text: Indian cotton textiles, mainly those from Bengal, continued to maintain a competitive advantage up until the 19th century. In order to compete with Indian goods, British merchants invested in labour-saving technical advancements, while the government implemented protectionist policies such as bans and tariffs to restrict Indian imports. At the same time, the East India Company's rule in India contributed to its deindustrialization, opening up a new market for foreign goods, while the capital accumulated in Bengal after establishing direct control in 1757 was used by the East India Company to invest in British industries such as textile manufacturing, which contributed greatly to the emergence of the Industrial Revolution. Britain eventually surpassed India as the world's leading cotton textile manufacturer in the 19th century. Horace Hayman Wilson, while describing the manner in which British textile manufacturing grew, wrote in The History of British India, "....had not such prohibitory duties and decrees existed, the mills of Paisley and Manchester would have been stopped in their outset, and could scarcely have been again set in motion, even by the power of steam. They were created by the sacrifice of Indian manufacture."
  Britain
  During the 18th and 19th centuries, much of the imported cotton came from plantations in the American South. In periods of political uncertainty in North America, during the Revolutionary War and later American Civil War, however, Britain relied more heavily on imports from the Indian subcontinent to supply its cotton manufacturing industry. Ports on the west coast of Britain, such as Liverpool, Bristol, and Glasgow, became important in determining the sites of the cotton industry.
  Lancashire became a centre for the nascent cotton industry because the damp climate was better for spinning the yarn. As the cotton thread was not strong enough to use as warp, wool or linen or fustian had to be used. Lancashire was an existing wool centre. Likewise, Glasgow benefited from the same damp climate.