EH.N: CfP: Intermediaries in labour relations from pre-industrial societies to the XXth century

[David Kusman]

Intermediaries in labour relations from 
pre-industrial societies to the XXth century

At the present moment, when some economic 
historians (e.g. Peter Temin) estimate the market 
efficiency by the degree of activity of 
market-intermediaries, it seems necessary to 
wonder about the permanency of this "actor" in 
the economy. Since the first waves of economic 
globalization up to the traders' desks of the 
XXth century, the perspective this workshop 
intends to address is to focus on the role of 
intermediaries in the long run in Western Europe.

Nowadays, following the rise of financial 
markets, economics has got a grip on the word « 
intermediation » and ended up assigning a very 
limited meaning to it, that of financial 
intermediation. A quick search in university 
libraries catalogues confirms this impression: 
the search results in an overwhelming number of 
titles related to financial economy, market 
economy and banking systems. Such works, though 
useful, give us only a partial insight into the 
multiplicity of forms that intermediation takes 
and may take in a long term (be it from a 
cultural, economic or political point of view).

Emphasis has been laid on economy for this 
workshop. But as such, we wish also to recast 
intermediation in a much broader scope: we view 
it as a phenomenon of social interactions, which 
does not reduce itself to the financial world 
but, on the contrary, expresses itself in an 
extended range of activities - whether formal or 
informal - in the labour relations.

Be it in the secondary sector or in the tertiary 
sector, a whole range of intermediaries has 
progressively influenced the nature and growth of 
economic relations.

Obviously, this phenomenon is particularly acute 
in the environment linked to the money markets. 
Suffice it to mention the researches about the 
bankers and moneychangers of roman antiquity 
(Jean Andreau and Alexis d'Hautcourt) and about 
the present world of the stock exchange brokers 
(O. Godechot and N. Guilhot). The number of 
publications related to this topic, in connection 
with the genesis of capitalist-type institutions, 
has grown steadily (see particularly A. Greif).

With regard to the medieval period, recent 
researches from James Murray and Anke Greve, 
working on the connections between 
brokers-hostellers and moneychangers in Bruges 
have shed light, far beyond the mere role of 
housing foreign merchants, on the dynamic role of 
intermediaries in developing efficient banking 
techniques. More generally speaking, illegal 
brokerage coexisted with professional guilds 
regulating the profession of commercial 
intermediary during the Middle Ages. The 
profession of broker differed in its regulation 
from one town to another, taking into account its 
location into an urban network connected to the 
international trade, it depended closely on its 
economic function.

Likewise, the emergence of an information market 
(Venice in the XVIIth C., M. Infelise) involves 
mechanisms of intermediation as a means to 
enhance the circulation and diffusion of news 
within networks of merchants. The issue referring 
to the influence of intermediation in the 
elaboration of reliable information for buyers 
and sellers is obviously central in the current 
scholarship. For instance, a recent book dealing 
with the advent of the Amsterdam stock exchange 
in the XVIIth C. (C. Lesger) considers this 
marketplace to be a very efficient centre for 
information exchange on international assets and 
values. In this case, a real armada of brokers, 
either under oath or not, has notably contributed 
to the development of the first commercial 
gazettes.

On the other hand - and this has already been 
stressed -, the process of intermediation should 
not be reduced to its mere application in the 
financial spheres. It has rapidly gained pace in 
other sectors of the pre-industrial economic 
activity, e.g. drapery, dyestuff investments, 
grains commercialisation, and the search for a 
seasonal workforce in agriculture, all sectors 
which remain to be fully explored.

The XIXth and XXth C. have witnessed the 
unprecedented expansion of the forms of 
intermediation. Let us merely mention the 
professionalization of economic practices linked 
to consulting, insurance, advertising, and 
temporary work activities. If new professional 
functions have appeared in the banking sector as 
a sequel of a long tradition, other economic 
sectors - like volume retailing trade, in 
expansion from the mid-XIXth C. onwards - attract 
a large array of intermediaries. The huge 
development of a service industry throughout the 
XXth C. seems to have increased the importance of 
intermediaries in labour relations, including in 
the field of 'human resources' management.

These few examples do not aim to give an 
unabridged account on the forms and practices of 
intermediation. They intend, more precisely, to 
illustrate the variety of expressions taken by 
the activities of intermediation, as well as to 
question the extent of influence exerted by 
intermediaries in the long run of social and 
economic relations.

Topics suggested for papers:

Topics of interest include - but are not limited 
to - the following suggestions: 1) Methodology 
and definition of intermediary and 
intermediation: prosopography, case studies, 
methods of analysis 2) Modes, models and forms of 
organization: regulation or absence of 
organizational rules in brokerage 3) Space and 
time: loci, settings, and vectors of action (at 
the local, regional or international scale) in a 
historical perspective

Length of presentation: 20 minutes
Working languages: English and French

Schedule: Thursday 4 and Friday 5 December 2008 
Place : Université Libre de Bruxelles

This Conference is part of the research project 
"Labour Relations and Labour Markets in Western 
Europe, 1500-2000" funded by the Fonds voor 
Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO).

Arrangements are being made by the local 
organizers to take in charge travel and 
accommodation fees.

Main deadlines:
Submission of abstracts (max. 300 words): 
	September 1, 2008 Signification of 
acceptance: September 15, 2008 Contact : Kenneth 
Bertrams (kbertram at ulb.ac.be) or David Kusman 
(pkusman at ulb.ac.be)