and Drain of Wealth Europe had always imported more from the East than was exported here. There was little that the East required from the West in return for the spices, silks, calicos, jewels and the like it sent there. The industrial revolution in textile production that took place in England reversed this relationship for the first time. India was systematically de-industrialized.
Rather than being the world’s leading exporter of cloth and textiles, India became a market for Lancashire cottons. Cheap machine-made British goods led to the flooding of Indian markets. Indian cotton piece goods began to lose ground gradually given that machine-made goods were more durable and cost less. The Company government, in the first three decades, followed a policy of allowing unrestricted flow of imports of British goods into India.
Without any import duty English goods were much cheaper than domestic products. At the same time, Indian manufactures were shut Irrigation The British neglected irrigation. The irrigation channels and tanks built by Indian rulers fell into disuse and there was little effort on the part of the Company to undertake repairs or renovation works. In Madras, as we will see in the following section, a few irrigation works were carried out because of the personal enthusiasm of Arthur Cotton, an Engineering officer.
Against much opposition, Cotton built a dam across the Kollidam (Coleroon) in . In , a dam across the Krishna river had also begun. In the north, before the takeover of India by the Crown, Jumna canal was completed in and by the Ganges canal had been extended to nearly miles. In the Punjab area the Bari Doab canal had been excavated by .
But the canal water contributed to soil salinity and water logging causing great ecological distress. Forests Land revenue was the mainstay of the British Indian government’s fiscal system. Therefore, in their effort to extend the areas of cultivable land, forests were destroyed. Zamins were created out of Jungle Mahal forests and auctioned off for regular cultivation.
The original inhabitants of this region, the Santhals were evicted. Therefore it was