Women and the craft guilds in eighteenth-century Nantes

In February 1776 Comptroller-General Turgot issued the Six Edicts, the fifth of which suppressed the corporations of Paris. The limited work opportunities available to women in a city dominated by craft guilds was one motive given for their abolition. Deregulation was short-lived, however. In May, Turgot was dismissed; in August the corporations of Paris were reinstated, although reformed. Women's - and men's - work in the urban economy remained subject to limitation, regulation and control.