Search

1. Processing stagesUntil the 19th century, textiles were produced mainly from plant or animal fibers (Fiber plants; Wool; Silk) in the form of woven fabrics. In a few small sectors, however, yarns were not woven but knotted, braided, or knitted (see Carpet; Lace; Hosier). Production involved essentially four steps [2]:1) Preparation of the fiber. This involved various cleansing processes, but especially (except for continuous raw silk, which consists of a single unbroken thread) combing, which lays the fibers to be spun parallel to one another.2) Spinning. This transforms t…

1. IntroductionThe communities that inhabit mountain ranges differ markedly from those of their lower-lying surroundings in their agricultural land use systems, their agrarian constitutions, and their social organization. Historically, the exploration and crossing of mountain ranges has often posed a technical challenge (Alpine passes). Ever since Fernand Braudel set the antithetical tone of his history of the Mediterranean by subtitling the first chapter “...tout d’abord, les montagnes!” (“First of all, the mountains!”) [1], it has been clear that the close int…

1. Background Trade denotes the frequent, systematic transfer of property rights or ownership (Property) of goods, as a rule by the use of money (Money economy). Trade can involve the institution of a market but does not have to. Before 1850, the European and extra-European economies were predominantly subsistence economies – that is, the production of agricultural and industrial goods to meet personal needs in the context of a household economy dominated the production and marketing of commercial…

1. DevelopmentCompany settlements provided family housing for members of the workforce of an enterprise, constructed and financed by the firm itself. Usually these settlements were built on land owned by the firm and were managed by the firm. In certain early cases, the industrial plant and the residence were on the same piece of land; soon, however, separation of the workplace from the residence became the norm, although the settlement was built as close as possible to the factory. Besides this …

Ribbons (passements) were used to decorate articles of clothing from the late Middle Ages on, especially between the 17th and 19th centuries. Most were made of silk, but linen, wool, cotton, and mixed fabric were also used.In the later 17th and early 18th centuries, the ribbon loom came into widespread use in ribbon weaving, initially in the form of the multi-stage tread loom, which replaced the single-stage loom (Weaving technology). Although still powered by hand, it enabled the production of multiple ribbons in the same operat…

Cotton is one of the most important materials for the manufacture of apparel in human history. As with silk, although silk always remained a luxury product in the west, a wide separation developed at an early date (from the 15th century) between regions that cultivated and regions that processed cotton. Industrialization of the late 18th and early 19th centuries was first and most strikingly reflected in the cotton industry. Cotton and cotton products were among the most important global commodities at this period.1. Areas of cultivation; global tradeCotton is cultivated in tr…

1. Rural society 1.1. PeasantsAs a rule, peasant groups had access to enough productive land to guarantee at least adequate sustenance for the majority (see Subsistence economy). In the early modern period, the body of peasants (with substantial regional differences reflected in specific terminology) was subdivided in various ways.1) Relationship to the landowner or estate (Manorialism; Gutsherrschaft). The nature of the relationship between peasants and the landowner or estate owner represented a fundamental element of the rural social st…

1. Definition and phases of economic globalization 1.1. DefinitionGlobal economic integration of regional and national economies was a product in the first instance of international trade in products and services along with international movements of capital (see Capital market), work forces, and technological knowledge. If international trade or capital flows increase in relationship to national income, for example, we can speak of a process of economic globalization.Second, global integration is also frequently understood as market integration. The latt…

1. Historical terminologyThe term trading cycle denotes both short-term and long-term fluctuations in the business volume of individual markets and the trading volume between markets, including both goods and financial instruments. Economists frequently considered (and consider) the pre-industrial period as a “prologue to business cycles” (see Industrial cycle [business cycle]) [2. 134]. At least until the 1950s, this was “characterized as a history of crises, which it was widely believed – usually as commercial crises – at a precapitalist st…

1. Long-term evolutionSpinning is a process that produces continuous yarn for weaving from separate fibers (Weaving technology). It involves several operations: extracting and cleaning the fibers from a fiber mass, aligning the fibers by combing, drawing and twisting a fiber strand to form yarn, and finally spooling the yarn. Spinning is a basic requirement in the production of textiles and hence a basic human technology, attested in the Mediterranean area as well as Western and Central Europe sin…

