Abstract
This book is focused on the history of imperial bureaucracy, entrepreneurs, and social policy in the Habsburg Monarchy after the Austro-Hungarian compromise until the outbreak of the Great War. The social policy, understood as a form of modern governance and governing has long received attention from historians.
This book is an attempt to add to the existing research one issue that is less reflected, namely the relationship of state authorities to the social policy promoted by entrepreneurs in the industrial towns and their surroundings. Using the example of so-called welfare institutions - company houses, schools, orphanages and churches in the Brno, Pilsen, Ostrava, and Prague regions - the book examined how the Viennese ministries, in cooperation with provincial governorates, district captaincies, financial directorates, tax inspectorates and school boards, supported their construction and operation.