Boys learning craft skills : Rural artisan apprenticeships in early modern Finland

Abstract

Research on handicrafts has generally concentrated on the study of urban artisans and guilds. However, not all artisans operated in towns, nor were rural artisans always small marginal groups. For instance, the majority of Finnish artisans lived and worked in the countryside. They had the right to take on apprentices; therefore, most rural artisans received their training from artisans working in the same environment. This article characterizes apprentices in the early nineteenth century in Finland and studies how rural artisans organized their occupational training. A single large Finnish parish was selected as the subject of this research, in order to study artisans and their apprentices more individually, and to examine details such as the duration of apprenticeships, completion rates, and the social backgrounds and ages of apprentices.