By the beginning of the nineteenth century why was there a long decline of textile exports from India ? Explain
In 1772, Henary Patullo, a company official, had ventured to say that the demand for Indian textiles could never reduce, since no other nation produced goods of the same quality. Yet by the beginning of the 19th century there was a long decline of textile exports from India from 33% in 1811-12 to no more than 3 per cent by 1850-51. The reasons for this were as mentioned below : With the development of cotton industries in England the government imposed import duties on cotton textiles so that Manchester goods could sell in Britain without facing any competition from outside. At the same time industrialists persuaded the East India Company to sell British manufactures in Indian markets as well. Exports of British cotton goods increased dramatically in the early nineteenth century. At the end of the eighteenth century there had been virtually no import of cotton piece-goods into India. But by 1850 cotton piece-goods constituted over 31 per cent of the value of Indian imports and by the 1870s it increased to over 50 percent.
