Labor Before the Industrial Revolution (Perspectives in Economic and Social History) by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: pol
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2018-11-08T23:00:00+00:00

Sandrine Victor

“Quand le bâ timent va, tout va.”

7

7

“Quand le bâ timent

va, tout va. ”1

The building trade in the Latin

West in the Middle Ages

Sandrine Victor

“When the building trade is thriving, everything is thriving.” This French saying underlines efficiently the strong interaction, or at least supposed interaction in the popular subconscious, between economic health in the building trade and general economic dynamism.

Medieval construction sites have often been reduced to cathedral construction in the historiography, 2 which moreover has also reduced architecture to monumental buildings only. It was only from the 1970s on that other building sites, including those of rural and urban living quarters, began to emerge

from the obscurity to which historians had consigned them.3 From the study

of what was built, there was a progressive move to the study of the builders, then toward the economic study of construction workers as actors in a medieval industrial branch. From that point on, the workforce, which was very large on construction sites, became the focus of attention because it was a demonstration of a wage-like social-professional relationship. 4 Moreover, construction sites attracted the attention of historians of techniques because they offered numerous instances of the use of machines and tools related to technological innovation and the adaptation of artisans to the demands of the new Gothic style. From an historiographical point of view, the building sector thus came to fit into “the industrial revolution of the Middle Ages.” 5 Indeed, Marc Bloch asserted that the building trade was the first, and maybe even the only, industry of the medieval era. 6 Construction sites thus were of interest as fabulous observatories for historians eager to understand the working world.

They harbored multiple innovations: The management of large construction sites brought about the setting up of accounting, administrative and control processes; and workers organized themselves into craft guilds, thus guarantee-ing competence and know-how that ensured them a privileged position on the labor market. These guilds generated expertise and professionalism, recognized by civil society and set up tracking and quality control systems for production and products. Construction sites also offered spaces to innovate and experiment with new technologies. Accounting rationalization went hand in hand with a rationalization of activities, a quest for economic performance through a reasoned use of local resources and a rationalized management of human resources. Several individualized characters thus emerged from the mass of

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