TECHNOLOGY AT WORK

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Citi GPS: Global Perspectives & Solutions February 2015
notwithstanding has greatly benefited from their erection [and] destroying them in
this country would only be the means of transferring them to another [...] to the
detriment of the trade of Britain.” 28 To be sure, there was still resistance to
technology displacing artisan workers. The “Luddite” riots between 1811 and 1816
partly reflected the fear of mechanisation. Nevertheless, the Crown and the guilds
lacked the political influence to halt creative destruction.
As the Industrial Revolution spread across the Atlantic and to mainland Europe,
there were still forces that counteracted innovation. On the continent, where the
guilds were still largely present, innovators often left for less regulated markets. For
example, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, the founder of Steinway & Sons, famously
left Germany for New York with his five sons in 1850, as the local guilds’ heavy
regulation of the piano-making process did not allow for the Steinway production
methods. Over 150 years later, New York is still the leading factory for Steinway
pianos, alongside Hamburg.
The general tendency has been towards
embracing technological progress as
workers gradually see the benefits of
technological change
While the regulation of innovation activities may have long-lasting effects, the
general tendency since the Industrial Revolution has been towards embracing
technological progress. It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that this shift in
attitudes was only a result of a shift in political power. Although working conditions
were often horrific, the sustained progress that followed was as much a result of
many ordinary workers gradually seeing the benefits of technological change.
Steam Powered Production: From the Artisan Shop to the
Factory System
Low-skilled workers benefited from the
Industrial Revolution as it simplified the
tasks workers had to perform in production
An important feature of the manufacturing technologies associated with the
Industrial Revolution is that they mainly benefited low-skilled workers by simplifying
the tasks workers had to perform in production. 29 This skill replacing process
occurred as the artisan shop was gradually displaced by the factory system, and
picked up pace as production was increasingly mechanised, following the adoption
of steam power. 30 As a result, manual work that had previously been performed by
highly skilled artisans was now decomposed into specialised sequences.
Key innovations in manufacturing, such as continuous-flow production and
interchangeable parts, were even specifically designed for low-skilled workers. At
Ford, the new assembly line introduced in 1913 turned a one-man job into a 29-man
operation, reducing the overall work time by 34%. This allowed complex products to
be assembled from mass-produced individual components; work that required less
skill, but more workers, to perform. 31
The differences in productivity between the factory and the artisan shop is nicely
illustrated in the production of plows. In one artisan shop, two men spent 118 manhours
using hammers, anvils, chisels, hatchets, axes, mallets, shaves and augers in
11 tasks to produce a plow. By contrast, a steam-powered plow factory employed
52 workers performing 97 distinct tasks to produce a plow in just about 3.75 manhours.
28 Mantoux (2006).
29
Braverman (1977); Goldin and Katz (1998).
30 Atack, et al. (2008a).
31 Bright (1958).
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