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The Merchant, the Manufacturer, and the Factory Manager: The Case of Samuel Slater*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Barbara M. Tucker
Barbara M. Tucker
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Rutgers College
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Abstract

Early textile enterprises faced no trends with greater reluctance than the integration of operations within a single factory and, considerably later, the assignment of formerly family-dominated, entrepreneurial functions to hired factory agents. Samuel Slater, the classic pioneer of factory production of textile yarns, was slow to accept these trends, and only the obvious inability of either him or his family to cope with a rapidly growing and changing industry in the 1820s and 1830s forced him to integrate spinning, weaving, and finishing operations and to turn over broad responsiblity in individual factories to what is perhaps the earliest example of the professional manager.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1981 , pp. 297 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1981

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References

1 Coleman, Peter J., Transformation of Rhode Island, 1790–1860 (Providence, 1963), 122Google Scholar; “Statistics of Lowell, Massachusetts,” Hunts Merchant's Magazine 1 (July-December, 1839), 89–90; Bruchey, Stuart, Growth of the Modern American Economy (New York, 1975), 34–35Google Scholar; U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of the Census, Abstract of the Statistics of Manufacturers According to the Returns of the Secretary of the Interior, in Conformity with the First Section of the Act of June 12, 1858, 43. For a definition of the factory system see, Heaton, Herbert, “Benjamin Gott and the Industrial Revolution in Yorkshire,” Economic History Review, III (January, 1931), 50–54Google Scholar; Chandler, Alfred D. Jr,The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge, Mass., 1977), 51.Google Scholar

2 Gregory, Frances W., Nathan Appleton: Merchant and Entrepreneur 1779–1861 (Charlottesville, 1975), 252–265Google Scholar; Gibb, George S., The Saco-Lowell Shops: Textile Machinery Building in New England, 1813–1949 (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), 58–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McGouldrick, Paul F., New England Textiles in the Nineteenth Century: Profit and Investment (Cambridge, Mass., 1968), 21–30Google Scholar; Ware, Caroline F., Early New England Cotton Manufacture: A Study in Industrial Beginnings (Boston, 1931), 15–38, 61–78Google Scholar; and Chandler, Visible Hand, 67–72. See also Mailloux, Kenneth F., “Boston Manufacturing Company: Its Origins,” The Textile History Review IV (October, 1963), 157–163.Google Scholar

3 One of the most thorough accounts of day–to–day factory management and the one cited frequently by American scholars is James Montgomery, “Remarks on the Management and Government of Spinning Factories,” in Montgomery, James, The Carding and Spinning Master's Assistant; or The Theory and Practice of Cotton Spinning (Glasgow, 1832)Google Scholar, reprinted in Business History Review, 42 (Summer, 1968), 220–226Google Scholar. This account, however, applied to the British factory system. Often cited is Montgomery, James, Practical Detail of the Cotton Manufacture of the United States of America and the State of the Cotton Manufacture of that Country Contrasted and Compared with that of Great Britain with Comparative Estimates of the Cost of Manufacturing in Both Countries (Glasgow, 1840), 14, 75, 107–109, 155.Google Scholar Here, however, machinery and not factory management was the focus of the study. For a brief discussion of factory management in the textile industry, see Chandler, The Visible Hand, 68–70.

4 Chandler, Alfred D. Jr., Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the Industrial Enterprise (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), 8–12Google Scholar; Chandler, Visible Hand, 9–10. Experiments in early industrial management were not confined to the textile industry. Several gunmaking establishments adopted new organizational schemes during the early nineteenth century. See Uselding, Paul, “An Early Chapter in the Evolution of American Industrial Management” in Cain, Louis B. and Uselding, Paul J., eds., Business Enterprise and Economic Change (Kent, Ohio, 1973), 51–84.Google Scholar

5 The commercial interests of this family date from the founding of the colony. See Hedges, James B., The Browns of Providence Plantations: Colonial Years (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), 12–14, 187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar These channels later served Almy and Brown. From importers and domestic merchants they purchased West Indian cotton, and through their own outlets they sold the yarn produced at the Pawtucket mill. From the Providence store they also operated a vast putting out system. By 1792, however, Obadiah Brown, son of Moses Brown had replaced Smith Brown as a partner in Almy, Brown and Slater. See Fearon, Henry B., Sketches of America (London, 1818), 100Google Scholar; Samuel Slater and Sons, Inc., Slater Mills at Webster (Worcester, n.d.), 21; Almy and Brown to William Thompson, Providence, August 9, 1791; Adam Duggan to Almy and Brown, Providence, May 15, 1793; Almy and Brown Papers, Samuel Slater Production Reports and Correspondence, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, Rhode Island. (Hereafter cited as Almy and Brown MSS); see also Porter, Glenn and Livesay, Harold C., Merchants and Manufacturers: Studies in the Changing Structure of Nineteenth Century Marketing (Baltimore, 1971), 24–25.Google Scholar Ware, Early New England Cotton Manufacture, 167–169. Bagnall, William R., Textile Industries of the United States, 1639–1810 (Cambridge, 1893), 217.Google Scholar

