Wool Industry Research Articles

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this articles: The Emerging Asia‐Pacific Era and the Regional Cooperation towards the Year 2000. Sustainable development Economic Policies for Sustainable Development. Edited by the Asian Development Bank Japan's economic outlook Japan's Growing External Assets: A Medium for Regional Growth? Edited by Susumu Awanohara. China's rural reforms China's Rural Industry: Structure, Development, and Reform. Edited by William A. Byrd and Lin Qingsong. Economics in the South Pacific Oceanic Economic Handbook. Edited by Euromonitor Malaysia's economy Growth and Ethnic Inequality: Malaysia's New Economic Policy. By Just Faaland, J. R. Parkinson and Rais Saniman. Malaysia's economy The Malaysian Economy: Spatial Perspectives. By George Cho. Malaysian challenge The Malaysian Economic Challenge in the 1990s: Transformation for Growth By Fong Chan Onn. Comparative study of capitalism Capitalism in Contrasting Cultures. Edited by Steward R. Glegg and S. Gordon Redding assisted by Monica Cartner. Philippine agrarian reform Toward an Alternative Land Reform Paradigm. By Y. Hayami, M. A. Quisumbing and L. Adriano. Global economy The New Global Economy and the Developing Countries: Essays in International Economics and Development. By G. K. Helleiner. China's wool industry The Wool Industry in China: Some Chinese Perspectives. Edited by John W. Longworth. China's technology strategy Industrialization and technological development in China. By Nobuo Mayuyama. Repeating Asian NICs success Trade, Finance and Developing Countries: Strategies and Constraints in the 1990s. By Sheila Page. China's forestry Forests and Forestry in China. By S. D. Richardson. Political economy in foreign policy The Political Economy of Singapore's Industrialization: National State and International Capital. By Garry Rodan. Political economy in foreign policy The Political Economy of Foreign Policy in Southeast Asia. Edited by David Wurfel and Bruce Burton. The Taiwan miracle The Foreign Factor, Studies in Economic, Social and Political Change: The Republic of China. By Chi schive. Korea's economic development The Rise of the Korean Economy. By Byung‐Nak Song. Multilateral trade negotiations Services in Asia and the Pacific: Selected Papers, Volume One.

THE RETURNS TO INVESTMENT IN RESEARCH ON AUSTRALIAN WOOL PRODUCTION*

A production function approach is used to estimate growth in farm productivity in the Australian wool industry from an estimated level of expenditure on wool production R & D. A market equilibrium model of the wool industry is then used to measure the share of total benefits from this productivity growth accruing to Australia and its wool growers. A net return is estimated after allowing for lags in the development and adoption of technology.

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF TWO AUSTRALIAN WOMEN SCIENTISTS TO ITS WOOL INDUSTRY

By the early 1960s there was a general decline in the consumption of wool, Australia's leading export. Prices were falling and it became clear that wool was suffering from the competitive advantages of the artificial fibres then starting to flood world markets. If the wool industry were to compete successfully, a high quality fleece would have to be produced by growers and the disadvantages of felting and shrinking would have to be overcome. Two Australian women scientists addressed these problems. One was concerned with the genetics of sheep breeding; the other worked on the physics of wool fibres to reduce their limitations in the textile product. The paper examines the major contributions made by these women in meeting the threat to the Australian wool industry posed by the development of synthetics.

Peculiar Perquisites and Pernicious Practices

SummaryThis paper examines the character and significance of embezzlement in the woollen industry of the West of England in the years from c. 1750 to 1840 in the light of the recent debate which sees the period as witnessing major developments in the eradication of perquisites and in the formulation of the wage. It examines the dimensions of embezzlement, its correlation with economic fluctuations and its importance for the economy of both the clothier and the embezzling worker. It shows that tighter legislative sanctions failed to check the illicit trade in embezzled wool, which by the early nineteenth century constituted a well-organised black market, and it considers the effect of this trade in “slinge” upon economic and social relations in the industry.

