THE AGE OF INDUSTRIALISATION

TEXTUAL QUESTIONS
Q.1. Explain the following :
(a) Women workers in Britain attacked the Spinning Jenny.
ANS.1.Abundance of labour affected the lives of the workers because the period of
employment was less.
Sometimes the proportion of unemployment went upto between 35 and 75 per cent. The fear of
unemployment made workers hostile to the introduction of new technology. When the Spinning
Jenny was introduced in the woolen industry, women who survived on hand spinning began
attacking the new machines because the machine speeded up the spinning process and reduced
labour demand as by turning one single wheel a worker could set in motion a number of spindles and
spin several threads at a time.
This conflict over the introduction of Spinning Jenny continued for a long time.
Q.1.(b) In the seventeenth century, merchants from towns In Europe began employing peasants
and artisans within the villages.
ANS.1.As a result of expansion of world trade and acquisition of colonies, demand for goods
had increased significantly. The merchants, however, could not increase production in towns
as the urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful. These were associations of producers that
trained its people, 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.
1. In the countryside the conditions were favourable for them because in the countryside,
with the disappearance of open fields and enclosure of common lands, the peasants
were in search of alternative sources of income.
2. Many peasants had tiny plots of land which could not provide work for all members of
the household.
3. The peasants agreed to do work for the merchants because it was beneficial for them
too because they could remain in the countryside and could also cultivate their small
plots of land. It enabled them to use full strength of their families as well.
Q.1.(c) The port of Surat declined by the end of the eighteenth century.
ANS.1.Before the age of machine industries, silk and cotton goods from India dominated the
international market in textiles.
1. 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.
2. By the 1750s the network controlled by Indian merchants was breaking down as the
European companies gradually gained power including concessions from the local
courts as well as the monopoly rights to trade.
3. While Hooghly and Surat decayed, Bombay and Calcutta grew because now trade was
carried through the new ports and was carried in European ships. As a result of it,
many of the old trading houses collapsed. Thus, export from Surat fell dramatically. In
the last years of the seventeenth century, the gross value of trade that passed through
Surat had been $ 16 million by the 1740s, it declined to$3 million.

Q.1.(d) The East India Company appointed Gomasthas to supervise the weavers in India.
ANS.1.After establishing its political power in India, the company wanted to establish 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. This it did through a series of steps.
The most important step was 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 weavers who had taken advances from the company had to handover the cloth they
produced to the gomastha.
Q.2. Explain what is meant by proto industrialisation.
ANS.2.Even before setting up the factories, there was large-scale industrial production for an
international market. This was not based on factories. It is known as
proto-industrialization. It was a part of a network of commercial exchanges. Merchants
were based in towns but the work was done mostly in the countryside.
Q.3.Why did some industrialists in the nineteenth century Europe prefer hand labour over
machines?
ANS.3.i) Expensive new technology: New technologies and machines were expensive, so the
producers and the industrialists were cautious about using them.
(ii) Costlier repair: The machines often broke down and the repair was costly.
(iii) Less effective: They were not as effective as their inventors and manufacturers claimed.
(iv) Availability of cheap workers: Poor peasants and migrants moved to cities in large numbers in
search of jobs. So the supply of workers was more than the demand. Therefore, workers were
available at low wages.
(v) Uniform machine-made goods: A range of products could be produced only with hand labour.
Machines were oriented to producing uniforms, standardized goods for a mass market. But the
demand in the market was often for goods with intricate designs and specific shapes.
In the mid-nineteenth century. Britain, for instance. 500 varieties of hammers were produced, and 15
kinds of axes. This required human skill, not mechanical technology.
Q.4.How did the East India Company procure regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from the
Indian weavers ?
ANS.4.(i) Monopoly right : Once the East India Company established political power, it
asserted a monopoly right to trade
(ii) New system : After establishing monopoly over trade :t proceeded to develop a system of
management and control that would eliminate competition, control costs, and ensure regular supplies
of cotton and silk goods. This it did through a series of steps.
(iii) Appointing Gomasthas : The Company tried to eliminate the existing traders and brokers
connected with the doth trade, and establish a more direct control over the weavers. It appointed a
paid secant called the Gomostha to supervise weavers, collect supplies, and examine the quality of
cloth.
(iv) System of advances : To have direct control over the weavers, the company started 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 doth they produced to the Gomastha.
They could not take it to any other trader.
(v) Use of power : The places where the weaver refused to cooperate the Company used its police.
At many places weaver were often beaten and flogged for delays in supply.

