Until approximately 1815, the substantial increases in manufacturing output were effected by craftspeople operating independently or in craftshops. Craftspeople did “bespoke” work, making commodities only to order, maintaining the highest standards of quality, and selling through their own small retail outlets. But production by independent craftspeople declined rapidly after 1815. More important at that date and for some time afterward was the craftshop run by a master who employed several journeymen and apprentices. Sometimes, as in the case of the hatters of Danbury, Connecticut, an agglomeration of craftshops sold a quantity output to merchant wholesalers for distribution over wide market areas.
As in colonial days, the small mill was to be found in nearly all localities, and the national census of 1860 reported nearly 20,000 sawmills and 14,000 flour mills in the country. With few exceptions, tanneries, distilleries, breweries, and iron forges also produced for local markets. The decentralization of American industry before 1860, favored by the use of water power and commonly protected by high short-haul transport costs, produced small firms that often constituted effective local monopolies.
Before 1860, however, some mills had achieved large-scale production using methods of manufacture typical of the factory. Furthermore, large mills in two industries tended to concentrate in certain rather well-defined areas. Flour milling, which even in colonial days had been attracted to the Chesapeake area, continued to cluster there as farmers in Maryland and Virginia substituted wheat for tobacco. As cities grew larger and the
Demand for building materials increased, it became profitable for large lumbering firms to exploit timber areas located some distance from the markets. Typical were those situated by 1850 on the upper reaches of streams flowing through New England, New York, and Pennsylvania.
World History
