced in the woollen industry, women who survived on hand spinning began attacking the new machines because they feared losing their jobs.
• This conflict over the introduction of the jenny continued for a long time.

b) In the seventeenth century merchants from towns in Europe began employing peasants and artisans within the villages:

• With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of colonies, the demand for goods began growing. But merchants could not expand production within towns because urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful. These were associations of producers that trained craftspeople, maintained control over production, regulated competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new people into the trade.
• Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly right to produce and trade in specific products. It was therefore difficult for new merchants to set up business in towns. So they turned to the countryside.
• In the countryside, poor peasants and artisans began working for merchants. This was a time when open fields were disappearing and commons were being enclosed. Cottagers and poor peasants who had earlier depended on common lands for their survival had to now look for alternative sources of income.
• Many had tiny plots of land which could not provide work for all members of the household. So when merchants came around and offered advances to produce goods for them, peasant households eagerly agreed.

c) The port of Surat declined by the end of the eighteenth century:

• By the 1750s, the network of export trade controlled by Indian merchants was breaking down.
• The European companies gradually gained power – first securing a variety of concessions from local courts, then the monopoly rights to trade.
• This resulted in a decline of the old ports of Surat and Hoogly through which local merchants had operated.
• Exports from these ports fell dramatically, the credit that had financed the earlier trade began drying up, and the local bankers slowly went bankrupt.
• In the last years of the seventeenth century, the gross value of trade that passed through Surat had been Rs 16 million. By the 1740s, it had slumped to Rs 3 million.

d) The East India Company appointed gomasthas to supervise weavers in India:

• Once the East India Company established political power, it could assert a monopoly right to trade. It proceeded to develop a system of management and control that would eliminate competition, control costs, and ensure regular supplies of cotton and silk goods.
• The Company tried to eliminate the existing traders and brokers connected with the cloth trade, and establish a more direct control over the weaver. It appointed a paid servant called the gomastha to supervise weavers, collect supplies, and examine the quality of cloth.
• The gomasthas were outsiders, with no long-term social link with the village. They acted arrogantly, marched into villages with sepoys and peons, and punished weavers for delays in supply – often beating and flogging them.
• The weavers lost the space to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers: the price they received from the Company was miserably low and the loans they had accepted tied them to the Company.

Q2. Write True or False against each statement: 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. b) The international market for fine textiles was dominated by India till the eighteenth century. c) The American Civil War resulted in the reduction of cotton exports from India. d) The introduction of the fly shuttle enabled handloom workers to improve their productivity.

Answer:

Answers:

Q3. Explain what is meant by proto-industrialisation.

Answer:

Proto-industrialisation refers to the phase of industrialisation that existed before the coming of factories. Even before factories began to dot the landscape in England and Europe, there was large-scale industrial production for an international market. This was not based on factories.

Key features of proto-industrialisation:

• In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants from towns in Europe began moving to the countryside, supplying money to peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international market.
• Merchants could not expand production within towns because urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful and restricted the entry of new people into the trade.
• In the countryside, poor peasants and artisans began working for merchants. Income from proto-industrial production supplemented their shrinking income from cultivation.
• A close relationship developed between the town and the countryside. Merchants were based in towns but the work was done mostly in the countryside.
• This proto-industrial system was part of a network of commercial exchanges. It was controlled by merchants and the goods were produced by a vast number of producers working within their family farms, not in factories.
• At each stage of production, 20 to 25 workers were employed by each merchant. This meant that each clothier was controlling hundreds of workers.

Project Work

Q1. 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.

Answer:

Guidelines for the project:

1. Select an industry: Choose a local industry such as textile, pottery, food processing, or any other manufacturing unit in your region.
2. Find out its history: Research when the industry was established, who founded it, and how it has evolved over time. Look for old records, newspaper articles, or talk to long-time residents.
3. Technology changes: Investigate how the technology used in the industry has changed over the years. For example, has hand labour been replaced by machines? Have new tools or processes been introduced?
4. Source of workers: Find out where the workers come from. Are they from the local area or have they migrated from other regions? Do they work full-time or seasonally?
5. Advertising and marketing: Examine how the products are advertised and marketed. Are they sold locally, nationally, or internationally? Are advertisements used in newspapers, television, or online?
6. Interviews: Talk to employers and workers to get their views about the industry's history. Ask them about the challenges they face, how the industry has changed, and what they expect for the future.
7. Presentation: Present your findings in a report or presentation, including photographs, charts, or diagrams to illustrate your findings.