Manufactures



Manufactures were enterprises operating outside of the guild economy, larger in scale than the craftsmens' workshops (at least 10 employees) which were centrally administrated, made systematic use of division of labour, often required considerable investment. While wind- and waterpower (watermills) may have been used, manual power usually dominated; hence 'manufactures'.
In an economy traditionally regulated by privileges, these enterprises needed special permissions or privileges to begin operation. Such permissions could be provided by the territorial lords or the city council.
One group of manufactures served the market for luxury goods - Gobelin and Porcelain Manufactures, often owned by the territorial lord himself. Others produced army supplies and thus heavily depended on the state as a customer.
Manufactures could serve the market for products of daily use, such as coaches, and of daily consumption, such as tobacco.

The first porcelain manufacture was founded in Meissen in 1710; manufactures soon emerged in or near the capitals of the European countries, mostly as monopolies, often owned by the territorial lord. Tobacco manufactures also spread in the 18th century. Many manufactures established in that period still exist; some others, as musea, preserve the technology of those days.
In Germany, the immigration of French Huguenot refugees brought an upsurge in the foundation of manufactures.







EXTERNAL
FILES 		History of the KPM (Royal Prussian Porcelain Manufacture, since 1753)
Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen, successor to the Royal-Polish-Electoral-Saxonian Porcelain Manufactory of Meissen, since 1710; English language website
History of the porcelain manufacture of Frankenthal (Pfalz/Palatinate, since 1755), from Comenius
History of the Porzellan-Manufaktur Ludwigsburg (Württemberg, since 1736), in German
History of Augarten, Vienna, Austrian Porcelain Manufacture, since 1744
History of Höchst, from CuberHöchst, porcelain manufacture founded 1746
Manufacture de Sevres (porcelain, since 1756), in French
Lomonosov porcelain - the porcelain of Czars, from Rus-Sell, St. Petersburg, since 1744
Royal (Danish) Privileged Porcelain Manufactory, since 1775/1779
Article Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins, from Columbia Encyclopedia, since 1601/1662
Histoire du Gobelin, from Nahor, in French
History of the Kühnle Coach Manufacture, since 1786
History of the Ottweiler Porcelain Manufacture, from Ottweiler Porzellan (Zweibrücken, 1763-1800)
Website of the Tobacco Museum of Harelbeke, Belgium (tobacco manufacture since 1774); site in Dutch, Mahlberg, Baden (since 1774, site in German);
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Sheilagh C. Ogilvie, Proto-Industrialization in Germany, pp.118-126 in : S.C. Ogilvie and M. Cerman (ed.), European Proto-Industrialization, Cambridge : UP 1996
Wilhelm Treue, Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft und Technik vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert (Economy, Society and Technology from the 16th to the 18th Century), Vol.12 of Gebhardt, Handbuch der Deutschen Geschichte (Handbook of German History), München : dtv (1974) 1973



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on September 23rd 2003, last revised on November 14th 2004

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