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January 2000
As the first truly global industry, cotton textiles offers unique opportunities for tracking international differences in productivity and in rates of progress through time. In preparing this paper, we have completed an exhaustive compilation of all sales of ring and mule frames by the six leading British textile machinery producers, suppliers of more than 90 percent of cotton spinning machinery (outside of the United States) prior to World War I. The paper uses this rare body of international panel data to compare the technological evolution of rings and mules in various countries, using such technical indicators as the number of spindles per frame, average machine speed, and the average count of yarn spun.
Rather than seeing an older "mature" technology supplanted by a more advanced modern form, we observe two technological paradigms in competitive coexistence: a "British" craft-like technology (the mule), in which the machinery drew upon the personal skills of the operators, versus an "American" approach (the ring) in which improvements in machinery reduced skill requirements and extended its range along other dimensions. Both systems supported ongoing productivity growth, but the dispersion of performance measures was much higher under the skill-based mule than with the machine-based ring. At the same time, the diversity of experience along newly emerging countries makes it clear that progress was a two-sided affair, a mutual adaptation between machines and local conditions.