NCERT Textbook: The Age of Industrialisation | Social Studies (SST) Class 10 PDF Download

 Page 1


79
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
Chapter IV
The Age of Industrialisation
The Age of Industrialisation
In 1900, a popular music publisher E.T. Paull produced a music
book that had a picture on the cover page announcing the ‘Dawn
of the Century’ (Fig. 1). As you can see from the illustration, at the
centre of the picture is a goddess-like figure, the angel of progress,
bearing the flag of the new century . She is gently perched on a wheel
with wings, symbolising time. Her flight is taking her into the future.
Floating about, behind her, are the signs of progress: railway , camera,
machines, printing press and factory.
This glorification of machines and technology is even more marked
in a picture which appeared on the pages of a trade magazine over
a hundred years ago (Fig. 2). It shows two magicians. The one at the
top is Aladdin from the Orient who built a beautiful palace with his
New words
Orient – The countries to the east of
the Mediterranean, usually referring to
Asia. The term arises out of a western
viewpoint that sees this region as pre-
modern, traditional and mysterious
Fig. 1 –  Dawn of the Century, published by E.T. Paull Music Co.,
New York, England, 1900.
2024-25
Page 2


79
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
Chapter IV
The Age of Industrialisation
The Age of Industrialisation
In 1900, a popular music publisher E.T. Paull produced a music
book that had a picture on the cover page announcing the ‘Dawn
of the Century’ (Fig. 1). As you can see from the illustration, at the
centre of the picture is a goddess-like figure, the angel of progress,
bearing the flag of the new century . She is gently perched on a wheel
with wings, symbolising time. Her flight is taking her into the future.
Floating about, behind her, are the signs of progress: railway , camera,
machines, printing press and factory.
This glorification of machines and technology is even more marked
in a picture which appeared on the pages of a trade magazine over
a hundred years ago (Fig. 2). It shows two magicians. The one at the
top is Aladdin from the Orient who built a beautiful palace with his
New words
Orient – The countries to the east of
the Mediterranean, usually referring to
Asia. The term arises out of a western
viewpoint that sees this region as pre-
modern, traditional and mysterious
Fig. 1 –  Dawn of the Century, published by E.T. Paull Music Co.,
New York, England, 1900.
2024-25
India and the Contemporary World
80
Give two examples where modern development that is associated
with progress has led to problems. You may like to think of areas
related to environmental issues, nuclear weapons or disease.
Activity
magic lamp. The one at the bottom is the modern mechanic, who
with his modern tools weaves a new magic: builds bridges, ships,
towers and high-rise buildings. Aladdin is shown as representing the
East and the past, the mechanic stands for the W est and modernity .
These images offer us a triumphant account of the modern world.
Within this account the modern world is associated with rapid
technological change and innovations, machines and factories, railways
and steamships. The history of industrialisation thus becomes simply
a story of development, and the modern age appears as a wonderful
time of technological progress.
These images and associations have now become part of popular
imagination. Do you not see rapid industrialisation as a time of
progress and modernity? Do you not think that the spread of railways
and factories, and construction of high-rise buildings and bridges is
a sign of society’s development?
How have these images developed? And how do we relate to these
ideas? Is industrialisation always based on rapid technological
development? Can we today continue to glorify continuous
mechanisation of all work? What has industrialisation meant to
people’s lives? To answer such questions we need to turn to the
history of industrialisation.
In this chapter we will look at this history by focusing first on Britain,
the first industrial nation, and then India, where the pattern of
industrial change was conditioned by colonial rule.
Fig. 2 – Two Magicians, published in Inland
Printers, 26 January 1901.
2024-25
Page 3


79
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
Chapter IV
The Age of Industrialisation
The Age of Industrialisation
In 1900, a popular music publisher E.T. Paull produced a music
book that had a picture on the cover page announcing the ‘Dawn
of the Century’ (Fig. 1). As you can see from the illustration, at the
centre of the picture is a goddess-like figure, the angel of progress,
bearing the flag of the new century . She is gently perched on a wheel
with wings, symbolising time. Her flight is taking her into the future.
Floating about, behind her, are the signs of progress: railway , camera,
machines, printing press and factory.
