View source for Factory system

{{Short description|Method of manufacturing using machinery and division of labor}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2018}} 
[[Image:Zilina zapalkaren.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Reconstructed historical factory in [[Žilina]] ([[Slovakia]]) for production of safety matches.  Originally built in 1915 for the firm ''Wittenberg and Son''.]]

The '''factory system''' is a method of [[manufacturing]] whereby workers and manufacturing equipment are centralized in a [[factory]], the work is supervised and structured through a [[division of labor]], and the manufacturing process is  [[Mechanization|mechanized]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Geraghty |first=Thomas M. |date=2003 |title=Technology, Organization and Complementarity: The Factory System in the British Industrial Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3132451 |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=536–541 |jstor=3132451 |issn=0022-0507}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pollard |first=Sidney |date=1963 |title=Factory Discipline in the Industrial Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2598639 |journal=The Economic History Review |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=254–271 |doi=10.2307/2598639 |jstor=2598639 |issn=0013-0117|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>
Compare:
{{cite book
 |author1              = W. C. T.
 |editor-last1         = Palgrave
 |editor-first1        = R. H. Inglis
 |editor-link1         = Inglis Palgrave
 |year                 = 2016
 |orig-date            = 1896
 |chapter              = Factory System
 |title                = Palgrave's Dictionary of Political Economy
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=K49PDAAAQBAJ
 |volume               = 2
 |edition              = reprint
 |publisher            = Springer
 |page                 = 9
 |isbn                 = 9781349103584
 |access-date          = 18 March 2023
}} - "The factory system is [...] a system of production carried out in [factories]", with a factory defined as "an establishment where several workmen are collected for the purpose of obtaining greater and cheaper conventiences for labour than they could procure individually at their homes, for producing results by their combined efforts which they could not accomplish separately and for preventing the loss occasioned by carrying articles from place to place during the several processes necessary to complete their manufacture."
</ref>
Because of the high capital cost of machinery and factory buildings, factories are typically privately owned by wealthy individuals or corporations who employ the operative labor. Use of machinery with the division of labor reduced the required skill-level of workers and also increased the output per worker.

The factory system was first adopted by successive entrepreneurs in [[United Kingdom|Britain]] at the beginning of the [[Industrial Revolution]] in the late-eighteenth century and later spread around the world.<ref>[[#Walker1993|Walker 1993]], pp.&nbsp;187–88.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hutt |first=W. H. |date=1926 |title=The Factory System of the Early 19th Century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2548551 |journal=Economica |issue=16 |pages=78–93 |doi=10.2307/2548551 |jstor=2548551 |issn=0013-0427|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It replaced the [[putting-out system]] (domestic system).  The main characteristic of the factory system is the use of machinery,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fairchild |first=Fred Rogers |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Elementary_Economics/NtsjAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22factory+system%22+machinery&pg=PA53&printsec=frontcover |title=Elementary Economics |last2=Furniss |first2=Edgar Stevenson |last3=Buck |first3=Norman Sydney |date=1926 |publisher=Macmillan |language=en}}</ref> originally powered by water or steam and later by electricity.  Other characteristics of the system mostly derive from the use of machinery or [[economies of scale]], the [[centralization]] of [[factories]], and [[standardization]] of [[interchangeable parts]].

