Yes, they could and, ocasionally, did. The issue was to attract the commission to do so. Best guns were built on commission (bespoke) - or at least finished up on commission. Nobody could afford to have a bunch of them sitting around in inventory. Remember, one went to his gunmaker to assure getting the right gun, for shooting instruction, and for advise. These are not the sort of services one expects from a factory. I'm sure the "names" did everything they could to keep the factories in their place and the factories did everything they could to sell as many high priced guns as they possibly could. Krrp in mind that there is no monolithic "it happend this way." Every "name," every factory, every customer, and every sale had some uniqueness. Guns were luxury items. There was no Wal-Mart where Everyman bought a gun with 100,000 idential siblings.
