File 12: Origins of the Factory

Question 1

What was the system used in the early industrial revolution in several areas of production?

Answer 1

The putting out system = domestic system = merchant put out materials to rural producers who worked at home/laboured workshop thus putting out work for others (especially in textiles)

Question 2

What was the putting out system increasingly replaced by in the industrial revolution?

Answer 2

factories

Question 3

What explains the shift from putting out system to factories in production ares? (3)

Answer 3

1. 18th century: a steam engine was invented (Newcommen-Watt steam engine) to pump water from mines
2. the steam engine was then replaced by power machinery
3. powering machine requires concentrating machines and workers in a single place hence the factory

Question 4

What did Steven Marglin argue about the creation of factories?

Answer 4

Steven Marglin argued that factories took place before the steam engine:

1. to control waste (some employees in putting out system would use the material to their own benefit) -fraud
2. to control the timing and pace of work (putting out caused problems with output
3. to appropriate the benefits of innovation.

Question 5

What did the creation of the factory require?

Answer 5

the creation of a new employee category: the overseers

Question 6

How did Steven Margline distinguish engineering efficiency to economic efficiency?

Answer 6

1. engineering effiency: (distributional motivated by benefits of more innovation) output/input
   For example, bolts and cloths would be the output, the input would wear and tear on machines/raw materials and physical exertion of labour.
   if the ratio of output/input increases, it means that people work voluntarily and pay is associated with productivity and thus nobody is worse off and most people are better off.
2. economic effiency: value of output/value of input (output x output price/ input x input price)
   This states that you can increase output or reduce input and by increasing price of input or reduction price of input (extracting more effort, paying workers less)

Question 7

How were factories organized? (in terms of labour and economy) (3)

Answer 7

1. factory discipline: workers became employees who had set hours they had to work established by the factory and their effort was supervised meaning they had to work harder: increasing input without increasing wages
2. reduces wages and supervision reduced theft of material => fall in price of input
3. benefits of innovations went to the factory owner

Question 8

What did Steven Marglin argue about factories and their relationship with engineering effiency and economic effiency?

Answer 8

He argues that factories increased economic effiency but engineering effiency remained the same. He argues that factories were DISTRIBUTIONALLY MOTIVATED = shifting the income from employees to owners

Question 9

Where did factories first emerge (8)? Why was production concentrated in these industries? (5)

Answer 9

Factories were found and emerged in numerous domains: dying, brewing, tanning, papermaking, glassmaking, ceramics, metallurgy, shipbuildings

1. Heating was required for dyeing, brewing, glassmaking, ceramics and metallurgy. There are efficiency gains from concetrating heating in a single place by reducing the amount of heat wasted.
2. work requires substantial space (such as ship building)
3. tanning and brewing created undesirable smell
4. Some work involved specialist knowledge which producers did not wish to share (glass production in venice)
5. Multiple machines in the factories can be generate from the steam power driven machinery

Question 10

What two aspects of factories explain the features of production organization today?

Answer 10

disciplining and controlling fraud