Discuss the causes of the rise and growth of Indian capitalism.
Answers
The history of capitalism has diverse and much debated roots, but fully-fledged capitalism is generally thought to have emerged in Northwestern Europe, especially in the Low Countries (mainly present-day Flanders and Netherlands) and Great Britain, in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries. Over the following centuries, capital has accumulated by a variety of different methods, in a variety of scales, and associated with a great deal of variation in the concentration of economic power and wealth. Capitalism has gradually become the dominant economic system throughout the world.[1] Much of the history of the past five hundred years is, therefore, concerned with the development of capitalism in its various forms.
Causes for the rise of capitalism:
- Increase in population
- Legal requirement
- Growth of towns
- Mass production
- Disappearance of small farmers
1. Increase in Population:
The Industrial Revolution increased the national wealth, raised the standard of living, made life more comfortable. All this helped in checking the onslaught of various diseases. Thus, it led to an increase in population.
One of the most obvious changes in people's lives was that more people moved into the urban areas where factories were located. The rural population had risen sharply as new sources of food became available, and death rates declined due to fewer plagues and wars. At the same time, many small farms disappeared. Thus, people from the rural areas migrated to the urban areas for employment, education, cultural benefits, better freedom and enjoyment.
2. Legal Requirement:
There was the new enclosure law which required farmers to put fences or hedges around their fields to prevent common grazing on the land. Small farmers who could not afford to enclose their fields had to sell out their farms to larger landholders and search for work elsewhere. These factors combined to provide a ready workforce for the new industries.
3. Growth of Towns:
New manufacturing towns and cities grew dramatically. Many of these cities were located close to the coalfields that supplied fuel to the factories. Factories had to be close to sources of power because power could not be distributed very far. The names of British factory cities soon symbolised industrialisation to the wider world: Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield and especially Manchester.
4. Mass Production:
Mass production destroyed the domestic system of production. The growth of industries and the use of huge machines gave rise to factories. The people of villages shifted to towns for employment in the factories. This in turn led to the growth of new towns in England such as Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield and Leeds. It made modern civilisation essentially urban in character.
5. Disappearance of Small Farmers:
The small farmers who cultivated land and manufactured goods in their spare time, in their homes shifted to new industrial towns. They were forced to seek employment in factories because they were replaced by big landlords. In pre industrial England, more than three-quarters of the population lived in small villages. By the mid-19th century, however, the country had made history by becoming the first nation with half its population in cities. By 1850 millions of British people lived in crowded, grim industrial cities. Reformers began to speak of the mills and factories as dark, evil places.