ABSTRACT
National income statistics for colonial India (1857–1947) suggest two stylized facts that are relevant to the theme of this chapter. First, by contemporary world standards, the mechanized factories of India employed relatively more labour per unit of output. Between 1900 and 1947, labour input in factories grew almost as much as output. For a benchmark, the ratio was less than half in Britain between 1856 and 1937 (Table 5.1). This difference is not fully explained by differences in industrial composition, for even within the same activity, such as cotton textiles, Indian mills tended to employ more labourers than did mills in the rest of the world. Labour-intensity of factory-based industries 1856–1937 https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
Output growth rate (%)
Labour input growth rate (%)
India, Factories: 1900–1947
4.3
3.6
Britain, Manufacturing: 1856–1937
2.6
1.1
Sources: Sivasubramonian (2000: 201–3, 287–8, 293–4, Tables 4.2, 4.41, 4.44) and Feinstein et al. (1982: 228, table 8.3). For India, figures represent net output or value-added.
