K politické kultuře českého živnostenského hnutí. Historie Strany pokrokového a neodvislého živnostnictva českého (1903 – 1907)
On the Political Culture of the Czech Trade Movement: A History of the Progressive and Independent Czech Traders’ Party

Summary/Abstract: Czech historiography shows certain deficits in the sphere of interest in the topic of the political organization of the social class of traders, craftsmen and merchants at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. At the same time, the middle class is important for the stability of society. The processes of political differentiation taking place in the Czech lands since the 1890s affected this social class with an almost ten-year time lag. They were strongly affected by the consequences of the electoral reform of 1907, which meant a transition from a curial electoral system to elections based on universal suffrage. Almost all relevant political parties responded to the reform by setting up affiliated organizations for traders. Part of the trade movement rejected the behaviour of political parties and, as an alternative to it, followed the principle of an estates organization for a long time. It sought to establish a political party, the membership base of which would consist exclusively of members of the trade estate. The consequence of these processes was the organizational and political fragmentation of traders and the emergence of political competition perceived as a weakening in the promotion of small-scale production interests. We consider the establishment of the Progressive and Independent Czech Traders’ Party (Strana pokrokového a neodvislého živnostnictva českého) to be the first attempt to form an estates political party of traders. It appeared in the political system of Bohemia for a short time from 1903 to 1907. It was an honorary-type political party (or a pre-party formation), whose membership base mainly came from the territory of southern Bohemia, although its ambitions extended to expanding its scope to the entire territory of the country. It presented the economic programme of Czech traders and wanted to take a leading position within the trade movement. It declared the main goal of its activity to be the representation of traders at the Bohemian Diet and the Imperial Council through deputies professionally associated with the small-scale producers’ class, while their political profile was not yet a decisive criterion for their selection. The organizers of other estates political parties of traders, established after 1907 and operated in the period before the First World War, drew on the experience of the party. The failure of the Progressive and Independent Czech Traders’ Party strengthened the process of seeking political identity in parties.

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