The utilization of the factory system is a significant factor in the change and transformation of cities. Before the 1840s, their were two types of manufacture products. One type falls into the category of consumer items, such as “refined sugar, rum and leather goods” (Chudacoff 42). These items were then traded for raw materials. The other type were commerce-serving items, like ships and barrels. There was a high demand for such items, and a change in the organization of production was necessary to accomodate the high demand. The factory system involved the usage of mechanized devices, breaking down what may be complicated forms or production into simple repetitive tasks. This meant that workers “no longer needed as full a range of craft skills or had responsibility for the quality of the item produced” (Chudacoff 42).
Master craftsmen and journeymen benefited from the factory system. This allowed them to expand their clientele from a few individual customers into an impersonal market. However, most of these craftsmen were replaced by merchant capitalists, who had the money to fund these factory systems. It enabled merchant capitalists to oversee profits and the work process at the expense of the loss of traditional skills, especially in the making of shoes, clothes and boats. This trade-off is still seen today, with the usage of mass production of items at the expense of personalization and quality, forcing buyers to purchase items that may not fit what the consumer wants.
An example of a shoe factory in New England that employed about 62,000 people per year.
I agree that the growth of the manufacturing industry by expansion of factories was very important in growing big cities, however, they also were environmentally detrimental, and had unsafe and unfair working conditions for the thousands they employed.