What was the first company to outsource jobs?

Question

Now if you look at our society, its almost as if the world is made in china. Manufacturing in almost everything has been moved to countries where products can be made for dirt cheap. A bit of a trivial question but what company started this? I mean there had to be one (nike? walmart? or who?)... oh and if you could find one a source would be cool.

Answer 1

Eastman Kodak was one of the first if not the first to "outsource" which is what you asked about.  If you're really asking about "offshoring" which is a version of outsourcing in which key production functions are contracted to companies which do the majority of the work outside the US, it could easily have been Nike or any of a myriad of other apparel companies.

Outsourcing merely means contracting a production function to another company not necessarily in another country.