Describe the role of early entrepreneurs of India in the developement of industries
Answers
During the colonial period, the British traders and merchants began the barter of opium with tea (from China to England). However, this process was also accommodated by some of the Indian Entrepreneurs; who provided finance, obtaining stocks and transportation consignments.
To name some Indian Entrepreneurs we can include, Dwarkanath Tagore of Bengal (established six joint-stock companies during the trade with China), Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata and Dinshaw Petit of Bombay (built an industrial domain in India by acquiring their initial capital from shipping to China and raw cotton cargoes to England. Moreover, there were some other Entrepreneurs from Madras ex-changed their goods with the merchants of the Middle East, Burma and East Africa.
The Indian industrialists and entrepreneurs in the 18th and 19th centuries:
(i) Dwarakanath Tagore. He invested in shipping: shipbuilding, mining, banking, plantations, and insurance in the 1830s. These were his six joint-stock companies. He traded with China also.
(ii) Parsis like Dinshaw Petit and Jamsiljee Nusserwanjee Tata who built huge industrial empires in India, accumulated their wealth partly from exports to China and partly from raw cotton shipments to England.
(iii) Seth Hukumchand, a Marwari businessman, set up the first Indian Jute mill in Calcutta in 1917.
(iv) The father and grandfather of G.D. Birla also traded with China in the 18th and 19th centuries.
(v) Other Indian traders also traded with many countries.