A central feature of proto-industry, according to the original theories, was its ‘unlimited supply of labour’. It was unlimited for three reasons: free entry to the industry, increasing labour inputs by existing producers and demographic growth. Per capita labour inputs are examined in Chapter 7, and demographic growth in Chapter 8; the present chapter examines entry to the industry. Entry to proto-industries is supposed to have been unrestricted because they were subject to no institutional controls by guilds (in contrast to crafts) or by communities and landlords (in contrast to agriculture). In Württemberg, as we have seen, two of these sources of institutional control (communities and guilds) continued to be active throughout the proto-industrial period. Did their activities have any effect on entry to the worsted proto-industry? The original theories of proto-industrialization would predict that, even if these institutions managed to restrict entry initially, they should have broken down as proto-industrialization progressed. Some theorists of corporate groups, too, would argue that guilds did not attempt to restrict entry to industrial activities, or at least did not succeed in doing so.

This chapter tests these predictions. Section I traces the growth in the number of worsted-weavers in Württemberg as a whole, and in the main districts of the Black Forest region. Section II focusses on weaver numbers in the district of Wildberg, for which better data are available.