428 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
TABLE XVI
| C | CHANGES IN INDUSTRIAL PUR | Col3 | RSUITS OF INDIA* | Col5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Years | Imports | Exports | ||
| Manufactured | Raw | Manufactured | Raw | |
| 1879 1892 | Rs. 25,98,65,827 36,22,31,872 | Rs. 13,75,55,837 26,38,18,431 | Rs. 5,27,80,340 16,42,47,566 | Rs. 59,67,27,991 85,52,09,499 |
| Percentage of increase Total Annual | 39 2.8 | 91 6.5 | 211 15 | 43 3 |
Not only had the trade of India been increasing, but the nature of her industries was also at the same time undergoing a profound change. Prior to 1870, India and England were, so to say, non-competing groups. Owing to the protectionist policy of the Navigation Laws, and owing also to the substitution of man by machinery in the field of production, India had become exclusively an agricultural and a raw-materialproducing country, while England had transformed herself into a country which devoted all her energy and her resources to the manufacturing of raw materials imported from abroad into finished goods. How marked was the contrast in the industrial pursuits in the two countries is well revealed by the analysis of their respective exports in Table XV.
After 1870, the distribution of their industrial pursuits was greatly altered, and India once again began to assume the role of a manufacturing country. Analysing the figures for Indian imports and exports for the twenty years succeeding 1870, ( see Table XVI) we find that the progress in the direction of manufactures formed one of the most significant features of the period.
This change in the industrial evolution was marked by the growth of two principal manufactures. One of them was the
- From Ranade’s Essays on Indian Economics, p. 104.