GHDI logo

Images - Rural and Urban Economy and Labor
1-10 of 15 images    return to chapter list < previous   |   next >
1.   The Cloth Maker (1698)
The textile industry continued to play a major economic role in the German territories throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, despite the fact that German cloth makers were losing European....
The Cloth Maker (1698)
2.   The Miner (1698)
Improvements in technology, as well as demand from growing populations and warring states, led to a boom in mining in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By the eighteenth century, mining had....
The Miner (1698)
3.   Edict: A Pound of Wool per Week (June 14, 1723)
This Prussian edict by Frederick William I (“the Soldier King” ) stated that “market women, master-less servants, artisans’ wives, stall-women at markets, and burghers’ daughters” were to spin one....
Edict: A Pound of Wool per Week (June 14, 1723)
4.   The Banker (c. 1730)
Banking underwent important structural development in early modern Germany. In the process, successful moneylenders and moneychangers were transformed into private bankers. Inflation and financial....
The Banker (c. 1730)
5.   Edict Protecting Prussian Wool Manufacturers: No Silk Skirts or Camisoles (November 6, 1731)
This Prussian edict forbade, “after six months’ time,” all maidservants and other female commoners, Christian and Jewish, from wearing silk dresses, camisoles, or pinafores. This edict reasserted....
Edict Protecting Prussian Wool Manufacturers: No Silk Skirts or Camisoles (November 6, 1731)
6.   Reaping, Hauling, and Threshing Grain (c. 1740)
Although there was a rise in manufacturing in the German territories in the eighteenth century, agriculture remained the main source of employment by far. The German lands were a diverse mosaic of....
Reaping, Hauling, and Threshing Grain (c. 1740)
7.   The Care and Storage of Agricultural Tools (1750)
“Housefather” literature [Hausväterliteratur] reached its peaked in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This engraving comes from a work in this genre. The authors of "housefather....
The Care and Storage of Agricultural Tools (1750)
8.   Horse- and Ox-Drawn Plows (1750)
“Housefather” literature [Hausväterliteratur] reached its peaked in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. This engraving comes from a work in this genre. The authors of "housefather....
Horse- and Ox-Drawn Plows (1750)
9.   Manufacturing Silk (1750)
This engraving shows the silk-manufacturing process from the preparation of the silkworms’ eggs (top left) to the spinning of silk (bottom right). The production of silk fabrics started in China....
Manufacturing Silk (1750)
10.   Masons and Bricklayers (c. 1750)
As members of the building trade, masons were subject to compulsory membership in the guilds that developed in German cities starting in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The guilds acted as regulatory....
Masons and Bricklayers (c. 1750)
1-10 of 15 images    < previous   |   next >