We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
The economic structure of local communities and regions is a basic ingredient of community history. One aspect of this, agriculture, has been treated in chapters 4 and 5. This chapter and the next are concerned with source materials for the history of manufacturing, mining, commerce, and communications.
INDUSTRY AND BUSINESS
Topics which could be considered in the local history of manufacturing and business activity are legion. Fundamental is the analysis of the economic characteristics of the community concerned – the main kinds of industries and businesses and changes in their relative importance over time, embracing the growth of specialization, diversification, decline, or disappearance of certain sectors, and so on. It may be pertinent here to take into account the impact of external influences – technological change, influx of population, transportation improvements, growth of centers of consumption, expansion of banking and credit facilities, and the general fortunes of the national or regional economy.
Aspects of the main industries and trades in a community which may need investigation include the numbers of firms involved, the types of goods produced or sold, methods of manufacture, processes and machinery, use of power, and the scale of production. In addition it may well be significant to look into the organization of establishments (single entrepreneurs, family businesses, partnerships, larger companies), including management techniques, sources of capital, relations with banks, use of credit, markets for produce, and sources of raw materials.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
