CBSE Class 10 Social Science The Age of Industrialization Important Questions Set B

Objective Type Questions

Question. The cotton mill in England was created by :
(a) Richard Arkwright
(b) James Watt
(c) Seth Hukumchand
(d) Henry Patullo
Answer: (a)

Question. The steam engine produced by Newcomen was improved by
(a) Richard Arkwright
(b) Mathew Boulton
(c) James Watt
(d) Dinshaw Petit
Answer: (c)

Question. The Spinning Jenny was devised by :
(a) James Hargreaves
(b) Richard Arkwright
(c) Newcomen
(d) James Watt
Answer: (a)

Question. The Spinning Jenny devised in the year :
(a) 1746
(b) 1647
(c) 1674
(d) 1764
Answer: (d)

Question. This city on the Gujarat coast connected India to the Gulf and Red Sea ports :
(a) Dwarka
(b) Surat
(c) Bhavnagar
(d) Porbandar
Answer: (b)

Question. This town on the Coromandel coast had trade links with Southeast Asian ports :
(a) Afghanistan
(b) Surat
(c) Masulipatnam
(d) Persia
Answer: (c)

Question. This town in Bengal had trade links with Southeast Asian ports :
(a) Hoogly
(b) Porbandar
(c) Dwarka
(d) Masulipatnam
Answer: (a)

Question. The first jute mill set up by a Marwari businessman, Seth Hukumchand in 1917 was located in :
(a) Calcutta
(b) Madras
(c) Bombay
(d) Ahmedabad
Answer: (a)

Question. The two Parsis of Bombay who built huge industrial empires in India, accumulated their wealth partly from exports to China :
(a) James Hargreaves and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata
(b) Seth Hukumchand and Dinshaw Petit
(c) Dwarkanath Tagore and G.D. Birla
(d) Dinshaw Petit and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata
Answer: (d)

Question. This became a vehicle of the nationalist message of swadeshi :
(a) Advertisements
(b) Textile mills
(c) Steam engine
(d) Spinning Jenny
Answer: (a)

Question. In Victorian Britain, the upper classes preferred things produced by manual labour. (True/False)
Answer: True

Question. R.J. Tata set up the first iron and steel plant at Jamshedpur in India. (True/False)
Answer: False

Question. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants from the towns in Europe began moving to the countryside. (True/False)
Answer: True

Question. The American Civil War resulted in the reduction of cotton exports from India. (True/False)
Answer: False

Question. Match the following :
Column A
1. Spinning Jenny
2. First jute mill
3. Tata iron and steel company
4. First cotton mill in Bombay
5. Elgin mill
Column B
(A) 1912
(B) James Hargreaves
(C) Kanpur
(D) 1854
(E) Calcutta
Answer: 1. (B), 2. (E), 3. (A), 4. (D), 5. (C)

Question. What is the name of this machine and who invented it?
(a) Weaving machine by Charles
(b) Flying shuttle by John key
(c) Cotton Gin by Eli Whitney
(d) Spinning Jenny by Richard Arkwright
Answer: (D)

Question. Complete the following :
A series of inventions increased the efficacy of each step of the production process_______ .
Answer: Which included carding, twisting, spinning and rolling.

Question. French: France, Portuguese: Portugal, Dutch: ________.
Answer: Netherlands

Question. Arrange the followings in the correct sequence:
(i) The coming up of the factories in England
(ii) Invention of Spinning Jenny
(iii) Invention of Steam Engine
(iv) Manchester came to India
Options
(a) (iii)-(i)-(ii)-(iv)
(b) (i)-(ii)-(iii)-(iv)
(c) (i)-(iii)-(ii)-(iv)
(d) (iv)-(i)-(ii)-(iii)
Answer: (a)

Question. Complete the following table:
Set up of First Cotton Mill in India
Time | Place
? | ?
Answer: 1818 | Kolkata

Question. Identify the machine with the help of following features:

• This machine was invented by James Hargreaves.
• Machine reduced the demand of labour in cotton industry.
• By turning single wheel several spindles could be set in motion.

