IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jechis/v47y1987i01p71-96_04.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Technology, Transaction Costs, and the Transition to Factory Production in the British Silk Industry, 1700–1870

Author

Listed:
  • Jones, S. R. H.

Abstract

Scholars still disagree about why nineteenth-century Britain adopted the factory system. Traditional historians emphasize the scale requirements of new technology; radical economists stress the possibilities that factory production held for worker exploitation; other economists and economic historians argue that the factory system was preferred because of its superior transaction-cost properties. This paper tests these competing hypotheses by examining the technological and organizational developments in the British silk industry. It concludes that in this Industry technological factors were primarily responsible for the adoption of the factory system.

Suggested Citation

  • Jones, S. R. H., 1987. "Technology, Transaction Costs, and the Transition to Factory Production in the British Silk Industry, 1700–1870," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(1), pages 71-96, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:47:y:1987:i:01:p:71-96_04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022050700047422/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chandan ROY, 2017. "The artisanal silk industry of West Bengal: A study of its history, performance and current problems," Turkish Economic Review, KSP Journals, vol. 4(4), pages 444-451, December.
    2. Mokyr, Joel, 2001. "The rise and fall of the factory system: technology, firms, and households since the industrial revolution," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 1-45, December.
    3. Hoogenboom, Marcel & Kissane, Christopher & Prak, Maarten & Wallis, Patrick & Minns, Chris, 2018. "Guilds in the transition to modernity: the cases of Germany, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87476, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Hashino, Tomoko & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2012. "Hand looms, power looms, and changing production organizations: the case of the Kiryu weaving district in the early 20th century Japan," Economic History Working Papers 41659, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    5. Tomoko Hashino & Keijiro Otsuka, 2013. "Hand looms, power looms, and changing production organizations: the case of the Kiryū weaving district in early twentieth-century Japan," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(3), pages 785-804, August.
    6. Tomoko Hashino & Keijiro Otsuka, 2011. "From Smithian Growth to Schumpeterian Development: An Inquiry into the Development of the Kiryu Weaving District in the Early 20th Century Japan," Discussion Papers 1121, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    7. Carmen Sarasúa, "undated". "Technical innovations at the service of cheaper labour in pre-industrial Europe. The Enlightened agenda to transform the gender division of labour in silk manufacturing," UHE Working papers 2006_13, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Departament d'Economia i Història Econòmica, Unitat d'Història Econòmica.
    8. Chris DOUCOULIAGOS, 1993. "The Economics Of Capital Hiring Labour And Labour Hiring Capital," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 227-256, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:47:y:1987:i:01:p:71-96_04. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jeh .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.