This chapter is divided into two parts. The first considers the business of shopkeeping in the city as a whole, the practices and problems common to all small traders. The second provides a comparative analysis of the various trades that might be considered as part of the retail sector. Both are designed to assist with an assessment of the propensity of shopkeepers for collective action and to help understand what, and who, might be included in or excluded from a shopkeeper identity. Identity is clearly bound up with memory – the first section therefore begins with a brief examination of trade organisation prior to 1885.

THE CONTEXT OF SHOPKEEPING IN MILAN

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Milan's trades and industries were organised into corporations. These functioned much as elsewhere, regulating standards within the profession and interceding in disputes between members and with the local authorities and the public. The notable features of the corporations were that the rights of members were not transferred automatically to their heirs, and the conditions of entry were the same for all candidates, irrespective of their family background. This degree of ‘openness’ is striking. Even so the system was already in decline by the sixteenth century, as the autonomy of the corporations diminished whilst the powers of local government increased.