Write In brief :
Q1. 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.
Answer: (a) Women workers in Britain attacked the Spinning Jenny because, it could spin manmy spindles with one wheel. This increased the the productivity but also led to decrease in employment of women in the textile industries. Angry women, therefore, attacked the machine.
(b) (i) This was for supplying money to peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international market.
(ii) With then expansion of world trade and acquisition of colonies in different parts of the world, the demand for goods began growing. But merchants could not expand production within towns because urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful.
(iii) These were associations of producers that trained craftspeople regulated competition and prices and restricted the entry of new people into the trade.
(iv) It was difficult for new merchants to set up business in towns so, they turned to the countryside as the rulers hsd granted different guilds the monopoly rights to produce and trade in specific products.
(v) Therefore, in the countryside poor peasants and artisans began working happily for new merchants.
(c) By the end of eighteenth century, port of Bombay was developed by the European colonies, Thus, as the latter controlled sea trade of export they didn't want to use the old Surat port. Therefore, the sea trade from Surat was declined by the end of eighteenth century.
(d) (i) The east India Company appointed a paid servant, called gomastha, to supervise weavers, collect supplies and examine the quality of cloth.
(ii) Those weavers who took loans, had to hand over the cloth, they produced to the gomastha.
(iii) The weavers lost the space to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers.
(iv) The new gomansthas were outsiders. They acted arrongantly, marched into villages with sepoy and peons, and punish weavers for delays in supply.
(v) There were clashes between weavers and gomasthas in many weaving villages.
Q2. 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.
Answer: (a) False (b) True (c) False (d) True.
Q3. Explain what is meant by proto-industrialisation.
Answer: Proto- industrailisation was the early phase of industrailisation in europe and england when there was large scale industryil productio for an international market. this was not based on factories .
Discuss:
Q1. Why did some industrialists in nineteenth-century Europe prefer hand labour over machines?
Answer:(1) Industrialists had no problem of labour shortage or higt wage costs.
(2) In many industries , the demand for labaur was seasonal . gas works and breweries were especially busy throught cold months. So, they needed more workers to meet their peak demand.
(3) Book binders and printed, catering to christmas demand, too, needed extra hands before December. All those industries where production fluctuated with the season, industrialists usually preffered hand labour by employing workers for the season.
(4) A range of product could be produced only with hand labour.
(5) In Victorium Britain, the upper classes- the aristrocrates and the bourgeoisie- preffered things produced by hands. Hand made products came to symbolise refinement and class.
Q2. How did the East India Company procure regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from Indian weavers?
Answer: (1) The East India had to face obstacles to procure regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from Indian weavers.
(2) The French, dutch, Portuguese as well as the local traders competed in the market. However, the East India company establish political power and assereted monopoly rights to trade.
(3) The company tried to eliminate existing traders and have direct control over the weaver and appointed a paid servent called gomastha to supervise and collect supplies.
(4) It prevented company weavers from dealing with other buyers. One way of doing it was through the system of advances.
(5) Those weavers who took loans, had to hand over the cloth they produced to the gomastha. They could not give it to any other trader.
Q3. Imagine that you have been asked to write an article for an encyclopaedia on Britain and the history of cotton. Write your piece using information from the entire chapter.
Answer: (1) Britain had successfully controlled and dominated the trade in cotton (raw material), cotton fabrics of coarser or finer varities.
(2) It had established markets all over its colonies for selling the Manchester made cotton textiles, at a cheaper rate.
(3) Britain had really found ways to make enormous profits from the trade in cotton.
(4) The East India Company indebted Indian weavers and supervised them with the help of gomasthas. This ensured regular supply of both handmade fine variety of cotton fabric as well as raw cotton.
(5) Within Britain, the industrial growth began with the development of cotton textiles mills, at various places.
Hence, Britain, had enjoyed a good position in world economic history for more than five centuries due to the control of the cotton trade.
Q4. Why did industrial production in India increase during the First World War?
Answer: (1) British mills were busy with war production Manchestar imports into India declined.
(2) Indian mills had a vast home market to supply.
(3) As the war prolonged, Indian factories were called upon to supply war needs; jute bags, cloth for army uniform, tents and leather boots.
(4) New factories were set up and old ones ran in multiple shifts.
(5) Many new workers were employed and industrial production boomed.
