Paloheimo, Maare Business life in pursuit of economic and political advantages in early-nineteenth-century Finland. Jyvaskyla: University of Jyvaskyla, 2012, 257 p. (Jyvaskyla Studies in Humanities ISSN 1459-4323; 195) ISBN 978-951-39-4991-4 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-4992-1 (PDF) Diss. Finnish summary The present study examines how business actors participated in and influenced government decision-making regarding their own economic and political interests in earlynineteenth-century Finland. The research period is characterised by a major political change; Finland, previously the eastern part of Sweden, was incorporated in 1809 into the Russian Empire as an autonomous Grand Duchy after a war that arose out of European power politics. The beginning of the era of Russian rule signified several changes. For instance, the Diet of the Estates, which had been a traditional channel of political influence for business life under Swedish rule, did not convene between 1809 and 1863. The study maintains that in the prevailing situation the system of submitting petitions and appeals took on more importance for Finnish business life. Petitions and appeals are seen as expressions of political activity through which the subjects – including business actors – could seek a variety of government favours. The petitions and appeals were formally addressed to the Russian Tsar, but in practice the majority were dealt by the highest national governmental body, the Imperial Senate of Finland. In order to illuminate how widely and for what purposes business actors used this channel of influence, the petitions and appeals received by the Senate’s Economic Department, which dealt with the routine of administration, are studied in nine reference years between 1810 and 1850. In addition, two committees that were appointed to consider economic questions provide further evidence for the findings of this study. An analysis of the use of petitioning and the committee system provides a better understanding of the ways by which business actors aimed to promote their interests in a regulated environment. The study, which draw on a sample of 871 petitions and appeals and case studies of two committees, demonstrates that the representatives of the Finnish business life aimed to influence both major and minor matters through the above mentioned ways of contacting the top decision-makers: the scale could vary from privileges to produce soap in a small manufacture to issues involving large-scale business ventures and major legislative measures that would eventually change the development of whole segments of the economy. The study provides new insights into the development of business-government relations in the early part of the century and the transition from merchant to industrial capitalism, the gradual process of the diversification and internationalization of Finnish business life, female entrepreneurship and the birth of new industries.

Business life in pursuit of economic and political advantages in early-nineteenth-century Finland

With few exceptions, historians have argued that in the nineteenth century women were excluded from most retail activities. In Europe women became increasingly concentrated in small-scale, undercapitalized, and short-lived stores. The “separate sphere” ideology in its different guises underlay this evolution. In North America, on the other hand, women capitalized on this ideology to carve a niche for themselves in trade and retailing. Women were not marginalized or segregated everywhere in Europe, however. In northern France the expansion of retail trade and overall improvements in standards of living provided women, especially married ones, with opportunities they were not reluctant to grasp. Though the activities of married women remained subordinated to the needs of their families, female retailers were neither particularly impoverished nor segregated in sectors deemed appropriate for persons of their sex.

Petites bourgeoises and penny capitalists: women in retail in the Lille area during the nineteenth century.

A collection of stories and analysis about women, luxury, fashion and education in South-Eastern Europe in pre-modern and modern times.

Women, Consumption, and the Circulation of Ideas in South-Eastern Europe, 17th - 19th Centuries,

This article traces the history of Amelie de Dietrich’s role from 1806 to her death in 1855 as the head of one of the oldest family-owned businesses: the De Dietrich company. Amelie took important strategic decisions to adapt the company to the new economic opportunities in the metal sector, which arose in the first half of the nineteenth century. Her choices were decisive for the future of the company; what is more, she succeeded in restoring the familial ownership. Given the entrenched assumptions about gender roles prevalent in the early nineteenth century, how can we explain her success in meeting such difficult challenges? Relying on Amélie de Dietrich’s own unpublished correspondence, this contribution examines the factors that explain her success in imposing herself as a Maître des Forges. It thus underlines women’s role – as business leaders – during the industrialization process.

/pdf/women-leaders-in-industry-in-nineteenth-century-france-the-2rks4e6f.pdf

Women leaders in industry in nineteenth-century France: The case of Amélie de Dietrich

Book Review: Women in Business in Early Modern Copenhagen, 1740–1835:

The purpose of this paper is to bring to our attention the important role of women in wholesale international commerce in eighteenth century northern Germany, using examples from Stralsund as a case study. (Stralsund, a port-city formerly in the Hanse, was at that time the capital of Swedish Pomerania and had a population, including garrison, of some 14,000 around 1800; it was an economic center of regional importance, specializing in the production of malt and the export of grain to Sweden and Western Europe). After sketching a social and economic profile of Stralsund's female merchants ca. 1750–1830, I will discuss the crucial issue of control, i.e., to what extent and how these women were able to operate independently within a political and legal system that favored men. In my conclusion, I suggest that women left, or were forced out of, the wholesale trade around 1850 as a result of political changes and a shift in the meaning of the concept of Burger, rather than as a result of industrialization or market expansion. Throughout, I consider whether my observations about female merchants in Stralsund have any wider validity by comparing them with research on the commerce of other ports in Northern Europe and in North America.

Women as Merchants in Eighteenth-Century Northern Germany: The Case of Stralsund, 1750–1830

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Women as Merchants in Eighteenth-Century Northern Germany: The Case of Stralsund, 1750–1830