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Cambridge Journal of Economics Advance Access published online on January 10, 2005
Cambridge Journal of Economics, doi:10.1093/cje/bei010
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Cambridge Journal of Economics © Cambridge Political Economy Society 2005; all rights reserved
Received April 30, 2004

Article

Puzzles in the economic institutions of capitalism: production coordination, contracting and work organisation in the Irish linen trade, 1750-1850

Graham Brownlow 1 and Frank Geary 1*

1 University of East Anglia and University of Ulster at Jordanstown, respectively

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Frank Geary, E-mail: F.Geary{at}ulster.ac.uk


  Abstract

Pre-Famine Ireland is a byword for market failure and path dependence. Production of flax yarn and linen cloth was highly regulated and coordinated by the market rather than by firms. Contemporary political economists suggested that these institutional features provided evidence of organisational inefficiency. The historical evidence suggests that they were a rational response to transaction and production costs. The Irish case provides a test of the hypotheses that firms emerge to reduce the cost of market transactions. It suggests that institutions other than the firm can modify transaction costs, coordination of production can affect both transaction and production costs, and that agents choose between market and firm coordination given technology and factor prices. Finally, centralisation of production was driven by technology.

Keywords: Production; Coordination; Markets; Firms; Transactions.
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