CHAPTER VIII

TRADE AND MANUFACTURE

Little

ALL the old industries, for which India had been noted from ancient times, had declined under the jealous commercial policy of the East India Company; and when Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 agriculture was left the only national industry of the people. was done to foster new industries after the Crown assumed the administration of India in 1858; and the last decades of the century still found the Indian manufacturer and artisan in a state of poverty and decline. A few experiments were made from time to time, but not on an adequate scale, and not in a manner commensurate with the vast interests at stake.

Cotton.-Spinning and weaving were the national industries of India down to the commencement of the nineteenth century. The spinning-wheel and the handloom were universally in use; and it is scarcely an exaggeration to state that nearly half the adult female population of India eked out the incomes of their husbands and their fathers by the profits of their own labour. It was an industry peculiarly suited to Indian village life. There were no great mills and factories; but each woman brought her cotton from the village market, and sold her yarn to the village weaver, who supplied merchants and traders with cloth. Vast quantities of piece goods, thus manufactured, were exported by the Arabs, the Dutch, and the Portuguese; and European nations competed with each other for this lucrative trade with India. But when the East India Company acquired territories in India, they reversed this policy. Not content with the

carrying trade between India and Europe, British manufacturers sought to repress Indian industries in order to give an impetus to British manufactures. Their great idea was to reduce India to a country of raw-produce, and to make her subservient to the manufacturing industries of Great Britain. How this policy was pursued, and how it ultimately succeeded, has been narrated in another work.1

Later on, when power-looms had entirely supplanted hand-looms in Europe, Indian capitalists began to start cotton mills in their own country. This, again, aroused the jealousy of Lancashire manufacturers; and the fiscal policy pursued by the Indian Government in 1874 to 1879 has been told in a previous chapter. And the sad story will be continued to the close of the century in the succeeding chapter.

But hand-looms still survive in India to some extent, in spite of power-looms. The reasons are not far to seek. India is pre-eminently a country of small industries and small cultivation. Land in England belongs to great landlords; the agriculturists are mere farmers and labourers. But land in India belongs primarily to small cultivators who have their hereditary rights in their holdings; the landlord, where he exists, cannot eject them so long as they pay their rents. In the same manner, the various industries of the country were carried on by humble artisans in their own villages and huts; the idea of large factories, owned by capitalists and worked by paid operatives, was foreign to the Indian mind. And despite the great results which are achieved by capital, it is nevertheless true that the individual man is at his best,-in dignity and intelligence, in foresight and independence,-when he works in his own fields or at his own loom, rather than when he is a paid labourer under a big landlord or a wage-earner in a huge factory. And every true Indian hopes that 1 India under Early British Rule, 1757-1837.

the small cultivation of India will not be replaced by landlordism, and that something of the home industries will survive the assaults of capitalism.

Endeavours have been made to help the handloom weavers who still carry on their hereditary profession. Their methods are susceptible of improvement, and their output could be largely increased by the use of improved looms. Experiments are being made in different places, and specially in Madras. It is too early yet to say what the result will be; but it is confidently believed that, with necessary improvements, hand-looms will be found to answer, at least for certain descriptions of goods. Such a result would help millions of poor weavers, Hindu and Mahomedan, who have sunk to the lowest depths of poverty, and are the earliest victims of famines. And a civilised Government has no more sacred duty than to help these submerged classes, and revive one of the most ancient industries of India.

Silk.--Silk manufactures have declined from the days of the East India Company, and their export is insignificant. Tussur silk is grown in most parts of India, and quantities of fabrics are produced both for home use and for export. In Assam, silk still continues to be the national dress of women, and the industry is entirely a home one, each family weaving Sarees for its own use. Finer silks, produced by the mulberry-feeding worms, are obtained in Bengal districts, and some improvement has been effected by the adoption of scientific methods of testing the "seed" and rearing the worms. In the Punjab, however, the endeavour to reintroduce the cultivation of silkworms has ended in failure. In Kashmir, the industry is indigenous, and the State is endeavouring to develop it by the importation of sound "seed" from Europe. "The silk-weavers of India possess the very highest skill in their craft, and it is probable that under competent and energetic direction, with the assist

ance of capital, the industry could be revived and extended." 1

Wool. The manufacture of coarse blankets, used by the poor, is carried on in many parts of India. The Shawl industry of Kashmir is practically extinct, so far as elaborate and artistic products are concerned; and such shawls are produced in only very small quantities, generally to order. The Punjab is still, however, the seat of a considerable woollen manufacture, and specially of woollen carpets. And the carpet industry of Madras is also important.

Woollen mills, conducted mainly by European capital and under European management, nearly doubled their production within the last decade of the century; and there were 594 looms and 22,986 spindles in 1901. The output of the mills is chiefly used for the army and the police.

Jute.-Bengal has virtually a monopoly of the cultivation of jute, the average yield of the crop being about twenty million cwt. One half of this produce is exported to Europe, while the other half is used either for the making of home-spun cloths or bags, or in the jute mills. There were 35 mills, 8218 looms, and 171,148 spindles in 1901, and the number of looms and spindles nearly doubled in the succeeding year.

Hands Employed. But altogether mill industry in India is still in its infant stage, and the number of people who find employment in these industries is insignificant. In the year 1901 the cotton mills of India employed 173,708 hands; the jute mills employed 64,700 hands; and apart from indigenous home industries there was no other manufacturing industry which employed as many as 20,000 hands.

In the preparation of agricultural staples for the market, indigo factories employed 173,000 workers; jute presses, 20,000; cotton ginning, cleaning, and pressing 1 Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India, 1901-2, p. 227.

mills about 52,000; timber mills, 8000; coffee works, 5000; and oil mills, 4000.

Iron and brass foundries employed 18,000 persons; tile factories, 10,000; printing presses, 13,000; lac factories, 5000; silk filatures and silk mills, 14,000; and paper mills about 5000. The numbers employed in woollen mills increased only 16 per cent. in the ten years ending in 1901.

Paper. There were nine mills in 1901, and the amount of paper produced was 47 million pounds. The Government of India obtains from these mills most of its foolscap, blotting-paper, and note-paper, but imports about £15,000 worth of paper from Europe.

Brass and Copper. The household vessels of the Hindus are generally made of brass, though Mahomedans often use copper. The brass industry is about the only indigenous industry which is still safe from foreign competition, though large quantities of enamelled iron ware, imported from Europe, are coming into use in Hindu households. It is satisfactory to learn from an official historian of Indian industries that "the continuance of the internal demand for brass and copper ware is assured; and the skill of the artificers is so great that, with proper direction and energetic development, a large expansion of exports to Europe is possible." 1

Wood Carving. Apart from the work of the carpenter who exists in every Indian village and town, there is a large trade with Europe in small articles as toys, boxes, and the like, carved with artistic skill. Inlaying is also a notable art in India.

Tea. The area under tea, of which nine-tenths lies in Assam and Northern Bengal, expanded 45 per cent. within the ten years ending in 1901. There was indeed over-production, and it has latterly become necessary to restrict the area under cultivation, and to reduce the quantity of leaf taken from the plant. The total yield 1 Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India, 1901-2, p. 227.