New England Textiles in the Nineteenth Century: Profits and Investment

This unique study determines, by means of rigorous quantitative analysis, how cycles in New England cotton textile profits, output, borrowing, and capacity affected investment-and therefore industrial growth-during the nineteenth century. The firms studied were transitional forms between owner-managed companies and the modern corporation. From primary sources, Paul McGouldrick has constructed standardized balance sheets and income statements for each company year by year. A painstaking comparison with a much broader sample of companies shows that trends and cycles in profit rates for companies studied were typical of the industry.