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

The purpose of this volume is to provide a conspectus of current research on the history of guilds and corporations in Italy in the period from the Renaissance to the end of the 19th century. Particular aims are to examine the relationship between guilds, manufacturing, entrepreneurship, and economic development, and their impact on urban society and social welfare. The work derives from a major project set up in 1994; the results were discussed at a conference in Rome in September 1997, and formed the basis for a further presentation by Professor Carlo Poni at the 12th International Economic History Conference in Seville. The papers are grouped into three sections, dealing with the guild system in urban areas, case studies of individual guilds and conflicts, and their role in mutual aid and assistance. Specially translated for this volume, they trace for the English-speaking world a rich picture of the history of the Italian guild system in the modern era, and its movement from magnificence to decline.

Contents: Introduction, Alberto Guenzi and Paola Massa; Part One: The guild system and urban realities: A reading of the relationship between cities, manufacturing crafts and guilds in modern Italy, Giorgio Borelli; The changing role of the guilds in the reorganization of the Milanese economy, 16th-18th centuries, Angelo Moioli; Trade guilds, manufacturing and economic privilege in the Kingdom of Sardinia during the 18th century, Giacomina Caligaris; The guild system in Sardinia in the 18th and 19th centuries, Giuseppe Doneddu; The guilds system and city government: Palermo in the 18th and 19th centuries, Simona Laudani; The decline of the silk and wool guilds in Naples in the 18th and 19th centuries, Anna dell’Orefice; The regulation of the Roman market in the 17th century, Fausto Piola Caselli; Ognuno per non pagare si fa povero : the Roman Guilds system in the early 18th century, Carlo M. Travaglini; New entrepreneurial demands and economic organisation in two northern Italian cities in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Gian Luigi Basini; Guild statutes in the modern age: norms and practices: preliminary results in the Veneto area, Paola Lanaro; Part Two: Profession, monopoly and conflict: Conflicts and norms in the Guild of Silkmakers in Naples in the 16th to 18th centuries, Rosalba Ragosta Portioli; Between corporative conflicts and social ecology : the silk industry in Lucca in the early 18th century, Renzo Sabbatini; The Genoese guilds in the 16th and 17th centuries, Paola Massa; A chain of skills: the production cycle of firearms manufacture in the Brescia area from the 16th to the 18th centuries, Carlo Marco Belfanti; The hatmakers’ guild in Bologna in the modern era, Alberto Guenzi; Dynamics of the used goods market: Bolognese drapers and scrap merchants in the modern era, Fabio Giusberti; Brokers and brokerage in Bologna from the 16th to the 19th centuries, Bernardino Farolfi; Stockbrokers and stock exchange brokerage in Naples from th