Early Industrialization Flashcards
Four types of pre-industrial production
- Rural handicrafts: For household or neighbour
consumption, or for market- Ex) Proto-Industry
- Urban handicrafts: Specialized, regulated by guilds
(until 1846)- Ex) Tailors, cobblers, blacksmiths, joiners
- Rural industries
- Ex) iron and metal works, mining
- Urban industries outside the guilds
- Ex) manufactories
Proto-Industry
- Rural handicraft production for the market
- Geographical conditions made it difficult for agriculture
- Within household, complemented agriculture
- Increased proletarianization of labour and demand (social process whereby people move from being either an employer, unemployed or self-employed, to being employed as wage labor by an employer.)
- From self-employed to wage labour
- Town Economic Policy: State involvement
- National level, ban on rural trade
Central areas of proto-industry
- Västergötland/Sjuhärad – Textiles (Mitte Westen)
- Skåne/Småland and Dalarna – Metal working and
wood (Süden) - Hälsingland – Linen Production (Mitte Osten)
centralized south-west
Ways of selling handicraft products
- Peasant System
- Kauf system
(buying system) - Putting-Out System
Putting-Out System
The putting-out system is a means of subcontracting work. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the project via remote work.
The domestic system was suited to pre-urban times because workers did not have to travel from home to work, which was quite unfeasible due to the state of roads and footpaths, and members of the household spent many hours in farm or household tasks. Early factory owners sometimes had to build dormitories to house workers, especially girls and women. Putting-out workers had some flexibility to balance farm and household chores with the putting-out work, this being especially important in winter.
merchants themself have a deal with other peasants family, or have raw goods for international trade – finished or unfinished goods - give the peasants a deadline to finish those goods – most merchant activity
peasants are able to go in debt if they are not able to fulfill the crucial merchant deadlines
merchant class - mostly operating in the burgher estates:
Urban Handicrafts
- Strong guilds, regulating entry.
- Political influence prevented efforts to deregulate urban crafts
- Limited technological development
- From 1750-1850, limited economic dynamics
- Growth but not revolutionary
- Rural markets are often more important than urban
- No development towards larger organizations; “Proto-factories”?
The manufactories
- Centralized urban production unit.
- Special status in 18th-century legislation
- Supported by state for import substitution
- Tax exemption and loans
- Import quotas and high customs
- Most important from 1720-1770, Mainly in Stockholm
- Economies of scale in manual production
- New techniques and products
- Successful industries: textiles wool, linen, cotton
- Free from guild system
- Some reliance on home workers
Rural industries: Iron
- Iron was traditionally the most important export
commodity. - Large-scale capitalistic production
- Bergslagen and mining privileges
- Medieval origins
- Quotas to keep up
prices and save woods - Merchant houses
Causes and the development of proto-industry
- Craft expansion, 1750 to 1850.
- Improvements in agriculture, growing
population, expanding market, increased
demand. - Decline after 1850: industrialization increases
competition. - Some continuity in industrial production
How did the agrarian society create the conditions for industrialization
- Markets
- Population growth, legislative changes
- Labour
- Capital
- Knowledge
- Conditions established for the continuous process
of industrialization
Summary
- Gradual break from agriculture but still
depended on it - Government control and mercantile ideals,
Town Economic Policy - Proto-industry = outside of local economy
- Guilds limit technological growth in towns
- Is Sweden ready for industrialization? Not
until around 1870!
Keyword: Town Economic Policy
The early division of labor resulted in household handicraft being largely restricted to the region’s natural geographic resource. The “town economic policy” of the 17th century banned rural trade for the purpose of drawing a clear line between the urban and rural economics. Craft and industrial production were regarded as urban source of livelihood, therefore centralized manufacturing were preferred.[4] This thus paved way to the first industrial revolution of Sweden in the early 19th century.
Keyword: Mercantilism
Mercantilism:
Like other European states the during the early 18th century, Sweden followed a mercantilist trade policy. This dictated that economic success of a nation was derived from strong state control over the economy, having more exports than imports, and striving for self-sufficiency. In the Swedish Empire, foreign trade was prohibited in all inland towns. Goods had to be first sold to “staple towns” before they could be traded internationally. In Sweden there were over 20 such towns, the most active being Stockholm and Gothenburg, while in Finland only Helsinki, Turku, and Hamina had the same rights. Critics of this system called it “Bothnian trade prohibition” (bottniska handelstvånget).The Riksdag wanted to expand Sweden’s merchant marine, and they sought this through the Commodity Act (produktplakatet) which was signed in 1724. This set of laws was similar to the English Navigation Acts. It decreed that a foreign nation could export to Sweden only those products that were produced domestically by said nation. Arvid Horn was not involved in drafting this law, as his party was against trade policy that would upset international relations.[9] Besides the obvious aim of creating a trade surplus, the Commodity Act had another protective measure specifically to reduce exports of timber so they could be secured for iron production, which was Sweden’s main export and where they had historically held a strong monopoly.
