The role of merchants in the financial and industrial sectors in the industrialization of Switzerland from the sixteenth century to the 1830s(<SPECIAL ISSUE>72th annual conference)

Abstract

The intent of this paper is to clarify the role played by merchants in the industrialization process. The beginning of Swiss industrial development after the sixteenth century was marked by the large-scale migration of Calvinists throughout Europe, and the introduction of cotton and silk manufacturing. Later on, the center of cotton production was transferred to the countryside, where 'bottom-up' development and democratization took place. Urban merchants maintained the initiative in the capital intensive sectors, and some of them founded private banks. The organizers of the Verlagsystem in the countryside and merchants in the city became factory owners. The banks in Zurich were in a fledgling state, and capital demand from the factory sector was still low. In the 1820s and 1830s, capital demand caused by the cultivation of new markets and intensified competition in the factory sector was satisfied by private bankers in Zurich and Basel, who doubled as textile manufacturers or traders. Their resources were supplemented by regional and non-institutional means of finance. In conclusion, it can be said that merchants in Switzerland supported industrialization in various ways, as organizers of production and distribution, and as founders and leaders in the financial sector.