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what was the impact of industrialisation in briton on the indian economy?
Before the age of machine industries, silk and cotton goods from India dominated the international market in textiles. Coarser cottons were produced in many countries, but the finer varieties often came from India.
By the 1750s this network, controlled by Indian merchants, was
breaking down.
As cotton industries developed in England, industrial groups began worrying about imports from other countries. Industrialists persuaded the East India Company to sell British manufactures in Indian markets as well.
Cotton weavers in India thus faced two problems at the same time: their export market collapsed, and the local market shrank, being glutted with Manchester imports. Produced by machines at lower costs, the imported cotton goods were so cheap that weavers could not easily compete with them. By the 1850s, reports from most
weaving regions of India narrated stories of decline and desolation.
By the 1860s, weavers faced a new problem. They could not get sufficient supply of raw cotton of good quality. When the American Civil War broke out and cotton supplies from the US were cut off, Britain turned to India. As raw cotton exports from India increased, the price of raw cotton shot up. Weavers in India were starved of supplies and forced to buy raw cotton at exorbitant prices. By the end of the nineteenth century, weavers and other craftspeople faced yet another problem. Factories in India began production, flooding the market with machine- goods.
In this, situation weaving could not pay.


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