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Strategies and boundaries : subcontracting and the London trades in the long eighteenth century

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Riello, Giorgio. (2008) Strategies and boundaries : subcontracting and the London trades in the long eighteenth century. Enterprise and Society, Vol.9 (No.2). pp. 243-280. ISSN 1467-2227

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/es/khn004

Abstract

In the eighteenth century subcontracting was an important way of organising production in sectors producing as different commodities as clocks, coaches, footwear, furniture and scientific instruments. This article argues that subcontracting was not simply a form of cost reduction in labour-intensive and technologically unsophisticated sectors. Subcontracting could be seen as a way to respond to profound changes in the way commodities were produced, exchanged and consumed in an eighteenth-century metropolis like London. The expansion in size and complexity of the metropolitan market, the appearance of new commodities classified as semi-luxuries and fashion items, and the consequent re-assessment of traditional social structures and norms of production, made subcontracting a tool of organisational flexibility.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts > History
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Subcontracting -- History -- England -- London, Commerce -- History -- 18th century
Journal or Publication Title:	Enterprise and Society
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	1467-2227
Date:	4 April 2008
Volume:	Vol.9
Number:	No.2
Page Range:	pp. 243-280
Identification Number:	10.1093/es/khn004
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Description:	Winner of the Newcomen Article Prize 2009
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/193