ABSTRACT
By the end of the nineteenth century, not only had many weavers survived competition from British cloth, but they were also investing in new tools and processes, such as the fly-shuttle slay, frame-mounted looms, dobby, Jacquard, drop-box, and warping machines. Productivity in handlooms registered extraordinary growth in the first half of the twentieth century. To some extent, the growth derived from an institutional change, a shift away from part-time and low-valued work towards full-time, specialized, and higher-valued work. Technological change reinforced the shift. Where did the tools and the techniques come from? Why were they adopted? Who adopted them? Chapter 5 answers these questions.
