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1. Products and distribution Tin was worked in Central Europe from the 13th century on by tinsmiths or “pewterers” (German  Zinngießer, “tin casters”;  Kannengießer “jug casters”). The foundation of the first pewterers’ corporations is documented in the 14th century (Guild). This small trade, which took hold only in cities to begin with (Crafts and trades), was often associated with ironsmithing (Smithy; e.g. the Kannengießer of Zürich from 1336). From the 15th century on, however, it tended to organize in its own corporations, for example, in Vienna (…

1. Concept and definitionThe importance of metals in the history of material culture is apparent from the very fact that several epochs of human history are distinguished according to the use of various metals. The Stone Age gave way to a “Metal Age,” which is in turn subdivided into the Copper Age (Chalcolithic), Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Periods or phases of marked prosperity are called Golden Ages, and the ancient poets Hesiod and Ovid already distinguished a “Golden” and a “Silver Age.” Metals …

1. Terminology and researchThe German term meaning “tool,”  Werkzeug, first appeared in the 12th century; initially it was synonymous with  Zeug and  Gezeug [1], while in mining, tools like the hammer and chisel were called  Gezähe (Mining technology).  Werkzeug was and is used as a collective term, but it also refers to individual instruments. English  tool is related to Old English  tol (before the 12th century), from Proto-Germanic * tōwalan “implement,” from a verb stem represented by Old English tawian, “prepar,e with the instrumental suffix  -el.Tools function con…

1. TerminologyIn 1892, the German economist Karl Bücher in his theory of stages, developed out of the older historical school of economics, distinguished a sequence of three economic stages [9. 256]: (1) the self-contained domestic economy (pure private production without exchange; see Subsistence economy), (2) the town economy (production for customers, with direct exchange), and (3) the national economy (production of commodities, with circulation of goods) [3]. Later, he augmented these economic forms with a sequence of forms of business to distingui…

1. TerminologyIn German-speaking Europe, in the Middle Ages a person continuing on after completing his apprenticeship in the crafts and trades was called a Knecht; the term  Geselle (from  Saalgenosse) was applied initially to members of  gesellig (“companionably”) communicative social groups, including the master craftsmen (Sociability). After the formation of the first associations of  Gesellen, the term was transferred to those active in the crafts and trades ( Eidgesellen); in its present sense of “journeyman,” it appears, for example, in Speyer in 1343: the  Ge…

1. ResearchSince the early 1980s there has been lively discussion about the environment, nature, the protection of both, and the historical relationship between these and humanity. Most studies in the field have based themselves on the environmental media of soil, water, and air. This new interest was a consequence of the incipient awareness about the environment in the 1970s, a decade that is now seen as a watershed in the history of environmental politics. The bleak prognosis that emerged from the Club of Rome, which announced an absolute limit to growth on the Earth [39], now broug…

1. Concept and quality problemsThe term “quality” (from Latin  qualitas, “condition,” “nature”) is first attested in English in Chaucer (1370s: “couered qualite of thing”) in the general sense of the “nature of a thing” (particularly in comparison with another thing). The German  Qualität was first current in the healing arts (see Humoralism). Both the English and the German words only became established in the specific context of commercial language in the 17th century under French influence ( qualité). Before this, awareness of quality in production was also express…

1. BackgroundCommodity economics is the systematic scientific treatment of commercial commodities. The approach is regarded as having been founded by Johann Beckmann, whose two-volume Vorbereitung zur Waarenkunde (1793/1800; “Introduction to commodity science”) laid out its foundations in the late 18th century[2]. In English and French ( l'économie des produits de base), the term designates a particular focus within economics, while Italian  merceologia denotes commodity economics as an academic subject taught by economics faculties since 1850 [6. 190].The scientific …

1. Fulling and cardingThe job of the cloth shearer was essentially to shear woolcloth, usually after first carding it. After being woven, cloths were first fulled (Fulling mill), to achieve the requisite thickening and strengthening. While coarse fabrics (e.g. loden) were neither dyed nor sheared, it was necessary for a cloth shearer or cloth worker to process medium-grade and fine fabrics after they had been fulled. Cloth shearers established themselves as a crafts and trades independent of clothm…

The vise was one of the most important tool innovations of the first phase of the early modern period. The Hausbuch of the Mendel Twelve Brethren Foundation ( Mendelsche Zwölfbrüderstiftung), an illustrated manuscript of considerable importance in cultural history that was produced at Nuremberg, illustrated a knifesmith, around 1425 (later also 1501), filing an inlaid knife while making use of an angle support ( Auflage, “press”; Feilstock, “file stock”) [1. vol. of illustrations, 28, 107]. The locksmith Ulrich Hach (c. 1528), however, is found seated at a work…

