A Period of Transition | ICSE Class 8 History & Civics Notes

This note covers the transition towards the modern world, historical sources, the Renaissance, religious reform, overseas voyages, the Industrial Revolution, changes in work and society, and imperialism with particular reference to India.

What was the background to this period of transition?

A transition is a process of change from one condition to another. The transition from the medieval, or Middle Ages, to the modern period involved changes in learning, religion, production, trade and political power. These changes developed over centuries.

The Renaissance, meaning rebirth, was a cultural movement associated with renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman learning and human achievement. The Reformation involved challenges to the authority and practices of the Catholic Church, the Christian Church headed by the Pope in Rome.

Overseas voyages widened European geographical knowledge and trading connections. The Industrial Revolution brought major changes in industry and society through the expanding use of machinery. Imperialism means extending a country's power over other territories and peoples through political or economic domination.

Why should periods not be treated as sealed compartments?

Periodisation, dividing history into periods, is a way of organising the past. They do not mean that everyone changed their beliefs or way of life at the same moment. Many ideas associated with the Renaissance had earlier roots, while religious belief continued to matter.

Similarly, industrialisation, the development of industrial production, did not immediately remove household production. Machinery and hand labour existed together. The experience of a factory owner differed from that of a worker, just as the experience of an imperial power differed from that of people under its rule.

Note: Do not describe the medieval period as entirely dark or the modern period as progress for everyone. Such descriptions conceal earlier achievements and the unequal effects of later changes.

How do primary and secondary sources differ?

Primary sources are original evidence from the period being studied, including contemporary documents, objects and accounts. Secondary sources are later studies that interpret evidence about the past. The distinction concerns a source's relationship to the historical question, not simply whether it is printed.

An archive is a place where historical records are preserved. Archives, museums and art galleries preserve different kinds of evidence. Government correspondence can reveal administrative decisions; paintings, buildings and books can reveal cultural interests. No single kind gives a complete account of society.

Why must evidence be questioned?

Official records tell us what officials thought, what interested them and what they wished to preserve. They do not always explain what other people felt. The magistrate's report describes protesters from the viewpoint of someone called to protect a manufacturer's property.

Diaries, personal records of experiences, and autobiographies, accounts people write about their own lives, offer other perspectives. Newspapers and travellers' accounts also help. However, written sources mainly preserve the voices of literate people, meaning those able to read and write.

Historians therefore compare evidence and ask who created it, when, for whom and for what purpose. Preserving records matters because later questions may reveal meanings that earlier readers overlooked. A source can be valuable while still expressing the prejudices of its creator.

Why did the Renaissance flourish in Italian cities?

Trade helped revive Italian towns. Connections with the Byzantine Empire and Islamic countries supported coastal ports, while expanding trade with other regions increased their importance. Florence and Venice developed as independent city-states, cities with their own governments and surrounding territories.

Wealthy merchants and bankers participated in urban government. They also supported artists and scholars. Such support is called patronage. Florence, Venice and Rome became important centres of art and learning, although their governments and political circumstances differed.

What was humanism?

Humanism was an educational and cultural approach that emphasised human abilities and the study of subjects such as grammar, poetry, history and moral philosophy, the study of right conduct. It encouraged discussion and close reading of ancient writers.

Francesco Petrarch stressed studying Greek and Roman civilisation through ancient authors' own words. Humanism was taught at Padua University in 1300, and a university was established in Florence in 1349. Learning extended beyond subjects directly connected with religion.

European scholars also benefited from Arab scholars who preserved and translated ancient writings. Knowledge circulated from India, Arabia, Iran, Central Asia and China. Renaissance learning therefore cannot be explained as an exclusively European rediscovery of Greece and Rome.

How did art and printing change?

Realism means representing people and the visible world in a lifelike manner. Artists studied the human body and geometry. Perspective, a technique for suggesting depth on a flat surface, helped paintings acquire a three-dimensional appearance.

Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper in 1495. Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1512. Both examples show that new artistic techniques could express religious subjects. Interest in human achievement did not necessarily mean abandoning religion.

In 1455, Gutenberg's workshop printed 150 copies of the Bible, the Christian scriptures. By 1500, many classical texts, works from ancient Greece and Rome, had been printed in Italy. Books carried ideas beyond the places where they originated, and students did not have to depend solely on lecture notes.

