In the Middle Ages, the productive system was feudalism, without the development of intense trade, but based on the exchange of products. Basically, production was for self-consumption, meeting the most direct needs of a simpler material life when compared to today.
But as we know, cities began to emerge and, in this way, also an incipient commerce. As Leo Huberman suggests, in his book History of the Wealth of Man, “traveling merchants tired in the intervals of their long journeys, waiting for the thaw of a frozen river, or for a muddy road to become passable again, they would naturally stop close to the walls of a fortress [...] a faubourg or 'extramural village' was created” (HUBERMAN, 1986, P. 27). While in feudal society a relationship of dependence and lack of freedom predominated, “the total atmosphere of commercial activity in the city was one of freedom” (ibidem, p. 27). Therefore, the social structures and power relations characteristic of the feudal period were not in keeping with the city, with commercial practice. So, in order to overcome the barriers of the old order, merchants joined together to guarantee freedom for their activities.
In these young villages, the low demand and small trade in manufactured products, already made under certain rigor and technique, were met by the craft corporations. Craft corporations were groups of professionals who began to specialize in the production of certain products, which came together in order to guarantee advantages and safety to a group of individuals of the same occupation, that is, of the same profession. According to Lakatos and Marconi (1999, p. 206), in the corporation system production was “in the hands of independent master craftsmen, with few assistants (apprentices, officials or day laborers) to serve a small and stable market. The worker did not sell his work, but the product of his activity: he owned both the raw material he used and the work tools. Formed by masters in a particular trade, they practiced corporatism, creating barriers to competitiveness to exercise of the activity by those who were not part of the corporation, but, at the same time, were strengthened by the unity".
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Also according to Huberman (1986), “merchant associations, so eager to obtain monopoly privileges and so observant of their rights kept their members in a line of conduct determined by a series of regulations that everyone had to comply with. The member of the society enjoyed certain advantages, but could only remain a member if he followed to the letter. the association's rules [...] Breaking them could mean total expulsion or other forms of punishment” (ibid., P. 34). Thus, corporations were an instrument of mutual cooperation, and for that they held a monopoly on the production of a given product.
After the social, economic and political transformations faced by Europe in the passage from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age, especially after the latter, corporations became obsolete, mainly due to the expansion of the business. “The corporate structure was aimed at the local market; when it became national and international, the corporation ceased to be useful” (ibid., p. 109). Production would no longer be done manually and by hand, but in scale through machines and tools that would provide series production for new demands. With the development of capitalism there was a greater specialization and division of labor, making the figure of the master craftsman something of the past. The social relations of production became more complex, with the appearance of the salaried worker, the worker, who would sell only its workforce, not possessing - like the master of craft - ownership of the means of production (tools) and raw material. Thus, it can be said that craft corporations would become increasingly rare as industrial society approached.
Paulo Silvino Ribeiro
Brazil School Collaborator
Bachelor in Social Sciences from UNICAMP - State University of Campinas
Master in Sociology from UNESP - São Paulo State University "Júlio de Mesquita Filho"
Doctoral Student in Sociology at UNICAMP - State University of Campinas