Answer: Spinning Jenny

Question. Correct the following statement and rewrite.
The number of labourers employed in the transport industry doubled in the 1839 which again tripled in the next 30 years.
Answer: The number of labourers employed in the transport industry doubled in the 1840s which again doubled in the next 30 years.

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Question. Why did the East India Company appoint ‘Gomasthas‘ ? 
Answer: The East India Company aimed to eliminate the existing traders and brokers connected with the cloth trade and establish a more direct control over the weaver. Therefore, it appointed a paid servant called the gomastha to supervise the weavers, collect supplies and examine the quality of cloth.

Question. Why were wages low in England during eighteenth centuries ?
Answer: In England during the Victorian Age, there was no shortage of human labour. Unemployed people, farmers and vagrants often moved through the cities in search of work. So, the industrialists had an ample supply of labour with no problem of high wage.

Question. Why was hand labour preferred in seasonal factories ?
Answer: In industries such as breweries and book binders, production was affected by the seasonal demands and changes. Hence, seasonal labours could be easily employed when the need arose. Moreover, as the supply of labour was high, it was easy to get such labourers and keep cost of production low.

Question. Why the aristocrats in Victorian England demanded handmade products ?
Answer: Handmade products portrayed class, royalty, high tastes and refinement. They were unique in their own designs and carefully designed and finished, so they attracted the upper elites of the society more.

Question. Why were the women in England against Spinning Jenny ?
Answer: Women feared that they might lose their livelihood and these machines would overtake their positions so they started detesting the use of spinning Jenny in the factories.

Question. How was the relationship between the Gomasthas and the weavers ?
Answer: The Gomasthas were paid agents of the English East India Company who were outsiders and not from the villages. They were arrogant and often marched into the villages with sepoys to beat up the weavers and craftsmen if they were late in supplying products.

Question. What happened as a result of cotton being exported from India ?
Answer: As cotton was being exported to England, the availability of cotton in Indian markets was affected. Weavers had to pay high rates to purchase raw cotton which most of the weavers could not afford.

Question. Why the Indian weavers were deprived of good cotton ?
Answer: As American Civil War broke out, the cotton supplies to England from America declined. Thus, superior quality of cotton from India was exported to England, leaving the weavers in India helpless.

Question. What was the problem faced by Indian weavers in the 1860s ?
Answer: The Indian weavers could not get sufficient amount of good quality of cotton.

Question. Name the two industrialists of Bombay who built huge industrial empires during nineteenth century. 
Answer: Dinshaw Petit and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata.

Assertion and Reasoning Based Questions

Mark the option which is most suitable :
(a) If both assertion and reason are true and reason is the correct explanation of assertion.
(b) If both assertion and reason are true but reason is not the correct explanation of assertion.
(c) If assertion is true but reason is false.
(d) If both assertion and reason are false.

Question. Assertion : When Manchester industrialists began selling cloth in India, they put labels on the cloth bundles.
Reason : The label was a mark of quality. When buyers saw ‘MADE IN MANCHESTER’ written in bold letters on the label, they were expected to feel confident about buying the cloth.
Answer: (a) The Assertion has been rightly explained by the reason.

Question. Assertion : The first symbol of the new era was cotton.
Reason : In Victorian Britain, the industrialists did not want to introduce machines that got rid of human labour and required large capital investment.
Answer: (b) The upper classes preferred hand produced goods in Victorian Britain, however, this does not explain the assertion.

Question. Assertion : The consolidation of East India Company power after the 1760s did not initially lead to a decline in textile exports from India.
Reason : British cotton industries had not yet expanded and Indian fine textiles were in great demand in Europe.
Answer: (a) The reason justifies the assertion.

Question. Assertion : The cotton weavers of India flourished with the Manchester imports.
Reason : With the American Civil War, the cotton supplies from US to Britain increased.
Answer: (d) Cotton weavers in India faced two problems with Manchester goods coming to India: their export market collapsed, and the local market shrank, being glutted with Machester imports. With the American Civil War, the cotton supply to Britain from US were cut off. Britain turned to India. Thus, both assertion and reason are false.

Question. Assertion : In most industrial regions, workers came from the districts around.
Reason : Peasants and artisans who found no work in the village went to the industrial centres in search of work.
Answer: (a) The reason justifies the assertion.

