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Productivity and Labor Discipline in the Montgolfier Paper Mill, 1780–1805

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Leonard N. Rosenband
Leonard N. Rosenband
Affiliation:
The author is a member of the Department of History, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84321.
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Abstract

The daily, weekly, and seasonal rhythms of production in the Montgolfier paper mill, one of the largest in eighteenth-century France, are examined here. Based on the comments of pioneer manufacturers, historians have been led to believe that early industrial work was irregular and unpredictable. The Montgolfiers as well complained of undependable workers. Yet their own output registers reveal a pattern of regular productivity unaided by advanced machinery or steam power.

Type
Papers Presented at the Forty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 435 - 443
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1985

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References

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