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India was a traditional supplier of silk and cotton textiles to the world from ancient times. All over the world, Indian materials have become highly sought after in the urban markets. Established trade routes and an efficient operational system made India a top exporter.
The business of Indian textiles went on smoothly till about 1760, when the industrial revolution in Europe changed the concept of industrial productivity. With high capacity machines, British and European factories were under constant pressure for additional raw materials.
Meanwhile, the East India Company was slowly taking control of the textile and other commodities trade from India. The process of industrialisation in the colonies began unnoticed.
East India Company : Trader to Ruler
The East India Company (also called the company) was formed to trade in the Indian sub-continent and South-East Asia. By the mid-1770s, the company controlled a significant share of the world trade in essential commodities like Cotton, Silk Sugar, Salt, Tea, Indigo and Opium, among others.
With time, the company as an agent of British imperialism slowly started exerting military power. Finally, in 1757, after the battle of Plassey, the company gained control of Bengal, and the effective rule of the British crown started.
The authorities implemented policies and tariff regimes in India to curb the export of textiles and simultaneously facilitate the import of cheap cloth- items from Britain. As a result, the process of industrialisation in the colonies gained momentum.
Industrial Revolution and Colonisation
The Industrial Revolution brought in new methods of production of goods in Europe. With high-speed manufacturing processes, the factories in Europe faced two critical issues; supply of raw materials and a market for finished products.
The large output of the mechanised mills in the textile sector started pushing out the creation of the traditional weavers. The factory-made clothes, though, were never comparable in fineness or exquisiteness to the traditional ones, were cheap.
The European rulers realised that colonisation is the key to the cause of both raw materials and a captive market for finished products. The more prominent countries in Europe worked out plans of industrialisation in the colonies.
Even before the industrial revolution, the East India Company started monopolising the commodity business in India. The advent of colonialism forced open the vast Indian market to British goods.
Two deliberate trade policies subsequently led to the decline of Indian textiles and helped the British cotton industries to prosper. Thousands of weavers in India lost business and became unemployed. Some of them turned to agriculture.
Finally, in1858, with the British crown taking direct control of India, the era of the British-raj began. The process of colonisation in India turned a full circle.
The Decline of the Indian Textile Business
A combination of strategic tariff regimes and restrictive trade policies ruined the cotton business in India. Exports collapsed, and cheap imports from the mills of Manchester flooded the local markets. Nevertheless, the British cotton Industries continued to flourish at the cost of the industries in India.
The British rulers implemented the following measures:
1. Machine-made cloth from the factories in England arrived in India for sales without any duties.
2. The Indian raw cotton went to England without any duty or tariff restriction. So the factories in England got regular supplies to meet the production requirements of textiles.
3. The ruling authorities eliminated most of the existing traders, exporters and brokers of textiles from the system.
4. Furthermore, traders must send all export textiles from India on British vessels.
5. The company created the post of Gomastha, who supervised the weavers’ production, provided loans as advances, and prevented the weavers from dealing with any other buyer. The final goods only went to the company. Weavers who refused had to leave the trade and take up agriculture for a living.
6. The British and European trading firms were awarded many monopoly rights to the business.
The start of the 19th century saw the once-famous Indian textiles getting ousted from the traditional strongholds of Europe, Africa and America. Cheap materials from Britain flooded the local Indian markets. Several other commodity businesses met the same fate. Indian business felt the impact of industrialisation in the colonies.
Conclusion
India was a leader in textiles from ancient times. Indian silk and cotton were a favourite of the elite in Europe and several other countries for comfort and design. The East India Company monopolised several trade-in India including cotton and silk. The industrial revolution in Europe created powerful machines, which increased factory outputs. A partisan policy regime by the British rulers saw the decline of the Indian Textile business. The Swadeshi movement brought out a spirit of patriotism and motivated people to use more Indian goods.
