Salaires et justice dans les corporations vénitiennes au XVIIe siècle : le cas des manufactures de verre

Résumé En

Wages and justice in the Venetian guild system of the 17th century: the case of glass manufacturing. F. Trivellato. This article analyzes the wage system of the glassblowers' guild in Venice during the decades following the plague of 1630-31. I present evidence drawn from a database for daily and weekly wages of masters and apprentices as well as material gathered from the jurisprudence and civil court records related to wage and labor conflicts, in order to create a more complete understanding of Old Regime moral economy. It will demonstrate that within a highly-specialized labor force, individual productivity had the capacity to overcome status as a determinant of wage. This is in contrast to the well-studied example of the building sector. At the same time guild policies protected masters and narrowed wage differentials. I argue that the mechanism for determining wages within this Venetian guild reflects also an influence of the Aristotelian notion of justice that permeated the juridical culture and practice at the time. A "just wage", unlike a "just price", was a matter of both commutative and distributive justice. The ability of courts of first instance to determine a "just wage" was limited and subordinated to the enforcement of private contracts, while courts of appeal could influence labor relations at large.