Question. Assertion : From 1906, the export of Indian yarn to China declined.
Reason : After the First World War, Manchester could never recapture its old position in the Indian market.
Answer: (b) The reason does not justify the assertion. From 1906, export of Indian yarn to China declined as produce from China and Japan flooded the Chinese market.

Question. Assertion : In the twentieth century, handloom cloth production expanded steadily.
Reason : This was partly because of technological changes.
Answer: (a) The reason clearly justifies the assertion.

Question. Assertion : Like the images of gods and goddesses, figures of important personages like emperors and nawabs adorned advertisements and calendars.
Reason : This was done to show the pomp and glory of the nation.
Answer: (c) This was done to win the confidence of the buyers to buy the products. Hence the reason is false.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question. Highlight any three benefits of industrialization on the society. 
Answer: Three benefits of Industrialization on the society are as follows :
(i) New railway stations came up and railway lines were extended, tunnels were dug up.
(ii) Building activities were intensified in the cities, opening up greater opportunities of employment for youth.
(iii) Roads were widened to make transport facility better.

Question. Why were there clashes between the weavers and the Gomasthas ? Explain.
Answer: Clashes between the weavers and the Gomasthas can be explained as follows :
(i) As we know that earlier merchants had often lived within the weaving village, and had a close relationship with the weavers, looking after their needs but the new Gomasthas were outsiders with no long term social link with the village, they acted arrogantly, marched into villages with sepoys and peons, and punished weavers for delay in supply.
(ii) The weavers lost the space to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers; the price they received from the company was miserably low.

Question. Explain what is meant by proto-industrialisation.
Answer: The term ‘proto’ refers to the first or nascent form of something. By the term “proto-industrialisation”, we mean the period in which the European countries produced goods for the foreign markets on a wider scale. This phase started before the development of factories in the European countries. In the proto-industrial period, hand-made products were made for the international market.

Question. What were the advantages of cotton mill ?
Answer: The advantages of cotton mill are enumerated as follows :
(i) Production process was carefully supervised.
(ii) Quality of cloth could be controlled.
(iii) More amount of production in less time.
(iv) Labour could be easily managed.

Question. Explain the features of pre-colonial trade scenario in India.
Answer: The features of pre-colonial trade scenario in India are enumerated as follows :
(i) Silk and cotton goods from India dominated the international market in textiles.
(ii) Armenian and Persian merchants took the goods from Punjab to Afghanistan, Eastern Persia and Central Asia. Bales of fine textiles were carried on came back via the northwest frontier, through mountain passes and across deserts.
(iii) A vibrant sea trade operated through the main pre-colonial ports. Surat on the Gujarat coast connected India to the Gulf and Red Sea ports; Masulipatam on the Coromandel coast and Hoogly in Bengal had trade links with Southeast Asian ports.

Question. Write a short note on the growth of factories in colonial India.
Answer: The first cotton mill in Bombay came up in 1854 and it went into production two years later. By 1862 four mills were at work with 94,000 spindles and 2,150 looms. Around the same time jute mills came up in Bengal, the first being set up in 1855 and another one seven years later, in 1862. In north India, the Elgin Mill was started in Kanpur. In the 1860s, 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.

Question. What was the impact of colonisation of India on the Indian traders ?
Answer: As colonial control over Indian trade tightened, the space within which Indian merchants could function became increasingly limited. They 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. They were also gradually edged out of the shipping business. The points are enumerated as follows:
(i) The European companies gradually gained power — first securing a variety of concessions from local courts, then the monopoly rights to trade.
(ii) It resulted in a decline of the old ports of Surat and Hoogly through which local merchants had operated. Exports from these ports fell dramatically.
(iii) The credit that had financed the earlier trade began drying up and the local bankers slowly became bankrupt.

Question. Describe the role of ‘Jobbers‘ in the beginning of twentieth century in India.
Answer: Role of jobbers were very significant in the beginning of twentieth century in India.
(i) Industrialists usually employed a jobber to get new recruits. Very often the jobber was an old and trusted worker.
(ii) He got people from his village, ensured them jobs, and helped them settle in the city.
(iii) He provided them money in times of crisis. The jobber therefore became a person with some authority and power.

