Veblen's Instinct of Workmanship pg. 205-218

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 This post will cover pages 205-218 that make up the first half of section II - the competitive system of chapter 5.

Veblen's story starts here by noting that the accumulation of goods is the prime objective of industry and how any business concern will be rated amongst its fellow firms. He also notes that business traffic and business concerns are now thought to correspond directly to the well being of the community overall.

Here we turn to a key method used by Veblen.  The near past of say 100 years ago from when he was writing so late 18th and early 19th century, are the habits of thought that still guide thinking in the early 20th century.  As we will, this is a major problem for Veblen and his perception of what is in the best interest of the community's welfare. He also notes how these old patterns of thought continue to capture business interests and economists.

As is typical, Veblen wants us to focus on the state of industrial arts. The handicraft phase isi what starts the modern era. tHe habits of thought of the handicraft era are: 1) the crafts person was very close to their tools and knowledge of the matter of facts needed to make them work and 2) there was external and self regulation of prices and transactions with consumers. Eventually, this system broke down as technological knowledge grew beyond any one person and transportation advances meant that markets grew much wider.  The state of industrial arts and environmental conditions had changed but would the habits of thought change with them? This is the crux of the thinking around the Veblen model where the two are in tension, technology and ceremony (institutions or habits of thought). 

The new era took over in the 19th century as against the handicraft era. There was a new division of labor between business and industry or salesmanship and workmanship which grew especially acute in the early 20th century.The habits of thought of business leaders was varied over the handicraft and even predatory era which was based on self interest and self advancement over other objectives.  This all leads to the warping or contamination of the instinct of workmanship.  As Veblen writes, “ Workmanship, therefore, comes to be rated in terms of salesmanship. And the canons of workmanship, and even of technological efficiency, fall more and more into pecuniary lines and allow pecuniary tests to decide on points of serviceability” and further that “ Any pecuniary strategist - “captain of industry” - who manages to engross appreciably more than an even share of the community’s wealth is therefore likely to be rated as a benefactor of the community at large and an exemplar of the social virtues; whereas the man who works and does not manage to divert something more from the aggregate product to his own use than what one man’s work may contribute to it is visited not only with dispraise for having fallen short of a decent measure of efficiency but also with moral reprobation for shiftlessness and wasted opportunities.” (Veblen, 1914, pg. 217).


We will finish chapter five next week.




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