Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second part - X. Manufacturing Industries. By Å. G. Ekstrand, Ph. D., Chief Engineer, Control Office of the Department of Finance - 12. Handicraft and Domestic Industry, by A. Raphael, Ph. D., D. C. L., Stockholm
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HANDICRAFT AND DOMESTIC INDUSTRY.
899
ont by the wars — revived again; all craftsmen had to return to town, with the
exception of those who for a year were in the Nobility’s service or who in their
capacity of parish or factory artisans, were entitled by law to live in the country
districts. In 1734, the farmers indeed obtained the right of carrying on
handicraft as a by-trade and of selling their own articles as well as those of others
in general anywhere they pleased, but the categories of handicraftsmen proper
increased but slowly.
Complaints of the exorbitant rise in guild prices, in 1762 called forth an
ordinance on estimation of the goods by impartial persons, to replace the
injunctions of 1720 about electing estimators from among the members of the company.
The valuation should now be performed by one magistrate (not a company
councilor), one merchant, one broker, and one guild artisan, who had to present their
opinion before court, after which the contest should be settled summario processu.
The accession of King Gustavus III (1771/92) again accelerated the reform
agitation. By the rescript of 1773 was decreed that the regulation in the guild
statute of 1720 about journeymen’s right to a mastership should be observed
without any alteration and that thus no journeyman having served the time
appointed, should be denied master and burghership. After hearing the parties
concerned, the magistracy was to decide what masterpieces an applicant had to
carry out and what fees had to be paid down. Married journeymen who wished
to become masters were guaranteed an abridgement of their journeymanship.
Also the subsequent industrial policy of the King for a long time remained decidedly
liberal. Under the administration of the highly meritorious Liljencrants as
Secretary of State, the organization of »freetowns» (begun in 1766) was enlarged;
in these, »real» articles of manufacture in the iron and steel branches might be
produced without any masterpiece. This liberty should now be extended to all
kinds of tradesmen in the new towns thenceforth founded. All reformative plans
were, however, interrupted by the resignation of Liljencrants. The King’s need
for the assent of the burghers to a new Constitution (1789) forced him into
another course of trade 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 who had not been vested with the rights and privileges of the city
(reserving those granted to nobility and gentry though), and that, in case a greater
number of craftsmen should present themselves than might reasonably be expected
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 (already by former constitutions) and upon public offices (since 1739) and
forbade the courts of industry to bring under their control journeymen and the
soldiers to keep joint workshops, whereas the latter retained their privilege
of working in a guildmaster’s workshop or on his account. Already in 1790, it
was enacted that this liberty of work granted to the soldiers (which besides, in
1804, was extended to the country militia) should also be allotted to workmen
at rifle manufactories and salt-boileries, etc., as well as »to several at the works
and 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 a mastership highly difficult. On the other hand,
the freedom of handicraft in the rural districts, in 1802 experienced an increased
extension. On the presentment of the governor of a province, the State Government
should henceforth in every special case be entitled to examine whether also other
artisans than those already admitted by law could be appointed in future. In
conseqnence of such special concessions, there were thus, in 1843, at various places
craftsmen to be found of no less than 26 trades besides the five original ones
(tailors, shoemakers, smiths, masons, and glaziers).
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