it plays is that of a special system of technical training. The Russian peasants who followed industrial pursuits, before creating their own "domestic system" on the basis of which the true factory system was to develop, first of all passed through the school of the large factories which were based on Government privileges, on the utilization of serf labour, and on the industrial skill of other more advanced countries. On leaving these factories they took with them to their villages and communicated to the masses of the people a considerable body of technical knowledge and skill. The same happens in the case of the town handicrafts[1]. In the eighteenth century it was a common practice for landowners to apprentice young serfs to the town handicraftsmen, who were then mostly foreigners[2]. Thus the foreign craftsmen in the towns, who had found their way into Russia as early as the sixteenth
- ↑ For the large factory-industry, this is shown by Jugan- Baranovski in his Русская Фабриа, for the small industry, by the writer in his Крѣпостное Хозяӥство.
- ↑ Compare Travels in Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark, by William Coxe. (Fifth edition, London, 1802.) "The mode adopted by many landholders with their peasants, reminds me of the practice among Romans. Atticus, we are told, caused many of his slaves to be instructed in the art of copying manuscripts, which he sold at a very high price, and raised a considerable fortune. On similar principles some of the Russian nobility send their vassals to Moscow or Petersburgh, for the purpose of learning various handicraft trades: they either employ them on their own estates, let them out for hire, sell them at an advanced price, or receive from them an annual compensation for the permission of exercising their trade, for their own advantage." (Vol. III, p. 157.) William Coxe (1747–1828), fellow of King's College, Cambridge, died as Archdeacon of Wiltshire.
