Sven Beckert

Bombay emerged as a hub for cotton trade. Why?
British colonialists in India had tried to lessen their dependence by increasing Indian raw cotton exports. For a long time, they did not succeed since most Indian grown cotton was spun domestically and if exported, it went to China. Yet, in the second half of the 19th century, the British project succeeded. More cotton was exported to Europe from India. And Bombay, being near some of India's most productive cotton fields, emerged as the central export hub. In 1860, 92 per cent of Indian cotton exports to Britain went via Bombay. Colonialism had recast the Indian economy, away from exporting manufactured goods and towards the export of raw materials.

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There's a connect between Bombay's cotton mills and its working middle class.
In the 19th century, Bombay emerged as one of the centres of the Indian mechanised cotton industry, along with Ahmedabad. The first mechanised cotton mill started in Bombay in 1854 when financier Cowasjee Davar and his associates floated the Bombay Spinning and Weaving Company. A boom followed when 10 cotton mills were set up in the city by 1865, employing over 6,500 workers. By 1900 that number had increased to 136 mills, many of whom were sited in Girangaon (literally 'village of mills'). Mill worker numbers in Mumbai grew, climbing from 13,500 in 1875 to nearly 76,000 in 1895, and doubling by the early 1920s to 1,50,000. Working conditions were often poor, and wages low. In the 1920s, however, a huge wave of strikes hit the Bombay cotton textile industry, and many workers came to be organised in trade unions. The Bombay Textile Labour Union was established in 1926 by NM Joshi and RR Bakhale of the Servants of India Society, who combined labour activism with the freedom struggle. These unions ensured better working conditions, stable employment and higher wages. This paved the way for a factory labour force that was allowed to live more humane lives. Nearly half of all cotton workers came to be represented by trade unions.

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