The influence of capitalist transformations on the social structure of the inhabitants of Pińczów between 1870 and 1939

Abstract

The social and professional transformation of the inhabitants of Pinczow in the years 1870-1939 fell under the influence of capitalist changes. A turning point was the inauguration of the process of peasant emancipation in 1864, which broke with the existing social order. Removing cities from the management of the owners ended the economic dependence of noblity. The remnants of the feudal economy gave way to a new, determined capitalist transformation.
Pinczow's example is an image of the formation of capitalist society in the reality of the petty-bourgeois. The number of people affected by the First World War and economic crises (including the great economic crisis, crop failures) was transformed. As a result of this turbulence, the demographic profile of the inhabitants of Pińczów has also changed. The community of Pinczow, transformed into an aging one in the interwar period. Capitalism was most visible in the bourgeois occupational structure. Those layers and professions that did not keep pace with the economic downturn were disappearing. The mass production of cheap products and the possibility of their influx into the regional market threatened local handicraft production. Pińczów was dominated by a group of clerks, merchants and craftsmen who, in the changing economic reality were forced to adapt knowledge, skills and assortment to the needs of the local community. The dictates of tradition, for example, in craft guilds began to give way to economic considerations, which required the rapid training of specialists.