How did religious reform and scientific enquiry challenge authority?

Christian humanists questioned practices within the Church. Indulgences were documents which apparently freed buyers from the burden of sins they had committed. Such practices encouraged criticism of the Church's wealth and the behaviour of some church officials.

In 1517, Martin Luther, a German monk, challenged the Catholic Church. His Ninety-Five Theses, written propositions for discussion, expressed his criticism. He argued that faith alone could lead to salvation, meaning deliverance from sin, and that priests were not necessary intermediaries between individuals and God.

The resulting Protestant Reformation led churches in Germany and Switzerland to break their connection with the Pope. Luther translated the Bible into German in 1522. Religious ideas could thus reach readers through a language they understood.

Did reformers all agree?

Reform movements differed. Some radicals linked religious reform with opposition to social oppression. Luther did not support such radicalism: he called upon German rulers to suppress the peasants' rebellion, which they did in 1525.

The Catholic Church also began reforming itself from within. In 1540, Ignatius Loyola established the Society of Jesus. Its members, called Jesuits, sought to serve the poor and widen their knowledge of other cultures while opposing Protestantism.

What changed in the study of nature?

Copernicus proposed that the Earth and other planets move around the Sun. His ideas took time to gain acceptance. Kepler and Galileo developed the study of the heavens, while Newton's Principia Mathematica was published in 1687.

The Scientific Revolution was the development of an approach to knowledge based on observation and experiments. Scientific enquiry challenged inherited explanations, but it did not mean that every scientist rejected religious belief. Copernicus himself was a devout Christian.

How did voyages connect trade with overseas expansion?

Improved navigation, the knowledge and techniques used to direct ships, enabled Europeans to sail further. New geographical knowledge challenged the idea that the Mediterranean was the centre of the world. Voyages helped connect distant markets and encouraged competition between European powers.

In 1492, Columbus reached America. In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India around Africa. The Portuguese established a presence on India's western coast and had a base at Goa.

These voyages opened new routes for Europeans. They should not be understood as the beginning of all long-distance trade. India already had trading links with other regions, and Indian textiles circulated through both land routes and ports.

Why did trading companies come into conflict?

In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I granted the English East India Company a charter, an official grant of rights. It gave the Company the sole English right to trade with the East. It did not exclude Portuguese, Dutch or French competitors.

European companies wanted Indian cotton and silk textiles and spices such as pepper, cloves, cardamom and cinnamon. Competition raised purchase prices and reduced profits. Companies therefore tried to exclude rivals, blocked routes and protected trading posts with fortifications.

Mercantile activity means business based mainly on buying goods cheaply and selling them at higher prices. As companies defended their settlements and demanded trading privileges, commercial interests became entangled with political conflict. Trade and territorial power increasingly affected one another.

Note: An early Company “factory” was a trading establishment with offices and storage. It should not be confused with a later industrial factory producing goods with machinery.

How did production before factories compare with the factory system?

Industrial production existed before large mechanised factories. Mechanisation means introducing machinery into work previously performed largely by hand. Proto-industrialisation means the early phase of large-scale production for an international market carried out outside factories. Merchants supplied money to rural households, which produced goods alongside agricultural work.

In towns, guilds, associations that regulated crafts and trade, controlled production, prices and entry into particular occupations. Merchants seeking to expand production therefore turned to the countryside. Poor peasants welcomed an additional income as access to common land declined.

What did the cotton mill change?

The earliest English factories appeared by the 1730s, but their numbers multiplied in the late eighteenth century. Richard Arkwright created the cotton mill. Machinery and workers could be organised together, making production and quality easier to supervise.

Spinning turns fibres into yarn, or thread; weaving interlaces threads to make cloth. Combining stages of production changed the organisation of work as well as its speed. Nevertheless, production continued in households and workshops outside the new mills.

The illustration shows a large hand-operated spinning wheel inside a room, with a woman beside it and other household members nearby. It represents spinning in a domestic setting, rather than a mechanised factory.

Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain?

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the eighteenth century and developed through the nineteenth century. Britain became the first industrial nation because several favourable conditions worked together. Resources, trade, labour, transport and invention supported one another. The development of factories required more than an ingenious machine: materials, money, workers and buyers were also needed.

