The Age of Industrialisation
1. What is meant by proto industrialisation?
Answer:
. Proto-industrialisation was the early phase of industrialization in Europe and England when there was large-scale industrial production for an international market. This was not based on factories.
2. Enumerate the features of the proto-industrial system.
Answer:
i) It was a decentralised system of production. It was part of a network of commercial exchanges.
ii) Control of production was in the hand of merchants. Goods were produced by a vast number of producers working in their family farms, not in factories.
iii) Whole of the family was involved. It allowed peasants a fuller use of their family labour resources.
iv) At each stage of production – spinning, dying etc., 20 to 25 workers were employed by each merchant. This meant that each clothier was controlling hundreds of workers.
v)By working for the merchants, workers could remain in the countryside and continue to cultivate their small plots.
3. “In the eighteenth-century Europe, the peasants and artisans in the countryside readily agreed to work for the merchants.” Explain any three reasons.
OR
In the 17th century merchants from towns in Europe began employing peasants and artisans within the villages. ExplainAnswer: (i) Open fields were disappearing and commons were being enclosed so common people had no alternative sources of income.
(ii) Tiny plots of land with the villagers could not provide work for all members of the family.
(iii) Advances offered by the merchants made the villagers readily agree to produce goods for them.
(iv) By working for the merchants, they could continue to remain in the villages and do cultivation also.
(v) Income from protoindustrial production supplemented their shrinking income from cultivation. It was possible to have full use of their family labours force.
4. What were guilds? How did they make it difficult for new merchants to set up business in towns of England?
Answer: Urban crafts and trade guilds were associations of producers who trained the craftspeople, controlled the production and regulated the price and competition.
i) During the 17th and 18th centuries, the world trade and the colonies expanded which increased the demands of goods.
ii)The merchants were not able to sustain within towns because of the powerful urban crafts and trade guilds and therefore they moved to the countryside to persuade the peasants and artisans to produce for the international market and also supplied money to them.
iii) These trade guilds restricted the entry of new people into the trade because monopoly rights were granted to them to produce and trade in specific products.
iv) Production units were set up in the country side. But the merchants were based in towns and work was done in countryside.
v) Work in the countryside was scattered like purchase of wool from stapler, carried to spinner, weaver, fuller and then to dyer. Finishing was done in London. This was a time and energy-consuming process.
This situation made the new merchants difficult to set up their business units in towns.
5. How had a series of inventions in the eighteenth century increased the efficiency of each step of the production process in cotton textile industry? Explain
Answer: (i) Each step means carding, twisting, spinning and rolling. They enhanced the output per worker, enabling each worker to produce more and produce stronger threads and yarn.
(ii) Richard Arkwright created the cotton mill. Before this, cloth production was carried out within village households.
(iii) Now costly machines could be set up in the mill processes and all the mill were completed under one roof.
(iv) This allowed a more careful supervision over the production process, a watch over quality and the regulation of worker.
(v) As a result of all, this production increased to a great extent.
6. Why did technological changes occur slowly in Britain in the early nineteenth century? Explain any three reasons.
Answer: (i) New technology was expensive and merchants and industrialists were Cautious about using it.
(ii) The machines often broke down and repairs were costly.
(iii) They were not much effective as compared to cheap labor.
7. “Historians now have come to increasingly recognize that the typical worker in the mid-nineteenth century was not a machine operator but the traditional craftsperson and labourer.” Analyse the statement.
Answer: The typical worker in the mid-nineteenth century was not a machine operator but the traditional craftsperson and labourer.
i) Less than 20% of the total workforce Was employed in advanced technological industrial centres.
ii) The traditional craftsmen and their handmade things were more popular as aristocratic class preferred handmade items. It defined their class and status.
iii) Much of the industries were based on season like food processing, pottery, book binding, catering, ship repairing, etc. Machines would be huge investment with no work. They thus preferred hand labour.
iv) There were wide range of products that could only be produced by hand because of their varied designs, better finishing and specific shapes. Machines would produce similar products.
v) The technological changes occurred very slowly because the new technology was very costly. The merchants and industrialists were highly cautious for its use as the machines often broke down and its repair was too expensive.
8. Why did the upper classes in Victorian period preferred things produced by hand?
Answer: The upper classes, during Victorian period, preferred things produced by hands because :
