Labor productivity is a problem of extreme complexity, the study of which has been the subject of countless diverse studies (domestic and foreign, relatively historically distant and modern). Despite the huge number of works devoted to this problem, in economic theory there is still no established understanding of labor productivity as an economic category with its inherent properties or characteristics.
In studies of labor productivity, two approaches can be conventionally distinguished: factorial and measurement, each of which is predominant in the works of different authors. With the factor approach, labor productivity is treated as one of the factors (often the most important) of production and economic growth. With the measurement approach, labor productivity is interpreted only as one of the indicators (often the most important) of the quality performance of production.
The idea of labor productivity as the most important factor of economic growth seems to us to be the deepest theoretical misconception that has a huge negative impact on economic practice, since it distorts the understanding of the true causes (factors) of economic growth. In a market economy, as is known, any factor of production exists before the production process begins and it can be purchased on the market at a certain price. Labor productivity: (1) does not exist before production begins; (2) is not an object of purchase and sale and, therefore, has no price; (3) serves as a qualitative indicator of the result of a certain amount of labor expended under a given technology, organization, incentives and other similar conditions. An illustration of the validity of this conclusion is the fact that every time labor productivity is declared a factor of economic growth, it is usually followed by explanations that the growth of labor productivity depends on technical progress, the scale of production, forms of labor stimulation, etc.
It should be noted, however, that the factor approach to labor productivity is gradually being overcome. This conclusion is confirmed by the change in position on this issue of the authors of the widely distributed textbook “Economics” K.R. McConnell and S.R. Bru. In the 11th edition of this textbook, published in Russia in 1992, the authors, commenting on E. Denison’s calculations on the factors of economic growth in the United States in 1929-1982, directly wrote, “that an increase in labor productivity was the most important factor that ensured growth of real product and income." In the 16th edition of the same textbook, published in Russia in 2007, the authors, commenting on the same calculations by E. Denison, no longer write about labor productivity as a factor of economic growth. Their updated comment looks like this: “Real GDP can be represented as the product of labor costs (hours of work) and labor productivity... Labor productivity is determined by such factors as technological progress, capital-labor ratio (the volume of fixed capital available for work), the quality of the labor force itself and the efficiency of the allocation, combination, and management of various resources." Thus, these authors have transformed their position on the content of labor productivity from a factor approach to a measurement approach.
However, the idea of labor productivity as an independent and most important factor of economic growth, having migrated from scientific literature to educational literature and then to popular literature, has formed a false (incorrect) public consciousness about the truly important factors of economic growth. From everywhere, like a spell, one can hear: labor productivity is the most important factor of economic growth, and it is still not noticed that the real factors of economic growth are new technologies, capital-labor ratio, quality of the workforce and effective management of the combination of these resources, which ultimately leads to increased labor productivity. In order to turn public consciousness towards the understanding that the growth of labor productivity is just the result of effective management of real factors of production, this result must be learned to be measured in a differentiated manner.
The measurement approach to determining labor productivity has been and remains the most widespread among both domestic and foreign economists. Particularly close attention to the problem of measuring labor productivity was paid in the domestic economic literature of the Soviet period. And although dozens of special monographs and an immense number of articles were devoted to it, the approach to solving the problem was essentially the same among different authors. All authors, in one way or another, proceeded from a simple definition of labor productivity as the amount of product (services) produced by a worker per unit of working time or per unit of labor. In short, the content of labor productivity was taken to be the output per unit of working time by one worker. Further, on the one hand, different variations of product forms were proposed - natural or conditionally - natural and cost (gross products, marketable, sold, pure, conditionally - pure, standard - pure); on the other hand, different categories of workers (workers, industrial and production personnel or all those employed in material production); and on the third side - labor costs that are different in structure (living or cumulative labor, i.e. living and past labor together).
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As a result of such variations, the number of indicators supposedly measuring labor productivity numbered in the dozens, and their dynamics often had the opposite direction, so it was almost impossible to assess the real level and dynamics of labor productivity. But most importantly, it was not clear why certain indicators of labor productivity were calculated, because, as a rule, they were not linked to other indicators of economic activity and in this case had no practical value. It can be confidently stated that the Soviet economic school, reducing the content of labor productivity to “bare” output in one form or another, thereby closed for itself possible ways to solve the problem of measuring its level and dynamics, although the search for such ways did not stop until the collapse of the USSR .
