Pepperell's Progress : History of a Cotton Textile Company, 1844-1945

This book is a record of business success. Evelyn Knowlton follows the development of the Pepperell Manufacturing Company’s practices as to wages, prices, procurement, production, and sales, and devotes considerable attention to its financial operations. She reveals the factors involved in such top-policy decisions as the company’s location, its choice of executives, and its willingness to give them a free hand. She brings out the strategic part played by the second line of management—mill agents, superintendents, foremen—in the success of the company’s operations. The general reader, businessmen, historians, and economists will find much to interest them in this book from the Harvard Studies in Business History. CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS TABLES EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION AUTHOR’S PREFACE PART I. EARLY YEARS, 1844–1870 CHAPTER I. YANKEES ORGANIZE THE PEPPERELL MANUFACTURING COMPANY CHAPTER II. THE COTTON TEXTILE INDUSTRY IN NEW ENGLAND, 1775–1850 CHAPTER III. PURCHASING COTTON FOR PEPPERELL CHAPTER IV. OPERATING THE MILLS IN BIDDEFORD CHAPTER V. AN AGENCY HANDLES PEPPERELL’S SALES CHAPTER VI. FIRM FINANCIAL FOUNDATION PART II. MATURITY, 1870–1924 CHAPTER VII. HORIZONTA LAND VERTICAL EXPANSION CHAPTER VIII. MILL AGENTS CONTINUE ESTABLISHED PRACTICES CHAPTER IX. PEPPERELL SELECTS ANOTHER SELLING HOUSE CHAPTER X THE TREASURER IN HIS COUNTINGHOUSE PART III. REJUVENATION, 1924–1945 CHAPTER XI. REACHING AMERICAN CONSUMERS CHAPTER XII. FIN E GOODS IN THE NORTH CHAPTER XIII. COARSE GOODS IN THE SOUTH CHAPTER XIV. SUCCESS D U R I N G TROUBLED TIMES CHAPTER XV. EPILOGUE APPENDICES NOTES AND REFERENCES INDEX