The Age Of Industrialization Class 10

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Class 10 History Chapter 4 - Video Lecture

The Age of Industrialization Class 10 -  Important Questions

1. What is Proto-industrialization?  

Ans.   Proto means first form of something. It was a part of network of commercial exchanges, controlled by the merchants and the goods were produced by vast number of producers within their family farms. In the 18th century merchants from towns & cities began moving to the countryside supplying money to the peasants & artisans to produce goods for the international markets. As demands were increasing, merchants could not expand in the urban areas because of the existing TRADE GUILDS. (these were the associations of producers that trained the craftspeople, maintained control over production, regulated prices and production and also restricted the entry of new merchants.) Therefore these merchants turned to the countryside.

2. Which Factories came up in Europe First?

Ans.   The earliest factories came up by 1730s & they multiplied by late 18th century. Production of cotton boomed in late 19th centuries, this increase was linked to number of changes in the production process as series of inventions which not only increased the efficiency of production process but also enhanced the output per worker, enabling the workers to produce more. Richard Arkwright created a cotton Mill which increased production of cotton.

3. What is pace of industrialization? Was it a rapid process?      

Ans. (i)  The most dynamic industries were that of Cotton & Metals. With the expansion of transport the demand for Iron & Steel increased.

(ii)  The new industries could not easily displace traditional industries. At the end of 19th century only 20% of total workforce was employed in technologically advanced industrial sector. Historians say that the typical worker in mid 19th  century was not machine operator but the traditional craft person & laborer. Textile was a dynamic sector but a large portion was being produced in the domestic units. The pace of change in the traditional industries was not set by the steam-powered industries. Ordinary &small innovations were the basis of the growth in many non-mechanized sectors as food-processing, building, pottery, glass work, tanning, furniture making & production of implements. Technological changes were slow.

4. Why hand labour or workers were preferred over machine? 

Ans. (i) It was because in the Victorian Britain there was no shortage of human labour. Poor peasants moved into the cities in search of jobs. So the industrialists had no problem in hiring them at low cost nor were they interested in introducing machines which required large capital investments.

(ii)  In many industries the demand for labour was seasonal. For example Gas works & breweries were busy during the cold months, also the printing & book binders were busy at this time due to Christmas, ships were also repaired during this time, in all such industries where production fluctuated with the season, industrialist usually preferred hand labour.

(iii)  Range of products could be produced only with hand labour. Machines were oriented to produce uniforms, standardized goods for mass market but the demand for goods with intricate design and specific shapes.

(iv) The upper class-the aristocracies and bourgeoisie- preferred things produced by hands. Handmade products came to symbolize refinement and class. They were better finished& carefully designed and were mainly for export.

(v) In the countries with shortage of labour, industrialist were keen on using mechanical power so that the need for human labour can be minimized.

5. What was the scenario of silk and cotton before the coming of the machines in India?                   

Ans. (i)  Before the age of industrialization silk & cotton goods of India dominated the international market in Textile.

(ii)  Other countries produced only coarser cotton and finer varieties came from India. 

(iii)  The Armenian and Persian merchants took goods from Punjab to Afghanistan, eastern Persia & Central Asia and the Bales of fine cotton were carried on camel back via the NWFP, through mountain passes across deserts.

(iv)  Sea trade operated through the precolonial ports—Surat on Gujarat coast connected India to the Gulf & Red sea ports; Masaulipatnam on the Coromandel Coast & Hoogly in Bengal had trade links with the South-east Asian ports.