==Characteristics==
The defining characteristics of the factory system are:
* The factory system is considered by economists a form of [[Production (economics) | production]].  The operative labour generally does not own a significant share of the enterprise.  Under [[capitalism]], capitalist owners provide all machinery, buildings, management, administration, and raw or semi-finished materials; and are responsible for the sale of all production, as well as for any resulting losses.
* Use of [[unskilled labour| unskilled labor]] – Before the rise of factories, some systems had many products (such as shoes or muskets) made by skilled craftsmen who usually custom-made an entire article.  In contrast, factories practiced [[division of labour]], in which most workers were either low-skilled labourers who tended or operated machinery, or unskilled labourers who moved materials, semi-finished and finished goods.  There were a few skilled mechanics.  Division of labour was also practiced by the [[putting-out system]] in which, for example, pieces of leather were cut off-site and brought to a central shop to be made into shoes or other articles.<ref name = "Thomson 1989"/>
* [[Economies of scale]] – Factories produced products on a much larger scale than the putting-out or crafts systems.  Because factories could oversupply local markets, access to transportation was important so that goods could be widely distributed. Factories used far less manpower per unit of production and therefore lowered product cost.
* Location – Before the widespread use of [[steam engine]]s and railroads, most factories were located at water-power sites and near water transportation.<ref name = "Hunter 1991"/>  Railroads became widespread (itself a consequence of steam power becoming more efficient and affordable), so factories could be located away from water-power sites but nearer railroads.<ref name="Taylor 1951">
{{cite book
|title= The Transportation Revolution, 1815–30002 |last=Taylor
 |first= George Rogers
 |year=1951 |publisher = Rinehart & Co.
|location=New York, Toronto
|isbn= 978-0-87332-101-3}}
</ref>
* [[Centralization]] – The cost and complexity of machinery, especially that powered by water or steam, was more than cottage-industry workers could afford or had the skills to maintain.  The exception was the sewing machine, which allowed [[putting out system|putting out]] of sewing to continue for decades after the rise of factories.  Home spinning and weaving were displaced in the years following the introduction of factory production, especially as distribution became easier.<ref name = "Thomson 1989"/>
:Workers and machines were brought together in  a central factory complex specially designed to handle the machinery and flow of materials.  Although the earliest factories were usually all under one roof, different operations might be done on different floors. (Multi-story buildings were common because they facilitated transmission of power through [[line shaft]]s.)  In large factories, such as [[Baldwin locomotive works]], different processes were performed in different buildings.<ref name = "Hunter 1991">
{{cite book |title      = A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1730–1930, Vol. 3: The Transmission of Power
 |last       = Hunter
 |first      = Louis C.
 |authorlink =
 |author2    = Bryant, Lynwood
 |year       = 1991
 |publisher  = MIT Press
 |location   = Cambridge
 |isbn       = 0-262-08198-9
 |page       =
 |url-access = registration
 |url        = https://archive.org/details/historyofindustr00hunt
}}
</ref>
:Foundry and blacksmith operations were normally kept in a separate building for reasons of safety, cleanliness and health.<ref>*{{cite book|last=Nelson|first=Daniel|title=Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management|year=1980|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|location=Madison|isbn=0-299-08160-5}}</ref>
:The efficiency of steam engines increases with size. Because of this, the smallest steam engines were about 2 horsepower, which was larger than needed by most workshops.  Consequently, until electrification in the 1910s and 1920s, most workshops relied on manual power or rented space in ''power buildings'' which provided a centrally-powered [[line shaft]].<ref name = "Hunter 1991"/>
* [[Standardization]] and uniformity – Components were made to standard specifications, such as soles, heels and uppers for shoes themselves made to uniform sizes.  Uniformity was mainly due to the precision possible from machinery, but also, quality was overseen by management.  The quality of many machine operations such as sewing was superior to hand methods.<ref name = "Thomson 1989">{{cite book |title      = The Path to Mechanized Shoe Production in the United States
 |last       = Thomson
 |first      = Ross
 |authorlink =
 |year       = 1989
 |publisher  = The University of North Carolina Press
 |location   = Chapel Hill and London
 |isbn       = 978-0807818671
 |url-access = registration
 |url        = https://archive.org/details/pathtomechanized00thom
}}
</ref>  Near the end of the nineteenth century metal [[interchangeable parts]] became widely used.<ref name =Hounshell-1984>{{Hounshell1984}}</ref>
* Guarantee of supply – Factories were able to produce and distribute a steady supply of goods.

Workers were paid either daily [[wage]]s or for [[piece work]], either in the form of money or some combination of money, housing, meals and goods from a company store (the [[truck system]]).  Piece work presented accounting difficulties, especially as volumes increased and workers did a narrower scope of work on each piece.  Piece work went out of favor with the advent of the [[production line]], which was designed by factory staff on standard times for each operation in the sequence, and workers had to keep up with the work flow.

