Details — The Age of Industrialisation

1. Before the Industrial Revolution: Proto-industrialisation

Industrial production for international markets existed before factories. Historians call this proto-industrialisation.

Town merchants moved to the countryside (17th–18th c.) because urban guilds monopolised trades. Enclosure reduced commons; peasants needed extra income. Merchants gave advances; households produced for export while keeping tiny plots.

English cloth network: wool stapler → spinners → weavers → fullers → dyers → London finishing → export. Each merchant controlled hundreds of workers (20–25 per stage).

Factories

Earliest English factories by 1730s; multiplied late 18th century. Cotton leading sector to 1840s. Raw cotton imports: 2.5 million lb (1760) → 22 million lb (1787). Inventions improved carding, twisting, spinning, rolling. Richard Arkwright created the cotton mill — all processes under one roof.

Pace of change

Cotton leads to 1840s; then iron & steel (railways from 1840s England / 1860s colonies). By 1873 Britain exported iron/steel worth ~£77 million — double cotton exports.
Even late 19th c., <20% workforce in advanced industrial sectors; much textile output still domestic.
Non-mechanised sectors grew via small innovations (food processing, building, pottery, etc.).
Technology slow/expensive. James Watt patented improved steam engine 1781; early 19th c. only 321 steam engines in England.

Typical mid-19th-century worker: craftsperson/labourer, not machine operator.

2. Hand Labour and Steam Power

Victorian Britain: abundant cheap labour → industrialists reluctant to replace workers with costly machines. Seasonal industries preferred hand labour. Intricate goods (500 hammer varieties; 45 axes) needed skill. Upper classes preferred handmade (class/refinement); machine goods for colonies. Contrast: labour-scarce America mechanised more eagerly.

Workers’ lives

Jobs via kinship networks; many waited under bridges/night shelters/Casual Wards. Seasonality → unemployment. Real wages fell in Napoleonic War price rise. Slumps (1830s): 35–75% unemployed in regions. Spinning Jenny (Hargreaves, 1764) attacked by women hand-spinners. After 1840s, urban building/railways expanded transport jobs.

3. Industrialisation in the Colonies (India — textiles)

Age of Indian textiles

India dominated fine textile markets. Land routes via NW; ports: Surat, Masulipatam, Hoogly. Indian merchants/bankers financed and supplied. By 1750s network breaking: European companies gained concessions/monopolies. Surat trade: Rs 16 million (late 17th c.) → Rs 3 million (1740s). Surat/Hoogly decline; Bombay/Calcutta rise under European control.

What happened to weavers?

After 1760s Company power: monopoly system — gomasthas; advances tying weavers; no sale to others; low prices; clashes; migration; some quit weaving.

Manchester comes to India

Piece-goods share of Indian exports: 33% (1811–12) → ≤3% (1850–51). Britain: import duties protect Manchester; push sales in India. Cotton piece-goods in Indian imports: ~0 (late 18th c.) → >31% (1850) → >50% (1870s). Weavers: lost export + domestic markets. 1860s: American Civil War → Indian raw cotton prices soar → weavers starved of affordable cotton. Later: Indian factories add competition.

4. Factories Come Up

Year	Milestone
1854–56	First Bombay cotton mill
1855, 1862	Early Bengal jute mills
1860s	Elgin Mill, Kanpur; Ahmedabad cotton mill
1874	Madras spinning & weaving mill
1912	Tata iron & steel, Jamshedpur
1917	First Indian jute mill (Seth Hukumchand), Calcutta

Entrepreneurs: China trade wealth (Dwarkanath Tagore; Petit; J.N. Tata; Birla family links; Hukumchand). Also inland traders/bankers. Colonial limits: raw material exports; edged from shipping. European Managing Agencies (Bird Heiglers, Andrew Yule, Jardine Skinner) dominated till WWI.

Workers: 584,000 (1901) → >2,436,000 (1946). Mostly nearby districts; seasonal return to villages; jobbers recruited and controlled workers.

5. Peculiarities of Industrial Growth

Managing Agencies: plantations, mining, indigo, jute — mainly for export. Early Indian mills: coarse yarn (not competing with Manchester cloth); yarn to handlooms/China. Swadeshi + China market loss (from 1906) → shift to cloth; piece-goods production doubles 1900–1912.

WWI: Manchester imports fall; Indian mills supply home + war needs → boom. After war, Britain never fully recovers Indian market.

Small-scale predominance: ~67% large industries in Bengal & Bombay (1911). Factory labour only 5% (1911) / 10% (1931) of industrial workforce. Handloom cloth almost trebles 1900–1940. Fly shuttle by 2nd decade 20th c.; by 1941 >35% handlooms (70–80% in some regions). Finer specialised weaves survive better than coarse cloth.

6. Market for Goods

Advertisements create consumers: Manchester labels (‘MADE IN MANCHESTER’); gods/goddesses and royal figures on labels/calendars; Indian mill ads carry swadeshi message.