Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T19:32:17.771Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Woolen-Goods Industry of the Habsburg Monarchy in the Eighteenth Century*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Herman Freudenberger
Herman Freudenberger
Affiliation:
Montana State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the eighteenth century, industry, though still a minor factor in the total economy of the Habsburg monarchy—over 80 per cent of the people lived on the land—was the object of special attention from statesmen and theorists. To them industry connoted progress and showed great promise of being the handmaiden to the evolving power of the modern state. The great teacher in this respect was Colbert, and since the late seventeenth century the rulers of the Habsburg monarchy, as those of other states, had at least paid lip service to his ideas. The static nature of society, however, all too often prevented them from putting Colbert's mercantilist principles into practice.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , September 1960 , pp. 383 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1960

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Přibram, Karl, Geschichte der österreichischen Gewerbepolitik von 1740–1860 (Leipzig 1907), p. 26.Google Scholar

2 Fechner, Hermann, Die handelspolitischen Beziehungen Preussens zu Österreich (Berlin 1886), p. 4.Google Scholar

3 Walter, Friedrich, Die österreichische Zentralverwaltung, Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Neuere Geschichte Österreichs (Vienna 1938), XXXII, 255. The so-called Hereditary Lands were the Austrian and Bohemian lands of the Habsburgs.Google Scholar

4 Kopetz, W. Gustav, Allgemeine östreichische Gewerbs-Gesetzkunde (Vienna 1829–1830), I, 15–16.Google Scholar

5 Hallwich, Hermann, Reichenberg und Umgebung (Liberec 1874), pp. 305 ff.Google Scholar

6 According to the 1620 guild charter of Liberec, four years of apprenticeship were required. Hübner, Ludwig, Geschichte der Reichenberger Tuchmacherzunft (Liberec 1879), pp. 33–35.Google Scholar

7 SUA, SM, C 65/1, Folio 58–103 (26 May 1699).

8 Kopetz, Gewerbs-Gesetzkunde, I, 68; Hallwich, Reichenberg, p. 106; Hübner, Reichenberger Tuchmacherzunft, pp. 33–35; Přibram, Gewerbepolitik, pp. 295 ff.

9 SUA, SM, C 65/1, Folio 58–103 (May 1699); Kopetz, Gewerbs-Gesetzkunde, I, 98.

10 Werner, Karl, Urkundliche Geschichte der Iglauer Tuchmacherzunft (Leipzig 1866), p. 50.Google Scholar

11 Ruby, Franz, Das Iglauer Handwerk (Brno 1887), pp. 53–54.Google Scholar

12 Hawelka, Walter, Geschichte des Kleingewerbes und des Verlages in der Reichenberger Tucherzetigung (Liberec 1932), p. 55.Google Scholar

13 d'Elvert, Christian Ritter, Geschichte und Beschreibung der (königlichen Kreis-) und Bergstadt Iglau in Mähren (Brno 1850), p. 414; Werner, Iglauer Tuchmacherzunft, pp. 96–112.Google Scholar

14 Přibram, Gewerbepolitik., pp. 34, 96.

15 Weinbrenner, Joseph von, Patriotische Gedanken und Vorschläge über den gehemmten Ausfuhrhandel (Vienna 1792), pp. 41 ff.Google Scholar

16 The word “factory” is used chiefly because it is the best translation of the German word Fabrik, which was the usual designation of these enterprises in the eighteenth century.

17 “Zeuge” for the most part were narrow, smooth fabrics. Serges, flannels, fabrics used for workers' aprons and peasant clothes, for feed and flour sacks were included in this category.

18 No satisfactory study of the Habsburg silk industry has been written. Yet, because of the government's interest in promoting this industry, there is a wealth of documentation both in Austrian and in Czechoslovakian archives.

19 SUA, SM, C 65/1, Folio 58–103 (26 May 1699); Fouraier, August, “Handel und Verkehr in Ungarn und Polen um die Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts,” Archiv für österreichische Geschichte, LXIX (1887), 377 ff.Google Scholar

20 Salz, Arthur, Geschichte der böhmischen Industrie in der Neuzeit (Munich and Leipzig 1913) P 473.Google Scholar

21 Grunzel, Joseph, Die Reichenberger Tuchindustrie in ihrer Entwicklung vom zünftigen Handwerk. zur modernen Grossindustrie, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Industrie Böhmens (Prague 1878), V, 96.Google Scholar

22 Fechner, Die handelspolitischen Beziehungen, p. 6.

23 Hallwich, Reichenberg, p. 357.

24 This estimate is based on two assumptions: 1. The 1731 figure for Bohemia is more realistic than that of 1717. 2. Both figures for Silesia are reasonably accurate. Then the ratio of Silesian and Bohemian production in the 1730's should also hold for around 1720.

