[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.
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
145
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