Kant: A BiographyIt is easy to see how these two trades came into conflict. They were com¬
peting for essentially the same customers, and both could supply the same
goods. The trade of the harness makers was very similar to that of the
saddle makers, but the apprenticeship of harness makers lasted two years,
that of the saddle makers three. While saddlers could make harnesses, har¬
ness makers were neither trained to make saddles nor were they allowed to
do so. In competing for a limited business, the saddle makers encroached
on the market of the harness makers, who fought this encroachment but
ultimately lost. In some regions of Germany the trade of the harness
makers had already disappeared by the time Kant was born.
Johann Georg Kant lived and worked during the period in which this
trade declined in Königsberg. His business suffered as time went on, and
it became increasingly difficult to make a living during the 1730s and 1740s.
Johann Georg must have known he was facing a losing battle. He must have
felt that the encroachment was unfair, even if he could not change it. Still,
he did not allow these troubles to poison his family life, even though family
and business were so closely intertwined.
How the Königsberg of the early twenties looked from the point of view
of a simple journeyman can be seen from the account given by Samuel Klen-
ner, a tanner (Weissgerber) who spent some time in the city:
Königsberg: The capital of Prussia Brandenburg ... It is a large and very extensive
place. I was here three quarters of a year with the master Heinrich Gallert in Rossgarten.
Every pastor must give one Ducate to the Lutheran Bishop here, who has a doctor¬
ate in the Holy Scripture because he must always review (revidieren) them, and he must
preach wherever he goes. The king has also built an orphanage here, and he has allowed
professor Francke in Halle to design it. There is a small church in it, and the public teach¬
ers of the institution give excellent sermons, even though they are called Pietists...
The food here, as in all of Prussia, is very plain. For almost half of the week, one
receives one and the same kind of food, namely salted pork and fish. This is warmed
up every day again. The bread is black, yet still quite tasty. The flour is roughly milled,
and it is baked with the husks. Often the bread contains straw. The beer, by contrast,
is excellent: the table beer in Prussia is often superior to the real beer in some parts of
Silesia.
The journeymen cannot go into the public because of the soldiers. They must always
sit in the hostels, playing cards for money - something very common in Königsberg.
However, no one is allowed to sit in a pub and drink while church is on. If anyone does,
he is arrested. Because the recruitment of soldiers intensified, and because they tried
their best to recruit me, I traveled back to Danzig.^18The daily food of the Kant family was probably as monotonous as this ac¬
count suggests, and frugal at the best of times. Nevertheless, it would not