Page 190 - Mediterranea-ricerche storiche, n. 48, aprile 2020flip

190 Roberto Rossi

factor in the re-education and qualification of inmates – considered not
integrated within the society due to their orphancy and poverty – making
them acceptable . The silk manufacturing model was strengthened and
45
legitimised by some internal regulations . Accounts were opened in the
46
name of spoolers, reelers, twisters and weavers to control them and
measure their costs. The accounts reported the worker’s name and
surname, the number of days worked in a month by each orphan girl
employed in the factory, and the wage paid. Table 9 is a summary of the
aggregate data stated in the detailed accounting sheets .
47
The workers’ performance within the Real Albergo was meticulously
monitored, aiming to control factory work. Moreover, there was an ex-
post control too based on the comparation of results and objectives .
48
If, on a micro scale, accounting consists of «instruments that render
visible, record, differentiate and compare» , then labour accounting in
49
the factory, a tool that allows «the construction of an individual person
as a more manageable and efficient entity», enabled the General
Superintendent to monitor each individual performance (table 9) .
50

Table 9. Orphan girls employed in Real Opificio delle Sete:
monthly working days and wages (July 1801)
Production process Number Wage
and number of working days (average in
of workers (monthly verage) Sicilian onze)
Reeling
35 18.6 9.17
Spooling
7 17.8 7.6
Weaving
13 13.7 7.5
Throwing
8 15.25 7.5
Twisting
13 16.7 7.16
Source: Asp, Rsi, f. 5272.

45 M. Battaglini, L’esperimento di San Leucio tra paternalismo e illuminismo, Edizioni
Lavoro, Roma, 1983.
46 Asp, Rsi, voll. 5271, 5272.
47 R. Rossi, Poor government and work organisation in the Real Albergo dei poveri of
Palermo cit., p. 62.
48 Asp, Rsi, vol. 5272.
49 M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison cit., p. 208.
50 P. Miller, T. O’Leary, Accounting and the Construction of the Governable Person cit.,
p. 235.

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