INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 257 



workpeople men, women and children who 

 worked in 1897 in the textile industries of the 

 United Kingdom were distributed over 10,883 

 factories, which gives only an average of ninety- 

 three persons per factory in all this great industry, 

 notwithstanding the fact that " concentration " 

 has progressed most in this industry, and that 

 we find in it factories employing as many as 

 5,000 and 6,000 persons. 



It is true that the Factory Inspectors represent 

 each separate branch of a given industry as a 

 special establishment. Thus, if an employer or 

 a society owns a spinning mill, a weaving factory, 

 and a special building for dressing and finishing, 

 the three are represented as separate factories. 

 But this is precisely what is wanted for giving 

 us an exact idea about the degree of con- 

 centration of a given industry. Besides, it is 

 also known that, for instance, in the cotton 

 industry, hi the neighbourhood of Manchester, 

 the spinning, the weaving, the dressing and so 

 on belong very often to different employers, who 

 send to each other the stuffs at different degrees 

 of fabrication ; those factories which combine 

 under the same management all the three or four 

 consecutive phases of the manufacture are an 

 exception. 



But it is especially hi the division of the non- 

 textile industries that we find an enormous de- 



9 



