Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. Manufacturing Industries. Introd. by [G. Sundbärg] K. Åmark - 12. Handicrafts and Domestic Industries. [By A. Raphael] - Handicrafts. By C. J. F. Ljunggren
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handicrafts.
489
When, a few years ago, machinery gained the upper hand in the
industrial world, and one industry after the other was either transformed
into a great manufacturing pursuit, or else was pushed to the wall, it
probably appeared to people at that time as if the golden days of
handicrafts were past. In any case, this opinion became to deeply rooted that,
in spite of everything, it still remains.
It can be shown, however, that handicraft-industries have held their
own very well indeed in the war of competition; they have even held their
own so well that, as a rule, they can point to far greater development than
that reached by factory-industries.
The great national-economic importance of
handicrafts can nowadays be plainly seen, and the proofs of this importance are
found both in statistics and in the general industrial development of the
country.
Although it must be acknowledged that our existing statistics with
regard to handicrafts are in some respects rather defective, especially in
respect to the trades in which it is difficult to draw a definite line
between factory-work and handicraft, and also in regard :o the number
of the last-mentioned class of industries; still it should be possible to
gain much valuable information from the statistics that are available, and
attention is therefore drawn to Table 101.
These figures are deserving of attention, for several reasons. For
example, it is seen by the Table that the handicraft-industries during
the period given have increased far more than factory industries have
done, a fact that shows the inaccuracy of the statement that handicrafts
in general have decreased in consequence of the competition of the factory
industries experienced in the past. The figures, consequently, bear evident
testimony to the great national-economic importance of the handicrafts
and show the enormous importance in Swedish production of the
handicrafts.
The figures showing the assessed income from handicrafts-industries do
not, probably, convey quite a correct impression, partly in consequence of
the error caused by certain deductions from the amount on which taxes
must be paid, and also because the census-lists which, at present, form
the basis of the statistics concerning the number of
handicraft-establishments, make no distinction between the handicraftsmen that carry on
work as indepedent masters and such as are either purely "selfsupporting",
or else are in the service of master-handicraftsmen, but, in spite of this
fact, are entered on the lists under a title which is misleading, since
"workman" has not been added to the list of professions.
The number of handicraft-establishments which is given in the existing
Swedish statistics is, consequently, clearly incorrect and greater than the
actual number. It is impossible to state the exact number of independent
handicraftsmen there are in Sweden, but it is probably very considerable.
The "voluntary" unions of handicraftsmen formed after the enactment
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