Effects of the development of cotton industries in Britain on the textile producers in India:
→ Competition- Indian textiles had to compete with British textiles in European and American
markets.
→ High duties- Exporting textiles to England became increasingly difficult due to the very high
duties imposed on Indian textiles imported into Britain.
→ Capture of foreign markets- By the beginning of the nineteenth century, English-made cotton
textiles ousted Indian textiles from their traditional markets, thereby throwing thousands of
Indian weavers out of employment. The English and European companies stopped buying
Indian textiles and their agents no longer gave out advances to weavers to secure supplies.
→ Capture of the Indian market- By the 1830s, British cotton cloth flooded Indian markets. By
the 1880s, two-third of all cotton clothes worn by Indians were made of cloth produced in
Britain. This greatly affected both the weavers and the spinners.
Thus, Indian textiles declined in the nineteenth century, and thousands of Indian weavers and
spinners lost their livelihood.