Choose the given statement as true/false:

The space within which Indian merchants could function became increasingly limited, as colonial control over Indian trade tightened.

Question

Choose the given statement as true/false:The space within which Indian merchants could function became increasingly limited, as colonial control over Indian trade tightened.

Accepted Answer

The statement mentioned above is true. The British in India began exporting opium to China and bringing tea from China to England in the late eighteenth century. Many Indians became minor players in this trade, supplying financing, acquiring supplies, and shipping cargo. Some of these merchants had ambitions of creating industrial businesses in India after earning a living through trading. Dwarkanath Tagore worked his way up in the China trade before shifting to industrial investing, creating six joint-stock companies in Bengal in the 1830s and 1840s. In Bombay, Parsis like Dinshaw Petit and Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata, who built massive industrial empires in India, made their initial fortunes partially through exports to China and partly through raw cotton shipments to England. Seth Hukumchand, a Marwari industrialist who established the first Indian jute mill in Calcutta in 1917, also traded with China. The space within which Indian merchants might operate grew progressively constrained as colonial control over Indian trade tightened. They were forbidden from trade in manufactured items with Europe. They were forced to export largely raw resources and food grains - raw cotton, opium, wheat, and indigo - as demanded by the British. They were also gradually driven out of the shipping industry.

Choose the given statement as true/false:

The space within which Indian merchants could function became increasingly limited, as colonial control over Indian trade tightened.

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