I do not garner the same conclusions as EJ writes based on what was posted. In fact, I would say that I know of no firm that has done no sourcing to out-workers even in modern times.
Maybe the real question is why it is just not transparent by the big British/English makers (brands) themselves?
We all seem to agree that:
1) Just about every manufacturer has done outsourcing for hundreds of years, reasons including he/they don't have all the manufacturing capability in house, someone on the outside can do that part/job better, or that it is cheaper and/or more convenient to do so, or that it was simply their business model to do so (never being their intent to be an in-house manufacturer from their very business start).
2) Where the components are made is irrelevant, what is relevent is their quality and thus the overall quality of the final product(buy the gun and not the name).
Now that being given, and that great English marques are typically at the very top of the pricing structure of their respective arms offerings, it seems that it should in theory be a very simple exercise to answer the original question with immediate hard facts known by all who own or have interest in this segment of the business.
Now I am not saying that brand X has to make it publically known that their triggers are made by Mr. Y in village Z. But it would seem to be to their advantage to state that their barrels are specially made for them in Spain in a proprietary composition to their specifications by who they reagard as one of the best barrel makers.
Many top marques in other industries do it this way and use it as a way to let the potential customer know just why it costs so much because they are using the very best source of each major component, including their own factory in areas where no one can do it as well as them (at least in their own advertising hype and/or belief).
But apparantly for whatever reasons the definitive knowledge to easily answer the original question is not readily available. And I think the original question took into account that no maker would do 100% in-house. It was more the question as to which of the marques are essentially just assemblers, or even not even that, maybe just marketers of essentially complete guns made for them.
But then I am not intimately involved in this area so maybe this knowledge is more common than it appears from this thread.
