How the guild archives, and all other objects of the nation's heritage which were of historical, scientific or cultural value, and which were of a general, applicative value, were to be handled was determined by the provincial authorities already in the 19th century. Despite this, though, the problem of the preservation of the guild archives and articles arose at the end of the 19lh and the beginning of the 20th century. A large amount of the guild archives were still kepi by cooperative bodies, or were the properly of individuals. The majority of these were in poor condition, and the record kepi of them was inadequate. As a result of this, this valuable archival material suffered considerable damage over the years. Por this reason, the provincial representative body issued a number of decrees demanding that the political authorities on the lower level devote more time and attention to the préservation and protection of archival materials such as these which were not kept in any institution. Thus, the provincial representative body proposed in a decree issued on July 23. 1914, that the newly founded professional cooperatives hand over all guild archival materials into the keeping of the Styrian Provincial Archives in Graz. In the event that the cooperatives refused Io comply with this decree, they were requested to keep them in appropriale slorage places which had to be permanent, fire-proof and dry. A comprehensive inventory of all such archival material also had to be compiled, which was to be checked thoroughly and in detail whenever a new cooperative head took office. One copy of the inventory was also to be submitted to the trade authority of the first instance, while a second copy was to be submitted to the political authority of the first instance.