Q.5.Why did the industrial production in India increase during the First World War ?
ANS.5.The war created a dramatically new situation.
● With the 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.
● 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 saddle and a
host of other items.
● New factories were set up and the old ones ran multiple shifts. Many new workers
were employed and had to work longer hours.
● Over the war years industrial production boomed.

EXTRA QUESTIONS
Q.1.Explain the problems faced by the new European merchants in setting up their
industries in towns before the industrial revolution.
ANS.1.The merchants could not expand production within towns because
● Urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful.
● These were associations of producers that trained crafts people, maintained control
over production, regulated competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new
people in 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.
Q.2. “In 18th century Europe, the peasants and artisans in the countryside readily
agreed
to work for the merchants' '. Give reasons.(IMP)
ANS.2.In the countryside poor peasants and artisans began working for merchants because
● Open fields were disappearing and commons were being enclosed. Cottagers and poor
peasants who had earlier depended on common lands for 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.
● By working for the merchants, they could remain in the countryside and continue to
cultivate their small plots.It also allowed them a fuller use of their family labour
resources.

Q.3.How did a relationship develop between the town and the countryside?
ANS.3.Within this system a close relationship developed between the town and the
countryside.
● Merchants were based in towns but the work was done mostly in the countryside.
● A merchant clothier in England purchased wool from a wool stapler, and carried it to
the spinners;the yarn that was spun was taken in subsequent stages of production to
weavers, fullers, and then to the dyers.
 ● The finishing was done in London before the export merchant sold the cloth in the
international market.
● London in fact came to be known as a finishing centre
Q.4.How did the new inventions and technology help in setting up the factory concept?
ANS.4.
● A series of inventions in the eighteenth century increased the efficacy of each step of
the production process.(carding, twisting, spinning and rolling)
● They enhanced the output per worker, enabling each worker to produce more, and
they made possible the production of stronger threads and yarn.
● It brought the entire production process under one roof and management. This allowed
a more careful supervision over the production process, a watch over quality, and the
regulation of labour, all of which had been difficult to do when production was in the
countryside.
Q.5.How rapid was the process of industrialisation? Does industrialisation mean only
the
growth of factory industries?(IMP)
ANS.5.Following was the process of industrialisation
● The most dynamic industries in Britain were clearly cotton and metals. Growing at a
rapid pace, cotton was the leading sector in the first phase of industrialisation up to the
1840’s and in colonies from the 1860’s, the demand for iron and steel increased
rapidly.
● The new industries could not easily displace traditional industries. Even at the end of
the nineteenth century, less than 20% were employed in the technologically advanced
industrial sector.Textiles was a dynamic sector, but the production was largely within
the domestic units
● The pace of change in the traditional industries was not because of the steam powered
cotton or metal industries but because of the seemingly ordinary and small innovations
in any non-mechanised sectors such as food processing, building, pottery,glass work,
tanning, furniture making and production of implements.
● Technological changes occurred slowly as it was expensive and merchants and
industrialists were cautious about using it.The machines often broke down and repair
was costly. They were not as effective as their inventors and manufacturers claimed.
● The worker in the mid-nineteenth century was not a machine operator but the
traditional craftsperson and labourer.

