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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vii. manufacturing industries.
the duty of belonging to any guild, but subject to the Court of Industry
(Hallrätt) should be: all silk, woollen, and linen manufactories, together with all
the works and factories belonging to them, "as well as other manufactories and
artificers, of whatever name they may be, who choose to place themselves in
subjection to the Court." In the quarrels, called forth by this most indefinite
wording, between guild craftsmen and manufacturers, the authorities sided with
the latter, while the former continued to be favoured at the expense of the
rural artisans. Even in 1723, the old difference between town and country
trades — essentially done away with by the wars — revived again; all
craftsmen had to return to the towns, with the exception of those who were engaged
by the year in the service of the nobility, or who, in their capacity of
parish or factory artisans, were entitled by law to live in the country districts.
In 1734, it is true, the farmers obtained the right of carrying on handicrafts as
by-trades and of selling their own articles, as well as those made by others in
general, anywhere they pleased, but the categories of handicraftsmen proper
increased but slowly.
Complaints of the exorbitant rise in guild prices called forth in 1762 an
ordinance requiring the value of the goods to be fixed by impartial persons, this
replacing the regulations of 1720 concerning the election of valuers from among
the members of the guild. The valuation was now to be performed by one
magistrate (not a guild magistrate), one merchant, one broker, and one guild
artisan, who had to state their decision before a court, after which the matter
was to be settled "summario processu".
The accession of Gustavus HJ (1771—92) again accelerated the reform agitation.
By the rescript of 1773 it was decreed that the regulation in the guild statute
of 1720 concerning a journeyman’s right to become a master should be observed
without any alteration, and that thus no journeyman, after having served the
prescribed time, should be denied mastership and burghership. After hearing the
parties concerned, the magistracy was to decide what masterpieces an applicant
had to execute, and what fees had to be paid. Married journeymen, who wished
to become masters, were guaranteed a reduction in the term of journeymanship
amounting to one or two years. The subsequent industrial policy of the king
long remained decidedly liberal. Under the administration of Liljencrantz
as Secretary of State, the organization of "free towns" (begun in 1766)
was continued and extended, and in these towns "real" articles of
manufacture in the iron and steel branches might be produced without any
masterpiece test. This liberty was now to be extended to all kinds of tradesmen
in the new towns henceforth founded. All reformatory plans were, however,
interrupted by the resignation of Liljencrantz. The king’s need for the
assent of the burghers to a new Constitution (1789) forced him into another
course of industrial policy. By a proclamation of 1789 to the burgesses of
the kingdom, it was enacted that nobody should carry on a burgher’s trade or
business that had not been vested with the rights and privileges of citizenship
(but with the exception of those granted to nobility and gentry), and that, in
case a greater number of craftsmen should present themselves than might
reasonably be expected, to be able to find their livelihood, due regard should be paid
to the opinions pronounced on the point by the company, the elders of the town,
and the magistracy. Another resolution annulled the right of admitting
craftsmen conferred upon the universities (by former constitutions) and upon public
offices (since 1739) and forbade the "courts of industry" to bring under their
control journeymen and soldiers, so that these could keep joint workshops,
although the latter retained their privilege of working in a guildmaster’s
workshop or on his account. As early as 1790, it was enacted that this liberty
of work granted to the soldiers (which, in 1804, was extended to the country
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