The Age of Industrialization

Ans. The problems of Indian weavers at the early 19^th century were:

(i) Shortage of raw material – as raw cotton exports from India increased the price of raw cotton shoot up. Weavers in India were starved of supplies and forced to buy raw cotton at higher prices.

(ii) Clashes with Gomasthas – The Gomasthas acted arrogantly and punished weavers for delays in supply. So the weavers clashed with them.

(iii) System of Advances – The Britishers started the system of advances to regularizes the supply. The weavers eagerly took the advances in a hope to earn more but they failed to do so. They even started losing small plots of land which they have earlier cultivated.

Ans. (i) There is an angle of progress, bearing the flag of the new century and is gently perched on a wheel with wings symbolizing time.

(ii) The fight is taking into the future.

(iii) Floating about behind her are the sign of progress – Railway, Camera, Machines, Printing press and factory.

Ans. (i) Before the age of machine industries, silk and cotton goods from India dominated the international market in textiles

(ii) Coarser cotton was produced in many countries, but the finer varieties often came from India.

(iii) Bales of fine textile were carried on camel back via the North West frontier. Also, a vibrant sea trade operated through main pre-colonial ports – Surat, Masulipatnam and Hoogly.

Ans. (i) The East India Company appointed a paid servant called the Gomastha to supervise weavers, collect supplies and examine the quality of clothes.

(ii) Those weavers who took loans have the hand over the clothes they produced to the Gomastha. They could not take it to any other trader.

(iii) The new Gomasthas were outsiders. They acted arrogantly, marched into villages with sepoys and peons, and punished weavers for delays in supply.

Ans. (i) European trading companies gained power. First, they acquired trading concessions from local rulers, the monopolized rights to trade.

(ii) This resulted in the decline of the old ports of Surat and Hoogly.

(iii) Export from the old ports fell dramatically and local bankers slowly went bankrupt.

Ans. (i) Consolidation of the East India Company’s power after the 1760’s did not initially lead to a decline export from India.

(ii) British cotton industries have not yet expanded.

(iii) Fine India textiles were in the Great demand in Europe.

Ans. (i) Guilds were associations of producers that trained crafts people, maintained control over production, regulated competition and prices and restricted the entry of new people into the trade.

(ii) Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly right to produce and trade in specific product.

(iii) It was, therefore, difficult for new merchants to set up business in towns, so they turned to the countryside.

Ans. (i) Weavers caught in the web of system of advances introduced by East India Company.

(ii) They devoted entire time to weaving. They were forced to accept the prices fixed by the company.

(iii) There were reports of clashes between weavers and Gomasthas. Gomasthas acted very arrogantly and punished weavers for delay in supply. The weavers lost the space to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers.

(iv) Some weavers deserted the village and migrated, setting up looms in other villages where they had some family relations.

Ans. (i) European Managing Agencies mobilized capital.

(ii) They set up joint stock companies and managed them.

(iii) In most instances, Indian financers provided the capital while the European agencies made all investment and business decisions.

(iv) The European merchant industrialists had their own chamber of commerce which Indian businessmen were not allowed to join.

Ans. (i) Jobbers provide employment the job seekers

(ii) They sometimes asked for money as bribe.

(iii) Even they demanded some gift for his favour and controlled the lives of workers.

Ans.(i) Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy was the son of a Parsi weaver. He was involved in the China trade of India.

(ii) Dishaw Petit built a huge industrial empire in India. He was involved in China trade and raw cotton shipments to England.

(iii) Seth Hukamchand was a Marwari businessman who set up the first Indian jute mill in Calcutta in 1917. He also traded with China.

Ans. (i) They were barred from trading with Europe in manufactured goods.

(ii) They had to export mostly raw materials and food grains, raw cotton, opium, wheat and indigo required by the British.

(iii) The space, within which Indian merchants.

Ans. (i) The early cotton mills in India produced coarse cotton yarn rather than fabric. Only imported yarn was of the superior variety.

(ii) By the first decade of the 20^th century, a series of changes affected the pattern of industrialization. Industrialization in India began shifting from yarn to clothing production.

(iii) Till the First World War, industrial growth was slow.

Ans. (i) Industrialization resulted in mass migration from rural to urban areas that further led to overcrowding and urban slums.

(ii) Merchants and traders lost their secured export markets. As a result they become junior players under Britishers.

(iii) Weavers were greatly affected by industrialization, maximum weaver left weaving.

Ans. (i) 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.

(ii) 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.

(iii) With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of colonies in different parts of the world, the demand for goods began to increase.

(iv) But merchants could not expand production within towns. This was because, here urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful.

(v) 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.

Ans. (i) Industrialists had no problem of labour shortage or high wage costs.

(ii) 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.

(iii) 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.

(iv) A range of products could be produced only with hand labour.

(v) In Victorian Britain the upper classes – aristocrats and bourgeoisie-prefer things produced by hand. Handmade products came to symbolize refinement and class.

Ans. (i) Handmade products came to symbolize refinement and class.

(ii) They were better finished.

(iii) They were individually produced.

(iv) They were carefully designed.

(v) Machine made goods were for the export to the colonies.