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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/78623-0.txt b/78623-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de85c27 --- /dev/null +++ b/78623-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1144 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78623 *** +Transcriber’s Note: Although the title page of this book reads +“Craft-guilds of the thirteenth century in Paris”, the text consistently +uses the spelling “gild”. + + + + + BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF HISTORY AND + POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SCIENCE IN QUEEN’S + UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA. + + NO. 17, OCTOBER, 1915. + + CRAFT-GUILDS OF THE + THIRTEENTH CENTURY IN PARIS + + BY + F. B. MILLETT. + + _The Jackson Press, Kingston_ + + + + +BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SCIENCE +IN QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA. + + +=No. 1, The Colonial Policy of Chatham, by W. L. Grant.= + +=No. 2, Canada and the Most Favored Nation Treaties, by O. D. Skelton.= + +=No. 3, The Status of Women in New England and New France, by James +Douglas.= + +=No. 4, Sir Charles Bagot: An Incident in Canadian Parliamentary History, +by J. L. Morison.= + +=No. 5, Canadian Bank Inspection, by W. W. Swanson.= + +=No. 6, Should Canadian Cities Adopt Commission Government, by William +Bennett Munro.= + +=No. 7, An Early Canadian Impeachment, by D. A. McArthur.= + +=No. 8, A Puritan at the Court of Louis XIV, by W. L. Grant.= + +=No. 9, British Supremacy and Canadian Autonomy: An Examination of Early +Victorian Opinion Concerning Canadian Self-government, by J. L. Morison.= + +=No. 10, The Problem of Agricultural Credit in Canada, by H. Michell.= + +=No. 11, St. Alban in History and Legend: A Critical Examination; The +King and His Councillors: Prolegomena to a History of the House of Lords, +by L. F. Rushbrook Williams.= + +=No. 12, Life of the Settler in Western Canada Before the War of 1812, by +Adam Shortt.= + +=No. 13, The Grange in Canada, by H. Michell.= + +=No. 14, The Financial Power of the Empire, by W. W. Swanson.= + +=No. 15, Modern British Foreign Policy, by J. L. Morison.= + +=No. 16, Federal Finance, by O. D. Skelton.= + +=No. 17, Craft-Gilds of the Thirteenth Century in Paris, by F. B. +Millett.= + + + + +CRAFT-GILDS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY IN PARIS. + + +The gild as it appears in Paris in the 13th century, M. Lespinasse in +his Introduction to Étienne Boileau’s _Livre des Métiers_, defines as “a +combination of individuals having the right to carry on an industrial +profession, composed of masters, _valets_, and apprentices, and bound by +oath to observe the prescribed regulations, and to respect the authority +of the Jurés in their supervisory functions.” The gilds in documents of +the time are called somewhat loosely _corporations_, _corps de métier_, +_métier_, _commun du métier_, _ghilde_, and less correctly _charité_ or +_confrérie_.[1] The gild was a fortress to which the workman rallied +and from which he beat off assailants in the form of feudal lords or +foreign trade competitors. Its primary function was to safeguard the +rights of labor, at any period none too stable, and in the complicated +social organization of the later Middle Ages, decidedly precarious. +Privileges had to be fought for and wrested from the overlord of the +community, be he king or noble, and a definite regulation, though still +in its prescriptions onerous, was preferable to a haphazard system of +‘taxation,’ subject only to the sanity or rapacity of count, king or +bishop. Foreign laborers and merchants, too, the narrow economic vision +of the period pointed out as hostile to the well-being of the city-gild, +and so exclusion by legislation is an important article in its “foreign +policy.” Against enemies within their own ranks a sharp guard had to be +maintained; ignorant practitioners or a superfluity of apprentices might +sadly damage the gild’s reputation for work which was “good and loyal.” +The organization of the 13th century gild seems to find its motives in +the desire to establish a definite and firm control over the _métier_, +and to establish, so far as custom and law would sanction it, a monopoly +over the commodities produced. + +The question of the political significance of the gild may be set aside +at the start. It has been a difference of opinion which came first, +the gild or the commune, and whether there was a causal relationship +between the two. The fact is that most of the gilds—as organizations—had +no political share in such activities as elections. The gild was not +the cause of the commune; the commune did not originate the gild. +M. Fagniez[2] has said “Le mouvement communal ne fut pour rien dans +cette émancipation de la classe ouvrière; elle était terminée quand il +commença.” It is interesting to note, however, the prominence which, +under the gild régime, certain _bourgeois_ and tradesmen attain. For +example, the provost of the watermen of Paris came to rival in power the +king’s provost of Paris. + +It is outside the province of this paper to discuss the somewhat vexed +question of the origin of the gild. Various theories have been vigorously +championed, and a mere mention of them with a few facts as to the early +appearance of the gilds will suffice. One theory maintains a survival +from the Roman _College_, another as an analogue to the Germanic _guild_, +and the third as an organization under the direction of the feudal lord. +It is curious to note how in 1725 M. Félibién in his “Histoire de la +Ville de Paris,” misinterpreted the origin of the _Livre des Métiers_ +on the basis of this latter theory, attributing too much of the slow +development of an _organism_ to the shaping hand of Boileau. He says: +“E. B. _rangea_ tous les marchands et les artisans en differens corps +de communautez, sous le titre de confrairies. Ce fut le premier _qui +leur dressa_ des Statuts, qu’il fit ensuite approuver dans une assemblée +des principaux bourgeois de Paris. Les prévosts successeurs de Boileau +adjoustèrent de nouveaux réglemens aux premiers, et il en fut fait en +recueil.”... The prevalent theory of the gilds’ origin is that they were +born spontaneously from the needs of the people, that they were a natural +line of development for youthful industry, in self-protection, to take. + +Charters or privileges claimed by the gilds date from the 11th century, +though they are most abundant in the 13th. The most ancient charter +published in the _Recueil des Ordonnances_ is that of the chandlers of +Paris, dated 1061. This document, however, is now supposed to have been +forged in the 15th century. From 1121 dates the first charter of the +_marchands de l’eau de Paris_. In 1160, Louis the VII gave to Thèce, +wife of Yrves Lacohe, and her heirs, the ‘mastery’ of five gilds which +dealt with leathers, the tanners, the curriers, the shoe-makers, the +leather-dressers, and the purse-makers. In 1162 come new privileges +granted in regulation of the bakers. In 1183 Philip Augustus rented _a +cens_ four houses which he had confiscated from the Jews, to the drapers’ +gild. A lord in 1219 sold the confrérie of cloth-merchants a house, and +gave them the leases of several adjoining houses. + +The book which is the object of this study—the _Livre des Métiers_, owes +its origin to a capable official of Louis IX, Étienne Boileau. He was +appointed prévôt of Paris about 1260.[3] This official had the rank of +the first bailiff of France. His ‘office’ was the Châtelet, where he +judged in person the greater part of the civil and criminal cases in +Paris and the _vicomté_; he was judge of appeal from the feudal nobles +and ecclesiastics who still had fiefs in Paris. He had charge of the +military service, of the policing, the finance and ‘justice’ of Paris +and its suburbs. This official, or the holder of this office, “who +administered with firmness and loyalty,” wished to correct the faults +incident to the jurisdiction over the gilds, by establishing in writing +the ‘constitution’ of each gild. The masters of the gilds accordingly +presented their regulations, and the result is a register of the laws +and customs of 101 craft-gilds of Paris.