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- Title
State Reform and the Local Economy: A Reply.
- Authors
Schmiechen, James A.
- Abstract
This article reports that a lack of regulation of non-factory work made it advantageous for employers in the clothing trades to send work out to less regulated premises, and hence production actually decentralized in that industry. Anyone familiar with the London clothing trades in England at the turn of the century could tell that although a factory rarely sent work out to be done in another factory, many factories or workshops often sent work out to other workplaces perhaps simply to a kitchen or to a basement room. The Master Tailors identifies as probable factory owners, were precisely the sort of small-time, unscrupulous sweating masters who operated out of small East End workshops, depending on orders from firms in the City and living off a cheap labor market. A historian's contention that outwork in the London clothing trades was done solely in factories and other highly regulated premises cannot be substantiated by information gleaned from the official "Outwork Returns," published by the government. The "Outwork Returns," do not specify if the premise was a home, a workshop, or a factory. Although the employer had to list the address of the outworker, no distinction was made between home and work premise.
- Subjects
ENGLAND; WORKSHOPS (Facilities); EMPLOYERS; CLOTHING industry; LABOR market; LABOR supply; FACTORY inspection; LABOR inspection
- Publication
Economic History Review, 1982, Vol 35, Issue 2, p301
- ISSN
0013-0117
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2595021