Critics of the factory system have associated it with the other example of bulk human-labor organisation of its era—[[slavery]].<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Freeman
 |first1               = Joshua B.
 |author-link1         = Joshua Freeman
 |year                 = 2018
 |title                = Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=iYUrDwAAQBAJ
 |location             = New York
 |publisher            = W. W. Norton & Company
 |isbn                 = 9780393246322
 |access-date          = 18 March 2023
 |quote                = [...] in the early years of the factory system, it was as likely to be dubbed a new form of slavery as a new form of freedom. [...] For Robert Southey, the association of slavery with the factory system did not stem from particular abuses but from the nature of the system itself. [...] An 1844 letter in the ''Manchester Operative'' [...] likened the mill bell calling workers to their tasks to 'a slave driver's whip' [...]
}} 
</ref>

==History==
[[File:New Lanark buildings 2009.jpg|right|thumb|250px|New Lanark mill]]
===Antiquity===
In [[Sumer|Ancient Sumer]] around 3000&nbsp;BC, the [[Ancient Mesopotamia]]n economy began to develop a version of the factory system that also featured the [[division of labor]].<ref name="MooreLewis2009">{{cite book|author1=Karl Moore|author2=David Charles Lewis|title=The Origins of Globalization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LXWTAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA40|date=2 June 2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-97008-6|page=30}}</ref> 
===Mills===
One of the earliest factories was [[John Lombe]]'s [[Derby Industrial Museum|water-powered silk mill]] at [[Derby]], operational by 1721.  By 1746, an integrated [[brass mill]] was working at [[Warmley]] near [[Bristol]].  Raw material went in at one end, was smelted into brass and was turned into pans, pins, wire, and other goods.  Housing was provided for workers on site. Other prominent early [[industrialist]]s who adopted the factory system included [[Josiah Wedgwood]] (1730–1795) in Staffordshire and [[Matthew Boulton]] (1728–1809) at his [[Soho Manufactory]] (1766–1848).

===Cotton spinning===
The factory system began widespread use somewhat later when [[cotton]]-[[spinning (textiles)|spinning]] was mechanized by a series of inventors.

The first use of an integrated system, where cotton came in and was spun, bleached, dyed and woven into finished cloth, was at mills in Waltham and Lowell, Massachusetts. These became known as [[Lowell Mills]] and the [[Waltham-Lowell system]].

The [[Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company |Nasmyth, Gaskell and Company's Bridgewater Foundry]], which began operation in 1836, was one of the earliest factories to use modern materials-handling such as cranes and rail-tracks through the buildings for handling heavy items.<ref>{{cite book |title= Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution  |url=https://archive.org/details/sciencetechnolog00aemu  |url-access=registration  |last=Musson |author2= Robinson |year=1969 |publisher =University of Toronto Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sciencetechnolog00aemu/page/491 491–5]|isbn=9780802016379 }}</ref>

===Arkwright===
[[Image:Cromford 1771 mill.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Cromford Mill as it is today]]

[[Richard Arkwright]] (1732–1792) patented his [[water frame]] in 1769, a major breakthrough in powering textile machinery.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clydesdale |first=Greg |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Waves_of_Prosperity/HDUaDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Richard+Arkwright+brains+growth+factories&pg=PT159&printsec=frontcover |title=Waves of Prosperity: India, China and the West – How Global Trade Transformed The World |date=2016-09-16 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=978-1-4721-3899-6 |language=en}}</ref> He established [[Cromford Mill]], in [[Derbyshire]], England. The factory system was a new way of organizing [[Workforce |labour]] made necessary by the development of machines which were too large to house in a worker's cottage.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wald |first=Jeff |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_End_of_Jobs/zSHdDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=factory+system+machines+too+large+worker's+cottage&pg=PT20&printsec=frontcover |title=The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations |date=2020-06-02 |publisher=Post Hill Press |isbn=978-1-64293-436-6 |language=en}}</ref>  Working hours were as long as they had been for the farmer, that is, from dawn to dusk, six days per week.

===Machine tools and interchangeable parts===
An early instance of transition from skilled craftsmen to [[Machine tool|machine tools]] began in the late eighteenth century. In 1774, [[John Wilkinson (industrialist) |John Wilkinson]] invented a method for boring cannon-barrels that were straight and true every time. He adapted this method to bore piston cylinders in the [[Steam engine|steam engines]] of [[James Watt]]. This boring machine was "probably the first metal-cutting tool capable of doing large work with anything like modern accuracy."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roe |first=Joseph Wickham |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/English_and_American_Tool_Builders/X-EJAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=probably%20the%20first%20metal-cutting%20tool%20capable%20of%20doing%20large%20work%20with%20anything%20like%20modern%20accuracy |title=English and American Tool Builders |date=1916 |publisher=Yale University Press |page=11 |language=en}}</ref>