In the late 80s - early 90s. XX century In Russia, several translated works by Western economists were published on the analysis of labor productivity, among which two monographs deserve special mention: (1) Sink D.S. Performance Management: Planning, Measuring and Evaluation, Control and Improvement (1989); (2) Grayson J.K. Jr., O'Dell K. American management on the threshold of the 21st century (1991). In these works, the problem of productivity is considered more broadly. Firstly, Western economists, speaking about productivity, follow the traditions of marginalists - neoclassics and mean not only labor productivity, but also the productivity of other resources; secondly, productivity begins to be considered as a category with its own properties or characteristics.
If we are not talking about resource productivity in general, but only about labor productivity, then a generalized idea of Western economists about its content and measurement capabilities was given by V.M. Zubov in the monograph “How Labor Productivity is Measured in the USA,” published in 1990. Zubov V.M. draws attention to the fact that in the United States there are two approaches to solving productivity problems:
- labor productivity is one of a number of indicators that evaluate the activity of an enterprise and are auxiliary to the main indicator for the capitalist - profit;
- Labor productivity is a general category that covers all aspects of the final activity of an enterprise.
A positive solution to such a problem encounters the lack of an objective theoretical basis, which D.S. drew attention to in his monograph. Sync. He wrote in part: "The term and concept 'productivity' has been grossly overused. This is because no theoretically informed attempt has been made to create a sound conceptual foundation for the study of productivity. The number of 'half-truths' about productivity is astonishing, and at times the rhetoric is overwhelming." It has become such a catchphrase that almost every discipline and profession uses it to advertise its own short-sighted "solutions." also creating a conceptual framework."
20 years after the publication of D.S.’s monograph. Sinck, the problem of creating a “sound, theoretically grounded conceptual foundation” in economic research has become extremely important not only for the study of productivity; it has become universally important and not only supporters of heterodox (heretical) currents of economic thought, but also representatives of the mainstream in economic theory are already directly writing about this.
In 2008, an interdisciplinary symposium was held at the Free University of Berlin, the organizers of which set the topic “Is there a mathematical theory of social objects?” As part of the symposium, a working group on modeling financial markets met over the course of a week, where original ideas were expressed regarding the need to unblock the interaction between the micro and macro levels in the course of economic research. One of the results of the discussion was the text of the article “Financial Crisis and Failures of Modern Economic Science”, co-authored by famous European and American economists - A. Kirman, D. Kolander, G. Felmer and a number of other authoritative scientists. The authors of the article, in particular, write that: “Currently popular models (for example, dynamic general equilibrium models) not only have weak microfoundations, but also do not describe empirical data very well... Rather, adequate microfoundations are needed in which the interaction was considered at a certain level of complexity, and macro patterns (if they exist) would be inferred from microeconomic models... To develop models that would allow macro events to be derived from microeconomic patterns, economists must rethink the concept of micro foundations in macroeconomic models." Therefore, when embarking on a positive study of the content of the law of labor productivity, it is necessary first of all to determine the phenomena of micro- and macro-objects in the economy.
Technical progress associated with the applied use of scientific achievements has developed in hundreds of interrelated areas, and singling out any one group of them as the main one is hardly legitimate. At the same time, it is obvious that the improvement of transport had the greatest impact on world development in the first half of the 20th century. It ensured the intensification of ties between peoples, stimulated domestic and international trade, deepened the international division of labor, and caused a real revolution in military affairs.
