Chapter Notes

The Age of Industrialisation

The Glorification of Machines and Progress

At the start of the twentieth century, the idea of "progress" was closely tied to machines and technology.

• A music book cover from 1900, titled "Dawn of the Century," depicted an angel of progress on a winged wheel, flying into the future. Behind her were symbols of modernity: railways, cameras, machines, and factories.
• A trade magazine picture from 1901, "Two Magicians," contrasted Aladdin from the East (representing the past) with a modern mechanic from the West (representing modernity), who could build bridges, ships, and towers with his tools.

These images presented a triumphant story where the modern world was defined by rapid technological change, factories, and innovation. Industrialisation was seen as a wonderful time of development and progress. This chapter examines the reality behind these images, looking first at Britain, the first industrial nation, and then at India under colonial rule.

Before the Industrial Revolution

It's a common mistake to think that industrialisation only means factory production. Long before factories appeared in England and Europe, there was large-scale industrial production for an international market. Historians call this phase proto-industrialisation.

What was Proto-Industrialisation? It was a system where merchants from towns had goods produced in the countryside by peasant families.

Why did merchants turn to the countryside?

• Growing Demand: World trade was expanding and colonies were being established, leading to a higher demand for goods.
• Urban Guilds: In towns, powerful urban crafts and trade guilds controlled production. These associations:
  • Trained craftspeople.
  • Regulated prices and competition.
  • Restricted new merchants from entering the trade.
• Because of these powerful guilds, new merchants found it difficult to set up business in towns and looked to the countryside instead.

Why did peasants and artisans in the countryside agree to work for merchants?

• Loss of Common Lands: Open fields were disappearing and common lands were being enclosed. Poor peasants, who once depended on these lands for firewood, berries, and hay, needed new sources of income.
• Small Plots of Land: Many families had tiny plots that couldn't provide work for everyone.
• Supplemental Income: Income from proto-industrial production supplemented their shrinking income from farming. It allowed them to stay in the countryside and make full use of their family's labour.

The Coming Up of the Factory

The first factories in England began to appear by the 1730s, but their numbers multiplied only in the late eighteenth century.

• The Rise of Cotton: Cotton production boomed. In 1760, Britain imported 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton. By 1787, this had soared to 22 million pounds.
• Technological Inventions: A series of inventions increased the efficiency of each step of production (carding, twisting, spinning). This led to higher output per worker and stronger threads.
• The Cotton Mill: Richard Arkwright created the cotton mill. This was a major change because:
  • Costly new machines could be set up and maintained in one place.
  • All production processes were brought together under one roof and management.
  • It allowed for better supervision, quality control, and regulation of labour, which was difficult when production was scattered across the countryside.

By the early nineteenth century, large, imposing mills became a common sight in the English landscape, symbolizing the new age of industrial power.

The Pace of Industrial Change

The process of industrialisation was not as rapid as the images of progress suggest.

1. Dominant Industries: The most dynamic industries were cotton and metals. Cotton was the leading sector until the 1840s. After that, the iron and steel industry grew rapidly, fueled by the expansion of railways. By 1873, the value of Britain's iron and steel exports was double that of its cotton exports.
2. Traditional Industries Persisted: New industries did not easily displace traditional ones. At the end of the nineteenth century, less than 20% of the workforce was employed in advanced industrial sectors. A large portion of textile output was still produced in domestic units, not factories.
3. Slow Pace of Change: The pace of change in "traditional" industries was not set by steam-powered factories. Growth in sectors like food processing, building, pottery, and furniture making was based on small, ordinary innovations, not giant leaps in technology.
4. Slow Adoption of New Technology: Technological changes happened slowly.
   • New machines were expensive, and industrialists were cautious about using them.
   • Machines often broke down, and repairs were costly.
   • The steam engine, improved by James Watt in 1781, was slow to be adopted. At the start of the nineteenth century, there were only 321 steam engines in all of England, mostly in cotton, wool, mining, and iron works.

Hand Labour and Steam Power

In Victorian Britain, there were several reasons why industrialists preferred hand labour over machines.

• Abundance of Labour: There was no shortage of workers. Poor peasants and vagrants moved to cities in large numbers searching for jobs. With a surplus of labour, wages were low, so industrialists had little reason to invest in expensive machines.
• Seasonal Demand for Labour: Many industries had seasonal work.
  • Gas works and breweries were busier in the cold months.
  • Bookbinders and printers needed extra workers before Christmas.
  • Ships were repaired at the waterfront during the winter. In these industries, it made more sense to hire workers for the season rather than invest in large machinery that would sit idle.
• Demand for Variety and Quality: Machines were good at producing uniform, standardized goods for a mass market. However, there was a high demand for products with intricate designs and specific shapes, which required human skill. For example, mid-nineteenth-century Britain produced 500 varieties of hammers and 45 kinds of axes.
• Symbol of Class: The upper classes—the aristocrats and the bourgeoisie—preferred handmade products. These items symbolized refinement and class, as they were better finished and carefully designed. Machine-made goods were often for export to the colonies.