[4] Some of the privileges or +implied immunities pretend exceeding antiquity. The stone-cutters claim +immunity from the duty of the watch from the time of Charles Martel. +Upholsterers cite privileges granted by Louis the VII, and the bakers +claim from Philip Augustus the right to exclude ‘foreign’ bakers (i.e. +bakers from outside Paris), from the markets except on Saturdays. What we +have then in this invaluable _Livre_ is a cross-section of the commercial +and industrial life of Paris in the third quarter of the 13th century. A +study of this manuscript will show a vivid and complete picture of the +working class, and, by implication, of the upper nobility’s commercial +habits. + +The gilds were composed of three grades of individuals: apprentices, +_valets_, and masters. The term _ouvrier_ was applied in general to all +the divisions, even more loosely than our term _workman_. + +The apprentice, though considered as a member of the gild, was not of +the corporation until his apprenticeship was over. The term was begun +by a contract between master and aspirant. Usually this contract was +oral, because the writing of a document was too expensive a process. +At any rate, it was always a mutual engagement, sworn to, before the +Jurés, an engagement which imposed on both parties mutual duties which +neither should attempt to evade. A regulation concerning the agreement +runs as follows: “The master who takes an apprentice should summon to +the ceremony of the contract two masters and two _valets_, to hear the +agreement made between master and apprentice, and it is fitting that the +_master who guards the gild_ should be called also.” The Jurés before +authorizing the contract, were supposed to make careful inquiries as to +the ability and the financial position of the master. + +About forty of the gilds were allowed to have as many apprentices as +they liked. Among these were the corn-dealers, the gold-beaters, the +ale-brewers, green-grocers, farriers, drawers of iron wire, millers, +shoe-makers and the _barilliers_. Usually, however, the number was +limited to one or two. The mercers, the fullers, weavers of silk-stuffs, +knife-handle and blade makers were allowed to have two, while the +rope-makers, pewterers, precious stone dealers, braid-makers, drapers, +goldsmiths, and shield-makers contented themselves with one. The +motives for such limitation were at least _double_: the altruistic +reason was that the master should not have too many to teach well; the +self-protective reason was that the gild should at no time be swamped in +competition by too many (prospective) masters. + +The term of apprenticeship was also most scrupulously fixed. The +conditions are usually a definite term without payment of fee or a term +gradually lessened according to the increase in the size of the fee. The +haberdashers and the pewterers could fix the duration of apprenticeship +at will; other terms vary from 3 to 8, to 10-12 years, with fees varying +from 20 Parisian _sous_ (5 fr.) to 100 Parisian _sous_ (20 fr.), by means +of which the apprentice could buy off part of his time of service. +There seems, however, to have been no attempt to make the time directly +proportionate to the costliness of the raw material and the difficulty +of the process, or the skill required in the craft. The rope-makers +require an apprenticeship of 4 years, the brass-wire drawers 6 years, the +chest-makers 7 years, the makers of iron shields 8 years, the curriers +of shoe-leather 9, the jewellers 10, and the coral and shell bead-makers +12 years. The wool-weavers demand 4 years plus 4 _livres_, 5 years and +3 _livres_, 6 years and one _livre_, or 7 years without fee. Power over +the length of term resided of course in the hands of the masters, and +the rules contain only the minimum requirement. We read, “No one can +or ought to take or have more than two apprentices, and he cannot take +them for less than 7 years of service and twenty _sous_ of Paris, which +apprentices must give to the masters; or at 7 years without money, but +more money and longer service he can require if need be.” How irrational +the terms were may be seen from the fact that while the goldsmith’s term +is 10 years, the brass-wire drawers (a far less “skilled” gild) required +10 years and 20 _sous_, or 12 years and no fee, and that of three +bead-making gilds, one demanded 6 years and 46 _sous_, another 10 years +and 46 _sous_, and the third 12 years without possible shortening of the +term. If the apprentice, however, bought off part of his regular term, +the master was not permitted to take another apprentice till the complete +period was over. An extra apprentice was sometimes allowed if the wife +of a master knew the trade. “No one of the craft aforesaid can have more +than one apprentice, and if he has a wife, can have only one if she does +not know the trade, but if the man and the woman know the trade, they can +have two apprentices, but they can have as many _valets_ as they wish.” +Among the masons, a Juré could have two apprentices, the other masters +could employ only one. + +Exceptions to rules of apprenticeship were made for the sons of masters, +or of their wives, and in this beginning of family privileges, we see +foreshadowed the tyranny of the close-corporation control of the gild +in latter centuries. All the sons of the master and his wife, if she +knows the trade, may rise to the ‘mastery’ usually with no fixed term of +apprenticeship. If the children were illegitimate, no privileges were +granted them. In the case of the goldsmith we see still wider family +privileges, for we read “of his lineage and of the lineage of his +wife, whether distant or close, he can have as many (apprentices) as he +wishes.” The wool-weaver was allowed in his house two large looms and one +small one for himself and for each of his married sons, and one loom each +for a brother and a nephew, if they “knew how to work with their hands.” +In the gild of the iron shield-makers and several others, appears the +obligation of teaching the son of a poor master or his orphans free. + +The conditions of the contract of apprenticeship shed much light on +the lives of these little workmen, and the statutes recognize the +possibility of their being led astray by “leur folour et leur joliveté.” +The apprentice, we are told, should obey all the orders of the master, +and not complain without justice of the master’s oppression to the +_prud’hommes_ of the gild. He had to clean the workshop, run errands +for the family and for the business. That apprentices were not always +docile, nor their circumstances congenial, the many rules dealing with +their flight suggest. An apprentice who had taken flight from his master +could not be received into the workshop of another member of the gild +until the complete period of his apprenticeship contract had elapsed. +The pâter-notriers had to wait a year and a day after the flight of an +apprentice, and the tablet-makers 26 weeks, before taking in another. +After three attempts to escape, all obligation between gild and +apprentice ceased. “And this regulation the _prud’hommes_ of the gild +make to restrain the folly and jollity of the apprentices, for they do +great harm to their masters and themselves, when they run away; for when +the apprentice is enrolled to learn, and runs away in a month or two, he +forgets as much as he has learned, and thus he wastes his time and does +harm to his master.” The wool-weavers and the locksmiths insisted that +the escaping apprentice pay the master what his training had cost. + +The statutes recognize the right of the master to sell the apprentice +to another master under certain circumstances. “No cutler can sell his +apprentice unless he (the master) lies on a bed of sickness (_lit de +langueur_), or is going across seas, or is leaving the gild for good or +does it because of poverty.” + +The master’s obligations to the apprentice consisted in lodging, feeding +and clothing him and in teaching him the trade. That masters did not +always scrupulously abide by these duties, various law-suits and +_régles_ attest. Only the tablet-makers and the important wool-merchants, +provide, in their statutes, for a defence of the apprentice’s rights. +There we find that if the master fails in his duties, the gild masters, +upon complaint of the apprentice, “must admonish the said master, and if +he does not comply, they must seek out a new master for the apprentice.” +In another place, we learn of a fine imposed on the master who provoked +his apprentice to flight. + +A decree from the Châtelet: 3 Sept., 1399, gives a living vignette +of these domestic relations a century after our period.