Green Capitalist by Vader / rommelortega@gmail.com
Management in Capitalism: the Waltham – Lowell System
This is the second of my column and I feel that I should continue with American Capitalism as I promised in the first opinion piece. But before I go on, I would like to thank Roy J. Cabonegro (President of Nature Party Philippines) for the focus he provided me – I manage my time better nowadays because of deadlines.
The topic I chose for now is the Waltham-Lowell System (WLS) which was a great part of American Business and Capitalism of the 1900s. WLS did not only revolutionize the production but the organization of enterprises. The system or organization that WLS did is still in use today in some companies, and this is the so-called: vertical integration. In vertical integration, the companies own the suppliers, the producers, the distributors and the retail outlets. There are two types of vertical integration: forward and backward integrations. I will not elaborate much on this but the original company could have started as either a retail outlet or a supplier of raw materials. From there, the forward or backward integration comes in.
With regard to the revolution in production, the Waltham – Lowell System made it possible for raw materials to come out as finished products in the same factory, unlike in the putting out system. According to records, Francis Cabot Lowell (1775-1817), a wealthy Boston merchant, went to the United Kingdom and observed the machines being used in the more advanced country at that time. (We have to take into consideration that the Industrial Revolution started in the United Kingdom). Since the British law prohibited the sales of manufacturing machines to the United States, Lowell then engaged in “industrial espionage.”
When he returned to the United States two years later (1811-1813), he already had the design of a weaving loom in mind (and maybe even in print(?)). Together with some partners and associates, Lowell founded the Boston Manufacturing Company (BMC) in 1813. These people were quick to identify the business opportunity brought by the new manufacturing equipment. The innovation they ushered was powered by energy from water, which was the Charles river of the area. By 1814 the first manufacturing system was ready to operate.
BMC did also revolutionize the power of labor, particularly of women. Unlike in the UK, the new manufacturing system in the US employed women aged 15 to 35 in distinction to the former that employed some children. The reason in the UK for employing children was that they have smaller and slender arms and hands which were needed in the clothing business. According to the reasoning and need of that time in the US, women had smaller arms and hands similar to children ergo fit to work in the factories. (I do not judge the morality of conditions in both cases but consider it as growing pains of humanity that needed correction). Many could have envied them to have such employment.
BMC helped the women employed to them to have education as the owners of the company were true to their Protestant beliefs or ethics. The working women’s work engagement in the mill though did not always result in having “docile” laborers, strikes did happen in the factory. Often, the bosses won at the end but the women, as time went by, changed tactics, eventually, they moved into the political arena. They tried to win concessions yet gained very little. They became inspiration though for other workers in the social justice or labor movement to continue their struggle; and eventually workers gained the eight-hour workday compared to the previous 16-hour workday.
Going backward in the development of Capitalism in the United States, the Waltham – Lowell System was preceded by the putting out system. The old system was prevalent in the UK, in continental Europe and in the US during the 17th to 19th Century. In this system, the supply of raw materials was provided by merchants and other businessmen while the labor – skilled and unskilled – was contracted by different houses or homes that have excess labor from farms. The system was more pronounced in the shoe and textile industries of that era where the outputs were taken to the merchant houses for retail sales.
In context, the progress of Capitalism from one form of production to another was in the form of decentralization to centralization. The excess labor of the farms was taken by factories which the upcoming system was hungry of. The Capitalists needed the supply of labor to be predictable if not constant and at the same time, they also needed the upcoming “consumers” of their manufactured products.
In summary for this part, industrial espionage was already being done when the UK was in the ascendancy and the United States was a significant recipient of it, espionage though is an ancient occupation. The US’s waterpower was comparable to the UK’s steam engine’s efficiency, at that time, so the US was able to compete at least in the textile industry. At first, there was no excess labor in US’s farms as evidenced by slaves being captured in Africa. Yet when US’s farms spewed out more labor because of the use of technologies, the workers ended up in industrial factories.
With regard to the current state of world labor and social justice (2024), I am optimistic that we could actually provide occupation to people and have them serve or produce something. This is despite the AI Revolution which will displace workers. After college (23 years ago at least), I coined the term job engineering in one of my writings (though the paper vanished). There, I explained how work is available for many of us. The only thing that hinders us is that we do not want to do it, or we do not know it exists or that it might exist if we think hard enough. Another hindrance to it is the economics of producing stuff; since, if we produced too much of items, there would be a glut in their markets. Although, production surplus is necessary for a civilization to have rest and occupation specializations.
The moral here, if I may add, is that development in material culture should, usually, be accompanied with developments in social interactions or social contracts and even advancement in moral considerations. The 16-hour workday could be acceptable during their time but not today, except maybe when you are working for your own firm. The progress of humanity, particularly its civilizations, wherein we started to care for all, did not come on a silver platter; rather, those who fought for it were assured only of their moral ascendancy during their struggles. The march to progress of social justice and labor movements were nothing but for the distribution of goods and advancement of humanity in moral terms.
***Some writers or historians believed that the Waltham-Lowell System revolutionized how an enterprise was financed as well.
***Waltham is a city in Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States, a pioneer in the American industrial revolution and a cradle of the American labor movement.
***For the Greens and Non-greens, let us take care of Mother Earth – our Common Home. Nature Party Philippines is also pioneering the conversation on Eco-spirituality in the Philippines. A concept many Catholics are interested in.
Your feedback and suggestions are welcome. Email me at rommelortega@gmail.com.
By the way, we are looking for Green products to sell, you might have one, kindly let us know.
