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To contain and control: work organization and poor government in the... 195

The control of inmates followed also on the external life (by
regulations and permits to limit the external life), as for the Real
Albergo dei Poveri. In this sense, the two cases study could be
considered as “total institution”. Furthermore, it is interesting to note
that the control authority followed space and time since the
administrator had a whole control power, while master artisans
controlled the work places and work time. Finally, the chaplains had
the power on souls and to the time and space dedicated to them. Also
the Hospicio de Pobres in 1806 settled an internal technical school,
the Escuela Patriotica (Patriotic School) with the aim to instruct
inmates. The program was mainly based on nationalistic and religious
education – Mexico was heading towards independence – integrated
with basic instruction and, of course, technical education .
59
The control tools within the Hospicio de Pobres clearly refers to a
visibility analytic based on records and numbers that much more than
physical discipline serve the tasks of discipline on one side, and of
workforce extraction on the other.

Conclusions

The work extraction and organization within the two analysed
institutions seems to demonstrate the existence of a “contested
terrain”, following Richard Edwards’ approach. The hypothesis of
three main forms of organization to extract work power –
correspondent to three different historical stages – seems visible from
reported cases :
60
1) Simple control. It was the primary system to managing workers
at the very beginning of industrialization. The worker is subject to a
“stick and carrot” system, consisting in an unsystematic mix of
sanctions and incentives based on the action of the foremen and
entrepreneur/capitalist himself . It could be associated to the first
61
times of industrialization. The simple control was a system that
typified labour organization in the early factories, despite random and
imprecise forms of control.

59 Agn, Bandos, vol. 22, Prospecto de la Nueva Forma de Gobierno Politico y Economico
del Hospicio de Pobres de esta Capital, 1806.
60 R. Edwards, Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the
Twentieth Century, Basic Books, New York, 1979, pp. 17 e sgg.; H. Braverman, Labour
and monopoly capital: The degradation of work in the twentieth century, Monthly Review
Press, New York and London, 1974.
61 Ivi, p. 34.

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