In the sixties the market became a national one as the effect of the
consolidation into trunk lines of the numerous and disconnected railway
lines built during the forties and fifties. Coincident with the
nationalized market for goods, production began to change from a
handicraft to a machine basis. The former sweatshop boss having
accumulated some capital, or with the aid of credit, now became a small
"manufacturer," owning a small plant and employing from ten to fifty
workmen. Machinery increased the productivity of labor and gave a
considerable margin of profits, which enabled him to begin laying a
foundation for his future independence of the middleman. As yet he was,
however, far from independent.
The wider areas over which manufactured products were now to be
distributed, called more than ever before for the services of the
specialist in marketing, namely, the wholesale-jobber. As the market
extended, he sent out his traveling men, established business
connections, and advertised the articles which bore his trade mark. His
control of the market opened up credit with the banks, while the
manufacturer, who with the exception of his patents possessed only
physical capital and no market opportunities, found it difficult to
obtain credit.
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