Question. Why did Britain find it difficult to recapture the Indian market after the World War-I ? Explain.
Answer: In the aftermath of the World War-I, Britain found it difficult to regain control over the Indian markets. The reasons are as follows :
(i) According to some historians, post-war economic recovery proved difficult. Historically, Britain was the leading economy of the world in the pre-war period. However, Britain faced a protracted crisis in the economic domain.
(ii) When Britain was pre-occupied with war, industries emerged in India and Japan. In the aftermath of the war, Britain found it very difficult to exercise way over the Indian markets and to compete with Japan on an international level.
(iii) Britain also borrowed liberally from the US to cope with the increasing war expenditure. As a matter of fact, Britain was encumbered with huge external debts and became highly insolvent.

Question. What were the roles of trade guilds ?
Answer: The roles of trade guilds are enumerated as follows :
(i) Trained craftmen, maintain control over production and regulate prices.
(ii) Enjoyed monopoly rights to produce and trade certain products.
(iii) Had the right to restrict entry of outsiders.

Question. Why did the elite of Britain prefer hand made goods in the mid-nineteenth century ? Explain. 
Answer: The elite of British prefer handmade goods in the mid-nineteenth century because of the following reasons :
(i) Handmade products came to symbolise refinement and class. Handmade cloths were costlier and of better quality.
(ii) They were better finished, individually produced and carefully designed.
(iii) Machine-made goods were for masses, in the colonies not for classes.

Question. Describe any three major problems faced by Indian cotton weavers in the nineteenth century. 
Answer: Introduction: Weavers in India faced a new set of problems in 19th century that led to further eroding of it.
(a) The Indian market flooded with cheap, machine-made goods from Manchester. It led to decline in domestic market.
(b) Traders in Britain persuaded the govt to impose import duties. This led to decrease in international market.
(c) Trade depression in America led to decrease in cotton supply to Britain. So, now it turned to India for raw cotton supplies. As the supplies of raw cotton boomed, prices rose and weavers had to buy cotton at such high price.
(d) After that in late nineteenth century, Indian factories set up and weavers faced stiff competition.
Conclusion: In such unfavourable conditions how could they flourish. It suffered a major setback.

Question. Read the sources given below and answer the questions that follow:
Source A- The Early Entrepreneurs
The history of many business groups goes back to trade with China. From the late eighteenth century, the British in India began exporting opium to China and took tea from China to England. Many Indians became junior players in this trade, providing finance, procuring supplies, and shipping consignments. Having earned through trade, some of these businessmen had visions of developing industrial enterprises in India. In Bengal, Dwarkanath Tagore made his fortune in the China trade before he turned to industrial investment, setting up six joint-stock companies in the 1830s and 1840s. Tagore’s enterprises sank along with those of others in the wider business crises of the 1840s, but later in the nineteenth century many of the China traders became successful industrialists. In Bombay, Parsis like Dinshaw Petit and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata who built huge industrial empires in India, accumulated their initial wealth partly from exports to China, and partly from raw cotton shipments to England.
13.1 How did the early entrepreneurs accumulate capital for running their cloth mills?
Answer: The early entrepreneurs accumulated capital through their other trade networks. For example- Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata who built huge industrial empire in India, accumulated his initial wealth partly from exports to China and partly from raw cotton shipments to England.

Question. Source B- Small-scale Industries Predominate
While factory industries grew steadily after the war, large industries formed only a small segment of the economy. Most of them – about 67 per cent in 1911 were located in Bengal and Bombay. Over the rest of the country, small-scale production continued to predominate. Only a small proportion of the total industrial labour force worked in registered factories: 5 per cent in 1911 and 10 per cent in 1931. The rest worked in small workshops and household units, often located in alleys and bylanes, invisible to the passer-by.
13.2 What was the reason behind the predominance of small scale industries?
Answer: The reason behind the predominance of small scale industries was that the handicrafts people adopt new technology for improving their production.

