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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484
vii. manufacturing industries.
A native artisan class was the fruit of the industrial policy of King
Oustavus Vasa (1528—60), the principle of which was to effect a
beneficial division of labour among the various leading trades as well as among the
various minor branches of these trades. For this purpose artisans were forbidden
to engage in commerce or to carry on more than one trade; merchants were
forbidden to carry on a handicraft; nor were merchants allowed to import from
abroad such manufactured goods, by the import of which the town artisans
might be "ruined". To carry on a craft it was necessary to be vested with the
rights and privileges of a burgher and to be a member of a guild. The
endeavours of the Middle Ages to concentrate the trades in the towns were taken
up afresh and in greater earnest. The rural districts were, however, allowed to
keep their "tailors, shoemakers, skinners, blacksmiths, and carpenters", who were
considered indispensable. Another exception was occasioned by the King’s right
of appointing "free-masters", who were permitted to carry on their trades
independent of guilds and burghership. This privilege was generally granted to
foreigners, as there was still a complaint of the lack of clever Swedish
craftsmen, which still remained the case during the reign of King Johan 111
(1568—92).
The next stage of development is marked by a still greater favour shown
to the towns at the expense of the rural districts and by an increasing rigour
in the enforcement of the rule making membership in the guilds obligatory.
Charles IX (1599—1611) fixed the number of artisans for each hundred
(härad), and as early as 1576 he ordered all the guüds of his duchy to be close,
i. e., they were to have a certain number of masters proportionate to the
population and size of the town. The town artisans obtained a monopoly of work
inside the town and within a Swedish mile (6 English miles) radius outside
of it, but they were not allowed to work beyond that limit. To exercise a craft,
it was required, that the masterpiece should have been approved by the bailiff,
the council, and the alderman of the guild, which authorities, moreover, were
to exercise superintendence over the guüds, examine the wares, and fix a
suitable price for them. In the same spirit, or a still severer one, (the
extension of "the mile of freedom" to two miles, the stricter requirements
respecting apprentices and journeymen, etc.), Charles, when king, issued guild
privileges for special crafts as well as for whole towns.
Oustavus Adolphus (1611—32) went even farther than his predecessors in
his attempts to restrict the pursuit of crafts in the rural districts. Country
artisans were not now allowed to work at less than four Swedish
miles’ distance from a town, whereas urban artisans, with the knowledge of the
alderman, had permission to work for the country people. In 1644, liberty of
trade in the rural districts was restricted still more, so far even that all
craftsmen in the country districts had to apply for burgership of the cities and to
pay taxes there. If urban crafts had thus been almost completely delivered
from the rivalry of the rural districts, they were, however, threatened with a
more dangerous intrusion from another quarter. The Nobility privileges of
1612, as well as those of 1617, granted a nobleman the full right to keep any
number of artisans he might need, and to hold his domain free from all the
impositions of Crown and Town, unless the people living on the estate carried
on a townsman’s craft. In this way the nobility found a pretext for
"protecting" from taxes and military conscription a number of "handicraftsmen" in the
rural districts who were working there for other people, as also for releasing a
number of artisans in the towns from all kinds of taxes. The attempts to check
this undue interference did not lead to any satisfactory results.
On the other hand, the new statutes of 1621 and 1622 do not recognize
any close guilds, though some older ones were kept up in many places, and
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