IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rim/rimwps/44_11.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Was Canadian Manufacturing Inefficient before WWI? The Case of the Cotton Textile Industry, 1870-1910

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Hinton

    (The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis (RCEA); Ryerson University)

Abstract

Is it possible that generations of Canadian economists and historians have got it wrong and Canadian manufacturing before WWI was fairly efficient? Yes, because they do not pay enough attention to the measurement of efficiency. New cliometric evidence supporting the revisionist side of this question is presented on total factor productivity and five other measures of efficiency for the Canadian cotton textile industry, 1870-1910, an industry long thought to be grossly inefficient, which shows the industry performed strongly relative to the U.S. cotton textile industry and other cotton textile industries elsewhere in the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Hinton, 2011. "Was Canadian Manufacturing Inefficient before WWI? The Case of the Cotton Textile Industry, 1870-1910," Working Paper series 44_11, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:rim:rimwps:44_11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.rcea.org/RePEc/pdf/wp44_11.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Inwood, K., 1991. "Maritime Industrialization from 1870 to 1910 ; A Review of the Evidence and Its Interpretation," Working Papers 1991-19, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    2. Ian Keay & Kris Inwood, 2006. "Assessing Economic Performance Among North American Manufacturing Establishments, 1870/71: Data, Methodology And Measurement Issues," Working Paper 1030, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    3. Ian Keay, 2000. "Canadian manufacturers' relative productivity performance, 1907-1990," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1049-1068, November.
    4. Scheinberg, Stephen, 1973. "Invitation to Empire: Tariffs and American Economic Expansion in Canada," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(2), pages 218-238, July.
    5. Baldwin, John R. Green, Alan G., 2008. "The Productivity Differential Between the Canadian and U.S. Manufacturing Sectors: A Perspective Drawn from the Early 20th Century," The Canadian Productivity Review 2008022e, Statistics Canada, Economic Analysis Division.
    6. Broadberry,Steve N., 2005. "The Productivity Race," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521023580, September.
    7. Fogel, Robert William, 1968. "The Specification Problem in Economic History: A Correction," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 126-126, March.
    8. Clark, Gregory, 1987. "Why Isn't the Whole World Developed? Lessons from the Cotton Mills," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 47(1), pages 141-173, March.
    9. Fogel, Robert William, 1967. "The Specification Problem in Economic History," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(3), pages 283-308, September.
    10. Gregory Clark, 2007. "Introduction to A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World," Introductory Chapters, in: A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World, Princeton University Press.
    11. Easton, Stephen T. & Gibson, William A. & Reed, Clyde G., 1988. "Tariffs and growth: The dales hypothesis," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 147-163, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael N.A. Hinton, 2012. "Infant Industry Protection and the Growth of Canada's Cotton Mills: A Test of the Chang Hypothesis," Working Paper series 55_12, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    2. Michael Hinton & Thomas Barbiero, 2012. "Is Protection Good or Bad for Growth? Lessons from Canada's Cotton Textile Mills," Working Papers 036, Toronto Metropolitan University, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2012.
    3. Allen, Robert C., 2014. "American Exceptionalism as a Problem in Global History," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 309-350, June.
    4. Kris Inwood & Ian Keay, 2005. "Bigger establishments in thicker markets: can we explain early productivity differentials between Canada and the United States?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 38(4), pages 1327-1363, November.
    5. Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2011. "Industrial Catching Up in the Poor Periphery 1870-1975," NBER Working Papers 16809, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2011. "Industrial Catching Up in the Poor Periphery 1870-1975," CEPR Discussion Papers 8335, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Broadberry, Stephen & Wallis, John, 2017. "Growing, Shrinking and Long Run Economic Performance: Historical Perspectives on Economic Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 11973, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Timothy Leunig, 2003. "A British industrial success: productivity in the Lancashire and New England cotton spinning industries a century ago," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 56(1), pages 90-117, February.
    9. Stephen Broadberry, 2024. "British Economic Growth and Development," Springer Books, in: Claude Diebolt & Michael Haupert (ed.), Handbook of Cliometrics, edition 3, pages 951-986, Springer.
    10. Yi Wen, 2015. "The Making of an Economic Superpower―Unlocking China’s Secret of Rapid Industrialization," Working Papers 2015-6, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    11. James Bessen, 2009. "More Machines, Better Machines...Or Better Workers?," Working Papers 0803, Research on Innovation.
    12. Robert C. Allen, 2021. "The Interplay among Wages, Technology, and Globalization: The Labour Market and Inequality, 1620-2020," Working Papers 20210065, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jun 2021.
    13. Kevin H. O'Rourke & Ahmed S. Rahman & Alan M. Taylor, 2007. "Trade, Knowledge and the Industrial Revolution," Development Working Papers 230, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    14. Bishnupriya Gupta, 2011. "Wages, unions, and labour productivity: evidence from Indian cotton mills," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(s1), pages 76-98, February.
    15. Kevin H. O'Rourke & Ahmed S. Rahman & Alan M. Taylor, 2008. "Luddites and the Demographic Transition," NBER Working Papers 14484, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Gillian C. Hamilton & Ian Keay & Frank D. Lewis, 2017. "Contributions to Canadian economic history: The last 30 years," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1632-1657, December.
    17. Jakob Madsen & James Ang & Rajabrata Banerjee, 2010. "Four centuries of British economic growth: the roles of technology and population," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 263-290, December.
    18. Renato Perim Colistete, 2011. "Revisiting Import-Substitutingindustrialisation In Post-War Brazil," Anais do XXXVIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 38th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 203, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    19. repec:grz:wpsses:2017-02 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Stephen Broadberry & Bishnupriya Gupta, 2009. "Lancashire, India, and shifting competitive advantage in cotton textiles, 1700–1850: the neglected role of factor prices1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(2), pages 279-305, May.
    21. Kawalec Paweł, 2020. "The dynamics of theories of economic growth: An impact of Unified Growth Theory," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 6(2), pages 19-44, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Manufacturing; Nineteenth Century. Canada. Cotton Textiles; Efficiency; Total Factor Productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • L67 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Other Consumer Nondurables: Clothing, Textiles, Shoes, and Leather Goods; Household Goods; Sports Equipment
    • N60 - Economic History - - Manufacturing and Construction - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • N61 - Economic History - - Manufacturing and Construction - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:rim:rimwps:44_11. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Marco Savioli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rcfeait.html .

    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.