Chapter 4: The Age of Industrialization

1. 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.

Solution:

a.
a. James Hargreaves designed the Spinning Jenny in 1764. This machine speeded
up the spinning process and reduced the demand for labour. By the use of this
machine, a single worker could turn a number of spindles and spin several
threads at a time. Due to this, many weavers lost their employment. The fearful
prospect of unemployment drew women workers, who depended on hand-
spinning, to attack the new machines.
b. World trade expanded at a very fast rate during the 17th and 18th centuries. The
acquisition of colonies was also responsible for the increase in demand. The
producers in the towns failed to produce the required quantity of cloth. The
producers could not expand the production in the towns because urban crafts
and trade guilds were powerful. These were the associations of producers that
restricted the entry of new people into the trade. The rulers granted different
guilds the monopoly right to produce and trade in specific products.
c. The European companies were gaining power by securing a variety of
concessions from the local courts. It was very difficult for the Indian merchants
and traders to face the competition as most of the European countries had huge
resources. Some of the European companies got the monopoly rights to trade.

All this resulted in the decline of Surat Port by the end of the eighteenth century. In
the last years of the seventeenth century, the gross value of trade that passed
through Surat was 16 million. By the 1740s, it had slumped to 3 million. With the
passage of time, Surat and Hooghly decayed, while Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta
(Kolkata) grew.

a. The company tried to eliminate the existing traders and brokers connected with the cloth
trade and establish more direct control over the weavers. It appointed a paid servant
called Gomastha to supervise weavers, collect supplies, and examine the quality of cloth.

2. 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.

Solution:
 a. False
b. True
c. False
d. True

3. Explain what is meant by proto-industrialisation.

Solution: Even before factories began to appear on the landscape of England and
Europe, there was large-scale industrial production for an international market. This
was not based on factories. Many historians now refer to this phase of
industrialisation as proto-industrialisation or the precursor to industrialisation. During
this period, most of the goods were hand manufactured by trained crafts-persons for
the international market.

4. Why did some industrialists in nineteenth-century Europe prefer hand

labour over machines?
Solution: In the 19th century, some European industrialists preferred hand labour
over machines because

a. New technologies and machines were expensive and untested. So, the producers and
the industrialists were cautious about using them.
b. Machines often broke down, and repairing them was an expensive affair.
c. Poor peasants and migrants moved to cities in large numbers in search of jobs. As a
result, there was a large pool of labourers available for cheap labour.
d. In seasonal industries, where production fluctuated with the seasons, industrialists
usually preferred hand labour, employing workers only for the season when it was
needed.
e. The variety of products required in the market could not be produced by the machines
available at that time. In the mid-nineteenth century, in Britain, for instance, 500 varieties
of hammers and 45 kinds of axes were produced; these required human skills and not
mechanical technology.

5. How did the East India Company procure regular supplies of cotton and silk
textiles from Indian weavers?
Solution: The East India Company adopted various steps to ensure regular supplies
of cotton and silk textiles.

a. They established political power to assert a monopoly on the right to trade.

b. The company tried to eliminate the existing traders and brokers connected with the cloth
trade and establish direct control over the weavers. It appointed paid servants called the
‘Gomasthas’ to supervise weavers, collect supplies and examine the quality of cloth.
c. It prevented the company weavers from dealing with other buyers. Once an order was
placed, the weavers were given loans to purchase the raw material. Those who took
loans had to hand over the cloth they produced to the Gomasthas only. They could not
take it to any other trader.
d. They developed a system of management and control that would eliminate competition,
control costs and ensure a regular supply of cotton and silk goods. This system forced
the sale at a price dictated by the company. By giving the weavers a loan, the company
tied the weavers with them.
6. Imagine that you have been asked to write an article for an encyclopedia on
Britain and the history of cotton. Write your piece using information from the
entire.
Solution: The following inventions in 18th-century England (given in chronological
order) are important milestones in the history of cotton.

a. James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny in 1764. This improved spinning work
significantly.
b. John Key invented the ‘Flying Shuttle’ in 1769, which boosted the weaving process.
c. Richard Arkwright improved the ‘Spinning Jenny’ in 1769 so that it could be run by water
power. He called it the ‘Water Frame’.
d. In 1776, Samuel Crompton invented the ‘Mule’, which combined the advantages of both
the ‘Water Frame’ and the ‘Spinning Jenny’.
e. In 1785, Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom, which used steam power for both
spinning and weaving.
f. Eli Whitney (in the USA) invented the ‘Cotton Gin’ in 1793, which solved the problem of
removing seeds from cotton fibres. This could separate the seeds from the fibres 300
times faster than by hand. Later on, Arkwright created a complete cotton mill where all
the textile manufacturing processes could be completed under one roof and
management.
g. The use of steam power played a very significant role in running cotton mills. Production
of textiles increased in a very short time and with less manual labour. At the beginning of
the 19th century, there were near about 321 steam engines in England, out of which 80
were in use in cotton textile mills.
h. The East India Company appointed ‘Gomasthas’, the paid servants of the company, to
supervise weavers, collect supplies and judge and inspect the quality of textiles. The
Gomasthas were the link between the East India Company and the weavers. The
company arranged loans to the weavers to purchase raw materials for weaving the cloth.

7. Why did industrial production in India increase during the First World War?
Solution: Industrial production in India increased during the First World War
due to the following reasons:

a. The British mills were busy with war production to meet the needs of the army; thus,
Manchester’s imports to India declined.
b. With the decline in imports suddenly, Indian mills had a vast home market to supply.
c. As the war prolonged, Indian factories were called upon to supply war needs also, such
as Jute bags, cloth for the uniform of soldiers, tents, and leather boots.
d. New factories were set up, and old ones organised multiple shifts; during the war years,
Indian industries boomed.
e. Overall, the First World War gave a boost to Indian industries.