Chapter 26 Chapter 10 Industrial Organization (Continued).Specialized industries concentrated in specific places

Section 1 Local Industry: Its Primitive Form. In an earlier stage of civilization, each country must depend on its own resources for the greater part of the heavy goods it consumes, unless it can have special facilities for water transport.But desires and customs slowly changed; this made it easy for producers to satisfy the desires of consumers even with whom they had little relation; It is believed that these items will increase the enjoyment of holidays and holidays for a lifetime - maybe even two or three generations.Thus the lesser and costly articles of clothing and personal adornment alike, as well as spices and certain kinds of metal implements used by all classes, and many other things peculiarly used by the rich, have often come from very remote lands.Some of these things are produced in only a few places, or even only one place; they are sold all over Europe, partly through the medium of regular fairs and specialized traders, and partly by the producers themselves, who walk on foot. Travel thousands of miles to sell their wares and see the world, changing their jobs.These indomitable travelers took the risks of their small business themselves, they kept the production of certain kinds of goods in order to satisfy the needs of distant buyers, and they exhibited, in the bazaars or in their shops, local new goods, thereby creating new desires among consumers.Industries concentrated in certain places are usually—though perhaps not quite precisely—called local industries.

This initial geographical distribution of industry gradually paved the way for many modern advances in mechanical technology and the division of labor in enterprise management.Even now, we see primitive forms of industry concentrated in some peaceful villages in Central Europe, sending the simple goods they produce to even the busiest places of modern industry.In Russia, the expansion of family groups into villages is often the cause of local industry; In Russia there are many, many villages, each of which manages only one branch of production, or even only one part of one branch of production.

Section II Various origins of local industries. Many different causes have given rise to the regional distribution of industry; but chief among them are natural conditions, such as the nature of climate and soil, the presence of mines and pits in the vicinity, or the ease of communication by land and water.Therefore, metal industries are generally located near mines or where fuel is cheap.The British iron industry first sought areas rich in charcoal and later moved to the vicinity of coal mines.All kinds of pottery are produced in Staffordshire, all imported from far away; but there is cheap coal and good clay for the heavy "clay boxes" - the boxes in which pottery is fired .The straw used to make straw hats is mainly produced in Bedfordshire, where the straw contains the right amount of silica and is strong but not brittle. .The reason why Sheffield is famous is that it produces high-quality sand and stone for sharpening stones.

Another major reason was court incentives.The group of rich people gathered at the court required goods of exceptionally high quality, which attracted skilled workers from afar and trained local workers.When the princes of the East moved their capitals— Partly for hygienic reasons, migrations were constant—old capitals often depended on the development of specialized industries originating in the presence of courts.However, it is also common for rulers to consciously invite skilled workers from far away and make them live together.Thus the mechanical genius of the Lancashires is said to be due to the influence of the Norman blacksmiths who William first settled at Warrington for Lupus.Before the age of the Industrial Revolution, much of British manufacturing was dominated by places inhabited by Flemish and other skilled workers; Determined under the direct command of the kings of the dynasty.These emigrants taught us how to weave things of wool and wool, though for a long time we sent cloth to Holland to be starched and dyed.They also taught us how to salt fish, how to weave silk, how to make lace, glass, and paper, and gratify our many other desires.

But how did these immigrant immigrants learn their skills?Their ancestors undoubtedly benefited from the traditional techniques of the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean coast and the Far East: for almost all important knowledge has deep roots, dating back to remote times; The shoots of vigorous life, therefore, if the character of the peoples and their social and political institutions were conducive to the development of fine and highly skilled industry, there would not be many places in the Old Continent which had not long ago Prosperous.Accidents of one kind or another may determine whether a certain industry will flourish in a particular city; and even the character of industry in a whole country will be greatly influenced by the fertility of its soil and mines, and the ease of commerce.Such a natural advantage would itself stimulate free industry and enterprise: but the convenience of commerce—however it may be enhanced by any means—is the highest condition for the development of the nobler forms of the art of living.In sketching the history of free industry and enterprise, we have already, incidentally, examined the outlines of the causes which have made the industrial hegemony of the world now in one country and now in another.We have seen how the qualities of nature act upon the energies of man, how man is stimulated to daring ventures by a lively climate, and by rich opportunities opening up to his work: but we We also know how man's use of these interests depends on his ideals of life, and we know how the religious, political and economic threads of world history are intertwined and indistinguishable; In one way or another it is influenced by great political events and personal strength of character.

