Town council, craft guild and textile manufacturing: Saragossa silk industry during the seventeenth century

Abstract

This article studies the municipal policy applied to promote the organization and management of the silk weavers’ guild as a way to understand the evolution of Saragossa silk industry during the seventeenth century. This guild did increase its productive and commercial competences, but did not assume the supervision of regional raw silk. Falling prey to technological stagnation, its members neither did monopolise the selling of their own output nor did control the quality of silk foreign goods. Master artisans raised higher barriers for professional advancement of officials and free women’s silk weaving. These obstacles were just partially contained by municipal decisions.