ABSTRACT
In Europe the elementary forms of capitalism and the factory system had begun to develop a considerable time before the great mechanical discoveries of the eighteenth century. The spirit of capitalist enterprise was, however, active amongst Englishmen in India and from early in the century it directed itself to the development of the plantation industries. The emancipation of slaves and other economic changes in the West Indies greatly reduced the scale of production of indigo there and the East India Company was again tempted to develop the industry in India. In that case British business men, working with home capital and through the agency of British planters, created an industry wholly new to India and in which all the expertise had to be imported from abroad. Mechanical rolling soon replaced hand rolling and in all departments of the industry a more scientific technique was evolved.
