8. CAPITULO I DIAGNÓSTICO DEL SUBPROCESO DE RECEPCIÓN,
8.1. CARACTERIZACIÓN DEL PROCESO PRODUCTIVO
8.1.2. Procesos: gerenciales, operacionales y de apoyo
Tile r e a l foundation o f the B rit lab. trade i n the
East goes back to 1600 when the East In d ia Company
was e s ta b lis h e d . Tho Company was given an absolute
monopoly of B r it i s h trade in a l l the lands s itu a te d
between the Cape of Good. Hope and Gape Horn* The
c h ie f c a te g o rie s o f B r i t i s h imports from In d ia
con sisted mainly of in d ig o , a dye s t u f f which was
req u ired by the t e x t i le in d u stry , raw s i l k and s i l k
piece goods, iv o ry , s a lt petre and. s p ic e s . Cotton
goods were a ls o c a r r ie d by the merchants o f the
Company from In d ia p artly, t o be exchanged f o r sp ices . from the Spice Isla n d s and f o r tea and s i l k goods from China, and p a r tly f o r B r it is h and European consumption*
During the f i r s t h a l f o f the 18th century the p o sitio n o f the B r it is h tra d e rs in In d ia was becoming In c re a sin g ly insecure because o f the breaking up o f tho Moghul Empire and the increasin g a c t i v it y o f the
French, By that time tho B r it is h were conducting
the la r g e s t part o f t he trade between the Eastern and Western hemispheres an! they f e l t that force
must be u s e d to secure t h e ir present and fu tu re
b u s i n e s s in t e r e s t s . The v ic to ry a c M e v e d at the
b a t t le of Plassey in 1757 was the s t a r t in g point in the h is to r y o f the B r it is h ru le In the Bast*
The major extern ion o f the B r it is h in flu en ce in
In d ia , and g e n e r a lly in the East, began during the
Napoleonic wars# I t was again a measure attempting
to secure B r it is h trad e th erein against the r i v a l r y
o f the .French* By 1805 North and West Bengal, Mysore,
Tanjo re , Surat, and the Carnatic were a l l possessed by
* V *
B r it a in * Furthermore, Ceylon, a Dutch Colony, and
M au ritiu s, a French Colony, were added to the B r it is h
Empire in 1810* Ceylon*a trade con sisted mainly o f
s p ic e s , o ils e e d s and c o ffe e , while M auritius owed I t s
importance to i t s geograp hical s itu a tio n as a port o f
c a l l on the way to In d ia and also because o f i t s sugar trade*
In 1819, S i r 3* B a ffle s purchased ff Singapore n fo r the Bast In d ia Company from the r u le r o f lohore and in the fo llo w in g years steady B r it is h expansion
was taking place in the Malay Peninsula* Singapore
was known f o r i t s e x c e lle n t harbour and i t s entrepot
trade# Singapore with other islan d s in the Malay
/
Peninsula, s p e c ifie d together la t e r as nthe S t r a it s
Settlem entsu were supplying B r it a in with la r g e
I n 1839, M o n was conquered, b y B r i t a i n * A r a b i c
gum and sm all amounts o f -frankinoence, iv o ry and
o o ffe e came from t h a t , part o f th© Empire* During the
1840 Ts Hong Kong, Sarawak and Labuan v/ero, added to. the
Eastern Empire* The importance o f Hong Kong was d u e 1d
i t s being a depot fo r the export o f cheap Chinese labou r and an o u tle t fo r tho trade of Southern. China*
The h is to r y o f the B r it is h c o lo n isa tio n o f
A u s tra la s ia Is. o f a p a r t ic u la r in te re s t* I n the
beginning the e a r ly settlements in Mew South Wales and
Tasmania were arranged by the B r it is h government and
con sisted o f con victs and t h e ir guards* For s e v e ra l
years the government incurred the costs of these
settlem ents and gained no p r o fit s u n t il
51
tho is la n dpenetration began in Mew South Wales when the gap
through the. mountains on to the plain s was discovered in 1813* which enabled tho development of m illio n s of
aheap in the i n t e r i o r n ( P* 12« .Eoonomic Dov©lobment o f
the Overseas Empire* Knowles) * A fte r t h is economic
fe a tu re of A u s tra la s ia emerged more B r i t i s h people found an incen tive to migrate into the new lands, and
the business o f sheep breeding was fu rt h e r developed*
I t can be s a id that only than tho r e a l establishm ent o f A u s t ra la s ia had begun*
Farther expansion o f the B r it is h r u le in In dia came in the second qu arter of the 19th century and
continued u n t i l the end o f the 1850*0* During ;t hat
decade Assam, Sind, Fuhjab and Oudh were a l l conquered and added co n sid erab ly to the B r it is h i n p a r ia l trade in the Bast*
