Der institutionelle Ansatz in der wirtschaftshistorischen Forschung seit dem 19. Jahrhundert. Interpretationen zum Niedergang des schlesischen Leinengewerbes
The institutional approach in research into economic history since the 19th century. Interpretations on the decline of the Silesian linen industry

Summary/Abstract: This article has two aims: On the one hand, it describes the change of historiography on the Lower Silesian textile industry. Its starting-point is an essay by Lujo Brentano dating from 1893. A representative of the historic school of German national economics, he pursued the idea of “institutionalism". The institutions forming the framework of collective economic action were of political, economic and social nature. Their combination and transformation determined the historic-economic process. Despite several differences this paradigm is closely related to New Institutional Economics. The new approach, though, is obliged to the neo-classical theory, i.e. it recognizes the axiom of profit maximization when evaluating institutions. Proceeding from a controversy about the decline of the Silesian linen industry, the author also contributes to our understanding of the change of paradigms in economic history since the second half of the 19th century by illustrating how research oscillated between theory-based and merely descriptive methods. On the other hand, the author presents a new interpretation of Lower Silesia’s deindustrialization, i.e. the decline of its linen industry. He shows that it was not the manorial system, according to the older thesis, but an innovation-hostile arrangement between strong, conservative merchant guilds defending their interests against challenges and the Prussian state which impeded innovation. This strategic alliance, existing in a regional context, prevented the expansion of the manufacturing system, which, in many other textile regions, formed the basis of the ensuing industrialization. In the case of Silesia, however, the lack of product and process innovations resulted in economic decline.

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