This chapter questions the simple story that industrialisation meant only the rise of factories. Before factories, much production happened in the countryside through proto-industrialisation, where merchants gave out work to peasant households. In Britain, the cotton and metal industries, steam power and new machines transformed manufacturing, yet hand labour and small workshops survived because machines were costly and labour was cheap and plentiful. In India, a thriving handloom and textile export trade declined as British rule promoted Manchester imports and as colonial policy worked against Indian weavers, who faced shrinking markets and a shortage of raw cotton. The rise of European Managing Agencies controlled Indian industry, while Indian entrepreneurs such as Dwarkanath Tagore and the early mill owners gradually built up cotton and jute mills. Workers, often migrants seeking jobs through jobbers, faced uncertain employment and poor conditions. The chapter also shows how advertisements, labels and images were used to create markets for new goods, linking the history of production to the history of consumption.
Proto-industrialisationThe coming of the factory in BritainIndustrialisation in colonial IndiaFactory workers and the labour marketMarkets and the role of advertising
Key terms
Proto-industrialisation
Large-scale production for international markets before factories, done in homes.
Industrial Revolution
The shift to machine-based factory production, beginning in 18th-century Britain.
Spinning Jenny
A machine that sped up the spinning process by working many spindles at once.
Fuller / Stapler / Carder
Workers in cloth production who, respectively, gathered, sorted and combed fibres.
Guild
An association of producers that controlled trade, training and prices.
Jobber
A trusted older worker employed to recruit and control new factory hands.
Managing Agency
A European-controlled firm that set up and ran much of colonial Indian industry.
Dwarkanath Tagore
An early Indian entrepreneur who invested in shipping, mining and banking.
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