Which resources and connections helped?

• Coal and iron: Britain had substantial coal and iron resources. Coal supplied fuel, while iron was important for machinery and transport equipment.
• Trade and markets: Expanding overseas commerce and colonies increased demand for goods. A market means the buyers and sellers of a product, not necessarily a physical marketplace.
• Capital: Money available for investment helped merchants and manufacturers buy equipment and organise production. Profits from trade were an important source of investment.
• Transport: Harbours, navigable rivers, canals and roads connected producing areas with markets. Navigable rivers are rivers that vessels can travel along.
• Labour: Changes in the countryside encouraged peasants to seek additional work. Enclosure, bringing formerly open or common land under enclosed private control, restricted resources on which poorer households had depended.

Enclosure affected rural livelihoods as well as land ownership. Work for merchants and later employment in growing towns offered possible alternatives, although obtaining a job was not guaranteed.

How did cotton illustrate expanding production?

Britain imported 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton in 1760 and 22 million pounds in 1787. Here a pound is a unit of weight. The increase shows how demand for material expanded as cotton production developed.

Inventions increased output per worker and improved yarn. Mills made it possible to house expensive equipment together. Cotton was the leading sector during the first phase of industrialisation up to the 1840s. Later, expanding railways helped increase demand for iron and steel.

These connected conditions explain Britain's early industrial development. They do not imply that every industry mechanised quickly or that all workers immediately moved into factories.

Which inventions changed industrial production and transport?

Several inventions changed spinning, weaving and power supply. Mechanisation affected different stages of production, rather than transforming every craft in the same way. A change in one stage could increase pressure to improve another: faster weaving, for example, required a larger supply of yarn. The following inventions improved distinct tasks.

A shuttle carries thread across the lengthwise threads on a loom, the frame used for weaving. A spindle is a rod used in spinning thread. A patent gives an inventor legal protection for an invention for a period.

What was James Watt's contribution?

James Watt improved an earlier steam engine produced by Newcomen. A steam engine uses steam to produce mechanical movement. Watt should therefore be remembered for improving an existing technology, rather than for inventing the first steam engine.

Mathew Boulton manufactured Watt's improved model, but for years could find no buyers. New machinery was expensive, often broke down and could be costly to repair. The power of an invention did not ensure its immediate adoption.

The illustration shows a large interior with rows of spinning equipment, workers, overhead wheels and connecting belts. Its organised machinery contrasts with the household spinning wheel. This is an illustration, not a photograph.

How was transport connected to industry?

Railway expansion increased demand for iron and steel. In England, expansion from the 1840s helped these industries grow. Railway construction also required workers for tunnels, stations and track. Industrial change affected the movement of goods and people as well as their production.

How did the changes affect different social groups?

Merchants and manufacturers

Manufacturers, people or businesses producing goods, could increase output through machinery and closer supervision. Factory organisation brought processes together. Yet investment involved risk: equipment was expensive, and some industrialists preferred hand labour where it remained cheaper or more suitable.

Handmade goods also retained a market. Wealthier British buyers valued carefully finished, individually designed products. Machine production was particularly suited to standardised goods, meaning goods made to a common pattern. Industrial development did not remove every demand for craft skills.

Workers and job-seekers

Growing towns attracted people seeking wages. Urbanisation means the growth of towns and the urban population. News of factory jobs encouraged migration, but employment often depended on relatives or friends who could help a newcomer find work.

Many job-seekers waited weeks and slept under bridges or in shelters. In industries with seasonal demand, work could disappear after the busy period. Wages increased somewhat in the early nineteenth century, but a wage rate alone does not reveal a worker's actual income.

The number of days worked and the prices of necessities also mattered. Higher prices could reduce what wages purchased. At the best of times until the mid-nineteenth century, about 10 per cent of the urban population were extremely poor.

Women and families

Women who depended on hand spinning feared losing their income when new machinery reduced labour demand. In the woollen industry, women attacked spinning machines. An official report of 1790 records opposition connected with this fear of unemployment.

Family labour remained important in Indian weaving too. Women and children participated in different stages of production. Studying their contribution prevents industrial history from becoming merely a list of inventors and factory owners.

What were the wider consequences?