Mass production using [[interchangeable parts]] was first achieved in 1803 by [[Marc Isambard Brunel]] in cooperation with [[Henry Maudslay]] and Simon Goodrich, under the management of (with contributions by) Brigadier-General Sir [[Samuel Bentham]], the Inspector General of Naval Works at [[Portsmouth Block Mills]] at [[Portsmouth Dockyard]], for the British Royal Navy during the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. By 1808 annual production had reached 130,000 [[Block (sailing) |sailing blocks]].<ref>{{Citation |title= Enlightenment & measurement |publisher= Making the modern world |url=http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&tv=true |place=[[United Kingdom|UK]] |access-date=2016-11-11 |archive-url= http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20170405150102/http://www.makingthemodernworld.org.uk/stories/enlightenment_and_measurement/05.ST.02/?scene=3&tv=true |archive-date= 2017-04-05 |url-status= dead }}.</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Portsmouth dockyard |place=UK |url=http://www.portsmouthdockyard.org.uk/Page%206.htm |access-date=2016-11-11 |archive-date=2020-02-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226122038/https://portsmouthdockyard.org.uk/Page%206.htm |url-status=dead }}.</ref><ref>{{Citation |contribution=Block |title=Collections |publisher=Science museum |contribution-url=http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/collections/exhiblets/block/ |place=UK |type=exhiblet }}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}.</ref><ref>{{Citation |last= Gilbert |first= KR |title= The Portsmouth Block-making Machinery |place= London |year= 1965}}.</ref>{{Page needed |date= July 2015}}<ref>{{Citation |last= Cooper |first= CC | title= The Production Line at Portsmouth Block Mill | journal= Industrial Archaeology Review |volume= VI |year= 1982 |pages= 28–44}}.</ref>{{Page needed |date=July 2015}}<ref>{{Citation |last=Cooper |first=CC |title=The Portsmouth System of Manufacture |journal= Technology and Culture |volume=25 |year = 1984 |issue=2 | pages =182–225|doi=10.2307/3104712 |jstor=3104712 |s2cid=111936139 }}.</ref>{{Page needed |date=July 2015}}<ref>{{Citation |last=Coad |first=Jonathan |title=The Royal Dockyards 1690–1850 |place= Aldershot |year= 1989}}.</ref>{{Page needed |date= July 2015}}<ref>{{Citation |last= Coad |first= Jonathan | title =The Portsmouth Block Mills : Bentham, Brunel and the start of the Royal Navy's Industrial Revolution |year=2005 |publisher= English Heritage |isbn=1-873592-87-6 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pz8hAQAAIAAJ}}.</ref>{{Page needed |date=July 2015}}<ref>{{Citation |last=Wilkin |first=Susan |title=The application of emerging new technologies by Portsmouth Dockyard, 1790–1815 |publisher=The Open University |type=PhD Thesis |year=1999}} (copies available from the British Thesis service of the British Library).</ref><ref>{{Citation |editor1-last= Cantrell |editor1-first= J | editor2-last =Cookson |editor2-first= G |title= Henry Maudslay and the Pioneers of the Machine Age |place= Stroud |year= 2002}}.</ref>  This method of working did not catch on in general manufacturing in Britain for many decades, and when it did it was imported from America, becoming known as the ''[[American system of manufacturing]]'', even though it had originated in England.

==Societal effects==
Much manufacturing in the 18th century was carried out in homes under the domestic or [[putting-out system]], especially the [[weaving]] of cloth and the spinning of thread and yarn, often with just a single loom or spinning wheel. As these devices were mechanized, machine-made goods were able to underprice the cottagers, leaving them unable to earn enough to make their effort worthwhile.  Other products such as [[nail (fastener) |nails]] had long been produced in factory workshops, increasingly diversified using the [[division of labour]] to increase the efficiency of the system.

Factory workers typically lived within walking distance to work until the introduction of bicycles and electric [[street railway |street-railway]]s in the 1890s.  Thus the factory system was partly responsible for the rise of urban living, as large numbers of workers migrated into the towns in search of employment in the factories.  Many mills had to provide dormitories for workers, especially for girls and women.