Development of land and sea transport. The first samples of cars were created back in 1885-1886. German engineers K. Benz and G. Daimler, when new types of engines operating on liquid fuel appeared. In 1895, the Irishman J. Dunlop invented pneumatic rubber tires made from rubber, which significantly increased the comfort of cars. In 1898, 50 companies producing cars appeared in the United States; in 1908 there were already 241. In 1906, a crawler tractor with an internal combustion engine was manufactured in the United States, which significantly increased the ability to cultivate land. (Before this, agricultural machines were wheeled, with steam engines.) With the outbreak of the World War of 1914-1918. armored tracked vehicles appeared - tanks, first used in military operations in 1916. World War II 1939-1945. was already completely a “war of engines”. At the enterprise of the self-taught American mechanic G. Ford, who became a major industrialist, the Ford T was created in 1908 - a car for mass consumption, the first in the world to go into mass production. By the time the Second World War began, over 6 million trucks and more than 30 million cars and buses were in use in the developed countries of the world. The development of cars in the 1930s contributed to making cars cheaper to operate. German concern "IG Farbindustri" technologies for the production of high-quality synthetic rubber.
The development of the automotive industry created a demand for cheaper and stronger structural materials, more powerful and economical engines, and contributed to the construction of roads and bridges. The car became the most striking and visual symbol of technical progress of the 20th century.
The development of road transport in many countries created competition for railways, which played a huge role in the 19th century, at the initial stage of industrial development. The general vector of development of railway transport was an increase in the power of locomotives, the speed of movement and the carrying capacity of trains. Back in the 1880s. The first electric city trams and subways appeared, providing opportunities for urban growth. At the beginning of the 20th century, the process of electrification of railways began. The first diesel locomotive (diesel locomotive) appeared in Germany in 1912.
For the development of international trade, increasing the carrying capacity, speed of ships and reducing the cost of maritime transport were of great importance. At the beginning of the century, ships with steam turbines and internal combustion engines (motor ships or diesel-electric ships) began to be built, capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean in less than two weeks. The navies were replenished with battleships with reinforced armor and heavy weapons. The first such ship, the Dreadnought, was built in Great Britain in 1906. Battleships from the Second World War turned into real floating fortresses with a displacement of 40-50,000 tons, a length of up to 300 meters with a crew of 1.5-2 thousand people. . The development of electric motors made it possible to build submarines, which played a major role in the First and Second World Wars.
Aviation and rocketry. Aviation became a new means of transport of the 20th century, which very quickly acquired military significance. Its development, which initially had entertainment and sporting significance, became possible after 1903, when the Wright brothers in the USA used a light and compact gasoline engine on an airplane. Already in 1914, Russian designer I.I. Sikorsky (later emigrated to the USA) created the four-engine heavy bomber Ilya Muromets, which had no equal. It carried up to half a ton of bombs, was armed with eight machine guns, and could fly at an altitude of up to four kilometers.
The First World War gave a great impetus to the improvement of aviation. At its beginning, the planes of most countries - “whatnots” made of fabric and wood - were used only for reconnaissance. By the end of the war, fighters armed with machine guns could reach speeds of over 200 km/h, and heavy bombers had a payload capacity of up to 4 tons. In the 1920s G. Junkers in Germany made the transition to all-metal aircraft structures, which made it possible to increase the speed and range of flights. In 1919, the world's first postal and passenger airline New York - Washington was opened, in 1920 - between Berlin and Weimar. In 1927, the American pilot Charles Lindbergh made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1937, Soviet pilots V.P. Chkalov and M.M. Gromov flew over the North Pole from the USSR to the USA. By the end of the 1930s. Air communication lines connected most areas of the globe. Airplanes turned out to be a faster and more reliable means of transport than airships - lighter-than-air aircraft, which were predicted to have a great future at the beginning of the century.
Based on the theoretical developments of K.E. Tsiolkovsky, F.A. Zander (USSR), R. Goddard (USA), G. Oberth (Germany) in the 1920s-1930s. liquid-propellant (rocket) and air-breathing engines were designed and tested. The Jet Propulsion Research Group (GIRD), created in the USSR in 1932, launched the first rocket with a liquid-propellant rocket engine in 1933, and tested a rocket with an air-breathing engine in 1939. In Germany in 1939, the world's first jet aircraft, the Xe-178, was tested. Designer Wernher von Braun created the V-2 rocket with a flight range of several hundred kilometers, but an ineffective guidance system; from 1944 it was used to bomb London. On the eve of the defeat of Germany, the Me-262 jet fighter appeared in the skies over Berlin, and work on the V-3 transatlantic rocket was close to completion. In the USSR, the first jet aircraft was tested in 1940. In England, a similar test took place in 1941, and prototypes appeared in 1944 (Meteor), in the USA in 1945 (F-80, Lockheed ").
