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First-generation factory children: Child labour in textile manufacturing in nineteenth-century Finland

Abstract Present-day child labour in developing countries has brought new insight to historical child labour. 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 labour, 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 labour may have had some connection with improving managerial competence is tentatively submitted.