Fall and rise of Swiss industrial profit rates 1850-1929. World Economic History Conference. Panel: Profits, Dividends and Returns

In the mid-19th century, Swiss industry was largely structured around small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, where the wealth and personal spending of capitalist families were closely linked to their companies.Often located in rural areas along rivers, these production sites were mainly used for spinning, weaving, and dyeing cotton or silk fibers.Workers labored more than half the day for wages barely sufficient to ensure the reproduction of the workforce.At the dawn of the Great Depression, most factories were expanded or relocated, mainly to suburban areas close to railways used for transporting goods.The working day was reduced to 10 hours, but the pace of the machines accelerated.In addition to cotton and silk fabrics, workers now produced medicines, turbines, aluminum plates, and motors, among other things.Administrators, accountants, and foremen measured and organized production; individual companies and partnerships gradually transformed into joint-stock companies, and capitalist families gradually abandoned their role as investor-entrepreneurs to become shareholders and administrators.Wage labor became the norm in capitalist production.