Productivity and Performance in the Paper Industry: Labour, Capital and Technology in Britain and America, 1860-1914

by Gary Bryan Magee

Overview

In a significant new contribution to economic history, Dr. Magee examines an important British industry that, like many others, declined in relative importance during the period prior to 1914. He compares Britain's performance in papermaking with its main international rivals of the time, America and Germany, addressing such central subjects as technological change, entrepreneurship and productivity. The book will be invaluable to scholars of economic history as well as those simply interested in papermaking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521892179
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/04/2002
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Modern Economic History , #4
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher