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Solidarity and Symbolism among Journeymen Artisans: The Case of Compagnonnage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Cynthia M. Truant
Cynthia M. Truant
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

The very complexity of compagnonnage has always served to protect and foster the well being of its members despite the prohibitions issued against this workingmen's association by French authorities from the seventeenth century until 1848 when such bans were briefly lifted. However, the same secrecy and intricacy that enabled compagnonnage to evade official attacks has frequently shielded it from historical investigation. Thus, although there have been studies of compagnonnage, none has really attempted to explain the relationship between the association's rituals and mythology and its more apparent labor activities such as ‘fixing the price of work’ and ‘ruining the masters.’

Type
Continuity in Working-Class Concerns
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , April 1979 , pp. 214 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1979

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References

1 Notably the study by Hauser, Henri, Les Compagnonnages d'arts métiers à Dijon aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siécles (Paris, 1907);Google ScholarSaint-Léon, E. Martin, Le Compagnonnage, son histoire, ses coutumes, ses règlements el ses rites (Paris, 1901);Google Scholar and Coornaert, Emile, Les Compagnonnages (Paris, 1966).Google Scholar For other published as well as archival sources see the extremely useful and complete bibliographical essays by Lecotté, Roger, Les Archives historiques du compagnonnage (Paris, 1956), andGoogle ScholarEssai bibliographique sur les compagnonnages de tous les Devoirs du Tour de France (Paris, 1951).Google Scholar

2 Archives nationales (hereafter A.N.), F79787, dossier Saone et Loire. A report on the activities of the compagnons stonecutters, Enfants de Salomon, by the Prefect of the Saone et Loire dated 20 November 1825.

3 ‘Bibliotheque Nationale (hereafter B.N.), E. 3488. Decision of the doctors of the faculty of theology in Paris dated 21 September 1645. The decision condemns the rituals of the compagnons shoemakers as well as their walkouts and boycotts against master shoemakers.

4 Hauser, , Les Compagnonnages, p. 1.Google Scholar On such economic activity in Bordeaux see the important article by Cavignac, Jean, ‘Les Compagnonnage dans les luttes ouvrières au XVIIIe siècle: Pexample de Bordeaux,’ Bibliothèque de l'ècole des chartes, 1969 (1968), t. 126, livre 2, pp. 377–411.Google Scholar

5 See, for example, Labal, Paul, ‘Notes sur les compagnons migrateurs et les sociétés de compagnons à Dijon a la fin du XVe et au début du XVIe siecles,’ Annales de Bourgogne, t. XXII, 1950;Google ScholarHauser, , Les Compagnonnages;Google ScholarDouais, , ‘Le Pseudo-baptême et les pseudo-serments des compagnons du Devoir à Toulouse,’ Mémoires de l'académie des sciences, inscriptions, et belles-lettres de Toulouse, t. V (1893);Google ScholarGuéneau, L., L‘organisation du travail à Nevers au XVIIe et au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1919), pp. 76–84;Google ScholarLa Croix, Paul, Histoire des cordonniers (Paris, 1852). The Tour de France was the relatively set route through the major towns and cities of France made by journeymen to perfect their trade; it usually lasted about three years.Google Scholar

6 See, for example, Martin, Germain, Les Associations ouvrières au XVIIe siecle (Paris, 1900);Google ScholarSaint-Léon, E. Martin, Le Compagnonnage;Google ScholarHauser, , Les Compagnonnages;Google Scholar and Cavignac, , ‘Le Compagnonnage dans les luttes ouvrières.’Google Scholar

7 For a detailed example of the labor activity of a group of compagnons locksmiths in Bordeaux see Cavignac, , ‘Le Compagnonnage dans les luttes ouvrières.’Google Scholar

8 The close structural and functional similarities of the rites as well as the belief of compagnons (especially well expressed by Agricol Perdiguier) that compagnonnage was essentially one association lead me to employ the term in the singular. Jean Cavignac and Martin Saint-Léon, among others, also use the term this way.

9 Shorter, Edward and Tilly, Charles, Strikes in France, 1830–1968 (London and New York, 1974), p. 390,Google Scholar n. 5. See also the discussion of Hobsbawm, E. in Primitive Rebels, pp. 153–62.Google Scholar

10 See, for example, A.N., Bulletin de Police; the series F7 (4236, 9786, 9787) and BB18 in particular. The works of Georges, and Bourgin, Hubert, Le régime de l‘industrie en France de 1814 à 1830Google Scholar and Aguet, Jean-Pierre, Lesgrèves sous la monarchic dejuillet (1830–1847)Google Scholar contain many references to the labor practices of compagnonnage based on such archival material. Finally, one must at least credit compagnonnage with an important role in the carpenter's strikes in Paris in 1822, 1833, and 1845 (Aguet, pp. 305–06, and 309–10).