Life of the Workers

The abundance of labour made life difficult for workers.

• Finding a Job: Hundreds of people traveled to the cities for work, but finding a job was not easy. It often depended on having friends or relatives already working in a factory. Those without social connections had to wait for weeks, sleeping under bridges or in shelters.
• Seasonality of Work: Seasonal work meant long periods of unemployment. After a busy season, the poor were back on the streets, looking for odd jobs.
• Low Wages and Poverty: While wages increased slightly in the early nineteenth century, the real value of what workers earned often fell when prices rose, such as during the Napoleonic Wars. Income depended on the number of days worked, not just the wage rate. In the best of times, about 10% of the urban population was extremely poor. During economic slumps, unemployment could rise to between 35% and 75%.
• Hostility to New Technology: The fear of unemployment made workers hostile to new machines. When the Spinning Jenny was introduced in the woollen industry, women who earned a living from hand spinning began attacking the new machines because it threatened their livelihood.
• New Opportunities: After the 1840s, building activity in cities created more jobs. Roads were widened, railway lines were extended, and tunnels were dug, leading to increased employment in the transport industry.

Industrialisation in the Colonies

The story of industrialisation in a colony like India was very different, as it was shaped by colonial rule. The focus here is on the textile industry.

The Age of Indian Textiles

Before the age of machines, silk and cotton goods from India dominated the international textile market.

• Trade Network: A vibrant trade network existed through land and sea.
  • Surat on the Gujarat coast connected India to the Gulf and Red Sea ports.
  • Masulipatam on the Coromandel coast and Hoogly in Bengal traded with Southeast Asian ports.
• Role of Indian Merchants: A network of Indian merchants and bankers financed production, carried goods, and supplied exporters.

By the 1750s, this network controlled by Indian merchants began to break down as European companies gained power, secured trade monopolies, and established new ports like Bombay and Calcutta. The old ports of Surat and Hoogly declined dramatically.

What Happened to Weavers?

After the 1760s, the East India Company consolidated its political power and established a monopoly over trade. This had a severe impact on Indian weavers. The Company took several steps to ensure a regular supply of cotton and silk:

1. Eliminating Competition: The Company tried to eliminate existing traders and brokers and establish direct control over weavers.
2. Appointing Gomasthas: It appointed a paid servant called the gomastha to supervise weavers, collect supplies, and examine the quality of cloth.
3. The System of Advances: The Company prevented weavers from dealing with other buyers.
   • Weavers were given loans (advances) to purchase raw materials.
   • Those who took loans had to hand over the cloth they produced to the gomastha and could not sell it to anyone else.

Consequences for Weavers:

• Initially, weavers took the advances, hoping to earn more. Many gave up cultivating their small plots of land to focus entirely on weaving.
• Soon, clashes erupted between weavers and gomasthas, who were outsiders and acted arrogantly, often punishing weavers for delays.
• Weavers lost the power to bargain for prices and were forced to sell to the Company at miserably low rates.
• In many places, weavers deserted their villages, and some revolted. Over time, many began refusing loans and became agricultural labourers.

Manchester Comes to India

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, Indian textile exports started a long decline.

• Pressure from British Industrialists: As cotton industries grew in England, industrial groups pressured the government to impose import duties on foreign textiles. This protected Manchester goods from competition.
• Flooding the Indian Market: British industrialists also persuaded the East India Company to sell British manufactures in Indian markets. By 1850, cotton piece-goods made up over 31% of the value of Indian imports. By the 1870s, this figure was over 50%.

Indian weavers now faced two major problems:

1. Their export market collapsed.
2. The local market shrank, flooded with cheap, machine-made Manchester imports.

A new problem arose in the 1860s. During the American Civil War, cotton supplies from the US were cut off, and Britain turned to India. As raw cotton exports from India increased, the price of raw cotton shot up, starving Indian weavers of supplies and making their work unprofitable.

Factories Come Up

The first factories in India were established in the mid-nineteenth century.

• The first cotton mill in Bombay came up in 1854.
• Jute mills came up in Bengal starting in 1855.
• The Elgin Mill was started in Kanpur in the 1860s.
• The first spinning and weaving mill of Madras began production in 1874.

