Description
Book SynopsisThis case study of the Montgolfier mill, adding details about technological innovation and shopfloor relations during a time of social unrest, enriches the current debate about the nature and impact of capitalism in France during the years leading up to the French Revolution.
Trade ReviewA richly textured account... The benefit to Rosenband's approach is its nuance and richness of detail that allows readers to enter into the world of papermaking and to follow the peculiar logic of the culture and institutional arrangements of this industry. Those who want to experience one segment of an evolving artisanal world of work from the ground up will find much to savor. -- Gail Bossenga Journal of Interdisciplinary History While Leonard N. Rosenband's monograph is primarily a study of one mill and its enterprising owners, it can serve as an English-language introduction to the whole subject of artisanal papermaking. -- David Longfellow American Historical Review Elegantly written and well researched. -- Michael Huberman EH.Net A significant contribution to an almost unknown economic sector, papermaking... As interesting for the historian of Modern France before the Revolution as it is for the historian of the nineteenth-century economy. Both will find in Rosenband's work reliable information, deep knowledge and reflection. -- Marc de Ferriere Le Vayer Business History Papermaking in Eighteenth-Century France provides a fresh model for historians... This book poses a fundamental challange to many orthodox methods and conventional approaches in economic history and the history of technology. It raises an many questions as it answers... With any luck, it will motivate others to tend this rich and, until now, relatively unculitvated ground. -- Andre Wakefield Technology and Culture Many will profit from Rosenband's long study and clear narrative. -- James E. May Eighteenth Century: Current Bibliography
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Money, Weights, and Measures
Part I: An Old Industry
Chapter 1. French Industry in the Eighteenth Century
Chapter 2. Making Paper
Chapter 3. The Montgolfiers and Their Craft
Chapter 4. Rags, Regulation, and Government Stimulation
Part II: The "Modes" and the Lockout of 1781
Chapter 5. Building the Beaters and the Journeymen's Custom
Chapter 6. The Lockout
Part III: Managing to Rule
Chapter 7. The New Regime
Chapter 8. Hiring and Firing
Chapter 9. Paternalism
Chapter 10. Wages
Chapter 11. Discipline
Part IV: Measuring Change
Chapter 12. Technological Transfer
Chapter 13. Persistence
Chapter 14. Attitudes
Chapter 15. Productivity
Chapter 16. The Hierarchy of Vats
Part V: The End of Hand Papermaking
Chapter 17. The French Revolution and the Papermaking Machine
Conclusion
Appendix: Tables and Graph
Notes
Note on Sources
Index
Illustrations Appear on Pages 16-21