The causes which determine the economic progress of nations belong to the study of international trade, and therefore lie beyond our present sphere.We must, however, turn away from the study of this broad movement of industrial districts, and look at the fate of groups of skilled workers gathered in the narrow confines of an industrial town or densely populated industrial district. Section 3. Benefits of Local Industry; Ancestral Skills; Development of Auxiliary Trades; Use of Highly Specialized Machinery; Local Markets for Special Skills. When an industry has thus chosen its place, it will always be established there: so that those engaged in the same skilled trades mutually benefit greatly from the proximity.The secrets of the trade are no longer secrets; they seem to be open, and the children learn many of them without knowing it.Good work is rightly appreciated, and achievements of inventions and improvements in machinery, as well as in methods of manufacture and in the general organization of business, are quickly studied: if one man has a new idea, it is adopted by others and communicated with others. Opinions are combined, so that it becomes a source of newer thoughts.Auxiliary industries soon arose in the vicinity, supplying the above-mentioned industry with tools and materials, organizing transportation for it, and in many ways contributing to the economy of its raw materials.

Next, in areas where the total amount of production of the same kind is great, the economic employment of costly machinery can sometimes reach a very high degree, even if the individual capital employed in this trade is not very great.Because auxiliary industries, engaged in a small branch of the process of production, work for many adjacent industries, they are able to constantly use machinery of a highly specialized character, although the original price of this machinery may be high, and the rate of depreciation is high. Maybe big, but also able to this. Again, at all but the earliest stages of economic development, local industries benefit greatly from the continuous supply of a market for skills.Employers tend to go where they will find the skilled workers they want; meanwhile, job-seekers naturally go where there are many employers who want skills like theirs, and there the skills will be available. In a good market, the owner of an isolated factory, even if he has a large supply of general labour, is often helpless for want of some particular skill;Here social forces cooperate with economic forces; there is often a strong friendship between employer and employee; The relationship becomes nasty, and both parties are willing to break it off easily.These difficulties are still a great impediment to the success of any enterprise which requires a special skill, but which has no other like it in the vicinity: but they are being lessened by the railway, the printing press, and the telegraph.

On the other hand, the work done in a local industry is somewhat disadvantageous as a market for labour, if it is chiefly of one kind, such as that which can only be done by strong men.In districts where there are no mills or other ironworks in which women and children may be employed, wages are high, labor is expensive to the employer, and the average money income of each family is low. But the remedy for this abuse is obvious, provided that supplementary industries are established in the neighbourhood.The textile industry, therefore, is often clustered in the vicinity of mines and machinery, and in some cases it is drawn there by insensible steps; in others it is consciously established on a large scale. in order to diversify occupations where there was little need for the work of women and children, as in Barrow, for example.

The interest of occupational diversification combined with that of local industry in some of our industrial cities has been one of the chief reasons for their continuous development.But, on the other hand, the value of all the purposes of trade in the center of a great city enables it to command much higher rents than the sites of factories; The same is true when interests are taken into account: there is a similar competition for housing status between shop workers and factory workers.The result: factories are now concentrated on the outskirts of large cities and in nearby industrial areas, rather than in large cities.

A country which depends chiefly upon one industry is liable to severe depression if the demand for the produce of that industry diminishes, or if the supply of the raw materials which it employs diminishes.A great city or great industrial district, where several different industries are highly developed, avoids this evil to a great extent.If one of these industries fails for a while, the others support it indirectly; and enable the local shopkeepers to continue to assist the workers in that industry. Above we have studied the issue of regional distribution from the point of view of production economy.But the convenience of the customer must also be considered.For odds and ends the customer will go to the nearest shop; but for important things he will take the trouble to go to what he thinks is especially good for his purpose.As a result, stores dealing in high-priced and high-end items tend to be clustered together, while stores dealing in everyday household essentials are not.

