Abstract

"Reassessing Productivity and Technological Change in British Cotton Spinning during the Industrial Revolution from Business Records"

Peter Maw, University of Leeds (p.maw@leeds.ac.uk)

The mechanization of cotton spinning was central to Britain’s emergence as the world’s first industrial economy, yet the productivity performance of spinning firms remains poorly quantified and understood. This paper reassesses productivity change in British cotton spinning between 1780 and 1860 using newly assembled business records that allow performance to be measured at both the firm and machine level.

Drawing on detailed accounts from fourteen spinning firms, together with contemporary technical manuals and parliamentary papers, the study reconstructs output per spindle and per worker across successive spinning technologies: jennies, water frames, hand and semi-automated mules, throstles, and self-acting mules. By linking these data to the quality of yarn produced (measured by hanks per pound), hours worked, workers per machine, and characteristics of motive power, it isolates the sources of productivity change and traces how mechanical, organizational, and labour inputs interacted to shape firm-level performance over time.

The results show that Britain’s preference for discontinuous spinning technologies (the jenny and the mule) over continuous systems (the frame and, later, the ring) persisted throughout 1780–1860, just as it did during the industry’s late Victorian and Edwardian heyday. Output per spindle and per worker rose most rapidly among mule spinners between 1790 and 1815, while growth in the semi-automated mule slowed from the 1830s. The introduction of the self-acting mule, however, brought renewed gains in productivity, particularly at yarn counts below 40s. By grounding analysis in the surviving records of individual firms, the paper moves beyond aggregate measures of industrial growth to illuminate the micro-foundations of technological and organizational change. It thus contributes to broader debates about the relationship between innovation, productivity, and firm behavior during the Industrial Revolution, and demonstrates how empirical research on business records can still reshape our understanding of Britain’s early industrial performance.