Age of Industrialisation Class 10th Notes
Age of Industrialisation Class 10th Notes
Age of Industrialisation Class 10th Notes
HISTORY
ASSIGNMENT –I
2*What were the trading guilds? How did they control industrial production?
PG-105
3.` In the 18th century Europe, the peasants and artisans in the countryside readily agreed to work
for the merchants`. Explain Why.
1. This was a time when open fields were disappearing and commons were being enclosed. Cottagers
and poor peasants had to now look for alternative sources of income.
2.Many had tiny plots of land which could not provide work for all members of the household. So
when merchants came around and offered advances to produce goods for them, peasant households
eagerly agreed.
3. By working for the merchants, they could remain in the countryside and continue to cultivate their
small plots.
4. Income from proto-industrial production supplemented their shrinking income from cultivation. It also
allowed them a fuller use of their family labour resources.
1.A series of inventions in the eighteenth century increased the efficacy of each step of the production
process (carding, twisting and spinning, and rolling).
2. They enhanced the output per worker, enabling each worker to produce more, and they made possible
the production of stronger threads and yarn. Then Richard Arkwright created the cotton mill.
3. Till this time cloth production was spread all over the countryside and carried out within village
households.
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4.But now, the costly new machines could be purchased, set up and maintained in the mill. Within the
mill all the processes were brought together under one roof and management.
5.This allowed a more careful supervision over the production process, a watch over quality, and the
regulation of labour, all of which had been difficult to do when production was in the countryside.
5.*Why were the British industrialists not keen to introduce modern machinery in the 19 th
century? Explain PG-107
OR
`The modern industrialization could not marginalize the traditional industries in England.` Justify
the statement with suitable arguments.
PG.107-108
*6.Why did some industrialists in the 19th century Europe prefer hand labour over machines?
PG-109
7.Why in Victorian Britain, the upper classes preferred things produced by hand? Give reasons.
1.In Victorian Britain, the upper classes – the aristocrats and the bourgeoisie – preferred things produced
by hand.
2. Handmade products came to symbolise refinement and class.
3.They were better finished, individually produced, and carefully designed. Machine made goods were
for export to the colonies.
2.1 Life of the Workers
PG-110-111
9.``Wages increased somewhat in the early nineteenth century. But they tell us little about the
welfare of the workers.`` Explain with examples .
1.Wages increased somewhat in the early nineteenth century. 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.
2. For instance, when prices rose sharply during the prolonged Napoleonic War, the real value of what
the workers earned fell significantly, since the same wages could now buy fewer things.
3.The income of workers depended not on the wage rate alone. What was also critical was the period of
employment: the number of days of work determined the average daily income of the workers.
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4. At the best of times till the mid-nineteenth century, about 10 per cent of the urban population were
extremely poor. In periods of economic slump, like the 1830s, the proportion of unemployed went up to
anything between 35 and 75 per cent in different regions.
5.The fear of unemployment made workers hostile to the introduction of new technology. When the
Spinning Jenny was introduced in the woolen industry, women who survived on hand spinning began
attacking the new machines.
10.Before the age of machine industries, silk and cotton goods from India dominated the
international market in textiles.
1.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.
2. Armenian and Persian merchants took the goods from Punjab to Afghanistan, eastern Persia and
Central Asia.
3.Bales of fine textiles were carried on camel back via the north-west frontier, through
mountain passes and across deserts.
4. A vibrant sea trade operated through the main pre-colonial ports. Surat on the Gujarat coast connected
India to the Gulf and Red Sea Ports; Masulipatam on the Coromandel coast and Hoogly in Bengal had
trade links with Southeast Asian ports.
5.A variety of Indian merchants and bankers were involved in this network of export trade – financing
production, carrying goods and supplying exporters.
11.*Why did Surat and Hoogly lose importance as ports in the eighteenth century? Explain.
PG-113
OR
How did East Indian Company procure the regular supply of cotton and silk goods?Explain.
OR
What did English East India Company do to ensure regular supply of cotton and silk during the
18th century? Explain.
Ans. (1) The East India Company had to face obstacles to procure regular supplies of cotton and silk
textiles from Indian weavers.
(2) The French, Dutch, Portuguese, as well as the local traders, competed in the market. However, the
East India Company established political power and asserted monopoly right to trade.
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(3) The company tried to eliminate existing traders and have direct control over the weaver and
appointed a paid servant called gomastha to supervise and collect supplies.
(4) It prevented company weavers from dealing with other buyers. One way of doing was through the
system of advances.
(5) Those weavers who took loans had to hand over the cloth they produced to the gomastha. They could
not take it to any other trader.
13. In many weaving villages there were reports of clashes between weavers and gomasthas. Why ?
1. Earlier supply merchants had very often lived within the weaving villages, and had a close relationship
with the weavers, looking after their needs and helping them in times of crisis.
2.The new gomasthas were outsiders, with no long-term social link with the village. They acted
arrogantly, marched into villages with sepoys and peons, and punished weavers for delays in supply –
often beating and flogging them.
3. The weavers lost the space to bargain for prices and sell to different buyers: the price they received
from the Company was miserably low and the loans they had accepted tied them to the Company.
4.In many places in Carnatic and Bengal, weavers deserted villages and migrated, setting up looms in
other villages where they had some family relation.
5. Elsewhere, weavers along with the village traders revolted, opposing the Company and its officials.
Over time many weavers began refusing loans, closing down their workshops and taking to agricultural
labour.