CBSE Class 10 Social Science The Age of Industrialisation Notes Set 06

What industrialisation means

Industrialisation is the shift from making goods by hand in homes and workshops to producing them with machines in factories. It began in Britain in the later eighteenth century, and it changed work, towns, trade and politics. Popular images of progress show factories and steam engines, but the real story was slower and more uneven.

Before factories: proto-industrialisation

Even before factories, Europe's merchants made goods for international markets. In towns, trade guilds were associations of craftspeople that controlled production, regulated prices and limited the entry of new men. Merchants could not expand production within towns because the guilds were powerful. So they went to the countryside, where peasants and artisans with little land needed extra income. They gave raw materials such as wool, and collected the finished cloth. This is called proto-industrialisation. It gave families extra income and fuller use of family labour, and created close links between town and countryside. A stapler sorted wool by fibre, a fuller gathered cloth, and a clothier supplied raw material and sold cloth.

Factories and machines in Britain

The first factories came up in England in the 1730s, but they multiplied only in the late eighteenth century. The cotton mill was the first symbol of the new era. A series of inventions made production faster: the flying shuttle of John Kay, the spinning jenny of James Hargreaves, Richard Arkwright's cotton mill, and the improved steam engine of James Watt. Cotton and iron and steel were the most dynamic industries. Yet the traditional industries did not disappear. Technology changed slowly, machines were costly and often broke down, and many owners preferred hand labour.

In Victorian Britain, hand labour was abundant, so employers had little reason to buy machines. Demand for many goods was seasonal, and the upper classes preferred hand-made items for their finish and design. Workers feared losing jobs, and women in the woollen industry attacked the spinning jenny. The life of workers was hard: wages were low and jobs insecure, especially for seasonal workers. Railways and construction offered more jobs after the mid-nineteenth century.

Industrialisation in the colonies: India

Before British rule, Indian cloth was famous. Surat, Hooghly and Masulipatnam were important ports. In the eighteenth century these ports declined and Bombay and Calcutta grew as colonial ports. As the East India Company gained political power, it tried to control weavers. It appointed paid servants called gomasthas to supervise weavers, collect supplies and check quality. It gave advances (loans) so that weavers could not deal with other buyers. Weavers lost bargaining power, often had to lease out their land, and clashed with gomasthas, who punished them for delays.

By the mid-nineteenth century cheap Manchester cloth flooded Indian markets, hurting weavers and spinners, and raw cotton became scarce and costly. Weavers who made finer cloth survived better than those in coarse cloth. Factory production in India began in 1854, when the first cotton mill was set up in Bombay. The first jute mill came up in Bengal in 1855. Ahmedabad mills opened in 1861. Dwarkanath Tagore invested in many joint-stock companies in the 1830s-40s. During the First World War British mills turned to war supplies, Manchester imports fell, and Indian factories produced jute bags, army cloth, tents and boots, which boosted Indian industry. Until the war, European managing agencies controlled a large part of Indian industry.

Most workers were villagers who came to the factory for seasonal work. Industrialists employed jobbers, trusted old workers, to recruit workers. Jobbers got people from their village, helped them settle and lent money, but later demanded money and gifts and gained power over them. Small-scale industries and handlooms still dominated: only a small share of workers were in factories, and the fly shuttle helped handloom weavers raise productivity.

The market for goods

Manufacturers used advertisements in newspapers, magazines, hoardings and street walls to create demand. Labels showing 'Made in Manchester' gave buyers confidence. Pictures of Indian gods such as Krishna and Sarasvati on labels made foreign goods seem familiar. Calendars were popular because even those who could not read used them. When Indian manufacturers advertised, they linked their goods to the nationalist message.

Worked examples

Example 1. Why did European merchants turn to the countryside?
Answer: Town guilds were powerful and restricted new producers. In villages, peasants with little land were willing to work for cash, so merchants could expand output cheaply.

Example 2. Who was a jobber?
Answer: A jobber was an old, trusted worker employed by an industrialist to recruit labour. He helped new workers find homes and loans, but later exploited them.

Example 3. How did the First World War help Indian industries?
Answer: British mills were busy with war orders, so imports to India fell. Indian factories supplied war goods and sold more in the home market.

Quick Check Questions