Artisan Entrepreneurs in Cairo and Early-Modern Capitalism (1600–1800)

7 Conclusion: What Remained of Artisan Entrepreneurship a Hundred Years Later?

189 Conclusion What Remained of Artisan Entrepreneurship a Hundred Years Later? At the theoretical level, this book has formulated a framework for the economy of the period from 1600 to 1800 that broadly made use of the world systems approach and adapted it to the conditions of the region and the period under study. It argues that the expansion of world trade currents affected aspects of Egypt’s economy insofar as there is evidence of some expansion in both trade and production. The period can be described as having “trade without periphery” to distinguish it from later periods when incorporation into the capitalist world system was accompanied by the creation of more or less dependent economies. This formulation is helpful in that it leaves considerable space for artisans and production rather than focusing only on merchants and trade. Artisans and artisan entrepreneurs can be integrated in the various processes taking place in this period, both local and regional—hence, showing one way in which a nonelite group can be integrated into these broader processes. In asserting this integration, the book challenges a number of prevailing views about artisans, guilds, and the traditional economy. Artisanal production has often been seen as having been severely constrained by guild rules and regulations and as consequently being unable to confront competition in the eighteenth century by European imports of manufactured goods. In fact, artisan entrepreneurs worked within the framework of their guilds and at the same time adapted their work practices to the market. Even though they tended to be traditional, prevailing conditions sometimes forced them to take initiatives and to make adjustments to their work by undertaking numerous capitalist practices. In doing so, they were at times inspired by a variety of sources, 190 | Artisan Entrepreneurs in Cairo and Early-Modern Capitalism including merchant practices, guild practices, waqf practices, but at other times they invented their own way of doing things. They made changes in their production techniques and in their organization of production in response to the demands of an expanding commercial environment in Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, and Europe. They established small enterprises; their products had a market, and they worked to maintain and protect their interests. In short, they sometimes acted as small capitalists. In order to run their small businesses effectively, the artisan entrepreneurs developed many networks with partners, family members, and colleagues, and they initiated various forms of work organization. They formulated strategies that helped them both when times were good and they could make the best of favorable conditions as well as when times were bad and they had to confront adverse conditions. Thus, artisan entrepreneurs and artisan capitalism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries provide a link between periods that are often studied separately . They should lead us to rethink some aspects of the region’s economic history , especially in relation to the sources of modern capitalism and to European capitalist penetration. The book argues against reducing nineteenth-century economic history to the economic needs of the core or to a focus on those at the top. This study also shows the link between artisans and regional and world trends, local production and regional and world markets, and artisanal production and these markets in that the artisan entrepreneurs who made investments in the various ventures were usually those who produced goods for these markets. Some of the practices these artisan entrepreneurs initiated continued to be used in the nineteenth century, possibly in different contexts and possibly by other groups. They were ultimately one of the sources of a modern economy. The work organization of the textile printers’ guild discussed in the previous chapter is a good example. The four decades that separated the artisans who printed decorations on textiles from the establishment of Muhammad Ali’s textile factory show the continuity of these practices. The textile printer artisans who as guild members grouped their work in one location where they divided their various functions and roles may well have been a model of later work relations, such as the later factories. Thus, some of the aspects of the rationalization of factories might have developed within the guild structure. Of course, the introduction of machinery in nineteenth-century factories made a big difference, but one has to Conclusion | 191 wonder if machines alone shaped industry. In fact, these machines might not have been usable if there had not been some organization in labor relations to...