Freedom of crafts in the dock

Conservative Views on Craftsmanship in the Second Half of the 19th Century in Slovenia

Abstract

The proclamation in 1859 of the right to practice trades freely triggered off a wave of discontent with the new circumstances that rapidly gained momentum amongst the craftsmen. This engendered the fight against the liberal laws on practicing crafts, which soon became one of the cornerstones of the conservative principles of the time. Although the general state of affairs in the trades sector was in reality far less critical than depicted at the time, the majority of the population believed that the more liberal regulations would inevitably lead to the demise of craftsmanship. The conservatives stubbornly wanted to impede the current of events through reforms and by trying to re-establish the old estate society (based on guilds) in a modernised form. Thus, their first demand was that only those who had learned a trade could become craftsmen, and that each craftsman must be a member of a craft co-operative - which were to have considerable jurisdiction within the field of craftsmanship.