Lopez proposes, through the study of a section of the activity of the Royal Africa Company, an approach to the world of coral fishermen on the coast of North Africa in the eighteenth century. Defining who are these fishermen sent from Provence, Corsica and Liguria, to work on the other side of the Mediterranean according to agreements with the powers of Tunis and Algiers, and analyzing their contractual working conditions, Lopez questions the normative framework witch these men are submitted to, both from a personal perspective as professional, and the evolution of these standards in response to practices observed.