Producing Beyond Guilds: Barcelona's Urban Manufacture of Indianas in the XVIII Century

Abstract

The volume contains selected essays which together re-frame the roles of guilds in medieval and early modern European cities. They focus on the different ways in which we can understand the interfaces between regulatory frameworks, representd by guild and civic regulations, and the wider world of labour and production. Thyrough case studies of single cities, economic sectors and of territories, they address a range of questions about the operation of labour markets, the nature of guild regulation within and outside guild jurisdictions, and the interaction between "regulation" and "freedom" as expressed in legislation and in the organization of production and distribution. In doingo so, they offer a means to compare and contrast experiences across Europe and the circumstances which determined and altered economic structures and, in turn, political and social structures in cities.