1. Basics Industrial espionage is a form of technology transfer with the declared goal of seeking out and then implementing new technologies; specifically, it comprises illegal forms of such activity [11. 289]. The empirical character of technology and the high value placed on experience meant that fact-finding efforts primarily targeted establishments managing innovative technologies or directly participating in their production [8. 125 f.]. There was already a long tradition of activities of this sort, including headhunting, sponsorship, and grantin…

1. Terminology and theoretical conceptsDespite the omnipresence of privies and the ordinariness of “nature’s call,” for the Middle Ages and early modern period this topic has usually been addressed only in popular science. Most discussions are based on isolated sensational pieces of evidence and usually assume that the residents of medieval cities and towns disposed of feces and urine in the streets or emptied chamber pots from their windows [11. 19 f., 29–42], and that only the Enlightenment or modern technology led to a breakthrough for personal hygiene.While the intake of …

1. Trades 1.1. SurveyThe word workshop in the sense of the working place of craftsmen and graphic artists (see Studio, artist’s) goes back to the 16th century; the broader concept also includes the Latin  officina, the workshop of printers [1]. (The German equivalent,  Werkstätte or  Werkstatt, Middle Low German  werktede, goes back to the 15th century.) In 1722, the German term was defined as “a room or area where work is carried out”; it sometimes also refers only to the “workbench where craftsmen fashion their product” [2].The production process, however, often extende…

1. Knitting Hatters and trouser-makers creating knitted wares were active in cities in the late Middle Ages. In the first half of the 16th century, the stocking in the style of the Spanish court was a fixture, and knitters generally specialized in woollen stockings and caps. Beginning in the 16th century, knitters formed into guilds, like the stocking-knitters of Paris in 1527, the hose- and beret-makers of Strasbourg in 1574, and the hosiers of Nuremberg in 1583. The first mention of a…

1. Definition and manufactureLace (French  dentelles, Dutch kant, German  Spitze, Italian  merletto) is a collective term for decorative elements made of thread or thread and fabric (Textiles). In all its forms it is openwork: spaces of various sizes between the threads constitute a pattern. Lace must not be confused with embroidery (Textile technology). Its origins probably go back to the decorative treatment of hems by the darning, knotting, or braiding of warp threads.Technically there are two kinds of lace: needle lace and bobbin lace. In the former, threads a…

Combs of various forms, materials, and styles of decoration survive dating back to Antiquity. In church liturgy, richly decorated consecration combs were used during the consecration of a bishop, and some survive as grave goods [9]. Most surviving combs since the 14th century were from the profane sphere [5. 33]. Combs, as Christoph Weigel stated in his 1698 book of the estates, served ornament and cleanliness. The hair comb, however, was also a metaphor for a feminine craving for extravagance. They were used to remove infestations…

1. IntroductionThe word “window” derives from the Old Norse  vindauga (literally “wind-eye”), and originally meant an unglazed hole in a roof. Like most European languages, English developed a word for a glazed opening in a wall from the Latin fenestra, since glass windows were an invention of the Roman cultural sphere (perhaps the early Roman Imperial period) [4. 90]. Unlike the German  Fenster and the French fenêtre, however, the English “fenester” did not become established, and it vanished in the mid-16th century, except for the fossilized usage “d…

1. DefinitionToday  Preiswerk is understood as a form of marketing in the early modern industrial trades and crafts, in which there was a direct connection between the producer and consumer in the form of an order or commission. The term  Preiswerk was defined by the economist Karl Bücher in 1893 in his study of the rise of the national economy (developed from the earlier historical school of economics). He distinguished a sequence of three economic stages: (1) the stage of the closed household economy (self-sufficient home consumpt…

1. Beginnings The most important building materials of the early modern period were wood, stone, and brick. In the first instance, the timber-frame method prevailed in the German lands (Fachwerk), in the countryside and in smaller and medium-sized towns. Shingle roofs combined with timber-framing and wattle infill dominated the appearance of larger suburbs and elsewhere. Enea Silvio Piccolomini (the future Pope Pius II) in 1455 still described the houses of Vienna as “disfigured” with w…

1. OccupationThe metalworking craft (Crafts and trades) of the locksmith (Neolatin  serator/ serifex, Dutch  slotenmaker, German  Schlosser, Kleinschmied, Kunstschmied, French  serrurier, Italian chiavaio), developed from the 14th century within the sphere of activity of the smithy. Guilds were formed, sometimes jointly with winchmakers, spurriers, gunsmiths, or clockmakers, specialties that had also developed out of smithing. The work of the locksmith included in particular making padlocks, door locks, locks for c…