Greater Poland Crafts in the Light of the 1810 Census and in the Context of Multidimensional Grouping

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the professional and spatial craftsmanship structure within the Poznań Department, based on the results of a census conducted during the period of the Duchy of Warsaw. The analyses presented, which include quantitative ones using statistical methods, are therefore related to the pre-enfranchisement period, following which the Poznań Department definitively embarked on a “Prussian path of capitalistic development”. Therefore, the results may serve as a starting point for evaluating the economic changes that took place in the research area in the 19th century. Having used multidimensional methods, I shall be proposing regionalization of the Poznań Department, due to the structure of crafts in the early years of the 19th century. Census data also allow for the identification of key crafts in the Poznań Department at the threshold of industrialization, as well as groups of interrelated branches. The research will also, indirectly, indicate the importance of historical awareness in the selection of grouping methods at subsequent stages of research that is based on historical quantitative data.

Keywords

• crafts
• census
• multidimensional grouping
• regionalization
• Duchy of Warsaw
• Poznań Department