The Just Wage in Early Modern Italy: A Reflection on Zacchia's De Salario seu Operariorum Mercede

Abstract

SUMMARY: This article aims to understand norms and values pertaining to the definition of just wages in early modern Italy. The starting point is the treatise by the jurist Lanfranco Zacchia, De Salario seu Operariorum Mercede, which appeared in the mid-seventeenth century and represented the first attempt to collate a set of rules on wages based on the traditions of Roman and canon law. After a brief presentation of the treatise, I shall analyse the meanings and concepts of wages, and then consider the elements that determined the just wage. To understand how prescriptions were seen by individuals, I shall also compare them with information about court cases and rulings compiled by Zacchia in another book, the Centuria decisionum ad materiam Tractatus de Salario, and with the rest of the existing literature. Evidence from my comparison will allow us to understand the interaction and reciprocal influences between juridical thought and daily work practice, and underline the fact that wages were based on a complex system of norms and values where individuals, their social positions, skills, and experience determined the recognition of the just wage with reference to the local context.

Thinking carefully about inclusiveness: evidence from European guilds

“…Many depressed prices for raw materials by imposing price ceilings, claiming prior rights to purchase, and banning sales to outsiders (Ammannati, 2014; Kluge, 2007; La Force, 1965; Mickwitz, 1936; Ogilvie, 2019; Poni, 1991). Almost all guilds intervened in labor markets to reduce the wages their members had to pay employees (Caracausi, 2011; Horn, 2015; Kaplan, 1986; Kisch, 1989; La Force, 1965; Ogilvie, 2019). Guilds forbade masters to compete for workers, capped those workers' wages, and made it hard for employees to change jobs.…”

“…;Kluge 2007;Ammannati 2014;Ogilvie 2019). Almost all guilds intervened in labour markets to reduce the wages their members had to pay employees(La Force 1965;Kaplan 1986;Kisch 1989;Caracausi 2011;Horn 2015; …”