Chapter 4: The Age of Industrialisation (History)

(a) The Spinning Jenny, devised by James Hargreaves in 1764, let a single worker turn a number of spindles and spin several threads at the same time, which reduced the labour needed. Many poor women survived by hand spinning, so they feared losing their jobs and livelihood. When the Jenny was introduced in the woollen industry, women who had worked with hand-spinning wheels attacked the new machines.

(b) In the towns, powerful trade and craft guilds controlled production, regulated competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new people into trade. Rulers also granted guilds monopoly rights. So it was difficult for merchants to expand production in towns. They turned to the countryside, where peasants and artisans, who were losing their common lands and needed alternative sources of income, were willing to work for them. Merchants gave them advances and raw materials and got goods produced for the growing world market.

(c) By the 1750s, the network of Indian merchants controlling export trade was breaking down. The European companies were gaining power: they secured concessions from local courts and monopoly rights to trade. Trade shifted to the new ports of Bombay and Calcutta, controlled by the British. Exports through Surat (and Hoogly) fell dramatically, the credit that had financed earlier trade dried up, and local bankers went bankrupt. So Surat declined.

(d) After the East India Company established political power, it wanted to eliminate the existing traders and brokers in the cloth trade and establish direct control over the weavers. It appointed paid servants called gomasthas to supervise weavers, collect supplies and examine the quality of cloth. Weavers who took advances from the Company were prevented from dealing with other buyers. This ensured a regular supply of cloth at the Company's prices.

(a) They feared losing their livelihood. (b) Guilds restricted production in towns, while villagers needed extra income. (c) Trade shifted to Bombay and Calcutta under European monopolies. (d) To control weavers directly and ensure a regular supply of cloth.

1. False. Even at the end of the nineteenth century, less than 20 per cent of the workforce was employed in technologically advanced industrial sectors; traditional industries remained important.
2. True.
3. False. When the American Civil War cut off cotton supplies from the US, Britain turned to India, and raw cotton exports from India increased.
4. True. The fly shuttle increased productivity per worker and speeded up production.

(a) False (b) True (c) False (d) True

Even before factories began to dot the landscape in England and Europe, there was large-scale industrial production for an international market. This early phase of industrialisation is called proto-industrialisation.

• It was not based on factories. Production was carried out in the homes of peasants and artisans in the countryside, using family labour.
• Merchants from the towns controlled it: they supplied money and raw materials, and the finished goods were sold in international markets.
• It was part of a network of commercial exchange; for example, a merchant clothier in England bought wool from a stapler, carried it to spinners, then to weavers, fullers and dyers, and finished the cloth in London.

The early phase of large-scale production for international markets, before factories, carried out in village homes by peasants and artisans under the control of town merchants.

• Labour was plentiful and cheap. Poor peasants and vagrants migrated to the cities in large numbers looking for jobs, so wages were low and industrialists had no shortage of workers.
• Machines were costly and needed a large capital investment; they often broke down, and repairs were expensive. They were not as effective as their inventors claimed.
• Many industries had seasonal demand (gas works, breweries, book-binders and printers, shipyards, which worked more in winter or before Christmas). Industrialists preferred hand labour, employing workers for the season.
• Many products could only be made by hand: the upper classes, the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, preferred hand-made goods, which stood for refinement and class, were better finished, individually produced and carefully designed. Machine-made goods were for export to the colonies.
• A range of products, such as particular types of hammers or axes, required designs and sizes that machines could not produce.

Labour was cheap and plentiful, machines were costly and unreliable, demand was seasonal, and the rich preferred finely finished hand-made goods.

• It tried to eliminate the existing traders and brokers connected with the cloth trade and establish more direct control over the weavers.
• It appointed gomasthas (paid servants) to supervise weavers, collect supplies and examine the quality of cloth.
• It prevented Company weavers from dealing with other buyers by a system of advances: once an order was placed, weavers received loans to buy raw material, and had to hand over the cloth to the gomastha. They could not take it to any other trader.
• Weavers who took advances had to devote all their time to weaving, and many leased out their land to do so.