Q.6.Why did some industrialists in the nineteenth century Europe prefer hand labour
to
machines?
ANS.6.Some industrialist in the nineteenth century Europe preferred hand labour to
machines
because
● In Victorian Britain there were plenty of peasants and vagrants looking for jobs and
were ready to work at low wages.So industrialists had no problem with labour
shortage or high wages.
● In many industries the demand for labour was seasonal like the Gas works and
breweries were especially busy through the cold months.Book binders and printers too
needed extra hands before December. Industrialists usually preferred hand labour,
employing workers for the season.
● Machines were oriented to producing uniforms, standardised goods for a mass market.
But the demand in the market was often for goods with intricate designs and specific
shapes.
Q.7.Why did the upper class in Victorian Britain prefer things produced by
hand?(VIMP)
ANS.7.The upper classes in Victorian Britain were the aristocrats and the bourgeoisie and
they
preferred things produced by hand because
● Handmade products came to symbolise refinement and class.
● They were better finished, individually produced, and carefully designed.
● Machine-made goods were good for export to the colonies
Q.8.Describe the life of workers in Victorian Britain?(IMP)
ANS.8.The workers in the Victorian Britain led a difficult life due to the following reasons
● The abundance of labour in the market affected the lives of workers. As the news of
jobs travelled hundreds would come to the cities but, getting a job depended on
existing network of friendship and kin relations.As not everyone had social
connections they had to wait for weeks.
● Seasonality of work in many industries meant prolonged periods without work.Some
returned to the countryside after the busy season was over while the others continued
to look for odd jobs, which till the mid nineteenth century was difficult to find.
● Wages increased but it did little for the welfare of the workers. The increase in prices
during the Napoleonic wars brought the real value of what the workers earned down
as the same wages could now buy fewer things.The wages did not depend on the wage
rate but also the period of employment.
● After the 1840’s building activity intensified in the cities, opening up greater
opportunities of employment. Roads were widened, new railway stations came up,
railway lines were extended, tunnels dug, drainage and sewers laid, rivers embanked.
The number of workers employed in the transport industry doubled in the 1840’s and
doubled again in the subsequent years.
Q.9.Before the age of industrialisation silk and cotton goods from india dominated the
international markets in textiles.Elaborate
ANS.9.Before the age of machine industries, silk and cotton goods from India dominated
the
international market in textiles.
● Coarser cottons were produced in many countries, but the finer varieties often came
from India.Armenian and Persian merchants took the goods from Punjab to
Afghanistan, eastern Persia and Central Asia.
● Bales of fine textiles were carried on camels back via the north-west frontier, through
the mountain passes and across deserts.
● A vibrant sea trade operated through the main pre-colonial ports of Surat on the
Gujarat coast connected India to the Gulf and Red Sea Ports: Masulipatnam on the
Coromandel coast and Hooghly in Bengal had trade links with South Asian ports.
● A variety of indian merchants and bankers were involved in this network of export
trade by financing production, carrying goods and supplying exporters.

