Alberto Guenzi - Guilds, Markets and Work Regulations in Italy, 16th–19th Centuries

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Guilds, Markets and Work Regulations in Italy, 16th-19th Centuries

Scientific Committee

Angela Girelli Bocci
Alberto Guenzi
Paola Massa
Angelo Moioli
Fausto Piola Caselli
Carlo Travaglini

Guilds, Markets and Work Regulations in Italy, 16th19th Centuries

Edited by
Alberto Guenzi, Paola Massa and Fausto Piola Caselli

First published 1998 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

This edition copyright 1998 by Alberto Guenzi, Paola Massa and
Fausto Piola Caselli

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library CIP Data
A catalogue record for this book is available.

US Library of Congress CIP Data
Guilds, Markets, and Work Regulations in Italy, 16th19th Centuries /
edited by Alberto Guenzi, Paola Massa, Fausto Piola Caselli.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Guilds Italy History Congresses. 2. Guilds Italy Political
Activity History Congresses. 3. Italy Economic Conditions
Congresses. 4. Italy Commercial Policy History Congresses.
5. Friendly Societies Italy History Congresses. I. Guenzi, Alberto.
II. Massa, Paola. III. Piola Caselli, Fausto.
HD6470.G85 1998 9823011
338.6'32'0945 dc21 CIP

ISBN 9781840142839 (hbk)

Transferred to Digital Printing in 2011

Contents

ALBERTO GUENZI and PAOLA MASSA

The theme of guilds has a long tradition amongst the historians of the Italian economy; but has also passed through a period in which the subject was only of marginal interest to scholars. In the last 10 years it has been rediscovered. In 1990, at Verona, Giorgio Borelli organised a Convention on 'The Guilds in the economic and social reality of Italy in the modern period' and some 20 scholars presented contributions which covered all the Italian regions. In subsequent years numerous articles and monographs have enriched our knowledge of the subject of guilds, re-examining, with a fresh approach, such themes as conflict, defence of professionalism, the specificity and particularity of different markets, and relations between guilds and technology.

A permanent Seminar was set up in 1994 which has the patronage of the Italian Society of Economics Historians (SISE); the aim of the Seminar is to consider how future research should be pursued and the possibilities of co-operation on common projects. The results of the work carried out are then compared in the context of the international scientific community.

The 12th International Economic History Congress, scheduled to take place in 1998, was set as the objective for the group to present its work for the first time in an international context. To be more precise: it was decided that the research work being contributed by so many scholars from all parts of our country should be focused on several specific, significant themes. After some preparatory meetings, a final conference was held in Rome on 2627 September 1997. At this the authors of the studies now included in the present book presented their individual research.

Before summarising the principal features of the research work that has been presented, another initiative must be mentioned, which is taking place within the scope of the seminar and being coordinated by Luciana Frangioni. This is the collection of a national bibliography on the subject of the guilds and professional groups between the thirteenth and the twentieth centuries; the work is still in progress, and more than ten thousand titles have already been inserted into the data base. The intention is to make this collection of cards, which indicates where the work is being done, available to everyone, probably through the publication of a volume accompanied by a CD ROM.

of this book analyses the guild systems in some of the most important Italian locations. The cases considered cover the whole of Italy. The individual cases fit well together and enrich the preceding historiographical model. Essentially, the different guild systems can be considered as a form of organisation of production and distribution characterised by dynamic elements and by transformation processes. The picture emerges of an economic system changing and remoulding itself side by side with the guilds; with the abandonment of old production methods, we witness processes of abolition, merging and transformation of the bodies connected with them. However, when new products are adopted, the guilds in the sector tend to multiply in accordance with the segmentation of the productive process.

At the same time, the guild systems are seen as being open to technical and organisational innovations, often establishing relationships (both conflicting and cooperative in nature) with the activities of rural proto-industry where they appear. It is to be noted that, although not playing a direct role in the governing of the cities (as had happened in the era of the 'Comuni' or free cities) the guilds were to remain an important political entity in the Italian urban centres, in their advisory role in the determination of economic policies, and in their capacity to organise social welfare and to ensure public order. In short, reveals evidence of a feature of the guilds which is new and perhaps unforeseen: that of organisations that were first and foremost economic but also social, changing if not their nature, at least the forms of their presence in the economic system.

Merchants and guilds had a complex and difficult relationship which was affected by economic trends. In periods of economic growth, the merchants could operate exclusively through the city guilds; the contemporary demographic increase tended to bring down wage levels.

In periods of economic crisis or stagnation, production tended to move outside, to peasant families, thus exalting the figure of the merchant entrepreneur. A second important aspect is the function of the guilds in the urban environment. The Italian aristocracy entrusted to the guilds the representation of the working classes, realising that this was a way of controlling tensions which could have led to a challenge to the ruling powers.

Of particular interest is the history of the relationship between the merchant companies and the guilds in Milan. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, the merchant companies controlled many industries and their guilds. Milanese silk cloth was in great demand on the international textile markets; the economic success of the merchants strengthened their control over the guilds. In this period, the merchantentrepreneurs resorted to the puttingout system in both city and countryside, since they were looking for low production costs. After the economic crisis of the seventeenth century, the organization of industrial production began to change; the Verlagsystem replaced the Kaufsystem in manufacturing companies specialising in exportation. The merchantentrepreneurs ( Unternehmer ) were entirely responsible for the organisation of industrial production by the free or corporate small masters ( Verlager ). Thus, in the seventeenth century, the guilds existed side by side with other production systems under the rule of the mercantile oligarchy.

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