Class 10 The Age of Industrialisation: cheat sheet

Key ideas

• Before factories, merchants organised large-scale home production for world markets in the countryside, away from town guilds (proto-industrialisation).
• Arkwright’s cotton mill brought all the processes under one roof, and the Spinning Jenny let one worker turn many spindles.
• Machines spread slowly in Britain because labour was cheap and plentiful and many goods needed skilled hands.
• The East India Company controlled weavers through paid supervisors called gomasthas and advances that tied weavers to it.
• Indian piece-goods exports collapsed as British cloth flooded India, yet handloom production survived and grew, helped by the fly shuttle.
• Early industrialists invested trade profits in industry: Bombay’s first cotton mill came up in 1854 and the Tata steel works at Jamshedpur in 1912.
• During the First World War Manchester imports fell and Indian mills supplied war needs, so industry grew.

Remember

Watch out

• Dividing a fall by the new value: divide by the old value.
• Thinking machines replaced hand labour at once.
• Mixing up the gomastha (over weavers) and the jobber (recruiting for mills).

Worked example

Trade through Surat fell from Rs 16 million in the late 17th century to Rs 3 million by the 1740s. (a) By what percentage did it fall, to two decimal places? (b) Suppose another port’s trade fell from Rs 25 million to Rs 6 million: by what percentage, to one decimal place? (c) Why did Surat decline?

Working: 13 ÷ 16 × 100; (25 − 6) ÷ 25 × 100

Answer: (a) 81.25% (b) 76% (c) European companies took control of trade, and Bombay and Calcutta grew as new ports.

Practise The Age of Industrialisation

Revise with this page, then practise: every The Age of Industrialisation sheet in the app is new, with an answer key and working.

Coming soon for Android and iPhone.