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7 Ware., Early New England Cotton Manufacture, 32; Almy and Brown MSS, Almy and Brown to James Bringhurst, February 13, 1797; Almy and Brown to Dan Deshon, Providence, October 12, 1798; Ibid., Abner Greenleaf To Almy and Brown, Newburyport, September 6, 1797; Ibid., Almy and Brown to Elijah Waring, Providence, November 3, 1797.

8 Baxter, W.T., The House of Hancock: Business in Boston, 1724–1775 (New York, 1965 [1945]), 147, 199, 295, 304Google Scholar; Bruchey, Stuart, Robert Oliver, Merchant of Baltimore 1783–1819 (Baltimore, 1956), 58, 84, 126, 166–167Google Scholar; Hedges, The Browns of Providence Plantations, 289–90, 328; Chandler, The Visible Hand, 9, 14; and see also, Pollard, Sidney, Genesis of Modern Management: A Study of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain (London, 1965), 6–12.Google Scholar

9 Almy and Brown MSS, Samuel Slater to Almy and Brown, Pawtucket October 17, 1793, August 10, 1795, February 19, 1796, June 2, 1795, August 10, 1795, September 25, 1795, October 4, 1796, January 7, 1796, November 10, 1796.

10 Bagnali, Textile Industries of the United States, 217.

11 McLane, Louis, Documents Relative to the Manufactures in the United States, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1833), 1:576–577.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., 1:928–929.

13 Gilbane, “A Social History of Samuel Slater's Pawtucket,” 136–138; see also Gras, N.S.B. and Larson, Henrietta M., Casebook in American Business History (New York, 1939), 218–229Google Scholar for an excellent discussion of Slater's various business enterprises.

14 White, Memoir of Samuel Slater, 215, 259; McLane Report, 1:970–971; Bagnali, Textile Industries of the United States, 397– 400; Montgomery, Practical Detail of the Cotton Manufacture of the United States of America, 153, 179; Batchelder, Samuel, Introduction and Early Progress of the Cotton Manufacture in the United States (Boston, 1853), 52–53Google Scholar; and Lewton, Frederick L., “Samuel Slater and the Oldest Cotton Machinery in America,” Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institute Showing the Operations, Expenditures, and Condition of the Institution for the Year Ending June 20, 1926 (Washington, D.C., 1927), 507.Google Scholar

15 “200 Years of Progress,” Webster Times, 1939, 8–9; Samuel Slater and Sons, Inc., Slater Mills at Webster, 22, 25; Massachusetts Spy (Worcester), January 15, 1823; and Lewton, “Samuel Slater and the Oldest Cotton Machinery in America,” 507.

16 White, Memoir of Samuel Slater, 241–242; see also Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 235, Samuel Slater to John Slater, North Providence, March 30, 1821. Samuel Slater Collection. Baker Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (hereafter cited as Slater MSS).

17 Coleman, Peter J., “Rhode Island Cotton Manufacturing; A Study in Economic Conservatism,” Rhode Island History, 23 (July 1964), 68Google Scholar; Bagnali, Textile Industries of the United States, 546; Batchelder, Introduction and Early Progress of the Cotton Manufacture in the United States, 70–72; See also an advertisement for the Gilmore loom in Manufacturers' and Farmers Journal and Providence and Pawtucket Advertiser, April 6, 1820 and Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 191.

18 Slater MSS, Slater and Tiffany, vol. 124.

19 Slater MSS, Slater and Tiffany, vol. 80; Timothy Corbin, April–March 1819; Clarissa Foster, April 18, 1819. See also Chandler, The Visible Hand, 63 and Gras and Larson, Casebook in American Business History, 226–227.

20 Massachusetts Spy (Worcester), January 8, 1823.

21 Coleman, “Rhode Island Cotton Manufacturing,” 71–77; Ware, Early New England Cotton Manufacture, 74; Slater MSS, Union Mills, vol. 169, Wage receipts, Artimas See and Company, June 15, 1827; George Bauen, August 10, 1827; Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 191, Hand loom weavers.

22 White, Memoir of Samuel Slater, 241–242; Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 235, Samuel Slater to John Slater, North Providence, March 30, 1821.

