Yarn food
The Garnnahrung was a 1527 existing to 1810 a sovereign monopoly and a cartel for the processing of yarn in the area of today's Wuppertal .
Originally the term referred to the livelihood ("food") from the processing and finishing of linen yarn .
Yarn food privilege
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On April 29, 1527, Duke Johann III. and Duchess Maria von Jülich, Kleve and Berg den Barmern and Elberfeldern the privilege of "thread food", that is, the monopoly of bleaching and twisting , according to which "nowhere in ducal lands could be bleached and twisted" than in Barmen and Elberfeld. In this case, the yarn food emerged as an official institution (i.e. neither a guild nor a guild ) with which this privilege was controlled and administered. This set the annual maximum quantities of bleaching thread for bleachers and merchants as well as the period in which bleaching was allowed. The regulations for yarn food stipulated that four yarn masters and four beige Korene were elected annually to monitor the regulations , half each from Barmen and Elberfeld, and furthermore that each “was only allowed to work with his own proper money so that it was good knows, is honest and well-made and bleached and that the merchant is not betrayed ”. In return for the reimbursement of the 861 gold guilders paid for the privilege , the sovereign could terminate the privilege with six months notice.
The privilege is regarded as the decisive document for the development of the textile industry in Barmen and Elberfeld, because the bleaching monopoly for the ducal lands secured the Wuppertal bleachers a livelihood, protected them from overproduction and guaranteed the constant quality of the industry. This was achieved by setting up the yarn masters and their assistants as deputies who, together with the sovereign officials, monitored compliance with the regulations.
The yarn masters were sworn in, whereby they committed themselves with this oath “and to help the same consort […] the privilege of yarn food […] to multiply, cut and defend [and where they] could advise and promote common use Not to be negligent or negligent. ”They promise to report all violations of the privilege to the officials, to listen to the parties in the event of disputes, to speak their judgment to the best of their ability and uninfluenced and to inform each other. The Garnmeister and Beyenburg swore this oath to the two officials from Elberfeld and Beyenburg , since Barmen belonged to the latter office.
The yarn masters were able to accept new bleachers into the rights of the privilege, were able to reduce production evenly if necessary, investigate and arbitrate disputes and complaints and safeguarded the economic interests of the Barmer and Elberfelder vis-à-vis the authorities. So the yarn food became the first association of economic self-government, which only became a commercial association in the 18th century. The advance of cotton made the linen monopoly irrelevant. Like other guilds and privileges in the Grand Duchy of Berg, yarn food was abolished in 1810 by a Napoleonic decree.
Amounts of yarn Elberfeld and Barmen 1606
To check the maximum quantities specified in the “yarn food privilege”, the yarn masters visited the bleachers every year during the bleaching period and noted the yarn quantities. In 1606 there were around 5000 quintals on 33 Elberfelder and 77 Barmer Bleichen.
A "note of the umggancks uff den Blechern" from 1606 contains, first for Elberfeld, then for Barmen, a list of the quantities of yarn in hundredweight and pounds that every bleacher has on his own and foreign yarn on the bleacher. The owners of the yarn were named, as well as the distinction between fine and coarse yarn, and in some cases individual yarn types are also listed.
The merchants owned far more yarn than the bleachers and mostly lived in Elberfeld. The later development of Elberfeld into a trading town and Barmens into a production town can already be seen here, as there was more space for bleaching in Barmen.
Textile industry in the Elberfeld area, 1715
In his drawing and description of the Herzogthumbs Berg , Erich Philipp Ploennies also mentions the area in the valley of the Wupper, the parishes of Elberfeld-Barmen and Cronenberg in his Topographia Ducatus Montani in 1715, with the textile industry receiving an important addition. According to Plönnies, “there are many bleaches here, whereupon the yarn is bleached [...] and with which the merchants, who live a lot in the town of Elverfeldt, go on to do big business; In addition to the melted yarn, many people in agriculture tend to weave with linen tape, and then make such a lot from the bleached yarn [...] "
Going to the bottom of the causes of this successful development, Plönnies was able to report on the yarn food regulation , which dates back to 1527 and was confirmed once again by Duke Wolfgang Wilhelm in the 17th century : “In addition to what has been said ... you [the city of Elberfeld ] Also trading privileges, regarding yarn and linen tape, with the involvement of the GarnMeister and comrades […] The duke agreed and Confirmiret [confirmed]. Such, however, consist […] in the fact that the 4 yarn masters […] have the freedom to punish those who again peccir the rules of action ”, in other words the traders who violate the yarn food code,“ at will, without anyone being able to appeal for it; For this reason, the trading partners also have to swear an eydt, and it sets them a certain number of weight how much yarn they can bleach annually, even when they start bleaching and have to stop again. "
In the freedom and self-control granted by the sovereigns to the so-called "comrades-in-arms" of Elberfeld-Barmens, Plönnies saw the decisive reasons for the so far so successful development that the Wuppertal yarn bleaching, ribbon knitting and line weaving had taken.
swell
- Treasures from Rhenish archives . 50 years of the Rhineland Archives Advice Center. Rheinland Verlag, 1979.
- Burkhard Dietz: Erich Philipp Plönnies (1672–1751) , Neustadt an der Aisch 1988.
- Walter Dietz, Die Wuppertaler Garnnahrung: History of Industry and Trade in Elberfeld and Barmen, 1400 to 1800 , Neustadt / Aisch 1957