New construction materials and energy. The improvement of transport was largely due to new structural materials. Back in 1878, the Englishman S. J. Thomas invented a new, so-called Thomas method of melting cast iron into steel, which made it possible to obtain metal of increased strength, without impurities of sulfur and phosphorus. In 1898-1900s. Even more advanced electric arc melting furnaces appeared. Improvements in the quality of steel and the invention of reinforced concrete made it possible to build structures of unprecedented size. The height of the Woolworth skyscraper, built in New York in 1913, was 242 meters, the length of the central span of the Quebec Bridge, built in Canada in 1917, reached 550 meters.
The development of automotive, engine, electrical, and especially aviation, then rocketry required lighter, stronger, more refractory structural materials than steel. In the 1920s-1930s. The demand for aluminum has increased sharply. At the end of the 1930s. With the development of chemistry and chemical physics, which studies chemical processes using the achievements of quantum mechanics and crystallography, it became possible to obtain substances with predetermined properties, possessing great strength and durability. In 1938, almost simultaneously in Germany and the USA, artificial fibers such as nylon, perlon, nylon, and synthetic resins were produced, which made it possible to obtain qualitatively new structural materials. True, their mass production acquired special importance only after the Second World War.
The development of industry and transport increased energy consumption and required energy improvements. The main source of energy in the first half of the century was coal, back in the 30s. In the 20th century, 80% of electricity was generated at thermal power plants (CHPs) that burned coal. True, in 20 years - from 1918 to 1938, improvements in technology made it possible to halve the cost of coal to generate one kilowatt-hour of electricity. Since the 1930s The use of cheaper hydropower began to expand. The world's largest hydroelectric power station (HPP), Boulderdam, with a dam 226 meters high, was built in 1936 in the USA on the Colorado River. With the advent of internal combustion engines, a demand arose for crude oil, which, with the invention of the cracking process, they learned to split into fractions - heavy (fuel oil) and light (gasoline). In many countries, especially in Germany, which did not have its own oil reserves, technologies for producing liquid synthetic fuel were being developed. Natural gas has become an important source of energy.
Transition to industrial production. The needs of producing increasing volumes of technologically increasingly complex products required not only updating the fleet of machine tools and new equipment, but also a more advanced organization of production. The advantages of intra-factory division of labor were known back in the 18th century. A. Smith wrote about them in the work that made him famous, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” (1776). He, in particular, compared the work of an artisan who made needles by hand and a factory worker, each of whom performed only individual operations using machines, noting that in the second case, labor productivity increased by more than two hundred times.
American engineer F.W. Taylor (1856--1915) proposed dividing the process of producing complex products into a number of relatively simple operations performed in a clear sequence with the timing required for each operation. The Taylor system was first tested in practice by automaker G. Ford in 1908 during the production of the Ford T model he invented. In contrast to the 18 operations required to produce needles, assembling a car required 7,882 operations. As G. Ford wrote in his memoirs, the analysis showed that 949 operations required physically strong men, 3338 could be performed by people of average health, 670 could be performed by legless disabled people, 2637 by one-legged people, two by armless people, 715 by one-armed people, 10 are blind. It was not about charity involving people with disabilities, but a clear distribution of functions. This made it possible, first of all, to significantly simplify and reduce the cost of training workers. Many of them now required a level of skill no greater than that required to turn a lever or tighten a nut. It became possible to assemble machines on a continuously moving conveyor belt, which greatly speeded up the production process.
It is clear that the creation of conveyor production made sense and could only be profitable with large volumes of products. The symbol of the first half of the 20th century was the giants of industry, huge industrial complexes employing tens of thousands of people. Their creation required the centralization of production and concentration of capital, which was achieved through mergers of industrial companies, the combination of their capital with banking capital, and the formation of joint-stock companies. The first established large corporations that mastered assembly line production ruined competitors who had lingered in the small-scale production phase, monopolized the domestic markets of their countries, and launched an offensive against foreign competitors. Thus, in the electrical industry, the world market was dominated by five largest corporations by 1914: three American (General Electric, Westinghouse, Western Electric) and two German (AEG and Simmens).
