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But whatever opinion we may form as to the merits and defects of the gild system, we can at any rate do justice to its most admirable feature, the institution of apprenticeship. Whatever its drawbacks, the gild has bequeathed to us the ideal of technical training and sound craftsmanship, an ideal binding on all alike who work with hand or brain.

38. THE GILDS AND THE MODERN TRADE UNION1

I. The craft gild.-Some writers have endeavoured to establish a connexion between the gild system and trade unionism, but there are many striking differences between mediaeval craft gilds and modern trade unions, not only in regard to membership, but also in functions. In one respect they are similar, for both alike are industrial organizations concerned ultimately with the same fundamental purpose, the maintenance of "the standard of life." The chief object of the trade union is to organize the workers, in order to raise the standard of living and by the co-operation of forces prevent the degradation of their social and economic status. The craft gilds were no less concerned with securing to every one of their members opportunities for a fair and just remuneration of their labour. Both bodies rest in principle upon the conviction that combined action can alone ensure adequate maintenance for the workers; to this degree the trade unions carry on the tradition of the older gild system. Here, however, the resemblance ends.

1. The craft gilds comprised only skilled artisans, but outside their ranks lay an ever-growing body of unskilled workmen, devoid of organization, in receipt of inferior wages, and altogether on a lower plane than their more favoured fellows. The craft gilds were, in fact, select bodies whose members were the competent men of the trade, and at no time apparently did they contain within their ranks the whole body of workers within the town. It is this aspect of the gild as an exclusive organization, restricted as a general rule to skilled workmen, that constitutes one of its most essential characteristics. The class of "uncovenanted" labour, or "working class," grew as the gild began artificially to limit its membership. It must also be borne in mind that membership of a craft gild was confined to those who enjoyed citizen rights. In practice, however, this limitation was unimportant, since admission to the gild enabled the stranger to attain burgess-ship as a matter of course.

1

Adapted by permission from E. Lipson, The Economic History of England: The Middle Ages, pp. 343-46, 363-64. (A. & C. Black, Ltd., 1915.)

2. Again, the craft gild was distinctly an urban institution, an industrial group consisting of the men of a particular locality. Normally its membership extended only to those who dwelt within the walls of one and the same town; this was in accordance with the characteristics of an age in which economic life was organized on the basis of the borough and the manor. We must avoid, however, the temptation to lay down hard and fast rules. There are grounds for believing that the craft gild sometimes included country workmen. However this may be, the members of a trade union are drawn from a wider area, which may even cover the whole kingdom. This difference measures the whole extent of progress from one stage of social evolution to another, from the city state to the country

state.

3. Further, membership of the mediaeval gild was not voluntary but compulsory, and the authorities of the gild were empowered to force every skilled artisan to become a member. The modern trade union is a voluntary association of workers, based upon community of interests and the sense of solidarity.

4. But the vital difference between the two institutions is that the craft gild did not consist, like the trade union, of one grade of producers only, the hired worker, but of all grades: the manual worker, the middleman, and the entrepreneur. The modern trade union is a combination of manual workers, while the gild embraced also the masters.

5. Apart from differences in the constitution of the two bodies, there is a striking difference in their functions. The trade union is concerned with the interests of the workers and not with those of the public as such. It has been defined by the historians of trade unionism as "a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment.” Trade unions are thus at present primarily fighting organizations, though in some cases they are beginning to display a growing sense of responsibility for the work done by their members. The craft gild, on the other hand, showed care, not only for the manufacturer, but for the customer, reconciling so far as possible the interests of producer and consumer, and insisting on sound workmanship, good quality, and a just price, reasonable alike to buyer and seller. In order to ensure an adequate standard of materials and technical skill, the wardens of the gild enforced apprenticeship, attested the competence of strangers, and carried out a rigorous system of search.

Of the other functions served by the craft gilds--religious, educational, and the like-we have already spoken.

6. Lastly, the craft gilds were semi-public bodies, subordinate but integral parts of municipal administration. At the same time they were in theory and largely in practice under the control of town authorities, and their efforts to emancipate themselves from this control were severely checked. Occasionally also the gilds were employed as agents of national supervision.

