Combinations of Capital and of Labour in the English Paper Industry 1789-1825

Combinations of Capital and of Labour in the English Paper Industry, 1789-1825 D. C. Coleman Economica, New Series, Vol. 21, No. 81. (Feb., 1954), pp. 32-53. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0013-0427%28195402%292%3A21%3A81%3C32%3ACOCAOL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z Economica is currently published by The London School of Economics and Political Science. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/journals/lonschool.html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. The JSTOR Archive is a trusted digital repository providing for long-term preservation and access to leading academic journals and scholarly literature from around the world. The Archive is supported by libraries, scholarly societies, publishers, and foundations. It is an initiative of JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to help the scholarly community take advantage of advances in technology. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. http://www.jstor.org Sat Jul 21 17:30:27 2007 Combinations of Capital and of Labour in the English Paper Industry, 1789-1 825' By D. C. COLEMAN The practical establishment of a paper-making industry in England dates from the seventeenth ~ e n t u r y . ~ Earlier ventures there certainly were and of those the most famous and possibly the most important was Spilman's mill at Dartford, at work in 1588.3 During the course of the seventeenth century the number of mills increased, and on more than one occasion paper-making came to the notice of offi~ialdom.~ In spite of the growth implied by this, Restoration England was still very largely dependent for its paper upon imports, especially from France. In the half-century between 1670 and 1720, however, wars, trade embargoes, and immigrations of Huguenot artisans combined to provide, directly and indirectly, a major stimulus to English paper- making.5 Without going into the details of this growth, which took place during one of the most interesting periods of early English industrial enterprise, it can be stated simply that a recognisable and Economic historians have paid little attention to this industry in England and it has been thought advisable to include a very brief sketch of the industry's early development, so as to provide a background to the main concern of this article. A. Dykes Spicer: The Paper Trade, London, 1907, is the only work which deals, to any appreciable extent, with the economic aspects of the history of English paper- making, and it confines its attention to the nineteenth century. There are numerous books and articles on paper-mahg in general and on its technical history, many of them originating from America, Germany, France and Sweden. See, e.g. : Dard Hunter: Paper-making, London, 1947, and the bibliography therein ; also E. J. Labarre: Dictionar;' and Encyclopredia of Paper-making, 2nd,~d., Oxford, 1952. Rhys Jenkins: Paper-Making in England, 1495-1788 , in The Collected Papers of Rhys Jenkins, Cambridge, 1936. (The article is there reprinted from The Libraries Association Record, September 1900 -April 1902.) Spilrnan's mill is mentioned in various works. See, e.g.: Rhys Jenkins: op. cit., p. 162; Hunter: op. cit., p. 1 19; W. R. Scott: The Constitution and Finance of English, Scottish and Irish Joint Stock Companies to 1720, 3 vols., Cambridge, 1912, Vol. I, pp. 116-117. Earlier enterprises are also considered by Rhys Jenkins: op. cit., pp. 155-162. See, e.g., Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1636-1637, pp. 126, 373. q s period saw considerable economic and technological activity. For its impact on the English paper industry see: Scott: op. cit., Vol. I , p. 314, Vol. 111, pp. 63-72; Rhys Jenkins: op. cit., pp. 177-1.78. There were eleven English patents relative to paper-making taken out m the thirty years from 1665 to 1695 and only one other, in 1747, between that period and 1772, from whch time a growing number appear; 19 from 1772 to 1802 and 56 in the following thirty years. (" Abridgements of the Specifications relating to the Manufacture of Paper, Pasteboard and Papier Mache, Pt. I, 1665-1857 ", in the Patent 'pffice Library.) On the Huguenots, see G. H. Overend: Notes upon the earlier history of the manufacture of paper in England," in Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London, Vol. VIII, 1905-8. 