Did Industrial Revolution economic systems rely on colonies?
Upvote:2
Robert B. Marks in his The Origins of the Modern World: a Global and Environmental Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century
He describes how England started to import cotton cloth (callicoe) from India in the second half of 17 century until they by 1700 was dependent on them. 130 years later India (due to the navigation laws) imported cheap cloth from England and exported cotton. This because british cotton cloth was cheaper than locally spun and woven. Year 1700 a Indian cotton picker or weaver had a great advantage compared with anyone else: far lower living costs. This because foodstuffs was far cheaper because at average indian agriculture was twice as effective as european.
Multiple things happened:
- Whitney's gin which meant that cheaply produced North-American cotton became usable
- steam powered spinning mills (and weaveries)
- a newly created world market for cotton cloth
- which was captured by the British industry
Marks also argues that the colonies (North America, Australia and India) was necessary as sources of raw materials and foodstuffs to England. This allowed England to become independent of its own agriculture, convert England's agriculture into more profitable areas there a far smaller work force was needed. This workforce were by the new poor laws of the early 19th century (after 1815) forced to leave their old villages and neighborhood for the industrialising cities.
One of the reasons for the rush to Africa from 1870 was competition. Before this time England was the dominant industrialized country, and they were able to compete both in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Marks mention that in 1870 Great Britain had a share of 33 percent of world output. Some numbers which is available concerns export which for the US due to the speed by it's internal market grew is less definitive than it seems to be.
The industrialization in America and Europe meant that the competition in Europe and elsewhere between producers became more intensive.
Nationalism could be funneled into making your population accept the necessary outlays to acquire and improve colonies in Africa under the pretext what it would be profitable to acquire and bound colonies to the homeland. The colonies would become customers which couldn't argue about prices on import and export.
More post
- 📝 What laws did the king "refuse to pass... unless those people would relinquish the right of representation"?
- 📝 How did Lincoln's views change up to the Lincoln-Douglas Debates?
- 📝 Insect consumption in late middle-ages in the Northern Europe
- 📝 Why did certain swords have the weird curves that they did?
- 📝 Identification of location of ship yard or naval base
- 📝 What are the modern names of the nations mentioned in Ystoria Mongalorum?
- 📝 Did Russia and Lenin benefit from the Treaty of Versailles?
- 📝 Was Queen Henrietta Maria (of England) known for scratching her initials into things?
- 📝 Accuracy of Ancient Dates of Persian/Middle East Based on Astronomy
- 📝 Would Lauri Törni have recieved the Waffen-SS blood type tattoo?
- 📝 What are the markings on this shell casing? (Dubrovnik)
- 📝 Why was the year 1816 so incredibly cold?
- 📝 How come the British did not notify the Poles about the Molotov-Ribbentrop secret protocol?
- 📝 What's the story behind Christmas?
- 📝 Cuban medical internationalism
- 📝 How did cannibals in Jamestown obtain bodies for food?
- 📝 Has an underequipped army ever won a major war?
- 📝 What is the death toll attributed to US internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII?
- 📝 Will someone help me understand the following quotation about Calvinism?
- 📝 Division of Rome and Its Eventual Decline
- 📝 Artillery guns near Triglav?
- 📝 Song school vs. Han school of Confucian thought in the Qing dynasty
- 📝 Settling legal disputes in high medieval Europe?
- 📝 Why didn't Nixon erase the smoking gun?
- 📝 When did the Running of the Bulls begin?
- 📝 France vs Germany in 1940: equipment vs. organization
- 📝 How long did it take to build siege engines in the middle ages?
- 📝 Rommel's letter to his wife from November 16, 1942
- 📝 How did people clean their teeth in the past? (Greco-Roman to medieval age)
- 📝 Why did the Spanish government award a decoration to Chiang Kai-Shek?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did Industrial Revolution economic systems rely on colonies?
- 📝 Why did textile mill owners during the industrial revolution keep their factory windows closed?
- 📝 Where did the demand for textiles during the industrial revolution come from?
- 📝 Index of importance / economic value various minerals during the Industrial Revolution
- 📝 Why did workers in the Industrial Revolution accept submission?
- 📝 Where did Hitler get the funds to invest in economic development programs such as the autobahn when the German economy was in a depression?
- 📝 Did the end of the British Raj in India create an economic loss for Britain?
- 📝 Why did the Dutch, French & British acquire minor colonies in South America?
- 📝 How did people have access to ice in warm areas before the industrial revolution?
- 📝 How did former Spanish colonies in the Americas become so fragmented?
- 📝 Economic effects of the Cuban Revolution
- 📝 Did the French Revolution help produce French military "elan?"
- 📝 Which European countries did not have a revolution in the aftermath of the French Revolution and why?
- 📝 Did Japan have any continental colonies before modern times?
- 📝 How much tax revenue did the British Empire receive from its colonies in a given year?
- 📝 How did the elite maintain the status quo throughout the British Colonies of North America?
- 📝 Why did countries declare exclusive economic zones of up to 200 nautical miles?
- 📝 Why did United Kingdom not keep the colonies after Napoleon's defeat?
- 📝 How did the United States avoid (or recover from) post revolution corruption?
- 📝 Why did the French Revolution bring secularism?
- 📝 How did the English Civil War affect the American Colonies policy-wise?
- 📝 Why did Roman Army rarely field large Roman cavalry units and rely on foreign auxiliaries?
- 📝 Why did Loyalists go to Canada during the American Revolution
- 📝 Did the Nazis have any unique or especially effective economic policies?
- 📝 Why did some colonies of the British Empire have their own currencies?
- 📝 Why did the colonies fight Cresap's War?
- 📝 Were there any well-established land trade routes in the US colonies around 1700? What did they look like?
- 📝 Did the food economy of the late Roman republic rely on foreign imports, or was it more localized?
- 📝 How well did William III speak English at time of the Glorious Revolution in 1688?
- 📝 How did tobacco affect the English colonies economically during the 17th Century?