Ans) Stapler Stapler is a person who ‘staples’ or sorts wool according to its fibre. Fuller A person who ‘fulls’ or gathers cloth by pleating. Carding it is a process in which fibres, such as cotton or wool are prepared prior to spinning.

Ans) Reason behind the port of Surat declined by the end of 18th century:-

1. Surat on the Gujarat coast connected India to the Gulf and Red sea Ports. Masulipatnam on the Coromandel coast and Hoogly in Bengal had trade links with Southeast Asian ports.
2. By the 1750s this network, controlled by Indian merchants, was breaking down. The European companies gradually gained power. They first secured a variety of concessions from local courts, then the monopoly rights to trade. This resulted in a decline of the old ports of Surat and Hoogly. Exports from these ports fell dramatically.
3. The credit that had financed the earlier trade began drying up. The local bankers slowly went bankrupt. In the last years of the 17th century, the gross value of trade that passed through Surat had been 16 million. By the 1740s it had slumped to 3 million.

Ans)In the seventeenth century merchants from towns in Europe began employing peasants and artisans within the villages –

1. In the 17th century, merchants from the towns in Europe began moving to the countryside. They supplied money to peasants and artisans and persuaded them to produce for an international market. With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of colonies indifferent parts of the world, the demand for goods began growing.
2. In the countryside poor peasants and artisans began working for merchants. Cottagers and poor peasants were looking for alternative sources of income. So, when merchants came there and offered advances to produce goods for them, peasants eagerly agreed. By working for the merchants, they could remain in the countryside and continue to cultivate their small plots.
3. This system developed a close relationship between the town and the country. Merchants were based in towns but the work was done mostly in the countryside.
4. At each stage of production 20-25 workers were employed by each merchant. This meant that each merchant was controlling hundreds of workers.

Ans) Female Workers in Britain attacked the Spinning Jenny Spinning Jenny-Devised by James Hargreaves in 1764, this machine speeded up the spinning process and reduced labour demand. By turning one single wheel a worker could set in motion a number of spindles and spin several threads at the same time.

Reason for attack-The fear of unemployment made workers hostile to the introduction of new technology. When the Spinning Jenny was introduced in the woollen industry, female workers who survived on hand spinning began attacking the new machines. This conflict over the introduction of the Jenny continued for a long time.

Ans) After the decade of 1840 building construction intensified in the cities. It opened up new opportunities of employment. Roads were widened, new railway stations came up, railway lines were extended, tunnels dug, drainage and sewers laid, rivers embanked. The number of workers employed in the transport industry doubled in the decade of 1840 and doubled again in the subsequent 30 years.

Ans) The report stated that the Koshtis, like the weavers of the finer kinds of cloth in other parts of India, have had fallen upon evil times. They were unable to compete with the showy goods which Manchester had sent in such profusion. In recent years they have emigrated in great numbers. They mainly moved to Berar where they were able to obtain wages as day labourers.

Ans) After arriving Manchester in India, weavers had to face the following problems:-

1. As cotton industries developed in England industrial groups began worrying about imports from other countries. They forced the government to impose import duties on cotton textiles so that Manchester goods could sell in Britain without facing any competition from outside. At the same time industrialists persuaded the East India Company to sell British manufacturers in Indian markets as well.
2. This created mainly two problems at the same time for cotton weavers in India. Their export market collapsed and the local market shrank.
3. The local market was glutted with Manchester imports. The imported cotton goods, produced by machines at lower costs, 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.
4. 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.

Ans) In the early 19th century the workers’ wages had improved at some extent. But they tell us little about the welfare of the workers. The average figures hide the variations between trades and the fluctuations from year to year. For example, when prices rose sharply during the first war, the gross value of what the workers earned fell significantly. Now they earned the same wages but could not buy things in the same quantity. Moreover, the income of workers depended not on the wage rate alone. The duration of employment was also important. The number of days of work determined the average daily income of the workers.

Ans) A variety of Indian merchants and bankers were involved in this network of export trade. They financed production, carried goods and supplied exporters. Supply merchants linked the port towns to the inland regions. They gave advances to weavers, obtained the woven cloth from weaving villages, and carried the supply to the ports. At the port, the big shippers and exporters had brokers who bargained the price and bought goods from the supply merchants operating inland. By the 1750s this network controlled by Indian merchants was breaking down.

Ans) Industrial production in India increased during the First World War due to the following reasons:-

1. Till the First World War, industrial growth was slow. The war created a new situation dramatically.
2. With British mills busy with war production to meet the needs of the army. Manchester imports into India declined.
3. Suddenly, Indian mills had a vast home market to supply. As the war prolonged, Indian factories were called upon to supply jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, tents and leather boots, horse and mule saddles and a host of other items. New factories were set up.
4. Old factories run multiple shifts. Many new workers were employed and everyone was made to work for longer hours. Over the war years industrial production boomed.

Ans) In the mid-19th century the abundance of labour in the market affected the lives of workers in the following ways:-

1. As news of possible jobs spread in the countryside, hundreds of people tramped to the cities. The actual possibility of getting a job depended on existing networks of friendship and kinship.
2. Many job seekers had to wait weeks, spending nights under bridges or in night shelters. Some stayed in Night Refugees which were set up by private individuals. Many poor went to the casual wards maintained by the poor law authorities.
3. In many industries, workers had to stay vacant for long periods due to seasonality of work. After the busy season was over, the poor were on the streets again. Some returned to the countryside after the winter, when the demand for labour in the rural areas opened up in places. But most looked for odd jobs, which till the mid 19th -century were difficult to find.

Ans) The first cotton mill was set up in India in 1854 and it went into production two years later. By 1862 there were four mills working with 94,000 spindles and 2,150 looms. Around the same time jute mills opened up in Bengal. The first being set up in 1855 and another one 7 years later, in 1862. In north India, the Elgin Mill began in Kanpur in the 1860s and a year later the first cotton mill of Ahmadabad was set up. By 1874, the first spinning and weavings mill of Madras began production.