The Early Entrepreneurs

The capital for these industries came from various Indian business communities.

• Trade with China: Many early entrepreneurs made their fortune in the opium and tea trade with China. This included Dwarkanath Tagore in Bengal, and Parsis like Dinshaw Petit and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata in Bombay.
• Other Trade Networks: Some merchants traded with Burma, the Middle East, or East Africa. Others operated within India, transferring funds and financing traders.
• Limits on Indian Merchants: As colonial control tightened, Indian merchants were barred from trading manufactured goods with Europe and were forced to export mostly raw materials. They were also pushed out of the shipping business.
• European Managing Agencies: A large sector of Indian industry was controlled by European Managing Agencies like Bird Heiglers & Co. and Andrew Yule. They mobilized capital and made all business decisions, even when Indian financiers provided the money.

Where Did the Workers Come From?

• Workers mostly came from the surrounding districts. For instance, over 50% of workers in Bombay cotton mills in 1911 came from the nearby district of Ratnagiri.
• Many workers moved between their village and the city, returning home for harvests and festivals.
• Getting a job was difficult, as there were always more seekers than jobs. Industrialists employed a jobber, usually an old and trusted worker, to recruit new people.
• The jobber became a powerful figure. He got people from his village jobs, helped them settle, and provided money in times of crisis. In return, he often began demanding money and gifts, controlling the lives of the workers.

The Peculiarities of Industrial Growth

Industrial growth in India had some unique features.

• European Focus: European Managing Agencies focused on products for export, like tea, coffee, jute, and indigo, not for sale in India.
• Indian Strategy: Early Indian industrialists avoided competing with Manchester goods. They produced coarse cotton yarn, which was used by Indian handloom weavers or exported to China, as it was not a major British import.
• The Swadeshi Movement: In the early twentieth century, the pattern changed. As the swadeshi movement gained momentum, nationalists urged people to boycott foreign cloth.
• Shift to Cloth Production: From 1906, Indian yarn exports to China declined. As a result, Indian industrialists began shifting from producing yarn to weaving cloth for the Indian market. Cotton piece-goods production in India doubled between 1900 and 1912.

Impact of the First World War: The war created a dramatic new situation.

• Manchester imports into India declined as British mills were busy with war production.
• Indian mills suddenly had a vast home market to supply.
• Indian factories were also called upon to supply war needs like jute bags, army uniforms, and leather boots.
• New factories were set up, and old ones ran multiple shifts. Industrial production boomed.

After the war, Manchester could never recapture its old position in the Indian market, and local industrialists consolidated their position.

Small-scale Industries Predominate

Even as factory industries grew, they formed only a small part of the economy. Small-scale production continued to dominate.

• Only a small proportion of the total industrial workforce worked in registered factories (5% in 1911 and 10% in 1931).
• The rest worked in small workshops and household units.
• Handicraft production, especially in the handloom sector, actually expanded in the twentieth century, nearly trebling between 1900 and 1940.

How did handloom weavers survive?

• Technological Changes: Weavers adopted new technologies that improved productivity without high costs. The most important was the fly shuttle, a mechanical device that speeded up weaving. By 1941, over 35% of handlooms in India were fitted with them.
• Specialized Weaves: Mills could not imitate specialized weaves like saris with woven borders or the famous lungis and handkerchiefs of Madras.
• Demand Patterns: The coarser cloth bought by the poor had fluctuating demand, but the finer varieties bought by the rich had a more stable market, even during famines.

Market for Goods

When new products are created, people have to be persuaded to buy them. Advertisements played a key role in creating new consumers from the beginning of the industrial age.

Strategies used by British Manufacturers:

• Labels on Cloth: When Manchester industrialists sold cloth in India, they put labels on the bundles. The "MADE IN MANCHESTER" label was meant to be a mark of quality and familiarity.
• Use of Images: Labels often carried beautiful illustrations to appeal to consumers.
  • Images of Indian Gods: Figures of gods and goddesses like Krishna or Saraswati regularly appeared on labels. This was intended to give divine approval to the product and make it seem familiar to Indian buyers.
  • Images of Royalty: Figures of emperors and nawabs were used to convey that the product was of royal quality and could not be questioned.
• Calendars: Manufacturers printed calendars, which were used even by people who could not read. Hung in homes, tea shops, and offices, they ensured the advertisement was seen every day of the year.

Advertisements by Indian Manufacturers: When Indian manufacturers advertised, their message was often nationalist.

• Advertisements became a vehicle for the message of swadeshi.
• The message was clear: if you care for the nation, then buy products that Indians produce.