Complete NCERT Book Page wise Solution Class 10th as per Latest CBSE Syllabus
History
Chapter-5 The Age of Industrialisation
The following page provides you NCERT book solutions for class 10 social science, social science class 10 notes in pdf are also available in the related links between the texts.
Write in brief
Question 1. Explain the following:
a)Women workers in Britain attacked the Spinning
b)In the seventeenth century merchants from towns in Europe began employing peasants and artisans within the
c)The port of Surat declined by the end of the eighteenth
d)The East India Company appointed gomasthas to supervise weavers in
Answer: (a)
- Women workers in Britain were surviving on the hand spinning job.
- They developed a valid fear that the new machine may take up their jobs and make them unemployed.
- In reality too the Spinning Jenny speeded up the spinning process, and consequently, reduced labour demand.
- Already the cottage and pear peasants were facing economic constraints due to various reasons.
- All these things made women workers to turn violent and they started attacking Spinning Jenny.
(b)
- The demand for goods increased with the expansion of world trade merchant needed more production.
- The trade and commerce guilds controlled the market, raw materials, employees, and also production of goods in the towns. So the merchants could not expand production.
- This created problems for merchants who wanted to increase production by employing more men.
Therefore, they turned to peasants and artisans who lived in villages.
(c)
By the end of the eighteenth century European companies in trade with India gradually gained power
They secured many concessions from local courts as well as the monopoly rights to trade.
- Exports from the ports like Surat felled dramatically and local bankers here went slowly bankrupt.
- Gross value of trade from Surat declined from Rs.16 million at the end of seventeenth century to Rs.3 million by 1740.
(d) The English East India Company appointed Gomasthas for:
- The East India company wanted to ensure regular supply of fine silk and cotton textiles.
- To eliminate the existence of traders and brokers and establish a direct control over the weavers through Gomasthas.
- To eliminate weavers from dealing with other buyers by means of advances and control.In this manner, weavers who took loans and fees in advance were obligated to the British.
- Thus company controlled costs and eliminated bargaining power of the weavers.
Question 2. Write True or False against each statement:
a)At the end of the nineteenth century, 80 per cent of the total workforce in Europe was employed in the technologically advanced industrial
b)The international market for fine textiles was dominated by India till the eighteenth
c)The American Civil War resulted in the reduction of cotton exports from
d)The introduction of the fly shuttle enabled hand loom workers to improve their
Answer: (a) False (b) True (c) False (d) True
Question 3. Explain what is meant by proto-industrialization
Answer: Proto-industrialization is the phase of industrialization that was not based on the factory system. Before the coming of factories, there was large-scale industrial production for an international market. This part of industrial history is known as proto- industrialization.
Discuss Project work
Question 1.Why did some industrialists in nineteenth-century Europe prefer hand labour over machines?
Answer: Some industrialists in nineteenth-century Europe prefer hand labour over machines because:
- Machines were costly, ineffective, difficult to repair, and needed huge capital investments.
- Labour was available at low wages at that period of time as unemplyment was high.
- Most of the industries were seasonal. In seasonal industries only seasonal labour was required.
- Markets from Upper classes demanded of variety of designs and colour and specific type could not be fulfilled by machine made clothes. Intricate designs and colours could be done by human-skills only.
- In Victorian age, the aristocrats and other upper class people preferred articles made by hand only.
Question 2. How did the East India Company procure regular supplies of cotton and silk textiles from Indian weavers?
Answer: The English East India Company used different means to procure silk and cotton from theweavers:
- Once East India company established political supremacy it monopolised the trade and eliminted ats rival traders.
- The developed a system of management and direct control over the weavers by appointing paid supervisors called Gomasthas.
- Gomasthas supervised weavers and also collected supplies and examined cloth quality of the weavers.
- He ensured prevention of Company weavers from dealing with other buyers through a system of advances and loans.
Question 3. Imagine that you have been asked to write an article for an encyclopaedia on Britain and them history of cotton. Write your piece using information from the entire chapter.
Answer: Britain and the History of Cotton
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants would trade with rural people in textile production. A clothier would buy wool from a wool stapler, carry it to the spinners, and then, take the yarn to the weavers, fuller and dyers for further levels of production.
London was the finishing centre for these goods. This phase in British manufacturing history is known as proto-industrialisation. In this phase, factories were not an essential part of industry. What was present instead was a network of commercial exchanges.
The first symbol of the new era of factories was cotton. Its production increased rapidly in the late nineteenth century. Imports of raw cotton sky-rocketed from 2.5 million pounds in 1760 to 22 million pounds in 1787. This happened because of the invention of the cotton mill and new machines, and better management under one roof. Till 1840, cotton was the leading sector in the first stage of industrialisation.
Most inventions in the textile production sector were met with disregard and hatred by the workers because machines implied less hand labour and lower employment needs. The Spinning Jenny was one such invention. Women in the woollen industry opposed and sought to destroy it because it was taking over their place in the labour market.
Before such technological advancements, Britain imported silk and cotton goods from India in vast numbers. Fine textiles from India were in high demand in England. When the East India Company attained political power, they exploited the weavers and textile industry in India to its full potential, often by force, for the benefit of Britain. Later, Manchester became the hub of cotton production. Subsequently, India was turned into the major buyer of British cotton goods.
During the First World War, British factories were too busy providing for war needs. Hence, demand for Indian textiles rose once again. The history of cotton in Britain is replete with such fluctuations of demand and supply.
Question 4. 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 following reasons:
- British industries became busy in producing and supplying war-needs. Hence, they stopped exporting British goods or clothes for colonial markets like that in India. Manchester imports to India declened.
- It was a good opportunity for Indian industries to fill in empty Indian markets with their products. It was done so. Therefore, industrial production in India increased.
- As the war prolonged 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 saddle, etc.
- The increased demands of variety of products led to the setting up of new factories and old ones increased their production.
- Many new workers were employed and everyone was made to work longer hours.
