Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T23:12:09.740Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“An Irresistible Phalanx”: Journeymen Associations in Western Europe, 1300–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2009

Catharina Lis ,
Hugo Soly  and
Lee Mitzman
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The paths of historical research resemble the forces in the sea. As some topics surface and rise to ever greater heights, others may be dragged to the depths of silence and cease to affect the beating of the waves. In most western European countries, research on journeymen has suffered this second fate. Along with the decline in interest in guild-based economies, the issue of whether pre-industrial journeymen associations were predecessors (or perhaps adumbrations) of modern trade unions, which had inspired widespread debate during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, faded from the agenda following World War II. This trend does not mean that the new generation of social historians has blithely ignored disputes involving journeymen. Nevertheless, many authors designate such events as crowd movements or view them as obvious forms of traditional resistance.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 39 , supplement S2: Before the Unions. Wage earners and collective action in Europe, 1300–1850 , August 1994 , pp. 11 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1994

References

* Lorwerth Prothero, Artisans and Politics in Early Ninettenth-Century London. John Gast and His Times (London, 1979), p.58.

1 The forunner function of the journeymen associations for the labour movement and the continuity between them have been emphasized by Guillaume Des Marez in Belgium, Henri Hauser in France, Lujo Brentano, Georg Schanz and Rudolf Wissell in Germany, and the Webbs in Great Britain. For Germany, see Reith, R., “The Social History of Craft in Germany: A New Edition of the Work of Rudolf Wissell”, International Review of Social History, 36 (1991), pp. 92–102CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Reith, R., Griessinger, A. and Eggers, P., Streikbewegungen deutscher Handwerksgesellen im 18. Jahrhundert. Materialien zur Sozialund Wirtschaftsgeschichte des städtischen Handwerks, 1700–1806 (Göttingen, 1992), pp. 2–3Google Scholar. The importance of corporate traditions for the formation of labour movements has recently returned as a topic of debate. See Kocka, J., “Craft Traditions and the Labour Movement in Nineteenth-Century Germany”, in Thane, P. et al. , (eds), The Power of the Past. Essays for Eric Hobsbawm (Cambridge, 1984), pp. 95–117Google Scholar; Rule, J. (ed.), British Trade Unionism, 1750–1850: The Formative Years (London and New York, 1988)Google Scholar; Lenger, F., “Beyond Exceptionalism: Notes on the Artisanal Phase of the Labour Movement in France, England, Germany and the United States”, International Review of Social History, 36 (1991), pp. 1–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Devreese, D. E., “Ambachten, arbeidsmarkt en arbeidersbeweging. Vorming van de moderne arbeidersbeweging te Brussel, 1842–1867”, in Vries, B. de et al. (eds), De kracht der Zwakken. Studies over arbeid en arbeidersbeweging. Opstellen aangeboden aan Theo van Tijn bij zijn afscheid als hoogleraar Economische en Sociale Geschiedenis aan de Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht (Amsterdam, 1992), pp. 108–138Google Scholar.

2 Thompson, E. P., Customs in Common (London, 1991)Google Scholar, passim (quotation from p. 9).

3 Bohstedt, J., Riots and Community Politics in England and Wales, 1790–1810 (Cambridge, Mass., 1983)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, passim (the quotation on p. 3). See also Reddy, W. M., “The Textile Trade and the Language of the Crowd at Rouen, 1752–1871”, Past and Present, 74 (1977), pp. 62–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Randall, A., “Worker Resistance to Machinery in the Case of the English Woollen Industry”, in ESRC Working Group on Proto-Industrial Communities, Workshop Papers, 1 (Warwick, 1987), pp. 86–105Google Scholar.

4 Several authors consider food riots the most typical form of social protest during the eighteenth century. They include: Burstin, H., “Conflitti sul lavoro e protesta annonaria a Parigi alla fine dell'Ancien Régime”, Studi Storici, 19 (1978), pp. 743–744Google Scholar; Rudé, G., Ideology and Popular Protest (New York, 1980), p. 136Google Scholar; Christie, I. R., Stress and Stability in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain. Reflections on the British Avoidance of Revolution (Oxford, 1984), p. 152Google Scholar; Fox, A., History and Heritage. The Social Origins of the British Industrial Relations System (London, 1985), p. 63Google Scholar; Rule, J., Albion's People. English Society, 1714–1815 (London and New York, 1992), p. 196Google Scholar.

5 Thompson, E. P., “English Trade Unionism and Other Labour Movements Before 1790”, Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History, 17 (1968), p. 21Google Scholar; idem, “Eighteenth-Century English Society: Class Struggle Without Class?”, Social History, 3 (1978), p. 154; idem, Customs, pp. 8–10.

6 Rudé, G., The Crowd in History. A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730–1848 (New York, 1964), p. 66, and his Ideology, pp. 136, 141, 144Google Scholar. On “collective bargaining by riot”, see Hobsbawm, E. J., “The Machine Breakers”, Past and Present, 1 (1952), pp. 59–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in his Labouring Men (London, 1968), pp. 7–8, and Hunt, E., British Labour History, 1815–1914 (London, 1981), p. 195Google Scholar.

7 Malcolmson, R. W., “Workers' Combinations in Eighteenth-Century England”, in , M. and Jacob, L. (eds), The Origins of Anglo-American Radicalism (London, 1984), p. 152Google Scholar.

8 Rule, J., The Experience of Labour in Eighteenth-Century Industry (London, 1981), pp. 211–212Google Scholar. See also Brewer, J. and Styles, J., An Ungovernable People. The English and Their Law in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (London, 1980)Google Scholar, “Introduction”, esp. pp. 13–14, and Price, R., Labour in British Society: An Interpretative History (London, 1986), p. 29Google Scholar.

9 Charlesworth, A., “From the Moral Economy of Devon to the Political Economy of Manchester, 1790–1812”, Social History, 18 (1993), p. 213CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 A. Randall, “The Industrial Moral Economy of the Gloucestershire Weavers in the Eighteenth Century”, in Rule, British Trade Unionism, pp. 29–51 (the quotation on p.47).

11 Griessinger, A., Das symbolische Kapital der Ehre. Streikbewegungen und kollektives Bewusstsein deutscher Handwerksgesellen im 18. Jahrhundert (Ulm, 1981), passim, esp. pp. 179, 439, 450–455Google Scholar. See also Thamer, H. U., “On the Use and Abuse of Handicraft: Journeyman Culture and Enlightened Public Opinion in 18th and 19th Century Germany”, in Kaplan, S. L. (ed.), Understanding Popular Culture. Europe from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century (Berlin and New York, 1984), p. 296Google Scholar, who equally argues that artisans “perceived and reacted to social, economic, and human problems through the notion of honor and its restitution. The journeymen's strikes, too, did not serve primarily economic interests. They were, even in disputes over wages, mediated by the idea of honor. And therefore the strikes too were a ritual of purification and followed forms of symbolic action.” See the comments by Kocka, J., Weder Stand noch Klasse. Unterschichten urn 1800 (Bonn, 1990), pp. 183 and 277, n. 75Google Scholar.

12 Sonenscher, M., “Journeymen, the Courts and the French Trades, 1781–1791”, Past and Present, 114 (1987), p. 106Google Scholar.

13 Malcolmson, “Workers' Combinations”, pp. 155 and 157; Stevenson, J., Popular Disturbances in England, 1700–1832 (2nd ed., London, 1992), pp. 137–138, 324–325Google Scholar; Tilly, C., European Revolutions, 1492–1992 (Oxford, 1993), pp. 38–40Google Scholar.

14 Geary, D., “Protest and Strike: Recent Research on ‘Collective Action’ in England, Germany, and France”, in Tenfelde, K. (ed.), Arbeiter und Arbeiterbewegung im Vergleich (Munich, 1986), pp. 368–369Google Scholar.

15 Thompson, Customs, pp. 88, 338–339.

16 Sonenscher, “Journeymen”, passim, esp. p. 90; Kaplan, S. L., “La lutte pour le contrôle du marché du travail à Paris au XVIIIe siècle”, Revue d'Histoire Modeme et Contemporaine 36 (1989), pp. 361–412CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and his pioneering study “Réflexions sur la police du monde du travail, 1700–1815”, Revue Historique, 261 (1979), pp. 17–77.

17 J. Rule, “The Formative Years of British Trade Unionism: An Overview”, in idem (ed.), British Trade Unionism, pp. 8–10, 22–23.

18 Thompson, E. P., The Making of the English Working Class (rev. ed., Harmondsworth, 1968), ch. 8Google Scholar.

19 Compare J. Rule, “The Property of Skill in the Period of Manufacture”, with Sonenscher, M., “Mythical Work: Workshop Production and the Compagnonnages of Eighteenth-Century France”, in Joyce, P. (ed.), The Historical Meanings of Work (Cambridge, 1987), esp. pp. 50–53 and 104–105Google Scholar.

20 Sonenscher, M., Work and Wages. Natural Law, Politics and the Eighteenth-Century French Trades (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 135–136Google Scholar.

21 Davis, N. Z., “A Trade Union in Sixteenth-Century France”, The Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 19 (1966), pp. 48–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a later period, see Minard, P., Typographes des Lumières, suivi des “Anecdotes typographiques” de Nicolas Contat (1762) (Seyssel, 1989), ch. 3Google Scholar.

22 Wissell, R., Des altes Handwerks Recht und Gewohnheit, vol. I (rev. ed., Berlin, 1971), pp. 301–368Google Scholar; Internationales handwerksgeschichtliches Symposium, Veszprém, 20.–24.11.1978, ed. Ungarische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Veszprém, 1979). For the late Middle Ages, see Reininghaus, W., “Die Migration der Handwerksgesellen in der Zeit der Entstehung ihrer Gilden (14./15. Jahrhundert)”, Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 68 (1981), pp. 1–21Google Scholar. For the early modern period, see Bräuer, H., “Wanderende Handwerksgesellen um die Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts in Chemnitz”, Beiträge zur Heimatgeschichte von Karl-Marx-Stadt, 24 (1980), pp. 77–89Google Scholar; R. S. Elkar, “Umrisse einer Geschichte der Gesellenwanderungen im Übergang von der Frühen Neuzeit zur Neuzeit”, in idem (ed.), Deutsches Handwerk im Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit (Göttingen, 1983), pp. 85–116, and his “Schola Migrationis. Überlegungen und Thesen zur neuzeitlichen Geschichte der Gesellenwanderungen aus der Perspektive quantitativer Untersuchungen”, in K. Roth (ed.), Handwerk in Mittel- und Südosteuropa (Munich, 1987), pp. 87–108; Ehmer, J., “Gesellenmigration und handwerkliche Produktionsweise”, in Jaritiz, G. and Müller, A. (eds), Migration in der Feudalgesellschaft (Frankfurt, 1988), pp. 232–237Google Scholar. For the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, see Bade, K. J., “Altes Handwerk, Wanderzwang und Gute Policey: Gesellenwanderung zwischen Zunftökonomie und Gewerbereform”, Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 69 (1982), pp. 1–37Google Scholar, and Puschner, U., Handwerk zwischen Tradition und Wandel. Das Münchner Handwerk an der Wende vom 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert (Göttingen, 1988), pp. 227–238Google Scholar.

23 Labal, P., “Notes sur les compagnons migrateurs et les sociétés de compagnons à Dijon à la fin du XVe et au début du XVIe siècle”, Annales de Bourgogne, 22 (1950), pp. 187–193Google Scholar; Sprandel, R., “Die Ausbreitung des deutschen Handwerks im mittelalterlichen Frankreich”, Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 51 (1964), pp. 66–100Google Scholar; Geremek, B., “Les migrations des compagnons au bas Moyen Age”, Studia Historiae Oeconomicae, 5 (1970), pp. 61–79Google Scholar; Pallach, U.-C., “Fonctions de la mobilité artisanale et ouvrière – compagnons, ouvriers et manufacturiers en France et aux Allemagnes (17e-19e siècles)”, Francia, 11 (1983), pp. 365–406Google Scholar; Leeson, R. A., Travelling Brothers. The Six Centuries' Road from Craft Fellowship to Trade Unionism (London, 1979)Google Scholar; Sonenscher, M., “Journeymen's Migrations and Workshop Organization in Eighteenth-Century France”, in Kaplan, S. L. and Koepp, C. J. (eds), Work in France. Representations, Meaning, Organization, and Practice (Ithaca, 1986), pp. 74–96Google Scholar.

24 Schulz, K., Handwerksgesellen und Lohnarbeiter. Untersuchungen zur oberrheinischen und oberdeutschen Stadtgeschichte des 14. bis 17. Jahrhunderts (Sigmaringen, 1985)Google Scholar, passim, esp. pp. 68–81, 171–183, 265–295, and idem, “Bemerkungen zur Dtskussion um die Handwerksgesellen und über den Umgang mit Quellen”, Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 73 (1986), pp. 355–361.

25 Marez, G. Des, L'organisation du travail à Bruxelles au XVe siècle (Brussels, 1904), pp. 8–16, 118–119Google Scholar; Willemsen, G., “La grève des foulons et des tisserands en 1524–1525 et le règlement général de la draperie malinoise de 1544”, Bulletin du Cercle archéologique, littéraire et artistique de Malines, 20 (1909), pp. 156–190Google Scholar; Favresse, F., L'avènement du régime démocratique à Bruxelles pendant le Moyen Age, 1306–1423 (Brussels, 1932), pp. 48, 99–102, 117–119Google Scholar; Uytven, R. Van, “The Fulling Mill: Dynamic of the Revolution in Industrial Attitudes”, Acta Historiae Neerlandica, V (1971), pp. 1–14Google Scholar; Dekker, R. M., “Getrouwe broederschap: organisaties en acties van arbeiders in pre-industrieel Holland”, Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 103 (1988), pp. 2–3, 5Google Scholar; Boone, M. and Brand, H., “Volksoproeren en collectieve acties in Gent en Leiden in de 14e en 15e eeuw”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis, 19 (1993), pp. 172–190Google Scholar.

26 Beerbühl, M. Schulte, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerkschaft. Entwicklung, Struktur und Politik der Londoner Gesellenorganisationen, 1550–1825 (Göttingen, 1991), pp. 150–151Google Scholar.

27 Kaplan, S. L., “The Luxury Guilds in Paris in the Eighteenth Century”, Francia, 9 (1982), pp. 288–290Google Scholar; Sonenscher, M., “The sans-culottes of the Year II: Rethinking the Language of Labour in Revolutionary France”, Social History, 9 (1984), pp. 321–327CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Griessinger, Das symbolische Kapital, pp. 70–75; Lis, C. and Soly, H., “De macht van vrije arbeiders: collectieve acties van hoedenmakersgezellen in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden (zestiende-negenende eeuw)”, in Lis, C. and Soly, H. (eds), Werken volgens de regels. Ambachten in Brabant en Vlaanderen, 1500–1800 (Brussels, 1994, forthcoming)Google Scholar.

28 C. M. Truant, “Independent and Insolent: Journeymen and Their ‘Rites’ in the Old Regime Workplace”, in Kaplan and Koepp (eds), Work in France, p. 170.

29 Davis, “A Trade Union”, p. 66.

30 Griessinger, Das symbolische Kapital, p. 119. See also Prothero, I., Artisans and Politics in Early Nineteenth-Century London: John Gast and His Times (London, 1979), pp. 4–5, 26, 36Google Scholar; Kocka, Weder Stand noch Klasse, p. 185; Behagg, C., Politics and Production in the Early Nineteenth Century (London, 1990), p. 106Google Scholar.

31 Mollat, M. and Wolff, P., Ongles bleus, Jacques et Ciompi. Les révolutions populaires en Europe aux XIVe et XVe siècles (Paris, 1970), esp. pp. 42–48, 106, 108Google Scholar. On England, see Lipson, E., The Economic History of England (12th ed., London, 1962), vol. I, pp. 393ff.Google Scholar, and Unwin, G., Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (2nd ed., London, 1963), pp. 48–51Google Scholar. On France, see Fagniez, G., Etudes sur l'industrie et la classe industrielle à Paris au Xllle et au XlVe siècle (Paris, 1877), pp. 75–76Google Scholar; Levasseur, E., Histoire des classes ouvrières et de l'industrie en France avant 1789 (2nd ed., Paris, 1901), vol. I, pp. 310–311,314–315, 599–602Google Scholar; Geremek, B., Le salariat dans l'artisanat Parisien aux Xllle-XVe siècles. Etude sur le marché de la main d'oeuvre au Moyen Age (Paris and The Hague, 1968), pp. 102–103Google Scholar; Leguai, A., “Les troubles urbains dans le Nord de la France à la fin du XIIIe et au début du XIVe siècle”, Revue d'Histoire Economique et Sociale, 54 (1976), pp. 281–303Google Scholar; Chevalier, B., “Corporations, conflits politiques et paix sociale en France au XIVe et XVe siècles”, Revue Historiquc, 268 (1982), pp. 17–44Google Scholar. On the Low Countries, see Blockmans, W. P. et al. , “Tussen crisis en welvaart: sociale veranderingen, 1300–15500”, in Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, vol. IV (Haarlem, 1980), pp. 67–68, 71Google Scholar.

32 Epstein, S. A., Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe (Chapel Hill and London, 1991), pp. 50–62Google Scholar. On the origins of craft guilds in Flanders and Brabant, see Wyffels, C., De oorsprong der ambachten in Vlaanderen en Brabant (Brussels, 1951)Google Scholar.

33 On Nuremberg, see W. Lehnert, “Nürnberg – Stadt ohne Zünfte. Die Aufgaben des reichsstädtischen Rugamts”, and A. Griessinger and R. Reith, “Obrigkeitliche Ordnungskonzeptionen und handwerkliches Konfliktverhalten im 18. Jahrhundert: Nürnberg und Würzburg im Vergleich”, in Elkar (ed.), Deutsches Handwerk, pp. 71–81 and 117–180. On trade unionism and strikes among journeymen calico printers, see, for example, Rule, Experience of Labour, pp. 115–116, 182, 185.

34 Epstein, Wage Labor, pp. 103–111, 123–125.

35 For England: Leeson, Travelling Brothers, pp. 61–64; Rappaport, S., Worlds Within Worlds: Structures of Life in Sixteenth-Century London (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 104–110, 269–270CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Archer, I. W., The Pursuit of Stability: Social Relations in Elizabethan London (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 125–129CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schulte Beerbühl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerkschaft, pp. 104–125. For France: Hauser, H., Ouvriers du temps passé, XVe–XVIe siècles (Paris, 1899)Google Scholar, passim, and Coornaert, E., Les corporations en France avant 1789 (2nd ed., Paris, 1968)Google Scholar, passim. For Germany: Dirke, A. von, Die Rechtsverhätnisse der Handwerkslehrlinge und Gesellen nach den deutschen Stadtrechten und Zunftstatuten des Mittelalters (Berlin, 1914)Google Scholar; Knoll, A., Handwerksgesellen und Lehrlinge im Mittelalter (Berlin, 1931)Google Scholar; Schulz, Handwerksgesellen, pp. 254–256; Wesoly, K., Lehrlinge und Handwerksgesellen am Mittelrhein. Ihre soziale Lage und ihre Organisation vom 14. bis ins 17. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt, 1985)Google Scholar.

36 Davies, M. G., The Enforcement of English Apprenticeship, 1563–1642. A Study in Applied Mercantilism (Cambridge, Mass., 1956)Google Scholar.

37 See Rule, Experience of Labour, pp. 106–111, and “Property of Skill”, pp. 105–107; Snell, K. D. M., Annals of the Labouring Poor. Social Change and Agrarian England, 1660–1900 (Cambridge, 1985), ch.5, esp. pp. 243 and 252CrossRefGoogle Scholar; S. L. Kaplan, “Social Classification and Representation in the Corporate World of Eighteenth-Century France: Turgot's Carnival”, in Kaplan and Koepp (eds), Work in France, pp. 176–228; Griessinger, A. and Reith, R., “Lehrlinge im deutschen Handwerk des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts. Arbeitsorganisation, Sozialbeziehungen und alltägliche Konflikte”, Zeitschrift für Historicsche Forschung, 13 (1986), pp. 186–192Google Scholar; U Puschner, Handwerk zwischen Tradition und Wandel, pp. 245–247; Schulte Beerbühl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerkschaft, pp. 318–340; Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”.

38 Sonenscher, Work and Wages, ch. 8; Minard, Typographes des Lumières, p. 121; Schulte Beerbühl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerksdiaft, pp. 128–129, 262–270.

39 Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”.

40 Sonenscher, “Journeymen”, p. 90. See also his Work and Wages, chs. 3 and 8. It is significant that Sonenscher does not provide definite information on the number of suits initiated by the journeymen. While his work suggests that they did sometimes approach the courts on their own, it appears that these occasions were rare and that guild masters took journeymen to court more often than vice versa.

41 Discontent with the administration of justice was common and often led to more radical action. After the court of appeal declared their complaints about two ordinances implemented by the municipal administration of Brussels in 1683 inadmissible, even though recent events conflicted with earlier decisions, the journeymen hatters of Brabant definitely turned their Bourses communes into strike funds. Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”. In 1792, the establishment of the London Friendly and United Society of Cordwainers also followed a court judgement that was considered unfair. The journeymen claimed a strike fund was necessary, for even “if the laws of this country were much more perfect than they really are, still we must purchase their protection; and it is much to be lamented that the expenses of a lawsuit far exceed any journeyman's ability. Hence it often happens that power overcomes right, and innocence itself proves no real security from punishment”. Quoted in Schulte Beerbilhl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerkschaft, pp. 264–265.

42 Sonenscher, “Journeymen”, p. 97.

43 Reininghaus, W., “Die Strassburger ‘Knechtsordnung’ von 1436. Ihre Entstehung und ihre Bedeutung für die Geschichte der Gesellengilden am Oberrhein”, Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins, 126 (1978), pp. 131–143Google Scholar; Schulz, Handwerksgesellen, pp. 81–98.

44 On England, see Brentano, L., On the History and Development of Gilds, and the Origin of Trade Unions (London, 1870), pp. 7, 94–101Google Scholar; Ashley, W. J., Surveys, Historic and Economic (London, 1900)Google Scholar, chapter on “Mediaeval Urban Journeymen's Clubs”; Unwin, Industrial Organization, pp. 50–54; Thrupp, S. L., The Merchant Class of Medieval London (Ann Arbor, 1948), pp. 29–32Google Scholar; Phythian-Adams, C., Desolation of a City: Coventry and the Urban Crisis of the Late Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1979), p. 99Google Scholar; Leeson, Travelling Brothers, pp. 42–45; Swanson, H. C., “The Illusion of Economic Structure: Craft Guilds in Late Medieval English Towns”, Past and Present, 121 (1988), pp. 44–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and his Medieval Artisans. An Urban Class in Late Medieval England (Oxford, 1989), p. 115. On France, see Geremek, Salariat, pp. 112–117, and Chevalier, B., Les bonnes villes de France du XIVe au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1982), pp. 87 and 169Google Scholar. On Flanders, see Werveke, H. Van, De medezeggenschap van de knapen (gezellen) in de middeleeuwse ambachten (Brussels, 1943)Google Scholar, and Boone, M., Gent en de Bourgondische hertogen, ca. 1384 – ca. 1453. Een sociaal-politieke studie van een staatsvormingsproces (Brussels, 1990), pp. 82–83, 88, 92Google Scholar.

45 Schulz, Handwerksgesellen, pp. 100–116; Bräuer, H., Gesellen im sächsischen Zunfthandwerk des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts (Weimar, 1989), pp. 129ffGoogle Scholar.

46 Unwin, Industrial Organization, pp. 58–61, 103–125; Leeson, Travelling Brothers, pp. 45–51; Rappaport, Worlds Within Worlds, pp. 219–223; Archer, The Pursuit of Stability, ch. 4; Schulte Beerbühl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerkschaft, pp. 34ff.

47 In many German cities the Gesellenvereine remained stable organizations throughout the early modern period. See especially Schulz, Handwerksgesellen, pp. 129–162; Wesoly, Lehrlinge, “Conclusion”; Griessinger, Das symbolische Kapital.

48 See, for instance, Huys, E., Duizend jaar mutualiteit bij de Vlaamsche gilden (Courtrai, 1926)Google Scholar, and Timmer, E. M. A., Knechtsgilden en knechtsbossen in Nederland (Haarlem, 1913)Google Scholar.

49 Proesler, H., Das gesamtdeutsche Handwerk im Spiegel der Reichsgesetzgebung von 1530 bis 1806 (Nuremberg and Munich, 1954), pp. 1–5Google Scholar. See also Wegener, W., “Der Reichsschluss von 1731 (Die sog. Reichszunftordnung)”, Annales Universitatis Saraviensis, 5 (1956), p. 40Google Scholar.

50 Hauser, Ouvriers du temps passé, pp. 167, 174–175.

51 Leeson, Travelling Brothers, p. 51.

52 Coornaert, E., Les compagnonnages en France du Moyen Age à nos jours(Paris, 1966), pp. 294–301Google Scholar; Farr, J. R., Hands of Honor. Artisans and Their World in Dijon, 1550–1650 (Ithaca and London, 1988), pp. 65–72Google Scholar.

53 Dobson, C. R., Masters and Journeymen. A Prehistory of Industrial Relations, 1717–1800 (London, 1980), pp. 22–26Google Scholar, 154–170; Reith, Griessinger and Eggers, Streikbewegungen.

54 See the useful comments by Rule, J., “Artisan Attitudes: A Comparative Survey of Skilled Labour and Proletarianization Before 1848”, Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History, 50 (1985), pp. 22–31Google Scholar.

55 Levasseur, Histoire des classes ouvrières, vol. I, p. 313. See also Geremek, Salariat, p. 102.

56 Baker, M. Roys, “Anglo-Massachusetts Trade Union Roots, 1130–1790”, Labor History (1973), p. 366, n. 32Google Scholar.

57 See, for example, Harris, T., London Crowds in the Reign of Charles II: Propaganda and Politics from the Restoration until the Exclusion Crisis (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 200–204Google Scholar.

58 Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”.

59 Thijs, A. K. L., Van werkwinkel tot fabriek. De textielnijverheid te Antwerpen, einde l5de – begin 19de eeuw (Brussels, 1987), pp. 174–182,401Google Scholar; Daems, K., “Vrouwenarbeid te Antwerpen in dc 18de eeuw” (unpublished “licentiate” thesis, Ghent University, 1988)Google Scholar.

60 See Quataert, J. H., “The Shaping of Women's Work in Manufacturing: Guilds, House-holds, and the State in Central Europe, 1648–1870”, American Historical Review, 90 (1985), pp. 1124, 1131–1132CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 Leeson, Travelling Brothers, p. 263.

62 Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”.

63 On the distinction between confraternities and compagnonnages, see Garrioch, D. and Sonenscher, M., “Compagnonnages, Confraternities and Associations of Journeymen in Eighteenth-Century Paris”, European History Quarterly, 16 (1986), pp. 25–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 See below.

65 S., and Webb, B., Vie History of Trade Unionism (London, 1920), pp.36–37Google Scholar, 44–45; Unwin, Industrial Organization, pp. 214–215.

66 See, for example, Reith, R., Arbeits- und Lebensweise im städtischen Handwerk. Zur Sozialgeschichte Augsburger Handwerksgesellen im 18. Jahrhundert, 1700–1806 (Göttingen, 1988), pp. 145–147Google Scholar.

67 Schulz, K., “Gesellentrinkstuben und Gesellenherbergen im 14./15. und 16. Jahrhundert”, in Peyer, H.C. and Müller-Luchner, E. (eds), Gastfreundschaft, Taverne und Gasthaus im Mittelalter (Munich and Vienna, 1983), pp. 221–242Google Scholar.

