The craft of manufacturing cotton was learnt by the British in India, but the East India Company's drive for profits caused the development of a cotton-spinning industry in Britain, which grew enormously when mechanical processes were introduced during the industrial revolution. Subsequent protectionist legislation which forbade the export of anything except raw cotton meant that India's supremacy in the industry was lost to Britain in the nineteenth century. This 1867 work, edited by P. R. Cola, who owned the Arkwright Cotton Mills in Bombay (Mumbai), argues for investment in up-to-date machinery, and provides a blueprint for developing a host of industries such as cotton and other textiles, jute, sugar, oil and iron, which would bring prosperity to India. Containing illustrations and statistical data, the book gives useful insights into the early development of many industries in India and in some of the other economies of the East.
