4. FOREIGN TRADE AT THE TIME OF INDEPENDENCE
FOREIGN TRADE AT THE TIME OF INDEPENDENCE
- Since Ancient India was important trading nation but Restrictive policies (commodity production, trade & tariff) by Britishers changed the structure, composition and volume of India’s foreign trade.
- India converted as exporter of primary products (raw silk, cotton, wool, sugar, indigo, jute) & an importer of finished consumer goods (cotton, silk, woolen clothes) and capital goods (light machinery produced for British companies)
- Britain established monopoly on exports & imports;
- Trade with Britain (50 %+ alone), China, Ceylon, Persia (Iran) etc but when Suez canal opened Britain’s control intensified.
- India’s foreign trade was export surplus (export>import) but it used in payments for employees, Expenses on war, import of invisible items. (It was drain of Indian wealth) so India’s economy couldn’t benefited.
- Even domestic market faced scarcity of essential commodities (food grains, clothes, kerosene) but flow of gold/silver into India could not increased.
Artificial waterway running across the Isthmus of Suez in north-eastern Egypt.
connects Port Said with Gulf of Suez.
Current issue: Cargo ship ‘Ever Given’ got stuck near the southern end of the Suez Canal; huge jam of vessels..
About:- The Suez Canal: separates-African continent from Asia.
- carrying over 12% of world trade.
- nearly 19,000 ships, or an average of 51.5 ships per day
- major source of income for Egypt’s economy
- In 2015, Egypt announced plans to expand by 2023
History:-
- Opened for navigation in November 1869.
- was controlled by British and French.
- Nationalized(1956) by Egypt after Suez Crisis(1956)