Factories and growing cities transformed landscapes and social life. Pollution and housing problems accompanied industrial development. At the same time, intensified building after the 1840s created employment through road widening, railway construction, drainage works and other urban improvements.

The effects were therefore uneven. Increased production and transport opportunities existed alongside insecurity and hardship. Judging the Industrial Revolution requires attention both to what society could produce and to how different people lived.

What caused imperial expansion and how did it establish control?

Imperial expansion connected economic interests with political power. Companies sought profitable trade and exclusive access to supplies. Later, industrial manufacturers wanted markets for their goods and access to raw materials, the materials used to make finished products.

A monopoly is an exclusive right or control over a trade or activity. Companies tried to remove competitors so they could control prices and supplies. They sought privileges from rulers, defended trading settlements and used armed force in commercial disputes.

How did the East India Company gain revenue?

The Company won the Battle of Plassey in 1757. Its aim remained the expansion of trade; it was initially reluctant to take responsibility for administration. However, its attempts to secure advantages through dependent local rulers created further conflicts.

After the Battle of Buxar in 1764, Company influence grew. In 1765, the Mughal emperor appointed the Company as Diwan of Bengal. Diwani meant the right to collect revenue, the income raised by the government.

1. The Company gained access to Bengal's revenue resources.
2. Revenue could finance purchases of cotton and silk textiles in India.
3. It could also pay for troops and the Company's forts and offices.
4. Control of territory and its income therefore supported both commercial and military power.

Colonisation is the process by which one country subjugates another and transforms its political, economic, social and cultural life. Colonialism refers to the system of such domination. In India, control extended beyond trade to government, revenue and people's livelihoods.

This sequence shows why the expansion of overseas commerce cannot be separated from struggles over power. It also shows that British rule was established through a process over time, rather than in a single event.

What was the impact of imperialism on India?

India's experience shows how imperialism affected a South Asian society. Before machine-made textiles expanded, Indian silk and cotton goods were important in international trade. Merchants and bankers financed production and connected inland weaving centres with ports.

As European companies acquired privileges and trading monopolies, older networks weakened. Surat and Hoogly declined, while Bombay and Calcutta grew within trade networks controlled by European companies. The growth of ports therefore reflected changes in political and commercial power.

How were weavers controlled?

The Company appointed a gomastha, a paid agent who supervised weavers, collected supplies and checked cloth quality. It also offered advances, payments or loans made before delivery, to help weavers buy materials. Those accepting loans had to supply the Company.

Weavers lost freedom to bargain and sell to different buyers. Prices paid by the Company were miserably low. Gomasthas punished weavers for delays in supply, often beating and flogging them. This was coercion, the use of force or threats. In many places, weavers moved away, resisted officials or refused further loans.

What happened when British manufactures expanded?

British manufacturers pressed for import duties, taxes on goods entering a country, to protect their market from foreign textiles. They also urged the Company to sell British manufactures in India. Cheap machine-made imports created severe competition for Indian handloom weavers.

In 1811-12, cotton piece-goods, or lengths of finished cloth, accounted for 33 per cent of India's exports. By 1850-51, they accounted for no more than 3 per cent. Indian weavers faced shrinking export markets and competition at home.

Per cent means out of one hundred. These figures describe shares of exports, not the proportion of all Indians who were weavers. Keeping the meaning of a number clear is essential when explaining economic change.

Colonial control did not affect every group identically. Many of the old trading houses collapsed; those seeking to survive had to operate within networks shaped by European companies. Nor did every handloom disappear. The central point is that political power shaped opportunities, prices and competition, making industrial change unequal across Britain and India.

How does a timeline connect the main developments?

A timeline arranges developments in chronological order, from earlier to later. It helps distinguish cultural and religious changes from later industrial developments. Events close together in a table need not have occurred for the same reason.

These dates are reference points within longer processes. Humanist learning spread over time, religious reform took different forms, and industrial machinery was adopted unevenly. A timeline becomes useful when dates are connected to causes, consequences and people's experiences.

