Crafts in Shkodra on the Eve of the Ottoman Period (14th – 15th Centuries)

This paper investigates the development of the main crafts meeting the social needs for food and clothing in the agrarian economy of Shkodra on the eve of the final Ottoman takeover in 1467. It focuces on two archival documents to analyze the development of crafts in the city: the Statutes of Shkodra and the Registry of Cadastre and Concessions for the district of Shkodra (1416-1417). These sources demonstrate the municipal administration of the city and summarize the normative acts of regulating crafts organization and functioning of daily life, relations between citizens, the population and the ruling class, and between the city and its surroundings. So, they provide considerable information and a framework of crafts by presenting the conditions and obligations that artisans should fulfill in their activity and the guarantee and legal protection offered by the municipalities. Thus, this paper tries to contextualize the forms of production and the means of occupation in the fifteenth-century Shkodra by departing from these two sources.