Manchester Cotton Company
Topic: Colonial Economy: Land Revenue, Drain, Deindustrialisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"
Meaning
The Manchester Cotton Company was formed in Britain in 1859. Its aim was to promote cotton growing outside America, especially in India. Lancashire's mills depended heavily on cotton from the American slave states, and British manufacturers wanted other sources. It shows how British industry shaped what Indian farmers grew.
Example
When the American Civil War (1861–65) cut off American cotton, efforts like this paid off for British mills. Bombay Deccan ryots (peasant cultivators) were pushed to grow cotton, often with money borrowed from moneylenders. When the boom ended after 1865, many were left deep in debt.
Don't confuse with
- Cotton Supply Association: this was a body of British cotton manufacturers set up in 1857, two years earlier, with the same goal. The Manchester Cotton Company of 1859 was a separate company.
Related concepts
- Surat
- Gomastha
- System of advances
- Deindustrialisation
- American Civil War
- Cotton Supply Association
- Bombay Gazette