Learning Objective
- Before the Industrial Revolution
- Hand Labour and Steam Power
- Industrialisation in the Colonies
- Factories Come Up
- The Peculiarities of Industrial Growth
- Market for Goods
Before the Industrial Revolution
- Proto-industrialization was a pre-factory phase in Europe before the advent of factories. During the 17th and 18th centuries, European merchants moved to rural areas, funding peasants and artisans to produce goods for global trade.
- Urban guild monopolies limited merchant expansion in cities, so they turned to rural labor. Peasants and artisans, wanting to stay in the countryside, eagerly accepted. This proto-industrial system was controlled by merchants and formed a network of commercial exchanges.
The Coming Up of the Factory
- In the 1730s, England saw the beginning of its first factories, but it wasn’t until the late 1700s that their numbers really grew. Cotton became a key symbol of this industrial shift, especially booming in the late 1800s.
- Richard Arkwright pioneered the cotton mill, gathering expensive machines and consolidating all production processes under one roof and management.
The Pace of Industrial Change
- In Britain, cotton and metals led the way in industry, with cotton dominating until the 1840s, followed by iron and steel. Despite this, new industries struggled to replace traditional ones.
- While steam-powered sectors like cotton and metal set the pace of change, traditional industries still evolved, albeit slowly. James Watt enhanced the steam engine, patented it in 1781, and his friend Mathew Boulton manufactured the new model. However, steam engines weren’t widely adopted in other industries until later.
Hand Labour and Steam Power
- During Victorian Britain, there was an abundance of human labor. Industrialists didn’t face issues with labor shortages or high wages; instead, they needed significant capital investments rather than more machines.
- Many industries had seasonal fluctuations in demand for labor, so industrialists often opted for manual labor, hiring workers for the seasons when production peaked.
Life of the Workers
- In Victorian times, workers’ lives were shaped by the surplus of labor in the market. To secure employment, workers relied on existing social networks within factories. Finding jobs was tough until the mid-1800s, but wages rose in the early 1800s.
- Workers feared job loss due to new technology like the Spinning Jenny in the woolen industry. By the 1840s, urban construction surged, creating more job opportunities. Cities saw infrastructure improvements like widened roads, new railway stations, extended railway lines, tunnel construction, drainage systems, and river embankments.
Industrialisation in the Colonies
The Age of Indian Textiles
- Before the era of machine industries, India’s textile exports, primarily silk and cotton goods, dominated the global market. Indian merchants and bankers played key roles in financing production and facilitating export trade.
- However, by the 1750s, European companies began gaining power, securing trade concessions and monopolies from local authorities. This shift marked the decline of Indian merchant control.
- European companies-controlled trade through new ports and their own ships, leading to the collapse of many old trading houses. Surviving merchants had to adapt to a network shaped by European trading companies.
What Happened to Weavers?
After the 1760s, the East India Company’s consolidation didn’t initially decrease textile exports from India. Before gaining political power in Bengal and Carnatic, ensuring a steady supply for export was challenging for the Company. However, once in control, the Company implemented measures to dominate the cloth trade:
- It eliminated existing traders and brokers, exerting direct control over weavers.
- Company weavers were restricted from dealing with other buyers.
- Weavers received loans for raw materials but had to surrender their produce to Company agents.
- Weaving involved entire families, but the new agents, gomasthas, were outsiders.
In some areas, weavers relocated to villages with family ties or rebelled alongside village traders. Many eventually abandoned weaving for agriculture by the 1800s, facing new challenges.
Manchester Comes to India
In 1772, Henry Patullo predicted India’s textile demand would remain high due to its unmatched quality. However, by the early 1800s, Indian textile exports declined sharply as British cotton goods flooded the market. Import restrictions in India worsened the situation. Local cotton weavers faced two major challenges:
- Their export market collapsed.
- The local market was saturated with Manchester imports, shrinking their opportunities.
By the 1860s, weavers struggled to find good quality raw cotton, despite increased exports driving up prices. By the late 1800s, Indian craftsmen faced another hurdle as local factories began churning out machine-made goods, flooding the market further.
Factories Come Up
- In 1854, Bombay saw its first cotton mill start production, followed by four more mills by 1862. Around the same time, jute mills emerged in Bengal, with the first one established in 1855 and another in 1862.
- In the 1860s, the Elgin Mill in Kanpur and the first cotton mill in Ahmedabad were founded in north India. By 1874, Madras witnessed its first spinning and weaving mill begin operations.
The Early Entrepreneurs
- In the late 18th century, British trade with India began with opium exports to China and tea imports to England. Some traders envisioned building industrial enterprises in India, like Dwarkanath Tagore in Bengal and Parsis like Dins haw Petit and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata in Bombay.
- Seth Hukum Chand, a Marwari businessman, established the first Indian jute mill in Calcutta in 1917, capitalizing on investment opportunities. However, due to colonial restrictions, Indians were limited to exporting raw materials like cotton, opium, wheat, and indigo to Europe.
- European managing agencies like Bird Heiglers & Co., Andrew Yule, and Jardine Skinner & Co. facilitated capital mobilization, established joint-stock companies, and managed them.
Where Did the Workers Come From?
- As factories expanded, they needed more workers, drawing labor from nearby districts. In 1911, over half of Bombay’s cotton industry workers hailed from Ratnagiri, while Kanpur’s mills primarily hired locals.
- Despite the rising demand, finding employment remained challenging, with more seekers than available jobs. Many industrialists relied on jobbers from their villages to recruit workers, supporting them to settle and providing financial aid when necessary.
The Peculiarities of Industrial Growth
- European Managing Agencies focused on products like tea, coffee, and textiles, establishing plantations and investing in mining, indigo, and jute industries primarily for export.
- In the late 19th century, Indian businessmen began setting up industries, with Indian spinning mills producing yarn for domestic handloom weavers or export to China.
- The pattern of industrialization shifted with the Swadeshi movement, leading to a decline in Indian yarn exports to China due to competition from Chinese and Japanese mills.
- However, during the First World War, Indian mills thrived as they supplied various goods for the war effort, leading to a boom in industrial production. After the war, Manchester struggled to regain its dominance in the Indian market.
Small-scale Industries Predominate
- In the 20th century, small-scale industries remained dominant across the country, with only a small fraction of industrial workers employed in registered factories.
- Most worked in small workshops or at home. Handicraft production, particularly handloom cloth, expanded due to technological advancements that improved production efficiency without significantly increasing costs.
- Some weavers, especially those producing coarser cloth or finer varieties, fared better against competition from mill industries. However, despite their efforts, many weavers and craftsmen didn’t necessarily thrive.
- They often worked long hours, with entire families involved in production. Yet, they were not merely relics of the past; their labor was essential to the industrialization process.
Market for Goods
- Advertisements have long been used to promote products and shape consumer culture. Since the early days of industrialization, they’ve appeared in various forms like newspapers, magazines, hoardings, and TV screens.
- Manchester industrialists, for instance, labeled cloth bundles with “MADE IN MANCHESTER” to assure buyers of quality. Some labels featured images, including those of Indian gods and goddesses, to attract attention.
- Manufacturers even printed calendars with deity figures to promote products. Eventually, advertisements became a platform for Swadeshi nationalism.
Conclusion
The age of industries has meant major technological changes, the growth of factories, and the making of a new industrial labour force. Hand technology and small-scale production remained an important part of the industrial landscape.
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