[5] “We have +enjoined and commanded the said master that he treat the said Larin, +his apprentice, as the son of a _prud’homme_ should be treated, and +that he abide by the matters contained in the said contract, without +having him beaten by his wife, but that he should beat him himself if he +misbehaved.” In the same year also a father succeeded in breaking his +son’s contract because the goldsmith, the boy’s master, by hitting him +with a bunch of keys, had “made a hole in his head.” + +The possible marriage of an apprentice during the term of his service is +provided for thus: “If any apprentice marries during the time that he has +promised to serve his master, and does not wish to eat dinner and supper +with his master, he ought to have four _deniers_ every working day for +his support.” + +It is not very clear from our texts, whether an examination at the end +of his term was usual or infrequent. Only rarely is the demand for a +_chef-d’oeuvre_ mentioned. The saddle-bow makers claim that after an +apprentice has made his _chef-d’oeuvre_ he should become more important +in the workshop “so that his master may not send him out into the city to +fetch his bread and his wine just like a boy.” The goldsmith’s statutes +provide that if he becomes skilful enough to pay his expenses and to +earn 100 _sous_ a year, he may be freed from his contract and allowed +to earn a salary. At the end of the period, however, _any_ apprentice +must declare before the Jurés on his oath that he had fulfilled his term +according to contract. + +To our mind, the apprentice system here revealed does not seem devised +for the best interest of the child. Too much power for good or ill lies +with the master. If he so wishes, there seems to be little to prevent +his letting his charge remain in a state of childish and unprofessional +ignorance. The long term of service, the wide power of master upon man +seem devised to add to the master’s profits, not to his charge’s skill. + +The _valet_, _sergent_ or _aloué_, i.e. hired man, was an individual +who had finished his term of service as apprenticeship but had not yet +risen to the dignity, as master, of having an establishment of his own. +Women of this grade, in gilds to which they were admitted, were called +_chambrières_ or _meschinettes_. Usually the master could have as many +_valets_ as he wished, but occasionally the number was limited so as +to prevent rich and attractive workshops getting many _valets_, and, +accordingly, something approaching a monopoly of the trade. + +A _valet_ who had been trained outside Paris had to present evidence that +he had done the preliminary term elsewhere. Of such a man, too, it was +possible to require a kind of surety or testimonial of a fair dismissal +from a former employer. Evidently the narrow mediaeval view of protection +of home industries led to the discriminations against workmen from +outside, for we read, “It is ordered and decreed that no person of the +said gild should hire any foreign man so long as he can find a workman +who is a member of the gild.” Care was taken too that disgrace and +scandal should not fall upon the gild through _valets_ of bad character. +“_Rêveurs_, scoundrels, murderers, knaves, thieves, men of ill fame” are +stipulated as improper candidates, and a wool-weaver whose relations with +a woman were a by-word “was sent out of the city and forbidden the trade +until he should amend his character.” + +The length of the term of hire is not definitely stated in our +regulations, and it varied from a day, a week, a month, to a year. In the +morning all unemployed _valets_ assembled early in a designated street +or square. There they were to stay until the bell from a certain church +sounded. No private individual could hire an artisan. If a bargain was +made, the _valet_ went to the house of his employer at dawn and stayed +under usual conditions till sunset. The hours accordingly varied largely, +from 14 hours in summer to 8 in winter. Very few _valets_ lodged and +ate with their patron. They ‘went out’ in search of their noonday-meal +with the provision that, after it, they should not loiter to wait for +a fellow-workman. If the gild was one which allowed night-work, and +the master desired it of him, the _aloué_ must comply for a raise of +pay. Sometimes the _valets_ rebelled against this compulsion, and were +threatened by the magistrates for this attempt at industrial freedom. In +only one case is vacation mentioned, but as we shall see in discussing +the _chômage_, there was little need of it. The brass-wire drawers +stipulate, however, that the workmen may have a vacation in the month of +August if they wish. + +Women were admitted to membership in gilds where their delicate skill and +taste made them useful. In 1292 the group dealing with embroidery was +composed of 81 women and 12 men. + +Occasionally conditions of employment are stated with more detail. A +rule of the sword-cutlers runs this: “No[6] master should take a _valet_ +to work unless he has five sets of clothes with him in order that the +workmen may look neat in case the nobles, counts, barons, knights, and +other good folk should at any time come into the work-room.” The _valet_ +could not be dismissed unreasonably, and rarely the provision is made +that two _valets_ and two masters must agree upon the dismissal before +it could take effect. After a year and a day, the _valet_ could have his +wife come and work with him, if the gild admitted women. + +A considerable distinction between masters and _valets_ already existed, +though in the smaller organizations the gulf was less apparent. There +were no large factories in the modern meaning, and in a small workshop +conditions of equality were more likely to obtain. Several facts show, +however, that the _valets_ in some places were beginning to feel +themselves a distinct industrial class. Infrequently they had their +own confrérie and their own jurés. The masters in some cities already +foresaw the possibilities of a kind of class-struggle, and at[7] Beauvais +punished with imprisonment and fine men who attempted combinations in +the hope of raising wages. In 1280 at Ypres, workmen rebelled against an +ordinance adding one hour to their working day, and in their rioting +killed the mayor. Of course they were severely punished. (But how modern +these actions prove our industrial class of the Middle Ages to be.) + +The obtaining of the mastership or mastery of a gild, i.e. the right +to set up a workshop, to go into business, depended on certain +qualifications in the aspirants, and certain formal ceremonies, +necessitated by the organization of the gild, and its (frequent) feudal +relationship to the king or his official. The first requirement was +skill, acquired during service as apprentice and _valet_, capital, +upright character and good conduct. Most of the sections have such an +article as “Quiconques veut estre de tel mestier, estre le peut pœrtant +qu’il sache le mestier, et ait de coi,” and an article of the _drapiers_ +reads: “Il conviendra qu’il sache faire le mestier de touz poinz, le soy, +sans conseil au ayde d’autruy et qu’il à ce examiné par les gardes du +mestier.” The cook’s regulations require that the son of a master have an +expert in his bake-house until the masters judged the son skilful enough. +This article was evidently designed to counteract the carelessness of +regulation of the apprentice-work of sons. The formal requirement was the +purchase of the right to trade. At the most 25 gilds were required to +purchase this right, the rest were “free.” Among these who purchased were +the bakers, the criers of wine, the retailers of bread and vegetables, +the farriers, the cutlers, locksmiths, weavers of silk cloth, masons, +hose-makers, poulterers, potters, old-clothes dealers, purse-makers, +saddlers, shoe-makers, glovers, and fishermen. The necessity was created +by the fact that about 30 of the gilds were fiefs of the king, and +accordingly could be reserved for himself, or bestowed upon his favorite +officers. In general, however, those the king retained for himself, +notably, the dealers in food-necessities, were free of purchase. + +After purchasing the right from the king, the aspirant had usually to +present himself within a week to be admitted to the corporation. At a +solemn meeting the masters or jurés “read loudly” and explained the +regulations. The recipient of the privilege then swore by the saints’ +relics that he would keep the laws and carry on his profession carefully +and loyally. Initiation fees were of course variable; the criers paid the +jurés 4 _deniers_ (0 fr. .45), the silk-cloth weavers and hose-makers +10 _sous_ (2 fr. .50); the _épiciers_ paid 5 _sous_[8] _pour boire_ to +their companions. The time for paying this fee also varied. The curriers +of shoe-leather were allowed to pay their fee a year and a day after +establishment, while the bakers were restrained only by a limit of four +years. The widow of a master was generously permitted to carry on the +business in his stead, though usually if she remarried a stranger, i.e. a +man outside the gild, she forfeited this right. + +M. Lespinasse makes an interesting distinction in affirming that the +mastership was not a rank, but a privilege; it was not a case of ‘once +a master, always a master.’ Upon the relinquishment of the activity and +privileges implied, a master became an artisan, and, for instance, the +hose-makers assert that 35 masters among them have fallen into poverty. +The master with all his attempts to protect his position and rights, bore +the not-light burden of taxation from which the _valets_ were directly, +at least, exempt. + +The internal administration of the gild was performed by officers called +_jurés_ or _prud’hommes_, and the external relation of the gild in its +dealings with other gilds or the city was supervised by the Crown or the +Crown official who held the gild in fief. The jurés were also called +_gardes_, _syndics_, _éswards_, _élus_. The typical method of choice was +the election of a certain number by the masters of the gild, and their +ratification and investiture by the Provost of Paris or other Crown +official. Sometimes, however, the Provost or Crown officer appointed +the _guards_ with no semblance of suggestion, in theory at least, from +the gild itself. Occasionally the election was wholly in the hands of +the _community_. Sometimes the departing _prud’hommes_ nominated their +successors. Among the haberdashers, failure to serve, if one were +elected, called down upon him a fine of 10 livres (134 fr.). The term +of office was usually a year. The goldsmiths, however, changed their +officers only every three years. The fullers, who had two masters and +two _valets_ as officers, changed them at Christmas and at St. John’s +Day. Before the Provost, the _valets_ named two masters, and the masters +two _valets_, for service, a _nice_ balance in the interest of just +administration. Women were allowed offices for such gilds as they were +important in. The workers in silk-stuffs had three masters and three +mistresses; the weavers of kerchiefs three _maîtresses_. + +In being invested with office, the jurés, for instance, of the bakers +swore on the relics of the saints that they would ‘guard the gild’ +carefully and loyally, and that in appraising bread, they would spare +neither relatives nor friends, nor condemn anyone wrongly through hatred +or ill-feeling. The chiefs of the gilds scrutinized the quality of +the products, denounced frauds and infractions of the rules, presided +at solemn conclaves of the gild, and represented it before the law. +They presided at the contract of apprenticeship, received the oaths of +artisans and masters, and administered the funds of the corporation. In +case of appeal from the jurisdiction of the jurés, the Provost of Paris +was the first authority, and above him was the _Parlement de Paris_. On +the lands of a feudal lord, the latter usually retained the privilege of +administering petty justice. + +The question of remuneration to the jurés for loss of time naturally +arises. Usually a definite fraction of the fines was awarded to them. +Besides, too, the honor which accrued to them, exemptions from the duty +of the watch and from certain of the fines of the trade, are mentioned. + +Most gilds had officers of only one rank upon whom all the duties fell. +Occasionally discrimination was made, and two superior officers chosen +from the masters held the power of handing down decisions while their +_valet_-assistants exercised supervision, and reported infractions of +the rules to the masters. Perhaps the most frequent number of _jurés_ +in a gild was two or four. The armorers, the iron-shield-makers, the +potters, the rope-makers, bead-makers, gold-beaters, braid-makers, +spinners of silk, etc., had two, the fullers, the tallow-chandlers four. +The brass-shield makers were so few that they did not elect a juré, but +asked the Provost to hear their cases directly. Only one _guard_ is +mentioned in the statutes of the clasp-makers and the flower-hat makers. +The curriers have three, the farriers six, the goldsmiths two or three, +the head-dress makers eight, and later only four. The bakers and the +retailers of fruit and vegetables had twelve officers. + +The most feudal feature of the craft-gild organization is, perhaps, the +dependence of the gild on the Crown or its officials or vassals. Most +of the gilds were dependent upon (relevaient à) the Prévôt de Paris. +To him the _prud’hommes_ carried complaints, against other gilds, for +example, and it was he who appointed a _prud’homme_ to execute for him +the functions suggested above. We have seen that Louis the Younger +granted to a woman the ‘mastery’ of five gilds, which remained enfieffed +to the sixteenth century. The grand pantler was the judge of the bakers, +and each year appointed a master to look after the gild. The grand +chamberlain looked after the wool-weavers, haberdashers, tailors and +upholsterers, and others who had to do with clothing and furnishings; the +cup-bearer (_échanson_) had the wine merchants, and the _maréchal_ the +smiths, farriers, helmeters, locksmiths and other iron-workers. The grand +butler tried to keep order among the wine-shop keepers. To his mason, +Guillaume à Saint Patrie, the king confided the masons, stone-breakers, +plasterers, etc. + +Exact hours for work were not set down; the time of the world in which +the artisan lived was too entirely dominated by the custom of the Church +to permit of hours being designated as 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. “No one of the +gild,” we read, “ought to work on holy days which the people of the city +keep, nor on Saturdays during _charnage_ (i.e. the time during which it +was permitted to eat meat) after Vespers, nor after Compline on Saturdays +during Lent, nor at night at any time of the year.” During Lent, Vespers +fell at 6 o’clock, and Compline at 9. _Charnage_ was used loosely to mean +not only the period during which meat could be eaten, but also the period +of short days, while _Carême_ meant the period of long days. Night work +was expressly forbidden for goldsmiths, sheath-makers, weavers, braid-, +chest-, buckles-, beads-makers, pewterers, lamp-makers and locksmith’s, +“for the light at night does not suffice for the trade[s] aforesaid.” +Millers and brewers could work day and night, and it was permitted to all +farriers (but not to locksmiths and cutlers), to goldsmiths, lamp-makers, +brass-wire drawers, to cast, if need be, during the night, inasmuch as +the process sometimes lasted a day or a week. The restriction upon night +work was ineffective if the work were for the household of the King, the +Queen, the Princes of the blood, the Bishop of Paris, and other great +Lords. + +The Church’s observance of Sundays and fast-days (holy days) caused among +the gilds much cessation from work—_chômage_. The eve of Sunday and +important holy days, work was stopped at _Nones_ or _Compline_. On Sunday +the baths were not heated, on Sunday the bakers did not make bread, and +kept, besides, twenty-six fast-days and the day of their Patron Saint. +The goldsmiths, the haberdashers, the felt-hat makers, took turns within +the gild in keeping their shops open on Sunday. The _barilliers_ and +the armorers worked without restriction on the ground that their work +was vitally important to noblemen. A saddler could repair a shield or a +harness on Sunday, and rose-chaplets could be made at any time “during +the season of roses.” + +Inasmuch as the policy of the gilds proscribed the action of free +competition, it was necessary for them, in order to sustain their +reputation, to provide in some way, that the products should be exactly +what they pretended to be. To this end they legislated carefully as to +the quantity and quality of raw material to be used, and provided for +supervision through the stages of manufacture to the sale of the finished +product. The _cervoise_ (a drink somewhat resembling ale) should have no +constituents save grain and water. The beater of metal-leaves must have +a certain alloy of gold in his silver leaves. The bead-makers must not +string beads which are not perfectly rounded. The haberdashers complain +of the appearance of “several pieces of bad work to the damage of all the +common weal, every day, by reason of the lack of proper restriction.” +At Amiens,[9] the locksmiths were forbidden, for fear of thievery, to +make a key unless the lock was produced, and the butchers to _souffler +la viande_, to mix tallow in the lard, to sell dog, cat or horse flesh. +In Paris, boxes whose locks were made with ‘hinges’ were summarily +burned, and fines were incurred for putting old locks on new furniture +and new locks on old furniture. Trimmings of silver were forbidden on +bone knife-handles for fear the makers should sell them for ivory, and +knife-handles must not be covered with silk, brass- or pewter-wire, +lead or iron, because inside, they were only deal, and might deceive an +ignorant buyer. Hemp and flax must not be used in the same rope.[10] If a +tailor spoilt a valuable piece of cloth by bad cutting, and the _gardes_ +ascertained it, he had to make restitution to the client, and pay a fine, +3 _sous_ to the king and 2 _sous_ to the _confrérie_. If an artisan +did the spoiling, he paid the master, and worked for one day, without +pay, for the _confrérie_.[11] Chandlers seem to have been especially +open to temptation. Too heavy a weight of wick is expressly regulated +against in the provision that four pounds of tallow should carry only a +quarter-pound of wick. Wax tapers must not be adulterated with tallow. + +Gilds in danger of usurping each other’s business were jealous of +privileges. A tailor must not mend old clothes, nor a rag-man make new +clothes. A curious controversy arose from the fact that clothes restored +by the old-clothes dealers were frequently mistaken for new. It was +finally decided that this latter gild must not press, fold and hang old +garments for fear of this deception. + +The visits of the _gardes_ were at unexpected times, and almost all the +gilds require their inspection of saleable articles “poer sauvoir se il i +a nulles mesprantures.” The _gardes_ of the weavers carried an iron rule +on which was marked the length of various kinds of cloth, as it was fixed +by law. Goods which did not comply with the statutes were confiscated, +burned or given to the poor, while the culprit paid a fine. To make +sure that no bad product elude the vigilance of the guards, further +regulations as to the place of manufacture appear. A wool-weaver could +not have two shops on either side of the street, though we have seen how +liberal he might be as to the number of looms. An armorer was not to get +anything necessary for his trade made outside the shop, therefore he was +forbidden to carry armor through the streets unless he were poor and +lived in an out-of-the-way quarter where sales would be difficult. The +tailor must not cut his cloth except at a window of the first floor of +his shop. + +Fines ranging from three to ten _sous_ were the natural consequence of +faulty production. The corrupt gold-beater paid 3 _sous_, the jewellers, +who dared use colored glass, 10 _sous_, the dealers in silk-stuffs +paid 8 _sous_, of which 5 went to the King, 2 to the Master, and 1 +to the _Confrérie_. In 1312, dealers in spices who purveyed _fausse +merchandise_ were condemned to lose their commodities, and to pay, +besides, 60 _sous_: “40 to us (i.e. the King, or to the lord of the place +where justice is done), and 20 _sous_ to the master of the gild at or +near the place where the offence is committed”—to pay the expenses of the +gild. As a further guard against adulterated products, most of the gilds +had a mark or a seal which carried a guarantee of quality commensurate +with the reputation of the gild. + +Before goods could be sold, those who had the right to weighing and +measuring apparatus in their own houses, must have these sealed by the +measurers and gaugers’ gild. Others must use the scale of the king or his +vassal. Most goods were sold on Friday and Saturday, when the merchants +shut up shop and went to the _Halles_ where markets were held. As a rule, +the gilds were opposed to the hawking of their goods—_col-portage_; they +preferred the more regular custom of the stalls of the market. Here, too, +they succeeded in legalizing their privileges against foreigners. For +example, the bakers succeeded in preventing the sale of all ‘foreign’ +bread in the city except on Saturdays. The municipality also watched +after its own interests in the interests of the crafts. Merchants were +forbidden to leave the city before the opening of the Fairs, and sales +must be transacted only in the square of the _Halles_ after a stroke +from the great bell. The craft organizations themselves were much afraid +of possible monopolies. The weavers, dyers and fullers are expressly +forbidden to enter into combinations to fix a price on goods or a +monopoly on materials “so as to prevent the people of the gild from +having work according to their means.” The retailers of produce were +forbidden to arrange for commodities in advance. “Retailers ought not to +buy in advance of any merchant carriage-loads or consignments of eggs and +cheeses, deliverable at his next trip, or after any delay whatsoever”; +such transactions are wrong because they offer too much uncertainty and +too many frauds in the conditions of delivery. The mediaeval man feared +‘corners,’ for he felt “the rich will sell back everything, as dear as it +pleases them to do.” + +In the market “good form” must be observed between members of the same +gild. One member must not intrude before a sale is consummated. “If +anyone is in front of the stall or window of a cook to buy or bargain +with the said cook, and if any of the other cooks call him before he has +left the stall or window of his own will,” the fine will be 5 _sous_. + +For the privileges implied in the gild structure, the feudal authorities +demanded a return in the form of taxes. The gild-masters bore the +burden not only of the civil taxes which all citizens shared, such as +the _taille_, the _conduits_ and _péages_ (tolls), but also special +commercial taxes such as the _hauban_, the _tonlieu_, and the _coutume_. + +The _hauban_, according to _Livre des Métiers_, Section I, Art. 7, “is +the name appropriate to a tax assessed from ancient times, by which it +was established that whoever should be a payer of _hauban_ would have +more freedom and less taxes to pay for his right of trade and commerce.” +It was a sort of agreement offering the advantage of combining in one +payment a large number of daily dues. For this privilege the bakers owed +6 _sous_, the retailers of bread and salt, 3 _sous_, the butchers 6 +_sous_, the fishermen, purse-makers and curriers 3 _sous_, the glovers 3 +_sous_, 8 _deniers_, and the old-clothes men 6 _sous_ and 8 _deniers_. + +The _tonlieu_, also called the tax of buying and selling, was the real +tax on trade. At every sale, the merchant and the customer owed a small +per cent. of the purchase to the city or lord who controlled the market. +About twenty chapters of Part II in the _Livre des Métiers_ are devoted +to an elaborate schedule of this tax which varied according as the +sale was at shop, fair or market. In general, M. Lespinasse estimates, +the _tonlieu_ equalled 4 _deniers_ per wagon-load, 2 per cart-load, 1 +_denier_ for beast-of-burden’s load, and 1 obole for a man’s load. + +The _coutume_ was very irregularly shared; it usually fell due at several +times through the year. So the bakers owed 6 _deniers_ at Christmas, +22 at Easter, and 5 at St. John’s Day, and a _tonlieu_ of 1½ _deniers_ +in bread or money per week. The retailers of produce also owed these +taxes if they dealt in bread. At any earlier period, the _coutume_ was +always paid ‘in nature,’ i.e. in the product itself. Accordingly, the +hay-merchants owed a box of new hay every time the King entered the city. +The wooden-utensils makers furnished seven casks, two feet long, towards +the up-keep of the King’s cellars, and for this service they were excused +from the watch. The farriers owed at first the _fers du Roi_; i.e. they +had to keep the saddle-horses of the court well shod. But later this +function