The transition to large-scale industrial production, made possible by technological progress, contributed to its further acceleration. The reasons for the rapid acceleration of technological development in the 20th century are associated not only with the successes of science, but also with the general state of the system of international relations, the world economy, and social relations. In the context of ever-increasing competition in world markets, the largest corporations were looking for methods to weaken competitors and invade their spheres of economic influence. In the last century, methods of increasing competitiveness were associated with attempts to increase the length of the working day, the intensity of labor, without increasing, or even reducing the wages of employees. This made it possible, by producing large volumes of products at a lower cost per unit of goods, to squeeze out competitors, sell products cheaper and make greater profits. However, the use of these methods was, on the one hand, limited by the physical capabilities of hired workers, and on the other hand, it was met with increasing resistance, which violated social stability in society. With the development of the trade union movement, the emergence of political parties defending the interests of wage earners, under their pressure, laws were adopted in most industrial countries limiting the length of the working day and establishing minimum wage rates. When labor disputes arose, the state, interested in social peace, increasingly shied away from supporting entrepreneurs, gravitating toward a neutral, compromise position.
Under these conditions, the main method of increasing competitiveness was, first of all, the use of more advanced productive machines and equipment, which also made it possible to increase the volume of output at the same or even lower costs of human labor. So, only for the period 1900-1913. Labor productivity in industry increased by 40%. This provided more than half of the increase in global industrial output (it amounted to 70%). Technical thought turned to the problem of reducing the cost of resources and energy per unit of output, i.e. reducing its cost, switching to so-called energy-saving and resource-saving technologies. Thus, in 1910 in the USA, the average cost of a car was 20 times the average monthly salary of a skilled worker, in 1922 - only three. Finally, the most important method of conquering markets was the ability to update the range of products before others, to launch products with qualitatively new consumer properties on the market.
Thus, technological progress has become the most important factor in ensuring competitiveness. Those corporations that enjoyed its fruits to the greatest extent naturally secured advantages over their competitors.
Questions and tasks
- 1. Describe the main directions of scientific and technological progress by the beginning of the 20th century.
- 2. Give the most significant examples of the influence of scientific discoveries on changing the face of the world. Which of them would you highlight especially from the point of view of significance in the scientific and technological progress of mankind? Explain your opinion.
- 3. Explain how scientific discoveries in one area of knowledge influenced advances in other areas. What impact did they have on the development of industry, agriculture, and the state of the financial system?
- 4. What place did the achievements of Russian scientists occupy in world science? Give examples from the textbook and other sources of information.
- 5. Reveal the origins of the increase in labor productivity in industry at the beginning of the 20th century.
- 6. Identify and reflect on the diagram the connections and logical sequence of factors that show how the transition to conveyor production contributed to the formation of monopolies and the merger of industrial and banking capital.
The needs of producing increasing volumes of technologically increasingly complex products required not only updating the fleet of machine tools and new equipment, but also a more advanced organization of production. The advantages of intra-factory division of labor were known back in the 18th century. A. Smith wrote about them in the work that made him famous, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” (1776). He, in particular, compared the work of an artisan who made needles by hand and a factory worker, each of whom performed only individual operations using machines, noting that in the second case, labor productivity increased by more than two hundred times.
American engineer F.W. Taylor (1856--1915) proposed dividing the process of producing complex products into a number of relatively simple operations performed in a clear sequence with the timing required for each operation. The Taylor system was first tested in practice by automaker G. Ford in 1908 during the production of the Ford T model he invented. In contrast to the 18 operations required to produce needles, assembling a car required 7,882 operations. As G. Ford wrote in his memoirs, the analysis showed that 949 operations required physically strong men, 3338 could be performed by people of average health, 670 could be performed by legless disabled people, 2637 by one-legged people, two by armless people, 715 by one-armed people, 10 are blind. It was not about charity involving people with disabilities, but a clear distribution of functions. This made it possible, first of all, to significantly simplify and reduce the cost of training workers. Many of them now required a level of skill no greater than that required to turn a lever or tighten a nut. It became possible to assemble machines on a continuously moving conveyor belt, which greatly speeded up the production process.
