Регулация на занаятчийското производство в българските земи през първата половина на ХIХ век
Regulation of Artisan Production in the Bulgarian Lands during the First Half of the 19th Century

Summary/Abstract: Making critical use of the achievements of Bulgarian and world historiography in the study of the economic and social functions of guilds, the paper offers a new interpretation of the role of the craft-guilds and the state in regulating artisan production during the first half of the 19th century. On the basis of a detailed study of its concrete manifestations in different fields and during the individual states of artisan production, essential differences have been established in the objectives, methods and means of regulation and control, as well as in the relations between the managing artisan bodies and different Ottoman administrative and judicial institutions in connection with the regulation and control of artisan production. They varied mostly depending on the specific economic and social context, the scale and nature of production. The most essential difference in the degrees and forms of regulation have been established between the artisan making of basic commodities in the big administrative centers (controlled in a more direct and strict way even in the initial period of the Reforms) and the proto-industrial productions earmarked for mass distant export, characterized by a more autonomous guild control and direct dependence on the regulatory mechanisms of the market. Methodologically the study stresses the need for taking into account and for parallel investigation of the three factors; guild regulation, state control and marked regulatory mechanisms, as well as their interactions, at variance with contracting them, an approach widespread in the literature. The great flexibility, vitality and adaptability to the changing economic and social reality of the craft-guilds in our lands in comparison with other European regions are noted.

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