State Reform and the Local Economy: A Reply

Abstract

In my original article I argued that an overall unevenness in factory and workshop regulation-especially a lack of regulation of non-factory work-made it advantageous for employers in the clothing trades to send work to less regulated premises, and hence production actually decentralized in that industry. 1 Morris disputes this. She argues that regulation was much more uniform than I suggest and that instead of moving away from the factory, production moved into it. Her argument is based on two overall criticisms of my work: first, that I misunderstand the nature of outwork; and second, that my use of statistics is careless and misleading. I have a few comments about these criticisms.2 Morris and I clearly do not share a common understanding of outwork and we do not agree as to how effectively outwork was regulated. If Morris is correct-that outwork was done in the factory or some other rigorously regulated workplace-then my proposed correlation between the growth of unregulated outwork and effective state factory and workshop regulation is invalid. But I still believe that it is a valid correlation, although I agree with Morris that outwork statistics are open to some criticism. Nowhere in my article do I contend that outwork was always homework. But I do believe that the available evidence suggests that a majority of it was. While many outworkers worked in their homes, some worked in various other premises-most notoriously and characteristically the numerous dirty sweatshops hidden in a room or two in the East End of London. Outwork could also be done in a factory, but by legal definition outwork was done outside the factory or workshop.3 Anyone familiar with the London clothing trades at the turn of the century could tell us that although a factory rarely sent work out to be done in another factory, many factories or workshops (or simply retailers or wholesalers) often sent work out to other workplaces-perhaps simply to a kitchen or to a basement room. The Master Tailors whom Morris identifies as probable factory owners (p. 294), were precisely the sort of small-time, unscrupulous sweating masters who operated out of small East End workshops, depending on orders from firms in the City and living off a cheap labour market.4 Morris's contention that outwork in the London clothing trades was done