ABSTRACT
The workplace remains diverse in character in the Victorian economy, but the large-scale factory was starting to become more significant. In part this was due to the increasing significance of heavy industry, with shipyards for large iron ships, engineering works, railway engine yards, iron and steel works, and all sorts of factories making diverse metal goods. Parts of the country became specialists in such heavy industry Belfast, Glasgow and Tyne and Wear especially. The growth of chemical manufacturing also encouraged large-scale production. Production techniques started to change more rapidly as a result. Machines became ever more important in the subdivision of labour, and in reducing labour costs through deskilling. The arrival of a factory in a locality signalled, as few other edifices did, the coming of large-scale capital investment, organised labour, large machines and great power sources. The factory represented a new economic order and a new philosophical order of grand scale in semi-rural districts.
