Technological Change and Manpower: an Historical Perspective

In this article, I wish to make some general historical observations on the effects of technological change upon manpower; not only the immediate labour‐saving effects, but also the longer‐term consequences on the demand for labour and the structure of employment. And I shall illustrate these points with some particular, though brief, references to the engineering and printing industries, in which I have had research interests. In general I am inclined to take a more optimistic view than that presented by many socio‐economic historians, who, from Marx and Engels onwards, have tended to associate industrial mechanisation with capitalist exploitation and human degradation.