What was the Calico Act? What was the main reason behind enacting this?
Answers
Parliament began to see a decline in domestic textile sales, and an increase in imported textiles from places like China and India. Seeing the East India Company and their textile importation as a threat to domestic textile businesses, Parliament passed the 1700 Calico Act, blocking the importation of cotton cloth.
Answer:
In 1700, Calico Act was legislation banning the use of certain kinds of Indian textiles in England by the British Government to ban the usage of a few kinds of Indian textiles.
Explanation:
The import of cotton textiles into England was banned and this was followed by restrictions to sell most cotton textiles. This was set to overcome the fear of the Indian textile market taking over the markets at the time. This impacted the decline in domestic textile sales and an increase in imported textiles. Downfall in the sales of woollen and linen textiles.
The local weavers, spinners, dyers, shepherds and farmers objected to the usage of imported textiles.
In 1700, the parliament passed an ACT to ban the importation of cotton cloth. This is called the Calico Act.