Made by Hand. In the first third of the nineteenth century most consumer goods were produced in small, unmechanized manufactories (literally, places where things were made by hand). Contemporaries referred to these business places as shops and their proprietors as craftsmen, artisans, or mechanics. Many small shops combined manufacturing and retail operations (often in one room), produced goods to order (called "bespoke" goods), and were generally owned and run by the master craftsman himself, who, depending on the size of the concern, might have in his employ several journeymen or apprentices. The master craftsman and his family generally lived in rooms above or behind the shop, and the journeymen and apprentices he hired often lived under the same roof.

The Master. In traditional shops masters, journeymen, and apprentices knew their specified duties and maintained a rough hierarchy of authority under the master's control...