The group that I wanted to talk about who were affected a great deal by the economic changes during the Vormarz are the artisans.. Mechanization was causing a great deal of competition for them during this period, and they were very vocal in their opposition to the factories and the breakdown of guilds. This also played into a concept of capitalism that I found very interesting because it was very different from any kind of capitalism we would consider implementing today. There are several components which were considered important that we have covered in class which created a very unique competitive atmosphere. They are open competition with a lack of professional standards, interchangeable goods which could not be distinguished from each other based on the reputations of the producers, and a variety of contractual disputes which caused a great deal of friction between the artisans and both their apprentices and thier buyers.
The first component of this the breakdown of the guilds. Open competition is something we generally view very favorably in modern American society. However in Germany during this period it created a lack of professional standards. Now it is not uncommon for us to have methods of professional standards including licensing procedures and professional organizations which settle disputes between professionals and create quality control for buyers. This would seem necessary even in a free market, but this was not the case in Germany. The result was many apprentices prematurely terminating their apprenticeships and going out on their own and many people who were not qualified doing work that they were not able to do. For obvious reasons this caused justifiable tension within the respected community of artisans and was a major source of discontent.
This was not the only problem among artisans during hte period. While open competition was incouraged there was an unwillingness to pay competetive prices for work. This practice was dramatically different from the other more laissez-faire attitudes towardes practices and
a lot of shady practices. As a result workers were willing to cheat consumers by stealing and providing substandard work to make up for what they perceived as artificially low wages. Special courts were created to resolve these issues and it created a great deal of tension between the artisans and the government.
The last aspect I wanted to talk about in regards to capitalism and the artisans is the affect of industrial competition and a lack of quality control. Trademarks were prohibited and all goods were supposed to be interchangeable. This came at the same time as new indstrial producers were mass producing goods taht had limited quality control. Competition is generally an excellent thing but the government prohibiting trademarks had a dire affect on quality craftsman. This took their good names away from them when trying to compete in the market place, and forced them to compete when they could not differentiate themselves from industrial products which were frequently of inferior quality.
My main point in discussing these issues is that in the area of trade society was in an adjustment period, and it caused a great deal of frustration for those involved. There was a great struggle between competition and those who wanted quality professional and production standards. Because the government usually came down on the side of open competition without standards this was a major source of friction leading up to the Revolution.
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I agree that the shift towards capitalism had a negative effect on the quality of goods and the lifestyles of those producing them at the bottom level- the wage laborers. Ultimately, production did greatly increase, but at the cost of quality. With much of this mechanization and industrialization, we see that the focus did move to quantity over quality. With this great increase in quantity, prices fell, making labor wages fall, ultimately making the quality of labor inferior because of the low compensation and lack of incentive for the laborers from their superiors. With the shift from domestic to factory/industrial production, there was less motivation to produce quality that would set a product apart because there were so many other products of inferior quality offered at incredibly low prices. This early capitalism was too unrestricted making it a system where the owner of the factory could profit greatly at the expense of quality and his laborers well-being.
ReplyDeleteIn class and the book the anger of Artisans was and did seem to be a major concern of the Vormarst and the coming revolution because it was used to represent or give a model of what was really going on. Growing is never easy and as Germany found out through its birth into Capitalism there would be bumps. As you stated this hit the skilled Artisans very hard as previously with the Guilds they had been able to set prices and control who and what went on in the market. With the introduction of laissez-faire policies this all collapsed but really only had a negative effect on those who had benefitted from the guilds. Thus the artisans that were affected most were the old established Artisans who saw their craft as more of a work of art and less of a means of production, naturally it is then safe to say that there were artisans who benefitted from the changes. The newcomers and young artisans most likely benefitted much from these changes as they were now free to practice as they pleased. This may have led to the mentioned quality issues and market flooding but was probably still much better living for this younger more free market minded budding capitalist artisans than that under the guild system. Thus ultimately there were many artisans who were hurt severely by this new capitalist system, but they were most likely those who couldn’t adapt, which naturally means there had to have been those who were able to benefit from their skills in a way they never would have been able to under the previous system.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that this early shift in capitalism for the Germans brought about a negative outcome for the quality of goods being produced. Nevertheless, while these goods that were produced in numerous quantities may have been sub par compared to the goods produced by master artisans, they were good enough to bring about profit for the German economy as a whole. Just from our text and lecture I know of no account where the goods produced in the factories were so bad that consumers stopped buying or using them. The mass production of goods that may have once taken days or months to produce allowed the economy as a whole to grow because they could sale more goods and in response make more money. While industrialization and capitalism brought about negative impacts to the livelihood of artisans, I think that industrialization and capitalism brought an overall positive impact on the German economy.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I believe the shift towards capitalism hindered the production of better quality goods, primarily because the new economic system was unrestricted. Though the rise in production was quick to catch on, the standards of the products distributed dropped. While some artisans saw this situation as a chance to perfect their craft as a work of art rather than a way of production. So, not all members of guilds were hurt. Still, the decrease in importance of quality as a result of lower-priced goods hindered the financial success of many others. Overall, I feel the initial, unregulated capatilism in Germany provided a scenario where the owners of production could make profit because of low-quality, cost efficient products as well as worker who had relatively little skill in their craft.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting to me that America, not currently, has thrived on open market trade. It made me think why Germany could not use the same type of market and feed from the benefits. I feel that there was an overflow of jobs in the same field, which made it very difficult. For example, there were many factory workers, many seamstresses, and so forth. What I am trying to get at was that it seems that there was not a great, diverse job market.
ReplyDeleteYou've done a great job of highlighting the complaints of the artisans and how they felt squeezed from both sides. Not only are they losing their formers status, but they are pressed from above by the owners of production and squeezed from below by new, unregulated and unrestricted forms of production. Hence why they found modernity and industrial capitalism so threatening.
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