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The term  Gewerke was common throughout German-speaking Europe; it first appeared in the context of medieval mining, where initially it meant people engaged in mining in general. Later it came to mean one or more participants in a mining venture (pit) who owned shares and produced as a consortium. Even in the Middle Ages, the term was also used in the sense of technical or construction jobs that traditionally were performed by a crafts and trades guild. The members of the guild, the guildsmen, were likewise called Gewerken in German.Legally mines could be acquired by both natura…

1. Concept and backgroundThe term Owenism derives from the British social reformer and industrialist Robert Owen (1771-1858). The term was already current in his lifetime, during the 1820s and 1830s, to describe his concepts and projects of social philosophy and as shorthand for the utopian socialist movements that drew inspiration from him (Utopian socialism 3.2.). In this context, Owenism primarily denoted various forms of self-organization of workers within the fledgling cooperative society and trade union movements.Owen’s name reached a wider European public…

1. Commercial history 1.1. Definition and historical originsInsurance is the elimination of individual financial risk by distributing it to a community with similar risk. This is done by the payment of individual contributions or premiums into a common fund, the total sum of which is determined by the amount of risk to be covered. The commercial insurance industry facilitates the creation of risk communities, the collection of premiums, and the disbursal of insurance benefits as services. Together with…

1. DefinitionEarly scholarly analyses already defined trade unions as permanent associations of employees, acting as an organization in support of collective interests and advocating for the improvement of working conditions of dependent employees  vis-à-vis employers or the state [12]. To that end, they developed specific forms of action – from petitions to strikes – while at the same time securing benefits for their members [4]. Created in the late 18th century in the struggle against politico-legal oppression and economic exploitation, within indivi…

1. Concept and parameters By “association” (German Verband) is meant a combination of individuals or bodies, designed to endure, and as a rule based on voluntary membership and set rules (articles, statutes), with the purpose both of articulating the combined interests coherently of its members to the outside world, and, internally, of moderating and reconciling any divergent interests on the part of individual members. No precise distinction can be made between the concept of an “association” and that of a “society”;or a “party” [6]. In different national and historical…