The fourth section deals with the impact of improvements in means of transportation on the geographical distribution of industry. Take modern British history as an example. Every time the cost of transport falls, every new facility for the free exchange of ideas between remote places, changes the action of the factors which lead to the distribution of industry in a given place. In general, we must say that a reduction in the freight and duties of freight would cause each country to buy more of what it needs at a distance; On the one hand, anything that increases the ease of movement of men from one place to another, brings skilled artisans close to the consumers who buy their goods, and exerts their skill to the utmost.These two opposing tendencies are well exemplified in the recent history of the English people. On the one hand, the gradual reduction of freight rates, the opening of railways from the agricultural areas of the United States and India to the coast, and the free trade policy adopted by Britain have greatly increased the import of agricultural products to Britain.On the other hand, the ever-increasing cheapness, speed, and ease of foreign travel tempt the trained merchants and skilled artisans of England to establish new industries in other countries, and to help these countries manufacture the goods which they have always bought from England. goods for their own use.English mechanics taught almost every part of the world how to use English machinery, and even how to make similar machinery; English miners developed mineral deposits abroad, and thus reduced foreign demand for many of England's produce. One of the most marked movements towards specialization of industry in a country, recorded by history, is the rapid increase of the non-agricultural population in modern England.The correct nature of this change, however, is easily misunderstood; its significance, both for itself and because it exemplifies the general principles discussed in the preceding and this chapter, is so great that we pause here to discuss it. A little consideration of this change may be beneficial. First, that English agriculture has not actually been reduced so much as at first sight.In the Middle Ages, it is true, three-quarters of the people were counted as peasants; the last census reports that only one out of nine was engaged in agriculture, and in the next census, twelve out of twelve I'm afraid there will be no more than one person.We must remember, however, that the so-called agricultural population of the Middle Ages did not specialize in agriculture; most of the work.These habits of self-sufficiency slowly died out, and most of them were almost extinct by the beginning of the nineteenth century, when, I am afraid, the labor employed in the land did not constitute a much greater part of the total industry of England than it did in the Middle Ages. for, though England ceased to export wool and wheat, the increase of the produce of the land by the labor of man was so great that the rapid improvement of the technique of the English peasantry was scarcely sufficient to check the operation of the law of diminishing returns. Gradually, however, the greater part of the labor was transferred from the fields to the manufacture of the expensive machinery for agriculture.This change has not had a great effect on the number of those counted as farmers, who are always counted as farmers so long as the machinery is drawn by horses: for the work of tending and feeding the horses is counted as agricultural work. of.In recent years, however, the rapid development of the use of steam power in the fields has coincided with an increase in the importation of agricultural products.Neither the coal miners who fuel these engines, nor the mechanics who make them, and master them in the fields, are counted among agricultural persons, though their ultimate object is to facilitate the cultivation of the land.The actual decrease in English agriculture, therefore, has not been as great as it first appears; but a change has taken place in the distribution of agriculture.Much of the work once performed by agricultural labourers, is now performed by specialized workmen of the building or road-building trades, portage trades, etc.It is partly for this reason that the number employed in agriculture has declined rapidly, while the number inhabiting entirely agricultural areas, instead of decreasing rapidly, has often increased. We have already noted the effect of the importation of agricultural produce upon the modification of the relative values ​​of the various kinds of land: among these the land which depends chiefly on the wheat harvest falls most in value, though it could also be made quite productive by expensive cultivation. Good harvest, but not naturally fertile land.Such plentiful districts are especially favorable to the migration of the greater part of the agricultural laborers to the great towns; and consequently the geographical distribution of the domestic industry is further altered.A notable example of the impact of the new means of transport is that of the backwoods livestock districts of the United Kingdom, which send milk by special express to London and other great cities, while bringing back what they need from the Atlantic and even the Pacific coast. wheat. But, in the second place, the changes of recent years have not, as at first sight might seem, increased the proportion of Englishmen employed in industry.The output of British industry is now many times greater than it was in the middle of the nineteenth century; but although the workers who make the machinery and tools which do the greater part of the agricultural work in England have increased the number of workers , but the percentages of the population employed in various industries were the same in 1851 as in 1901. The chief explanation for this result lies in the astonishing increase of mechanical power in recent years.This enables us to produce an ever-increasing variety of manufactured goods for our own use and export, without having to greatly increase the number of men who manage the machinery.We can, therefore, employ the labor liberated from agriculture chiefly in the gratification of desires which have received little help from improved machinery: the efficiency of which has kept the local industries of England from becoming as The case is completely mechanical like that.Prominent among the rapidly increasing occupations in England at the expense of agriculture since 1851, besides mining, construction, trade, and road and rail transport, are central and local government positions; all levels of education Career; medical business, music, theater and other entertainment businesses.None of these occupations has been very directly aided by new inventions; and in these occupations the efficiency of human labor is not much more efficient now than it was a century ago; Given the proportional increase in wealth, it is not surprising that these occupations absorb an ever-increasing proportion of the industrial population.The number of domestic servants has been increasing dramatically for some years; and the total amount of work hitherto performed by them is now increasing more rapidly than ever before.But a great part of this work, often with the aid of machinery, is now done by persons employed by various cloth merchants, innkeepers, confectioners, and even by grocers, fishmongers, and other Telephone shopping is done by various salesmen sent by merchants who come to accept orders.These changes have tended to increase the specialization and localization of industry. Having given the above-mentioned examples of the action of modern factors on the geographical distribution of industry, we return to the study: to what extent a sufficient economy in the division of labor can be obtained by concentrating in one place a great number of small enterprises of a similar kind; and the extent to which economies in the division of labor can be obtained by concentrating the greater part of the country in the hands of a comparatively small number of rich and powerful firms—what is commonly called mass production; To what extent the economy of mass production must be internal, and to what extent it can be external.