ABSTRACT
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the industrial structure of the district in 1860 was the co-existence in many trades of highly subdivided processes of production and the small unit. The gun, jewellery, brassfoundry, and saddlery and harness trades exhibited this characteristic in a marked degree; and although in some of them the individual nature of the product, the absence of any need for machinery and the fluctuations to which the demand was subject may help to explain the survival of the shop owner or the domestic craftsman, it is surprising that the employer or factor was able to co-ordinate efficiently the operations of great bodies of outworkers. The same problem existed in the early textile industries; but in those the number of processes was much fewer and the task of co-ordination was therefore less difficult than in several Birmingham trades. In the manufacture of guns, for instance, there were nearly fifty distinct processes, each of which might be performed by special groups of outworking craftsmen. 1
