Page 187 - Mediterranea-ricerche storiche, n. 48, aprile 2020flip

To contain and control: work organization and poor government in the... 187

Table 8. Mexico City Poor House annual salaries. 1803 (in pesos)
Administrator 1.000
First Chapelain 500
Second Chapelain 400
Assistant Administrator 556
Mayordomo 300
Rectora 160
Master Artisan lodgement
Surgeon/Pharmacist 300
Doctor 180
Bleeder 96
Secretary 200
Scribe 50
Accountant 50
Total 3.792
Source: Agi, Audiencia de México, 2791, exp. 8, Expediente relativo a la fundación en
México de un hospicio, 1797; Agn, Historia, vol. 44, Estado del Real Hospicio de Pobres
de Mexico en 31 de diciembre de 1803.

4. The Work discipline

The way work was controlled at both Real Albergo dei Poveri and
Mexico City Poor House reflected the fundamental interests of the
management in a capitalist economy that is, to extract labour from
labour power. The degree of control is a direct variable of negotiating
power of management and workers and by their strategies and
expectations . It is not easy to quantify precisely the level of
35
bargaining power of imprisoned workers, due to persistence of working
rules, religious prescriptions and social conventions. However is
conceivable that the inmates possessed a certain amount of
negotiating power. Free and un-free work lived together in such
institutions. The control system, therefore, was a necessary tool to
extract labour use from them .
36
The pursuit of control was mainly based on disciplinary power
involving accounting tools, separation and coding . Reclusion was
37
based on the separation of individuals from the rest of the world to

35 P.S. Adler, The future of critical management studies cit., pp. 1325-1329.
36 A. Caracausi, Mesurer Et Contrôler. Les Temps de l'organisation du Travail dans
les Manufactures de Laine de Padoue (XVIe-XVIIe Siècles), «Genèses», vol. 4, 2011, pp.
6-26.
37 M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: the Birth of Prison cit.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Aprile 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)