Page 53 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 53
Porters in the Eighteenth-century Port City of Trieste ...
ed exclusively of porters from the Bergamo area (hence also the name of
Caravana bergamasca) and had the exclusive right to transport certain
goods in the port of Genoa. That right was acquired as early as the four-
teenth century, and it was maintained continuously for 500 years until
the liberalization of transport, in the first half of the nineteenth century
(Piccinno 2002, 4; Massa Piergiovanni 2011). Examples of ethnically de-
fined monopoly companies are the oil carriers (Camalli da olio) in Genoa
and the customs carriers (Facchini di dogana) in Florence and Livorno,
which originated in the Swiss Canton Ticino.1 In Livorno, the Swiss por-
ters succeeded the Bergamaschi (who were granted a private privilege in
the seventeenth century) because of the excessive annual fee demanded
by the public administration for the contract. The ethnic connotations of
both companies, however, stemmed from the privilege itself, which pro-
vided for the transfer of rights to the relatives of its members (Panattoni
1863). Similarly, although in peculiar forms, porters experienced very dif-
ferent organizational systems in other European and Mediterranean cit-
ies, often differentiating groups of local and immigrant workers (Belfanti
1994, 69–70 for Mantova; Levi 1985, 89 for Cadiz; Kaplow 1982, 62 for
Paris; Stern 1960 for London; Eyal 2002 for the Turkish migration).
Porterage was a less simple profession than we can imagine at first
glance. In addition to physical strength, it required the skill of proper-
ly handling different types of cargo, organizational ability, and respon-
sibility. It was not enough to carry many goods; they also had to be ma-
nipulated, measured, sorted, flowed, arranged and properly stacked in
warehouses, etc. On several occasions, the companies were also entrust-
ed with supervisory tasks. Reliability and the company’s good name were
important in all this. Customer trust was generally one of the main assets
of the companies’ existence and operation. Species of carrier were also so-
cially stratified according to the different economic situations of individ-
ual companies.
Despite the recognition they received for their economic role,2 the
porters were nevertheless among the least reputable professions and oc-
cupied positions at the bottom of the social ladder (Garzoni 1585, 346;
1 For more information on these cases and the differences between monopoly com-
panies and those operating in the free market, see Orelli Vassere 2000; Orelli
Vassere 2004; Orelli Vassere 1996.
2 Due to their flexibility in taking on other jobs, and contributing to solve some co-
nundrums and labour needs, some considered them the ‘ointment’ of the city’s
economic wheels, Mocarelli 2007, 643.
53
ed exclusively of porters from the Bergamo area (hence also the name of
Caravana bergamasca) and had the exclusive right to transport certain
goods in the port of Genoa. That right was acquired as early as the four-
teenth century, and it was maintained continuously for 500 years until
the liberalization of transport, in the first half of the nineteenth century
(Piccinno 2002, 4; Massa Piergiovanni 2011). Examples of ethnically de-
fined monopoly companies are the oil carriers (Camalli da olio) in Genoa
and the customs carriers (Facchini di dogana) in Florence and Livorno,
which originated in the Swiss Canton Ticino.1 In Livorno, the Swiss por-
ters succeeded the Bergamaschi (who were granted a private privilege in
the seventeenth century) because of the excessive annual fee demanded
by the public administration for the contract. The ethnic connotations of
both companies, however, stemmed from the privilege itself, which pro-
vided for the transfer of rights to the relatives of its members (Panattoni
1863). Similarly, although in peculiar forms, porters experienced very dif-
ferent organizational systems in other European and Mediterranean cit-
ies, often differentiating groups of local and immigrant workers (Belfanti
1994, 69–70 for Mantova; Levi 1985, 89 for Cadiz; Kaplow 1982, 62 for
Paris; Stern 1960 for London; Eyal 2002 for the Turkish migration).
Porterage was a less simple profession than we can imagine at first
glance. In addition to physical strength, it required the skill of proper-
ly handling different types of cargo, organizational ability, and respon-
sibility. It was not enough to carry many goods; they also had to be ma-
nipulated, measured, sorted, flowed, arranged and properly stacked in
warehouses, etc. On several occasions, the companies were also entrust-
ed with supervisory tasks. Reliability and the company’s good name were
important in all this. Customer trust was generally one of the main assets
of the companies’ existence and operation. Species of carrier were also so-
cially stratified according to the different economic situations of individ-
ual companies.
Despite the recognition they received for their economic role,2 the
porters were nevertheless among the least reputable professions and oc-
cupied positions at the bottom of the social ladder (Garzoni 1585, 346;
1 For more information on these cases and the differences between monopoly com-
panies and those operating in the free market, see Orelli Vassere 2000; Orelli
Vassere 2004; Orelli Vassere 1996.
2 Due to their flexibility in taking on other jobs, and contributing to solve some co-
nundrums and labour needs, some considered them the ‘ointment’ of the city’s
economic wheels, Mocarelli 2007, 643.
53
