PRODUCTIVITY OF A COMMUNE - THE SHAKERS, 1850-1880

Focusing on a religious commune known as the Shakers and utilizing the information recorded in the enumeration schedules of the U.S. manufac turing and agriculture censuses, this article estimates the productivi ties of Shaker enterprises and compares them with those of other produ cers randomly selected from the same data source. The results provide support to the contention that communes need not always suffer from re duced productivity. Shaker farms and shops generally performed just as productively as their neighbors; when differences did exist between t heir productivities, there are good reasons to attribute them to facto rs other than the organizational form.