Lancashire
Topic: The Age of Industrialisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"
Meaning
Lancashire is a county in north-west England. In the 19th century it was the main centre of Britain's cotton textile industry, with Manchester as its chief city. Its mills spun and wove cotton that was grown abroad. Most of that raw cotton came from America. Lancashire matters because its cheap machine-made cloth flooded India and hurt Indian weavers. Its demand for raw cotton also reached deep into the Indian countryside.
Example
In the 1860s the American Civil War cut off cotton supplies from the USA. Lancashire's mills then turned to India for raw cotton. Raw cotton prices in India shot up. Indian peasants were pushed to grow more cotton, and Indian weavers could no longer buy affordable yarn and raw cotton.
Don't confuse with
- Manchester: Manchester is a city inside Lancashire. "Made in Manchester" became the label for British mill cloth, while Lancashire is the wider cotton-mill region around it.