23 Slater MSS, Samuel Slater to John Slater, North Providence, vol. 235, March 5, 1826, March 27, 1826, May 4, 1826, February 23, 1826, November 16, 1828, March 12, 1828, March 15, 1828.

24 Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 235, Samuel Slater to John Slater, November 16, 1828.

25 McLane Report, 1:929.

26 Bagnali, Textile Industries of the United States, 596; American State Papers, Finance, 4:406; Slater MSS, Sutton Manufacturing Company, vol. 45, Administrative Sales, October 16, 1832; Coleman, Transformation of Rhode Island, 109; Sweezy, Alan R., “The Amoskeag Manufacturing Company,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 52 (May 1938): 473CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lewton, “Samuel Slater and the Oldest Cotton Machinery in America,” 507. LaPorte, John A., “Birth of America's Spinning Industry, II,” New England Magazine, 39 (February 1909), 679Google Scholar; and McLane Report, 1:538–539; 1:951; 1:970–972; 1:984–985.

27 McLane Report, 1:951.

28 Coleman, Transformation of Rhode Island, 109; Chandler, Alfred D. Jr., “Samuel Slater, Francis Cabot Lowell and the Beginnings of the Factory System in the United States” (unpublished paper, Harvard Business School, 1977), 23.Google Scholar

29 Samuel Slater and Sons, Inc., Slater Mills at Webster, 25; “200 Years of Progress,” 8–9; Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 235, Samuel Slater to John Slater, April 22, 1831; Steam Cotton Manufacturing Company, vol. 11, February 10, 1831, April 28, 1830, February 18, 1830, January 13, 1832, March 28, 1831, December 15, 1820, May 13, 1831, May 6, 1833; Slater and Wardell, vols. 7, 8, 9 and 10; Bishop, Leander J., History of American Manufacturers from 1608 to 1860, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1864), 3:387–388.Google Scholar Slater purchased his cotton from both commission agents and itinerant peddlers. He sold his goods through a variety of channels. Initially, wholesalers and shopkeepers accepted his yarn, thread, and twine on consignment. Direct sales to customers were also common. Marketing cloth presented new difficulties. At first Slater tried to sell his machine woven cloth through the Wardwell Slater commission house. But Wardwell lacked the skill to market such a competitive product and Slater turned to commission agents located in New York, Boston, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Providence, and Hartford to market his cloth.

30 Chandler, The Visible Hand, 68. In his correspondence, Samuel Slater does not cite the Boston Manufacturing Company or any other Lowell firm as an example of proper managerial techniques. In fact, he rarely mentions the various Lowell enterprises in any context whatsoever.

31 Slater MSS, Sutton Manufacturing Company, vol. 47, John Slater to A. Hodges, Oxford, March 16, 1831, April 4, 1831; Wardwell to A. Hodges, Providence, July 19, 1831; Steam Cotton Manufacturing Company, vol. 14, Clark to M. Brown and M. Lewis, Providence, February 19, 1829, December 10, 1829; Clark to Tiffany Sayles and Hitchcock, Providence, July 1, 1829; Phoenix Mills, Waite to Samuel Slater, July 10, 1834.

32 Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 235, John Slater to A. Shinkwin, Boston, July 27, 1829; H.N. Slater Letters, vol. 33, P. Pond to II. Slater, July 31, 1839; Slater and Kimball, vol. 3; Sutton Manufacturing Company, vol, 45, March 9, 1836; Contract Signed by Erastus Walcott, and Steam Cotton Manufacturing Company, vol. 15, July 8, 1834.

33 Slater MSS, General Box 1, Samuel Slater and Sons to D.W. Jones, Providence, September 26, 1835.

34 Slater MSS, Steam Cotton Manufacturing Company, Letters A, vol. 14, John Clark to M. Brown and M. Lewis, Providence, February 19, 1829. Apparendy Slater sent each of the agents samples of the finest cloth woven by both local and British mills.

35 Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 236, A. Hodges to John Slater, Wilkinsonville, October 3, 1834.

36 Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 212, T. Remington to Samuel Slater and Sons, May 7, 1836; vol. 236, A. Hodges to John Slater, Wilkinsonville, March 13, 1835, May 20, 1834, January 27, 1834. See also Samuel Slater and Sons, Inc., Slater Mills at Webster, 10.

37 Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 236, A. Hodges to John Slater, Wilkinsonville, August 18, 1834; Sutton Manufacturing Company, vol. 47, Hodges to Samuel Slater, Wilkinsonville, August 31, 1835, March 14, 1836; Slater and Tiffany, vol. 101, August 31, 1836; Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 236, A. Hodges to John Slater, Wilkinsonville, February 19, 1834. See also Chandler, The Visible Hand, 69.

