Why was labor productivity low in the textile industry of colonial Bombay?
The labor productivity was low in the textile industry of colonial Bombay because since once the mill was installed, the machinery was operated for as long as it was manageable. Thus, the lower level of scrapping and replacing the machinery slowed down the degree of adoption of rings in out dated mills. Eventually, mules carried on in Bombay, which was the focus of primary development, longer than any other place. However, the mule in India was suitable for using domestically grown short staple cotton. In India, there was a tendency to spin higher number of yarn from cotton than warrants the cotton quality. The effect increased the work of the operative in either spinning or weaving by the greatest number of breakages.
A look at managerial decisions as well as performance in India suggests that there was the need to enhance labor productivity. India’s failures were not as a result of the diversity on machinery as machinery in both nations were primarily the same and did not change substantially in either nation over time. Besides, there were no business initiatives in India. Thus, capitalism responded to comparatively modest positive gain rates, and Bombay Mills brought down their labor rates to the English and eventually Japanese mills. The managers as well did not enhance labor productivity since there was a lack of convectional opinion that the issue of Indian sector was management. There were no initiatives to rationalize labor use as well as achieved levels of staffing same as the Japanese averages. Operatives are unable to conduct from more than 2 to 3 hours work. Thus, workers preferred low labor inputs which were central to the industry’s issues. In summary, Indian workers were associated with low efforts which reflected workers unity as well as failure of bargaining between managers and workers to translate the unexploited efforts into significant work.
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There was ineffective management that resulted to excess labor in the mills. For instance, the idleness of the doffers represented their failure by the management to supervise the body effectively as well as realize that there was much under-utilized labor potential.
According to Clerk, low labor productivity is the key determinant of low wages. On the other hand, Write claims that in case exogenous shocks result to increase in real wages, then wage rise should be the cause of productivity. Therefore, if companies had lower wages, workers were likely to reduce their effort while lowering their output. The wage-effort trade-off shows that indirect confirmation as well proposes that the workers at Bombay were prepared to strive in return for greater wages. The firm in Bombay was associated with broad differential in wages throughout firms for a similar category of workers. Though Hall and Jones indicate that institutional variations explain the variations in labor productivity throughout the nations, but in the context of India, the structure of management of mills resulted to some inefficiency.
Why could mill owners not improve labor productivity in Mills?
The cotton industry in India (Bombay) suffered a lot in terms of productivity. The mill owners could not improve labor productivity due to some of the reasons which are discussed below. In most of the mills and industries, the mill owners and managers employed many workers as was the culture in India during this period. The surplus labor market supplied more workers to the industries. A few industries and mills, though, had a few workers who also earned high wages. The situation in the Bombay concerning its labor productivity was a significant challenge to the mill owners.
First of all, most managers and mill owners in India adapted the preference of low labor input. There was surplus labor in the Indian labor market during this period. As there were more workers, the managers and the Mill owners employed workers to work in the Mills. The productivity per every worker was generally low as the workers spent most of their time without the machine. In the mills or industries where workers were a few, they demanded more pay is making the productivity to remain low. The managers were faced with a big challenge in labor productivity for their mills and industries.
Low wages also contributed to the low labor productivity. As the workers were quite many in every mill or industry, the mill owners could not be able to pay them considerable wages. The low wages killed the workers’ morale. Low wages could not motivate the workers. In turn, they added no effort in their work. The little effort that the workers applied in the mills was not enough to improve the productivity. Each worker only worked a few times and did not put more effort in the machines in an attempt to improve productivity. Low wages kills the moral of any worker, even in the modern world. In the industries and companies where workers get paid lowly, the labor productivity is always low. No one has the urge to put more effort into their jobs as there is no pint in doing so. The workers lack proper motivation, and their morale is always quite low. Proper pay is important to the improvement of labor productivity in any company or industry. This is a challenge which the mill owners of Bombay faced and a challenge which contributed to their labor productivity.
It is also logical to say that the mills and the cotton industries in general, had a huge number of incompetent workers. It is rather logical as most people volunteered to work in the industries and mills. The probability of having qualified and well-trained workers in the situation where there were many workers is very low. Some of the workers were simply looking for a source of livelihood and were willing to do anything. Most of the workers had no significant training and qualifications in the field. In a situation where most workers do not have the proper skills for operating the machines, the overall productivity has to be low. The managers of the industries and the mill owners were unable to improve productivity because most of their workers were incompetent.
To summarize it, the mill owners and the managers of the industries in Bombay paid low wages to the workers had many workers per a machine and most of their workers were incompetent. All these reasons made it difficult for the managers and the mill owners to improve labor productivity. There were many workers per a machine, who took turns operating the machine and the average effort by each worker were considerably low. The low pay also killed the morale of the workers who did not like their job and desired to put no more effort to increase productivity in the mills.
