February 2014 Archives

Big bibliography: a little bit about flexible production

Boch, R. (1997). The rise and decline of flexible production: The cutlery industry of Solingen since the eighteenth century. In C.F. Sabel & J. Zeitlin (Eds.), World of possibilities: Flexibility and mass production in Western industrialization (153-187). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

In the cutlery industry in Solingen: "By the mid eighteenth century the formerly independent smiths, grinders and hafters had become mere artisan workers, getting their raw material or semi-finished products from the merchant-capitalists in advance and being paid by the piece" (Boch 1997, 155)

a particular model of work to the place and period: even when centralized in ~100-worker grinding halls, "Each grinder still owned his tools and worked on his own account for different merchant capitalists, only 'paying for steam' power in the halls" (Boch 1997, 156)