Incense and Industry

This chapter, set in nineteenth-century China, examines how market pressures forced tea producers in the provinces of Anhui and Fujian to increase productivity in an industrial manner, despite lacking cutting-edge technology. During this time, rural tea production in China exhibited social dynamics that belong squarely within the modern history of capitalism. Drawing on the family archives of the Jiang family in southern Anhui and social-scientific surveys of the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian, it describes how guest merchants became factory managers, employing slow-burning incense sticks and arcane local customs to measure, regulate, and raise labor productivity, all in response to a rising global demand followed by plummeting prices. The emphasis on productivity—squeezing out a greater rate of output (tea) per labor input—constituted a strategy of labor-intensive capital accumulation. The inland tea merchants, in other words, attempted to remain profitable in a world of falling prices by asking seasonal laborers to work harder, faster, and for less reward.

Design of Three-Dimensional Parallel Vibration Casting Machine

In order to reduce casting defects and improve casting quality, the author has developed a three-dimensional parallel vibration casting machine based on parallel mechanism. The paper introduces the three-dimensional parallel vibration casting machine in structure composition and functional properties, the casting machine degree of freedom of excitation mechanism is calculated, its motion performance is analyzed, and the kinematics equations are established. The designed casting machine achieves support and excitation functional separation of moving parts which takes complete decoupling of hybrid mechanism 2PRRR-P (2R ) as excitation mechanism, realizing flask vibration along the X, Y, Z three directions. Test results show that, the casting machine can significantly improve casting quality, raise labor productivity, save casting raw materials, and reduce the production costs.

Policy Watch: Designing an Effective Investment Tax Credit

The investment tax credit (ITC) allows firms to reduce their tax liability by an amount related to their expenditures on equipment, and thus reduces the cost of acquiring capital. An investment tax credit can be introduced temporarily to stimulate investment as part of a countercyclical fiscal policy or permanently as part of a strategy to enhance capital formation, raise labor productivity, and so speed longer-term economic growth. The discussion in this paper will focus mainly on the permanent ITC, although it will include some comments on the temporary version. As this paper is being written, President-elect Bill Clinton is widely expected to propose an ITC (of some sort) to Congress soon after taking office. Since the federal deficit continues to constrain fiscal policy, attention has been focused on designing an ITC that delivers the greatest stimulus per dollar loss of revenue.