Page 56 - 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. 56
plex Gateways
honesty, and behaved in accordance with prescribed social norms. The
same was true for porters and other unskilled labourers. Although in
some areas and in specific cases there were private entrepreneurs hold-
ing monopoly privileges, the free port authorities used them and limited
participation in the urban economy only in order to satisfy everything
that could promote successful development and prevent the most dis-
ruptive social phenomena.6
Due to the openness of the labour market, and the absence of for-
mally organized companies based on exclusive rights and professional
orders, among Trieste porters we cannot find groups that are as clear-
ly defined by ethnic or local origin, as in the aforementioned cases. The
urban facchini were mostly immigrants. Among those registered in the
1775 census just over 10 percent were born in Trieste (Table 1). They
came mostly from the Slovenian hinterland, mainly from the area of
Postojna, the surroundings of Ljubljana, the Karst, and the Vipava Valley
(Carniola and Gorizia region), and Friuli (Venetian republic). However,
there is no example of strategic alliances between them, connecting the
urban labour market and the workers’ place of origin into a complemen-
tary economic system, with recognizable links like family chains or cir-
cular migration. Such forms of economic behaviour are more charac-
teristic of porters coming seasonally from Friuli and Istria (Venetian
republic), and then returning to their native places with the earnings.
In this way, they complemented the agriculture-led economic resourc-
es and contributed to the family income in the place of origin. However,
their status and work logic were not comparable to the formally organ-
ized companies as in the other cities, as they entered the labour market
as individuals, unrelatedly, and in free competition with everyone else.
The censuses of the population did not count these workers, because
they did not permanently live in the city and were not treated by the city
authorities as members of the urban population. Many returned to work
in the city regularly year after year, as temporary employees. Others ap-
peared on an occasional basis, as they easily found employment from
spring to winter, when maritime traffic was at its busiest peak and con-
struction and other works were underway. Some, however, hurried to
Trieste for other reasons, or were travelling through the city, and they
took the opportunity to earn some money along the way by temporarily
6 Concerning the demography, immigration, and immigration control in eight-
eenth-century Trieste, see Kalc 2012.
56
honesty, and behaved in accordance with prescribed social norms. The
same was true for porters and other unskilled labourers. Although in
some areas and in specific cases there were private entrepreneurs hold-
ing monopoly privileges, the free port authorities used them and limited
participation in the urban economy only in order to satisfy everything
that could promote successful development and prevent the most dis-
ruptive social phenomena.6
Due to the openness of the labour market, and the absence of for-
mally organized companies based on exclusive rights and professional
orders, among Trieste porters we cannot find groups that are as clear-
ly defined by ethnic or local origin, as in the aforementioned cases. The
urban facchini were mostly immigrants. Among those registered in the
1775 census just over 10 percent were born in Trieste (Table 1). They
came mostly from the Slovenian hinterland, mainly from the area of
Postojna, the surroundings of Ljubljana, the Karst, and the Vipava Valley
(Carniola and Gorizia region), and Friuli (Venetian republic). However,
there is no example of strategic alliances between them, connecting the
urban labour market and the workers’ place of origin into a complemen-
tary economic system, with recognizable links like family chains or cir-
cular migration. Such forms of economic behaviour are more charac-
teristic of porters coming seasonally from Friuli and Istria (Venetian
republic), and then returning to their native places with the earnings.
In this way, they complemented the agriculture-led economic resourc-
es and contributed to the family income in the place of origin. However,
their status and work logic were not comparable to the formally organ-
ized companies as in the other cities, as they entered the labour market
as individuals, unrelatedly, and in free competition with everyone else.
The censuses of the population did not count these workers, because
they did not permanently live in the city and were not treated by the city
authorities as members of the urban population. Many returned to work
in the city regularly year after year, as temporary employees. Others ap-
peared on an occasional basis, as they easily found employment from
spring to winter, when maritime traffic was at its busiest peak and con-
struction and other works were underway. Some, however, hurried to
Trieste for other reasons, or were travelling through the city, and they
took the opportunity to earn some money along the way by temporarily
6 Concerning the demography, immigration, and immigration control in eight-
eenth-century Trieste, see Kalc 2012.
56