1. Survey and long-term developmentEven more than gold, silver was the most important of the precious metals in the early modern period. Its outstanding significance was due to its use as a basis for the most important types of currency. In addition, it was used for cultic purposes – after the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Catholic Church stipulated the use of silver to decorate tabernacles and other furnishings of the church interior – for luxury household objects, and for the manufacture of jewelry (see Silversmith).In the early modern period, up to 1850, silver …

1. ConceptA manufactory was a production plant in a preindustrial trade (Industrial trades and crafts), generally belonging to proto-industrial export industries (Proto-industrialization). Members of its labor force worked outside their own household economy under the supervision and coordination of a third person – a manager, a merchant-manufacturer, or a master manufacturer. The centralization of the production process might relate to a single production step (horizontal integration), but verti…

1. DefinitionIn the early modern period, the first sign that a person was a member of the underclass was lack of the kind of rights that membership in an elite estate conferred: in towns, for example, the underclasses did not share in municipal shared governance or enjoy political rights such as access to the privileged craft guilds (see 3.1. below). In rural areas, their rights to use the common land were limited; in the enclosures of the late 18th and early 19th centuries (Common land, enclosure of), they were often left out in the cold.Second, because social status was tied to one…

1. DefinitionThe term  Kaufsystem denotes a production regime, that is, the institutional embodiment of the organization of production and work relations in the export-oriented industrial trades and crafts in the period of proto-industrialization. A Kaufsystem involves a purely market-oriented relationship between independent commercial producers and the merchants who purchased their products and sold them on export markets [6. 202–210]. As soon as the relationship of the largely anonymous purchasing was supplemented by a production order (com…

1. Definition and origins“Industrial region” is a geographical term that describes an area where industrial operations occupy a relatively high percentage of space and there is also a generally high level of export of manufactured industrial trades and crafts. Historically, industrial regions were generally dominated by one industry, or a few related industries. Consequently, these regions reflected the complex organizational requirements of the dominant industry, which was structured very differen…

1. ScopeUntil the advent of industrialization, the weaving industry was one of the most important industrial trades and crafts; only spinning was more important, though hard to quantify (Textile industry). In Bavaria in the 1770s, weaving employed 13.2% of all employed individuals outside of agriculture [2. 44, 449]. In the industrial towns that specialized in textile production for export, this percentage could be significantly greater: in Augsburg in 1610, the weavers constituted a fifth of the taxpayers and two-fifths of the artisan households [1. 21]. For the textile…

A bond is a documented promise to pay, with a stipulated interest rate, term, and method of redemption. Unlike credit or a loan for consumption, a bond is negotiable, that is, it can be resold. In this sense, a bond is similar to a bill of exchange, but the latter usually has a term of less than a year, whereas a bond has a longer term. The distinction between the money market and the capital market is analogous. Ever since the latter was created in the 17th century, bond trading has been its primary activity. The payment promised at final maturity represents a rate of 100%. Both…

1. Raw material and initial processing Silk is an animal fiber extracted from the cocoons of silkworms, which must feed on the leaves of the mulberry tree; in Europe, they can be cultivated only in the Mediterranean region. Mercantilist projects in the 17th and 18th centuries to introduce mulber…

1. DefinitionProto-industrialization refers primarily to industrial production from the 15th through to the early 19th century, that is, the era prior to industrialization proper. In comparison with the technological revolution of the high Middle Ages, the intervening proto-industrial period was probably also characterized by slight technological progress. In addition, proto-industrial production – in contrast to the operations of the independent crafts and trades – was characterized by complex organizational forms, specifically the artisanal system ( Kaufsystem)…

1. ConceptThe term economic cycle here relates to deviations from the long-term track of the growth (Economic growth) of a national economy. Fluctuations in economic activity, measured by the gross economic product of goods, may be seasonal in nature or extend for a period of years. Long-term variations are the so-called Kuznets-cycles, lasting approximately 25 years, observed in particular in connection with migration (Occupational migration; Emigration; Mobility) and development investments in …