9) He engraved everything including swords and bayonets:



10) He manufactured cartridges and other ammunition bits:




11). He sold guns wholesale to gun clubs and Yoemanry Militia.



12). And from the beginning he conducted a huge retail business in used long guns and pistols that he would inspect, test and guarantee.

May 1834 article on the futility of amateurs trying to find “bargains” in local bankruptcy sales:


EM Reilly had to be quite the entrepreneur to keep all these business balls in the air at one time and indeed he was. When he died in July 1890 he had just about the same amount of cash in his account, Ł8400, as was left to him by his father J.C. upon J.C.’s death in Jan 1864. But he had the buildings and the inventory, indicating he must have plowed his earnings back into his company.

As research continues, here are some thoughts which I’d appreciate some help with. There are some very knowledgeable readers here who have forwarded comments both skeptical and encouraging…LeFusil, Justin, and others. And now it’s time for some UK’ers to wade in because this is London history.

300 employees - a “vertical” vice “horizontal” company

By 1880 EM. Reilly allegedly (I have not personally seen these census records) told a census taker that he employed about 300 people. This is an enormous number!!! The London 19th century businesses were especially entrepreneurial. In 1850 there were only 7 firms in all of London with more than 350 employees.



David Trevallion told me that Purdey employed about 12 persons in 1953…Holland&Holland a max of about 25 in the 1890’s. 300 employees in 1880 would make Reilly one of the largest if not the largest gun-maker in London. Per David this would change his ideas about the nature of gun-making in London in the 19th century.

London gun makers (and for the most part the Birmingham as well) were “horizontal”…relying on an intricate network of sub-contractors; i.e. they supervised and subcontracted the essential work to others in the trade and assembled and quality controlled the final product.

But there were a few “vertical” gun making firms at the time…beginning in the 1850’s with the Colt Factory; and later Trantor…which claimed to do everything internally, If Reilly had 300 employees in 1880 (which would have included retail sales persons at three locations including Paris, shop foremen, stockers, action filers, etc.), and if he could allow customers to follow the progress of their orders in person in the factory, then most certainly the Reilly Company was, unusually, a “vertical” one as maintained in the ads…. I.e. It made everything internally for his Serial Numbered guns.

Questions:
— Is it possible to verify that Reilly employed 300 persons in 1880? It looks as if someone got a list of the number of employees of companies in London from the 1851 census.
— Are there English business publications from that time period with information on British companies in London? The above article comment has to be based on something.

Here’s what I will be doing:
— I intend to go over the 1861, 71 and 81 London census person by person to record who was involved in the gun trade at the time (unless this has been done somehow). It will take awhile but I’ll publish the result. David thinks there will be less than 1,000 workers in London. We’ll see.

Last edited by Argo44; 05/25/19 06:23 AM.
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