The Age of Industrialisation -HOT QUESTIONS

1 MARKERS (Section -A)

1. Which among the following cities had trade links with South Asian ports?
(a) Masulipatam and Hoogly
(b) Masulipatam and Surat
(c) Surat and Bomaby (Mumbai)
(d) None of the above

2. Surat and Hooghly were replaced with:

(a) Bombay and Orissa
(b) Bombay and Calcutta
(c) Masulipatam and Calcutta
(d) None of the abvoe

3. Which one of the following European managing agencies did not control
Indian industries?
(a) Bird Heiglers and Company
(b) Andrew Yule
(c) Indian Industrial and Commerce Congress
(d) Jardine Skinner and Company

4. Which of the following was the main function of jobber, employed by the
industrialists?
(a) To collect money
(b) To set up industries
(c) To get a new recruit
(d) To supply raw material

5. Which of the following helped the spread of handloom cloth production?

(a) Import duties
(b) Government regulations
(c) Technological changes
(d) Imposition of export duties

6. Which of the following were the pre-colonial ports of India?

(a) Surat and Masulipatam
(b) Madras and Hoogly
(c) Madras and Bombay
(d) Bombay and Hoogly

7. Whom did the British government appoint to supervise weavers, collect

supplies and examine the quality of cloth?
(a) Jobber
(b) Sepoy
(c) Policeman
(d) Gomastha

8. Which of the following helped the spread of handloom cloth production?

(a) Import duties
(b) Government regulations
(c) Technological changes
(d) Imposition of export duties

9. In which one of the following years did the first cotton mill in Bombay
(Mumbai) come up?
(a) 1854
(b) 1855
(c) 1862
(d) 1874
10. Who among the following set up the first Indian jute mill in Calcutta in 1917?
(a) Seth Hukumchand
(b) G.D. Birla
(c) Jamsedjee Nusserwanjee Tata
(d) None of the above

11. Where was the first cotton mill set up in India?

(a) Ahmedabad
(b) Kanpur
(c) Bombay
(d) Madras

12. Who established six joint stock companies in India during 1830-40?
(a) Jamsedji Nusserwanjee Tata
(b) Dinshaw Petit
(c) Seth Hukumchand
(d) Dwarkanath Tagore

13. Who among the following was usually employed by the industrialists to get
new recruits?
(a) Gomastha
(b) Policeman
(c) Sepoy
(d) Jobber

14. Which of the following mechanical devices used for weaving, with ropes and
pullies, which helped to weave wide pieces of cloth?
(a) Handloom
(b) Powerloom
(c) Fly Shuttle
(d) Spinning Jenny

15. Where was the first Indian jute mill set up?
(a) Bengal
(b) Bombay
(c) Madras
(d) Bihar

16. What was “Spinning Jenny”?

(a) A machine
(b) A person
(c) An industry
(d) None of the above

17. Which were the most dynamic industries in Britain during the 19th century?
(a) Cotton and metal
(b) Metal and sugar
(c) Ship and cotton
(d) Cotton and sugar

18. In 1911, 67 percent of the large industries were located in which one of the
following places in India?
(a) Bengal and Bombay
(b) Surat and Ahmedabad
(c) Delhi and Bombay
(d) Patna and Lucknow

19. Which of the following was not a problem of Indian weavers at the early 19th
century?
(a) Shortage of raw material
(b) Clashes with Gomasthas
(c) Collapse of local and foreign market
(d) Setting up of new factories

20. In Victorian Britain, the aristocrats and bourgeoisie preferred hand-made

goods as:
(a) they were cheap
(b) they could be obtained easily
(c) they were made of better material
(d) they symbolised refinement and class

21. Which of the following was not a problem of Indian weavers at the early 19th
century?
(a) Shortage of raw material
(b) Clashes with Gomasthas
(c) Collapse of local and foreign market
(d) Setting up of new factories

22. Production processes involving carding, twisting, rolling and stapling are
associated with:
(a) Textile Industry
(b) Railway industry
(c) Shipping industry
(d) Glass industry

23. Who improved the ‘Steam Engine’ produced by Newcomen?

(a) Marcopolo
(b) James Watt
(c) Hargreaves
(d) Richard Arkwright
24. The person who got people from villages, ensured them jobs, helped them
settle in cities and provided them money in times of need was known as:
(a) Stapler
(b) Fuller
(c) Gomastha
(d) Jobber

