Wages and the labour market in the building trade in 18th century Milan

The article examines markets in the preindustrial era using the example of one of the most important economic activities in the cities of the ancien regime, the building trades. After some introductory remarks of a methodological nature on different ways of approaching the topic of markets the paper examines the development of the building trades in Milan during the Age of Enlightenment. It first considers the question of demand, both public and private, and then it deals with various aspects of supply, including the big contractors, the most important foremen, and the motley work force they employed. The final part deals with the way salaries were made up, which provides an important key to understanding how the labour market in the building trades functioned in 18th century Milan. The first features that emerge from this inquiry into the Milanese building trades in the 18th century enable us to understand that opportunities already existed or were created for the introduction of organisational solutions linked to the market even within these pre-industrial economic and social relationships-solutions that were highly efficient in comparison to the technological and productive organisation. It would seem that, in the more advanced urban economic systems of the early modern era (like Milan's), market mechanisms had penetrated deeply and market circulation, both in goods and people, had already reached a high level.