Employers and Labour in the English Textile Industries, 1850–1939 ed. by J. A. Jowitt, A. J. McIvor

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 525 technical help as the provision of cost and output projections, the supply of machinery and all ancillary equipment, and the supply of drawings and blueprints. And notjust expertise and technology were provided, but managers and workers as well. While not numerous, British workers played a significant role because of their skills, and it now seems that British labor may well have remained important in European industrialization beyond the early period. While British workers provided a great deal of technical information and advice, there were problems. The chief technical problem was outright incompetence, while the biggest social problem in hiring the British was, not surprisingly, drunkenness. Bruland describes an active, predatory, market-seeking British textile-engineering industry willing to provide the vast array of information, equipment, and labor without which a modern Norwe­ gian mechanized textile industry could not have been constructed so rapidly. But was the experience of the Norwegian firms representa­ tive of a more general European experience? Bruland believes that the Norwegian experience was not an anomaly and that the technology transfer process offered to Norway was routine for British firms. Further case studies of such transfers need to be conducted before one can definitely say that the Norwegian example was indeed representative of all European textile industrialization. And if this should prove to be the case for other industries as well, then the transmission mechanism for later Continental industrializa­ tion will be seen as the entrepreneurial British capital-goods industry. Ironically, in seeking new markets overseas, this industry was largely responsible for creating the industrial infrastructure of future competitors. This excellent study of technology diffusion in Norway points out the need for further inquiries into technology transfer at the company level. Richard A. Voeltz Dr. Voeltz is assistant professor of history at Cameron University and the author of German Colonialism and the South West Africa Company. Currently he is studying the relationship between technology and European imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Employers and Labour in the English Textile Industries, 1850—1939. Edited by J. A. Jowitt and A. J. Mclvor. London and New York: Routledge , Chapman & Hall, 1988. Pp. xviii + 239; tables, notes, bibli­ ography, index. $55.00. This collection of essays on labor and industrial relations in the textiles sector of northern England only partly succeeds in its declared objectives. The editors are aware of the need to break free from the traditional mold of labor history and to cast the relationship between TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE 526 Book Reviews employers and workers in a broader conceptual framework. The sexual division of the employee class and the influence of different product specialities, skills, and market pressures, together with the influence of employers’ organizations and strategies, are recognized to be of crucial importance in any understanding of the complex pattern of industrial change and the shifts in workplace relations that inevitably accompany it. Some of these concerns are reflected in the book. The origins and effects of employers’ organizations in the cotton and wool industries from the late 19th century to 1939 are faithfully recorded; so too are the trials and tribulations of trade unions in the Yorkshire worsted textile industry and in the Lancashire cotton trade. Special attention is paid to skill and the sexual division of labor in cotton textiles and silk within the West Riding and Lancashire. Interesting themes emerge, notably discussions of the evolution of bureaucratic and institutionalized forms of labor management down to the 1930s, the influence of employer welfarism, the reasons for the retardation of trade unionism in the West Riding worsted industry, the varying fortunes of organized labor in cotton spinning and finishing, and the influence of patriarchal authority on the nature of, and importance attached to, female work. It would be churlish not to welcome the extra detail provided here about the fortunes of the textile industries in such a crucial period of change in England’s industrial fortunes. The more we know of the employers’ attitudes, in particular, the more we will be able to judge the reasons for labor’s action and reaction; the more we learn of the work and wages on offer to differing classes of employees, the more...

Angleterre-Brésil, 1697-1850 : Un siècle et demi d'échanges commerciaux

Abstract This paper surveys the main fluctuations of «trade» between Britain and Brazil from c.1700 to с 1850; trade with a qualification, because, up to 1807, it had to pass through Portugal (so that its measurement is difficult). Exports of English goods to Brazil expanded greatly and were on a large scale up to the 1750's ; then they markedly fell back (but they had a recovery in the 1790's). The cause was the growth and decline of gold production in Brazil, which was used to pay the visible trade deficit of Brazil + Portugal with England. After the French invasion of Portugal and the opening of Brazilian ports to foreigners, direct trade between Britain and Brazil became markedly larger than the circuitous commerce of the colonial period, but it did not increase very much after the end of the Napoleonic wars (at least at current prices), because Brazil had a narrow home market and lacked external purchasing power. The Brazilian market was important for the English wool industry during the first half of the 18th century ; and the large imports of Brazilian gold contributed to easy credit conditions in England. However, the role of trade with Brazil as a factor of the Industrial Revolution was quite peripherical. Conversely, British pre-eminence in Brazil did not cripple its economic development.

