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[Rezension:] Kleingewerbe und Hausindustrie in Oesterreich by Eugen Schwiedland, in: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 5 (May, 1895), S. 144-145.
Kleingewerbe und Hausindustrie in Oesterreich. Von Dr. EUGEN SCHWIEDLAND.
2 Vols. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1894.
Ludwig Gumplowicz
2 Vols. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1894.
144
Interest in the history of nations is now turning more and more away from the activities of the state to the labor of the people. To this change we are indebted for a number of works dealing with economic history and, more remotely, for works which investigate single special fields of political economy. To these last belongs the present book. It is a very careful piece of work, and is worthy the
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fullest recognition inasmuch as it cultivates a field which has been lying quite fallow. In the first volume the author investigates in general the rise of house-industry, which in many provinces of Austria still continues to-day to be the only form of industrial employment. He shows how the local house-industry, which had sprung up here and there, could develop to a considerable degree only through the appearance of mediators between work and its market. We have even today in Austria a double form of house-industry – one which sells ist commodities only by peddling, the peddlers being recruited from the families of the producers; and a house-industry whose commodities reach the market through strange agents, through merchants, and finally, through the entrepreneur („Verleger“). Only this last method of sale enables the house-industry to thrive greatly.
In the second volume the author treats a subject that might also awaken a keen interest in America; he gives us, namely, a detailed account of the origin and development of the Viennese pearl button industry, which, till recently, as is well known, exported its products in large quantities to America and whose stability latterly has received a severe blow through a customs regulation of the United States. The author gives us a description of how the raw material is procured (shell fisheries), how this was worked up in the Orient and how the same process began in Austria at the commencement of the last century. Then he portrays the condition of the master workman in the shellturning industry, and the transition of this handicraft into a houseindustry. This last form was more advantageous to the entrepreneur and was encouraged by him in his capacity of „contractor.“ Only through these „contractors“ was it possible for the pearl buttons of Vienna to become one of the most important export articles sent from Austria to America. Because of the great importance of this branch of industry for Vienna, the author goes into a detailed account of the social status of the masters as well as of the journeymen and workmen in this trade.
We hope that the author may soon gratify us with the account of other branches of Austrian industry, and so enrich the history of the work of the Austrian people by further valuable contributions.
LUDWIG GUMPLOWICZ.
(Translated by ELLEN C.SEMPLE.)Nota edytorska: Elektroniczna wersja książki Schwiedlanda znajduje się w serwisie GoogleBooks pod adresem: http://books.google.com/books?id=eDUMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Eugen+Peter+Schwiedland%22&hl=de&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false Anmerkung des Editors: Elektonische Version Schwiedlands Buches kann im GoogleBücher angesehen werden. Link: http://books.google.com/books?id=eDUMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Eugen+Peter+Schwiedland%22&hl=de&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false Editors Note: The electronic version of Schwiedland’s publication can be viewed online on GoogleBooks under the adress: http://books.google.com/books?id=eDUMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Eugen+Peter+Schwiedland%22&hl=de&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false
1Nota edytorska: Elektroniczna wersja książki Schwiedlanda znajduje się w serwisie GoogleBooks pod adresem: http://books.google.com/books?id=eDUMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Eugen+Peter+Schwiedland%22&hl=de&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false Anmerkung des Editors: Elektonische Version Schwiedlands Buches kann im GoogleBücher angesehen werden. Link: http://books.google.com/books?id=eDUMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Eugen+Peter+Schwiedland%22&hl=de&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false Editors Note: The electronic version of Schwiedland’s publication can be viewed online on GoogleBooks under the adress: http://books.google.com/books?id=eDUMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Eugen+Peter+Schwiedland%22&hl=de&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false