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Alpine economy

(1,169 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
The Alps are the largest and highest European mountain range, stretching in an arc about 1,200 km long by 250 km wide from the western Mediterranean to eastern Austria and as far as Slovenia. Owing to their extent and their central position in Europe, they do not represent solely a geographical challenge to the movement of people and goods (Alpine passes): they are also paradigmatic for the academic perception and cultural and political interpretation of mountains (Alpinism), and accordingly ran…
Date: 2019-10-14

Calvinism

(2,733 words)

Author(s): Koch, Ernst | Pfister, Ulrich
1. Theology 1.1. Terminology and geographical spreadThe term Calvinism was originally coined in a pejorative sense by J. Westphal, a Hamburg pastor and disciple of Luther. Besides the work and impact of the Geneva Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564), he extended it to include the influence of the Zürich Reformation movement led by Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) and his followers. Thus Calvinist can be used as a synonym of Reformed, for example in the legal language of the Empire after the Peace of Westphalia (1648).Outside Switzerland, Calvinism became influential during the 16t…
Date: 2019-10-14

Agrarian constitution

(1,430 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. Definition In contrast to the concept of a land use system, which refers to the technical and operational aspects of agriculture, the term “agrarian constitution” refers to the institutional conditions that constitute the basis for economic activity in rural areas. Both formal norms such as law, contracts, legislation etc., and informal, culturally specific codes of conduct related to the control of goods and transactions (Property) may be considered institutions in an economic sense.Earlier German research on the agrarian constitution grew out of the legal histo…
Date: 2019-10-14

Putting-out system

(1,753 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. DefinitionThe putting-out system was a form of organization or coordination (production regime) of export-oriented industrial trades and crafts especially in the era of proto-industrialization (13th–19th centuries). The term literally means the “putting out” (German  Vorlegen) of raw material or semi-finished products by a principal (the  Verleger, “merchant-employer”) to a second person, who in turn organized the processing in a further stage of production or did it himself. This second person thus managed the process for the princ…
Date: 2021-03-15

Leading sector, industrial

(674 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. DefinitionIn the early phase of industrialization, the economic growth of the industrial sector was generally extremely lopsided, being concentrated in a few areas, the so-called leading sectors. In the 1950s and 1960s, this observation led to the development of the concept of leading industrial sectors in the field of political economy [4]; [3. 10–14]. Leading industrial sectors are characterized by rapid technological change, which brings strong growth in the productivity of work and capital. In the early modern period, too, high product…
Date: 2019-10-14

Trading company

(1,539 words)

Author(s): Denzel, Markus A. | Pfister, Ulrich
1. Basics In modern commercial law, an open trading company (general partnership) is an association of two or more natural or legal persons to engage in commercial trade under a common brand name. Trading companies in this sense have been widespread since the end of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, contractual variants are found that make it necessary to distinguish been investors who are liable only to the extent of their investment and fully liable capital bearers, and to recognize that…
Date: 2022-11-07

Income distribution

(1,610 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. Income distribution and social inequalitySocial stratification exhibits two primary phenomena. First, in most societies the opportunities and risks in life are distributed unequally among individuals and households. These opportunities and risks include such factors as opportunities for consumption, standard of housing, access to communication services and media, exposure to illnesses, death (Mortality), and insufficient earning capacity in old age. In many societies, income is a central factor on…
Date: 2019-10-14

China trade

(1,232 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. The role of silver in Chinese foreign tradeFrom the 14th to the 18th centuries, the foreign trade of China was shaped by the shortage of currency metals in the country, especially silver and copper. Among the consequences of this shortage was a diminished price ratio between silver andgold (Precious metals). Whereas in Western Europe, gold was for centuries between 12 and 15 times as valuable as silver by weight, the ratio in China in the early 14th century was 10 : 1, and it fell to 5–6 : 1 in the s…
Date: 2019-10-14

Economic growth

(3,293 words)

Author(s): Hesse, Jan-Otmar | Pfister, Ulrich
1. Concept and elementsEconomic growth is the increase of available goods and services in a national economy (Economy, political). It is often indicated as the annual rate of growth of the economy on a per capita basis. The raising of economic performance can arise by means of three processes: (1) growth achieved by a strengthening of investment of the production factors work, capital and land is called extensive economic growth; in this case, a permanent increase in economic performance per capita…
Date: 2019-10-14

Currency

(2,375 words)

Author(s): Denzel, Markus A. | Pfister, Ulrich
1. Definition The term currency (from Latin currens, “flowing”) originally meant a condition of fluidity; the figurative sense of “circulation” of money was coined in 1690 by John Locke. The German term Währung (from MHG werunge, “guarantee”) refers to a territory's legal regulation of the monetary system, and, like currency, encompasses the definition of the coinage system (coin standard, establishment of the relative values of different coins and the intrinsic precious metal content), the establishment of legal tender, and ex…
Date: 2019-10-14