The South African wool industry and the Great Depression (1929–1934)

(1990). The South African wool industry and the Great Depression (1929–1934) Kleio: Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 56-76.

The Cambridge Economic History of Europe. Vol. 2: Trade and Industry in the Middle Ages ed. by M. M. Postan, Edward Miller

TECHNOLOGY AND CUL TURE Book Reviews 1041 of the material related to Italy, for example, or to pivoting front axles. If one has to leaf through to find what one wants, however, the abundance of excellent illustrations makes it a pleasure to do so. Richard W. Bulliet Dr. Bulliet is a professor in the Department of History at Columbia University. The Cambridge Economic History of Europe. Vol. 2: Trade and Industry in the Middle Ages. 2d ed. Edited by M. M. Postan and Edward Miller. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp. xiv + 999; maps, tables, notes, appendix, bibliography, index. $89.50. The first edition of this book appeared in 1952, seven years before the first volume of Technology and Culture and three years before the first volume of the work with which it is most usefully compared, Charles Singer’s History of Technology. Thus, from the point of view of the history of technology, it was a pioneering work, a reminder that in those days such history of technology as existed was usually found in the literature of economic history. What can one say of the second edition, now under review? Do we still need to look to the literature of economic history for the history of technology? The answer, to judge from this volume, is yes. Not all of the chapters are significantly revised, and this includes several of particular technological interest, on the woolen industry, mining and metallurgy, and building in stone, all of which are virtually unchanged from 1952—except for bibliographies, which are very substantially augmented, for all topics, in an eighty-three-page appendix. Still, there is interest in comparing these chapters to the corresponding chapters in Singer; they are far from identical in approach or conclusion. Elsewhere in this volume there is material that is new and important to the history of technology. The first chapter, dealing with preRoman “trade and industry,” is new, over twice the size of the corresponding chapter in the first edition, and largely devoted to Bronze Age technologies. Chapters on Asia, Africa, and eastern Europe deal with topics not included at all in the first edition, and topics that were not adequately dealt with in the Singer history either. They tell more about trade than about technology but contain about as much on the latter as is to be found anywhere in books of general availability. And, finally, another of the new chapters deals with “coinage and currency,” a topic of value to students of any aspect of the history of materials. A generation ago there was scarcely any specialized literature in the history of technology. Today this literature exists. But in separating the history of technology from its roots in economic history, practi­ tioners of the new specialty have lost something, as will be discovered 1042 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE by the reader who examines the comparable articles in Singer and in the Cambridge Economic History. R. P. Multhauf Dr. Milthali is retired from the Smithsonian Institution and living in San Rafael, California. He is working on a history of gunpowder in the first three centuries of firearms and a history of the social effect of accelerated technological change. Cartography in France 1660—1848: Science, Engineering, and Statecraft. By Josef Konvitz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Pp. xx + 194; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95. As tradition has it, Louis XIV once confessed that, despite his military prowess, no conquest could rival or redress the territorial loss inflicted by his own cartographers. Ironically, Louis’s Academicians— under the banner of cartographic accuracy—had brilliantly but unwittingly ravaged the realm and reduced His Majesty’s tax base. There was no real loss, but the paradox was complete. As Voltaire later observed regarding calendars, Roman armies usually won the day, but they were seldom certain of the exact date. Similarly, Roman statesmen happily adjusted their calendars to meet unforeseen tax needs. Space and time, considered conceptually or as political contriv­ ances, are as essential to the modern mind as they are to the modern state. Voltaire understood that science, as well as its applications, gave rise to the Siècle de Louis XIV·, indeed, Louis’s France...

The wool industry and the 1936 trade diversion dispute between Australia and Japan

The wool industry and the 1936 trade diversion dispute between Australia and Japan

THE IMPACT OF FARM AND PROCESSING RESEARCH ON THE AUSTRALIAN WOOL INDUSTRY*

An equilibrium displacement model of the world wool top industry is used to estimate the returns to the Australian wool industry from productivity improvements in farm production, in top making and in textile manufacturing. The returns to the industry from these different types of research and development are sensitive to the extent of substitution possibilities between Australian wool and other inputs used by the wool processing and textile industries but it appears that research resources have to be much more efficient in off‐farm activities for the Australian wool industry to receive benefits similar to those from farm research activities.

