Bootleggers & Baptists: How Economic Forces and Moral Persuasion Interact to Shape Regulatory Politics Read Online Free PDF Page B

operators under the authority of England’s Home Office, banned the use of child workers under 9 years of age, and restricted hours and work conditions for those under 18.
    Prominent members of England’s landed aristocracy had long sought to bring cotton mills under the protective wing of government, without success. But the political balance was changing, along with the textile industry itself. Textile districts had gained seats in Parliament, and developments in cotton-processing technology—which dramatically altered production costs—were generating differential effects across the industry.
    The effect of technology on Bootlegger/Baptist interaction is the unique feature of this story. A host of new manufacturing plants was being driven by steam engines rather than by water wheels. The newer steam-driven plants required less labor and were not affected by periods of low water flow, during which the older water-driven plants operated longer hours to catch up on production. The older plants were thus seen as abusive by some, because they employed more children to work the longer days.
    Marvel’s review tells us that the factory districts supported the new Factory Act, but the support was not monolithic. His study of the vote led him to conclude that:
    [The law] was, instead, drafted at the behest of the leading textile manufacturers who intended it to have a discernible impact on textile industry operations. Its purpose was to increase the cost of production of many of the smaller textile mills, thereby causing them to curtail their output. The legislation was designed to have differential impact on textile production, harming some manufacturers while benefiting others. The group standing to gain was the large urban manufacturers who relied on steam engines to drive their machinery. Such steam-powered mills not only employed relatively fewer very young children, but were less susceptible to production interruptions than were the water-powered mills. The latter were dependent on nature to keep their reservoirs full and often had to cut hours in dry spells while working extended hours when sufficient water was available. (Marvel 1977, 387–88)
    Marvel found that industry output fell significantly more for water-driven mills than for steam-driven mills. Changing technology was thus the key to a story featuring Bootleggers (the operators of the steam-driven mills), Baptists (public interest groups that lobbied for improved working conditions), and a regulation that predictably imposed higher costs on a specific subgroup of manufacturers. As in the story of Francis Cabot Lowell, some of the law’s supporters were covert Bootleggers in Baptist clothing—enlightened industrialists who, it would seem, found a profitable way to achieve improved working conditions in England’s burgeoning cotton mill industry. Some might say they did well while doing good.
    About 50 years after the passage of the Factory Acts, another Bootlegger/Baptist episode occurred in London, where William Booth’s newly organized Salvation Army was working to improve the lives and save the souls of the city’s downtrodden (Hattersley 1999). This time, instead of Bootleggers and Baptists, Methodists and brewers formed the coalition opposing Booth’s efforts. But in this case, as we explain below, a critical element for success was missing—and the effect of the missing element is what makes this case interesting.
    A visit to the Salvation Army website provides a brief history of this Protestant church, founded by Booth in 1852. A Methodist minister, he decided to take his ministry to the streets. According to the website: “Booth abandoned the conventional concept of the church and a pulpit, instead taking his message to the people. His fervor led to disagreement with church leaders in London, who preferred traditional methods” (Salvation Army 2013). The more traditional churches felt threatened by this new competition from Booth and his