Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Factory (industrial)
(2,943 words)

1. Terminology

The term factory in its modern sense – a site of centralized production, where a great number of workers produce large quantities of uniform goods for sale, in a process that makes use of division of labor and machines not powered by humans (Force) – does not appear (as Fabrik) in the German-language literature of economics and political science until the early 1840s. Defining characteristics of factories are the large …

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Gorißen, Stefan, “Factory (industrial)”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_019070>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180126



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