II. The journeyman gild.-At this point we may inquire how far the journeymen gilds can be compared with trade unions. It is clear that there is a very striking similarity. Unlike the craft gilds, the journeymen gilds comprised only the class of wage-earners banded together in defiance of their employers, and their efforts to secure an improvement of their economic position make the parallel to trade unionism still more evident. The vital difference lies in the fact that the journeymen failed to establish a stable and permanent organization. To some extent their failure is accounted for by the repressive policy adopted towards them both by the municipality and the state. But a more important reason is that, while it was becoming increasingly difficult for the hired workers as a body to achieve independence and mastership, yet the way was always open to the more enterprising among them to do so. So long as it was possible for a certain number of journeymen to become masters, a permanent and efficient association was out of the question. The leaders of the journeymen, with greater intelligence and capacity than their fellows, would constantly be absorbed into the higher grades of the fellowship. When, moreover, a transformation took place in the character and constitution of the yeomen gild, when it came to consist mainly of small masters— or even men of substance serving their period of probation before admission into the livery-and when, above all, it came to be controlled from above by the livery, then all resemblance to trade unions entirely ceased. Throughout the eighteenth century occasional combinations were formed among artisans, but it was not till the Industrial Revolution decided the final victory of industrial capitalism, taking away from the worker his economic independence, divorcing him from the soil, and depriving him of other sources of livelihood in times of industrial distress, that trade unionism at length attained coherence and assumed a permanent and stable form of organization.

39. AN INDENTURE OF APPRENTICESHIP, 1459'

This indenture made between John Gibbs of Penzance, in the county of Cornwall, of the one part, and John Goffe, Spaniard, of the other part, witnesses that the aforesaid John Goffe has put himself to the aforesaid John Gibbs to learn the craft of fishing, and to stay with him as apprentice and to serve from the feast of Philip and James next to come after the date of these presents until the end of eight years then next ensuing and fully complete; throughout which term the aforesaid John Goffe shall well and faithfully serve the aforesaid John Gibbs and Agnes his wife as his masters and lords, shall keep their secrets, shall everywhere willingly do their lawful and honourable commands, shall do his masters no injury nor see injury done to them by others, but prevent the same as far as he can, shall not waste his master's goods nor lend them to any man without his special command. And the aforesaid John Gibbs and Agnes his wife shall teach, train, and inform or cause the aforesaid John Goffe, their apprentice, to be informed in the craft of fishing in the best way they know, chastising him duly and finding for the same John, their apprentice, food, clothing, linen and woolen, and shoes, sufficiently, as befits such an apprentice to be found, during the term aforesaid. And at the end of the term aforesaid John Goffe shall have of the aforesaid John Gibbs and Agnes his wife 20s. sterling without any fraud. In witness whereof the parties aforesaid have interchangeably set their seals to the parts of this indenture.

40. HOUSEHOLD, TOWN, AND NATIONAL ECONOMY

COMPARED2

It will contribute to a better understanding if, by a comparison of some of the leading phenomena, we concisely review the fundamental features of the three stages.

The most prominent of these features is that in the course of history mankind sets before itself ever higher economic aims and finds the means of attaining these in a division of the burden of labour which constantly extends until finally it embraces the whole people and requires the services of all for all. This co-operation is based, in the case of household economy, upon blood-relationship, of town

Taken by permission from A. E. Bland, P. A. Brown, and R. H. Tawney, English Economic History: Select Documents, p. 147. (G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., 1914.) Adapted by permission from Carl Bücher, Industrial Evolution, pp. 141-46. (Henry Holt & Co., 1901.)

economy upon contiguity, and of national economy upon-nationality. It is the road traversed by mankind in passing from clanship to society, which, as far as we can see, ends in an ever-tightening social organization. On this road the means for satisfying the wants of the individual continually grow in fulness and variety, and at the same time in dependence and complexity. The life and labour of every individual becomes more and more entwined with the life and labour of many others.

At the stage of houshold economy every commodity is consumed. in the place of its origin; at the stage of town economy it passes immediately from the producer to the consumer; at the stage of national economy, both in its production and thereafter, it passes through various hands-it circulates. In the course of the whole evolution the distance between production and consumption increases. At the first stage all commodities are consumption goods; at the second, part of them become articles of exchange; at the third, most of them

are wares.

The individual household at the first stage is a producing and consuming community in one; at the stage of town economy this stage of things continues in so far as the journeyman craftsman and the peasant workman make part of the household of the person employing them; in national economy community in production and community in consumption become distinct. The former is a business undertaking from whose returns, as a rule, several independent households are supported.

When outside labour is necessary, it is at the first stage in a permanent relation of subjection to the producer (as slaves and serfs), at the second in one of service, and at the third the relationship is contractual. Under the independent household system the consumer is either himself a labourer or the owner of the labourer; in town economy he makes a direct purchase of the workman's labour (wage work), or of the product of his labour (handicraft); in national economy he ceases to stand in any relation to the labourer, and purchases his goods from the entrepreneur or merchant, by whom the labourer is paid.

As for money, it is in independent domestic economy either entirely absent or an article of direct use and a means for storing up wealth; in town economy it is essentially a medium of exchange; in national economy it becomes a medium of circulation and of profit-making as well. The three categories, payment in kind, money payment, and

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