For generations a weaver family in Murshidabad supplied fine silk to the nawab's household. After the British took over the state, orders from the palace stopped, and cheap mill cloth from England filled the local market. The sons left the loom: one became a clerk in Bombay, another took up farming on rented land. Around the same years, a cousin who had gone to England as a ship's cook wrote home that the English countryside seemed empty, while its towns teemed with factory workers, clerks and dock hands.
The cousin's letter describes English towns. How is London, Britain's capital, at the start of the twentieth century best described?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → A vast manufacturing, commercial and financial centre at the heart of the empire
Option (1) A vast manufacturing, commercial and financial centre at the heart of the empire — Correct. By the start of the twentieth century London had over 7 million people, the largest city the world had ever seen. It was a vast centre of manufacturing, trade and finance at the heart of an empire that was still growing.
Option (2) A royal court city whose fortunes rose and fell with the monarchy — Incorrect. A court city lives on royal patronage, as Thanjavur or Murshidabad did. London grew through factories, commerce and finance under industrialisation, so its rise did not depend on the fortunes of a court.
Option (3) A busy port town, smaller than several old court cities of Asia — Incorrect. London was by far the largest city ever seen in the world at that time. It was much bigger than any old court city of Asia, so calling it a smaller port town reverses the facts.
Option (4) A commercial centre at the heart of a shrinking British empire — Incorrect. The commercial side fits, but the empire is described the wrong way round. The British empire was still expanding at that time, and London stood at its heart.
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