Iron-making Societies

Book excerpt: The Title of this Book has a Double meaning: on the one hand, it deals with two very different societies both of which made iron in the early modern period. On the other hand, iron made these societies; the needs of iron production and the resistance to these demands from local peasant communities gave them a special kind of cohesion and rationality. This volume presents the findings of a joint team of Swedish and Russian scholars examining the social organisation of work in early modern iron industry in their respective societies. It examines actual production processes, the organisation of work, social conflict, questions of ownership and its evolution, as well as the diffusion and organisation of technical knowledge.