The Causes of Deindustrialization: The Migration of the Cotton Textile Industry from New England to the South

The September 1966 issue of this Journal contains a study by Professor Irwin Feller on the rate of adoption of the Draper Automatic Loom in the New England cotton textile industry. I have no quarrel with his central conclusions concerning the economic rationality of the New England cotton manufacturers. I do, however, have some comments on his analysis of the relative costs of producing cloth on plain (power) as opposed to automatic looms.

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The New England Cotton Textile Industry, a Study in Industrial Geography

The New England Quarterly ◽

10.2307/359805 ◽

1932 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 645

Author(s):

Jonathan Thayer Lincoln ◽

J. Herbert Burgy

Keyword(s):

New England ◽

Textile Industry ◽

Cotton Textile ◽

Industrial Geography

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The New England Cotton Textile Industry

Economic Geography ◽

10.2307/140443 ◽

1932 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 321

Author(s):

W. Elmer Ekblaw ◽

J. Herbert Burgy

Keyword(s):

New England ◽

Textile Industry ◽

Cotton Textile

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The New England Cotton Textile Industry.

Journal of the American Statistical Association ◽

10.2307/2278180 ◽

1932 ◽

Vol 27 (179) ◽

pp. 346

Author(s):

George Sinclair Mitchell ◽

J. Herbert Burgy

Keyword(s):

New England ◽

Textile Industry ◽

Cotton Textile

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Rhode Island's Tragic Era

Relations industrielles ◽

10.7202/1023058ar ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 229-240

Author(s):

Charles B. Quirk

Keyword(s):

Social Responsibility ◽

New England ◽

Rhode Island ◽

Textile Industry ◽

Economic Evolution ◽

The South ◽

The North ◽

Interesting Study ◽

History Of ◽

Laissez Faire

Summary This article is only a short extract from an interesting study on the employment problems of Rhode Island from 1935-1950; it has as objective to make known to the reader the historical and economic evolution of the textile industry in Rhode Island. The author describes the competition which arose between the North and the South; very unimportant at the beginning, it increased afterwards to take on disastrous proportions and bring about fatal consequences: decrease in productivity, migration of the mills to the South and general unemployment. The history of the textile industry of New England furnishes an example of a system conforming to the "laissez-faire" of free capitalism: the seeking of the highest possible profit without worrying about social responsibility. This system must be subjected to the ethics of business or destroy itself.

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A New Look at Productivity in the New England Cotton Textile Industry, 1830–1860

The Journal of Economic History ◽

10.1017/s0022050700098661 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 39 (4) ◽

pp. 889-910 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Pamela J. Nickless

Keyword(s):

New England ◽

Labor Productivity ◽

Technological Innovation ◽

Textile Industry ◽

Cotton Textile ◽

Labor Input ◽

Capital Productivity ◽

Labor Quality ◽

Productivity Indices ◽

The Relationship

The analysis of labor and capital productivity in the New England cotton textile industry has been extensive in recent years. The well-preserved records of the early textile firms have provided the basis for major studies by Layer, McGouldrick, Davis and Stettler, Zevin, David, and Williamson. Although these studies vary in approach and focus, they are alike in using measures of labor input that are primarily based on data for mill operatives. The labor productivity indices thus constructed have indicated increasing labor productivity prior to the Civil War. These estimates not only have substantially revised traditional historians' often implied beliefs of falling labor productivity due to declining labor quality in this period, but also have led to a variety of explanations of the relationship between labor productivity, capital productivity, and technological innovation.

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