Factor Costs and the Diffusion of Ring Spinning in Britain Prior to World War I

Abstract

A key contribution to the attempt by “new” economic historians to absolve the British economy of the charge of technological conservatism in the late nineteenth century is Lars Sandberg's analysis of the choice of technique between ring spinning and mule spinning. In this article I demonstrate that Sandberg's analysis has serious problems and that a careful reexamination of the rings versus mules question is in order. While I point out some of the methodological problems of the neoclassical approach to choice of technique, the major focus of this paper is on the empirical shortcomings of Sandberg's analysis. My primary empirical conclusions are that the extent of the diffusion of ring spinning prior to World War I was much less than Sandberg's analysis would indicate and that it was the vertically specialized structure of the industry which imposed the major factor-cost constraint on its more rapid introduction.

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