Commercialisation of agriculture; railways, posts and telegraph
The British pushed cash crops such as indigo, opium, cotton and tea, and built railways mainly to carry raw materials to ports and British goods inland.
What commercialisation means
Commercialisation of agriculture means growing crops to sell in the market, not to eat at home. Under British rule many Indian farmers moved to commercial (cash) crops: tea, coffee, indigo, opium, cotton, jute, sugarcane and oilseeds. Each crop served a British purpose. Some fed British factories. Some paid for British trade. Others earned profit for British planters and traders.
Cash crops and the British purpose
| Crop | What the British did | Effect on Indians |
|---|---|---|
| Opium | Sold Indian opium to China to pay for the Chinese tea that Britain bought | British traders controlled the market, so Indian growers earned little |
| Indigo | Made farmers grow it on 3/20th of their land and sell on British terms; sent to England as a dye for cloth | It left the land infertile for some years, so farmers did not want to grow it |
| Tea | Set up plantations, whose ownership changed hands often | Plantation workers lived and worked in great hardship |
| Cotton and jute | Grown as raw material for mills in Britain | India sent out raw cotton but bought back machine-made cloth |
Effects of commercialisation
- Land changed hands faster, and the number of landless labourers grew.
- Merchants, traders and middlemen multiplied. Peasants depended on them to sell at harvest and were exploited.
- Land moved from food grains to cash crops, so food grain production fell.
- Smaller food stocks led to famines, and peasants revolted.
- Together with other policies, it added to the drain of wealth to Britain.
Railways, posts and telegraph: why the British built them
- Before this, goods moved by bullock carts, camels and pack animals.
- Railways joined the raw-material areas to the ports, and carried British goods to markets across India.
- Engines, coaches and capital came from Britain, so British industry and bankers gained.
- Investors were guaranteed a minimum 5% profit and given free land on a 99-year lease.
- The telegraph and post let officials and traders send orders and news fast across a huge country.
- First lines: the Red Hill line at Madras (1837) carried granite; the first passenger train ran from Bombay to Thane in 1853.
- Lord Dalhousie began the first long telegraph line, Calcutta to Agra, in 1853; it reached Agra in 1854. A new postal system with one rate across India followed in 1854. Your lesson puts both in 1853.
Built for Britain, used by Indians
A favourite exam point: railways served British trade, but they also helped India's national awakening.
The Indian railway network, which began with the Bombay to Thane line of 1853, is now one of the largest in the world. Assam and Darjeeling tea, first grown on British plantations, are still India's best-known teas abroad.
2 marks: “Railways in India were planned mainly for British trade. Explain this with two points.” (1) They carried raw materials such as cotton from the interior to the ports, for British mills. (2) They carried British machine-made goods to markets across India. British investors were also promised at least a 5% profit.
1 marks: “On what part of their land were farmers forced to grow indigo?” On 3/20th of their land.
6 marks: “What was commercialisation of agriculture? Describe its effects on Indian peasants.” Define it, name the cash crops, then: opium for the China tea trade; indigo forced on 3/20th of land, which made the soil infertile; faster land transfer and more landless labourers; middlemen exploited peasants; food grains fell, so famines and revolts followed.
Cash crops OITC: Opium for China, Indigo for dye, Tea on plantations, Cotton for British mills.