Social Science (087) — AI-generated practice question

Richard Arkwright's cotton mill brought all stages of cloth production — carding, spinning, and weaving — under one roof and one management. Previously, production was scattered across village households, making supervision difficult.

The mill system offered manufacturers key advantages:

• Costly new machines could be centrally purchased, set up, and maintained efficiently.
• Careful supervision over the production process became possible.
• Quality control could be maintained consistently.
• Labour regulation was easier compared to the scattered putting-out system.

This centralisation made production faster, more uniform, and better controlled.

Source: Chapter 4, Section 1.1 — The Coming Up of the Factory

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Examiners expect two clear parts: (1) what the mill system did (centralised production under one roof) and (2) advantages over the earlier system (supervision, quality, labour control). The contrast with the earlier domestic/putting-out system is essential — without it, you lose marks. Three to four crisp points in the second part are sufficient for 3 marks. Avoid writing about the decline of Indian textiles here; that is a separate topic.