Sirvientes - History Lab

Average ages of servant boys and girls in the advertisements of the Diario de Barcelona (1795-1849)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:36 +0000

The graph shows the evolution of the age of access to the labour market for child servants between the end of the Ancien Régime and the beginning of the industrial economy. The spatial scope situates us in Barcelona, and the periods covered have “gaps” of information based on episodes that altered the sources, such as the War of Independence. The author points out that during the period between 1795 and 1850, the variation in age was a response to the work to be carried out by the children: while girls between 9 and 10 years of age began to work as nannies, boys who began to work at that age were employed as footmen. However, the age of majority was between 13 and 14 for girls and 14 and 15 for boys. The physical development of adolescence allowed them to carry out harder and heavier work in the service they performed. After the end of the Ancien Régime, the ages of access to work were not affected, showing this resource as an example of continuity in socio-economic practices.

The post Average ages of servant boys and girls in the advertisements of the Diario de Barcelona (1795-1849) first appeared on History Lab.

Life cycle and peasantry in the Sierra de Alcaraz (1753)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:31 +0000

One of the most characteristic groups due to their mobility and social reproduction during the Modern Age were the labour and livestock labourers. The large number of this profession, together with that of labourer and farm labourer, marked the labour activities for young people up to 35 years of age in the Sierra de Alcaraz, a study area in central-southern Spain. Why did it increase so much up to that age? These activities were a good way to enter the world of work. Of the three dominant professional groups, from the age of 35 onwards, it was the young men who abandoned their work the most to seek another livelihood, normally sponsored by the clientele networks they had acquired in their old trade, while the day labourers and farm labourers remained relatively stable until the age of 45. This structure is influenced by the life cycles of the protagonists; the departure from the family nucleus, where many of the young men’s own tasks were carried out, led them to seek another form of independent life.

The post Life cycle and peasantry in the Sierra de Alcaraz (1753) first appeared on History Lab.

Activities of French immigrants in Saragossa (17th-18th centuries)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:33 +0000

Immigration to Spain is not a current phenomenon. During the Ancien Régime, numerous people of other nationalities emigrated to Spain in search of new opportunities and social advancement. The specific case of this resource refers to the trades that the French settled in Saragossa in the 17th and 18th centuries. According to the marriage records, 104 French settlers were counted in Saragossa. Of these, 84 worked as “employees”; 16 as “self-employed”; and 4 in an unknown employment situation. Of the 84 contracted, 21 were bakers, a much higher number than any other trade, followed by 8 labourers, 6 weavers and 5 servants. But the high disposition in the baker’s trade was not accompanied by a promotion in this sector, as only 1 was a master baker. Finally, there may have been cases in which immigrants sought shortcuts to social advancement outside the law, as in the case of Juan Sarto, a Frenchman who forged documents from the University of Zaragoza and parish books to pass himself off as Aragonese.

The post Activities of French immigrants in Saragossa (17th-18th centuries) first appeared on History Lab.