This glorification of machines and technology is even more marked
in a picture which appeared on the pages of a trade magazine over
a hundred years ago (Fig. 2). It shows two magicians. The one at the
top is Aladdin from the Orient who built a beautiful palace with his
New words
Orient – The countries to the east of
the Mediterranean, usually referring to
Asia. The term arises out of a western
viewpoint that sees this region as pre-
modern, traditional and mysterious
Fig. 1 –  Dawn of the Century, published by E.T. Paull Music Co.,
New York, England, 1900.
2024-25
India and the Contemporary World
80
Give two examples where modern development that is associated
with progress has led to problems. You may like to think of areas
related to environmental issues, nuclear weapons or disease.
Activity
magic lamp. The one at the bottom is the modern mechanic, who
with his modern tools weaves a new magic: builds bridges, ships,
towers and high-rise buildings. Aladdin is shown as representing the
East and the past, the mechanic stands for the W est and modernity .
These images offer us a triumphant account of the modern world.
Within this account the modern world is associated with rapid
technological change and innovations, machines and factories, railways
and steamships. The history of industrialisation thus becomes simply
a story of development, and the modern age appears as a wonderful
time of technological progress.
These images and associations have now become part of popular
imagination. Do you not see rapid industrialisation as a time of
progress and modernity? Do you not think that the spread of railways
and factories, and construction of high-rise buildings and bridges is
a sign of society’s development?
How have these images developed? And how do we relate to these
ideas? Is industrialisation always based on rapid technological
development? Can we today continue to glorify continuous
mechanisation of all work? What has industrialisation meant to
people’s lives? To answer such questions we need to turn to the
history of industrialisation.
In this chapter we will look at this history by focusing first on Britain,
the first industrial nation, and then India, where the pattern of
industrial change was conditioned by colonial rule.
Fig. 2 – Two Magicians, published in Inland
Printers, 26 January 1901.
2024-25
81
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
Fig. 3 – Spinning in the eighteenth century.
You can see each member of the family involved in the
production of yarn. Notice that one wheel is moving only one
spindle.
1  Before the Industrial Revolution
All too often we associate industrialisation with the growth of
factory industry. When we talk of industrial production we refer
to factory production. When we talk of industrial workers we
mean factory workers. Histories of industrialisation very often begin
with the setting up of the first factories.
There is a problem with such ideas. Even before factories began to
dot the landscape in England and Europe, there was large-scale
industrial production for an international market. This was not based
on factories. Many historians now refer to this phase of
industrialisation as proto-industrialisation.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants from the towns
in Europe began moving to the countryside, supplying money to
peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international
market. With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of
colonies in different parts of the world, the demand for goods
began growing. But merchants could not expand production within
towns. This was because here urban crafts and trade guilds were
powerful. These were associations of producers that trained
craftspeople, maintained control over production, regulated
competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new people into
the trade. Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly
right to produce and trade in specific products. It was
therefore difficult for new merchants to set up
business in towns. So they turned to the countryside.
In the countryside poor peasants and artisans began
working for merchants. As you have seen in the
textbook last year, this was a time when open fields
were disappearing and commons were being
enclosed. Cottagers and poor peasants who had earlier
depended on common lands for their survival,
gathering their firewood, berries, vegetables, hay and
straw , had to now look for alternative sources of
income. 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. By working for the merchants, they
New words
Proto – Indicating the first or early form
of something
2024-25
Page 4


79
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
Chapter IV
The Age of Industrialisation
The Age of Industrialisation
In 1900, a popular music publisher E.T. Paull produced a music
book that had a picture on the cover page announcing the ‘Dawn
of the Century’ (Fig. 1). As you can see from the illustration, at the
centre of the picture is a goddess-like figure, the angel of progress,
bearing the flag of the new century . She is gently perched on a wheel
with wings, symbolising time. Her flight is taking her into the future.
Floating about, behind her, are the signs of progress: railway , camera,
machines, printing press and factory.
This glorification of machines and technology is even more marked
in a picture which appeared on the pages of a trade magazine over
a hundred years ago (Fig. 2). It shows two magicians. The one at the
top is Aladdin from the Orient who built a beautiful palace with his
New words
Orient – The countries to the east of
the Mediterranean, usually referring to
Asia. The term arises out of a western
viewpoint that sees this region as pre-
modern, traditional and mysterious
Fig. 1 –  Dawn of the Century, published by E.T. Paull Music Co.,
New York, England, 1900.