Glossary

• Transition — A process of change from one condition or historical situation to another.
• Primary source — Original evidence from the period studied, including contemporary accounts, documents and objects.
• Secondary source — A later study that interprets evidence to explain events or conditions in the past.
• Renaissance — Cultural movement associated with renewed classical learning and interest in human abilities and achievement.
• Humanism — An approach to education emphasising human abilities and subjects such as poetry, history and moral philosophy.
• Reformation — Religious movements challenging Catholic authority and practices and producing new divisions within European Christianity.
• Patronage — Support given by wealthy or powerful people to artists, scholars and their work.
• Proto-industrialisation — Large-scale production for international markets before factories, organised through merchants and dispersed rural households.
• Industrial Revolution — Major changes in industry and society associated with expanding machinery and new forms of production.
• Capital — Money or resources available for investment in activities such as trade and manufacturing.
• Urbanisation — Growth of towns and the urban population associated with changing work and settlement.
• Imperialism — Extension of a country's power over other territories and peoples through political or economic domination.
• Colonisation — Subjugation of one country by another, producing political, economic, social and cultural changes.
• Monopoly — Exclusive control or rights that restrict competition in a particular trade or activity.
• Gomastha — A paid Company agent who supervised weavers, collected supplies and checked cloth quality.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: The Renaissance completely ended religion. Correct: Religious belief continued, and major Renaissance artworks portrayed religious subjects.
• Misconception: Primary sources are necessarily unbiased. Correct: Contemporary evidence can reflect its creator's position, interests and prejudices.
• Misconception: The Reformation was one movement with identical aims. Correct: Reformers disagreed, including over peasants' demands and social change.
• Misconception: Industry began with factories. Correct: Merchants organised substantial production through rural households before mechanised factories expanded.
• Misconception: Watt invented the first steam engine. Correct: He improved an earlier engine produced by Newcomen.
• Misconception: Machines immediately replaced all hand labour. Correct: Adoption was uneven, and household work and craft production continued.
• Misconception: Higher wage rates prove that workers lived comfortably. Correct: Prices, unemployment and the number of days worked also affected living standards.
• Misconception: Colonial trade benefited all Indian producers equally. Correct: Company control reduced many weavers' bargaining freedom, and cheap imports later intensified their difficulties.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. An official report written in 1790 describes protests against spinning machinery. A history book published in 1860 interprets Renaissance culture. Classify each as a primary or secondary source for the period it describes, giving a reason. [2 marks]

1. The 1790 report is a primary source because it is contemporary evidence about the protests it describes.
2. The 1860 history is a secondary source because it offers a later interpretation of Renaissance culture.

Q2. Italian merchants supported artists; scholars studied ancient authors; painters used geometry to show depth; printed books carried ideas abroad. Explain four ways these developments helped Renaissance culture. [4 marks]

1. Merchant support gave artists patronage, helping them carry out their work and develop cultural activity in cities.
2. Studying ancient authors encouraged renewed attention to classical learning and the ideas contained in original writings.
3. Geometry helped painters represent depth, making scenes appear more lifelike and giving pictures a three-dimensional quality.
4. Printed books carried ideas beyond their place of origin, allowing readers in other regions to encounter new learning.

Q3. Luther challenged Catholic practices in 1517 and translated the Bible into German in 1522. Some churches broke from Rome, but Luther opposed the peasants' rebellion, suppressed in 1525. Explain three conclusions about the Reformation from this information. [3 marks]

1. The Reformation challenged existing religious authority: Luther's criticism was followed by some churches breaking their connection with Rome.
2. Translation supported access to religious texts: the German Bible enabled people who read German to engage with its teachings.
3. Religious reform did not mean agreement on social rebellion: Luther opposed the peasants' movement despite challenging Catholic practices.

Q4. Britain had coal and iron, investment from commerce, expanding markets, waterways and roads, and rural people seeking additional work. Explain how each of these five conditions supported early industrialisation. [5 marks]

1. Coal provided fuel, while iron supplied material for machinery and transport equipment, supporting the physical needs of industrial production.
2. Investment from commerce supplied capital that could be used to purchase equipment and organise production in new industrial establishments.
3. Expanding markets created buyers for goods, encouraging producers to increase output because there was demand beyond their immediate locality.
4. Waterways and roads connected producing areas with markets, helping move the materials needed for production and the goods produced.
5. Rural people seeking additional work provided a potential labour supply for expanding production, linking changes in countryside livelihoods with industrial employment.

