how are weavers stay in the control of local traders ?
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Answer:
In a weaver's cooperative, the weavers form a group and take up certain activities collectively. They procure yarn from the yarn dealer and distribute it among the weavers. The cooperative also does the marketing. So, the role of the merchant is reduced, and weavers get a fair price on the cloth.
In the 16th and the 17th centuries, the English, the Dutch and the French formed East India Companies in order to expand their commercial activities in the east.
Initially they faced a resistence from the local traders, but the companies soon gained control over the sea routes and forced the local traders to be their agents and emerged as the commercial and political superpower of the subcontinent.
The demand for goods like textiles increased and so the crafts of spinning, weaving, bleaching, dyeing, etc. expanded greatly as many people participated in it and the quality of the textiles improved.
But this period saw the decline of the independence of craftspersons as they now began to work on a system of advance payments which meant that they had to weave cloth which was already promised to European agents. Weavers no longer had the liberty of selling their own cloth or weaving their own patterns.
The 18th century saw the rise of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras which are major metropolitan cities today.
The crafts and commerce also underwent changes as the local or native artisans and merchants were moved to the 'black towns' (areas set up by the whites for the blacks or locals) while they occupied the superior residencies of Fort St George in Madras or Fort St William in Calcutta.
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