Class 10th history :- Age of industrialization - Proto industrialization

Age of industrialization - Proto industrialization

Class 10th History

(Key Points and Detail Explanation)

Key Concepts:

• An association of craftsmen or merchants following same craft to protect the members interest and supervise the standard of the work.
• Tanning. Convert raw hide into leather by soaking in liquid containing tannic acid.
• Food processing. Technique of chopping and mixing food for making jam, juices, etc.
• Victorian Britain. Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria.
• Brewery. A place where beer etc. is brewed commercially. Brewing is a process of infusion, boiling and fermentation.
• Vagrant. A person without a settled home or regular work.
• Bourgeois. The upper middle class.
• Gomastha. An Indian word meaning an agent, a middle man between the merchant and weavers.
• Stapler. A person who staples or sorts wool according to its fiber.

Industrialisation: 
Production of goods with the help of machines in factories. The first industrialized Nation-Britain.

Features: 
Handmade goods to machine made goods in factories, cottage to factory, large scale production, started in England in later parts of 18th Century. In course of time, it affected all systems of production.

Before Industrial Revolution

Proto Industrialisation

• Production in 17th century, artisans worked for merchants to produce goods, artisans took raw material from merchants for production. Their cottages functioned as a factory.
• Association of producers, trained craft people maintained control over production, restricted entry of new traders. This period saw the coming of factories.

The period of industrialization before the first factories came up in Europe is termed as proto-industrialization. This period was marked by merchants from towns getting products made in villages.

Reasons for focus of merchants on villages: There were powerful trade and craft guilds in urban areas. These associations controlled competition and prices and prevented entry of a new player in the market. Because of them, it was difficult for new merchants to set business in towns.

Features of proto-industrialization in Britain:

• The merchants supplied money to the peasants in the countryside. They motivated them to produce products for an international market.
• Land was becoming scarce in villages. Small plots of land were not enough to meet the need of a growing population. Peasants were looking for some additional sources of income.

The proto-industrial system was a network of commercial exchanges. It was controlled by merchants. Goods were produced by peasants who worked within their family farms and not in factories. The finished product passed through several stages and reached the markets of London. From London, the products were supplied to the international market.

The Coming Up Of Factory

• Early factories in England came up by the 1730s.
• First symbol of new era-cotton mill
• Many factories sprang up in England
• A series of inventions took place in the form of carding, twisting, spinning and rolling.

The earliest factories in England came up in the 1730s. By late 18th century, there were numerous factories dotting the landscape of England. In 1760 Britain was importing 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton. This quantity increased to 22 million pounds by 1787.

Benefits of factories: The factories increased efficiency of workers. Because of new machines a worker could produce better products in much bigger quantities. Cotton textiles were the main area in which industrialization happened. Managing and supervising the labour was much easier in factories than it was in the countryside.

The pace of Industrial Change

• Cotton and iron and steel industries were the most dynamic industries.
• New industries could not displace traditional ones.
• Technological changes occurred slowly.
• Steam engine invented by James Watt had no buyers for years.
• New technologies were slow to be accepted.

Cotton and metals were the most dynamic industries in Britain. During the first phase of industrialization (upto 1840s), cotton was the leading sector. The iron and steel industries grew rapidly with the expansion of railways. The railways expanded in England from the 1840s and in the colonies from 1860s. By 1873, the export of iron and steel from Britain was valued at about 77 million pounds. This was double the value of cotton export.

At the end of the nineteenth century, less than 20% of total workforce was employed in technologically advanced industrial sectors. This shows that the traditional industry could not be displaced by the new industries.

The cotton or metal industries could not set the change of pace in the traditional industries. But the traditional industries experienced many changes which were brought by small and apparently ordinary innovations. Food processing, building, pottery, glasswork, tanning, furniture making and production of implements were such industries.