2024-25
India and the Contemporary World
80
Give two examples where modern development that is associated
with progress has led to problems. You may like to think of areas
related to environmental issues, nuclear weapons or disease.
Activity
magic lamp. The one at the bottom is the modern mechanic, who
with his modern tools weaves a new magic: builds bridges, ships,
towers and high-rise buildings. Aladdin is shown as representing the
East and the past, the mechanic stands for the W est and modernity .
These images offer us a triumphant account of the modern world.
Within this account the modern world is associated with rapid
technological change and innovations, machines and factories, railways
and steamships. The history of industrialisation thus becomes simply
a story of development, and the modern age appears as a wonderful
time of technological progress.
These images and associations have now become part of popular
imagination. Do you not see rapid industrialisation as a time of
progress and modernity? Do you not think that the spread of railways
and factories, and construction of high-rise buildings and bridges is
a sign of society’s development?
How have these images developed? And how do we relate to these
ideas? Is industrialisation always based on rapid technological
development? Can we today continue to glorify continuous
mechanisation of all work? What has industrialisation meant to
people’s lives? To answer such questions we need to turn to the
history of industrialisation.
In this chapter we will look at this history by focusing first on Britain,
the first industrial nation, and then India, where the pattern of
industrial change was conditioned by colonial rule.
Fig. 2 – Two Magicians, published in Inland
Printers, 26 January 1901.
2024-25
81
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
Fig. 3 – Spinning in the eighteenth century.
You can see each member of the family involved in the
production of yarn. Notice that one wheel is moving only one
spindle.
1  Before the Industrial Revolution
All too often we associate industrialisation with the growth of
factory industry. When we talk of industrial production we refer
to factory production. When we talk of industrial workers we
mean factory workers. Histories of industrialisation very often begin
with the setting up of the first factories.
There is a problem with such ideas. Even before factories began to
dot the landscape in England and Europe, there was large-scale
industrial production for an international market. This was not based
on factories. Many historians now refer to this phase of
industrialisation as proto-industrialisation.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants from the towns
in Europe began moving to the countryside, supplying money to
peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international
market. With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of
colonies in different parts of the world, the demand for goods
began growing. But merchants could not expand production within
towns. This was because here urban crafts and trade guilds were
powerful. These were associations of producers that trained
craftspeople, maintained control over production, regulated
competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new people into
the trade. Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly
right to produce and trade in specific products. It was
therefore difficult for new merchants to set up
business in towns. So they turned to the countryside.
In the countryside poor peasants and artisans began
working for merchants. As you have seen in the
textbook last year, this was a time when open fields
were disappearing and commons were being
enclosed. Cottagers and poor peasants who had earlier
depended on common lands for their survival,
gathering their firewood, berries, vegetables, hay and
straw , had to now look for alternative sources of
income. 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. By working for the merchants, they
New words
Proto – Indicating the first or early form
of something
2024-25
India and the Contemporary World
82
could remain in the countryside and continue to cultivate their small
plots. Income from proto-industrial production supplemented their
shrinking income from cultivation. It also allowed them a fuller use
of their family labour resources.
Within this system a close relationship developed between the town
and the countryside. Merchants were based in towns but the work
was done mostly in the countryside. A merchant clothier in England
purchased wool from a wool stapler, and carried it to the spinners;
the yarn (thread) that was spun was taken in subsequent stages
of production to weavers, fullers, and then to dyers. The finishing
was done in London before the export merchant sold the cloth in
the international market. London in fact came to be known as a
finishing centre.
This proto-industrial system was thus part of a network of
commercial exchanges. It was controlled by merchants and the goods
were produced by a vast number of producers working within
their family farms, not in factories. At each stage of production 20
to 25 workers were employed by each merchant. This meant that
each clothier was controlling hundreds of workers.
1.1 The Coming Up of the Factory
The earliest factories in England came up by the 1730s. But it
was only in the late eighteenth century that the number of
factories multiplied.
The first symbol of the new era was cotton. Its production boomed
in the late nineteenth century. In 1760 Britain was importing 2.5
million pounds of raw cotton to feed its cotton industry. By 1787
this import soared to 22 million pounds. This increase was linked to
a number of changes within the process of production. Let us look
briefly at some of these.
