Gremios - History Lab

The industry

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

In the 18th century, the enlightened project of the Bourbon Monarchy opened the doors of the guilds to women, eliminating the restrictions that had excluded them until then without incorporating new forms of production. From then on, the first public schools for girls from the lower classes were promoted, giving them an essential role in the tasks “proper to their sex” (those related to textiles). The textile workshops were spaces of sociability and mutual support for women who worked 12-14 hour days in less healthy hygienic conditions than the work suggests. Neither age nor health were clear limits to their involvement in the task of spinning linen, cotton, silk or wool, work that took place in factories in rural areas and, especially, in the domestic sphere. Some women became masters in trades linked to the textile industry, such as cordwainers or weavers, although this may be an exception.

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Conditions and cost of learning a craft in 16th century Zamora

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:25 +0000

At the end of the Middle Ages the control of the guilds lost importance in some places due to the system of free contracting, but where they would continue to have a clear influence was in the apprenticeship period of the crafts, restricting the number of apprentices and thus systematically controlling production.
The apprentice had to pay a certain amount of money to the master to allow him to work in his workshop and also to live with him in his house, having the primary needs such as food, clothing and a place to sleep covered. Payment was usually made in instalments and agreed upon by both parties. It was also common for the apprentice, in addition to working in a trade, to have domestic tasks, depriving him of holiday periods and even receiving fines if he was absent from his work, as is shown in some letters of payment.

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Evolution of the income of the confraternity of San Roque de Ferrol, 1706-1797

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:07 +0000

During the Modern Age, the confraternities were the most widespread and established associative channel in Spain. Born in the heat of the Middle Ages, the confraternities could have, in their origin, a guild character; a character that would be maintained until the “guild character” and the devotional forms of popular religiosity transformed an association of the aggregated faithful into one of the lay faithful. This step can be concretised in the accounts of the confraternities. The author of the resource exemplifies it with the evolution of the income of the confraternity of San Roque de Ferrol (Galicia) between 1706 and 1797. At the beginning of the century, the guild had an income derived from the economic activity of its members: fishing with 92.8% of the total. In the middle of the century, this figure decreased slightly (87.5%) while income in the form of alms increased (from 4.6% to 8.6%). As the century progressed, the strengthening of devotional forms of religion and the urban growth of the municipality led the confraternity to open up to more social groups; consequently, it lost its guild character and, in the second part of the 18th century, fishing activity became 23% of the income between 1765-1769, and 0% from 1780 onwards. For its part, the quantity and amount of alms increased, making up for the decline in fish, to previously unthinkable levels: 88.4% in 1780 and 82.9% between 1790 and 1797.

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Wide looms at work in Toledo in 1692

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:07 +0000

During the Modern Age in the city of Toledo, the silk weaving industry stood out. From its great splendour in the 16th century, it began to decline from the last quarter of the century until its disappearance at the end of the 18th century or the beginning of the 19th century. The legislation in force and the guild’s own constrictions, added to the discrimination against artisans from other cities such as Valencia, led them to paralyse their looms in 1737 as a sign of their discontent.
As the author of the article points out, at the end of the 17th century (in 1690) there were 530 looms in operation in Toledo, falling to 500 a year later and decreasing drastically to 285 in 1692, the time of the appeal. According to testimonies of the time, the cause of this decline was the radical increase in the price of silk; for a few months this raw material did not arrive in Toledo, which forced many manufacturers to cease production directly.
Faced with this situation, the overseers of Toledo asked for methodological and technical exemptions so as not to have to adjust to the weight required for their products, alleging inconsistent guidelines such as the fact that thicker silks did not fit together well or that clothes with a smaller amount of weaving could be of higher quality. In the face of their submissions and evidence, the Board of Trade accepted their tolerance of these modifications. A year later, in 1693, the number of looms in operation rose again to 622.

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Potosí. Example of a colonial space

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:11 +0000

Chapter of the series “Horizontes Ciencias Sociales”, part of the Encuentro channel, broadcast by the Ministry of Education (Argentina), which explains the process of mining the immense silver deposits by the Spanish colonists. This exploitation had a lot to do with the growth of the city of Potosí, a city that reached similar dimensions to European cities such as London. It also tells what life was like for the mine workers, in this case the Ayaconas Indians, and how their work equipment was made. Of course, the great human toll of the hard work in the mines is not overlooked. Gradually, guilds began to form around the exploitation. In this context, inequalities increased as a result of the wealth and the increase in capital of a few bourgeois merchants whose social ascent had repercussions in Europe, especially in Spain.

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Cordoban silversmiths in the Modern Age

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:11 +0000

A historical dissemination channel under the coordination of the creator of the seminar, Dr. Antonio J. Díaz Rodríguez, where historians with a consolidated career and young researchers from different universities present to the public a particular journey through Cordoba and Andalusia in the 16th and 17th centuries. This initiative is the result of the collaboration of the Laboratory of Judeo-Converso Studies of the University of Cordoba with the Provincial Historical Archive of Cordoba. Conversos, slaves, wine smugglers, prized Andalusian horses, swords from Toledo, Inca nobility, literati, gardeners, document forgers, Moors and much more are shown in these seminars via Youtube. In this case, the conference talks about the life and work of the Cordovan silversmiths in the Modern Age. It shows in detail how the concentration of their activity in specific areas of the city determined their consolidation as a guild and institution from a professional point of view.

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