Denkarbeid

Reflecteren en schrijven over de ambachten in België (negentiende en twintigste eeuw)

Samenvatting

Thought Exercise: Reflecting and Writing About Craft Guilds in Belgium (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries)

In this article, we study the evolution of the Belgian historiography of craft guilds during the period from 1800 until 1950. Up until now, there have not been any serious studies of the subject, barring a contribution by Pascale Lambrechts in 1994. Still, multiple authors have stated that the old historiography was divided between ideologically opposing blocks without any common ground. According to them, this was especially the case during the interwar period. This article seeks to provide nuance to the existing perceptions of the Belgian historiography of the craft guilds during the studied period. We have chosen to not discuss the used methodologies and instead to limit our analysis to the content of the studied works.

During the nineteenth century, there were two historiographical traditions in Belgium that studied the craft guilds. The more scientific approach was spearheaded by authors such as Léonard Pycke and Natalis Braivonne, who theorised on the origin and evolution of the craft guilds. They based themselves on thorough archival research with an emphasis on economical, juridical, and institutional aspects. The second approach, called the romantic tradition, saw the craft guilds more as political instruments used in the struggle against foreign kings and princes (namely the French king and the Burgundian dukes). Both traditions placed the medieval craft guilds in an extremely positive light but emphasised the decay of the guilds during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While some authors had clear ideological dispositions, the more important conclusion drawn was that all of the studied nineteenth century historians were still under the influence of the anti-guild propaganda that was prevalent during the eighteenth century.

The same general narrative can be applied to the historiography of the craft guilds during the first half of the twentieth century. Although the introduction of economic history by historians such as Godefroid Kurth and Henri Pirenne led to a more sophisticated research of craft guilds, most authors continued to emphasise the decay and corruption of the early modern guilds and to place them in direct contrast to the medieval ‘golden age’. The statement that the Belgian interwar historiographical scene on the craft guilds was partitioned into ideological blocks is proven to be an exaggeration. While liberal and Catholic authors did focus on different aspects and diverged in their general appreciation of the guilds, they still followed the same general narrative and chronology. They even actively referred to each other’s research. The growing importance of economic history during the interwar period eventually led to an increased dominance of the liberal tradition, which was overly critical of the craft guilds.