Economic Development and Urban Growth in the High Middle Ages 193male counterparts) in monopolies and restrictive trad-
ing practices brought them into frequent conflict with
the guilds and with the authorities who tried, often in
vain, to regulate their activities.
Many market women were the wives or daughters
of journeymen; most probably came from a lower eche-
lon of urban society—the semiskilled or unskilled la-
borers who served as porters, construction helpers,
wool carders, or any one of a hundred menial occupa-
tions. Such people were rarely guild members or citi-
zens, and their existence was often precarious.
Employment tended to be sporadic. A laborer’s
wage was sometimes capable of supporting a bachelor
but rarely a family, and everyone had to work to sur-
vive. In cloth towns, women often worked in the wool
shops along with the men. For the aggressive and
quick-witted, the street market was a viable alternative.
Domestic service was another and provided employ-
ment for a substantial number of both men and women.
These respectable, if disenfranchised, workers were
probably the most numerous group in any city. An un-
derclass also was present of beggars, prostitutes, crimi-
nals, and people who for one reason or another were
dependent on charity for their survival. In theory, the
poor were the responsibility of the church or of pious
individuals who contributed to their welfare. Town
governments tended to see poverty, like criminality, as
a question of social control, though by the later Middle
Ages, some communities had begun to follow the lead
of Venice in establishing hospitals and regular distribu-
tions of food to the needy. Even when they were estab-
lished with government funds, these institutions were
staffed mainly by the religious orders. Begging in many
places was licensed, as was prostitution. The latter
could be an important source of revenue, and most
towns, such as Nürnberg, preferred to localize the trade
in official brothels whose profits could be taxed.DOCUMENT 10.5
Women in the Paris Silk Industry
Silk spinning in thirteenth-century Paris was a woman’s trade. The
women owned their own spindles and could take apprentices. Paris,
however, lacked the freedom of the Italian and German towns. Like
other métiers in this era, the spinsters had no true guild organization.
Craft ordinances were proclaimed and enforced in the king’s name by
the provost of Paris, and the spun silk was purchased by merchants
operating on the “putting-out” system. Those ordinances listed below
were compiled between 1254 and 1271 and offer a glimpse of the condi-
tions under which medieval tradeswomen worked.
Any woman who wishes to be a silk spinster on large spin-
dles in the city of Paris—i.e. reeling, spinning, doubling,
and retwisting—may freely do so, provided she observe
the following usages and customs of the craft:
No spinster on large spindles may have more than
three apprentices, unless they be her own or her husband’s
children born in true wedlock; nor may she contract with
them for an apprenticeship of less than seven years or for
a fee of less than 20 Parisian sols to be paid to her, their
mistress. The apprenticeship shall be for eight years if
there is no fee, but she may accept more years and money
if she can get them....
No woman of the said craft may hire an apprentice or
work-girl who has not completed her years of service with
the mistress to whom she was apprenticed. If a spinster
has assumed an apprentice, she may not take on another
before the first has completed her seven years unless the
apprentice die or foreswear the craft forever. If an appren-
tice spinster buy her freedom before serving the said
seven years, she may not herself take an apprentice until
she has practiced the craft seven years....
If a working woman comes from outside Paris and
wishes to practice the said craft in the city, she must swear
before two guardians of the craft that she will practice it
well and loyally and conform to its customs and usages.
If anyone give a woman of the said craft silk to be
spun and the woman pawn it, and the owner complains,
the fine shall be 5 sols.
No workwoman shall farm out another’s silk to be
worked upon outside her own house.
The said craft has as guardians two men of integrity
sworn in the king’s name but appointed and charged at the
will of the provost of Paris. Taking an oath in the provost’s
presence, they shall swear to guard the craft truly, loyally,
and to their utmost, and to inform him or his agents of all
malpractices discovered therein.
Boileau, Etienne. “Livres de Métiers.” In Julia O’Faolain and Lauro
Martines, Not in God’s Image: Women in History from the Greeks to
the Victorians.New York: HarperCollins, 1973.