Country and Artisans' Production and Supplyment in the Second Half of the 18th Century

Abstract

In the second half of the 18th century in the area of Slovenia, which had about 900.000 inhabitants, the number of commercial artisans and country weavers was increasing more and more quickly in the strengthened system of supplyment in which the producers worked. The author estimates that the number of those commercial artisans who had not been closely connected by the supply system of production was probably 4000; the number of other professionals who worked in a fairly strongly organized system of supplyment was perhaps 2000. The main branches in this system were: textile (silk, linen, cloth), gun-making, strainer-making, and hosiery. The exact number of country weavers and other country producers (the so-called »Bauernfabriquen«) who were more or less organized and connected and who produced for the market cannot be given; presumably, they were at least 2000 in number.