What many historians have called a “chintz craze” began in Europe about 1600 and steadily grew in strength over the next couple of centuries. The English went crazy for these fine, printed textiles that were imported almost exclusively from India. Many of the designs flooding into Europe were truly breathtaking. As Stephen Yafa describes: “Flower bulbs, jumping fish, birds, butterflies, and sprays of blossoming buds’ coil about delicately meandering branches that spread out from the sinuous tree trunk, luminescent reds, blues and yellows and a host of other vibrant colors spring to life in designs that are so fresh and buoyant after 300 or more years they appear to be newly created.”
Chintzes were used originally as wall coverings, pillowcases, curtains, bed covers and rugs, but by 1800 they were widely worn as clothing by people from all walks of life. Some even converted what were originally meant to be bed covers, drapery and rugs into skirts, blouses, and gowns. As Daniel Defoe of Robinson Crusoe fame described it: “the chintz was advanced from lying upon their floors to their backs, from their footcloth to the petticoat.” The poorer classes were the first to wear the cheap but colorful chintzes, but the rich soon followed. A satirical writer suggested that “it became difficult for the better folk to know their wives from their chambermaids”.
So why did the Europeans fall in love with the Indian cotton textiles? First, they were cheaper and could be washed much more easily than wool and silk. The cotton fabrics maintained their color much better after repeated washings and when exposed to bright light. Perhaps most importantly, Europeans fell “head over heels” for chintzes because of their unique, bold, and flamboyant designs.
As the chintz craze gathered steam, the local textile industries began to howl in protest. Literally hundreds of pamphlets decried that the widespread sale of Indian textiles was unpatriotic, were produced by pagans, encouraged increased spending by the poor, hurt national wealth, and put already struggling artisans out of work. Daniel Defoe wrote: “About half the woolen manufacture has been entirely lost, half of the people scattered and ruined, and this by the intercourse of the East India trade.”
France ultimately banned cotton importation of all kinds in 1686; England began with a partial ban in 1702, followed by a full ban in 1721. However, these laws had little real impact, except to encourage the development of a domestic textile printing industry. The laws were flagrantly ignored by the people infatuated with chintz and the bans were little enforced by the authorities. Except for a few unfortunate women being stripped naked by mobs of angry textile workers, the chintz craze continued largely unabated.
When the bans on cotton import were finally lifted in the mid-1700s, a full-fledged cotton textile printing industry existed in Europe. English and French printers were unashamedly copying Indian printed designs using imported raw materials. The textile printing industry that arose in Europe was quite different from that of India. Over a hundred people could be employed at a single factory, a far cry from the simple weaver households. Labor was divided into specialties such as designers, drawers, colorists, painters, and printers. In the push for faster production, numerous innovations emerged including copper vs wooden printing plates and ultimately rotary printing. A team of workers who once produced only a handful of printed pieces a day could now generate hundreds.
The booming European textile printing industry of the mid to late 1700s came as a heavy blow to the Indian weaver households. Thousands were put out of work as European textiles became increasingly cheaper and plentiful. The home -based industry of India, whose products had dominated the global market for thousands of years, was losing its grip. This was just a herald of things to come, as the whole Indian textile industry would collapse in the mid-1800s when the great textile mills of England began to spew out cheap cloth.
Adapted from Hancock, J.F. (2017) Chapter 3. Cotton. Plantation Crops: Power and plunder, Exploitation and Evolution. Routledge.
Bibliography: Yafa, S. 2005. Cotton: The biography of a revolutionary fiber. Penguin Books, New York.
Image: Quilted bed-cover from Coromandel Coast, South-east India c.1725-50. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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