Seamen's Organizations and Social Protest in Europe,<i>c.</i>1300–1825

Davids, Karel

doi:10.1017/s0020859000112969

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(2 reference statements)

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“…Third, there is a large literature on the professionalization of occupations. It is reasonable to assume that the maritime industry was not an exception, as is shown also in previous literature (e.g., Burton 1990;Chin et al 2006;Davids 1994Davids , 2015.…”

Section: Entry and Exit Agementioning

confidence: 64%

Young Lads and Old Tars: Changing Age Structure of the Nordic Sailors, 1750s–1930s

et al. 2022

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This article analyzes the changing age structure of Swedish and Finnish sailors for almost 200 years. We show that the proportion of the youngest men increased during the age of sail (i.e., the older technology). The average age increased significantly during the early twentieth century as steam (i.e., the newer technology) replaced sail in Nordic shipping. Thus, a technological revolution did not displace the older workers, but rather diminished the demand for the younger ones. This study shows, however, that technological changes were not the only drivers of changes in the age structure of Nordic sailors. Institutional and societal changes also played an important role, though they were at least partly coevolving with the technological changes. This study also shows that the maritime industry experienced professionalization especially during the latter part of the period.

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Section: Entry and Exit Agementioning

confidence: 64%

Young Lads and Old Tars: Changing Age Structure of the Nordic Sailors, 1750s–1930s

et al. 2022

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“…The organization of the so-called "people of the sea" (Mollat 1983) of the Cantabrian Sea into craft guilds was quite unusual in the history of Atlantic coastal communities (Davids 1994), since this was not a widespread phenomenon in all European regions (Tranchant 2012;Miranda 2012;Sousa Melo and Sequeira 2022); however, in all the town ports on the Cantabrian coastline, there were guilds of fishermen and seafarers, as the guild of San Nicolás de Llanes observed in a letter of request, addressed to the Catholic Monarchs in 1480:…”

Section: The Organization Of the Seamen's Guilds In The Bay Of Biscay...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Seamen’s Guilds, Labor Organizations and Social Protest in Northern Iberia in the Late Middle Ages

Solórzano-Telechea

2023

Histories

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Craft guilds have been at the core of important historiographical debates on the economic, social and political history of medieval cities for twenty years. The aim of this article is to examine the seamen’s guilds in the town ports of the Northern Peninsula in the Late Middle Ages. This study analyzes fundamental aspects of the social assistance, labor organization and social identity of the town ports, which were located on the maritime border of the Kingdom of Castile. In contrast to the more classic view of the craft guilds as protectionist institutions, which only served the interests of a privileged group of masters, this analysis highlights the contribution of the seamen’s craft guilds to the organization of labor at sea, the training of sea workers, the ability to negotiate with merchants and avoid labor exploitation, the provision of social assistance to the most vulnerable population, and the ability to lead the social protest for the guilders’ representation in the urban government. In summary, it is concluded that the seafarers’ guilds were constituted as networks of mutual help between individuals in the labor, welfare and political spheres of the population of the town ports of northern Iberia in the Late Middle Ages.

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“…311–36, and 13 (2001), pp. 195–244; Davids, ‘Seamen's organizations’, pp. 145–6; Lucassen, ‘Multinational’, pp.…”

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confidence: 99%

Pieces of eight, pieces of eight: seamen's earnings and the venture economy of early modern seafaring†

Blakemore

2017

The Economic History Review

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Historians have generally argued that between the medieval period and the eighteenth century seafarers transformed from collaborative adventurers with a share in their vessel to the first international wage‐earning proletariat. This interpretation has drawn upon relatively limited statistical analysis of mariners’ wages, and underestimates the variety of seafarers’ remuneration and economic activities besides wages themselves. This article undertakes a more sustained analysis of seventeenth‐century wage data drawn from the papers of the English High Court of Admiralty, and uses the same evidence to examine other forms of income, both customary payments as part of shipping, and small‐scale trade. Seafarers of all ranks carried their own commodities on all shipping routes, offering an opportunity to increase their income considerably. This evidence confirms that the maritime labour market was hierarchical, and that very often seafarers were poor labourers facing economic insecurity of many kinds. However, it refines the previous interpretation by emphasizing the presence of skilled workers even among the lower levels of this labour market, and by introducing a new dimension to mariners’ economic agency: they were not simply wage‐workers, but also independent participants in a venture economy.

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Seamen's Organizations and Social Protest in Europe,c.1300–1825

Cited by 5 publications

References 17 publications

Young Lads and Old Tars: Changing Age Structure of the Nordic Sailors, 1750s–1930s

Young Lads and Old Tars: Changing Age Structure of the Nordic Sailors, 1750s–1930s

Seamen’s Guilds, Labor Organizations and Social Protest in Northern Iberia in the Late Middle Ages

Pieces of eight, pieces of eight: seamen's earnings and the venture economy of early modern seafaring†

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