Industrial Revolution and Its Consequences,

Industrial Revolution and Its Consequences, 1750-

Industrial Revolution

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Industrial revolution refers to the rapid and complex changes, both socially and economically, mainly because of introduction of extensive mechanization resulting in a change in production. Mechanization changes the formerly small scale hand-based production to a large scale production system that employs extensive use of machinery (Mokyr, 1985). Before 1750, the then population of the world depended on natural means to meet their everyday needs. All the basic needs be it food, shelter, clothing, were all obtained from the available natural resources. However, in the period 1750 to 1850, there were notable changes that affected lives of many people as a result of introduction of machinery. This paper intends to discuss how cotton textile played the biggest and most important role in industrial revolution.

Weaving of cotton cloth and spinning began in the eighteenth century in England. The English introduced machinery into the textile industry with the invention of the spinning jenny, the mule, and the water frame. However, the reason and the way this industry was revolutionized by England lies outside the west and in Asia (More, 2000).). Late into the seventeenth century, people in England suddenly developed strong love for cotton which was originally from India. Women increasingly desired the Indian cotton, commonly known as Calicoes. Soon, every household whether rich or poor, was dressed in this imported cotton. The bed sheets, curtains, cushions and clothing themselves were all made of calicoes imported into England from India. This sudden change of interests raised so many questions. Why and how could imported stuff flood households when locally prepared stuff was not desired? There are two reasons for this; first, Indian cotton was of very high quality as compared to the locally produced cotton. It was light and could therefore be won any time especially during the summer. Its high quality also made it feel good when it was won next to the skin. In addition, unlike the locally made cotton, it could easily accept bright color as dyes.

Another reason for the massive popularity of the Indian cotton in England is as a result of its price. Indian cotton was comparatively cheaper to any locally available cotton at the time. The low price made Indian cotton more available to the poor population who could not afford the locally produced cotton. This made India a great exporter of cotton not only to England but also to East and West Africa, Europe and South East Asia not forgetting the fact that they had to cater to the massive market back at home (Mokyr, 1985). Due to the better and cheap production of cotton products in India, the Indians undersold their products hence dominating the market. The British related the low price of Indian cotton as a result of the large population of Indians earning low wages. Secondly, the Indian living standards were usually comparatively low. This is because of the large population in India at the time. Those trying to explain the market dominance of Indian cotton over British cotton, tried to argue that since Britain paid their working population relatively better and higher wages, then Britain could not compete with India. It was becoming clear that for the British to develop on the textile scale, then their competitiveness had to be improved. However, following research showed that the textile industries workers in India have the same living standard as their counterparts in Britain. This again raised question on why the Indian cotton was sold cheaply yet their living standards were the same! Therefore, researchers and economists had to increase their attention and to redirect it towards finding the solutions to these questions.

Agriculture, mainly concerned with plant growth as opposed to animal keeping, was the main reason for the low price of the Indian cotton. Agriculture in India at this time was at its best. It was highly productive, ensuring that food was highly and always available for the Indian population. The reason for the flourishing agriculture in India at this time was attributed to the large population which could provide cheap labor. In addition, the people of India were generally industrious and could therefore provide skilled and quality labor dedicated to agriculture. During the seventeenth century, food was very important in the economical spectrum. As a result, families could spend up to eighty percent of their earnings on food and therefore in a way, food could determine the economical power of a household and by extension, a family. At around this time, the Indian Agriculture was twice as productive when compared to the English agriculture. Availability of food in plenty therefore could reduce the spending factor of Indian population. High yield per acre in India made it possible for availability of unlimited amounts of food. This in turn led to reduced and hence low price on food. Since food was now cheap, low wages could still maintain a given household since expenditure was reduced altogether. This gave India a comparative advantage over its competitors (Jacob, 1946). On the other hand, in England, lack of mechanization and cheap labor affected them negatively. Their agriculture was poorly developed leading to low yield per acre. Therefore, food became limited, leading to high price of food. Since food is a basic need, it had to be bought expensively and this resulted to high wages ending up with a comparative disadvantage. This comparative disadvantage had to be changed in order for the English economy to be stable and secure. Yet another question arises, how did England convert this comparative disadvantage in their favor?

Raising tariffs on Indian Imports was the major action they took. Also known as protectionism, the British increased the taxes charged as a result of importation of textile from India. By doing so, they prevented the massive importation that could lead to flooding of British markets with cheap Indian clothing and textile. This step salvaged their market by ensuring scarcity of cotton in Britain and hence desirable. This action made it possible for England to compete with India in the cotton business, once again.

Unlike before the seventeenth century when England had less impact in terms overseas business domination, the English began to make much business money out of Portuguese and Spanish in both the East and West Indies. By doing so, England found itself competing with the Dutch, who initially had dominated East Indies as well as West Indies. Later in the eighteenth century, England found itself on the battlefield with France over the overseas market dominance. Conflict developed in Europe between different countries, although initially, this battle was started by certain privately owned companies, in these countries. These companies were; Dutch Vereengidge oost-Indische compagnie (VOC East India company), the English East India company (EIC) and the French compagnie des Indies. These were private companies given monopoly rights by the government to trade with India, and Asia in general. They were given permanent capital and their stock could be traded. Their main goal initially was, to trade with Asian countries, and in the process, makes profits to be used in their mother countries.

