UPSC Prelims Practice Questions — Calcutta’s foreign trade

Q1. Consider the following statements comparing the jute industries of Dundee and Calcutta: 1. Commercial manufacture of jute yarn began at Dundee several decades before India's own jute-processing industry came into being. 2. The machinery with which India's jute spinning began was brought out from Dundee to Bengal. 3. Calcutta had displaced Dundee as the world's largest jute manufacturing centre by 1900, the year by which it was already processing about three-quarters of the world's jute. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. Commercial manufacture of jute yarn began at Dundee several decades before India's own jute-processing industry came into being.
  2. The machinery with which India's jute spinning began was brought out from Dundee to Bengal.
  3. Calcutta had displaced Dundee as the world's largest jute manufacturing centre by 1900, the year by which it was already processing about three-quarters of the world's jute.
  • A. 1 and 2 only
  • B. 2 and 3 only
  • C. 1 and 3 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 3

Q2. At which one of the following places in Bengal was India's first jute mill set up in 1855, using spinning machinery imported from Scotland?

  • A. Serampore, the former Danish settlement on the Hooghly
  • B. Rishra, in the Hooghly district north of Calcutta
  • C. Budge Budge, downstream of Calcutta on the Hooghly
  • D. Kanchrapara, in the North 24 Parganas district

Q3. When the Calcutta Port Trust commenced operations in October 1870, with how many jetties did it begin?

  • A. Two
  • B. Four
  • C. Six
  • D. Eight

Q4. Consider the following statements about the port of Calcutta and its Trust: 1. The port came to be governed by a Trust with the appointment of the Commissioners for the Improvement of the Port of Calcutta in 1870. 2. It was the last among India's major ports to be placed under a statutory port trust. 3. It has since been renamed as the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port. 4. The Kolkata Dock System and the Haldia Dock Complex were both brought under the Trust at its inception in 1870. Which of the above is/are NOT correct?

  1. The port came to be governed by a Trust with the appointment of the Commissioners for the Improvement of the Port of Calcutta in 1870.
  2. It was the last among India's major ports to be placed under a statutory port trust.
  3. It has since been renamed as the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port.
  4. The Kolkata Dock System and the Haldia Dock Complex were both brought under the Trust at its inception in 1870.
  • A. 1 and 3
  • B. 2 and 4
  • C. 3 and 4
  • D. 2 only

Q5. Consider the following statements about the founding of Calcutta by the English East India Company: 1. Job Charnock, an agent of the Company, established a trading post at Sutanati in 1690. 2. Kalikata and Gobindapore were the two other villages that grew together with it into the city. 3. The Indian merchants who had settled these villages had migrated from the silted-up port of Satgaon, situated downstream of the site. 4. The site was protected by the Hugli River on its eastern side and by salt lakes on its western side. Which of the above is/are NOT correct?

  1. Job Charnock, an agent of the Company, established a trading post at Sutanati in 1690.
  2. Kalikata and Gobindapore were the two other villages that grew together with it into the city.
  3. The Indian merchants who had settled these villages had migrated from the silted-up port of Satgaon, situated downstream of the site.
  4. The site was protected by the Hugli River on its eastern side and by salt lakes on its western side.
  • A. 1 and 2
  • B. 2 and 3
  • C. 3 and 4
  • D. 1 and 4

Q6. Approximately how far inland from the Bay of Bengal, along the Hugli, does the port of Kolkata lie?

  • A. About 43 km
  • B. About 96 km
  • C. About 154 km
  • D. About 210 km

Q7. In the decades following the Crimean War, how many jute mills had come up in Bengal by 1882?

