ABSTRACT
The collectivist school in Israel favouring the establishment of large ‘kibbutzim’ strongly supported the development of industries and handicrafts in the settlements, as a means of securing the largest membership economically possible. Handicrafts and outside employment have come to occupy a place of increasing importance in the collective economy, as can be seen from the table for the income of the ‘kibbutzim’ in 1937. The food industry has been dealt with first because the plants process agricultural produce. The wood and metal industries, however, are of far greater importance in village industry. In 1947 the metal works operated by the settlements together established the ‘Meshavek’ Company to market their products on a commission basis, to purchase raw materials, to co-ordinate production and to finance storage. The settlements engaging in industrial development had no capital of their own and the investments were financed by bankers’ loans.
