A expropriação dos mestres-artesãos no Portugal contemporâneo (séculos XIX-XX)

Abstract

This essay debates the expropriation of masters-artisans in Contemporary Portugal, focusing on its origins in the 19th century. It explores how this process unfolded throughout the Portuguese transition to capitalism after 1820. We focus on the expropriation process, the social dynamics — between pre-capitalist and capitalist forms of labour —, and, finally, critically analyze the analogy made during the Estado Novo between medieval guilds and the dictatorial corporatism of the bourgeois autocracy (1926-1974). We argue that the corporate system in the medieval era had a self-regulated work autonomy and real democracy that is absent in the Estado Novo regime and generally lacking in other Contemporary periods, including the present one. It is a reassessment of medieval arts and crafts, with a methodological perspective founded on the centrality of living work.