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2020 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

4. Contracts and Ways of Working in the Building Trades

verfasst von : Judy Z. Stephenson

Erschienen in: Contracts and Pay

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter will discuss the evidence from building contracts and work records to show that seventeenth-century business men in construction understood the costs, incentives, and benefits of different organisational and contractual arrangements, and that they used such varying arrangements purposefully to mitigate risk.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Contractors

Nächstes Kapitel What did Bosses (in London Construction) do?

Ayres, Building the Georgian City, p. 2; Nisbet, A Proper Price, pp. ix–x.

Campbell, Building St Paul’s, pp. 31–32.

In modern times too: Reve and Levitt, ‘Organization and Governance in Construction’.

There is a good summary schema of where problems usually arise in the construction process in Vrijhoef, ‘Supply Chain Integration in the Building Industry’, p. 7.

For a description of how the relations may develop in a modern context see Smyth, ‘Competition’, pp. 22–38.

Colvin et al., History of the King’s Works Vol. V, p. 41.

Reve and Levitt, ‘Organization and Governance in Construction’.

An empiric and theoretic rejection of another models is made by Eccles, ‘Bureaucratic Versus Craft Administration: The Relationship of Market Structure to the Construction Firm’; See Ive and Gruneberg, The Economics of the Construction Sector for a TCE based description of the contracting in the sector.

A good summary of transaction costs in a building contract, (without a detailed consideration of the role of consultants), is made by Li, Arditi, and Wang, ‘Determinants of Transaction Costs in Construction Projects’.

Reve and Levitt, ‘Organization and Governance in Construction’, p. 17.

Eccles, ‘The Quasifirm in the Construction Industry’. Also see Williamson, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting, pp. 217–218.

See Williamson, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting; Williamson, The Mechanisms of Governance; Coase, ‘The Nature of the Firm’.

Gerbier, Counsel and Advice to All Builders, p. 5.

Ibid., pp. 61–64.

Ibid., p. 60.

See also Pain, A Builder’s Companion; Neve, The City and Country Purchaser and Builder’s Dictionary.

Pain, A Builder’s Companion.

Second Edition, 1750, London, Adams, Dryle’s Head.

Campbell, Building St Paul’s, Chap. 4, p. 33; Akira Satoh, Building in Britain: The Origins of a Modern Industry, Chap. 1.

Arguably it remains so today. James Nisbet, A Proper Price, throughout and p. 39; Campbell, Building St Paul’s, Chap. 10.

Wren, written correspondence to Bishop of Oxford John Fell in 1681, as quoted in Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects, 1660–1840.

Wren Society, Volume V, pp. 22–25.

In fact, the three ways of working were strategised in other industries also. See Schwarz, ‘Custom, wages and workload’, p. 146.

A rod was 272.25 square feet, a lineal rod 16.5 feet. According to Nisbet, ibid., p. 9. In practice bills and estimates or large projects tended to specify items idiosyncratic to its requirements.

Nisbet, A Proper Price, p. 1.

Ibid., pp. 24–26.

Ibid., p. 26.

Darling, The Carpenter’s Rule.

Moxon, The Mechanic Exercises.

Venterus Mandey, Mellificum Mensionis, or the Marrow of Measuring.

Occasionally contractors well known for their skills were measurers. Ayres, Building the Georgian City, pp. 4, 5, 13, 120, 35–37, 90, 218, 237.

Nisbet, A Proper Price, pp. 1–2.

The “the most likely and indeed empirically observable state in which contacts are self-enforcing is that in which the parties to the exchange have a great deal of knowledge about each other and are involved in repeat dealings.” North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Chap. 7, p. 55.

See North 1993, pp. 32–33 and 36–39.

Campbell, ‘The Finances of the Carpenter in England 1660–1710: A Case Study on the Implications of the Change from Craft to Designer-Based Construction’, pp. 331–332.

For a description of such work see Beard, Craftsmen and Interior Decoration in England 1660–1820, pp. 14–16, 115–165.

Ibid., p. 16; Nisbet, A Proper Price, pp. 26–27, 29–31.

See Mordaunt Crook, Chap. 6, in Colvin et al., The History of the King’s Works, Vol. V, 1660–1782, pp. 67–117.

Elfenbein and Zenger, ‘What Is a Relationship Worth? Repeated Exchange and the Development and Deployment of Relational Capital’; Ariño, de La Torre, and Ring, ‘Relational Quality: Managing Trust in Corporate Alliances’.

Vrijhoef, ‘Supply Chain Integration in the Building Industry’, pp. 61–63 summarises this from a TCE perspective.

Westminster Abbey Muniments 34517, October 11, 1722.

Campbell, ‘The Finances of the Carpenter in England 1660–1710: A Case Study on the Implications of the Change from Craft to Designer-Based Construction’, p. 330.

Reve and Levitt, ‘Organization and Governance in Construction’.

LMA COL/CP/02/148, Mansion House Box 8.4 Workmen’s contracts 1737–1739.

For a surviving contract, see: LMA CLC, MS00233.

Campbell, Building St Paul’s.

Wren Society, Volume XIII, p. 15.

