ABSTRACT
Traditionally spinning and weaving was considered a labour intensive line of production. This chapter begins with cotton spinning and weaving which is the country's oldest and most important industry. It assesses what technologies were applied in the Brazilian spinning and weaving industry and what changes they brought about at the macro level. The chapter shows how the labour utilisation works out in practice, how it differs amongst various segments of the industry, and to what extent it is technologically determined. Technological change will be assessed in terms of labour productivity, machine performance, capital-labour ratio and capital-output ratio. The capital-output ratio increased in both spinning and weaving at almost the same pace over the 1950–1980. The introduction of a radically new weaving technology of the shuttleless loom and have three distinct advantages: they eliminate the winding machines; they operate at higher speeds than conventional looms and they can weave three fabrics simultaneously.
