2022/

1-2

ISBN 978-88-8368-156-1

Nicoletta Rolla

Pag. 85-

108

, DOI 10.17426/R08C06

Keywords: Construction sites; Public contracts; Civil courts; Conflicts; Wages.

Abstract: This contribution aims to investigate the formation of wage of the construction workforce in the modern period. The analysis focuses on the Piedmont’ and Turin’ public construction sites in the first half of the Eighteenth century. The important investments in this sector attracted contractors and workers from the Alpine villages of Lombardy and Switzerland. The article focuses on two crucial moments in the definition of workforce remuneration: that of the negotiation between entrepreneurs and clients which takes place at the time of the granting of public contracts, and that of the negotiation between entrepreneurs and the workforce, which has left traces in the judicial acts of the civil courts. These two moments are intimately linked: the pressure exerted by public client on contractors – from negotiation to delay in payments – inevitably has repercussions on the wages of the workforce. The latter finds a forum for defending its interests in the city civil court, where wages and, more generally, the nature of employment relationships are negotiated
and defined.