Family and business among master artisans and entrepreneurs

This article considers the relationship between family and business among economically successful artisans who were on the way to attaining the status of industrial bourgeoisie. For 19th-century master artisans as well as for entrepreneurs, the family was an important means of economic success. The connection between family and business, however, manifested itself in various ways. Cross-sectional household structures show two distinct patterns, which might be interpreted as “traditional” and “modern” family forms. Yet, the study of family biographies and of intergenerational succession casts doubt upon dichotomous perspectives and points toward complex relations between family strategies, kinship networks, and the guilds.