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- The industrial revolution was the force behind this new imperialism .
- The colony started industrializing in India as well where the factory industries and non-mechanized sectors were established .
3.1 The age of Indian Textiles
- Silk and cotton goods from India dominated the international market in textiles way before the age of machine industries.
- A vibrant sea trade operated through the main pre-colonial ports. Surat (Gujarat) connected India to the Gulf and the Red Sea ports ; Masulipatnam on the Coromandel coast and Hoogly in Bengal had trade links with Asian ports.
- A variety of Indian merchants and bankers were involved in this network of export trade- financing production, carrying goods, and supplying exporters.
- Indian merchants controlled this network till the 1750s which started breaking down.
- The European companies gradually gained power - first securing a variety of concessions from local courts, then the monopoly rights to trade.
- Such c onditions resulted in the decline of the old ports of Surat and Hoogly .
- The shift from old ports to new ones indicates the growth of colonial power .
- European companies started controlling the trade through new ports .
- Many of the old trading houses collapsed , and those that wanted to survive had to now operate within a network shaped by European trading companies.
3.2 What happened to Weavers?
- After the 1760s, the consolidation of the East India Company did not initially lead to a decline in textile exports from India .
- Before establishing political power in Bengal and Carnatic in the 1760s and 1770s, the East India Company had found it challenging to ensure a regular supply of goods for export.
- The French, Dutch, Portuguese, and local traders competed in the market to secure the woven cloth.
- After the east India company established political power, it started developing a system of management and control that would eliminate competition, control costs, and ensure regular supplies of cotton and silk goods.
- The company established it through a series of steps:
> The company tried to eliminate the existing traders and brokers connected with the cloth trade, and establish more direct control over the weaver.
It appointed a paid servant called Gomastha to supervise weavers , collect supplies, and examine the quality of cloth.
> It prevented the company weavers from dealing with other buyers through the system of advances .
- Loans started flowing in , which expand the demand for fine textiles . Weavers eagerly took advances with hopes to earn more.
- Many weaving villages reported clashes between weavers and Gomasthas .
- New Gomasthas were outsiders, with no long-term social link with the village . They acted arrogantly , marched into villages with sepoys and peons, and punished weavers for delays in supply.
- The weavers lost the space to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers.
- In many places in Carnatic and Bengal, weavers deserted villages and migrated .
- Weavers along the village traders revolted , opposing the company and its officials.
- By the turn of the nineteenth century, cotton weavers faced a new set of problems.
3.3 Manchester Comes to India
- In 1772, Henry Patullo , a company official, said that the demand for cotton textiles could never reduce since no other nation produced goods of the same quality.
- The beginning of the 19th century leads to a long decline in textile exports from India.
- Industries started developing in England which made the industrial groups worried about imports from other countries.
- Exports of British cotton goods increased dramatically in the early 19th century.
- At the end of the 18th century, there had been virtually no import of cotton piece goods into India.
- Cotton weavers in India faced two major problems:
> The export market collapsed
>the local market shrank and glutted with Manchester imports.
- By the 1860s , weavers faced a new problem as they could not get a sufficient supply of raw cotton of good quality.
- When the American civil war broke , raw cotton exports from India increased and the price of cotton shot up.
- By the end of the 19th century, weavers and other craftspeople faced yet another problem- factories in India began production, flooding the market with machine goods.
