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.
487
militia) should also be granted to workmen at rifle manufactories and salt-petre
works, etc., as well as "to other persons in the works and on the estates of the
Crown", besides which the universities, in 1791, regained their right of appointing
craftsmen; but the declaration of 1789 remained in force and rendered
journeymen’s right to mastership very difficult to obtain. On the other hand, the
freedom of handicrafts in the rural districts was extended in 1802. On the
representation of the governor of a län, the Government should henceforth
in every special case be entitled to examine whether other artisans than those
already admitted by law could be admitted in the future. In consequence of such
special concessions, there were thus, in 1843, at various places, craftsmen in no
less than 26 trades in addition to the five original ones, (tailors, shoemakers,
smiths, masons, and glaziers).
After the introduction of the new constitution (1809), the development
towards free trade found its first legal expression of any importance in the two
ordinances (of 1821 and 1828) by which was settled the old matter of dispute
concerning the limits of the respective spheres of work for guild artisans and
for manufacturers. It was now stipulated that the protection of the
manufacturing privileges was to be granted by the Board of Trade: a) to those who had
duly proved their ability to manufacture either such articles as were not made
within the guilds or else such as were of a better quality than those generally
made by the guild masters ; b) also to those who, at a manufacturer’s, had gained a
complete knowledge of his trade, and who, according to the certificate of the
proper magistrate or "court of industry", were clever enough to work on their
own account. Such a manufacturer was to have the right to produce all kinds
of goods within the trade of which he had obtained the privileges; the same
liberty of work was to be enjoyed by manufacturers already appointed and their
workmen. In 1828, the clauses of the guild ordinance were declared to be no
longer applicable to brewers, bakers, and butchers in the towns, and in several
new towns and boroughs the same liberty was granted handicrafts in general.
In 1845, the parishes obtained the right to decide what kinds of artisans
ought to be allowed to exist in them.
Then in 1846, followed the abolition of the guilds. In their place
were to be instituted free handicraft unions to promote the interests of the
artisans. The right of exercising a trade as a master was made dependent on
several civil qualifications and, for most trades, on the obligation of having
qualified as a master; burghership was required, besides, to keep a workshop in
town. But any trade might be carried on in the country, and it became permissible
to carry on several trades at the same time. The right was granted, besides,
to every respectable Swedish man that had reached his majority, of
manufacturing goods with the assistance of his wife and such children as were living at
home, even although he had not become a master or a citizen of any town —
this right was, moreover, extended to women. Complete freedom in carrying on
trade was established in 1864.
Shortly after the promulgation of the liberty of trade ordinance of 1864
the artisans discovered that this unrestricted throwing open of trades and
crafts was not a good thing, and before many years had passed, the question
began to be discussed at meetings of industrial workers, whether this
extension of liberty of trade was in agreement with the claims that tradesmen
and craftsmen considered themselves to possess, and what alterations of the
act were to be considered necessary.
There were, properly speaking, three details in the act in question
on which criticism was concentrated. The first was § 2, in which
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