That, then, was the s it u a t io n o f the B r it is h Eastern Empire befo re tho b u ild in g o f the Sum Canal* The opening o f the Canal not only a lt e re d the t ra d e routes to the Bast but also changed the economic
importance o f tho whole Eastern hemisphere* As she
had acquired Gape Town, St* Helena, Ascension and
M au ritiu s, mainly because they were the moat important ports o f c a l l on the w ay'to In d ia , B r it a in was anxious
now to possess new colonies on the Eastern Coast o f A fr ic a in order to guard the new highway to her .Empire
in the Bast* Thus Egypt was conquered - as i t has
been d escribed in Chapter 1# Later the Sudan and
Somaliland were a ls o taken by B rita in * However,
s e ttin g aside the case o f Egypt the extension o f the
B r it i s h r u le on the Eastern Coast o f A fr ic a was not
s o le ly d e sire d fo r guarding tho Eastern trade* The
great shortening o f the route - from B r it a in - to soma cQuntetes such as Sixdan, Som aliland, Sansibar and Kenya and the fa c t that they are now s itu a te d on the way to the re s t o f the East gave a powerful
stimulus and a new value to th e ir
1
fo re ig n trade#Ho doubt a ls o the expectations of fin d in g r i c h m ineral resources in t h e ir lands had enhanced t h e ir d e s ira b
i l i t y to the B r it is h im p e ria list# The r is e , o f the
im p erial s p i r i t in Europe must a ls o be considered when examining B r i t a i n fs im p erial p o lic y in the East ~
a ft e r 1870# The opening up o f a short route to the
Eastern markets had c e rt a in ly a ttra c te d the atten tion of the European c o u n trie s, ~ a ls o , towards the region s itu a te d East o f Suez (and p a r t ic u la r ly to Eastern A fr ic a which had not boen occupied yet by any power
by that tim e ). This r i s e of im p e r ia lis t ic thinking
in Europe succeeded in fu rth e r arousing the im perial s p i r i t in s id e Bx»itain In spit© of the b e l i e f in a f r e e
trade p o licy * I t was r e a l i z e d that i f she did. not
want these t r o p ic a l areas in the E ast, somebody e lse
d id . At the peak of the European im p erial expansion
B r it a in decided to be the most a c tiv e |)ower and in?:carv ing up the A fric a n lands in the la s t qu arter of the
f
19th century she added more g l i t t e r i n g jew els to h er
Empire than any other European p a rtic ip a n t. ( Bee W*
The opening of the Suez Canal, w ith the help of
other economic fo rces which re v o lu tio n iz e d the conditions o f tran sp o rt and communications between the Bast,and
B r it is h c o lo n ia l expansion in the I n t e r io r o f t h e ir
Eastern colo n ies* During the 19th century the
B r it is h c o lo n ia l growth depended mainly on moving in lan d from a coast lin o or a port to co n tro l the
hinterland# This process was con siderably hastened
and.secured in the la a t quarter o f the 19th century by
the ra p id con stru ction o f ra ilw a y s . A c o rre la tio n
between ra ilw a y construction in the B r it is h Eastern colonies during that period and the expansion, o f t h e ir fo re ig n trade consequent upon the opening o f the Canal i s quite apparent and i s demonstrated in Chapter 4,
Fart I by relev an t s t a t i s t i c s * As regard s A u s tra lia
and Hot Zealand, the in flu en ce of the c u ttin g o f the
Suez Canal on the amount o f B r it is h em igration la a ls o
quite c le a r* Doubtless cheap tran sport and a more
convenient journey played a ro le in in c re a sin g the number o f the B r it is h emigrants to the new lands in
the Blast* The fo llo w in g is a quotation from a l e t t e r
w ritte n by the manager o f tho Union Bank of A u s t ra lia
' i i . . . > v
in Sydney in June 1 8 8 5 * «»* * * "ThoImmigration department here a ls o u t i l i s e s the Canal by having government
emigrants forwarded to th is colony by la r g e stoma
v e sse ls through the Suez Canal, instead o f the lo n g - sea route v ia the Cape in s a i l i n g ships to the groat b e n e fit in healthy comfort and m orality to th e|
(T his quotation la from Habino,. ..J* mfhe S t a t i s t i c a l
Story o f the ;.
8
uez Canal” * Journal o f Royal St at i s .Soc. 1887). Sea a ls o
1
tho accompanying* Table fo rimmigration to A u s t r a lia and Hew l e a l and v ia the Suez Canal*
TABLE A - l
.via.the Suez? Canal*
1878 ,1879 1880 1881 1883 1883 1884 1885 1886 6,865 5,367 9 ,770 30,863 31,430 33,373 33,388 34,318 3,509
C H A P T E R I I I
THE Of M I N G OF THE SUEZ CANAL AND THE REVOLUTION OF EASTERN TRANSPORT.
SECTION Is
THE INFLUENCE OP THIS OPENING OP TUB STJ1Z