The choice of tecnology in the Mediterranean basin : some evidence from the Spanish, Italian, British and us cotton mills(1830-1860)

This paper is motivated by the attempt to understand the choice of technology in the cotton mills in the Mediterranean basin from 1830 to 1861. In the period before the I cotton famine I, alternative technological choices were relatively important. However, these technology alternatives cannot be interpreted without consideration heterogeneity of cotton cloth. In other words, to produce the different kinds of cotton cloth it was employed a particular amount of physical and human capital, labour, energy and raw cotton. Moreover, some types of machinery were more adept than others in the production of some kinds of cotton goods. Thus, this paper argues that the choice of product and machinery was intimately connected with the availability of skilled labour and relative factor prices in this early period of the factory-based cotton industry.