Some Evidence for 12th- and 13th-century Linen and Woollen Textile Processing

FLAX-RETTING POOLS, hitherto unrecognized, still survive in the landscape of NW. England, in close association with fulling-mill sites, tenter banks and simple potash pits. The retting-pool sites have common characteristics—usually on flat land; close to a river, but utilizing small streams which have been channelled to provide a controlled water supply; and raised banks for the drying of the retted flax. The field evidence occurs in documented contexts which show that a widespread linen industry was contemporary with, and often linked to, the 12th- and 13th-century demesne woollen industry.

Book notes

C. Barker and K. Weber Solidamosc. From Gdansk to Military Repression. (International Socialism, 15, 1982) G.W. Breslauer Krushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders: Building Authority in Soviet Politics. (Allen and Unwin, 1982, 318pp, £14.95hb, £6.95pb) J. Brine, M. Perrie, A Sutton Home, School and Leisure in the Soviet Union. (Allen and Unwin, 1980, 279pp, £15hb) G. Carchedi Problems in Class Analysis. Production, Knowledge and the Function of Capital. (Routledge, 1988, 269pp, £7.95pb) Tony Cliff Neither Washington nor Moscow. Essays on Revolutionary Socialism. Bookmarks, 1982, 286pp, £3.95pb) Issac Deutscher The Non‐Jewish Jew and Other Essays. (Merlin Press, 1981, 164pp, £2.70) P. Dukes The Making of Russian Absolutism 1713–1801. (Longman, 1982, 197pp, £5.95pb) G. Walker, ed. Official Publictions of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe 1945–1980. A Select Annotated Bibliography. (Mansell Publishing Ltd., 1982, 620pp) Kitty Weaver Russia's Future. The Communist Education of Soviet Youth. (Praeger, 1981. 226pp, pb) Emine Engin The Revolution in Afghanistan (Iscinin Publications, 1982, 174pp, £2.00) R. Friedland Power and Crisis in the City. Corporations, Unions and Urban Police (Macmillan, 1982, 248pp, £14HB, £5.95PB) A. Gamble An Introduction to Modern Social and Political Thought MacMillan, 1981, 264pp, £12.95hb, £4.95pb) D. Gregory Regional Transformation and Industrial Revolution. A Geography of the Yorkshire Woollen Industry (Macmillan, 1982, 294pp, £15hb, £6.95pb) Diane Koenker Moscow Workers and the 1917 Revolution (Princeton University Press, 1981, 420pp. £21.30) J. Larrain Marxism and Ideology (Macmillan, 1983, 262pp, £15hb, £5.95pb) N.I. Lebedev Great October and Today's World (Pergamon Press, 1981, 378pp, £20) Simon Leys The Chairman's New Clothes. Mao and the Cultural Revolution (Allison and Busby, 1981, 272pp, £3.95pb)

Decision Schemes for Assessing Dark Fiber Concentration in Top

Assessing dark fiber concentration in mill batches of top destined for the white and pastel trade is a problem of major economic importance in the wool industry. Thus it would seem desirable, if not essential, to have an agreed set of procedures for de termining whether a given concentration is exceeded. The decision criteria used throughout the industry vary widely, however, due in part to the lack of an underlying rationale. In this paper a framework is proposed within which a broad class of decision schemes may be constructed. The objective is to provide a rational basis for industry- wide uniform procedures. A method is then described for comparing the performance of a given scheme, from within this framework, with an "ideal" performance. Also a procedure for determining the parameters of such a scheme is outlined. The parameters of several example schemes are calculated and an example given of how one such scheme might be chosen as an industry standard.

TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE MINERAL WOOL INDUSTRY IN EUROPE

The technical development of the European mineral wool industry is presented with emphasis on its early history and those factors believed to be of significance for the working environment. Its early history was mainly based on trial and error and may have presented several potential hazards. At first, most of the plants produced wool without effective dust suppression. The highest fibre concentration is assumed to have occurred by the end of that period. Moreover, some plants had a short period of so-called batch operation, when the fibre exposure may have been high for a few workers. The exposure patterns for modern production and use are the same for glass wool and rock wool. In this presentation of the technological development of the MMMF industry in Europe, only the mineral (glass, slag and rock) wool insulation industry is covered.

