RBSE Class 10 Social Science Notes History Chapter 4 The Age of Industrialisation

These comprehensive RBSE Class 10 Social Science Notes History Chapter 4 The Age of Industrialisation will give a brief overview of all the concepts.

RBSE Class 10 Social Science History Chapter 4 The Age of Industrialisation

Summary

(1) Proto-industrialisation – Even before factories began to exist in England and Europe, there was large scale industrial production for an international market. This was not based on factories. Many historians now refer to this phase of industrialisation as Proto-industrialisation.

(2) Coming of the factories in England – The earliest factories in England came up by the 1730s. The 1st symbol of the new era was cotton. Its production boomed in the late nineteenth century. A series of inventions in the eighteenth century increased the efficacy of the production process. Richard Arkwright created the cotton mill.

(3) The pace of Industrial Change – The most dynamic industries in Britain were clearly cotton and metals. Growing at a rapid pace cotton was the leading sector in the first phase of industrialisation upto the 1840s. After that the iron and steel industry led the way.

(4) Hand Labour and Steam Power – In Victorian Britain there was no shortage of human labour. Poor peasants and vagrants moved to the cities in large numbers in search of jobs and waiting for work. In many industries the demand for labour was seasonal. A range of product could be produced only with hand labour. The demand in the market was often poor of goods with intricate designs and specific shapes. There required human skill, and not mechanical technology. In Victorian Britain, the aristocrats and the bourgeoisie – preferred thing to be produced by hand.

(5) Life of the Workers – The abundance of labour in the market affected the lives of workers. As news of possible jobs reached the countryside, hundreds of workers tramped to the cities. Many job seekers had to wait for weeks spending nights under bridges or in night shelters. Seasonality of work in many industries meant prolonged periods without work. The fear of unemployment made workers hostile to the introduction of new technology. After the 1840s, building activity intensified in the cities opening up greater opportunities of employment.

(6) The Age of Indian Textiles – Before the age of machine industries, silk and cotton goods from India dominated the international market in textiles. Many Indian merchants and bankers were involved in the network of export trade. But the European companies gradually gained power. There was a decline of the old ports of Sugar and Hoogly through which local merchants had operated. Bombay and Calcutta began to grow.

(7) Miserable Condition of the Weavers – Once the east India company established political power, it could assert a monopoly right to trade. It tried to eliminate the existing traders and brokers connected with the cloth trade and establish more direct control over the weavers. The company appointed a paid servant called the “gomastha’ to supervise weavers, collect supplies and examine the quality of cloth. But soon in many weaving villages, there were reports of clashes between weavers and ‘gomasthas’. The gomasthas used to beat and flogg the weavers. Consequently, many weavers deserted villages.

(8) Manchester comes to India – In the nineteenth century, there was a decline of textile export from India. The British industrialists pressurised the government to improve import duties on cotton textiles so that Manchester goods could be sold in Britain without facing any competition from outside. Export of British cotton goods increased dramatically in the early nineteenth century.

(9) Factories Come Up – 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. In Bengal, the first jute mill came up in 1855 and another one in 1862. Elgin Mill was started in Kanpur in the 1860s.

(10) The Early Entrepreneurs – Some famous industrialists of nineteenth century of India were Dwarkanath Tagore. Dinshaw Petit, Jamsedjee Nusserwanjee Tata, Seth Hukum Chand, G. D. Birla, etc.

(11) Workers of the Factories – In most industrial regions workers came from the districts around. Peasant and artisans who found no work in the village, went to the industrial centre in search of work.

(12) Peculiarities of Industrial Growth – European Managing Agencies established tea and coffee plantations in India by acquiring land at cheap rates from the colonial government. They invested in mining, indigo and jute. Most of them were products which required primarily for export trade and not for sale in India. By the first decade of the twentieth century, many changes affected the pattern of industrialisation.

Cotton piece-goods production in India doubled between 1900 and 1912. During the first world war, Indian factories were called upon to supply war needs, jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, lents and leather boots and other itmes. New factories were set up over the war years and the industrial production boomed.

(13) Predominance of Small-scale Industries – After the war. small scale industries predominated in India. In some instances; handicrafts production actually expanded in the twentieth century. Handloom cloth production expanded almost trebling between 1900 and 1940.

(14) Market for Goods – The industrialists looked help of the advertisements to create new consumers and sell their industrial goods. Advertisements had played an important role in expanding the markets for products and in shaping a new consumer culture.