ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the role and transformation of the Venetian guilds between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. It uses the Venetian guilds as a lens through which to observe social, economic, and political unease and dissent. Early modern guilds functioned as clearinghouses for conflicts between different economic groups, such as between entrepreneurs and employees, and between resident Venetians and immigrants. This chapter argues that the guilds progressively lost their ability to settle these social and political tensions. During the eighteenth century, guilds no longer protected the working class and the lower-middle class of shopkeepers and artisans. Instead, the ruling élites of the guilds openly supported the side of the entrepreneurs and rich merchants. Just when a new vision of society was beginning to appear among the Venetian working classes as an alternative to that of the patrician oligarchy, the guilds ended up representing conservative institutions. This perspective fits a more general narrative, which points out that in Venice, as in other contemporary ancien régime polities, political dissension and socio-economic unease constituted important elements of public life.