Assessment of Softness Properties of Feathers

An instrument to be called the “Crimp Meter” was designed and used with a conventional balance to enable the plotting of a force-displacement curve for individual feathers. A comparison of the curves described by different feathers was made by regression analysis. The type of curve described by a feather is characteristic of its tensile properties and its degree of softness.This procedure was employed to objectively confirm the observation that chicks feel toxic levels of methionine (1.45% added) in corn-soybean diets had significantly softer (P <.001) feathers than those fed nontoxic levels of cysteine (.203% added). The basal diet was analyzed and found to contain .35% methionine and .37% cystine. This device has potential for the down-feather, wool, and fabric industries.

Lending Practices of Financial Institutions: A Critical View

In the first article, Siddharth takes an unconventional view of the lending practices of banks and financial institutions He criticizes the concepts such as debt-equity norms adopted and institutional attitudes towards entrepreneurs and risk. To give a balanced perspective, Vikalpa also presents comments of a development banker on Siddharth's views. Vikalpa hopes that this article will generate further sharing of experiences and research. In the April-June issue, Vikalpa published an article by T K Moulik titled “Problems and Challenges in Wool Development.” In this feature, Upendra Patel, Chairman and Managing Director of Shri Dinesh Mills Ltd, Vadodara, under whose chairmanship the Indian woollen industry collaborated with the Gujarat Government in sheep and wool development, comments on Moulik's article. Upendra Patel points out that policy makers should decide whether sheep rearing should be for production of meat or for production of wool. A clear choice of objective is critical due to the acute shortage of grazing lands and high demand for carpet quality wool.

Problems and Challenges in Wool Development

Uneconomic returns from sheep rearing have forced many sheep rearers to sell their sheep and take up other occupations. Despite a growing demand for wool, especially quality wool, there is general apathy among sheep rearers towards wool production because of the unremunerative prices for domestic wool and large scale imports. To overcome many of the problems confronting the sheep rearers and wool industry, a Wool Development Board is expected to be soon set up. In this article T K Moulik discusses the challenges before the Board and the ways to overcome them.

Occupational Risks for Intracranial Gliomas in Sweden

With the use of the Cancer-Environment Registry, which links cancer incidence for the years 1961-79 with 1960 census information on occupation for all employed individuals in Sweden, a systematic population-based assessment according to employment classifications was made of the occurrence of intracranial gliomas. Statistically significant (P less than .05) increases in the incidence of intracranial gliomas were observed among several professional and white-collar occupations, possibly due in part to higher levels of diagnosis and reporting of this particular neoplasm. Significantly elevated rates were noted among male dentists, agricultural research workers, and public prosecutors and among female physicians and employees in the health care industry. For blue-collar workers, significant excesses were found among welders and metal cutters; glass, porcelain, or ceramic workers; cellulose plant employees; brick and tile workers; and women employed in the wool industry. Several findings of this survey may represent new clues to the etiology of intracranial gliomas, while other findings support observations reported in previous studies.

Hand injuries in the textile industry

This paper is a review of the hand injuries occurring in the Yorkshire Wool Industry and referred to the Regional Plastic Surgery Unit for skin replacement, or other treatment, during the years 1965-1984. A total of forty-one cases has been seen, and although the number employed in the industry has fallen about fivefold, the injuries referred yearly have remained approximately constant. An analysis of the types of injury has been made and the improvement in the results is shown with changes in the method of acute treatment. The case for early referral, active initial treatment and early mobilisation is very obvious from the results.

Hand Injuries in the Textile Industry

This paper is a review of the hand injuries occurring in the Yorkshire Wool Industry and referred to the Regional Plastic Surgery Unit for skin replacement, or other treatment, during the years 1965–1984. A total of forty-one cases has been seen, and although the number employed in the industry has fallen about fivefold, the injuries referred yearly have remained approximately constant. An analysis of the types of injury has been made and the improvement in the results is shown with changes in the method of acute treatment. The case for early referral, active initial treatment and early mobilisation is very obvious from the results.