New Towns and Traders


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

New Towns and Traders

New Towns and Traders:

  • In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, European countries were searching for spices and textiles, which had become popular both in Europe and west Asia, the English, Dutch and French formed east India companies in order to expand their commercial activities in the east.
  • Initially great Indian traders like Mulla Abdul Ghafur and Virji Vora who owned a large number of ships competed with them. However, the European companies used their naval power to gain control of the sea trade and forced Indian traders to work as their agents. 
  • Ultimately, the English emerged as the most successful commercial and political power in the subcontinent. The spurt in demand for goods like textiles led to a great expansion of the crafts of spinning, weaving, bleaching, dyeing etc.
  • With more and more people taking them up. Indian textile designs became increasingly refined. However, this period also saw the decline of the independence of craft persons.
  • They now began to work on a system of advances which meant that they had to weave cloth which was already promised to European agents.
  • Weavers no longer had the liberty of selling their own cloth or weaving their own patterns. They had to reproduce the designs supplied to them by the company agents.
  • The eighteenth century saw the rise of Bombay, Calcutta and madras, which are nodal cities today.
  • Crafts and commerce underwent major changes as merchants and artisans (such as weavers) were moved into the black towns established by the European companies within these new cities.
  • The “blacks” or native traders and craft persons were confined here while the “white” rulers occupied the superior residencies of Fort St. George in madras or Fort St. William in Calcutta.
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