Q5. The Spinning Jenny let one worker spin several threads. New machines were expensive, often broke down and required costly repairs. Some women depended on hand spinning. Give four reasons why introducing machinery could cause difficulty despite increasing output. [4 marks]

1. Buying a machine required substantial investment, so a manufacturer had to find money before receiving any benefit from increased output.
2. Frequent breakdowns made machinery less dependable, reducing the advantage expected from a device designed to increase production.
3. Costly repairs added further expense after purchase, making manufacturers cautious about committing their money to new equipment.
4. Women dependent on hand spinning feared losing work when one worker could produce several threads, creating opposition to machinery.

Q6. The Company gained Bengal's revenue rights in 1765. Revenue paid for textiles, troops and buildings. Its agents supervised weavers, advances tied weavers to Company deliveries, and weavers lost freedom to bargain. Explain five connections between political and economic control shown here. [5 marks]

1. Revenue rights gave the Company access to income collected in Bengal, linking its political authority directly with financial resources.
2. Using this revenue to buy textiles meant that income collected locally could support the Company's commercial purchases within India.
3. Spending on troops and buildings supported the Company's military and administrative presence, helping maintain the institutions through which power operated.
4. Agents supervising weavers extended Company control into production, enabling it to direct supplies rather than simply purchase freely available cloth.
5. Advances restricted weavers to Company deliveries and reduced bargaining freedom, showing how financial dependence could strengthen control over individual producers.

Q7. Cotton piece-goods formed 33 per cent of India's exports in 1811-12 and no more than 3 per cent in 1850-51. British manufacturers sought import duties at home and sold cheap machine-made cloth in India. Explain the change in cotton piece-goods' share of India's exports and two pressures faced by Indian weavers, one in Britain and one in India. [3 marks]

1. The sharp fall in the export share of cotton piece-goods indicates the weakening position of these goods in India's overseas trade.
2. Import duties sought by British manufacturers protected the British market, making it harder for Indian textiles to compete there.
3. Cheap machine-made cloth sold in India also increased competition within the domestic market, so weavers faced pressure at home as well as abroad.

Q8. Wages increased somewhat, but employment could be seasonal and food prices could rise. Give two reasons why a higher wage rate did not necessarily mean a better standard of living. [2 marks]

1. Seasonal unemployment reduced the number of paid working days, so a higher rate did not guarantee greater total income.
2. Rising food prices reduced what the same earnings could buy, weakening any benefit from an increased wage rate.

Key takeaways

• The transition towards the modern world involved overlapping changes in culture, religion, trade, production and political power over centuries.
• Primary and secondary sources answer different questions; both require attention to evidence, purpose and the writer's viewpoint.
• Renaissance learning emphasised human abilities, while classical traditions and knowledge transmitted through other cultures contributed to its development.
• Religious reform challenged Catholic authority, but reformers disagreed over social questions and the Catholic Church also reformed itself.
• Britain's industrial development drew on resources, investment, markets, transport, labour and inventions acting together.
• Factories brought machinery and workers together, yet hand production and household industry continued alongside them.
• Industrial change increased productive capacity while exposing many workers to insecure employment and difficult living conditions.
• Imperial power shaped trade and production in India, restricting many weavers' choices and exposing them to unequal competition.

Test yourself

Why is it misleading to give one starting date for every historical transition?

Many changes develop over a stretch of time and affect different regions and social groups at different speeds.

Why is an official document not automatically an impartial account?

It reflects what officials thought, what interested them and what they wished to preserve for later readers.

How did printing help humanist ideas spread?

Printed books carried ideas beyond their place of origin and allowed more readers to obtain their own copies.

What does proto-industrialisation show about the history of production?

Substantial production for international markets existed before factories, with merchants organising work across rural households.

How did a cotton mill differ from dispersed household production?

It brought machinery and processes under one roof and management, allowing closer supervision of labour and quality.

Why did some workers oppose the Spinning Jenny?

It reduced labour demand, so people who depended on hand spinning feared losing their work and income.

How did Bengal's revenue support the Company's trade?

After gaining Diwani in 1765, the Company could use Bengal's revenue to buy textiles and meet other expenses.

Why did Indian weavers face pressure in two markets?

Their export market weakened while cheap British machine-made cloth also competed with their products within India.