Combining Agrarian and Industrial Livelihood: Rural Households in the Saxon Oberlausitz in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The article examines the various strategies that members of rural house holds employed in the textile district of the Saxon Oberlausitz during the region's successful industrial development. The household was sustained by complex com binations of agricultural and industrial activities. These included home textiles and subsistence farming in the first half of the century and, later on, wage work in the new mechanized mills, the machine and garment industries, and construc tion. But these workers never gave up their ties to the countryside, residing in rural areas and commuting, if need be, up to two hours for industrial jobs. Main taining such close ties to agriculture provided subsistence and welfare security and offered a crucial buffer during episodes of unemployment. The perspective of the household, not that of the factory or construction site, most clearly reveals these intricate combinations of agrarian and industrial livelihood.