Page 66 - 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. 66
plex Gateways
the revolutionary spirit and the events of the war. The rules had a two-
fold purpose: to maintain public order and to control and regulate the im-
migration of the common people. In both tasks, its effects were only par-
tial, as the priorities of the trading elite and the state itself remained the
growth of the port and the smooth strengthening of the economy. When
he was drafting the rules for porters, Trieste Police Director and District
Chief Antonio Pittoni received a recommendation from the government
to work closely with the stock exchange deputation, and not to take any
decision beyond the views of the ‘mercantile community’ (BCT, AD, AP,
4 February 1775). Following the adoption of the rules, which provided for
the protection of merchants’ interests regarding the prices of porterage
labour, the main aim should have been that ‘the market will not suffer
from the lack of such an important labour component’ (AST, CRG, b. 545,
15 December 1792).
During the following years, inside the police documents we can con-
tinue to find references to porters from Austrian Lands and foreign coun-
tries who did not register, who did not obtain the prescribed permits to
live and work in the city from their homeland, and mentions of registered
porters who were not wearing a badge among other violations of the rules
and police orders. Warnings that violators would be expelled under a
speedy police procedure and conscripts would be enlisted in the military
were implemented, but not too strictly (AST, CRG, b. 547, 27 June 1794).
They were periodically announced by the police from the 1770s, giving
the impression that they threatened more than they acted, despite the
fact that security regulations were further tightened in the second half of
the 1790s, before and after the French occupation. During the nineteenth
century, porters continued to play an important role in the urban soci-
ety, and benefited from regulatory measures that had long been rooted
in the system established in 1793. The increase in the number of porters
was associated with the growth of the city’s port role in the second half
of the century, with the accelerated process of urbanization and modern-
ization, opening new questions, no longer only in terms of social manage-
ment and organization of this work category but also in terms of labour
law, health, education, and housing. As the final and important chapter
of this history, along with the liberalization and politicization of the soci-
ety, the Trieste porters, as in other ports, entered the trade union and po-
litical scene as a special segment of the urban proletariat, within which,
until recently, they played an influential role.
66
the revolutionary spirit and the events of the war. The rules had a two-
fold purpose: to maintain public order and to control and regulate the im-
migration of the common people. In both tasks, its effects were only par-
tial, as the priorities of the trading elite and the state itself remained the
growth of the port and the smooth strengthening of the economy. When
he was drafting the rules for porters, Trieste Police Director and District
Chief Antonio Pittoni received a recommendation from the government
to work closely with the stock exchange deputation, and not to take any
decision beyond the views of the ‘mercantile community’ (BCT, AD, AP,
4 February 1775). Following the adoption of the rules, which provided for
the protection of merchants’ interests regarding the prices of porterage
labour, the main aim should have been that ‘the market will not suffer
from the lack of such an important labour component’ (AST, CRG, b. 545,
15 December 1792).
During the following years, inside the police documents we can con-
tinue to find references to porters from Austrian Lands and foreign coun-
tries who did not register, who did not obtain the prescribed permits to
live and work in the city from their homeland, and mentions of registered
porters who were not wearing a badge among other violations of the rules
and police orders. Warnings that violators would be expelled under a
speedy police procedure and conscripts would be enlisted in the military
were implemented, but not too strictly (AST, CRG, b. 547, 27 June 1794).
They were periodically announced by the police from the 1770s, giving
the impression that they threatened more than they acted, despite the
fact that security regulations were further tightened in the second half of
the 1790s, before and after the French occupation. During the nineteenth
century, porters continued to play an important role in the urban soci-
ety, and benefited from regulatory measures that had long been rooted
in the system established in 1793. The increase in the number of porters
was associated with the growth of the city’s port role in the second half
of the century, with the accelerated process of urbanization and modern-
ization, opening new questions, no longer only in terms of social manage-
ment and organization of this work category but also in terms of labour
law, health, education, and housing. As the final and important chapter
of this history, along with the liberalization and politicization of the soci-
ety, the Trieste porters, as in other ports, entered the trade union and po-
litical scene as a special segment of the urban proletariat, within which,
until recently, they played an influential role.
66
