Reference no: EM132222133

Read the following description of the rifle industry in Birmingham, England during the early part of the 20th century. The question below is based on this reading.

The master gun-maker – the entrepreneur – seldom possessed a factory or workshop. Usually he owned merely a warehouse in the gun quarter, and his function was to acquire semifinished parts and to give those out to specialized craftsmen, who undertook assembly and finishing of the gun. He purchased material from barrel-makers, lockmakers, sight-stampers, trigger-makers, ramrod-forgers, gun-furniture makers, and if he were engaged in the military branch, from bayonet-forgers. All of these were independent manufacturers executing the orders of several master gun-makers. Once the parts had been purchased from the “material-makers,” as they were called, the next task was to hand them out to a long succession of “setters-up,” each of whom performed a specific operation in connection with the assembly and finishing of the gun. To name only a few, there were those who prepared the front sight and lump end of the barrels; the jiggers, who attended to the breech end; the stockers, who let in the barrel and lock and shaped the stock; the barrel-strippers, who prepared the gun for rifling and proof; the hardeners, polishers, borers and riflers, engravers, browners, and finally the lock-freers, who adjusted the working parts. [G.C. Allen, The Industrial Development of Birmingham and the Black Country, 1906-1927. London, 1929, pp. 56-57.]

Describe why the production of guns was organized in the above fashion. In doing so, fully discuss the efficiencies associated with the production process detailed above. Make sure to refer to ideas presented in class. What does the structure of production imply about the extent of the market for rifles?