Indian trade has definitely played a crucial role in the late nineteenth century world economy.
(i) Britain had a trade surplus with India, which was used to balance its trade deficits with other countries.
(ii) Britain's trade surplus in India also helped to pay the so called 'home charges' that included private remittances by British officials and traders, interest payments on India's external debts and pensions of the British officials in India.
(iii) In the nineteenth century, thousands of Indian and Chinese labourers went to work on plantation, in mines, and for roads and railways construction projects around the world.
(iv) India also provided raw materials to the developing industries of the world.
(v) India became a major market for the final goods especially for cotton textile industry of Britain.
OR
As the Swadeshi movement gathered momentum, nationalists mobilised people to boycott foreign cloth. Industrial groups organised themselves to protect their collective interests, pressurising the government to increase tariff protection and grant other concessions. From 1906, moreover, the export of Indian yarn to China declined since produce from Chinese and Japanese mills flooded the Chinese market. So industrialists in India began shifting from yarn to cloth production. Cotton piece goods production in India doubled between 1900 and 1912. Yet, till the First World War, industrial growth was slow. The war created a dramatically new situation. With British mills busy with war production to meet the needs of the army, Manchester imports into India declined. Suddenly, Indian mills had a vast home market to supply. As the war prolonged, Indian factories were called upon to supply war needs: jute bags, cloth for army uniforms, tents and leather boots, horse and mule saddles and a host of other items. New factories were set up and old ones ran multiple shifts. Many new workers were employed and everyone was made to work longer hours. Over the war years, industrial production boomed.