Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- PART I GENERAL – THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
- PART II STUDIES OF MAJOR INDUSTRIES
- 7 The development of the cotton-mill industry
- 8 Private investment in the jute industry
- 9 The growth of the iron and steel industry
- 10 The growth of private engineering firms
- 11 The cement industry
- 12 The growth of the sugar industry
- 13 The development of the Indian paper industry
- 14 British imperial policy and the spread of modern industry in India
- Bibliography
- Index
10 - The growth of private engineering firms
from PART II - STUDIES OF MAJOR INDUSTRIES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- PART I GENERAL – THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
- PART II STUDIES OF MAJOR INDUSTRIES
- 7 The development of the cotton-mill industry
- 8 Private investment in the jute industry
- 9 The growth of the iron and steel industry
- 10 The growth of private engineering firms
- 11 The cement industry
- 12 The growth of the sugar industry
- 13 The development of the Indian paper industry
- 14 British imperial policy and the spread of modern industry in India
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The earliest engineering firms in India, such as Jessop and Company and Burn and Company, seem to have grown up in response to the demand for construction of houses, boats and various other structures as the British consolidated their position in India. With the growth of the jute industry in Bengal and the cotton industry in Bombay, the demand of the mills for various types of structure naturally spurred the growth of engineering. But the general engineering firms came to depend mainly on public works such as roads, bridges and irrigation channels, and on the railways – public and private – for sustenance, particularly when famine or trade depression affected the level of private demand.
Practically all of the more important engineering firms were owned and controlled by Europeans. But they by no means had easy access to the work on the various public works projects and railways. When the East Indian Railway was due to start, the carriages for the railway were lost at the Sand-heads in the Hooghly estuary; John Hodgson, the enterprising Locomotive Chief Engineer of the East Indian Railway, then set about building the carriages with the help of two local coach-building firms, and it was with carriages made in India that the first trip from Howrah to Pundooah was made in 1854.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Private Investment in India 1900–1939 , pp. 332 - 352Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1972