Mario Grassi, A Delicate Equilibrium: State Projects, Guild Dynamics, and Personal Interests in Silk Weaving in Ancient Regime (Turin, Eighteenth Century)

Studies on manufacturing in the Early Modern Age have often been restricted to using guild and institutional sources to rebuild social and economic dynamics. However, more recently, thanks to the focus of micro-historical studies, the use of disparate sources (notarial, charitable, censorial, etc.) has made it possible to shed new light on the role played by individuals in the development and decadence of the manufactures of the ancien régime. The present essay intends to fit into this context, helping to bring to light the complex and multiform universe of economic and social relations present in the organisation of labour in the ancien régime. To do this, a specific case-study is presented: the dynamics linked to the evolution of silk weaving in Piedmont during the ancien régime. After the well-known success of the organzino, there were in fact numerous attempts by Piedmont to gain a place in the international fabric trade. The essay questions the initiatives that were put in place to achieve success in silk weaving, the socio-economic elements that were part of this context, the resistances that emerged in the course of time, and the relation between the actors (state, guilds, individuals). Through the use of unpublished sources, and a complex process of interpolation of data, it was possible to highlight how it is necessary to bring into dialogue the voices of all the parties involved in order to get a realistic idea of the organisation of labour from a historical perspective, looking at the issue from every possible angle. This enabled a re-evaluation of the scope of government initiatives in the founding of royal manufactories, the corporative dynamics that tended to provide sufficient work for all artisans of the craft, and the fundamental role played by the interests of individuals, be it earnings, social recognition, work, survival.