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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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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. 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. 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. 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…