Reconsidering the southern Europe model: Dowry, women's work and marriage patterns in pre-industrial urban Italy (Turin, second half of the 18th century)

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate and analyse the impact of the dowry and the endowment system on marriage and household patterns and on the labour market in 18th century Turin. At the same time it enquires into the reliability of the northern/southern Europe pattern for the study of this topic. Two points are developed. Firstly the paper shows that the dowry system coexists with a relatively high age at marriage because of the specific role played by the dowry in Turin society. Indeed, this was not a once-and-for-all established asset but was a negotiable and flexible resource that could be manipulated by the different actors concerned in the endowment. Moreover, the payment did not always take place immediately upon marriage, nor was the money quickly available. At the same time the paper examines the economic role of dowry in Ancien Régime households: by means of a juridical procedure couples could alienate this property, and use or invest it to ensure their well-being and/or their economic situation. Finally, the second part investigates the relationship between the dowry system and the participation of young girls and married women in the local labour market: their significant and crucial presence demonstrates that the dowry and its expectation was not a sufficient incentive to keep them out of the labour market.

Reconsidering the Southern European Model: Marital Status, Women's Work and Labour Relations in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Portugal

“…That finding indeed leads us to question the validity of De Moor's and Van Zanden analytical model for Portugal. Similar results have been contributed to other regions of southern Europe (Zucca Micheletto 2011, 2013; Sarasúa 2019). Moreover, more widows and married women than single women are recorded in our sources as having occupations.…”

“…Portugal is no exception so we experienced similar difficulties to those faced by any of our European colleagues wishing to study women's labour and economic activities in the early modern period (Van Nederveen Meerkerk 2006, 2012; Zucca Micheletto 2011, 2013, 2014; Sarasúa 2019; among others).…”

“…To overcome that difficulty we adopted a number of new methodological approaches. Among them, and to cite just a few of the solutions we found, were cross-referencing and comparative analysis of different types of sources to assess women's participation in the economy (Van Nederveen Meerkerk 2006, 2012; Zucca Micheletto 2011, 2013). For this study, we opted to do that with the results obtained for HoH women and non-HoH women registered in the same source.…”

“…On the one hand, most probably it was because women could expect to receive dowries at marriage. On the other hand, and as argued by Zucca Micheletto (2011) for the case of Turin, it might equally have been to do with the question of women's social reputation. In any case, many single women were still being recorded as having an occupation.…”

“…Since its publication, De Moor's and Van Zanden model has received a great deal of criticism for its failure to take into account regional variations and differences between rural and urban areas within southern Europe, where marriage patterns, family structures and systems of inheritance differed with consequent implications for female participation in the various economic regions of the vast Mediterranean Basin (Zucca Micheletto 2011, 2013; Bellavitis and Zucca Micheletto 2018; Sarasúa 2019; among others).…”