The Dutch VOC, at the time led by its Governor-general proved to be very hostile to powers of Spain and Portugal. This is because they were held responsible to protect the interests of Dutch Protestants. They viewed war and trade as two things that are dependent on each other. Trade had to be protected by their weapons thus making war very likely (Mokyr, 1985). Throughout the seventeenth century, the Dutch took Malacca from the Portuguese and in the process; they seized Java and converted it into a sugar producing colony. In addition, they tried to form a colony on the Chinese island Taiwan. Trade was growing more and more dangerous as these wars could lead to great losses in terms of lives and property.

On the other side however, the English East India Company, EIC was busy concentrating with trade and business as opposed to war. To avoid the danger of being attacked, the EIC concentrated on trade with India. The main reason why the English East India Company chose India is because the Indian states were generally weak politically and in terms of military action. In addition here, competition from European countries was absent or very small. They therefore camped in Bengal and Madras, trading with Indians and making massive profits in the process. Things changed toward the end of seventeenth century however and the French and British forces clashed in India (Williams, 1994). During this war, the French had an upper hand because initially, they recruited Indians into their army and therefore had relatively higher manpower. Later, the British also started recruiting the locals and at the end of nearly a decade of war, each of the two had more than tens of thousands of soldiers. Most of these soldiers were of Indian origin recruited into the forces by the visitors.

Meanwhile, the political as well as military power of the Mughal Empire had been on the decrease in India. This was due to death of one of its greatest leaders, Aurangzeb early 1709. Leadership was seemingly absent as the last of the old and experienced leaders passed on and the new leaders took over. One of the new leaders, referred to as the nawab of Bengal took control of the British port and ordered for payment of increased tax from the British. This move was obviously advised by the French and was directed towards killing the British trade in India. However, Britain refused to comply with this order and instead countered this move. They sent a huge group of their military, comprising of English and Indian soldiers who had defected their authorities and joined the British, to battle it out with the nawab military, which were assisted by the French military (Higgins & Pollard, 2006). The British conquered and executed the nawab and replaced with a leader of their choice. Due to their influence and good relations with their new leader, the British were given authority to control and collect taxes in Bengal. The seven-year war had started between British and French forces, at the Indian coast. Britain emerged victorious once again and this marked the beginning of the British Empire in India. Over the next few years, the British control over India grew immensely and in 1956, Britain became the official colony.

The textile industry at this time became better developed in Britain as compared to the previous century. This was due to the high taxes imposed on textile importation from India. However, on the international scale, Indian textile was still popular because of two reasons. First, the British experienced technical difficulties in copying dyeing skills of the Indians. Secondly, their prices were relatively high because of the higher wages paid to the workers. For Britain to develop there was need to form export market and in the process, take control of the international market. Meanwhile, there was growing development in the new world. Slavery, where human beings, mainly the poor victims of war, were sold to work in huge agriculture plantations was one of the reasons for development. The slaves provided cheap and sometimes forced labor greatly needed in the plantations (Mokyr, 1985). Mercantilist trade restrictions also aided in development of the new industrial era.

The new world agriculture in Europe was developed because of several reasons. Britain was in great need of outside market in order to export its locally produced textile products in order to make profits, which would then be used to improve and maintain stability of the economy. Slave trade ensured constant supply of cheap labor in the plantations. African slaves were preferred because of two reasons. For one, high rates of deaths were recorded in Europe at around this time causing labor shortages. These deaths could be attributed to have been caused by these wars as well as disease outbreaks. Also, Europeans were not willing to migrate from their former residence to the new world region in order to provide the required labor. The large number of slaves needed upkeep. Luckily, food was not a problem because it could be obtained directly from agriculture. Another basic need was clothing and this made it necessary to see that there was need for importation of cheap cotton from India. Massive importation followed and at the end, cotton was so much that again there was need for the extra cotton to be exported to Africa. West Africa gladly traded with the British in exchange with slaves who could be sold in the Caribbean to work in the cotton plantations (Marks, 2007). The new world products were mainly obtained from the plantations. They included, cotton, tobacco, and sugar, obtained from sugarcane were taken to England.

This three sided trade gave Britain a chance to make lots of profits and in the process imposed laws known as colonial legislation. These rules played a very important role in making the British effect be felt as market controllers. These aided the British in ensuring that the third world remained the main producers of raw materials only. They also made sure that the new world could only consume industrial products of Britain in order to avoid instability again (Mokyr, 1985). They kept out of trade contact with their enemies especially the Dutch and the French, while they continued making profits. The massive labor produced by the slaves in textile industry improved shipping potential of England and massively developed the city of Manchester as the centre of textile manufacture.

Raw cotton was cheaply imported from the British colonies to the factories of Manchester. Massive development followed and a series of factories were built. Power used in the factories was acquired from water and this created massive employment to the population. As a result, yield per acre increased and this made prices of textiles to decline below those of the Indian textile (Mokyr, 1985). Soon, the British cotton became common and popular. By now, the skills and labor provided had increased the quality of cotton produced which had then started being exported to Africa from time to time. Late in the seventeenth century, discoveries in the agriculture industry brought some good news to the industrial development. At around the time when America gained independence, cotton gin was discovered in America. This discovery helped to revolutionize the cotton industries in two ways. First, it ensured availability of short staple cotton that could be exploited for greater quality of textile. Secondly, gin cotton relatively cheaper as compared to the already available cotton for use. Due to the cheaper price of gin cotton, it became very affordable to both the rich and the poor (Harrison, 1986). At around the same time, steam power was discovered making textile production even cheaper than Indian cotton. Fuel in industries was no longer a problem and this second discovery made it even easier in textile production.