Wren Society, Volume XVI, pp. 15, 19.

Wren Society, Volume XIII, p. 51.

TNA ADM 80/ 2, p. 3. The London Prices of Brick layers Materials and Works, both of new building and repairs &c. Batty Langley, London, New Head, 1750 (2nd Ed.) gives the price of a thousand stock bricks as 18s. delivered, p. 11 (It also gives a retail calculation for prices to yield 25 per cent margin). McKellar found brick prices at c. 11s. per thousand for stock bricks and 20s. for rubbing bricks in the 1680s.

TNA ADM / 80/2, p. 5.

Ibid., p. 9.

Ibid., p. 27.

Ibid., p. 11; Grove is the subject of Campbell’s case study and calculations of contractor profit margin, ‘The Finances of the Carpenter in England 1660–1710: A Case Study on the Implications of the Change from Craft to Designer-Based Construction’.

Wren Society XVI, pp. xiv–xvii.

As copied in Strong’s account book LMA CLC 227 /15 MS 20233.

Campbell, Building St Paul’s, pp. 91–95.

See Reddaway ‘Rebuilding’ for the formation of the Commission for the rebuilding of the city after the Fire, pp. 55–56; see Campbell, Building St Paul’s, pp. 18–21.

Yeomans, ‘Managing Eighteenth-Century Building’, p. 11. Descriptions of the process survive in: TNA ADM 67/4 (1697 description of the Greenwich Hospital Commission’s instructions to Nicholas Hawksmoor for the procurement of masons services); Portland papers, Volume X (the appointment of contractors in 1710 at St Paul’s). This is not to say that contracts were not handed directly on occasion to specific contractors.

Records of deliberations include: ADM 67/4, Westminster Abbey Muniments no. 34516.

See Ayres, Building the Georgian City, Appendix II; Campbell, Building St Paul’s, Chaps. 2, 6, 8, 9, 11.

Yeomans, ‘Managing Eighteenth-Century Building’, p. 11.

See Campbell, Building St Paul’s, Chap. 11, Frauds & Abuses for the railings case.

Campbell, ‘Seventeenth-Century Bricklayers’ Contracts’.

Or measure it himself if he were so qualified such as Hawksmoor at Greenwich. The final account usually states a number of dates: the rough dates the work was completed; the date the work was measured by the Clerk; the dates the work was approved and the bill passed by Committee; the date the sum was paid. See Westminster Abbey Muniments 34513 for dates of Dickinson’s measurement and latter dates for passing of bills.

Colvin, ‘Financial Stress’, pp. 34–44; Colvin et al., A History of the Kings Works, Volume V.

Ibid., p. 44.

See Lucassen (ed.), Wages and Currency: Global Comparisons from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century; Muldrew and King, ‘Cash Wages and the Economy of Makeshifts in England 1650–1800’; Muldrew, The Economy of Obligation: The Culture of Credit and Social Relations in Early Modern England.

Ayres, Building The Georgian City, p. 34.

TNA ADM 67/2.

Westminster Abbey Muniments. 34513. Dickinson signed the accounts as bills examined.

Ayres, Building the Georgian City, p. 236.

Bridge House contractors billed weekly for labour costs, and payment was made weekly assuming their account was not unaudited. CLA/007/FN/03/022, CLA/007/FN/03/019/A, CLA/007/FN/03/027, by way of example.

Nisbet, A Proper Price, p. 26, believes that practice was for both sides to deploy measurers by 1750.

Wren Society, Volume XVI, p. 16.

Lang, St Pauls, p. 81.

Wren Society, Building Accounts Jan–June, 1697.

LMA COL CC MRK /02/01/1.

LMA CLC/B/227/ -115 MS00233. The calculations seem to be incorrect by 4d; in the books there are a number of corrections.

Westminster Abbey Muniments, Christopher Wren Fabric book, 34513.

Westminster Abbey Muniments 34153, 34514.

Calculated from the bill book of Edward Strong, LMA CLC B/227/175.

Lang, St Paul’s, p. 81.

For this and other evidence of institutions bargaining with suppliers, see: ADM 67/ 2. Wren Society, Volume XV, p. 51.

Wren Society, Volume XVI, p. 73.

LMA CLC/B/227-175.

Wren Society, XVI, p. 151, quoted in Campbell, ‘The Finances of the Carpenter in England 1660–1710: A Case Study on the Implications of the Change from Craft to Designer-Based Construction’, pp. 332, 337. Campbell is of the opinion that the purpose of giving day rates was to ensure adequate numbers of men on site.

Wren Society, XXVI, p. xv.

Wren Society, Volume XIII building accounts Nov, Dec 1691, p. 91.

See below, Chaps. 5, 7.

Williamson, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting, p. 75.

Eccles, ‘The Quasifirm in the Construction Industry’ Richard Fulford and Craig Standing, ‘Construction Industry Productivity and the Potential for Collaborative Practice’.

Titel: Contracts and Ways of Working in the Building Trades
verfasst von: Judy Z. Stephenson
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Contracts and Pay
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57507-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-57508-7

Copyright-Jahr: 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57508-7_4

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