A series of inventions in the eighteenth century increased the efficacy
of each step of the production process (carding, twisting and
spinning, and rolling). 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. Till this time, as you have seen, cloth
production was spread all over the countryside and carried out within
village households. But now, the costly new machines could be
purchased, set up and maintained in the mill. Within the mill all the
New words
Stapler – A person who ‘staples’ or sorts wool
according to its fibre
Fuller – A person who ‘fulls’ – that is, gathers
– cloth by pleating
Carding – The process in which fibres, such as
cotton or wool, are prepared prior to spinning
Fig. 4 – A Lancashire cotton mill, painted by
C.E. Turner, The Illustrated London News,
1925.
The artist said: ‘Seen through the humid
atmosphere that makes Lancashire the best
cotton-spinning locality in the world, a huge
cotton-mill aglow with electricity in the
twilight, is a most impressive sight.’
2024-25
Page 5


79
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
Chapter IV
The Age of Industrialisation
The Age of Industrialisation
In 1900, a popular music publisher E.T. Paull produced a music
book that had a picture on the cover page announcing the ‘Dawn
of the Century’ (Fig. 1). As you can see from the illustration, at the
centre of the picture is a goddess-like figure, the angel of progress,
bearing the flag of the new century . She is gently perched on a wheel
with wings, symbolising time. Her flight is taking her into the future.
Floating about, behind her, are the signs of progress: railway , camera,
machines, printing press and factory.
This glorification of machines and technology is even more marked
in a picture which appeared on the pages of a trade magazine over
a hundred years ago (Fig. 2). It shows two magicians. The one at the
top is Aladdin from the Orient who built a beautiful palace with his
New words
Orient – The countries to the east of
the Mediterranean, usually referring to
Asia. The term arises out of a western
viewpoint that sees this region as pre-
modern, traditional and mysterious
Fig. 1 –  Dawn of the Century, published by E.T. Paull Music Co.,
New York, England, 1900.
2024-25
India and the Contemporary World
80
Give two examples where modern development that is associated
with progress has led to problems. You may like to think of areas
related to environmental issues, nuclear weapons or disease.
Activity
magic lamp. The one at the bottom is the modern mechanic, who
with his modern tools weaves a new magic: builds bridges, ships,
towers and high-rise buildings. Aladdin is shown as representing the
East and the past, the mechanic stands for the W est and modernity .
These images offer us a triumphant account of the modern world.
Within this account the modern world is associated with rapid
technological change and innovations, machines and factories, railways
and steamships. The history of industrialisation thus becomes simply
a story of development, and the modern age appears as a wonderful
time of technological progress.
These images and associations have now become part of popular
imagination. Do you not see rapid industrialisation as a time of
progress and modernity? Do you not think that the spread of railways
and factories, and construction of high-rise buildings and bridges is
a sign of society’s development?
How have these images developed? And how do we relate to these
ideas? Is industrialisation always based on rapid technological
development? Can we today continue to glorify continuous
mechanisation of all work? What has industrialisation meant to
people’s lives? To answer such questions we need to turn to the
history of industrialisation.
In this chapter we will look at this history by focusing first on Britain,
the first industrial nation, and then India, where the pattern of
industrial change was conditioned by colonial rule.
Fig. 2 – Two Magicians, published in Inland
Printers, 26 January 1901.
2024-25
81
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
Fig. 3 – Spinning in the eighteenth century.
You can see each member of the family involved in the
production of yarn. Notice that one wheel is moving only one
spindle.
1  Before the Industrial Revolution
All too often we associate industrialisation with the growth of
factory industry. When we talk of industrial production we refer
to factory production. When we talk of industrial workers we
mean factory workers. Histories of industrialisation very often begin
with the setting up of the first factories.
There is a problem with such ideas. Even before factories began to
dot the landscape in England and Europe, there was large-scale
industrial production for an international market. This was not based
on factories. Many historians now refer to this phase of
industrialisation as proto-industrialisation.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants from the towns
in Europe began moving to the countryside, supplying money to
peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international
market. With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of
colonies in different parts of the world, the demand for goods
began growing. But merchants could not expand production within
towns. This was because here urban crafts and trade guilds were
powerful. These were associations of producers that trained
craftspeople, maintained control over production, regulated
competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new people into
the trade. Rulers granted different guilds the monopoly
right to produce and trade in specific products. It was
therefore difficult for new merchants to set up
business in towns. So they turned to the countryside.
