![]() ![]() Above all, however, brass, zinc and lead production was concentrated in this area. Similar contexts existed in the Rhineland, where iron from the Eifel region was processed between Aachen, Eschweiler, Stolberg and Düren. In the western Prussian provinces of the Rhineland and Westphalia, for example, these were Bergisches Land, the County of Mark and the Siegerland region with spurs into the Sauerland. ![]() These and other developments, including in the iron and metal trades and other areas, had already given rise to various regional centers of commercial concentration. It is estimated that as many as one million people were employed in this sector around 1800. For example, the land-poor classes in eastern Westphalia and other areas specialized in the cottage industry production of linen, which was bought up by merchants and marketed on the national market. The putting-out system (proto-industry) had already emerged in some regions in the late Middle Ages and especially in the early modern period. In the manufactories with a workforce of about 100,000, there was already a kind of mass production with division of labor to a certain extent. Protoindustry and cottage industry Īlthough the guild crafts were in crisis around 1800, there were not only stagnant developments in the commercial sector either. This increased demand and enlarged the potential labor force. This included stronger population growth that began in the middle of the 18th century. Werner Conze narrowed down a preparatory phase to roughly the period between 17. ![]() īut there had also been preparatory developments in the German states since the early modern period. Despite mercantilism in the 18th century, for example, the guilds and corporations in the crafts sector held on to old instruments of economic regulation. There were still strong feudal elements and, with the exception of East Elbia, numerous low-performing small farms, many of which still operated using old methods and were barely connected to the market as subsistence farms. Moreover, no comparable "agricultural revolution" had yet taken place in this sector at the beginning of the 19th century. The gap to Great Britain was also evident in Germany's much larger agricultural sector. In terms of infrastructure, the empire was significantly less developed than England, and there was also a lack of overseas trade and colonial expansion. This included the lack of a single market, the large number of customs duties and currencies and the territorial fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire, which had collapsed in 1806. The initial situation for an Industrial Revolution was significantly worse in Germany than in the country of origin of industrialization, Great Britain. Pre-, early- and proto-industrialization The Meinert spinning mill in Lugau near Chemnitz from 1812, one of the earliest factory buildings in Germany. ![]() As it progressed, the social question shifted away from the rural lower classes and toward the growing working population with its poor working conditions and often low wages. Only with the breakthrough of the Industrial Revolution did new job opportunities arise on a larger scale. This was one of the causes of the pauperism of the Vormärz. On the contrary, industrial competition initially exacerbated the crisis in crafts and many traditional trades. Initially, industrial development was too weak to create significant new jobs for a growing population. In some older industrial areas, where adaptation to the new era was not successful, processes of economic decline occurred. Partly against the background of older traditions, partly because of favorable locations (e.g., on trade routes, rivers, canals, near raw material deposits or sales markets) or for other reasons, the Industrial Revolution was concentrated in a few regional concentration zones. The (catch-up) Industrial Revolution in Germany differed from that of the pioneering country of Great Britain in that the key industries became not the textile industry but coal production, steel production and railroad construction.Īnother characteristic was the regional character of industrialization. The Industrial Revolution was followed by the phase of high industrialization during the German Empire. In general, the decades between the 1830s and 1873 are considered the phase of industrial take off. This period was preceded by the periods of pre-industrialization and early industrialization. Industrialization in Germany was the phase of the breakthrough of industrialization in Germany, beginning at the time from around 1815 to 1835. Locomotive factory of August Borsig in Berlin (around 1847) ![]()
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