Q.10.Explain the role of the Indian merchants and bankers played in the export trade
in
the early eighteenth century?(IMP)
ANS.10.A variety of indian merchants and bankers were involved in this network of export
trade in the following ways:
● by financing production, carrying goods and supplying exporters.
● Supply merchants linked the port towns to the inland regions.
● They gave advances to weavers, procured the woven cloth from weaving villages, and
carried the supply to the ports.
● At the port, the big shippers and export merchants had brokers who negotiated the
price and bought goods from the supply merchants operating inland
Q.11.What led to the rise of Bombay and Calcutta ports in the 19th century?(IMP)
ANS.11.
● The European companies gradually gained power by first securing a variety of
concessions from local courts, then the monopoly rights to trade.
● This resulted in the decline of the old ports of Surat and Hooghly through which local
merchants operated.
● Exports from these ports fell and the credit that had financed earlier trade began
drying up and the local bankers went bankrupt.
● While Surat and Hoogly decayed, Bombay and Calcutta grew. This shift from the old
ports to the new ones was an indicator of the growth of colonial power.
● Trade through the new ports came to be controlled by European companies, and was
carried in European ships.
● Many old trading houses collapsed and those that wanted to survive had to now
operate within a network shaped by European trading companies.
Q.12.Why was it difficult for the East India Company to procure regular supplies of
goods
for exports in the beginning?
ANS.12.In the beginning, the East India Company found it difficult to ensure a regular
supply
of goods for export because
● The French, The Dutch and the Portuguese as well as the local traders competed in the
market to buy woven cloth.
● So, the weaver and supply merchants could bargain and try selling the produce to the
best buyer.
● Company officials also continuously complained of difficulties of supply and the high
prices.
Q.13.How did the East India Company try to assert its monopoly right to trade?
ANS.13.East India Company established political power, so it could assert a monopoly right
to
trade in the following ways
1) 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. This
they did through a series of steps:
● The company tried to eliminate the existing traders and brokers and establish a more
direct control over the weaver. So it appointed a paid servant called the Gomastha to
supervise weavers, collect supplies, and examine the quality of cloth.
● It prevented Company weavers from dealing with other buyers and one way of doing
it was through the system of advances. Once an order is placed, the weavers are 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.
Q.14.Explain the causes for the clashes between the weavers and Gomasthas?
OR
Explain the miserable conditions of Indian Weavers during East India
Company’s regime in the eighteenth century. (IMP)
ANS.14. In many villages there were reports of clashes between weavers and gomasthas.
● Earlier supply merchants had very often lived within the weaving villages, and had a
close relationship with the weavers,looking after their needs and helping them in times
of crisis.
● 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.
 ● The weavers lost the space to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers and the
prices they received from the company was miserably low and the loans they had
accepted tied them to the company.
● In many places weavers deserted the villages and migrated , setting up looms in other
villages where they had some family relations.
● Elsewhere , weavers along with the village traders revolted, opposing the Company
and its officials. Overtime they began refusing loans and closed down their workshops
and taking to agricultural labour.
Q.15.Describe the reasons for the decline of textile exports from India in the 19th
century.
ANS.15.The reasons for the decline of textile exports from india were
● As cotton industries developed in England, industrial groups began worrying about the
imports from other countries so they pressurised the government to impose import
duties on cotton textiles so that manchester goods could sell without any competition.
● At the same time industrialists persuaded the East India Company to sell british cotton
goods in indian markets as well.
● Cotton weavers in India thus faced two problems at the same time: Their export
market collapsed, and the local market shrank.
● Produced by machines at lower costs, the imported cotton goods were so cheap that
weavers could not compete with them.
● By the 1860’s the weavers could not get sufficient supply of raw cotton of good
quality.The American civil war cutting of the supply of cotton to britain and britain
turned to india and the price of raw cotton shot up making it impossible for indian
weavers to buy it.
● Weavers and other craft people faced yet another problem as by the end of the 19th
century,factories in India, began flooding the market with machine made goods.
Q.16.How did the industries develop in India in the second half of the 19th
century?IMP
ANS.16.Industries were set up in different regions by varying sorts of people.
● From the late 18th century, the British in India began exporting opium to China and
took tea from China to England.
● Many Indians became part of this trade, providing finance,procuring supplies and
shipping consignments.
● Having earned through trade, some of these businessmen had visions of developing
industrial enterprises in India.
● In Bombay,parsis like Dinshaw Petit and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata built huge
industrial empires in India, accumulated initial wealth partly from exports to
China,and partly from raw cotton shipments to England
● Seth Hukumchand, a marwari businessman who set up the first indian jute mill in
Calcutta in 1917, also traded with China.
● Some merchants from Madras traded with Burma while others had links with the
Middle East and East Africa.
 ● There were yet other commercial groups, they were not directly involved in external
trade but operated within India, carrying goods from one place to another, banking
money, transferring funds between cities and financing traders. When opportunities of
investment in industries opened up, many of them set up factories.

Q.17.Name the three managing agencies in India before the first world war. What were
their main functions?
ANS.17.Till the first world war, European Managing Agencies controlled a large sector of
Indian Industries.
● Three of the biggest ones were Bird Heiglers & Co.,Andrew Yule, and Jardine Skinner
& Co.
● These agencies mobilised capital, set up joint stock companies and managed them.
● In most instances indian financiers provided capital while the European agencies
made all investments and business decisions.
● The European merchant industrialists had their own chambers of commerce which
indian businessmen were not allowed to join.

Q.18.Where did the workers come from to work in the factories?

ANS.18.In most industrial regions workers came from the districts around
● Peasants and artisans who found no work in the village went to the industrial centres
in search of work.
● Over 50 % of the workers in Bombay cotton mills came from the district of Ratnagiri,
while the mills of Kanpur got most of their textile workers from the villages within the
Kanpur district.
● Most often the mill workers moved between the village and city, returning to their
village during harvest and festivals.
Q.19.Who were the jobbers? What were his functions?(IMP)
ANS.19.Very often a jobber would be an old and trusted worker.He got people from his
village,
ensured them jobs, helped them settle in the city and provided them money in times of
crisis. The jobber therefore became a person with some authority and power.
Q.20.How did the indian entrepreneurs survive despite tight economic controls
imposed by
the British government?
ANS.20.The indian entrepreneurs survived despite tight economic controls imposed by the
British government because
● In the late 18th century,they avoided competing with Manchester goods in the Indian
market.
 ● They started producing coarse cotton yarn rather than the fabric as yarn was not an
important part of the british exports in India.
● The yarn produced in Indian spinning mills was used by handloom weavers in India or
exported to China.
● By the first decade of the twentieth century as the swadeshi movement gathered
momentum industrial groups organised themselves to protect their collective interests,
pressurising the government to increase tariff protection and grant other concessions.
● From 1906, the export of indian yarn declined as produce from china flooded the
market and the industrialists were forced to shift production from yarn to cloth.