32 19541 CAPITAL AND LABOUR IN THE ENGLISH PAPER INDUSTRY 33 significant paper industry had emerged by the beginning of the eighteenth century. From then on it grew, to undergo in due time the familiar metamorphosis of industrial revolution, finally to assume its modern shape in the later decades of the nineteenth century. In this long vista of industrial change there are two unmistakable landmarks. They both denote technical innovation which had revolutionary consequences alike to the economics and to the techniques of the industry. The first was the introduction of the paper-making machine which came into use in England in the first decade of the nineteenth century; the second marks the successful use of esparto grass and wood-pulp as substitutes for rags, innovations belonging to the 1860s and 1870s.l There are other landmarks too, though not so spectacular in their immediate significance. The introduction into England during the early eighteenth century of the " Hollander ", an improved device used in the preparation of the ragsY2 was followed in the 1780s by the use of steam instead of falling water as a motive power for driving this rag-beating ma~hinery .~ The spread of these innovations through the industry was slow, steam engines being the exception rather than the rule by the beginning of the nineteenth century4; change was possibly impeded by the fact that water is itself a raw material of paper-making and thus, for more reasons than one, paper mills were normally sited on rivers. The industry was quick to use the advances of chemistry in the later eighteenth century and the newly discovered chlorine came into use in the 1790s for the bleaching of As ;he economic development of an industry is inextricably linked with the techniques practised in it, a short description of paper-making may serve to make certain matters clear.6 Until the invention of the machine all paper was made by hand. The introduction of the machine did not, however, mark the end of hand-made paper and the decline of this branch of the industry was comparatively long-drawn-out. The development of esparto grass and, especially, wood-pulp as raw materials for paper-making marks the creation of what is, from some points of view, virtually a new industry. a On the introduction of the "Hollander " see Hunter: op. cit., pp. 162-169. The records of Boulton and Watt show the installation of one of Watt's early engines at a paper mill at Hull in 1786. (Birmingham Reference Library-Boulton and Watt Collection.) Boulton and Watt had installed only four steam engines in paper mills by 1808, as compared with many more in other industries. A very few steam engines of other types were also in evidence by this time, at work in paper mills. See Hunter: op. cit., pp. 336-340. 6 A. & N. L. Clow: The Chemical Revoktion, London, 1952, Chap. XIII; J. Wardrop: "Mr. Whatman, Paper-maker in Signature, No. 9, 1938. Two patents for use of chlorine in rag-bleaching were taken out in 1792. More detailed descriptions of the techniques of paper-making will be found in Hunter: op. cit., passim; Spicer: op. cit., Chaps. 11, IV and V; Clow: ope cit., pp. 261-3; Andrew Ure: Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, 3 Vols., London, 1860, Vol. 111, pp. 383400. R. H. Clapperton and W. Henderson: Modern Paper- Making gives detailed tectfnical accounts of modem paper-making, but Chap. XVII on " Hand-Made Paper is useful because of the similarities between modern hand-made paper-making and the techniques of the period under examination. 34 ECONOMICA [FEBRUARY Until the introduction of esparto grass and wood-pulp, most paper was made from linen or cotton rags. During the period with which we are here concerned, rags were the sole major raw material and hand labour the main, though not the sole, method of manufacture. But the actual forming of a sheet of paper, whether by the rotary motion of the machine or by the separated actions of the craftsman, was only one stage in the manufacture. On one side was the preparation of the raw material; on the other the finishing and drying of the paper. The rags had to be prepared by sorting, cleaning, boiling and bleaching, from which stages they passed to the "Hollander " or beating engine. The resulting " stuff "--consisting of finely macerated fibres held in suspension in water-found its way, in the case of hand-made paper, to the " vat "where the paper-maker operated. The paper-maker or "vatman " then formed the sheets by dipping into the liquid a " mould " consisting, roughly, of a shallow rectangular box, the bottom of which was made of wire mesh or gauzeal The vatman dipped the mould into the vat, lifted it out, and gave it a peculiar shake, a movement which closed up the sheet and gave it the desired chara~ter .~ The sheet thus formed is a deposition of felted fibres on the wire gauze. From the mould the sheets were turned out by the " coucher " on to a felt, until a pile or " post " of alternate felts and sheets of paper was made. After this the paper passed to the pressing, finishing and drying stages. In essentials this manual process of paper-making is the same to-day as it was throughout the period here under consideration and, indeed, very much earlier, as can be seen by comparison with such seventeenth-century descriptions of paper-making as those given by John Evelyn and Celia F ienne~ .