Craft Work

Craft work has a rich history. Rooted in the handmade products of wood, metal, clay, and textiles of the premodern period, craft work crossed national, racial, and gender lines. Craftsmen developed a work culture that promoted control over the fashioning of their product, and, in doing so, set into motion several political traditions that shaped the political economy. Working from the early hours of the morning to well into the evening, craft workers labored in households with small shops attached. Craft work involved many members of the master's family, as well as apprentices and journeymen. In rural settings, craft workers often combined farm and craft work, but in the cities, craft work was a commercial enterprise of small shops, yards, and side streets. The products, such as barrels, swords, bowls, shoes, and other clothing items, were locally consumed. Craft workers, or artisans as they were often called, were seldom very wealthy, but they enjoyed an independent status in society, even when they had little in the way of property.

As craft work became transformed by industrialization, artisans worked slightly fewer hours, but the opportunity to obtain independent status as a master was greatly reduced. Craft workers who were without property struggled to maintain their footing in the economy, endeavoring to move up through the ranks of apprentice and journeyman to establish a shop as a master craftsman. During difficult times, craftsmen were often unemployed and sometimes emigrated, taking their skills, tools, and craft traditions with them. Under the traditional craft system, masters in a given craft often organized to set out the rules of apprenticeship and prices for products.

Craft workers were often called artisans, and their social standing was above farm workers, but several rungs below the clergy or nobility. The work of craft workers was highly prized and enabled many to live and work in cities, freed from arduous farm work. Craft work became the cornerstone of paid labor during the Industrial Revolution. As the Industrial Revolution unfolded in the 19th century, traditional craft work came under assault as industrialists attempted to separate the journeymen from the master's shop system. Factory owners with little or no craft background opened establishments to assemble products on a large-scale basis. By gaining access to the skills of the craft through journeymen and apprentices, industrialists broke down the completion of handmade products into discrete tasks that could be repeated by several low-level craft workers. By the middle of the 19th century, the apprenticeship system was transformed, as fewer apprentices remained in the households of their masters. Instead, apprentices and journeymen were paid wages but received less training within the entire craft.