The First World War and British Cotton Piece Exports to India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3368941 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jo Tomlinson (0000-0003-2206-3486, Brunel University of London, corresponding author), J D Tomlinson |
| Year | 1979 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 494 |
| Publication date | 1979-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Economic History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2595062 |
| OpenAlex | W4245852342 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
T | SHE disastrous effects of First World War on export of Lancashire's cotton piece-goods' to its most important market, India, have long been a commonplace of economic history.2 However, there has been no detailed discussion of this question, especially of crucial period from I9I7, and this article is an attempt to fill that gap. This necessarily involves unravelling effects of a considerable number of factors which affected scale of trade. Even prior to outbreak of war Lancashire was facing problems in India. In I9I3 market there had become overstocked with cloth,3 whilst demand was hit by poor monsoon season.4 The war aggravated situation by bringing about a financial panic in India: Economist commented that the War has exerted much same effect on delicate machinery of (Indian) credit as proverbial bull in a china shop.5 At this time most of Lancashire's difficulties lay in Indian demand rather than on supply side; although freight, insurance, and cabling costs rose, this was offset by fall in raw cotton prices. The initial crisis passed, and by early I 9I 5 observers were talking of smallness of shock to enterprise caused by war.6 By mid-19I5 Lancashire's piece exports to India had stabilized at approximately 66 per cent of prewar level (see Fig. i). From middle of I9I7, however, there came a new and much more serious collapse of British exports. This followed exacerbation of trends which were at root of problem of previous two years-the rising cost and increasing scarcity of freight, increasing competition, and decline in Indian demand. These three interrelated problems will be considered in turn
Agricultural economics · Ancient history · Economic history · Economics · Economy · First world war · Geography · Political science · African history and culture studies · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · History · Indian Economic and Social Development · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.18 |
| Citation span | 1981 - 2020 (40) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |