Ludność żydowska w rzemiośle i wczesnej produkcji przemysłowej na Białorusi w pierwszej połowie XIX w.

The crafts comprised the prime source of employment for the Jews in Byelorussia and the basic branch of their economy. As late as the end of the nineteenth century the Jews dominated in this domain: in the towns of certain gubernias they constituted 80% of all craftsmen, and some of the crafts were almost totally controlled by them. The crisis of both Christian and Jewish guilds progressed as the capitalist enterprises grew stronger. During the 1830s the tradesmen’s capital, amassed since the first decade of the nineteenth century, served the growth of Jewish factories. The latter were by no means large-scale ventures, and in the following decades, in particular in Byelorussia, they did not compete with large industrial enterprises with state treasury capital but were based on an unskilled and cheap labour force. The Jewish factories in western Byelorussia, gradually developing in the mid-nineteenth century and working predominantly for the needs of the textile branch, began employing pauperised Jewish apprentices. Steadily, they faced the competition of state enterprises with their modernised machinery park and relatively better work conditions.