ABSTRACT
On 12 May,l844, 3 months before the dissolution of trade guilds was decreed, in Pinerolo the Societa di mutuo soccorso delli calzolaj was founded. Since for this kind of association there was no need of a royal authorisation, the shoemakers of Pinerolo, masters and workers together, came to an agreement in order to create a kind of mutual welfare, whose structure would stand as a model for mutual aid societies which would appear after the concession of the statute. The Society ofPinerolo, in fact, gave up the restrictions and productive control, religious observances and arbitrary assistance. Instead it fixed within the bylaws both the fees which members had to pay and the daily contribution to sick people. Society's monthly statements show, in the early years, a wise management of the social capita1. 1
In Pinerolo, in autumn 1848, a few months after the concession of the statute, the first general mutual aid society of Piedmont and of Italy was founded. It was no longer based on the profession practised by its members, but on the territory where they worked. It was promoted by Matteo Brezzio, a member of the society of shoemakers who proposed to workers of Pinerolo, joining small trade organisations, and to those who did not belong to any society, to join a wider and more solid association. The societies welcomed workers from any productive field and of any religious belief (in town there were many Waldenses), and which offered help to all in periods of sickness and basic education, as a means of emancipation. On 12 October, 1848 a shoemaker, a gilder, 4 carpenters, 2 tailors, a master builder, a decorator and an engine driver met at 'La Primavera' tavern to found it? Some of them, perhaps Brezzio and certainly the first president, the engine driver Antonio Rossi (later asked
to collaborate on the founding of the mutual aid society of Turin) joined the ideals ofMazzini and French utopian socialists.3
