This paper presents a case study of the introduction of financial incentive schemes in a fine paper mill. The circumstances were difficult in several respects. First, a new machine had been installed which raised the mill's capacity sixfold, yet the industry suffered several severe recessions in the following years. Secondly, one of the biggest British firms of management consultants had been brought in, but the employees had formally refused to have anything to do with their proposals. Thirdly, it was necessary to make special provision to reward quality as well as quantity of output. In these conditions it is significant that the measures adopted were outstandingly successful, the mill's output rising to the new capacity with a total wage-bill which, after correcting for the effect of national awards, is virtually unchanged. There has been a papermill at Wolvercote, near Oxford, for three hundred years. For the last hundred years it has been owned by the Oxford University Press and it has supplied the Press with its various qualities of bible and book papers. For most of this time there was one small paper machine running slowly and producing very expensive paper. By 1949 it had become essential to reduce production costs, and a programme of modernization was started. The existing paper machine was first modified and speeded up; then in 1957 a new paper machine 130" wide, with a designed speed of 800 ft. per minute, was brought into operation. This meant increasing annual output from 3,000 tons to a possible 18,000 tons of which only 2,500 tons was to be taken by the parent organization. At the time when the plans for the new machine were being made, it appeared that there would be no difficulty in selling this difference of 15,500 tons to other customers. In the... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]