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Quality, Technology, and Dexterity. Female Silk-Spinning Manufacture in Barcelona at the End of the Old Regime

Pilar Nogues-Marco

No unige:174183, Working Papers from University of Geneva, Paul Bairoch Institute of Economic History

Abstract:

This article analyses the Female Silk Spinning Apprenticeship School of the Barcelona Board of Trade (1784-1792) to explore the intersections between technological change, spinners’ dexterity, and yarn quality. Dexterity was crucial for performing high-quality silk spinning, but the piece-rate remuneration system incentivised spinners to work as fast as possible, thereby downgrading the quality. In the prelude to the Industrial Revolution, the shift from hand spinning to mechanised spinning was a gradual process of technological innovation in which silk yarn’s quality depended on technology, spinners’ dexterity and the interaction with the institutional framework that either encouraged yarn quality through daily wages or discouraged it through piece-rates.

Keywords: Female silk-spinning apprenticeship; Spinners dexterity; Silk-spinning quality; Technological diffusion; Piedmontese reeling machine; Vaucanson reeling machine; Royal Barcelona Board of Trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L11 L22 N0 N13 N83 O14 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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