Comprises 3 databases containing data on firms, products, costs. inputs, outputs, and technology for 448 products made by 70 textile manufacturing firms surveyed over the period 1888-1890 in 16 states and published in the Seventh Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, Vol. I (1892). The firms' names and locations (except region: north or south) were originally hidden, in order to obtain cooperation in revealing firms' competitive data to the U.S. Commissioner of Labor. However, scholars have since discovered most of the textile mill names through careful matching of information in the report with other sources. Identification of each firm permitted augmenting the data (e.g., transportation costs) using other sources.