25. Who was Dwarkanath Tagore?

(a) A social reformer
(b) Musician
(c) Industrialist
(d) Painter

26. The picture of the “Two Magicians” shows

(a) Aladdin from the orient who built a beautiful palace with his magic lamp
(b) A modern mechanic who with his magic tool builds bridges, ships, towers and
high-rise buildings
(c) The difference between East and West, Aladdin represents the East and the past
and the mechanic, the West and modernity
(d) All the above

27. Who are called Staplers and Fullers?

(a) A Fuller ‘fulls’ or gathers cloth by pleating
(b) Stapler ‘staples’ or sorts wool according to its fibre
(c) Both (a) and (b)
(d) Staplers and Fullers are dyers

28. The new merchants could not set up business in the towns in Europe,
because: -
(a) the rules did not allow them to do so
(b) there were not enough products to start business with, as guilds had monopoly
(c) the powerful trade guilds and urban crafts made it difficult for new merchants to
start business in towns and restricted their entry
(d) the merchants wanted to do business with village people

29. Where and when did the earliest factories come up?
(a) In the beginning of the 18th century in England
(b) In the 1730s in England
(c) In the late 18th century in Europe
(d) None of the above

30. How can we prove that the first symbol of factory system was cotton?
(a) Its production boomed in the late 18th century
(b) In 1760, Britain was importing 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton for its cotton
industry
(c) By 1787, its import soared to 22 million pounds
(d) All the above

31. Who invented the first steam engine and who improved upon it?
(a) James Watt produced the first steam engine and Newcomen improved it
(b) Richard Arkwright produced the first steam engine which Newcomen improved it
(c) James Watt improved the steam engine produced by Newcomen
(d) None of the above

32. Carding is a process: -

(a) in spinning
(b) in weaving
(c) in which cotton or wool fibres are prepared for spinning
(d) in which finishing of cloth is done
33. The women in the woollen industry attacked the introduction of spinning
jenny because
(a) fear of unemployment made the women workers hostile to the introduction of
new technology
(b) the women did not know how to work the machine
(c) the women depended on hand-spinning
(d) all the above

34. The typical worker in the mid-nineteenth century, according to historians,

was:
(a) a machine operator
(b) traditional craftsperson and labourer
(c) unskilled labourers
(d) a technology expert worker

35. Which of the following statements is not true about how the Company
prevented weavers from dealing with other buyers?
(a) The Company offered their weavers the highest rates
(b) The Company gave loans to weavers to purchase raw materials for their
production
(c) Those who took loans had to sell the cloth they produced to the Gomasthas
(d) The weavers could not sell their product to any other trader

36. Weaving industry finally collapsed by the end of the 19th century. Why?
(a) All raw materials vanished from India
(b) Indian weavers took to other professions because of high prices of raw materials
(c) Indian factories came up and began flooding the market with machine-made
goods
(d) The British totally monopolised the textile trade

37. Which among the following is associated with Gomasthas?

(a) Trader
(b) Businessman
(c) Unpaid Servant
(d) Supervisor appointed by the company

38. Name the person who created the cotton mill in England?
(a) Richard Arkwright
(b) James Watt
(c) Mathew Boulton
(d) Newcomen

39. Who among the following produced a popular music book that had a picture
on the cover page announcing the Dawn of the Century?
(a) New Comen
(b) James Watt
(c) E. T. Paul
(d) Mathew Boulton

40. Which one of the following factories was considered as a symbol of new era
in England in the late eighteenth century?
(a) Iron and steel
(b) Metal
(c) Jute
(d) Cotton

41. Which pre-colonial port connected India to the Gulf countries and the Red Sea
ports?
(a) Bombay
(b) Hooghly
c) Surat
(d) Machhalipatanam

42. How does advertisement help us to create new consumer?

(a) It makes products appear desirable and necessary
(b) It tries to shape the minds of people and create new needs
(c) It helps in expanding the markets for products
(d) All the above

43. Which of the following was not a European Managing Agency dominating
industrial production in India?
(a) Andrew Yule
(b) Bird Heiglers and Co.
(c) Jardine Skinner and Co.
(d) Elgin Mills

44. The introduction of which new technology in England angered women?

(a) The spinning jenny
(b) The underground railway
(c) The steam engine
(d) None of these