~ This very brief outline of the techniques of early paper-making serves to emphasise the dominance of two economic characteristics. Although as sketched above the tasks of the vatman and coucher do not sound complex, their labour was in fact highly skilled and upon this skilled work the industry was entirely dependent. Secondly, the preparation and finishing processes combined with the actual paper- making to necessitate a fair amount of fixed capital in the shape of buildings and plant. Thus the industry never, in this country, shared any of the characteristics of the '"domestic system ". Any major cost-reducing innovations were likely to demand much technical ingenuity in that they would replace skilled labour ; significant change was in general likely to be expensive. The atmosphere of conservatism which seems to mark the industry in the eighteenth century may be observed against this background. Moulds-and the paper made therewith--were either " laid ", consisting, roughly, of a number of wires laid ~ x a l l e l !P each other, or " wove ", in which the base was a woven wire gauze. Wove paper was introduced into Europe in the mid-eighteenth century. See Wardrop: up. cif.,and Hunter: op, cit., Ch. 1V. ' Clapperton and Henderson: op. cif., p. 284. Tile Diary arld CorresponN%nce of Johrr Evelyn, 1620-1706, ed. Bray, 4 vols.. 1906, vol. 11, p. 338. The journey.^ of Cdia Fiennes (1685-1703), ed. C. Norris, London, 1-947, p. 124. 19.541 CAPlTAL AND LABOUR IN THE ENGLISH PAPER INDUSTRY 35 Throughout its history, demand has been growing, stimulated by the innumerable and diverse changes which promoted the use of paper. During the eighteenth century there was an ample home market to be captured from foreign suppliers and the English industry had simply to follow one or all of three courses: expand its output, using existing methods of production ; make cost-reducing innovations ; secure protection from imported paper, with which it was unable to compete in quality or price. The first and the third remained, for the most part, the chosen path before the last quarter of the century. Apart from the introduction of the " Hollander "-and even that did not come into general use until the middle of the century-all the significant improvements belonged to the latter part of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth. Aware of their inability to compete with the French and other continental industries, English paper-makers were eager protectionists. Customs duties were such as to give marked preference to home production.l To the customs, however, was added an excise duty which may well have discouraged the flow of capital and enterprise to the industry.Vhus was the growth of paper-making limited and the scope of its enterprise curtailed. That branch of the industry making the lower qualities of paper seems to have seen such advance as there was in the first half of the eighteenth century, due probably to the lack of skilled workers and the fact that the excise duties pressed more heavily on the better grades.3 From something like stagnation, the industry quickened into activity in the second half of the century. Increases in output are apparent after 1745 and become much more marked in the 1770s and 1780s.* During this period James Whatman was active in paper-making and his initiative may well have stimulated enterpri~e.~ In general terms, rising prices, lower interest rates, and the pervading atmosphere of advance, both economic and scientific, played their due part in paper- making as elsewhere. Caught up in the whirl of industrial revolution, the industry was stimulated at once by sharply rising demand and- though this did not begin to make itself felt until after the end of the Napoleonic Wars-by increased supplies of rags arising from the growing output of cotton and linen textiles. The inflation of the war period posed many problems in acute form, but it was attended, nevertheless, by a great influx of capital into the industry. In 1789 the number of paper-makers' licences issued in accordance with the See below, p. 37. a See below, p. 36. a These varied with the qualities of paper and were much heavier on the h e r grades of white writing and printing papers than on the coarser types. See, e.g., the Schedules set out in 10 Anne, C. 18, and 21 Geo. 111, C . 24. 