Industrialisation, Domestic Work and Domestic Industry in the Bohemian Lands at the Turn of the 20th Century

Economic historians have paid due attention to the phenomenon of domestic work, especially in connection with the theory of proto industrialisation, for decades. However, domestic production has not been a marginal issue even in those economies of European countries that can be considered industrialised. The phenomenon of domestic industry was significant in the Bohemian lands as well as in some other countries of the Habsburg monarchy (e.g. Vorarlberg and Galicia) or East and Southeast Europe until the turn of the 20th century. Both the industrial and protoindustrial forms of production coexisted in the society of Central Europe for a relatively long time. This is what Witold Kula called “the coexistence of anachronisms”. This study focuses on the causes of the persistence of protoindustrial forms of production, their field structure, and gender aspects, as well as on the comparison of data from official statistics and from the period press. Specific examples present domestic work not only as a social problem but also as a strategy to earn a living mainly for country people.