1979/01/01 by Michael Stürmer · 8 citations
Arts and Humanities · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Art History and Market Analysis #Competitor analysis #Economic history #Economics #Economy #Entrepreneurship #Excellence #Guild #Historical Art and Culture Studies #Historical Economic and Social Studies #History #Law #Management #Market economy #Political economy #Political science #Protectionism #Sociology #Sovereignty
paper · doi:10.2307/3114736
published in The Business History Review 53(4), 496-528 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 1979/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Where virtuoso talents were required by the courts, great and small, of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, the protectionist system of guilds was suspended, according to Dr. Stürmer. In a society where status had to be attested to by conspicuous consumption, of which the sovereign himself was the most avid practitioner, the finest artisans in the fields of interior decoration and furnishings often attained the status of “court artisans,” in which they enjoyed many of the freedoms of laissez-faire that members of the guilds denied themselves as well as their competitors. In the end, however, the Revolution that swept away the guild economy also destroyed this expedient whereby excellence and entrepreneurship had been fostered.