38 Slater MSS, Sutton Manufacturing Company, vols. 31–33.

39 Ibid.

40 Johnson, H. Thomas, “Early Cost Accounting for Internal Management Control: Lyman Mills in the 1850's,” Business History Review XLVI (Winter 1972), 466–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Johnson found that a fully integrated double entry cost accounting system operated in the Lyman factories in the 1850s. He suggests that this mill was not unusual, and that, perhaps, other mills also employed some form of cost accounting. The Slater firm was one such firm. See also Chandler, The Visible Hand, 70–71 and 528 ff. 64. While the Slater accounting system represented an important break with traditional mercantile accounting methods, it was not without its drawbacks, The agent combined both fixed and variable costs; furthermore, factory costs were not separated from administration costs. See Slater MSS, Sutton Manufacturing Company, vol. 31–33.

41 Massachusetts Spy (Worcester), October 30, 1822.

42 Plebeian and Millbury Workingman's Advocate, January 25, 1832.

43 Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 236, A. Hodges to John Slater, Wilkinsonville, April 14, 1834.

44 Slater MSS, Sutton Manufacturing Company, vol. 47, Alexander Hodges to Samuel Slater, Wilkinsonville, February 2, 1834.

45 Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 236, A. Hodges to John Slater, Wilkinsonville, April 14, 1834.

46 Ibid., August 18, 1834.

47 Slater MSS, Steam Cotton Manufacturing Company, vol. 11, October 18, 1831; Sutton Manufacturing Company, vol. 47, John Slater to A. Hodges, South Oxford, April 4, 1831; Wardwell to Hodges, Providence, July 19, 1831; John Slater to Hodges, Oxford, March 16, 1831; Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 236, Hodges to John Slater, Wilkinsonville, April 14, 1834.

48 Slater MSS, Union Mills, Vol, 185, Charles Waite to Samuel Slater and Sons, Webster, July 6, 1838.

49 Slater MSS, Samuel Slater and Sons, vol. 236, A. Hodges to John Slater Esq., Wilkinsonville, February 19, 1834; John Slater to John Slater 2d., Smithfield, January 15, 1834. See also Union Mills, vol. 189, Fletcher to Union Mills, Providence, December 15, 1854.

50 Slater MSS, Union Mills, vol. 195, M. Lyon, Webster, May 25, 1837; vol. 30. The account of the Samuel Braugh family was typical. Samuel Braugh, a mule spinner and his young daughter Jane, an operative, worked for Union Mills in 1840–41. During this period they earned $539.13; their expenses were: rent, $23.76; wood, $19.94; piecer's salary, $148.55; store accounts $89.25; potatoes, $7.25; miscellaneous, $3.23; cash on settlement days, $71.00. The balance of the account was carried over to the next period.

51 Slater MSS, Union Mills, vol. 186, C. Waite to Samuel Slater and Sons, Webster, May 17, 1839.

52 Slater MSS, Union Mills, vol. 186, Alexander Hodges to Samuel Slater and Sons, Webster, November 4, 1837; Sutton Manufacturing Company, vol. 47, A. Hodges to Samuel Slater, Wilkinsonville, September 23, 1835; see also N.B. Gordon, Agent's Diary, November 21, 1828, December 3, 1828, June 5, 1830. Mansfield U.C. & W. Manufacturing Company Manuscripts. Baker Library. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

53 Slater MSS, Union Mills, vol. 117, Storrs to R. and D.M. Stebbins, Webster, February 28, 1845; Storrs to G. Blackburn and Company, Webster, February 13, 1845; vol. 114, Samuel Slater and Sons to Jacob Price Company, Webster, November 24, 1840.

54 Manufacturers' and Farmers' Journal and Providence and Pawtucket Advertiser, February 20, 1826.

55 Slater MSS, Steam Cotton Manufacturing Company, Letters A. vol. 14, Samuel Slater and Sons to Nelson Swathland, February 11, 1834; see also H.N. Slater Letters, vol. 33, A. Hodges to Horatio Slater, Webster, February 28, 1837 and Union Mills, vol. 185, Waite to Samuel Slater and Sons, July 6, 1838 and Slater and Kimball, vol. 3.

56 Initially, some agents were offered a financial stake in the factories to retain their services. Alexander Hodges was a case in point. When in February 1836, Hodges decided to leave Samuel Slater and Sons, John Slater II asked him to reconsider. He was prepared to renegotiate his contract and to allow him a $200 increase in his annual salary, and “also allow you to take an interest or possibly we might make a contract by the yard with you.” See Slater MSS, Sutton Manufacturing Company, vol. 47, Providence, John Slater to A. Hodges, February 19, 1836.