45. Who devised the Spinning Jenny?

(a) Richard Arkwright
(b) James Watt
(c) James Hargreaves
(d) Samuel Luke

46. Which one of the following was the job of the Gomastha?
(a) Supervise weavers
(b) Collect supplies
(c) Examine the quality of the cloth
(d) All the above

47. Which one of the following Indian ports lost its importance during colonial
rule?
(a) Bombay
(b) Calcutta
(c) Surat
(d) Madras

48. By which of the following phenomena was the pattern of industrial change in
India conditioned?
(a) Colonial rule
(b) Weakness of Mughal rule
(c) Poverty of the countryside
(d) Struggle between the European powers to control India

49. Where in India was the first cotton mill set up?
(a) Kanpur
(b) Bombay
(c) Ahmedabad
(d) Madras

50. Which one of the following problems was not faced by cotton weavers in
India?
(a) Export market had collapsed
(b) They did not have good quality cotton
(c) Imported goods were cheap
(d) There were frequent strikes in Indian industries
51. How did the presence of Gomastahas in the villages create problem for the
cotton weavers? Explain.
Ans.
a. There were clashes between weavers and Gomasthas in many weaving
villages.
b. Weavers were regularly supervised by the Gomasthas.
c. The weavers were punished by Gomasthas for delay in supplies.
d. The weavers lost the space to bargain for price.
e. They were unable to sell their products to different buyers.
52. Describe the functions performed by European Managing Agencies.
Ans.
a. European Managing Agencies mobilized capital.
b. They set up joint stock companies and managed them.
c. In most instances, Indian financers provided the capital while the European
agencies made all investment and business decisions.
d. The European merchant industrialists had their own chamber of commerce
which Indian businessmen were not allowed to join.
53. How did Jobbers misuse his position and power? Explain.
Ans.
a. Jobbers provide employment the job seekers.
b. They sometimes asked for money as bribe.
c. Even they demanded some gifts for his favour and controlled the lived of
workers.
54. Describe the achievements of any three early industrialists in British India?
Ans.
a. Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy was the son of a Parsi weaver. He was involved in the
China trade of India.
b. Dishaw Petit built a huge industrial empire in India. He was involved in China
trade and raw cotton shipments to England.
c. Seth Hukamchand was a Marwari Businessman who set up the first Indian
jute mill in Calcutta in 1917. He also traded with China.
55. Explain the contribution of Dwarkanath tagore and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee
Tata in shaping the industrial development of India.
Ans.
a. Dwarkanath tagore was involved in China trade. Later he set up six joint-stock
companies in 1830s and 1840s. He believed that India would develop through
 westernization and industrialization. He invested in shipping, shipbuilding,
mining, banking etc.
b. J. N. Tata was initially involved in China trade and raw cotton shipments to
England. In 1912, he set up the first iron and steel works in India at
Jamshedpur.
56. Mention any three restrictions imposed by the British government upon the
Indian merchants in the 19th century.
Ans.
a. They were barred from trading with Europe in manufactured goods.
b. They had to export mostly raw materials and food grains, raw cotton, opium,
wheat and indigo required by the British.
c. The space, within which Indian merchants could function, became limited.

57. Trace the development of cotton and textile industries in India.

Ans.
a. The first cotton mill came up in Bombay in 1854.
b. By 1862, four mills were with 94000 spindles and 2150 looms.
c. The First cotton mill of Ahmadabad came up in 1860s.
d. By the 1874, the first spinning and weaving mill of madras began its
production.
58. What was the condition of Indian Industries before the First World War?
Ans.
a. The early cotton mills in India produced coarse cotton yarn rather than fabric.
Only imported yarn was of the superior variety.
b. By the first decade of the 20th century, a series of changes affected the
pattern of industrialization. Industrialisation in India began shifting from yarn
to clothe production.
c. Till the First World War, industrial growth was slow.

59. How did the Industrial pace change after the First World War in India?
Ans.
a. During First World War British mills busy with war production to meet the
needs of the army, Manchester imports into India declined. Due to this reason
Indian mills had a vast home market to supply.
b. As the war prolonged Indian factories were called upon to supply war needs.
 c. New factories were set up and old ones ran multiple shifts. Over the war
years industrial production boomed.
Long Answers (Section -B)
1. Describe any five characteristics of the proto-industrialization system.
Ans.
a. Even before factories began to dot the landscape in England and Europe
there was large scale industrial production for an international market which
was not based on factories. This phase of industrialization is known as proto-
industrialization.
b. Merchants from the town in Europe began moving to the countryside,
supplying money to peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an
international market.
c. With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of colonies in different
parts of the world, the demand for goods began to increase.
d. But merchants could not expand production with in towns. This was because;
here urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful.
e. In the countryside poor peasants and artisans began working for merchants.
This was a time when open field were disappearing and commons were being
enclosed.