In the countryside poor peasants and artisans began
working for merchants. As you have seen in the
textbook last year, this was a time when open fields
were disappearing and commons were being
enclosed. Cottagers and poor peasants who had earlier
depended on common lands for their survival,
gathering their firewood, berries, vegetables, hay and
straw , had to now look for alternative sources of
income. 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. By working for the merchants, they
New words
Proto – Indicating the first or early form
of something
2024-25
India and the Contemporary World
82
could remain in the countryside and continue to cultivate their small
plots. Income from proto-industrial production supplemented their
shrinking income from cultivation. It also allowed them a fuller use
of their family labour resources.
Within this system a close relationship developed between the town
and the countryside. Merchants were based in towns but the work
was done mostly in the countryside. A merchant clothier in England
purchased wool from a wool stapler, and carried it to the spinners;
the yarn (thread) that was spun was taken in subsequent stages
of production to weavers, fullers, and then to dyers. The finishing
was done in London before the export merchant sold the cloth in
the international market. London in fact came to be known as a
finishing centre.
This proto-industrial system was thus part of a network of
commercial exchanges. It was controlled by merchants and the goods
were produced by a vast number of producers working within
their family farms, not in factories. At each stage of production 20
to 25 workers were employed by each merchant. This meant that
each clothier was controlling hundreds of workers.
1.1 The Coming Up of the Factory
The earliest factories in England came up by the 1730s. But it
was only in the late eighteenth century that the number of
factories multiplied.
The first symbol of the new era was cotton. Its production boomed
in the late nineteenth century. In 1760 Britain was importing 2.5
million pounds of raw cotton to feed its cotton industry. By 1787
this import soared to 22 million pounds. This increase was linked to
a number of changes within the process of production. Let us look
briefly at some of these.
A series of inventions in the eighteenth century increased the efficacy
of each step of the production process (carding, twisting and
spinning, and rolling). 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. Till this time, as you have seen, cloth
production was spread all over the countryside and carried out within
village households. But now, the costly new machines could be
purchased, set up and maintained in the mill. Within the mill all the
New words
Stapler – A person who ‘staples’ or sorts wool
according to its fibre
Fuller – A person who ‘fulls’ – that is, gathers
– cloth by pleating
Carding – The process in which fibres, such as
cotton or wool, are prepared prior to spinning
Fig. 4 – A Lancashire cotton mill, painted by
C.E. Turner, The Illustrated London News,
1925.
The artist said: ‘Seen through the humid
atmosphere that makes Lancashire the best
cotton-spinning locality in the world, a huge
cotton-mill aglow with electricity in the
twilight, is a most impressive sight.’
2024-25
83
The  Age  of  Industrialisation
processes were brought together under one roof and management.
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.
In the early nineteenth century, factories increasingly became an
intimate part of the English landscape. So visible were the imposing
new mills, so magical seemed to be the power of new technology,
that contemporaries were dazzled. They concentrated their attention
on the mills, almost forgetting the bylanes and the workshops where
production still continued.
The way in which historians focus on
industrialisation rather than on small
workshops is a good example of how what we
believe today about the past is influenced by
what historians choose to notice and what they
ignore. Note down one event or aspect of your
own life which adults such as your parents or
teachers may think is unimportant, but which
you believe to be important.
Activity
1.2 The Pace of Industrial Change
How rapid was the process of industrialisation? Does industrialisation
mean only the growth of factory industries?
First: The most dynamic industries in Britain were clearly cotton and
metals. Growing at a rapid pace, cotton was the leading sector in the
first phase of industrialisation up to the 1840s. After that the iron
and steel industry led the way. With the expansion of railways, in
England from the 1840s and in the colonies from the 1860s, the
demand for iron and steel increased rapidly. By 1873 Britain was
exporting iron and steel worth about £ 77 million, double the value
of its cotton export.
Look at Figs. 4 and 5. Can you see any
difference in the way the two images show
industrialisation? Explain your view briefly.
Activity
Fig. 5 – Industrial Manchester by M. Jackson, The Illustrated London News, 1857.
Chimneys billowing smoke came to characterise the industrial landscape.
2024-25