History
Imagine that you are a merchant writing back to a salesman who has been trying to persuade you to buy a new machine. Explain in your letter what you have heard and why you do not wish to invest in the new technology.
Answer
Dear ……..
I am writing you regarding your request to buy the new machine. I feel that buying this machine is not economically feasible for me. Following are the reasons why I think so:
- The machine is very expensive and presently work is efficiently done by cheap labourers.
- I have heard that the repairing cost of these machines are very high and also they break down very often.
- The machine is not as effective as claimed by you and manufacturers. They cannot match the quality of hand made stuffs.
For all these reasons, I will not be able to purchase the machine offered by you.
Yours Sincerely
……….
Related Questions
The way in which historians focus on industrialisation rather than on small workshops is a good example of how what we believe today about the past is influenced by what historians choose to notice and what they ignore. Note down one event or aspect of your own life which adults such as your parents or teachers may think is unimportant, but which you believe to be important.
Look at Figs. 4 and 5. Can you see any difference in the way the two images show industrialisation? Explain your view briefly.
On a map of Asia, find and draw the sea and land links of the textile trade from India to Central Asia, West Asia and Southeast Asia.
Look at Figs. 3, 7 and 11, then reread source B. Explain why many workers were opposed to the use of the Spinning Jenny.
Source B
A magistrate reported in 1790 about an incident when he was called in to protect a manufacturer’s property from being attacked by workers:
‘From the depredations of a lawless Banditti of colliers and their wives, for the wives had lost their work to spinning engines … they advanced at first with much insolence, avowing their intention of cutting to pieces the machine lately introduced in the woollen manufacture; which they suppose, if generally adopted, will lessen the demand for manual labour. The women became clamorous. The men were more open to conviction and after some expostulation were induced to desist from their purpose and return peaceably home.’
J.L. Hammond and B. Hammond, The Skilled Labourer 1760-1832, quoted in Maxine Berg, The Age of Manufactures.