ABSTRACT
It is well known that eighteenth-century cities were places where power, business, wealth and revolt converged, as well as all the activities revolving around the survival of ordinary people. This chapter describes the part of eighteenth-century Europe’s urban economy that is associated with the survival of men and women as artisans, day labourers, washerwomen, servants, nursemaids, workers (employed, partially employed or unemployed), elderly people in the process of being excluded permanently from the labour market, the sick and recently arrived immigrants or vagabonds who populated the streets and squares of the main European cities of the old regime. We refer to this group as ‘ordinary people’. The survival strategies of men, women, families and households involved acquiring resources not only from regulated, formal work but also from other formal and informal practices to obtain food, household goods, money, medicines or a roof over their heads. The use of welfare institutions, alms, public soup, the help of primary networks of socialization, philanthropist activities, microcredits or the Church were sources that provided resources.
