ABSTRACT
This chapter establishes what was really new about International Harvester Company (IHC), why it was formed, and why only in 1902. In the late 1880's and early 1890's the North American harvesting-machinery industry experienced spatial and corporate concentration. The depression of the 1890's coincided with the first blush of mass production. Mass production, a supply-side innovation, swept away both the licensing regime and dispersed production. Harvesting-machinery manufacturers began to adapt to second industrial revolution techniques in the 1880's. Two Chicago plants achieved a scale of production and a level of labor productivity that were previously unthinkable. According to David Hounshell, the McCormick works was the first in the industry to adopt elements of armory practice and move towards mass production, following the replacement of Leander McCormick as superintendent of the works by Lewis Wilkinson in 1880. IHC, or the modern industrial corporation as it is known in this industry, owes its origins to the development of mass production.