Question. Source C- Market for Goods
One way in which new consumers are created is through advertisements. As you know, advertisements make products appear desirable and necessary. They try to shape the minds of people and create new needs. Today we live in a world where advertisements surround us. They appear in newspapers, magazines, hoardings, street walls, television screens. But if we look back into history we find that from the very beginning of the industrial age, advertisements have played a part in expanding the markets for products, and in shaping a new consumer culture.
13.3 Why Manchester industrialists used images of gods and goddesses for putting labels on their clothes?
Answer: It was done so that the association with gods gave divine approval to the goods being sold.

Long Answer Type Questions

Question. “Series of changes affected the pattern of industrialization in India by the early twentieth century.“ Analyze the statement.
Answer: As the Swadeshi Movement gathered momentum, nationalists mobilised people to boycott foreign cloth. Industrial groups organised themselves to protect their collective interests, pressurising the government to increase tariff protection and grant other concessions. From 1906, moreover, the export of Indian yarn to China declined since produce from Chinese and Japanese mills flooded the Chinese market. So industrialists in India began shifting from yarn to cloth production. Cotton goods production in India doubled between 1900 and 1912. Yet, till the First World War, industrial growth was slow. The war created a dramatically new situation. With British mills busy with war production to meet the needs of the army, Manchester imports into India declined. Suddenly, Indian mills had a vast home market to supply. As the war prolonged, Indian factories were called upon to supply war needs: jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, tents and leather boots, horse and mule saddles and a host of other items. New factories were set up and old ones ran in multiple shifts. Many new workers were employed and everyone was made to work longer hours. Over the war years, industrial production boomed.

Question. How did cotton factories become an intimate part of the English landscape in the early 19th century ? Explain.
Answer: Cotton factories became an intimate part of the English landscape in the early 19th century. This can be explained as follows :
(i) Series of inventions in the 18th century increased the efficiency of carding, twisting, spinning, etc.
(ii) Creation of cotton mill by Richard Arkwright.
(iii) Centralised and integrated process.
(iv) Proper supervision and control.
(v) New mills and new technologies.

Question. Explain any five causes of Industrial Revolution in England.
Answer: The five causes of Industrial Revolution in England are enumerated as follows :
(i) Growing international markets in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries led to the demand of more products not just inside the country but in other colonies and countries as well.
(ii) Series of new inventions by James Watt, James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright contributed significantly in the growth of factories and production process hastened as well as smoothened.
(iii) Availability of raw resources from the countryside and new freshly acquired colonies like America, India etc. made production process easier.
(iv) Availability of capital for investment was easily available as they had earned huge profits from trade and overseas investments.
(v) Increase in demand for a diverse range of products both inside the country as well as in other countries was a significant factor. This made people invest in business and factories to produced more.

Question. How did the abundance of labour in the market affect the lives of the workers in Britain during nineteenth century ?
OR
“The process of industrialisation brought with it miseries for the newly emerged class of industrial workers.” Explain.
Answer: There was abundance of labour in the market of Britain during nineteenth century compared to the work available which led to the problem of unemployment :
(i) Seasonality of work : Most of the workers were employed in a fixed or particular season only. This resulted in unemployment for most of the time of the year.
(ii) Low real wages : High supply of labour resulted in low wages and workers were easily replaced if any wage issue was created.
(iii) Poverty : As wages were low, most of the workers lived in harsh conditions of extreme poverty. They did not have enough money to feed their entire families at times.
(iv) Housing problem : As the number of workers kept on increasing in the cities, mostly without work, had a problem in finding healthy and hygienic conditions. Most of them lived on roads, under the bridges or in the unclean bylanes.

Question. Why did some industrialists in nineteenth century Europe prefer hand labour over machines ? 
Answer: In the nineteenth century Europe, some British industrialists prioritized hand labour instead of machine labour. The points are enumerated as follows :
(i) The prices of new technologies and machines were exorbitantly high. Therefore, the industrialists and the producers did not use them.
(ii) Machines often broke down and their repair was very expensive.
(iii) Poor peasants and artisans flocked to the cities in quest for employment. Therefore, the supply of workers outweighed the demand. The workers were available at a cheap rate.
(iv) Market demand of variety of designs and colour could not be satisfied by the machine-made products. The hand-made labour was effective in this regard.

