Productivity and Performance in the Paper Industry: Labour, Capital and Technology in Britain and America, 1860–1914 (Cambridge Studies in Modern Economic History, Series Number 4)
Cambridge University Press, 3/27/1997
EAN 9780521581974, ISBN10: 0521581974
Hardcover, 310 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
This pioneering 1997 study examines the economic development of the British paper industry between 1860 and 1914 - an era in which it is often claimed that the origins of Britain's relative economic decline are first witnessed. For paper-making, this was also a period in which an array of important new forces, including inter alia the development of new raw materials and the move to ever larger scales of production, came on the scene. Gary Bryan Magee looks at the effect of these changes and assesses how effectively the industry coped with the new pressures, drawing upon an extensive range of quantitative and archival sources from Britain, America, and other countries. Along the way, Dr Magee addresses issues central to the understanding of industrial competitiveness, such as technological change, entrepreneurship, productivity, trade policy, and industrial relations.
List of Tables
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. Background
2. Technological change
3. Performance
4. Rags, esparto and wood
entrepreneurship and the choice of raw materials
5. The Anglo-American labour productivity gap
6. Unions and manning practices in Britain and America
7. Raw materials, women, and labour-saving machinery
the Anglo-American gap, 1860–90
8. Technological divergence
the Anglo-American gap, 1890–1913
9. Free trade and paper
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography.
"Gary Magee has written a thoughtful, rather abstract study of productivity in American and British papermaking during the second half of the nineteenth century." Leonard N. Rosenband, Isis
"This study is unambiguously located within a well-defined field of research, that of the relative decline of British manufacturing supremacy and, more particularly, the performance of late Victorian and Edwardian entrepreneurs. Its subject is well-chosen. ...cuts a fresh path through the hesitations of an old debate." Pierre Claude Reynard, Journal of Economic History
"Its real contribution is not so much the admittedly neglected case of papermakingg, but the attempt to integrate the perceived entrepreneurial failure into a credible economic analysis." Andrew Godley, EH.NET
"This is a welcome addition to books on the history of papermaking, particularly as it is a comparative study of the industries in Britain and America." Richard L. Hills, Technology and Culture