Question

Imagine that you have been asked to write an article for an encyclopedia on Britain and the history of cotton. Write your piece using information from the entire.

Answer 1

By the 1730s, the earliest factories in England were established. But the number of factories in Britain multiplied only in the late eighteenth century. Cotton was the first symbol of the new era in Britain.

• To feed the cotton industry of Britain, it was importing 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton in 1760.
• This import of cotton soared to 22 million pounds, by 1787.
• Changes made within the process of production was the link behind this massive increase in imports of cotton.
• Cotton mill was created by Richard Arkwright.
• All the processes involved were brought together under one management and roof.
• New machines were purchased, maintained and set up in the mill.
• Series of inventions led to an increase in output per worker.
• Until creation of cotton mills, cloth production was within village households, spread over all the countryside.
• When production was predominantly in the countryside, some important things were absent such as regulation of labour, watch over quality, careful supervision over the production process. These things were implemented when cotton mills were introduced.

Industrialisation in Britain – Led by Cotton

• In Britain, cotton and metals were the most dynamic industries.
• In the first phase of industrialisation in Britain, up to the 1840s, cotton was the leading sector, which was growing at a rapid pace.
• Later Iron and Steel industry overtook the cotton industry, the value of steel and iron exports from Britain was double the export value of cotton.
• In the third phase of industrialization in Britain, non-mechanised sectors led the way, but the cotton industry was not stagnant.
• After the invention of steam engines in Britain, it had only 321 steam engines. Out of these 80 steam engines were used in cotton industries.

Britain – Cotton Trade

• Although British East India Company had established itself in India after the 1760s, the British cotton industry had not yet expanded and in Europe, Indian textiles were still in demand.
• Once British East India Company established political supremacy in India, they took a series of measures to make sure there was a steady supply of cotton from India to Britain.
• Industrial groups began worrying about imports from other countries, as cotton industries developed in England. India produced higher quality goods.
• To make sure that Manchester goods could sell in Britain without facing any competition from outside, cotton industries in Britain pressurized the Government to impose import duties on cotton textiles.
• East India Company was persuaded to sell British goods in Indian markets.
• There had been virtually no import of cotton piece-goods into India, at the end of the 18th century.
• In the early nineteenth century, exports of British cotton goods increased dramatically.
• The value of Indian imports, of cotton-piece goods was more than 31% and by 1870 it had increased to more than 50%.
• Indian market was filled with cotton goods imported from Manchester (Britain) and the local market and exports of Indian cotton goods collapsed.
• The price of raw cotton shot up in India, as the raw cotton exports from India increased to Britain, since the cotton supplies from the US to Britain was disrupted due to civil war in America.

Britain – Collapse of Cotton Industry, After First World War

• After the 1st world war, the economy of Britain collapsed.
• Export of cotton clothes from Britain reduced drastically.
• The production of cotton collapsed in Britain.
• Manchester was never able to recapture its old position in the Indian market after the First World War.