It is clear that the creation of conveyor production made sense and could only be profitable with large volumes of products. The symbol of the first half of the 20th century was the giants of industry, huge industrial complexes employing tens of thousands of people. Their creation required the centralization of production and concentration of capital, which was achieved through mergers of industrial companies, the combination of their capital with banking capital, and the formation of joint-stock companies. The first established large corporations that mastered assembly line production ruined competitors who had lingered in the small-scale production phase, monopolized the domestic markets of their countries, and launched an offensive against foreign competitors. Thus, in the electrical industry, the world market was dominated by five largest corporations by 1914: three American (General Electric, Westinghouse, Western Electric) and two German (AEG and Simmens).
The transition to large-scale industrial production, made possible by technological progress, contributed to its further acceleration. The reasons for the rapid acceleration of technological development in the 20th century are associated not only with the successes of science, but also with the general state of the system of international relations, the world economy, and social relations. In the context of ever-increasing competition in world markets, the largest corporations were looking for methods to weaken competitors and invade their spheres of economic influence. In the last century, methods of increasing competitiveness were associated with attempts to increase the length of the working day, the intensity of labor, without increasing, or even reducing the wages of employees. This made it possible, by producing large volumes of products at a lower cost per unit of goods, to squeeze out competitors, sell products cheaper and make greater profits. However, the use of these methods was, on the one hand, limited by the physical capabilities of hired workers, and on the other hand, it was met with increasing resistance, which violated social stability in society. With the development of the trade union movement, the emergence of political parties defending the interests of wage earners, under their pressure, laws were adopted in most industrial countries limiting the length of the working day and establishing minimum wage rates. When labor disputes arose, the state, interested in social peace, increasingly shied away from supporting entrepreneurs, gravitating toward a neutral, compromise position.
Under these conditions, the main method of increasing competitiveness was, first of all, the use of more advanced productive machines and equipment, which also made it possible to increase the volume of output at the same or even lower costs of human labor. So, only for the period 1900-1913. Labor productivity in industry increased by 40%. This provided more than half of the increase in global industrial output (it amounted to 70%). Technical thought turned to the problem of reducing the cost of resources and energy per unit of output, i.e. reducing its cost, switching to so-called energy-saving and resource-saving technologies. Thus, in 1910 in the USA, the average cost of a car was 20 times the average monthly salary of a skilled worker, in 1922 - only three. Finally, the most important method of conquering markets was the ability to update the range of products before others, to launch products with qualitatively new consumer properties on the market.
Thus, technological progress has become the most important factor in ensuring competitiveness. Those corporations that enjoyed its fruits to the greatest extent naturally secured advantages over their competitors.
QUESTIONS AND TASKS
- 1. Describe the main directions of scientific and technological progress by the beginning of the 20th century.
- 2. Give the most significant examples of the influence of scientific discoveries on changing the face of the world. Which of them would you highlight especially from the point of view of significance in the scientific and technological progress of mankind? Explain your opinion.
- 3. Explain how scientific discoveries in one area of knowledge influenced advances in other areas. What impact did they have on the development of industry, agriculture, and the state of the financial system?
- 4. What place did the achievements of Russian scientists occupy in world science? Give examples from the textbook and other sources of information.
- 5. Reveal the origins of the increase in labor productivity in industry at the beginning of the 20th century.
- 6. Identify and reflect on the diagram the connections and logical sequence of factors that show how the transition to conveyor production contributed to the formation of monopolies and the merger of industrial and banking capital.
Question 01. What were the reasons for the acceleration of scientific and technological development at the beginning of the 20th century?
Answer. Causes:
1) the scientific achievements of the 20th century are based on all previous centuries of development of science, accumulated knowledge and developed methods that made it possible to make a breakthrough;
2) by the beginning of the twentieth century there existed (as in the Middle Ages) a single scientific world, within which the same ideas circulated, which was not so much hampered by national borders - science to some extent (though not completely) became international;
3) many discoveries were made at the intersection of sciences, new scientific disciplines arose (biochemistry, geochemistry, petrochemistry, chemical physics, etc.);
4) thanks to the glorification of progress, the career of a scientist became prestigious, many more young people chose it;
5) fundamental science became closer to technical progress, began to bring improvements in production, weapons, etc., and therefore began to be financed by business and governments interested in further progress.