Question. How did the East India Company procure regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from Indian weavers ? 
Answer: After establishing political power in India, the East India Company tried to acquire right to cotton textile and silk goods trade. It also started to procure regular supplies of these goods from Indian weavers. This could be achieved by them after taking a series of steps. First, they established their management and a direct control over the weavers by hiring their paid servants called Gomasthas. Gomasthas supervised weavers, examined the quality of goods and ensured regular supplies. Second, the Company prevented weavers from dealing with their buyers by giving them ‘advances’ against purchase orders. Thus, the weavers after taking loans could not sell their cloth to any other trader and had to work under the Company’s Gomasthas.

Question. Why did industrial production in India increase during the First World War ? 
Answer: India witnessed increased industrial production during the First World War due to the following reasons :
(i) British industries became busy in producing and supplying war needs. Hence, they stopped exporting British goods or cloths for colonial markets like that in India.
(ii) It was a good opportunity for Indian industries to fill in empty Indian markets with their products. Therefore, industrial production in India increased.
(iii) Also the British colonial government asked Indian factories to supply the war needs like jute bags, cloth or army uniforms, tents and leather boots, horse and mule saddles, etc.
(iv) The increased demands of variety of products led to the setting up of new factories and old ones increased their production.
(v) Many new workers were employed and everyone was made to work longer hours.
These were the various reasons responsible for the boom in the industrial production in India during the First World War.

Question. “Consumers are created, with advertisements” — support this statement with three examples.
OR
Explain the methods used by producers to expand their markets in nineteenth century.
Answer: (i) Advertisement : Advertisements make products appear desirable and necessary. They try to shape the minds of people and create new needs. Advertisements have played a part in expanding the markets for products, and in shaping a new consumer culture.
(ii) Labelling : When the Manchester industrialists began selling cloth in India, they put labels on the cloth bundles. The label was needed to make the place of manufacture, and the name of the company familiar to the buyer. The label was also to be a mark of quality.
(iii) Images of Gods : Images of lndian gods and goddesses regularly appeared on these labels. It was as if the association with gods gave divine approval to the goods being sold. The imprinted image of Krishna or Saraswati was Also intended to make the manufacture from a foreign land appear somewhat familiar to Indian people.
(iv) Figures of important personages : Figures of important personage such as emperors and nawabs, adorned advertisement and calendars. The message very often seemed to say, if you respect the royal figure, then respect this product; when the product was being used by kings, or produced under royal command, its quality could not be questioned.

Question. Industrialisation was a mixed blessing. Explain with the help of suitable examples.
Answer: (i) Cheap goods : Machines produced fine quality goods which were easily available to all sections of the society at cheap rates.
(ii) New industrialists : It gave birth to a new section of entrepreneurs who invested in industries and factories even in the colonies, who later became bigger investors and players in this arena.
(iii) Growth of industrial sector : With the coming of the industries, new avenues opened up for people who no longer profited from agriculture. New employment avenues opened up.
There were the miseries attached to Industrial Revolution too.
(i) One major problem was the condition of workers. The supply of workers was more than the demand. This created a lot of problems for them. Many of them failed to get work.
(ii) The workers got work depending on the availability of work and seasonably affected employment rates. Most of the workers remained unemployed for a fair part of the year.
(iii) Low wages and poverty was an important issue. The workers received low wages that worsened their conditions. They lived in poor condition on the roads, under the bridges. They had poor living standards.
(iv) The weaving industry was badly affected. The weavers were exploited: they lost their works because of the coming of machines and given poor payments in return of hard work. Their conditions worsened more in colonies like India.

Question. What role did the Indian merchants play in the growth of industries before 1750?
Answer: (i) The British in India began exporting opium to China and took tea from China to England. Many Indians became junior players in this trade, providing finance, procuring supplies, and shipping consignments. Having earned through trade, some of these businessmen had visions of developing industrial enterprises in India.
(ii) In Bengal, Dwarkanath Tagore made his fortune in the China trade before he turned to industrial investment, setting up six joint-stock companies in the 1830s and 1840s.
(iii) In Bombay, Parsis like Dinshaw Petit and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata who built huge industrial empires in India accumulated their initial wealth partly from exports to China and partly from raw cotton shipments to England. Sonic merchants from Madras traded with Burma while other had links with the Middle East and East Africa.
(iv) There were yet other commercial groups, but they were not directly involved in external trade. They operated within India, carrying goods from one place to another, banking money, transferring funds between cities, and financing traders.