68 Des Marez, Organisation du travail, p. 118.

69 Farr, Hands of Honor, pp. 63–72.

70 Dobson, Masters and Journeymen, ch. 3; Schulte Beerbühl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewcrkschaft, pp. 179, 185–191, 271–272.

71 Merklen, P. A., Les boulangers de Colmar, 1495–1513. Episode inédit de l'histoire des coalitions ouvrières en Alsace au Moyen Age (Colmar and Mulhouse, 1871)Google Scholar; Schanz, G., Zur Geschichte der deutschen Gesellenverbände (Leipzig, 1877), pp. 78–92; Schulz, Handwerksgesellen, pp. 110–116Google Scholar.

72 See the useful comments by Reith, Griessinger and Eggers, Streikbewegungen, pp. 8–13.

73 Dekker, R., “Labour Conflicts and Working-Class Culture in Early Modern Holland”, International Review of Social History, 35 (1990), pp. 391–392CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Tilly, Charles introduced the concept of the repertoire of collective action to historical and sociological discourse: “Getting it Together in Burgundy, 1675–1975”, Theory and Society, 4 (1977), pp. 479–504CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “European Violence and Collective Action since 1700”, Social Research, 53 (1986), pp. 159–184; The Contentious French. Four Centuries of Popular Struggle (Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1986), pp. 390–398; “Contentious Repertoires in Great Britain, 1758–1834”, Social Science History, 17 (1993), pp. 253–279.

75 Leeson, Travelling Brothers, pp. 18–19, 55–58, 72–74, 92–95; Reith, Griessinger and Eggers, Streikbewegungen, pp. 22–25.

76 See the astute observations of Saint-léon, E. Martin, Le compagnonnage (Paris, 1901), P. 65Google Scholar.

77 Quoted in Leeson, Travelling Brothers, p. 113. See also Musson, A. E., British Trade Unions, 1800–1875, (London, 1972), p. 24CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Prothero, Artisans and Politics, pp. 41–43; Rule, Experience of Labour, pp. 174–176, 180–181. On the effect of the Combination Acts, see the recent articles by Batt, J., “United to Support but Not Combined to Injure: Public Order, Trade Unions and the Repeal of the Combination Acts of 1799–1800”, International Review of Social History, 31 (1986), pp. 185–203CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and J. Moher, “From Suppression to Containment: Roots of Trade Union Law to 1825”, in Rule (ed.), British Trade Unionism, pp. 74–97.

78 Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”.

79 There is an enormous literature on the customs and rituals of journeymen in the skilled workshop trades, from which we have listed only a few important items. For England, the most useful introduction is Rule, Experience of Labour, ch. 8. On the ritual and ceremonial of French journeymen's associations, see Martin Saint-Léon, Le compagnonnage, pp. 207–281; Coornaert, Les compagnonnages, pp. 341–348; Davis, “ A Trade Union”, pp. 58–61; Truant, C. M., “Solidarity and Symbolism among Journeymen Artisans: The Case of compagnonnage”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 21 (1979), pp. 214–226CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lecuir, J., “Associations ouvriéres de l'époque moderne: clandestinité et culture populaire”, Revue du Vivarais (special issue on Histoire et clandestinité, du Moyen Age à la Premierè Guerre Mondiale; Albi, 1979), pp. 273–290Google Scholar; D. Roche, “Work, Fellowship, and Some Economic Realities of Eighteenth-Century France”, in Kaplan and Koepp (eds), Work in France, pp. 65–69. For Germany, see especially Reininghaus, W., Die Entstehung der Gesellengilden im Spätmittelalter (Wiesbaden, 1981), pp. 169–171Google Scholar, 191–193, 300–335; Wesoly, Lehrlinge und Gesellen, pp. 161ff.; Schulz, Handwerksgesellen, pp. 171–184; Greissinger, Das symbolische Kapitah Thamer, “On the Use and Abuse of Handicraft”, passim.

80 For England, see Rule, Experience of Labour, pp. 199–201, and Schulte Beerbühl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerkschaft, pp. 376–379. For France: Coornaert, Les compagnonnages, pp. 214–227. For Germany: Deter, G., Handwerksgerichtbarkeit zwischen Absolutismus und Liberalismus. Zur Geschichte der genossenschafttichen Jurisdiktion in Westfalen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1987), pp. 74–76Google Scholar (with further bibliography). For the northern Netherlands: Dekker, R., “Arbeidsconflicten in de Leidse textielindustrie”, in Diederiks, H. A. et al. (eds), Annoede en sociale spanning. Sociaal-historische studies over Leiden in de achltiende eeuw (Hilversum, 1985), pp. 69–87Google Scholar, and “Labour Conflicts”, pp. 393–395. For the southern Netherlands: Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”.

81 Boissonnade, P., Le socialisme d'étal. L'industrie et les classes industnelles en France Pendant les deux premiers siècles de I'ère moderne (Paris, 1927), p. 138Google Scholar.

82 Roys Baker, “Anglo-Massachusetts Trade Union Roots”, p. 385, n. 70.

83 Lis, C. and Soly, H., Poverty and Capitalism in Pre-Industrial Europe (Hassocks, 1979), pp. 48–51Google Scholar; Schröder, R., Zur Arbeitsverfassung des Spätmittelalters. Eine Darstellung mittel-alterlichen Arbeitsrechts aus der Zeit nach der grossen Pest (Berlin, 1984), pp. 75–82; Epstein, Wage Labour, pp. 232–242Google Scholar.

84 Quoted by Salzman, L. F., English Industries of the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1923 ed.), p. 120Google Scholar.

85 Rogers, J. E. Thorold, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, 7 vols (Oxford, 1866–1902), vol. I, p. 321, and vol. IV, p. 524Google Scholar. See also Brentano, On the History and Development of Gilds, pp. 77–80, and Roys Baker, “Anglo-Massachusetts Trade Union Roots”, p. 356, n. 7.

86 Dyer, C., Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages. Social Change in England, c. 1200–1520 (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 218–219CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Penn, S. A. C. and Dyer, C., “Wages and Earnings in Late Medieval England: Evidence from the Enforcement of the Labour Laws”, The Economic History Review, 2nd ser, 43 (1990), pp. 372–374CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

87 Geremek, Salariat, pp. 132–135.

88 Schulz, Handwerksgesellen, ch. 5; Schröder, Zur Arbeitsverfassung, pp. 97, 180–185.

89 Woodward, D., “The Background to the Statute of Artificers: The Genesis of Labour Policy, 1558–63”, Tlie Economic History Review, 2nd sen, 33 (1980), pp. 32–42Google Scholar. The evidence reviewed by the same author, “The Determination of Wage Rates in the Early Modern North of England”, ibid., 47 (1994), pp. 22–43, suggests that official attempts to control wage rates were largely unsuccessful.

90 Scholliers, E., Loonarbeid en honger. De levensstandaard in de XVe en XVIe eeuw te Antwerpen (Antwerp, 1960), pp. 145–146Google Scholar; Verlinden, C. and Craeybeckx, J., Prijzen- en lonenpolitiek in de Nederlanden in 1561 en 1588–1589. Onuitgegeven adviezen, ontwerpen en ordonnanties (Brussels, 1962)Google Scholar.

91 See, for example, Schulz, Handwerksgesellen, p. 395.

92 See especially Scholliers, E., “Vrije en onvrije arbeiders, voornamelijk te Antwerpen in de 16e eeuw”, Bijdragen voor de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, XI (1956), pp. 309–321Google Scholar, and his Loonarbeid en honger, pp. 127–142. Also Thijs, Van werkwinkel tot fabrick. Pp. 399–405.

93 Cornish, W. R., Law and Society in England, 1750–1950 (London, 1989), p. 291Google Scholar. See also Woodward, “Determination of Wage Rates”, p. 32, and Dobson, Masters and Journeymen, pp. 75–77. On the late Middle Ages, see Isenmann, E., Die deutsche Stadt im Spätmittelalter, 1250–1500 (Stuttgart, 1988), p. 326Google Scholar.

94 Ceremek, Salariat, pp. 126–131; Thijs, Van werkwinkeltotfabriek, pp. 372–373; Dekker, “Getrouwe broederschap”, p. 7.

95 Unwin, Industrial Organization, pp. 50–51, 54; Scholliers, Loonarbeid en honger, p. 142; Davis, “A Trade Union”, p. 64; Isenmann, Die deutsche Stadt, p. 326.

96 Martin, G., Les associations ouvrières au XVIlle siècle, 1700–1792 (Paris, 1900), pp. 135–142; Martin Saint-Léon, Le compagnonnage, pp. 46 and 65Google Scholar; Hauser, H., Les compagnonnages d'arts et méners à Dijon aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris, 1907), pp. 10–11Google Scholar; Kaplan, “La lutte pour le contrôle du marché du travail”, pp. 380–381; Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”.

97 Quoted in Dobson, Masters and Journeymen, p. 39.

98 Christie, Stress and Stability, pp. 132–133. For greater detail, see Schulte Beerbühl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerkschaft, part III.

99 See the interesting remarks of Schulte Beerbühl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerkschaft, Pp. 253–255.

100 Rule, Experience of Labour, p. 212.

101 See the pertinent remarks of Bohstedt, Riots and Community Politics, p. 215.

102 On the Spitalfields Act, see , J. L. and Hammond, B., The Skilled Labourer, 1760164–1832 (London, 1919), pp. 205ff.Google Scholar; Dobson, Masters and Journeymen, pp. 88–89; Rule, Experience of Labour, pp. Ill, 114, 186. Wage regulation in Lyons is discussed by Garden, M., Lyon et les Lyonnais au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1970), pp. 589–590Google Scholar, and Longfellow, D., “Weavers and Social Struggle in Lyon During the French Revolution, 1789–1794”, French Historical Studies, 12 (1981), pp. 9–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

103 Göttmann, F., Handwerk und Bündnispolitik. Die Handwerkerbünde am Mittelrhein vom 14. bis zum 17. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt, 1976), pp. 26ff., 45ff.Google Scholar; Reininghaus, Die Entstehung der Gesellengilden, pp. 61–62; Schulz, Handwerksgesellen, pp. 68–81.

104 Schulz, Handwerksgesellen, pp. 65–66, 395.

105 Riley, H. T., Memorials of London and London Life in the XIIIth, XIVth and XVth Centuries (London, 1868), pp. 226, 232, 238, 240, 244Google Scholar; Brentano, On the History and Development of Gilds, p. 72; Des Marez, Organisation du travail, pp. 67–68; Weber, W. and Mayer-Mahy, T., “Studien zur spätmittclalterlichen Arbeitsmarkt und Wirtschaftsordnung”, Jahrbücher für Nationaldkonomie und Statistik, 166 (1954), pp. 380ff.Google Scholar; Geremck, Salariat, P. 131; Schröder, Zur Arbeitsverfassung, pp. 181–182; Swanson, Medieval Artisans, pp. 113–114.

106 Hauser, Ouvriers du temps passé, pp. 67–72; Scholliers, “Vrije en onvrije arbeiders”, passim; Schraelzeisen, G. K., Polizeiordnungen und Privatrecht (Munster and Cologne, 1955)Google Scholar, ch. 8; Thijs, Van werkwinkel tot fabriek, pp. 381–382; Bräuer, Gesellen, pp. 39–40; Rappaport, Worlds Within Worlds, pp. 238–240. See also Steinfeld, R., Vie Invention of Free Labor. The Employment Relations in English and American Law and Culture, 1350–1870 (Chapel Hill, 1991), passimGoogle Scholar.

