 The British East India Tea Company controlled the manufacture and the transportation of a whole range of goods, including fine clothing. Cotton and wool could be grown and sheared in the colonies, but it had to be sent to England to be turned into clothing. This is a routine policy for England, and it's why until India achieved its independence in 1947, Mahatma Gandhi, who was assassinated a year later, sat at his spinning wheel for his lectures and daily spun clothing in his own home.