Question. ”India became a supplier of raw materials instead of finished products.” Discuss the statement.
Answer: The points are enumerated as follows :
(i) The industries in England required large amount of raw materials. The resources were sent from India. This affected the availability of resources within the country.
(ii) Finer quality of cotton, and silk were exported to England and the artisans were left with poorer quality. The products made by the Indian artisans and weavers were very poor in quality.
(iii) As the standard of the quality of products decreased, Indian aristocrats and elites started purchasing more of machine made goods, which were imported from England.
(iv) This led to the decline of weaving and other indigenous industries of India. Thus, the phase of deindustrialisation started.
(v) There was a dearth of resources availables in the country due to incessant exports. This put a heavy pressure on the artisans. They had to buy resources at extremely high rates which most of the craftsmen could not afford. Thus, they had to stop producing the products and look for other alternatives.

In the countryside poor peasants and artisans began working for merchants. This was a time when open fields were disappearing and commons were being enclosed. Cottagers and poor peasants who had earlier depended on common lands for their survival, gathering their firewood, berries, vegetables, hay and straw, had to now look for alternative sources of income. Many had tiny plots of land which could not provide work for all members of the household. So when merchants came around and offered advances to produce goods for them, peasant households eagerly agreed. By working for the merchants, they could remain in the countryside and continue to cultivate their small plots. Income from proto-industrial production supplemented their shrinking income from cultivation. It also allowed them a fuller use of their family labour resources. Within this system a close relationship developed between the town and the countryside. Merchants were based in towns but the work was done mostly in the countryside. A merchant clothier in England purchased wool from a wool stapler, and carried it to the spinners; the yarn (thread) that was spun was taken in subsequent stages of production to weavers, fullers, and then to dyers. The finishing was done in London before the export merchant sold the cloth in the international market. London in fact came to be known as a finishing centre.

Question. What is proto-industrialisation?
Answer: The phase of industrialisation before the industrial revolution is referred as proto-industrialisation.

Question. Differentiate between stapler and fuller?
Answer: A stapler is a person who ‘staples’ or sorts wool according to its fibre, whereas fuller is a person who fulls or gathers cloth by pleating.

Question. Why London came to be known as finishing centre in the eighteenth century?
Answer: During eighteenth century, finishing of clothes was done in London before the merchants sold the clothes in the international market. Thus, London came to be known as finishing centre.

Source/Extract Based Questions

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants from the towns in Europe began moving to the countryside, supplying money to peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international market. With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of colonies in different parts of the world, the demand for goods began growing. But merchants could not expand production within towns. This was because here urban crafts and trade guilds were powerful. These were associations of producers that trained craftspeople, maintained control over production, regulated competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new people into the trade. Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly right to produce and trade in specific products. It was therefore difficult for new merchants to set up business in towns. So they turned to the countryside. In the countryside poor peasants and artisans began working for merchants.

Question. Following feature can’t be related with 17th and 18th century developments:
(a) Race to colonize the different parts of the world
(b) Demand of the goods increased in the international market
(c) European countries established their colonies to get raw material
(d) Introduction of railways for the fast transportation of goods
Answer: (d)

Question. Why countryside people were easily agreed to work for the merchants?
(a) They did not had enough land holding to sustain their family
(b) Merchants pressurized them to do work
(c) Landlords forced peasants to work for the merchants
(d) An order was issued by the ruler which forced them to work for merchants
Answer: (a)

Question. Merchants moved towards countryside because:
(a) Peasants were more laborious as compared to urban workers
(b) Due to fear of losing profit, urban traders restricted the entry of merchants in towns
(c) From countryside, merchants could easily transport goods in international market
(d) Merchants did not like the strictness of guilds
Answer: (b)

Question. Following conclusion cannot be drawn from the passage:
(a) Merchants were new in the market as compared to urban traders
(b) Urban traders trained their workers to get standard products
(c) Urban traders were closer to the rulers
(d) Urban traders were willing to capture the trade of merchants
Answer: (d)