In many villages there were clashes between weavers and gomasthas, who were outsiders, behaved arrogantly, marched into villages with sepoys and peons, and punished weavers for delays. Many weavers deserted villages or refused loans.

It removed independent traders, appointed gomasthas to supervise weavers, and tied weavers to itself through advances, so that they had to sell their cloth only to the Company.

Cotton in Britain

Before factories. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, cloth for international markets was produced in English villages by peasants and artisans working for merchants: this was proto-industrialisation. Fine cotton and silk textiles from India dominated the world market.

The coming of factories. The earliest factories came up in England in the 1730s, and by the late eighteenth century they multiplied. Cotton was the first symbol of the new era: its production boomed, with imports of raw cotton rising from 2.5 million pounds in 1760 to 22 million pounds in 1787. A series of inventions, such as the Spinning Jenny (James Hargreaves, 1764) and Richard Arkwright's cotton mill, increased the efficiency of each step: carding, twisting and spinning, and rolling. All processes were brought together under one roof, which allowed careful supervision, quality control and the regulation of labour. By 1840, cotton was the leading sector in the first phase of industrialisation.

Workers. Many poor workers lost jobs as machines spread (women attacked the Spinning Jenny), work was seasonal, and wages were low. Even so, hand labour remained common because labour was cheap and the rich preferred hand-made goods.

Cotton and India. As cotton industries developed in England, industrial groups pressured the government to impose import duties on Indian cotton textiles, so that Manchester goods could sell in Britain without competition. They also persuaded the East India Company to sell British manufactures in India. Exports of British cotton goods increased dramatically, and Indian weavers lost both export markets and local markets, flooded with cheap Manchester cloth. During the American Civil War, Britain turned to India for raw cotton, raising its price for Indian weavers.

Decline. In the early twentieth century, Manchester could never recapture its old position in India. During the First World War, British mills were busy with war production, and Indian mills supplied the home market. After the war, Britain's cotton production collapsed and its exports of cotton cloth fell dramatically, as Japan and India emerged as competitors.

An encyclopaedia-style account covering proto-industrialisation, the first factories and inventions, workers' lives, the effect on Indian weavers, and the decline of British cotton after the First World War.

• Manchester imports declined: British mills were busy with war production to meet the needs of the army, so imports of Manchester goods into India fell. Indian mills suddenly had a vast home market to supply.
• Indian factories were called upon to supply war needs: jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, tents and leather boots, horse and mule saddles, and many other items.
• New factories were set up and old ones ran multiple shifts. Many new workers were employed and everyone worked longer hours.
• After the war, Manchester could never recapture its old position in the Indian market; local industrialists gradually consolidated their position, substituting foreign manufactures and capturing the home market.

Because British imports fell as Manchester mills turned to war production, and Indian industries had to supply the army's needs, so new factories came up and old ones worked extra shifts.

Here is a plan for the project, with an example.

• Choose an industry: for example, the handloom saree industry of a weaving town, a local sugar mill, or a brick kiln.
• History: when and how did it start in your area? Who were the first producers? Was it a household craft or a factory from the start?
• Technology: how has the machinery changed (e.g. from pit looms to fly-shuttle looms to power looms; from hand moulds to machines in brick-making)? What effect did this have on output and jobs?
• Workers: where do they come from: the same town, nearby villages, or other states? Are they permanent or seasonal? What are their wages and working conditions?
• Marketing: how are the products sold: local markets, shops in cities, exhibitions, online platforms? Do they use calendars, posters, brand names or social media for advertising, as early Indian manufacturers used calendars and images of gods?
• Interviews: ask an employer and two or three workers how the industry has changed and what problems it faces now.

Present your findings with photographs, a timeline and quotations from the interviews.

Choose a local industry, and record its history, changes in technology, the origin and conditions of its workers, and how its goods are advertised and sold, using interviews.