107 For more detail, see Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”.

108 Posthumus, N. W., Bescheiden betreffende de provinciale organisatie der Hollandsche lakenbereiders, de zgn. droogscheerders-“synode” (Amsterdam, 1917)Google Scholar, and his De nationale organisatie der lakenkoopers tijdens de Republiek (Utrecht, 1927). See also Dekker, “Labour Conflicts”, pp. 392, 409–410.

109 Gayot, G., “La tongue insolence des tondeurs de draps dans la manufacture de Sedan au XVIIIe siècle”, Revue du Nord, 63 (1981), pp. 105–134CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Dechesne, L., L'avènement du régime syndical à Verviers (Paris, 1908), pp. 52–54Google Scholar; Barkhausen, E., Die Tuchindustrie in Montjoie, ihr Aufstieg und Niedergang (Aachen, 1925), pp. 80–96Google Scholar; and Lebrun, P., L'industrie de la laine à Verviers pendant le XVIIIe et le début du XIXe siecle (Liège, 1948), pp. 106, 213, 259–260Google Scholar.

110 Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”.

111 Rule, Experience of Labour, pp. 173–174.

112 Voet, L., “The Printers' Chapel in the Plantinian House”, The Library, 5th ser., XVI (1961), pp. 10–14Google Scholar; Prothero, Artisans and Politics, p. 38; Reininghaus, W., “Die Gesellenvereinigungen am Ende des Alten Reiches. Die Bilanz von dreihundert Jahren Sozialdisziplinterung”, in Engelhardt, U. (ed.), Handwerker in der Industrialisierung. Lage, Kultur und Politik vom späten 18. bis ins frühe 19. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1984), p. 230Google Scholar; Sonenscher, “The sans-culottes of the Year II”, pp. 322–323; Schulte Beerbühl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerkschaft, pp. 130–133; Materné, J., “Social Emancipation in European Printing Workshops before the Industrial Revolution”, in Safley, T. M. and Rosenband, L. N. (eds), The Workplace before the Factory. Artisans and Proletarians, 1500–1800 (Ithaca and London, 1993), p. 215; Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”Google Scholar.

113 On these events, see the important study by Hauser, Les compagnonnages, pp. 59–68 (the quotation on p. 63). See also Farr, Hands of Honor, pp. 73–74.

114 This account is based upon Galton, F. W., Select Documents Illustrating the History of Trade Unionism. Vol. I, The Tailoring Trade (London, 1896Google Scholar, reprinted 1923), “Introduction”, and pp. 2, 5, 9, 35, 41; Leeson, Travelling Brothers, pp. 95–98; Dobson, Masters and Journeymen, pp. 39–40, 60–73, 124–126; Rule, Experience of Labour, pp. 152–156; Moher, “From Suppression to Containment”, pp. 78–80; Schulte Beerbühl, Vom Gesellenverein zur Gewerkschaft. pp. 185–189, 201–202, 411–416.

115 Proesler, Das gesamtdeutsche Handwerk, pp. 35–37, 49–51; Fischer, W., Handwerksrecht und Handwerkswirtschaft um 1800. Studien zur Sozial- und Wirlschaftsverfassung vor der industriellen Revolution (Berlin, 1955), pp. 24–25Google Scholar; Griessinger and Reith, “Obrigkeitliche Ordnungskonzeptionen”, p. 173; Thamer, “On the Use and Abuse of Handicraft”, pp. 278–281; Puscher, U., “Reichshandwerksordnung und Reichsstädte. Der Vollzug des Reichsschlusses von 1731 in den fränkischen Reichsstädten”, in Müller, R. A. (ed.), Reichsstädte in Franken, 2 vols (Munich, 1987), vol. I, pp. 33–45Google Scholar, and her Handwerk zwischen Tradition und Wandel, pp. 199–202, 230–232; Deter, Handwerksgerichtsbarkeit, pp. 76–93.

116 For more details, see the important articles of Kaplan: “Réflexions sur la police du monde du travail”, pp. 43–59, and “La lutte pour le contrôle du marché du travail”, pp. 373–409. See also Martin, Associations ouvrières, pp. 149–152, 155–162, 174–176; Cavignac, J., “Le compagnonnage dans les luttes ouvières au XVIIIe sieèle. L'exemple de Bordeaux”, Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, 126 (1968), pp. 399–404Google Scholar; Sonenscher, Work and Wages, pp. 287–291; Delsalle, P., “Du billet de congé au carnet d'apprentissage: les archives des livrets d'employés et d'ouvriers (XVIe-XIXe siècle)”, Revue du Nord, 75 (1993), pp. 286–292CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

117 For a detailed analysis, see Lis and Soly, “De macht van vrije arbeiders”.

118 The debate on the language of labour dates from the publication of the thought-Provoking book by sewell, william h. Jr, work and revolution in france. tlie language °f labor from the old regime to 1848 (cambridge, 1980)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also the excellent collection of essays edited by Kaplan and Koepp, Work in France. For useful comments, see Cerutti, S., “Ricerche sul lavoro in Francia: rappresentazioni e consenso”, Quademi Storici, 64 (1987), pp. 255–274Google Scholar, and Berlanstein, L. R., “Working with Language: The Linguistic Turn in French Labor History. A Review Article”, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 33 (1991), pp. 426–440CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

119 Harrison, M., Crowds and History: Mass Phenomena in English Towns, 1790–1835 (Cambridge, 1988), p. 13Google Scholar.

120 Hauser, Les compagnonnages, pp. 67–68.