Q1. [3] medium thorough-understanding
Between 1811–12 and 1850–51, India's share of piece-goods in its total exports fell from 33 per cent to just 3 per cent. Identify the two simultaneous market pressures on Indian cotton weavers that caused this collapse, and explain how each one worked.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-26 15:00 · grounding rag
Model Answer
Indian cotton weavers faced two simultaneous pressures:
- Collapse of export market: Britain imposed high import duties on Indian textiles to protect its own growing cotton industry. As a result, Indian cloth was shut out of British and other international markets, destroying the export trade.
- Loss of local market: The East India Company was persuaded by British industrialists to open Indian markets to British manufactures. Cheap, machine-made Manchester cloth flooded India. Since it was produced at lower cost, Indian weavers could not compete, and their home market also shrank rapidly.
Together, these two pressures caused piece-goods exports to collapse from 33% to just 3% of India's exports.
Source: Chapter 4, Section 3.3 – Manchester Comes to India
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Explanation
- This is a 3-mark question, so examiners expect two clearly identified pressures (1 mark each) plus a brief explanation of how each worked (the mechanism). The final line tying it to the statistic reinforces accuracy.
- Key terms to use: import duties, export market collapse, Manchester imports, machine-made/cheaper goods, local/home market shrank.
- Do not mix in the raw cotton shortage (1860s problem) — that is a later, separate issue and would waste words here.