Making Houses, Crafting Capitalism: Builders in Philadelphia, 1790-1850 (review)

Making Houses, Crafting Capitalism: Builders in Philadelphia, 1790-1850. By Donna J. Rilling. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. Pp. xii+261. $45.

Exploring the economic choices and daily work routines of house builders, Donna Rilling documents the vitality of small-producer capitalism in the early republic of the United States. Unlike the archetypal (if imaginary) artisan who pursued radical politics, resisted mechanized production, and decried competitive market relations, "men in the Philadelphia construction trades were aggressive and ingenious operators who plunged wholeheartedly into the dangers and rewards of capitalism" (p. vii). The key was building on speculation, an option even for lowly journeymen who gained access to lots through Philadelphia's unique system of ground rent. The proprietors of undeveloped tracts of land surrounding the city encouraged builders to erect suburban houses for a growing population. The ground-rent system meant that builders did not need to purchase lots outright, but rather agreed to pay an annual rent in perpetuity. Ground-lords often deferred rent payments for builders and advanced them capital for construction materials.

When the house was sold, the buyer assumed the ground rent and the builder pocketed the entire price of the house. Of course, if the house did not sell, if poor management allowed costs to skyrocket, or if the weather did not cooperate with the building schedule, such speculative endeavors could result in bankruptcies and even debtor's prison. Nonetheless, Rilling stresses that speculative building remained an open avenue for economic advancement through the 1850s. Readily assuming debts, hiring the labor of other men, negotiating complicated financial instruments, and producing for anonymous consumers, house builders shared traits with merchants and manufacturers. With careful evidence from account books and receipts, Rilling provides empirical support for the argument that Gordon Wood and Joyce Appleby have popularized in favor of the democratic nature of early republican capitalism.

Readers of Technology and Culture will take particular interest in Rilling's detailed chapters on the physical processes of house building. In addition to entrepreneurial zeal, builders needed materials, tools, labor, and technical expertise. Rilling explores each of these topics with considerable skill. Take the matter of bricks: a house 17 feet by 34 feet for a middling family might require forty thousand! Rilling walks readers through the digging, weathering, tempering, molding, drying, burning, and sorting that went into brickmaking. Four men would require three days to dig the necessary clay, which was then left exposed to winter weather before being molded and kilned in the spring. The burning might require nearly half an acre of timber, brought from woodlots in New Jersey and the Chesapeake to Philadelphia kilns. Likewise, the need for materials such as lime and marble situated Philadelphia builders in a regional economy and gave them a direct interest in new forms of transportation—canals and railroads—that facilitated the swift movement of construction supplies.

Most studies of craft labor have stressed a tension between skill and mechanization. Rilling argues that house carpenters did not face de-skilling or a loss of economic opportunity as manufactories began fabricating standardized doors, window sashes, and shutters. Before mechanization, house carpenters had already begun to specialize, which was a logical strategy to meet the demand for subcontracted labor on speculative building projects. New technology freed artisans from arduous tasks and allowed them to spend less time inside workshops and more time on construction sites engaged in actual building. Incorporating prefabricated materials into a house still required significant craft skill, and house builders remained invested in their occupational identity. Rilling even locates examples of craft mutualism between employees and masters as late as 1849.

A concise, well-illustrated, and attractive volume, Making Houses, Crafting Capitalism is an impressive contribution to labor history in the early republic. Although Rilling may gloss over the inequalities of power that accompanied an aggressively capitalistic construction trade (who are these "unskilled" laborers who are carting sand, clearing debris, and digging privies?), she exceeds...