Question 02. How are the transition to large-scale industrial production and scientific and technological progress related?
Answer. Scientific and technological progress made it possible to develop new generation machines, thanks to which qualitatively new production facilities were opened. New types of engines – electric and internal combustion – helped make a particularly big step. It is noteworthy that the first internal combustion engines were not developed for moving mechanisms, but specifically for stationary machines, since they ran on natural gas, and therefore had to be connected to pipes that supplied this gas.
Question 03. Reveal the origins of the increase in labor productivity in industry at the beginning of the 20th century. Compare them with ways to increase labor productivity in previous historical periods.
Answer. Labor productivity increased significantly due to improved organization (for example, the introduction of a conveyor). Labor productivity has been increased in this way before; the most famous example is the transition to manufacturing. But scientific and technological progress has opened up another opportunity: due to an increase in engine efficiency. More powerful motors made it possible to produce more products, using the labor of fewer workers and at lower costs (due to which investments in the purchase of new equipment quickly paid off).
Question 04. What is the impact on public life in the first half of the 20th century. did the development of transport have a positive impact?
Answer. The development of transport has made the world “closer” by reducing travel time even between distant points. It’s not for nothing that one of J. Verne’s novels about the triumph of progress is called “Around the World in 80 Days.” This has made the workforce more mobile. In addition, this improved the connection between the metropolis and the colonies, allowing the latter to be used more widely and more efficiently.
Question 05. What was the role of Russians in scientific and technological progress at the beginning of the 20th century?
Answer. Russians in science:
1) P.N. Lebedev discovered the laws of wave processes;
2) N.E. Zhukovsky and S.A. Chaplygin made discoveries in the theory and practice of aircraft construction;
3) K.E. Tsiolkovsky made theoretical calculations for the achievement and exploration of space;
4) A.S. Popov is considered by many to be the inventor of radio (although others assign this honor to G. Marconi or N. Tesla);
5) I.P. Pavlov received the Nobel Prize for his research into the physiology of digestion;
6) I.I. Mechnikov received the Nobel Prize for his research in immunology and infectious diseases
“Food and light industry” - Seiner. The second group of industries. Now the felt boots are ready. Professions in the light and food industries. Fishing industry. Problems of food and light industry. In the 19th century, Russian felters walked through Chuvash villages and felted on the spot to order. Main centers of the textile industry. Specializing in the production of hosiery and knitwear, founded in 1962.
“World Industry” - The listed groups of industries have different growth rates. However, the iron and steel industry in developing countries is rapidly gaining momentum. One of the main branches of mechanical engineering in the world is automobile manufacturing. What is the sectoral structure of industry in developed (EDC) and developing countries (DC)? Non-ferrous metallurgy.
"Geography of Industry" - Fuel and energy industry. 1) coal 2) iron ore 3) metallurgical 4) production of railway rolling stock 5) shipbuilding 6) textile. rules the world!!! Old ones. Distribution of world industrial production by leading countries (2000). Industry groups.
"Metallurgical industry" - Heavy metals. Why has the role of Canada, Australia and South Africa increased in the mining industry? Name the "great mining powers". Transportable. 1. North America: 30% full range. Mechanical engineering. Per consumer. Metallurgical industry, mechanical engineering, chemical industry of the world. WORLD'S COPPER INDUSTRY IN THE LATE 1990s
“Fuel Industry” - History of the oil industry in illustrations. Ways of development of the fuel industry. Fuel industry of the world. Types of fuel industry. Oil industry. Oil. Gas industry. Coal. Oil transportation. Mineral resources of the world. Coal mining and transportation. There are two development paths: the coal stage (XIX – early XX); oil and gas stage (XX – XXI).
"Forest industry" - Construction complex - paints, varnish, fiberboard, chipboard. To the consumer - personal hygiene products, pharmaceuticals and more. Chemical forest industry. Placement factors. Composition of the forest industry. Forestry industry: agro-industrial complex - packaging, containers, wrappers, boxes. Problems. Stages – logging, sawmilling, woodworking, forest chemicals, pulp and paper industry.
