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. India's 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 India's 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 decisive Battle of Plassey in 1757 to 1857 when Indians fought a war of independence. The British defeated the Indians in this war and in 1858 Queen Victoria assumed the responsibility of direct rule over India. The rule of East India Company ended and the British Parliament became directly responsible for the governance of India and this continued till 1947. The essence of British colonial policies in India was determined by the dynamics of society, which witnessed many changes in Britain. "The modern British society progressed through stages like mercantile capitalism to industrial capitalism and from competitive industrial capitalism to monopoly industrial capitalism." (Rothermund, page 31). The interests of mercantile British capitalism lay in trade with India. The interests of industrial capitalism were, on the other hand, market oriented, in which the Indian colony was to provide raw maternal and buy manufactured goods from Britain.