25 Grunzel, Reichenberger Tuchindustrie p. 96; Salz, Böhmische Industrie, pp. 610 ff.

26 Grunzel, Reichenberger Tuchindustrie, p. 96.

27 Salz, Böhmische Industrie, pp. 610 ff.

28 SAB, Gubernium Z 16/1, 1732.

29 Werner, Iglauer Tuchmacherzunft, p. 2.

30 d'Elvert, Iglau, p. 412.

31 d'Elvert, Christian Ritter, Die Cultur-Geschichte Mährens und Schlesiens (Brno 1870), p. 167.Google Scholar

32 Hallwich, Reichenberg, p. 70.

33 SUA, SM, C 65/9, Folio 38–39.

34 Adelsarchiv, Ministerium des Innern (Vienna). Miscellanea, Fasz. 43. The forebear of this gentleman was very likely Andrew Convay v. Waterfort, ennobled in 1672, an Irish soldier of fortune who came to the Habsburg monarchy during the Thirty Years' War.

35 SUA, CG 1728 A 7/15 (19 January 1729).

36 SUA, SM, C 65/9, Folio 120 ff.

37 Hofmann, Viktor, “Beiträge zur neueren österreichischen Wirtschaftsgeschichte,” Erster Teil. “Die Wollenzeugfabrik zu Linz an der Donau,” Archiv für österreichische Geschichte, CVIII (1920), 66Google Scholar.

38 Hofmann, “Wirtschaftsgeschichte,” pp. 46, 71.

39 See Table 1.

40 SAB, Gubernium Z 16/1, 1732.

41 See Tables 5 and 6.

42 SUB, SM, C 65/1, R. 1699; HKA, Altes Commerz, Fasz. 2, Red No. 2 (24 March 1749).

43 Klíma, Arnošt, Manufakturni obdobi v Čechách [The Manufacturing Period in Bohemia] (Prague 1955), pp. 460–462. Also see Table 3.Google Scholar

44 HKA, Böhm. Commerz, Fasz. 53, Red No. 795.

45 In 1800 Bohemia's population was 3,040,000. Stark, Werner, “Niedergang und Ende des landwirtschafdichen Grossbetriebs in den böhmischen Ländern,” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, CXLVI (1937), 419.Google Scholar

46 See Table 2.

47 See Freudenberger, Herman, “A Case-Study in the Government's Role in Economic Development in the Eighteenth Century: The Brno Fine-Cloth Factory” (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1957).Google Scholar

48 HKA, Böhm. Commerz, Fasz 101/2, Red No. 894, Folio 619.

49 HKA, Red No. 894.

50 Schwoy, Franz Joseph, Topographic vom Markgrafthum Mähren (Vienna 1794), III, 446.Google Scholar

51 Slokar, Johann, Geschichte der österreichischen Industrie (Vienna 1914), p. 357.Google Scholar

52 Ibid., p. 338.

53 HKA, Böhm. Commerz, Fasz. 101/1, Red No. 891 (c. 1761).

54 HKA, Böhm. Commerz, Fasz. 61, Red No. 816. The history of this institution has yet to be written. For a partial study, see Chylík, Jindřich, “První obchodní banka u nás,” [Our First Commercial Bank] Ćasopis Matice Moravské, LXIX (1950), 261–282.Google Scholar

55 For details, see Freudenberger, “A Case-Study.”

56 HKA, Fasz. 101/2, Red No. 893, Folio 845 ff.

57 Šebinek, Jindřich, “Textilni podniky moravských Kouniců,” [The Moravian Textile Enterprises of Kaunitz]Časopis Matice Moravské, LV (1931), 95–168, 418–468.Google Scholar

58 d'Elvert, Cultur-Geschichte, p. 64.

59 The author is completing an analytical study of this enterprise, which is expected to appear in the near future.

59a Richter, Johann, “Materialien zur Geschichte der Duxer Manufaktur,” Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte der Deutschen in Böhmen, LXXI (1933), 142.Google Scholar

60 SUA, SM C 65/8, Folio 25–38 (3 Nov. 1716).

61 Hallwich, Hermann, Die erste Fabrik in Reichenberg (Liberec 1869), pp. 4–5.Google Scholar

62 Salz, Böhmische Industrie, p. 326.

63 HKA, Fasz. 101/2, Red No. 894, Folio 831–885; 921–926.

64 HKA, I.Ö. Commerz, Fasz. 105, Red No. 442, Folio 410.

65 Klíma, Období, p. 363.

66 Lederer, Paul, “Zur Geschichte der Wollenzeugfabrik in Neugedein,” Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte der Deutschen in Böhmen, XLIV (1906), 129–130.Google Scholar

67 Klíma, Období, p. 373.

68 Ibid., p. 374.

69 Lederer, “Neugedein,” 125.

70 d'Elvert, Cultur-Geschichte, p. 87.

71 Hallwich,Reichenberg, pp. 480–484.