To answer Leo's question about unique locations, like industries tended to
congregate in the same towns or cities for numerous reasons, but two of them
would be a ready workforce trained in that industry's particular skills
(Need skilled workers? Hire your competitors!) and a support system of not
only transportation but of smaller suppliers, tool makers, materials
wholesalers, etc. The economics of scale would make it more feasible to be
the drawer handle maker for several furniture makers in Aurora than for one
in say Ottawa or LaSalle, and a furniture maker is more likely to locate his
factory in a town that already has a drawer handle maker and a glue
supplier, and a nail wholesaler, etc. This also explains Detroit's
reputation as an auto-maker and Chicago's as a hog butcherer or St. Louis as
a shoemaker.
Robert Brown
St. Charles, MO
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