The Age of

Industrialization
HISTORY CHAPTER 4
Before Industrial
Revolution
 FACTORIES =
INDUSTRIES
(Our assumption)

• Industrialization - Growth of factories 

• Industrial Production – Factory production
• Industrial workers – Factory workers

We think that Industrialization started with

the setting up of factories
Industrialization
• It started before factories were set up. How?
• There was large scale production even before
factories were set up.
• For whom? The International Market
Proto Industrialization
Period

• This is a stage when large scale production took

place in the absence of modern factories.
• There was expansion of world trade and colonies
were set up in different parts of the world
• Demand of goods increased
• Merchants could not expand their production in
the towns:
•  Urban crafts & Trade Guilds + Rulers – Were
powerful, controlled production, prices and
competitions
• Rulers gave monopoly to the guilds
• So, Merchants moved to the Countryside
Situation of the
countryside
• Poor peasants began working for
the merchants
• Peasants had tiny plots which
could not provide work to all
family members
• When merchants offered work,
they readily accepted
Close Relations:
(Merchant and Peasants)

Merchants were based in towns but work

was done in the countryside

Merchants – purchased wool from the wool

stapler, carried to the spinner.

After the wool was spun, subsequent stages

of production to weavers, fullers and then to
dyers were taken
The Coming Up of the
Factory
Factories in England
• Early factories in England came up by
the 1730s.
• First symbol of new era-cotton mill
• 1760:2.5 Million Pounds
• 1787:22 Million Pounds
• Many factories sprang up in England
• A series of inventions took place in the
form of carding, twisting, spinning and
rolling.
 Richard Arkwright
invented the Cotton
Mill
• All the process were brought
under one roof
• Workers could produce better
product in large quantities
• Careful supervision over:-
• Production process
• Quality
• Regulation of labour
The Pace of
Industrial
Change
1. How rapid was the
process of
Industrialization?
• Cotton and Metals were the dynamic
industries
• Up to 1840 Cotton was the leading
sector in production
• After that, the Iron and Steel industry
led the way. Why?
• Expansion of Railways in England
• The demand for metals increased
rapidly
• By 1873- Britain was exporting
iron and steel worth about £77
million
 2. New Industries could
not easily displace
traditional industries

• At the end of the 19th

Century, less than 20% of
the workspace was
employed in the industrial
sector
3. Cotton & Metal could not
change the pace of traditional
industries

• Traditional industries
weren’t stagnant
• Traditional industries experienced
many changes brought by small
inventions.
• E.g., Food processing, building
work, pottery, glasswork,
tanning, furniture making and
production of implements
4. New technology
took time to spread
• Machinery was costly
and their maintenance
was difficult
• Repairs incurred huge
cost
• Mid 19th Century –
Worker was not a
machine operator but a
craftsman and labourer
Hand Labour
and Steam
Power
Hand Labour & Steam Power
• In Victorian Britain, there was no labor
shortage
• Merchants and industrialists preferred
human labor rather than investing in
costly machines
• In many industries labor demand was
seasonal
• Seasonal industrialists preferred hand
labor
Seasonal Industries  - Breweries & Gas
Work 
 • Machine made goods were oriented to
producing uniforms & standardised goods
for mass market
Hand • Machine made goods were for export to
Labour & the colonies
Steam • Goods with intricate designs and specific
shapes were often in demand. Ex:
Power Hammers & axes 
• Aristocrats preferred hand made goods
which symbolised refinement and class
Life of the workers
 Life of the workers
• The abundance of labour in the market
affected the lives of workers. 
• The actual possibility of getting a job
depended on existing networks of
friendship and kin relations. 
• Seasonality of work in many industries
meant prolonged periods without work.
Some returned to the countryside after
the winter, when the demand for labour
in the rural areas opened in places. 
 Life of the workers
• The fear of unemployment made workers
hostile to the introduction of new
technology like the spinning jenny. 
• Women who survived on hand spinning
began attacking the new machines. 
• After the 1840s, roads were widened, new
railway stations came up, railway lines
were extended, tunnels dug, drainage and
sewers laid, rivers embanked which led to
double employment of workers in the
transport industry.
Industrialization in the Colonies
 • Before the age of machine industries, silk and cotton goods from
India dominated the international market in textiles.
• Fine variety of clothes was in great demand in the west.
• Armenian and Persian merchants took the goods from Punjab to
Afghanistan, eastern Persia and Central Asia. Bales of fine textiles
were carried on camelback via the north-west frontier, through
mountain passes and across deserts.
THE AGE • Surat on the Gujarat coast connected India to the Gulf and Red
Sea Ports; Masulipatam on the Coromandel Coast and Hooghly in
OF INDIAN Bengal had trade links with Southeast Asian ports.
• A variety of Indian merchants and bankers were involved in this
TEXTILES: network of export trade – financing production, carrying goods
and supplying exporters.
• The supply merchants linked the port towns to the inland region.
They gave advances to the weavers, purchased the woven cloth
from weaving villages, and brought the supply to the port.
• At the port, the big shippers and export merchants had brokers
who negotiated the price and bought goods from the supply
merchants operating inland.
English
factory
at Surat
 • The European companies gradually
gained power – first securing a variety of
concessions from local courts, then the
RISE OF monopoly rights to trade.
• While Surat and Hooghly decayed,
EUROPEAN Bombay and Calcutta grew
COMPANIE • Exports from these ports fell dramatically,
S: the credit that had financed the earlier
trade began drying up, and the local
bankers slowly went bankrupt.
• Trade through the new ports came to be
controlled by European companies and
was carried in European ships.
What happened
to the Weavers?
Before & After Monopoly
East India Company

• Before establishing monopoly over trade, East

India Company faced stiff competition in the
market from European powers – Dutch, French &
Portuguese
• This competition enabled the weavers and the
merchants to sell their goods at optimum prices
• After acquiring monopoly, EIC established a
system that enabled them a regular supply of
cotton and silk, abolished competition, and
control prices
Who were Gomasthas?
Paid servants
whose job was to
supervise weavers,
collect supplies and
examine the quality
of cloth.
 • The aim of the East India Company behind appointing
Gomasthas was to work out a system of management and
control that would eliminate competition, control costs and
ensure regular supplies of cotton and silk.
• Soon there were clashes between the weavers and the
Gomasthas who began ill-treating the weavers.

