Overview of The Age of Industrialisation

• Around 1900, machines and technology were seen as symbols of progress and the new century.
• Images and magazines glorified modern inventions such as railways, factories, and machines.
• The modern world was linked with rapid technological change and industrial growth.
• The West was shown as modern and advanced, while the East was shown as traditional and old.
• To understand real progress, historians study the history of industrialisation in Britain and India.

Carding is the process in which fibres, such as cotton or wool, are prepared prior to spinning.

• The earliest factories in England were set up in the 1730s, but their number increased greatly in the late eighteenth century.
• Cotton became the first major factory industry, and its production expanded rapidly.
• New inventions improved spinning and weaving and increased output per worker.
• Richard Arkwright introduced the cotton mill, bringing all stages of production under one roof.
• Factories allowed better supervision, quality control, and regulation of labour.

• Cotton and metal industries grew fastest, with cotton leading until the 1840s and iron and steel growing later.
• Traditional industries continued alongside factories and employed most workers.
• Much production still took place in homes and small workshops, not only in factories.
• Technological change was slow because machines were costly and unreliable.
• Most workers in the mid-nineteenth century were traditional craft workers, not machine operators.

• In Victorian Britain, labour was easily available, so wages were low.
• Industrialists preferred hand labour because machines were expensive and required a large investment.
• Seasonal industries hired workers only when demand was high.
• Many goods needed skilled hand labour and could not be produced by machines.
• Handmade products were valued by the upper classes, while machine-made goods were exported.

• Before industrialisation, Indian cotton and silk textiles dominated global trade.
• Indian textiles were exported through major ports like Surat, Masulipatam, and Hoogly.
• Indian merchants and bankers controlled and financed the textile trade network.
• By the mid-eighteenth century, European companies gained monopoly rights over trade.
• Old ports declined while new colonial ports like Bombay and Calcutta grew.

• After the 1760s, the East India Company expanded textile exports by controlling the trade.
• The Company eliminated Indian traders and appointed gomasthas to supervise weavers.
• Weavers were forced to take advances and sell cloth only to the Company at low prices.
• Gomasthas often behaved harshly, and weavers lost freedom to bargain or choose buyers.
• Many weavers migrated, revolted, or gave up weaving and turned to agricultural labour.

• Indian textile exports declined sharply in the nineteenth century due to British industrialisation.
• The British government imposed import duties to protect Manchester textiles in Britain.
• British cotton goods were heavily exported to India, flooding Indian markets.
• Indian weavers lost both foreign and local markets because machine-made goods were cheaper.
• By the 1850s, many weaving regions in India faced decline and poverty.
• Shortage and high prices of raw cotton further harmed Indian weavers in the 1860s.
• By the late nineteenth century, Indian factories added more competition for traditional weavers.

• In the late 19th century, Indian industries developed alongside European export-focused plantations.
• Early Indian mills mainly produced cotton yarn and avoided competing with British goods.
• The Swadeshi Movement (1906) boosted Indian industries by boycotting foreign cloth.
• Cotton cloth production doubled between 1900–1912, while yarn exports to China declined.
• During and after World War I (1914–1918), Indian industries expanded and strengthened in the home market.

• Advertisements were used to create demand and shape consumer needs during industrialisation.
• British manufacturers used labels to show quality and promote “Made in Manchester” cloth in India.
• Images of Indian gods and historical figures were used to make foreign goods familiar and trustworthy.
• Calendars became a popular advertising tool as they reached both literate and illiterate people.
• Indian manufacturers used advertisements to promote swadeshi and encourage people to buy Indian goods.