2. Explain the five causes of industrial revolution in England.

Ans.
a. A series of invention in the eighteenth century increased the efficacy of each
step of the production process and paved the way for industrialization in
England.
b. There had been enormous expansion in overseas trade of Britain; this was
one of the major causes of technological revolution.
c. The vast amount of capital which England had accumulated out of profits of
her growing trade enabled her to make large expenditure on the machinery
and building. This led to new technological developments.
d. The geographical location of England greatly helped in industrial revolution.
e. It had extensive coastline and many navigable rivers when water was the
easiest means of transportation.
3. Describe any five major problems faced by new European merchants in
setting up their industries in towns before the industrial revolution.
Ans.
a. Due to expansion of world trade the merchants wanted to expand their
production. But trade and craft guilds were very powerful.
b. They could create many problems for the merchants in their towns.
c. Rulers had granted the monopoly rights to different guild to produce and
trade in specific products.
d. In the countryside, peasants and artisans were available for work.
e. Craft guilds were very powerful. They maintain control over production,
regulated completion and prices and restricted the entry of new people in to
the trade.
4. Why did the poor peasants and artisans in the countryside begin to work for
the merchants from the towns?
Ans.
a. Open fields were disappearing and commons were being enclosed.
b. Tiny plots of land did not provide enough for the family.
c. By working for merchants, peasants could remain in the countryside and
cultivate their land.
d. Income from proto-industrial production supplemented their income from
cultivation.
e. The family labour resources could be fully used.

5. Explain any five reasons why the industrialists in Europe prefer hand labour
over machines.
Ans.
a. Industrialists had no problem of labour shortage or high wage costs.
b. In many industries, the demand for labour was seasonal. Gas works and
breweries were especially busy through cold months. So they needed more
workers to meet their peak demand.
c. Book binders and printers, catering to charismas demand to needed extra
hands before December. All those industries where production fluctuated with
the season, industrialist usually prefer by employing workers for the season.
d. A range of products could be produced only with hand labour.
e. In Victorian Britain the upper classes –aristocrats and bourgeoisie- prefer
things produced by hand. Handmade products came to symbolize refinement
and class.
6. What problems were faced by the Indian cotton weavers in the nineteenth
century? Explain.
Ans.
a. Their export market collapsed due to increase in import duties on them in
England.
b. Their local market shrank as they were flooded with cheap Manchester
imports.
c. They could not get sufficient supply of raw cotton of good quality.
d. When the Americans civil war broke out and cotton supplies from the US were
cut off, Britain turned to India. Indian weavers were forced to buy cotton at
very high prices.
e. By the end of nineteenth century, factories in India began production and
flooded the market with machine goods. This created the problem of survival
for weaving industries.

7. How did East Indian Company procure the regular supply of cotton and silk
goods?
Ans.
a. The East India Company had to face obstacle to procure regular supply of
cotton and silk textiles from Indian weavers.
b. The French, Dutch, Portuguese as well as the local traders competed in the
market. However, the East India Company establishes political power and
asserted monopoly right to trade.
c. The company tried to eliminate existing traders and have direct control over
the weaver and appointed a paid servant called Gomasthas to supervise and
collect supplies.
d. It prevented company weavers from dealing with other buyers. One way of
doing was through the system of advances.
e. Those weavers, who took loans, had to hand over the cloth they produced to
the Gomasthas. They could not take it to any other trade.

8. “Despite of stiff competition from machine made thread, the Indian handloom
production not only survived, but also saw a steady growth in the 20th century”.
Explain
Ans.
a. Adopting technological changes by the weavers to increase production
without raising costs.
b. Those who catered to the rich always had a demand for their goods like
Banarsi and Baluchari Saris.
c. Mills could not imitate specialised weaves. Example: Saris with intricate
boarders, lungies and handkerchief.
d. Handmade products came to symbolize refinement and class.
Following questions to be written in classwork -
Section A - Question no-52 and 54.
Section B -Question no-2,5 and 7.