Land use system

(1,215 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. DefinitionThe phrase  land use system denotes the manner in which productive land is used for agriculture. It includes the way an area is used, for example for timber production (Wood), pasture, meadow, or agricultural cropland. For cropland, the land use system includes the spatial disposition of the plants and crop rotation. In combination with the agrarian constitution and agricultural technology, the land use system determines the parameters of agricultural production.Early modern land use systems are studied in the borderland between history and historic…
Date: 2019-10-14

Linen

(1,277 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. ConceptThe linen industry produced textiles from flax and hemp (Fiber plants). Linen was the staple product, alongside the luxury goods damask and lace. Because flax and hemp were widely cultivated in the peasant domestic economy, the linen industry was able to develop in many areas of Europe on the basis of the subsistence economy. Quality improvements and specialization by the “commercialization of peasant technologies” [4] saw the industry readily develop into an export trade (Industrial trades and crafts). This was further encouraged by popula…
Date: 2019-10-14

Metrology

(2,510 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. ConceptsMetrology is the study of weights and measures. It includes today international and national organizations devoted to standardizing and exactly determining weights and measures, guaranteeing the exact calibration of measuring equipment, and the training and further training of calibration officials. Metrology arose in the 19th century with the international establishment of the metric system (see below, 3.). Historians also use the term metrologists to refer to authors working in the 1…
Date: 2019-10-14

Textile industry

(1,931 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. Scope, structure, and long-term evolution As a rule, the early modern textile industries used plant or animal fibers of local origin to make woven textiles – usually fabrics, but also small articles like kerchiefs and handkerchiefs, veils, ribbons, galoons, braids, lanyards, and buttons. The end products could be left unfinished or bleached, dyed, and/or imprinted or otherwise finished (see Textile technology). In relationship to the clothing trade, the textile industries should be categorized as upstream producers.Until well into the 19th century, in most nationa…
Date: 2022-11-07

Weaving technology

(1,437 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. SurveyWeaving is a technique for making fabric out of yarn. Two threads are crossed at right angles; the pre-loaded warp threads constitute the base into which the so-called weft is inserted. To serve as a base, the warp threads must be firm and stressable; weft threads on the other hand can be both finer and fuzzier. The choice of weft therefore has enormous influence on the quality of the fabric. In the early modern period, the finished products were usually in the form of cloth or fa…
Date: 2023-11-14

Real earnings

(2,385 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. Definition On an aggregated level, real earnings can be thought of as real national income per capita (see Economic growth), and on a disaggregated level usually as real annual household income. In contrast to nominal income, real income is adjusted for changes in the level of prices over time (Value, monetary; Inflation). As a rule, it is represented by an index. Real income is one of the most important statistics for describing material well-being.Real income includes income from all sources – from work as well as from capital and land ownership. Real wages,…
Date: 2021-03-15

Church discipline

(2,666 words)

Author(s): Kampmann, Jürgen | Pfister, Ulrich
1. DefinitionDown to the present day, in Protestantism  church  discipline – also  moral disciplinecongregational discipline, “brotherly/sisterly admonition” – has served as a collective term for various measures (in the setting of pastoral care and ecclesiastical oversight) intended to maintain the church’s doctrine and order, and to restore a manner of life that is not contrary to Christian norms. (On questions of discipline in the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches, see Ecclesiastical law.)The purpose of the church’s disciplinary measures …
Date: 2019-10-14

Wool

(4,922 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. IntroductionTogether with the linen industry, at the beginning of the early modern period wool processing was the most important branch of the European textile industry using indigenous fibers. Industrial regions often emerged as a result of a “commercialization of rural technologies” [3]. Only the rise of cotton and silk production in the course of the 18th century ended the dominant position of the wool industry. In England, however, in 1801 it still represented the most significant economic sector in terms of value added…
Date: 2023-11-14

Shopkeeper

(1,455 words)

Author(s): Schultz, Helga | Pfister, Ulrich
1. Urban 1.1. Status and occupationShopkeepers (German  Krämer) controlled the urban retail trade in goods brought from abroad (Trade, Long-distance). They differed from merchants in having the right to engage in “penny trade,” direct sale of small quantities to consumers. Shopkeepers ranked “above” hawkers (German  Höker, Low German  Haken, Upper German  Gremper, Austrian  Greißler), who hawked food from neighboring farms (see 2. below). Shopkeepers bought their goods at trade fairs and offered them for sale in shops and open street stalls: si…
Date: 2022-08-17

Textiles

(1,662 words)

Author(s): Pfister, Ulrich
1. Definition and useUntil well into the 19th century, textiles were products of plant and animal fibers. Most took the form of woven material (Weaving technology), but there were also knotted, braided, and knitted products (see Carpet; Lace; Hosier). The primary use of textiles was in the realm of apparel and household textiles (including bedding, curtains, and tablecloths). But textiles were not just consumer goods (Consumption); they were employed in trade and industry, with emphasis on shipping…
Date: 2022-11-07
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