Growth and Metamorphosis of Bombay through Four Centuries of Globalisation

Sulabha Brahme is active in th e participatory and sustainable development movement in India . She has a PhD. in Economics from the UniversityofPoona,/ndia . She is retired from the research fa culty of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics , where she specialized in planning and policy studies on urbani zatio n , agricultural development and rural and regional planning . U y oday's Chinatown sweatshops and Third World child labour factories are the functional equivalent of colonial slavery."' The slave hunt and slave trade launched in the 16th century by the British and European merchants was so flourishing that by 1770 profits derived from slavery furnished a third of the British capital formation. 2 The colonial loot was the other major source of British capital accumulation. The British East India Company founded by London merchants received in 1600 the monopoly of British Trade with India. The trade involved procurement from Indian handicrafts men, often by force , of cotton-piece goods and other merchandise for export to Europe. The Company earned huge profits through this loot and trade, its dividends varying from 100 to 250 percent per annum.3 The plunder of India provided capital for the development of industrial capitalism in Britain. In the nineteenth century the economic drain of India continued ruthlessly in the form of heavy taxes, home charges, cost of military and wars, tribute and plunder. After the Industrial Revolution in Britain, India provided a 'captive' market for the rapidly expanding British manufacturers, held captive through tariff and duty manipulations. British capital investment in India, together with intense exploitation of Indian labour, backed by the forces of the Crown, represented the third source in the system of imperial robbery. 4