Gomasthas: • They did not allow the company weavers to sell their
produce to other buyers. 
• Once an order was placed, the weavers were given loans to
purchase the raw material. 
• Weavers who had accepted loans from the company had to
hand over the cloth they produced to the Gomasthas only.
• Gomasthas were outsiders, often sepoys and peons
accompanied them
• Whenever any order got delayed, the weavers were treated
with beatings and mistreatment.
Manchester
comes to India
• Manchester goods were
exported in some profusion that
Indian textiles could not keep
pace
• Industrial groups pressurized the
government to impose import
duties on cotton textiles so that
Manchester goods could sell in
Britain without competition
 • The 1800s saw a decline in cotton export
from India.
Decline in • 33 percent – 1811-12
Cotton • 3% in 1850-51
Export • Why did this happen? 
• Cotton industries were booming in Britain.
They wanted less competition and
stopped imports
• Industrialists pressurized the company to
sell their goods in the colonies
• Again, a rise in cotton export after
American civil war 
What were its Implications?
• Weavers felt the implications – Export market was
ruined
• Weavers faced competition in the local market with
machine goods from Britain
• As raw cotton export increased from India again, their
prices shot up. The weavers could not buy raw cotton
as they were not affordable
Factories Come
Up
The Early Entrepreneurs
Workers
 • 1854: First Cotton Mill set up in Bombay
• 1855: First Jute Mill set up in Bengal
• 1861: First Cotton Mill in Ahmedabad
• 1874: First Spinning and Weaving Mill set up in
Dates to Madras
Remember:

- Who set up these factories?

- Where is the capital coming from?
 • British in India
• India -> Opium -> China
• China -> Tea -> England
Indian
Business • Many Indians took active
participation
during • Provide Finances
• Supplies
British India • Shipping
• Developed a vision for
Industrial enterprises in India
Early Entrepreneurs
in India
• Bengal – Dwakarnath Tagore set up six companies
• Bombay - 
• Parsis (Dinshaw Petit)
• Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata
• Calcutta
• Seth Hukumchand set up first Indian Jute mill
in 1917
• Other Trade networks
• Burma, Middle East, East Africa
• Commercial Group
Limiting Indian Merchants
• Indians barred from trading with Europe in
manufactured goods
• They could export only raw materials and food grains
– opium, wheat, cotton, Indigo
• Edged out of Shipping Business
The Peculiarities of
Industrial Growth
 • European Manging Agencies
Different • Established tea, coffee plantations
Segments • Invested in mining, indigo and jute
of • Import of Manchester made goods.
Industrial • Indian Businessmen
Venture • Avoided Competition
• Production of Course Cotton Yarn rather
than Fabric
Peculiarities of Industrial Growth (India) - I

Swadeshi Movement gave boost

Nationalist mobilised people to boycott foreign goods

Swadeshi products captured the market

Shift from yarn production to cotton production

Cotton piece goods doubled between 1900 and 1912

 Peculiarities of Industrial Growth
(India) - II (First World War:
British mills were busy with war production

Manchester imports into India declined

Indian mills had a vast home market to supply

Indian factories were called to supply war needs: jute bags, cloth for army
uniform, tent, leather boots, etc.,
Indian Industries boomed

Manchester could never recapture its old position in the Indian market

Local industries gradually consolidated their position

Small Scale
Industries
Predominate
Small Scale Industries
Predominate - I

Large industries occupied only a small segment of the economy

Small scale production continued to predominate

• Proportion of labour registered in factories
• 5% in 1911
• 10% in 1931

Handicraft production expanded in the 20th century. How?

Handloom cloth production also expanded. 

How did this happen?

Small Scale Industries
Predominate –II
Technological Changes

• Fly Shuttle -> Handloom

• It improved production without
excessively pushing up costs
• Fly shuttle made it possible for
weavers to operate large looms
and weave wide pieces of cloth
Small Scale Industries Predominate –II
Technological Changes

Different groups of weavers:

Producer of Course Cloth VS Fine Varieties

• Course Cloth ->Fluctuating Demand ->Bought by the poor
• Fine Cloth -> Stable Demand ->Bought by the rich

Mills could not imitate specialised weavers. Handmade

products could not easily be displced by mill production

Weavers -> Hardship ->Survival

Market for
industrial 
goods
People were
persuaded to buy
new products 
Market of Goods -Make them desirable
Advertisement 

• Products appear desirable and necessary

• Through newspapers, hoardings, street walls, television, etc.,

Use of labels as a mark of quality

• E.g., MADE IN MANCHESTER

• Buyers felt confident about buying the cloth

Use of images and illustrations

• Images of gods & goddesses to give the product a divine approval

• Imprinted image of Krishna & Saraswathi by foreign manufacturers

Printing of Calendars

• Used even by those who couldn’t read

• It captured the imagination of the people as they saw it again and again

Figures of Emperors and Nawabs

• Respect of Royal Figure = Respect to product

Nationalist message through product

• Advertisement became a vehicle of nationalist message of Swadeshi

Questions