Combination acts prohibited meetings and unions for the purpose of obtaining better wage and working conditions, especially by means of collective “work stoppages” (Strike). Acts of solidarity by journeymen, assistants, and factory workers were frequently penalized with prison terms and banishment as violations of the service contract, attempted coercion, and rioting. Early modern territorial states viewed the ritualized wage conflicts of secretive fraternities as a threat to their cameralistic economic policy (Cameralism). As early as 1539, France prohibi…
Organized labor, prohibition of (807 words)
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Steindl, Harald, “Organized labor, prohibition of”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 26 September 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_022361>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20200721
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