Page 55 - 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. 55
Porters in the Eighteenth-century Port City of Trieste ...
ters, or in Italian, facchini, for the development of maritime and commer-
cial activities is attested by the explicit instructions for these workers
in the free-port patents (Kandler 1848, 68). Their numbers rose sharp-
ly over the decades. The 1758 census counted 119 of them (Mainati 1818,
286), in 1775 more than 400 (BCT, AD, CG, 1775), and 745 in 1792,5 consid-
ering only the Old Town, and without women, who were present in large
numbers among the bearer workers. The figures also refer to the city’s
permanent residents, but in addition we have to consider the temporary
porters, who appeared in large numbers seasonally or occasionally. The
Trieste market of porter labour was economically attractive because it of-
fered an opportunity to earn more than in other heavy labour or agricul-
tural work (Apih 1957, 81). This created problems in the Trieste agrarian
economy, which adapted to the growth of the urban food market and rep-
resented an important source of income for both the peasant population
of Trieste and the agrarian and urban landowners. City owners of vine-
yards in the suburban area thus complained because they had difficul-
ty in finding workers for seasonal work among local farmers, as well as
those from neighbouring districts, and they had to overpay the manpow-
er (Kalc 2005, 293). Professionals also became porters, although this was
often a form of ‘emergency exit’, in the absence of more suitable employ-
ment opportunities.
Porterage in Trieste had a number of unique features and differed
in many ways from the organizational forms of porterage and the legal
position of porters in other cities. Two reasons could explain this peculi-
arity: the sudden appearance and rapid growth of employment opportu-
nities in this sector, which met with a great workforce availability in the
nearby countryside, and the free-port legal order and economic policy.
In Trieste, even before obtaining the status of free port, we do not find
guild institutions or something recalling the medieval corporative sys-
tem. With the free port status, however, all forms of corporative amal-
gamation were banned, because every economic activity had to be free
and develope on the basis of supply and demand. Every local or new-
comer in the city was allowed to engage in every profession or activity, if
they demonstrated appropriate professional skills, self-sufficiency and
which was named the Old Town (Città vecchia), a new, rationally designed urban
agglomeration extended, for which the name New or Teresian City was established
(Città nuova or Città Teresiana), Kalc 2008.
5 AST, CRG, b. 876, Tabella Sommaria Della popolazione Stabilita nel Distretto del-
la Città Vecchia di Trieste coscritta nell’Anno 1792, 4 January 1793.
55
ters, or in Italian, facchini, for the development of maritime and commer-
cial activities is attested by the explicit instructions for these workers
in the free-port patents (Kandler 1848, 68). Their numbers rose sharp-
ly over the decades. The 1758 census counted 119 of them (Mainati 1818,
286), in 1775 more than 400 (BCT, AD, CG, 1775), and 745 in 1792,5 consid-
ering only the Old Town, and without women, who were present in large
numbers among the bearer workers. The figures also refer to the city’s
permanent residents, but in addition we have to consider the temporary
porters, who appeared in large numbers seasonally or occasionally. The
Trieste market of porter labour was economically attractive because it of-
fered an opportunity to earn more than in other heavy labour or agricul-
tural work (Apih 1957, 81). This created problems in the Trieste agrarian
economy, which adapted to the growth of the urban food market and rep-
resented an important source of income for both the peasant population
of Trieste and the agrarian and urban landowners. City owners of vine-
yards in the suburban area thus complained because they had difficul-
ty in finding workers for seasonal work among local farmers, as well as
those from neighbouring districts, and they had to overpay the manpow-
er (Kalc 2005, 293). Professionals also became porters, although this was
often a form of ‘emergency exit’, in the absence of more suitable employ-
ment opportunities.
Porterage in Trieste had a number of unique features and differed
in many ways from the organizational forms of porterage and the legal
position of porters in other cities. Two reasons could explain this peculi-
arity: the sudden appearance and rapid growth of employment opportu-
nities in this sector, which met with a great workforce availability in the
nearby countryside, and the free-port legal order and economic policy.
In Trieste, even before obtaining the status of free port, we do not find
guild institutions or something recalling the medieval corporative sys-
tem. With the free port status, however, all forms of corporative amal-
gamation were banned, because every economic activity had to be free
and develope on the basis of supply and demand. Every local or new-
comer in the city was allowed to engage in every profession or activity, if
they demonstrated appropriate professional skills, self-sufficiency and
which was named the Old Town (Città vecchia), a new, rationally designed urban
agglomeration extended, for which the name New or Teresian City was established
(Città nuova or Città Teresiana), Kalc 2008.
5 AST, CRG, b. 876, Tabella Sommaria Della popolazione Stabilita nel Distretto del-
la Città Vecchia di Trieste coscritta nell’Anno 1792, 4 January 1793.
55
