First-Generation Factory Children: Child Labour in Textile Manufacturing in Nineteenth-Century Finland
Author(s)
Rahikainen, Marjatta
Abstract
Present-day child labor in developing countries has brought new insight to historical child labor. It is with such ideas in mind that this article discusses the disciplining and experiences of first-generation factory children in nineteenth-century Finland, then a “peripheral” or “developing” country. The presentation is based mainly on oral history, and describes the process by which country children were made into factory workers. It covers recruitment of children, the dormitories for lone migrant child workers and children’s life in cotton mills. The Finnish textile industry adopted its technical know-how and managerial practices largely from England, but did not adopt the system of internal subcontracting of children. Concerning the decline of child labor, Myron Weiner’s argument attributing a crucial impact to compulsory education is found untenable in Finland. A hypothesis that a decline in the demand for child labor may have had some connection with improving managerial competence is tentatively submitted.