11 Agulhon, Maurice, Une Ville ouvrière au temps du socialisme utopique, Toulon de 1815 à 1851 (Paris, 1970), pp. 131 and 136.Google Scholar

12 A.N., F79787, dossier Saône et Loire. Report of the Prefect of the Saône et Loire including copies of letters from compagnons stonecutters in Paris and Versailles dated 3 September 1825; and, letter of the Mayor of Tournus to the Prefect, Saone et Loire dated 16 September 1825.

13 This relationship between the behavioral and ideational systems of compagnonnage is closely examined in my work, ‘Compagnonnage: Symbolic Action and the Defense of Workers' Rights in France 1700–1848’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1978.Google Scholar

14 B.N., E. 3488, Decision of the Doctors of the Faculty of Theology in Paris, beginning: ‘Les compagnons d'un certain metier...’, 21 September 1645; B.N., E. 3489, Resolution of the Doctors of the faculty of theology, 14 March 1645; and B.N., mss. coll. Dupuy, 775, fol. 272, 274, ‘Serment des selliers de la ville de Bordeaux,’ 1654.

15 The parlements and the officials of the corps des métiers were particularly disturbed by the actions of compagnonnage. For the first case see Lebrun, Père Pierre, Recueil de pièces pour servir de supplément à l'hisloire des pratiques superstitieuses, Paris, 1727, t. IV, p. 68;Google Scholar and, Douais, , ‘Le Pseudo-baptême,’ p. 441. For the second case see the petition presented to the archbishopric of Paris by the officials of the community of master shoemakers of that city dated 13 May 1648 (B.N., E. 3489).Google Scholar

16 Douais, , ‘Le Pseudo-baptéme,’ pp. 433–34,Google Scholar a denunciation in 1651 of the Archbishop of Toulouse. See also the ‘Serment des selliers de Bordeaux,’ 1654 (B.N., Mss. coll. Dupuy, 775).

17 Archives municipales de Dijon, G. 10. Records of the meeting of the master joiners who wished to ‘faire casser le devoir des compagnons du métier.’

18 Van Gennep, Arnold, The Rites of Passage (Chicago, 1960), especially, pp. 21, 26, and 96.Google Scholar

19 Turner, Victor, The Ritual Process (Chicago, 1969), pp. 166–68.Google Scholar

20 See Bibliographic Note. What follows in this section is an analysis of a relatively typical initiation ritual, based on my examination of the accounts listed there.

21 For example, members could be accepted rather rapidly in order to increase the membership of a new society and strengthen it against its enemies. In other cases, to retain control of hiring and wages in a town, new journeymen would quite simply be required, by force if necessary, to join a society of compagnonnage upon their arrival in town. Such incidents are reported by Labal, , ‘Notes sur les compagnons migrateurs et les sociétés de compagnons à Dijon à la fin du XVe et au debut du XVIe siècles,’ p. 191;Google Scholar in the ‘Decision of the doctors of the faculty of theology,’ Paris, 21 09 1645, p. 1;Google Scholar in the Archives departementales de la Côte d'Or, BII 360/17, 3 April 1502, BII 360/12, 16 May 1475, and BII 360/12,24 December 1475; and, in the Archives départementales de la Gironde, , 1 B, arrêt of 12 June 1709.Google Scholar

22 For an example of this see France, , Direction du travail, Les Associations professionnelles ouvrières, vol. I, pp. 123–24.Google Scholar Cf. the work of Maroussem, du, Charpentiers de Paris, compagnons et indépendants (Paris, 1891).Google Scholar

23 See, for example: the use of the term Jacques, Maitre in the ‘Livre de règies des jolis Compagnons tourneurs’ (Toulouse, 1731),Google Scholar reprinted in Coornaert, , Les Compagnonnages, pp. 356–81;Google Scholar the term Maitre Jacques in the rôle of the compagnons locksmiths du devoir in Bordeaux, ca. 1760 (Archives départementales, Gironde, C 3708, register for the period 1757–61); the use of terms such as Solomon, Hiram, and the Temple in the article by Pradelle, Joseph, ‘Réception des Compagnons menuisiers et serruriers du devoir de liberté sous l'ancien régime à Toulouse,’Google ScholarMémoires de l'académie des sciences, inscriptions, et belles-lettres de Toulouse, ser. 13, 3 (1941): 135–53. This example is less satisfactory than the others in that no primary source reference or exact date is provided.Google Scholar

24 See Bibliographic Note. As with the analysis of the rituals I have based the following interpretation on a relatively standard account of the myths of origin for each rite.

25 Agricol Perdiguier [Avignonnais la vertu], compagnon joiner du devoir de liberté, Le Livre du compagnonnage, p. 20.Google Scholar

26 Démocratie pacifique, 23 August 1845. See also the coverage of this strike for June, July and August 1845 in both the Démocratie pacifique and the Quotidienne.