4 The statistics for output and revenue from the excise give some indication of English production, though for reasons which cannot be discussed here, their accuracy and value are limited. The figures are printed in Appendix 2 2 ~to the First Report of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, 1857, in British Parliamentary Papers, 1857. Vol. IV..-- 6 o n Whatman, set Wardrop: op. cit. 36 ECONOMICA [FEBRUARY excise regulations was 392 in England alone ; in 1816, 522 ; by 1825 the number had risen to 602.l Total English production of paper rose from approximately 9,500 tons in 1789 to 25,500 tons in 1825.2 These figures pale into relative insignificance when compared with the rise later in the century when, to the spread of the machine, was added the production of wood-pulp paper, but they reflect, neverthe- less, an important expansion of English paper manufacture. Within this general development there were operating a number of economic pressures which combined to bring into existence, by the latter decades of the eighteenth century, significant combinations on both sides of the industry. These pressures arose mainly from three problems : the customs and the excise duties, the price of rags, the wages of labour. The rising prices from 1790 onwards gave weight to the force of their impact and shape to the answers which were found. By the 1780s the English paper industry was entangled in a complex apparatus of taxation and protection, an elaborate mesh of excise and customs duties, of inspection and licences, of schedules, rates, imposts and drawbacks. The effective history of this also dates from the end of the seventeenth century. It falls into parts : the selection of paper as an item of excise revenue, which it was from 1712 to 1861,3 and the protection and encouragement of the industry, by means of customs duties on imports and drawbacks on exports. Without entering into the details of this, it will suffice to note that an Act of 1711 imposed excise duties according to a schedule covering 12 specific types of paper, the rates varying from 4d. to 1s. 6d. per ream, and import duties according to another schedule covering some 37 types of paper, these ranging from 1s. to 16s. per ream. On unenumerated papers an excise duty of 12 per cent. ad valorem was charged and an import duty of 20 per cent. ad ~alorem.~All these rates were increased by 50 per cent. in 1714, by a further 5 per cent. in 1779 and again by 5 per cent. in 178lS5 A new and most elaborate excise schedule was drawn up in the latter year setting out the values and sizes of 76 different B.P.P., 1857, Vol. IV, p. 175. The number of mills at work was not precisely che same as the number of licences issued, but the differences were not such as to detract from the significance of the rise shown by the figures quoted. In 1816, for example, an excise list records 506 paper-mills in England and Wales of which 503 were occupied. This list is in the Library of H.M. Customs and Excise for permission to work in which I have to thank the Commissioners of Customs and Excise and, in particular, the Librarian, Mr. R. C. Jarvis and his staff for their kind co-operation. - ' Ibid., pp. 154-5. a An excise duty on the sale, though not on the production, of paper had been levied in 1643. E. Lipson: The Economic History of England, 1947 ed., London, Vol. 111, p. 145. The Book of Rates of 1660 had fixed a heavy import duty on paper, and to this was added, by 8 and 9 Wm. 111, C. 7, for two years only, an excise duty. See M. Plant: The English Book Trade, London, 1939, Ch. IX. 10 Anne, C. 18. Pasteboard and the like was also subject to duty. 6 13 Anne, C. 18; 19 Geo. 111, C. 25; 21 Geo. 111, C. 17. 37 19541 CAPITAL AND LABOUR IN THE ENGLISH PAPER INDUSTRY sorts of paper, the whole being then divided into five Tables. On this basis new and higher duties were imposed and these were raised again in 1782, 1784 and 1787.l Meanwhile even larger increases had been made in the import duties, the basic protective difference thus remaining in force as the following examples may serve to illustrate :2 (per ream) 1752 1781 1784 1787 Type of paper Import duties S. d. idii Excise duties S. d. S. d. Import duties S. d. Excise duties S. d. Printing, demy Cartridge Blue, royal 6 3 4 3.973 6.924 0.54% 1 l l & I l l & 2 2 6 2 52d 2 5 4 - 2 94, 6 2 5 9 8 6 2 2 3 84 83 @ Over and above these duties the import of paper from France was subject to heavy additional ad valorem duties. In consequence the bulk of our paper imports during the eighteenth century came from Holland and, to a lesser extent, from Italy. When an industry is the subject of complex forms of taxation of this nature, it is natural that there should be co-operative action by the manufacturers to influence the government. Complicated protection and taxation must be amongst the best stimulants to industrial liaison, even though their action be inadvertent. At the end of t