  • A. About 10
  • B. About 20
  • C. About 35
  • D. About 50

Q8. With reference to the effect of the Crimean War (1853–56) on the jute trade, consider the following statements: 1. The war cut off Russia's supply of raw hemp to the jute mills of Scotland. 2. It thereby stimulated the export of raw jute from Calcutta to Dundee. 3. The jute industry that grew in Bengal is regarded as that region's counterpart to Bombay's cotton industry. 4. India's own jute-processing industry had already been established two years before the war broke out. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. The war cut off Russia's supply of raw hemp to the jute mills of Scotland.
  2. It thereby stimulated the export of raw jute from Calcutta to Dundee.
  3. The jute industry that grew in Bengal is regarded as that region's counterpart to Bombay's cotton industry.
  4. India's own jute-processing industry had already been established two years before the war broke out.
  • A. 1 and 2 only
  • B. 2, 3 and 4
  • C. 1, 2 and 3
  • D. 1 and 4 only

Q9. With reference to the commodities of colonial India's export trade, consider the following statements: 1. Opium grown in India, over whose cultivation in Bengal the East India Company held a monopoly, was exported to China. 2. The tea that Britain bought in China was paid for by India's exports of opium and cotton to China. 3. Jute and jute manufactures alone accounted for the entire export earnings of Calcutta throughout the nineteenth century. 4. Tea never figured among the commodities exported from India in the colonial period. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. Opium grown in India, over whose cultivation in Bengal the East India Company held a monopoly, was exported to China.
  2. The tea that Britain bought in China was paid for by India's exports of opium and cotton to China.
  3. Jute and jute manufactures alone accounted for the entire export earnings of Calcutta throughout the nineteenth century.
  4. Tea never figured among the commodities exported from India in the colonial period.
  • A. 1 and 2 only
  • B. 1, 2 and 3
  • C. 2 and 4 only
  • D. 3 and 4 only

Q10. Consider the following statements contrasting the commodity streams of colonial Indian trade: 1. Raw jute leaving Calcutta went chiefly to the mills of Dundee, whereas Indian raw cotton was shipped eastward to China. 2. Calcutta's jute mills, unlike Bombay's cotton mills, were from the outset controlled largely by Indian-owned managing agencies. 3. Indigo and raw silk were among the Bengal commodities in which the East India Company had built a profitable trade before jute manufacturing took root. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

  1. Raw jute leaving Calcutta went chiefly to the mills of Dundee, whereas Indian raw cotton was shipped eastward to China.
  2. Calcutta's jute mills, unlike Bombay's cotton mills, were from the outset controlled largely by Indian-owned managing agencies.
  3. Indigo and raw silk were among the Bengal commodities in which the East India Company had built a profitable trade before jute manufacturing took root.
  • A. 1 and 2 only
  • B. 2 and 3 only
  • C. 1 and 3 only
  • D. 1, 2 and 3

Q11. With reference to the Calcutta foreign-trade returns for July 1926, consider the following statements: 1. Imports of cotton goods rose from about Rs. 218 lakh to about Rs. 304 lakh. 2. Measured against the same month of the previous year, exports registered an improvement. 3. Imports rose over the preceding month, from about Rs. 5.74 crore to about Rs. 8.03 crore. 4. Every month of that year had recorded a rise in imports over the month preceding it. Which of the above is/are correctly identified?

  1. Imports of cotton goods rose from about Rs. 218 lakh to about Rs. 304 lakh.
  2. Measured against the same month of the previous year, exports registered an improvement.
  3. Imports rose over the preceding month, from about Rs. 5.74 crore to about Rs. 8.03 crore.
  4. Every month of that year had recorded a rise in imports over the month preceding it.
  • A. 1 and 4
  • B. 2 and 3
  • C. 1 and 3
  • D. 2, 3 and 4

Q12. During the first century of English settlement, which one of the following best describes Bombay's standing relative to Calcutta and Madras?

  • A. It was the least valuable of the three to the Company, its trade kept small by Maratha control of the hinterland
  • B. It was the busiest of the three, handling the bulk of the Company's opium consignments bound for the China market
  • C. It stood first among the three as the seat of the Governor-General from 1772, when the chief offices were shifted from Murshidabad
  • D. It was the earliest of the three to be fortified, its Fort St. George dating from the settlement of 1639–40