Page 209 - Mediterranea-ricerche storiche, n. 48, aprile 2020flip

Working in and for charity institutions: patterns of employment and actors 209

production. The weavers, who needed training, worked for free for the
first three months. During the next two years they earned the same
salary as external journeymen (plus a premium of one lira for every
cloth, ‘to encourage them to work’). Finally, they had to donate their
last three months’ wages to the Ospedale as reimbursement . A
26
survey of the inmates reveals that in 1766 the Ospedale employed 293
men and boys and 262 women and girls (aged 7 and older) in the so-
called ‘lucrative activities for the institution’: a range of jobs related to
the manufacturing of wool thread and clothes or canvas . Fifty years
27
later, in January 1809, the Ospedale hosted 481 inmates (370 women
and 111 men) who were employed in manufacturing uniforms, socks,
blankets and other textile goods .
28
In the second half of the eighteenth century, other institutions were
more oriented to merely put children to work, and exploit this cheap
labour force, rather than training them. The Opera di San Giovanni di
Dio, for example, founded in 1755 by Rosa Govona, admitted young,
poor girls aged between 13 and 25, and was essentially a coercive
workhouse, where untrained girls were employed in low-skilled textile
activities (wool spinning and weaving) and in manufacturing textiles,
gloves, socks and silk ribbons. The commodities they produced were
sold at low prices and in many cases fostered the guild hostility .
29

Family strategies

Prior to delving further into the discussion, it is useful to consider
the importance of training for children. Indeed, an analysis of the
family contexts of the children who were admitted in charity
institutions sheds light on specific dynamics and reveals the medium-
term strategies of poor families.
One of the reasons that encouraged parents to place their children
in charity institutions, was that since the second half of the eighteenth
century, those who were trained in these institutions could easily join
the urban guilds and even achieve mastery at favorable conditions.
Following a request from the Ospedale di Carità, and despite guild

26 Asct, Ospedale di Carità, cat. XIX, Atti, vol. 17, anno 1753; Idem, vol. 29, a. 1776;
Idem, cat. XI, fasc. 5, a. 1793 ; Ast, sez. riun., Insinuazione di Torino, a. 1763, l. 3, f.
582r-588r; Idem, a. 1784, l. 9, f. 961r-969r.
27 Ast, I sez., Materie ecclesiastiche, Luoghi pii di qua da' monti, m. 18, f. 8, Stato
generale delle persone.
28 Asct, Ospedale di Carità, cat. XI, fasc. 6, Etat de travails aux quels se trouvoient
occupés les recouvrés de l’hospice de Charité le premier janvier 1809.
29 S. Cavallo, Charity and power cit., p. 229.

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