Browsing by Subject "Agricultural history"

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Landwirtschaft im Wandel - wie innovativ war die württembergische Landwirtschaft in den Jahren 1818 - 1877?
(2023) Veh, Christine; Birner, Regina
Agriculture accounted for more than half of Wuerttemberg’s economic activity throughout the 19th century. Innovations were highly regarded as the most significant drivers of economic growth. Regional areas within the Kingdom of Wuerttemberg played a significant role in the agricultural advancements. The economic policy conditions for agricultural growth gradually increased throughout this period due to the gradual introduction of freedom of trade from 1828 onwards, the accession to the German Customs Union in 1834 and the liberation of the peasants through the abolition of serfdom in the 1840s. This thesis comprises three interrelated research topics. to contribute in the field of in-novation research, specifically in the field of agricultural science. The first topic addresses the research question of how technical innovations in Wuerttemberg agriculture can be measured. The second research topic addresses the history of the patent system, while the third topic discusses the strategic patent allocation of the Wuerttemberg Patent Office. Patents are used as a potential determinant of innovation and remain one of the determining output indicators. For the Kingdom of Wuerttemberg, reliable research exists between 1830 and 1866 as well as from 1877 onwards. Presently science and research in Wuerttemberg focuses primarily on questions regarding the period after 1877, while ignoring or missing out the discussion about the time before the Common Patent Act in 1877. A complete list of patents until the first Common Patent Act was enacted in 1877 could not yet be presented. The results proved that the Kingdom of Wuerttemberg was at the top of all German states in terms of patent intensity, irrespective of the poor state of agriculture. This analysis shows that, at this time, Wuerttemberg was still predominantly in competition with neighboring German states, as well as France and Great Britain, for the development of technical innovations and inventions. Wuerttemberg had to distinguish and compare itself to its competitors in terms of its innovative capacity, and patent protections played an important role in this endeavor. Despite the importance of patents as a measure of innovation, they only played a sub-ordinate function in agriculture. Patents can protect many important inventions only partly. Therefore, this dissertation examines and focusses on possible implications and consequences of patent grants in the Kingdom of Wuerttemberg. The results show that national and international patent law differences existed in the application and examination procedure, patent costs and patent term. In the third part examines whether the Wuerttemberg authority discriminated against the industrialised countries, such as Prussia and the countries bordering Wuerttemberg, in terms of higher patent fees, the longer processing time and the patent term granted. Another effect is shown for agricultural crises using the patent fee variable and the endogenous variable wheat prices, which is seen as a measure of economic distress. The empirical analysis presented in this thesis indicates that foreign inventors had to expect longer processing times and higher patent fees in the Kingdom of Wuerttemberg then domestic entrepreneurs. The analyses of the patent system contributes to a better understand-ing of the discriminatory behaviour of the Central Office and the Patent Commission. The instruments of the Patent Office included not only fiscal but also monetary policy actions, which had protectionist effects. Such actions refer not only to the promotion of economic growth but also to the influence of Wuerttembergs financial policy. The instruments available for this are patent fees and public costs. A possible explanation for the preferential behaviour of the Central Office of the Agricultural Society with regard to Württemberg could be that the patent system in Wuerttemberg responded to new innovations to keep up with the global innovation leaders such as England, America and Prussia. One can argue that the patent system and Wuerttemberg’s legal protections and poli-cies created an environment that enabled enterprises to grow and innovation to flourish. An-other important aspect revealed by the analysis are the fiscal and protectionist motives of the patent policy, evidenced by charging comparatively high patent fees and involving longer processing time for foreign inventors form industrialized countries. This confirms that patent statistics are a useful source for innovation research. The growing technological development and the significant role of industrial property rights render the use of patents as a strategic instrument interesting. Finally, the goal of this dissertation is to gain a comprehensive picture of Wuerttembergs innovation behaviour and the preference of Wuerttemberg inventors in the agricultural sector during the 19th century.