INDUSTRIAL VILLAGES. 281 



The absorption of the small workshops by bigger 

 concerns is a fact which had struck the econo- 

 mists in the 'forties of the last century, especially 

 in the textile trades. It is continued still in 

 many other trades, and is especially striking in a 

 number of very big concerns dealing with metals 

 and war, supplies for the different States. But 

 there is another process which is going on parallel 

 with the former, and which consists in the 

 continuous creation of new industries, usually 

 making then* start on a small scale. Each 

 new factory calls into existence a number of 

 small workshops, partly to supply its own needs 

 and partly to submit its produce to a further 

 transformation. Thus, to quote but one instance, 

 the cotton mills have created an immense demand 

 for wooden bobbins and reels, and thousands of 

 men in the Lake District set to manfuacture 

 them by hand first, and later on with the aid 

 of some plain machinery. Only quite recently, 

 after years had been spent in inventing and 

 improving the machinery, the bobbins began to 

 be made on a larger scale in factories. And 

 even yet, as the machines are very costly, a great 

 quantity of bobbins are made in small work- 

 shops, with but little aid from machines, while 

 the factories themselves are relatively small, 

 and seldom employ more than fifty operatives 

 chiefly children. As to the reels of irregular 