The new technology took a long time to spread across the industrial landscape. High cost of machines and costly repair scared the merchants and industrialists. The new machines were not as effective as claimed by their inventors and manufacturers.

Historians acknowledge the fact that the typical worker in the mid-nineteenth century was not a machine operator but the traditional craftsperson and labourer.

Hand Labour and Steam Power:

• In Victorian Britain there was no shortage of human labor.
• In many industries the demand for labor was seasonal.
• Range of products could be produced only with hand labor.
• There was a demand for intricate designs.
• Upper classes preferred things produced by hand.

During this period, there was no shortage of human labour. Because of good supply of workers, there was no problem of labour shortage or high wages. As a result, the merchants and industrialists preferred to manage with human labour rather than investing in costly machines.

Machine-made goods were standardized and could not match the high quality finish of hand-made goods. The people from the upper classes preferred things produced by hand.

The situation was different in nineteenth century America. There was shortage of labour in America and hence mechanization was the only way out in that part of the world.

Life of Workers

• Abundance of labor affected the life of workers badly.
• Labour was seasonal.
• Fear of unemployment made workers hostile to new technology.
• Women labors protested against the introduction of the Spinning Jenny.
• Introduction of railways opened greater opportunities.

There was large scale migration from countryside to cities in search of jobs. Finding a job depended on existing network of friendship and kin relations. People without existing social connections in the cities found it difficult to find a job. Many people had to wait for long periods before they could get a job. Such people often had to spend nights on bridges or in night shelters. Some private individuals set up Night Refuges. The Poor Law authorities maintained Casual Wards for such people.

Many jobs were seasonal in nature. Once a busy season was over, the poor were once again on the streets. While some people returned to the countryside, many stayed back to look for some odd jobs.

There was some increase in the wages in the early nineteenth century. It is difficult to arrive at figures from various trades and fluctuations which happened from year to year. The period of employment was also critical in determining the quality of life of a worker. During the best of the times till the mid-nineteenth century, about 10% of urban population was extremely poor. During the periods of economic slump, the unemployment increased anything between 35 and 75%.

Workers often turned hostile to new technology because of fear of unemployment. For example; when Spinning Jenny was introduced, women began to attack the new machines because they survived on hand spinning.

After the 1840s, construction activity increased in the cities. This opened greater employment opportunities. The number of workers in the transport industries doubled in the 1840s, and doubled again in the subsequent 30 years.

Industrialisation in the colonies:

• Textile industry was the center of industrialization in India.

Age of Indian textiles

• Finer varieties of cotton from India were exported.
• A vibrant sea trade operated through pre-colonial ports.

In India, silk and cotton goods dominated the international market in textiles, before the age of machine industries. A variety of Indian merchants and bankers were involved in this network of export trade – financing production, carrying goods and supplying exporters. By the 1750s this network, controlled by Indian merchants, was breaking down. The European companies came into power – first securing a variety of concessions from local courts, then the monopoly rights to trade. The shift from the old ports to the new ones was an indicator of the growth of colonial power. European companies controlled trade through the new ports and were carried in European ships. Many old trading houses collapsed, and those who wanted to survive had to operate within a network shaped by European trading companies.

What happened to weavers?

• East India Company appointed “gomasthas” to collect supply from weavers.
• Weavers lost bargaining power and lost lands for settling loans.

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 difficult to ensure a regular supply of goods for export. After the East India Company established political power, it developed a system of management and control that would eliminate competition, control costs, and ensure regular supplies of cotton and silk goods. It was established by following a series of steps.

1. By eliminating existing traders and brokers connected with the cloth trade, and establishing more direct control over the weaver.
2. By preventing Company weavers from dealing with other buyers.

The weavers were granted a loan to buy the raw materials once an order was placed. Weavers who took loans needed to hand over the cloth they produced to the gomastha. Weaving required the labour of the entire family, with children and women all engaged in different stages of the process. Earlier, supply merchants had a very close relationship with weavers, but new gomasthas were outsiders with no social link with the village.

