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Working in and for charity institutions: patterns of employment and actors 201

point for factory owners and businessman . Others pointed out that
3
these institutions, in experimenting and promoting new forms of
organisation of the labour force were trait d’union between the artisan
workshop and the factory . A third strand of literature takes into
4
account recent historiographical issues about economic privileges,
patents and technological innovations, and focuses on the role played
by charity institutions in introducing and adopting, whether or not
successfully, economic innovations and new technologies . In this
5
perspective, a crucial point is the controversial link between guilds
and charity institutions: if the former established norms to regulate
production, the latter were often allowed (by means of patents granted
by the authorities) to produce and sell goods that were not compliant
with the guilds’ regulations . Another controversial point about guilds
6
and charity institutions concerns their role in the human capital
formation and in training. S. R. Epstein has argued that ‘the primary
purpose of craft guilds was to provide adequate skills training trough
formal apprenticeship’ and that ‘in the absence in premodern societies
of compulsory schooling and of efficient bureaucracies, the best
available solution on all counts was arguably a system of training
contracts enforced by specialized craft associations’ . However, recent
7
research has shown the fluidity of apprenticeship in early modern
society and moreover that (also) charity institutions played a crucial
role in offering young boys and girls the opportunity to receive some
kind of training, acquire specific skills and enter the labour market .
8

3 J. Humphries, Childhood and child labour in the British Industrial Revolution,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010; R. Caty, Enfants au travail. Attitudes des
élites en Europe occidentale et méditerranéenne aux XIXe et XXe siècles, Publication de
l'Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 2002.
4 L. Gheza Fabbri, Lavoro obbligato e lavoro coatto nella Legazione di Bologna (sec.
XVI-XVII), in S. Cavaciocchi (ed.), L’impresa. Industria, commercio e banca secc. XIII-XVIII,
Atti delle “Settimane di Studi”, Istituto internazionale di storia economica, F. Datini,
Prato, Le Monnier, Firenze, 1991, pp. 433-435.
5 L. Moccarelli, L’esperienza delle case di lavoro volontario e coatto a Milano tra 1720
e 1815, in M. Taccolini, S. Zaninelli (eds.), Il lavoro come fattore produttivo e come risorsa
nella storia economica italiana: atti del Convegno di studi, Vita e Pensiero, Milano, 2002,
pp. 111-122.
6 B. Zucca Micheletto, Privilegi economici, corporazioni e rapporti di potere negli stati
Sabaudi (1680-1799). Una ricerca in corso, «RISES Ricerche di Storia economica e
sociale», III, 1-2 (2017), pp. 139-161.
7 S. R. Epstein, Craft Guilds, Apprenticeship, and Technological Change in
Preindustrial Europe, «The Journal of Economic History», 58, 3 (1998), pp. 684-713, cit.
p. 684 and p. 688.
8 R. Salvemini, Formazione e avviamento al lavoro nei reclusori e nei convitti del Regno
di Napoli alla fine del Settecento, in M. Taccolini, S. Zaninelli (eds.), Il lavoro come fattore
cit., pp. 187-198; C. H. Crowston, L'apprentissage hors corporations. Les formations
professionnelles alternatives à Paris sous l'Ancien Régime, «Annales HSS», mars-avril 2

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