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, 1860-1890 -- 8. Technological divergence: the Anglo-American gap, 1890-1913 -- 9. Free trade and paper
Summary:
It is often claimed that the origins of Britain's relative economic decline are first witnessed in the period 1860 to 1914. For the paper-making industry, this was also a period in which an array of important new forces, including 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. Historians, economists, scholars of economic history, and anyone with an interest in the paper industry will find this wide-ranging account indispensable.