In many places in Carnatic and Bengal, weavers set up looms in other villages where they had some family relation. In other places, weavers along with the village traders revolted, opposing the Company and its officials. Over time many weavers began refusing loans, closing down their workshops and taking to agricultural labour. By the turn of the nineteenth century, cotton weavers faced a new set of problems.

Gomasthas: 
The Gomasthas were paid servants whose job was to supervise weavers, collect supplies and examine the quality of cloth.

• The aim of the East India Company behind appointing gomasthas was to work out a system of management and control that would eliminate competition, control costs and ensure regular supplies of cotton and silk.
• Soon there were clashes between the weavers and the gomasthas who began ill-treating the weavers.
• They did not allow the company weavers to sell their produce to other buyers. Once an order
  was placed, the weavers were given loans to purchase the raw material. Weavers who had accepted loans from the company had to hand over the cloth they produced to the gomasthas only.
• The weavers were forced to sell their goods to company’s officials.
  When the American Civil War broke out and cotton supplies from the US were cut off, Britain’s demand for raw cotton from India increased.

Manchester comes to India:

• By 1950s, India began to import Manchester cotton from Britain.
• With the rise in Manchester imports, Indian export and local market declined.
• Supply of raw cotton in India decreased.
• Weavers were forced to buy cotton at high prices.

In 1772, Henry Patullo said that the demand for Indian textiles could never reduce since no other nation produced goods of the same quality. But, unfortunately, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, India witnessed a decline in textile exports. In the early nineteenth century, exports of British cotton goods increased dramatically. At the end of the eighteenth century, import of cotton piece-goods was restricted into India. In India cotton weavers faced two problems:

1. Their export market collapsed
2. Local market shrank and glutted with Manchester imports.

By the 1860s, weavers faced a new problem. They could not get sufficient supply of raw cotton of good quality. Even the raw cotton exports from India increased due to which the price increased. By the end of the nineteenth century, other craftspeople faced yet another problem. Factories in India began production, flooding the market with machine-goods

Factories come up:

• Industries were set up in different regions.
• First cotton mill came in Bombay in 1854.
• The first jute mill came up in Bengal in 1855.
• 1830s-1840s—Dwarakanath Tagore setup six-joint stock companies in Bengal.
• Capital was accumulated through other trade networks.
• Till the First World War European managing agencies in fact controlled large sectors of Indian industries.

In 1854, the first cotton mill in Bombay set up and went into production two years later. By 1862 four more mills were set up and around the same time jute mills came up in Bengal. The first jute mill was set up in 1855 and another one after seven years in 1862. In the 1860s, in north India, the Elgin Mill was started in Kanpur, and a year later the first cotton mill of Ahmedabad was set up. By 1874, the first spinning and weaving mill of Madras began production.

Where did the workers come from?

• Most of the workers came from Indian villages.

The history of trade started from the late eighteenth century when British in India began exporting opium to China and took tea from China to England. Some of the businessmen who were involved in these trades had visions of developing industrial enterprises in India. In Bengal, Dwarkanath Tagore made his fortune in the China trade. In Bombay, Parsis like Dinshaw Petit and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata built huge industrial empires in India. Seth Hukumchand, a Marwari businessman set up the first Indian jute mill in Calcutta in 1917. The opportunities of investments in industries opened up and many of them set up factories.

But due to colonial power, Indians were barred from trading with Europe in manufactured goods and had to export mostly raw materials and food grains – raw cotton, opium, wheat and indigo – required by the British. Three of the biggest European Managing Agencies are Bird Heiglers & Co., Andrew Yule, and Jardine Skinner & Co. who mobilised capital, set up joint-stock companies and managed them.

Where Did the Workers Come From?

As the factories started expanding, the demand for workers increased. Most of the workers came from the neighbouring districts in search of work. Over 50 per cent workers in the Bombay cotton industries in 1911 came from the neighbouring district of Ratnagiri, while the mills of Kanpur got most of their textile hands from the villages within the district of Kanpur. As news of employment spread, workers travelled great distances in the hope of work in the mills.

Even after the demand for workers increased, getting jobs was difficult. The numbers seeking work were always more than the jobs available. Most of the industrialists employed a jobber, which he brought from his village, to recruit new workers. Industrialists helped the jobber to settle down and provided them with money in need.

Peculiarities of industrial growth:

• Early Indian cotton mills made coarse cotton yam.
• During the First World War Manchester imports to India declined.
• Indian factories supplied goods for war needs.

European Managing Agencies were interested in certain kinds of products such as tea and coffee. They established tea and coffee plantations and invested in mining, indigo and jute. These products are used only for export purposes. In the late nineteenth century, Indian businessmen began setting up industries. The yarn produced in Indian spinning mills was used by handloom weavers in India or exported to China. The pattern of industrialisation was affected by a series of changes. When the swadeshi movement gained support, nationalists boycotted foreign cloth. From 1906, Indian yarn exports to China declined since produce from Chinese and Japanese mills flooded the Chinese market. Till the end of the First World War, industrial growth was slow. The war completely changed the whole scenario and Indian mills took advantage of the situation. They had a vast market to supply war needs: jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, tents and leather boots, horse and mule saddles and a host of other items. The industrial production boomed over the years and after the war, Manchester could never recapture its old position in the Indian market.

Small scale industries predominated:

• Most of the Industries were located in Bengal and Bombay.
• A small portion of total industrial labor worked in factories.
• Use of fly shuttle increased handicraft.

Small-scale industries continued to predominate the rest of the country. Only a small proportion of the total industrial labour force worked in registered factories. The rest worked in small workshops and household units. Handicrafts production expanded in the twentieth century. In the twentieth century, handloom cloth production expanded. It happened because of technological changes as they started adopting new technology which helped them improve production without excessively pushing up costs.

Certain groups of weavers were in a better position than others to survive the competition with mill industries. Some of the weavers produced coarse cloth while others wove finer varieties. Weavers and other craftspeople who continued to expand production through the twentieth century did not necessarily prosper. They worked for long hours including all the women and children. But they were not simply remnants of past times in the age of factories. Their life and labour were integral to the process of industrialisation.

Market for goods: 
Advertisements helps in creating new consumers.

• When Manchester industrialists began selling cloth in India, they put labels on the cloth bundles, to make the place of manufacture and the name of the company familiar to the buyer. When buyers saw ‘Made in Manchester’, written in bold on the label, they felt confident to buy the cloth.
• The labels carried images and were beautifully illustrated with images of Indian gods and goddesses. The printed image of Krishna or Saraswati was also intended to make the manufacture from a foreign land, appear familiar to Indians.
• Manufacturers also printed calendars to popularize their products.
• When Indian manufacturers advertised, the nationalist message was clear and loud. If you care for the nation,. then buy only ‘Indian’ products. Advertisements became a vehicle of the nationalist message of Swadeshi.

When new products are produced advertisements helped people to make products appear desirable and necessary. They tried to shape the minds of people and create new needs. Today we are surrounded by advertisements which appear in newspapers, magazines, hoardings, street walls, television screens. From the very beginning of the industrial age, advertisements played a part in expanding the markets for products, and in shaping new consumer culture.

Manchester industrialists put labels on the cloth bundles, to mark the quality. When buyers saw ‘MADE IN MANCHESTER’ written in bold on the label, they were expected to feel confident about buying the cloth. Some of the labels were made with images and were beautifully crafted.

Images of Indian gods and goddesses appeared on these labels. Printing calendars were started by manufacturers to popularise their products. In these calendars, figures of gods were used to sell new products. Later, advertisements became a vehicle of the nationalist message of swadeshi.

Conclusion

The age of industries has meant major technological changes, 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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