Deindustrialization in 18th and 19th century India: Mughal decline, climate shocks and British industrial ascent

Abstract

India was a major player in the world export market for textiles in the early 18 th century, but by the middle of the 19 th century it had lost all of its export market and much of its domestic market, primarily toBritain. The ensuing deindustrialization was greatest c1750-c1860. We ask how much of India's deindustrialization was due to local supply-side forces --such as political fragmentation and a rising incidence of drought, and how much to world price shocks. An open, three-sector neo-Ricardian model organizes our thinking and new relative price database implements the empirical analysis. We find local supply side forces were important from as early as 1700. The size of Indian deindustrialization is then assessed by comparison with other parts of the periphery.

Latin American Growth-Inequality Trade-Offs: The Impact of Insurgence and Independence

“…Second, more densely populated agrarian societies must have had higher relative food prices than thinly settled or frontier societies, so that nominal subsistence had to be much higher to purchase the more expensive foodstuffs, lowering measured inequality. 7 It seems likely that this force must have been most powerful during the two millennia before the middle of the 19 th century since a world market for grains did not yet exist and thus local conditions dictated the relative price of food (Clingingsmith and Williamson 2008;Studer 2008).…”

Falling behind and catching up: India's transition from a colonial economy

“…Clingingsmith and Williamson, ‘Deindustrialization’, describe the industrial decline as weak deindustrialization and emphasize the importance of supply‐side changes in the eighteenth century due to wars and weather shocks that moved the terms of trade against industry.…”

Did Muhammad Ali foster industrialization in early nineteenth‐century Egypt?

“…For modern studies, see Clingingsmith and Williamson, ‘Deindustrialization’, on India; Dobado González, Gómez Galvarriato, and Williamson, ‘Mexican exceptionalism’, on Mexico; Pamuk and Williamson, ‘Ottoman de‐industrialization’, on Ottoman Turkey; and Panza, ‘De‐industrialization’, on the Middle East.…”

“…Clingingsmith and Williamson, ‘Deindustrialization’; Dobado González et al., ‘Mexican exceptionalism’; Pamuk and Williamson, ‘Ottoman de‐industrialization’.…”