Gallman revisited: blacksmithing and American manufacturing, 1850–1870

Jeremy Atack and Robert Margo

Cliometrica, 2019, vol. 13, issue 1, No 1, 23 pages

Abstract: Abstract In nineteenth-century America, blacksmiths were a fixture in every village, town, and city, producing a diverse range of products from axes to wheels and services from repairs to horse shoeing. In constructing his historical GNP accounts, Gallman opted to exclude these “jacks-of-all-trades” from the manufacturing sector, classifying them instead as part of the service sector. However, using establishment-level data for blacksmiths from the federal censuses of manufactures for 1850, 1860, and 1870, we re-examine that choice and show that blacksmiths were an important, if declining, source of manufactured goods. Moreover, as quintessential artisan shops, a close analysis of their structure and operation helps resolve several key puzzles regarding industrialization in the nineteenth century. As “jacks-of-all-trades,” they were generally masters of none (except for their service activities). Moreover, the historical record reveals that several of those who managed to achieve mastery moved on to become specialized manufacturers of that specific product. Such specialized producers had higher productivity levels than those calling themselves blacksmiths producing the same goods, explaining changes in industry mix and the decline of the blacksmith in manufacturing.

Keywords: Blacksmith; Industrialization; Economies of scale; Specialization; Labor productivity; Gallman (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11698-017-0165-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
Journal Article: Gallman revisited: blacksmithing and American manufacturing, 1850–1870 (2019)
Working Paper: Gallman Revisited: Blacksmithing and American Manufacturing, 1850-1870 (2017)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:cliomt:v:13:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11698-017-0165-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11698

DOI: 10.1007/s11698-017-0165-x

Access Statistics for this article

Cliometrica is currently edited by Claude Diebolt

More articles in Cliometrica from Springer, Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().