The transition to industrialisation was not without difficulty. For example, a group of English workers known as [[Luddite]]s formed in the 1810s to protest against industrialisation and sometimes [[sabotage]]d factories. They continued an already-established tradition of workers opposing labour-saving machinery. Numerous inventors in the textile industry such as [[John Kay (spinning frame) |John Kay]] ({{floruit | 1767}}) and [[Samuel Crompton]] (1753–1827), suffered harassment when developing their machines or devices.
[[Image:Soho Manufactory ca 1800.jpg|thumb|right|The Soho Manufactory in 1800]]
In other industries the transition to factory production was gradual.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Silverman |first=H. A. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Studies_in_Industrial_Organization/oihFAQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=industries+transition+factory+production+gradual&pg=PA49&printsec=frontcover |title=Studies in Industrial Organization |date=2013-10-08 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-51317-6 |language=en}}</ref>

Until the late-nineteenth century it was common to work 12 hours a day, six days a week in most factories; however tenant farmers also worked long hours.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinbach |first=Susie L. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Understanding_the_Victorians/U8PLDAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=long+hours+common+outside+factories&pg=PT115&printsec=frontcover |title=Understanding the Victorians: Politics, Culture and Society in Nineteenth-Century Britain |date=2016-08-05 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-81825-9 |language=en}}</ref>

Debate arose concerning the morality of the system, as workers complained about unfair working conditions prior to the passage of labour laws.  One of the problems was women's labour; in many cases women were paid not much more than a quarter of what men made.  [[Child labour]] also became a major part of the system.  However, in the early-nineteenth century, education was not compulsory and in many families having children work was necessary due to low incomes ([[Samuel Slater]] (1768–1835) employed children but was required to provide basic education).  Children commonly did farm labour and produced goods for the household.  Besides working in factories, children worked in mines.  Automation in the late 19th century is credited with displacing child labour, with the automatic glass-bottle blowing machine ({{circa | 1890}}) cited by some as an example, having been said<ref>{{Cite book |last=Flannery |first=James L. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Glass_House_Boys_of_Pittsburgh/Hm1QyfIXRPYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=automatic+glass-bottle+blowing+machine+child+labour&pg=PA2&printsec=frontcover |title=The Glass House Boys of Pittsburgh: Law, Technology, and Child Labor |date=2009 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Pre |isbn=978-0-8229-4377-8 |language=en}}</ref> to have done more to end child labour than child-labour laws.  Years of schooling began to increase sharply from the end of the nineteenth century.

Some industrialists themselves tried to improve factory -and living-conditions for their workers.  One of the earliest such reformers, [[Robert Owen]] (1771–1858), became known for his pioneering efforts in improving conditions for workers at the [[Robert Owen#Philanthropy in New Lanark (1800) |New Lanark mills]], and is often{{quantify|date=March 2023}} regarded as one of the key thinkers of the [[Utopian socialism |early  socialist movement]].

[[Karl Marx]] worried that the capitalist system would eventually lead to wages only sufficient for subsistence due to the [[tendency of the rate of profit to fall]].  Subsistence wages were indeed the case in parts of England.  The [[British Agricultural Revolution]] had been reducing the need for labour on farms for over a century and farm workers were forced to sell their labour wherever they could.  Conditions became particularly bad during the depression years of the late 1830s to early 1840s.  The depression was immediately followed by the [[Great Famine (Ireland) |Irish famine]] of 1845–1850, which brought large numbers of Irish immigrants to seek work in the English and American factories.

One of the best-known accounts of factory workers' living conditions during the Industrial Revolution is [[Friedrich Engels|Friedrich Engels']] ''[[The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844]]''.  By the late 1880s, Engels noted that the extreme poverty and lack of sanitation he wrote about in 1844 had largely disappeared.<ref>Preface to the later editions (post 1887) of ''Conditions of the Working Class in England in 1844''</ref>

==See also==
* [[Adam Smith]]
* [[Arnold Toynbee (historian, born 1852)]]
* [[Assembly line]]
* [[Mass production]]
* [[Mechanization]]
* [[Productivity-improving technologies]]
* [[Urban manufacturing]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last = Walker |first = William |editor-last = Nelson |editor-first = Richard R. |title = National innovation systems : a comparative analysis |year = 1993 |publisher = Oxford University Press |location = New York, NY |chapter = National Innovation Systems: Britain |isbn = 0195076176 |chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YFDGjgxc2CYC&pg=PA187 |ref = Walker1993 }}<!-- Author profile: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/intrel/people/index.php/wbw.html-->
{{refend}}

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{{Industrial Revolution}}
{{History of technology}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Factory System}}
[[Category:Industrial Revolution]]
[[Category:History of manufacturing]]