ABSTRACT
In the territories of the Kingdom of Sardinia situated 'this side of the mountains', organisation, in a corporate sense, of labour, production and exchange seems to assume a systematic character only with the arrival of the' eighteenth century. Some maintain, in fact, that the importance of the institution had been quite limited 1 during the Middle Ages especially if seen in relation to the reality at the time in central-northern Italy. Observed in its early manifestations, it shows a marked sectorial distinction as well, as seen through evidence of artisan groups established in several types of associative forms for economic purposes. In this way, the trades in wool and fustian gave rise to organisations of greater prominence in various centres of the Piedmont area? Generally, however, the predominant presence in the regulation of local economic activity in the Duchy was that of the local commune and its statutes, 3 instead of those of the trade organisations. At the same time the legislation of Amedeo VIII, introduced between common law and custom, 4 set the ethical principles for the relationship between producers and consumers and instituted a control function, entrusting the supervision of quality, price and monopolistic concentration to periodic visits by ducal delegates.