Q.21.Handicraft production actually expanded in the 20th century.Why?

ANS.21.This was partly because of technological changes.
● Handicraft people adopted new technology if that helps them improve production
without excessively pushing up costs.So, by the second decade of the twentieth
century we find weavers using loons with fly shuttle.
● This increased productivity per worker, speeded up production and reduced labour
demand.
● Certain groups of weavers were in a better position than others to survive the
competition with mill industries.Amongst weavers some produced coarse cloth while
other wove finer varieties. The coarser cloth was bought by the poor and its demand
fluctuated, while the demand for the finer varieties bought by the well to do was more
stable as the rich could buy it whenever they wanted.
● Weavers and crafts people who continued to expand production through the twentieth
century did not necessarily prosper but their life and labour was integral to the process
of industrialisation.
Q.22.Explain the role of advertisements in creating new consumers for the British
products.(IMP)
ANS.22.Advertisements helped in creatine new consumers
● Advertisements make products appear desirable and necessary.
● They try to shape the minds of people and create new needs.
● They play an important part in expanding the markets for products and in shaping a
new consumer culture
Q.23.Why did Manchester industrialists put labels on the cloth bundles?(IMP)
ANS.23.When Manchester industrialists began selling cloth in India, they put labels on the
cloth bundles because
● The label was needed to make the place of manufacture and the name of the company
familiar to the buyer.
 ● The label was also to be a mark of quality.
● When buyers saw ‘MADE IN MANCHESTER’ written in bold on the label, they
were expected to feel confident about buying the cloth.
Q.24.How did the British manufacturers create new markets and consumers in India?
ANS.24.British manufacturers created new markets and consumers by
● Using advertisements to make products appear more desirable and necessary and
shape the minds of the people.They tried to persuade the customers and buyers by
using such advertisements that would appeal to Indians.
● They used the label to make the place of manufacture and the name of the company
familiar to the buyer.The label was also to be a mark of quality.When buyers saw
‘MADE IN MANCHESTER’ written in bold on the label, they were expected to feel
confident about buying the cloth.They also carried images and were very often
beautifully illustrated.
● Images of Indian Gods and Goddesses regularly appeared on these labels. It was as if
the association with gods gave divine approval to goods being sold. It was also
intended to make the manufacture from a foreign land appear somewhat familiar to
Indian people
● By the late 19th century, manufacturers were printing calendars to popularise their
products.Calendars were used even by people who could not read and were hung in
tea shops and poor households.In these calendars once again, we see the figure of gods
being used to sell new products.
● The images of gods, figures of important personages, of emperors and nawabs,
adorned advertisements and calendars often seemed to say : if you respect them, then
respect this product and when the product was being used by them, then its quality
could not be questioned.
● When Indian manufacturers advertised the nationalis message was loud and clear. If
you care for the nation then buy products that Indians produce. Advertisements
became a vehicle for the nationalist message of swadeshi.
ONE MARKERS
Write the new words in pg no. 106 Stapler, Fuller, carding
Which city was known as the finishing centre? London
What was the first symbol of the new era in England in the late 18th century? cotton
Richard Arkwright created the first cotton mill.
James watt improved the steam engine produced by Newcomen and patented the new engine
in 1781.
His industrialist friend Mathew Boulton manufactured the new model.
Name the areas that demanded seasonal labour in England. Gas works, breweries and
dockyards.
Who invented the spinning jenny? James Hargreaves
Who was Henry Patullo? He was an East India Company official. He said that demand for
indian textiles could never reduce, because no country produced goods of the same quality.
In North India, the Elgin Mill was started in Kanpur in the 1860’s
In bengal Dwarakanath Tagore made his fortune in china trade and turned it to industrial
investment, setting up six joint stock companies in the 1830’s and 1840’s