Search

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. General remarks 1.1. DefinitionIn modern economic theory, the term market refers to the encounter of supply with demand for the purpose of exchange. A “perfect” or “complete” market – in contrast to a monopoly market – exists when the market price cannot be influenced by individual suppliers or demanders. This equilibrium price is considered efficient; it is possible in the absence of practical or seasonal preferences on the part of consumers or producers, when market transparency predominates, when th…

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. SurveyStandardization as a basic tendency pervaded almost all areas of early modern economics, society, and culture; in its course, we can identify clear focal points and contingencies, dislocations and non-simultaneities (Non-simultaneity). The standardization of the world of things, the material, infrastructural, and informational foundations of society and human behavior as well as social and economic practice did not begin in the 20th century. In many spheres of activity, processes of stan…

1. Technology 1.1. ExtractionSteel is a metal alloy consisting mostly (95%) of iron. Its carbon content varies between 0.01% and 2.06%. The higher this value, the harder – but more brittle – the steel. Steel can be treated with heat (annealing, tempering, etc.), alloyed (with other metals or non-metallic substances), or shaped (forging, drawing, rolling).The production of specially hardened iron dates back to the 1st century bce. Iron Age smelting techniques in domed kilns 1.5-2 m tall produced sponge iron (direct-reduced iron), which then had to be worked …

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. DiscussionFor large portions of early modern society, thrift (Latin  parsimonia) was clearly a fundamental necessity (see Shortage), but at the same time also an opportunity for economic management. Savings could result from limiting consumption (economizing) and from retaining surpluses (saving). Despite the presence of frugality (Latin  sufficientia, frugalitas), in the early modern mind greed was clearly the opposite of thrift [2. 24, 267 f.]; [3. 343–351]. Krünitz, for example, commented that “true thrift, circumspection, and domestic economy” are …

1. General tendencies Technical language in the sense of orally transmitted terms for technical artifacts and their components as well as for technical production methods has always been a feature of all cultures. In Europe the technical literature of antiquity and the Middle Ages provides insights into the phenomenon, though usually from the perspective of academic discourse rather than the everyday language of practitioners. New stimuli for the development of technical language during the early modern period came from three sources. (1) In the course 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. The concept and historiographic traditions 1.1. Earlier approachesIn studies of the history of technology, the term  technological change has largely replaced  technological  progress [53]. In historical studies of technology and economics, the latter – often hand in hand with the identification of technological “revolutions” – usually appeared in combination with the paradigm of  productivity in the exploration of economic growth. This perspective – in the tradition of Taylorism or even more of Fordism – focused …

1. Significance and historyWithin the clothing trade and the whole body of crafts and trades in the early modern period, shoemakers (also: cordwainers) constituted one of the largest occupational groups [5]. As early as 1383, a Nuremberg census counted 81 shoemakers (New Latin  calciatores), the largest number of masters [6. 103]. In many large European cities, the number of shoemakers increased until well into the 19th century; around 1828, for example, there were 1,557 master shoemakers in Vienna [3. 302]; in 1833 there were more than 16,000 shoemakers in London [11. 1…

1. Terminology In the early modern period, the communication of technological knowledge and skills took place in a variety of contexts. Initially it involved training or collaboration in households, firms, or institutions; this is called vertical transfer. At the same time, technological knowledge and skills were disseminated horizontally from region to region, between politically defined territories, and on a global scale even between continents. Such technology transfer could be activ…

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…