Exports and Imports of India Eassy Writing free essay sample

The Indian Economy India was a direct colony of the British and the impact of this colonial rule over the economy and society of India has been immense. It must be stated at the outset that direct colonial rule leaves a total impact on the colonized society because every aspect of social life is influenced by colonial policies of the colonizers. A direct colony (as was the case with India) is under the complete control of the colonizers and colonial policies and interests influence every aspect of social life of a colony. Another important fact about India is that the colonial rule lasted for a very long time and this longevity of colonial rule over India affected the vitals of the Indian society. India in the pre-colonial period had a stable economy. Self-sufficient agriculture, flourishing trade and rich handicraft industries. Subsistence farmers, organized in small village communities carried on agricultural operations in India. Landlords were not landowners; they only had the right or privilege to collect taxes from the peasants (Rothermund, page 1). A village was more or less a self-sufficient economic unit and its business contacts with the outside world were limited to payment of land revenue (generally in kind) and the purchase of a few necessary things from the town nearby. The farmer raised only those crops, which he needed for his own use and shared the same with the village artisan who supplied him with simple manufactures that he needed for his domestic consumption. Means of communication were of a primitive type. Therefore, trade in agricultural produce, was somewhat limited. The farmer usually raised enough produce to feed himself and the non-agricultural members of the village community. If his crop yielded more than the consumption needs, due to favorable climatic conditions, he stored that surplus for use in the lean years. Storage of food grains was a common practice among the pre-colonial agriculturists and constituted, under these conditions, the only remedy against famines. In spite of the fact that the Indian villages were largely self-sufficient units and the means of communication were primitive, India enjoyed extensive trade both within the country and with other countries of Asia and Europe. A balance of the imports and exports was maintained. The items imported into India were pearls, wool, dates, dried fruits and rosewater from the Persian gulf; coffee, gold, drugs and honey from Arabia; tea, sugar and silk from China; gold, musk and woolen cloth; metals like copper, iron and lead, and paper from Europe. The main items exported from India were cotton textiles. Besides cotton textiles, which were famous throughout the world, India also exported raw silk, indigo, opium, rice, wheat, sugar, pepper and other spices, precious stones and drugs. The lucrative and risky long-distance trade and maritime trade were well financed. Rich merchants as well as high officers and princes participated in these ventures. (Rothermund, page 5). The major features of Indian trade in pre-colonial times were (i) a favorable balance of trade and (ii) a foreign trade most suitable to the level of manufacturing in India. A favorable balance of trade meant an excess of exports over imports, i. e. India exported more than it needed to import. Since the economy was on the whole self-sufficient in handicrafts and agricultural products, India did not need foreign imports on a large scale and continued to enjoy a healthy trade. Secondly, Indias foreign trade suited its requirements very well. In other words, the commodity pattern, so important to any countrys foreign trade, was in Indias favor. India exported the items it specialized in and imported the ones it needed. As discussed above India was a land of extensive manufactures. Indian artisans were famous for their skills the world over. In fact the reason for Indias favorable foreign trade was its excellence in indigenous production. India indulged in a large-scale manufacture of cotton and silk fabrics, sugar, jute, dyestuffs, mineral and metallic products like arms, metal wares and oil. India, towards the end of the 18th century was undoubtedly one of the main centers of world trade and industry. This status of India was completely destroyed under colonial times. Its beginnings can be traced to the after-math of the industrial Revolution in England. The machine made cloth of England began to replace the indigenous manufactures. Indias artisans were forced out of production. The number of weavers also declined. It was this pressure from the British goods that led to the decline of the traditional Indias centers of economic activity listed above. The British East India Company got a legal charter for trade from the Mughal ruler in 1600, and soon this trading company started conquering India. The conquests began in 1757 with the defeat of the Nawab of Bengal by Robert Clive. The East India Company ruled India for a century, i. e. , from the decisiveUNIT 15 INDIA’S EXPORT-IMPORT POLICY Objectives This unit helps you to understand: what is trade policy; kinds of trade policy; phases of liberalisation in trade policies in the process of economic development; trends in India’s exim policies; salient features of India’s import regime during 1950-91; characteristics of India’s export promotion policies; and India’s Trade Policy reforms in the 90s. Though free trade, theoretically, offers several advantages, in reality, particularly underdeveloped countries were at a disadvantage in such a system of international trade. As a result, in the early 20th century, international economy saw the emergence of protective trade policies. A protective trade policy pursued by a country seeks to maintain a system of trade restrictions with the objective of protecting the domestic economy from the competition of foreign products. Protective trade policy constituted an important plank in the commercial policies of underdeveloped.. Bat