was compounded in terms of money, due to the royal maréchal in +consideration of which he had the horses shod. + +Another feudal obligation irksome to some of the gilds was the personal +“duty of the watch”—the _guet_. As the masters of the gilds were alone +responsible for this important service, it was also called the _guet +de métiers_. Each gild had its turn about every three weeks, when the +masters must go at nightfall to the Châtelet and answer the roll. The +watch then lasted from curfew till the next sunrise. Usually the gilds +which served the aristocracy most directly were exempt from this duty. +Among these were the goldsmiths, _barilliers_, armorers, painters, +sculptors, bow-makers, flower- and plumed-hat makers, and haberdashers. +How irksome this duty had become may be inferred from two statutes in the +_Livre des Métiers_. The garment-cutters say: + +“The _prud’hommes_ of the said gild beg that they be relieved from (the +duty of) the watch, if it please the King, on account of the fine clothes +which they have to make and keep over night which belong to gentlemen, +and on account of the large number of strange workmen whom they could not +entirely trust to take care of things, and because they have to cut and +sew clothes for gentlemen both day and night in view of the gentlemen and +strangers going away at once, and because they have to return the garment +which they make in the evening, on the morning of the next day.” + +The old-clothes dealers have two intimate and vivid articles. Art. 33: +“No one who is 60 years old, nor those whose wives are with child, so +long as they be ill, and no one who has been bled, if he has not been +summoned before he had himself bled, and no one who is going out of the +city, if he has not been summoned before he goes out, need to share the +watch. But they must inform him who has charge of the watch for the King, +by means of their men or their neighbors.” + +Art. 34: “And the _prud’hommes_ of the gild say that they are grieved +that, for 10 years back, those who have charge of the guard for the King, +have not been willing to receive the excuse from the above-mentioned +service from their neighbors and their workmen, but make come their wives +themselves, either fair or ugly, either young or old, or feeble or fat, +to convey the excuse to the lord, a thing which is most ugly and most +grievous—that a woman should stay and sit at the Châtelet from curfew so +long as the watch is out, and then go away with her son or her daughter, +or without either of them, through strange streets to her home, and +through this message-bearing wrong, sin, yea, villainy has been done.” + +_Confrérie_ is a word not very widely used in the _Livre_. Seventeen of +the gilds display this organism. It served to systematize the religious +impulses of the gild-men’s lives and also to control the benevolent +activities of the older structure. The tablet-makers require all salaried +workers to join the _Confrérie_, and at a death in the gild, a man or +woman from each workshop must follow the corpse or pay a fine of ½ pound +of wax. The _confrérie_ usually centered its activity in a church or +chapel in the district where most of the members lived. The _confrérie_ +of the furriers and the upholsterers shared _l’Église des Innocents_; +the masons attended the _Chapelle de St. Bleive_; the bakers _St. Pierre +aux Liens_, and the wine-merchants and brass-shield makers St. Léonard’s +chapel of church _St. Merri_. The confraternity usually put itself under +the protection of a particular saint. The goldsmiths chose _St. Éloi_, +and the confraternity had a seal inscribed “Sigillum confratrie sancti +Elegii auri fabrorum.” + +The _confrérie’s_ resources were usually derived from initiation fees, +subscriptions and legacies from members, and a share of the fines +collected in the gild. The organization also derived benefits from +holding real estate. It could transact business and fall in debt. The +_confrérie_ of the wool-weavers owing 600 pounds, put a tax of 12 +_sous_ on every piece of cloth manufactured in Paris. A statute of the +plasterers reads: “If he finds that the proportion is not good, the +plasterer shall pay five _sous_ as a fine: to the Chappelle Bleive +aforesaid, two _sous_, to the master who guards the gild, two _sous_, and +to the one who has measured the plaster 12 _deniers_.” When a plasterer +took an apprentice for less than six years, he paid 20 _sous_ to the +Chapelle. + +Part of the funds acquired by the _confrérie_ were used for common +expenses, and part for benevolent work. For every piece of cloth sold +the wool-merchants were supposed to give a _denier_ to buy grain for +the poor. The rich confraternity of the goldsmiths gave every Easter +a dinner to the poor of the Hôtel Dieu, while the cooks set aside a +third of their fines to maintain “les pouvres vieilles gens du mestier +qui seront decheuz par fait de marchandise ou de vieillece.” In 1319 +the vair-furriers formed an association[12] with an initiation fee of +10 _sous_ (8 fr. .40) and 6 _deniers_ for the secretary, and a weekly +subscription of one _denier_, the funds of which were to aid members in +case of sickness or infirmity at the rate of 3 _sous_ per week during +illness, and 6 _sous_ in convalescence. The curriers mention the use of +funds from “la boîte” to support the orphans of the gild or children of +poverty-stricken masters. + +At the first appearance of the _confrérie_, the Church opposed it, +suspecting in its secrecy, antagonism or some outcroppings of pagan +ritualism.[13] Later, however, both Church and _confrérie_ profited by a +close relationship. The monastery of St. Trond, in return for the right +to fall heir to the properties of members of the shearmen and fuller’s +_confrérie_ who died without wife or child, maintained a hospital for +the care of its sick, and conducted funerals, while the sacristan and a +priest arbitrated on the occasion of disputes within the gild. + + * * * * * + +Conclusion. The trade-gild régime was a defensive one against the +confused powers of feudalism and the conflicting activities of +competition. It protected the apprentice against his own folly and his +master; it protected the artisan against diminution in the pay-rate, +illegal dismissal, and the usurpation of other trades on his field. +It guarded the master from insubordination, idleness, bad measure and +adulteration, and by the limitation of the number of workmen assured the +sale of his goods. + +Some of the principles implied in the organization we may agree with M. +Lespinasse[14] are “relatively true,” such as the protection of infant +industry, guarantee of work and property, examinations and probations +to make certain the skill of the candidates; prohibition of combination +of several professions to prevent the abusive use of them; supervision +of manufacture to assure the soundness of the product; an industrial +jurisdiction from apprenticeship to mastery, lack of division in a craft +such as to train in time a fully equipped workman and a future master; +suppression of any parasitic intermediary between producer and consumer; +work in common and in the public eyes, and solidarity of the industrial +family. + +On the other hand, there are shadows in the picture, and among them we +may distinguish—the immoderate extension of term of apprenticeship, +difficulties set in the way of becoming a master; arbitrary fiscal +measures and dues; meticulous regulation and too frequent cessation from +work; a routine transmission of methods of manufacture; maintenance of +a fixed price, and prohibitions of combinations such as would encourage +inventions and stimulate a wider economic unit. + +We have studied a particularly agreeable phase of gild growth. Far off +still is the bad opposition between employee and employed, though the +pessimist may see the seeds of the present in this past. Though one +hesitates to call with M. Fagniez the spirit of the gilds “fundamentally +Christian,” he is glad to recognize such alertness of intelligence, such +elaborate industrial devices and purposes, such thoughtful humanitarian +interests, so complex a system of checks and balances in our supposedly +naïve mediaeval precursors. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] Throughout this paper I shall translate the French word métier by the +more usual word _gild_ when it refers to the organization and not the +craft. + +[2] Fagniez: Documents rélatifs à l’Histoire de l’Industrie, etc. Intro. + +[3] Levasseur: _Hist. des classes ouv._ p. 251. + +[4] For a list of these gilds with their ancient French names and their +modern English equivalents, see _Appendix_. + +[5] Fagniez: Études sur l’industrie à Paris, p. 67. + +[6] Réglemens sur les arts et les mét. ed. Depping, p. 366. + +[7] “Coutumes de Beauvaisis.” Beaumanoir, éd. Beugnot; p. 429. + +[8] It has been estimated that four _sous_ of Paris of this period are +equivalent to one franc at present. + +[9] Comm. d’Amiens, Doc. inédits, p. 387, p. 370. + +[10] Lev.: Hist. des classes ouv., vol. I, page 116. + +[11] Ordonnances touchant les mét., 1312. Art. 5. + +[12] Fagniez: “Études sur l’industrie,” p. 290. Text in _Doc. rélatifs_, +No. 19. + +[13] M. Lespinasse quotes the text of a decree against _confrérie_ from a +Council at Rouen, 1189. + +[14] _Liv. des Mét._ Avant Propos par M. Lespinasse, p. xiv. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + + Archiers = bow-makers. + + Barilliers = case-makers. + + Batéeurs d’or = gold-beaters. + + Batéeurs d’éstain = pewter-beaters. + + Batéeurs d’or en feuilles = gold-beaters. + + Batéeurs d’archal = brass-beaters. + + Baudraiers = curriers of shoe-leather. + + Blatiers = corn-merchants. + + Blasenniers = saddle-fixtures. + + Boîtiers = locksmiths. + + Boucliers de fer = iron-shield-makers. + + Boucliers d’archal = brass-shield makers. + + Bourreliers = harness-makers. + + Boursiers = purse-makers. + + Boutonniers = button-makers. + + Brachiers = breeches-makers. + + Cavesonniers = slipper-makers. + + Cavetiers = cobblers. + + Cervoisiers = ale-brewers. + + Chandliers de sieu = tallow-chandlers. + + Chanevaceriers = hemp-cloth-makers. + + Chapeliers de fleurs = flower-hatters. + + Chapeliers de coton = cap-makers. + + Chapeliers de paon = plumed hatters. + + Chapeliers de feutre = felt-hatters. + + Chapuiséeurs = saddle-bow makers. + + Charpentiers = carpenters. + + Chauciers = hose-makers. + + Couréeurs = belt-makers. + + Cordiers = rope-makers. + + Corduaniers = shoe-makers. + + Couteliers = cutlers. + + Couteliers serves = knife-blade-makers. + + Crespiniers = head-dress-makers. + + Crieurs = criers. + + Cristâliers = jewellers. + + Cuisiniers = cooks. + + Cyrugiens = barbers. + + Déeciers = playing dice-makers. + + Drapiers = woollen-weavers. + + Escueliers = pottery-sellers. + + Espinguiers = pin-makers. + + Estuvéeurs = bath proprietors. + + Faiseurs de clous = nail-makers. + + Fainiers = hay merchants. + + Fermailleurs = clasp and buckle-makers. + + Fripiers = old-clothes men. + + Feseresses de chap d’orfois = modiste. + + Fourreurs de chapeliers = fur-hatters. + + Fevres = iron-workers. + + Fileresses de soie = spinners of coarse silk. + + Fileresses de soie à petits fuseaux = spinners of fine silk. + + Fondeurs = smelters. + + Foulons = fullers. + + Fourbéeurs = sword-cutlers. + + Gantiers = glovers. + + Gueiniers = sheath-makers. + + Haubergiers = coats-of-mail-makers. + + Huiliers = oil-makers. + + Jaugéeurs = gaugers. + + Laciers = braid-makers. + + Lampiers = lamp-makers. + + Lanterniers = lantern-makers. + + Liniers = linen merchants. + + Lormiers = reins-makers. + + Maçons = masons. + + Marchante chanvre = hemp + thread sellers. + + Maréchaux = iron-farriers. + + Merciers = haberdashers. + + Mesuréeurs = measurers. + + Meuniers = millers. + + Orfèvres = goldsmiths. + + Ouv. de menues œuvres d’éstain = pewterers. + + Ouv. de tissus de soie = workers in silk-stuffs. + + Ouv. de drap de soie = silk-cloth. + + Peintres + imagiers = painters and illuminators. + + Paternostriers d’os = bone-bead makers. + + Paternostriers de corail = coral-bead makers. + + Paternostriers d’ambre = amber-bead makers. + + Paternostriers + faiseurs de boucles = brooch and bead-makers. + + Pechéeurs = fishermen. + + Poisonniers d’eau douce = fresh-water-fish-merchants. + + Poisonniers de mer = salt-water-fish-merchants. + + Potiers de terres = potters. + + Potiers d’éstain = pewterers. + + Poulailliers = poulterers. + + Regrattiers de pain de sel = retailers of salt and bread. + + Regrattiers de fruits = green-grocers. + + Selliers = saddlers. + + Serruriers = locksmiths. + + Tabletiers = tablet-makers. + + Tapiciers de tapiz sarrasinois = Oriental carpet-makers. + + Tapiciers de tapiz nostrés = carpet-makers. + + Taverniers = wine-shop-keepers. + + Tisserands de queuvrechiers = kerchief-makers. + + Trefilliers de fer = iron-wire-drawers. + + Trefilliers d’archal = brass-wire-drawers. + + Ymagiers = painters. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + +1. Réglemens sur les Arts et Métiers de Paris, Redigés au XIII_ᵉ_ siècle +et connus sous le nom du Livre des Métiers d’Étienne Boileau; Publiés +pour la première fois en entier ... avec des notes et une Introduction, +par G. B. Depping à Paris. De l’imprimerie de Crapelet, 1837, pp. xxxvi + +474. [Collection de Documents Inédits sur l’Histoire de France]. + +2. Le _Livre des Métiers_ d’Étienne Boileau, publié par René de +Lespinasse et Francois Bonnardot. [Histoire Générale de Paris—Les Métiers +et les corporations de la Ville de Paris, XIII_ᵉ_ siècle, pp. cliv + 420. +Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1879]. + + +_References_: + +_Blanqui_, Jêrome-Adolphe: History of Political Economy in Europe. Trans. +from 4th Fr. Ed. by Emily J. Leonard, pp. xxxviii + 590. 1880. + +_Brentano_, Luigi: Essay on the History and Development of Gilds: Early +English Text Society: Vol. 40. + +_Dendy_, F. W., & Boyle, J. R., editors, Extracts from the Records of +the Merchant Adventurers of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Vol. I, pp. lii + 315. +Surtees Society Publ. xviii, 1895. + +_Fagniez_, Gustave: Documents rélatifs à l’Histoire de l’industrie et du +Commerce en France. Vol. I, with an Introduction. pp. lxiv + 349. Paris, +Alph. Picard et Fils. 1898. + +_Fagniez_, Gustave: Études sur l’industrie et la Ind. à Paris aux XIII_ᵉ_ ++ XIV_ᵉ_ siècle. pp. x + 422. Paris, F. Vieweg. 1877. + +_Felibren_, D. Michel: Histoire de la Ville de Paris, 5 vols. in folio. +Paris, 1725. + +_Forrest_, J. Dorsey: “The Development of Western Civilization.” pp. ix + +406. U. of C. Press. 1907. + +_Gross_, Charles: The Gild Merchant. Vol. I, pp. xxii + 332. Vol. II, pp. +xi + 447. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1890. + +_Labarte_, Jules: Histoire des Arts ind. au moyen âge et à l’epoque de la +Renaissance, 2_ᵉ_ Ed. Paris, 1873. 3 vols. + +_Lambert_, Rev. J. M.: “Two Thousand Years of Gild Life,” etc., etc. pp. +xi + 414. Hull, 1891. + +_Levasseur_, Emile: Histoire des Classes ouvrières de l’industrie en +France avant 1789. 2_ᵉ_ Ed. Paris, 1900. Vol. I, pp. lxxxviii + 715. + +_Luchaire_, Achille: Social France at the Time of Ph. Auguste, trans. by +E. B. Krehbiel. pp. viii + 441. New York, 1912. + +_Palgrave_, Sir R. H. J., ed., Dictionary of Political Economy. 3 vols. +Macmillan & Co. London, 1910. + +_Pigeonneau_: Histoire du Commerce de la France. 2_ᵉ_ Ed. pp. vii + 468 +(Vol. I). Paris, Librairie Léopold Cerf. 1885-89. + +_Seligman_, E. R. A.: Two Chapters on the Mediaeval Guilds of England. +Publ. of Am. Econ. Associ. Vol. II, No. 5. pp. 389-493, Nov., 1887. + +_Toulmin Smith_: Ed. English Gilds: The Original Ordinances of more than +100 Gilds. E. E. T. S. Vol. 40. + + F. B. MILLETT. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78623 *** diff --git a/78623-h/78623-h.htm b/78623-h/78623-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..87ea488 --- /dev/null +++ b/78623-h/78623-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1433 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + Craft-Gilds of the Thirteenth Century in Paris | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +a { + text-decoration: none; +} + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +h1,h2 { + text-align: center; + clear: both; +} + +h2.nobreak { + page-break-before: avoid; +} + +hr.chap { + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + clear: both; + width: 65%; + margin-left: 17.5%; + margin-right: 17.5%; +} + +div.chapter { + page-break-before: always; +} + +ul { + list-style-type: none; +} + +li { + margin-top: .5em; + padding-left: 2em; + text-indent: -2em; +} + +p { + margin-top: 0.5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; + text-indent: 1em; +} + +.footnotes { + margin-top: 1em; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.footnote { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em; +} + +.footnote .label { + position: absolute; + right: 84%; + text-align: right; +} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none; +} + +.hanging { + padding-left: 4em; + text-indent: -4em; +} + +.larger { + font-size: 150%; +} + +.mt2 { + margin-top: 2em; +} + +.noindent { + text-indent: 0; +} + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + right: 4%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; +} + +.right { + text-align: right; +} + +.smaller { + font-size: 80%; +} + +.smcap { + font-variant: small-caps; + font-style: normal; +} + +.allsmcap { + font-variant: small-caps; + font-style: normal; + text-transform: lowercase; +} + +.titlepage { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 3em; + text-indent: 0; +} + +.transnote { + background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + text-align: center; + font-size: smaller; + padding: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 5em; +} + +.x-ebookmaker img { + max-width: 100%; + width: auto; + height: auto; +} + </style> + </head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78623 ***</div> + + +<div class="transnote"> + +<p>Transcriber’s Note: Although the title page of this book reads “Craft-guilds +of the thirteenth century in Paris”, the text consistently uses the spelling +“gild”.</p> + +</div> + +<p class="titlepage">BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF HISTORY AND<br> +POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SCIENCE IN QUEEN’S<br> +UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA.</p> + +<p class="titlepage">NO. 17, OCTOBER, 1915.</p> + +<p class="titlepage larger">CRAFT-GUILDS OF THE<br> +THIRTEENTH CENTURY IN PARIS</p> + +<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br> +F. B. MILLETT.</p> + +<p class="titlepage smaller"><i>The Jackson Press, Kingston</i></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="BULLETIN"><span class="smaller">BULLETIN OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF HISTORY AND +POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SCIENCE IN QUEEN’S +UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, ONTARIO, CANADA.</span></h2> + +</div> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 1, The Colonial Policy of Chatham, by W. L. Grant.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 2, Canada and the Most Favored Nation Treaties, by +O. D. Skelton.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 3, The Status of Women in New England and New France, +by James Douglas.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 4, Sir Charles Bagot: An Incident in Canadian Parliamentary +History, by J. L. Morison.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 5, Canadian Bank Inspection, by W. W. Swanson.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 6, Should Canadian Cities Adopt Commission Government, +by William Bennett Munro.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 7, An Early Canadian Impeachment, by D. A. McArthur.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 8, A Puritan at the Court of Louis XIV, by W. L. Grant.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 9, British Supremacy and Canadian Autonomy: An Examination +of Early Victorian Opinion Concerning +Canadian Self-government, by J. L. Morison.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 10, The Problem of Agricultural Credit in Canada, by +H. Michell.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 11, St. Alban in History and Legend: A Critical Examination; +The King and His Councillors: Prolegomena to +a History of the House of Lords, by L. F. Rushbrook +Williams.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 12, Life of the Settler in Western Canada Before the War +of 1812, by Adam Shortt.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 13, The Grange in Canada, by H. Michell.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 14, The Financial Power of the Empire, by W. W. Swanson.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 15, Modern British Foreign Policy, by J. L. Morison.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 16, Federal Finance, by O. D. Skelton.</b></p> + +<p class="hanging"><b>No. 17, Craft-Gilds of the Thirteenth Century in Paris, by F. +B. Millett.</b></p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> + +<h1>CRAFT-GILDS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY IN PARIS.</h1> + +</div> + +<p>The gild as it appears in Paris in the 13th century, M. +Lespinasse in his Introduction to Étienne Boileau’s <i>Livre +des Métiers</i>, defines as “a combination of individuals having +the right to carry on an industrial profession, composed of +masters, <i>valets</i>, and apprentices, and bound by oath to observe +the prescribed regulations, and to respect the authority of the +Jurés in their supervisory functions.” The gilds in documents +of the time are called somewhat loosely <i>corporations</i>, <i>corps de +métier</i>, <i>métier</i>, <i>commun du métier</i>, <i>ghilde</i>, and less correctly +<i>charité</i> or <i>confrérie</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The gild was a fortress to which the +workman rallied and from which he beat off assailants in the +form of feudal lords or foreign trade competitors. Its primary +function was to safeguard the rights of labor, at any period +none too stable, and in the complicated social organization of +the later Middle Ages, decidedly precarious. Privileges had +to be fought for and wrested from the overlord of the community, +be he king or noble, and a definite regulation, though +still in its prescriptions onerous, was preferable to a haphazard +system of ‘taxation,’ subject only to the sanity or rapacity of +count, king or bishop. Foreign laborers and merchants, too, +the narrow economic vision of the period pointed out as hostile +to the well-being of the city-gild, and so exclusion by legislation +is an important article in its “foreign policy.” Against +enemies within their own ranks a sharp guard had to be maintained; +ignorant practitioners or a superfluity of apprentices +might sadly damage the gild’s reputation for work which was +“good and loyal.” The organization of the 13th century gild +seems to find its motives in the desire to establish a definite +and firm control over the <i>métier</i>, and to establish, so far as +custom and law would sanction it, a monopoly over the commodities +produced.</p> + +<p>The question of the political significance of the gild may +be set aside at the start. It has been a difference of opinion +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>which came first, the gild or the commune, and whether there +was a causal relationship between the two. The fact is that +most of the gilds—as organizations—had no political share in +such activities as elections. The gild was not the cause of the +commune; the commune did not originate the gild. M. Fagniez⁠<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> +has said “Le mouvement communal ne fut pour rien dans cette +émancipation de la classe ouvrière; elle était terminée quand il +commença.” It is interesting to note, however, the prominence +which, under the gild régime, certain <i>bourgeois</i> and tradesmen +attain. For example, the provost of the watermen of Paris +came to rival in power the king’s provost of Paris.</p> + +<p>It is outside the province of this paper to discuss the somewhat +vexed question of the origin of the gild. Various theories +have been vigorously championed, and a mere mention of them +with a few facts as to the early appearance of the gilds will +suffice. One theory maintains a survival from the Roman <i>College</i>, +another as an analogue to the Germanic <i>guild</i>, and the +third as an organization under the direction of the feudal lord. +It is curious to note how in 1725 M. Félibién in his “Histoire de +la Ville de Paris,” misinterpreted the origin of the <i>Livre des +Métiers</i> on the basis of this latter theory, attributing too much +of the slow development of an <i>organism</i> to the shaping hand of +Boileau. He says: “E. B. <i>rangea</i> tous les marchands et les +artisans en differens corps de communautez, sous le titre de +confrairies. Ce fut le premier <i>qui leur dressa</i> des Statuts, +qu’il fit ensuite approuver dans une assemblée des principaux +bourgeois de Paris. Les prévosts successeurs de Boileau +adjoustèrent de nouveaux réglemens aux premiers, et il en fut +fait en recueil.”... The prevalent theory of the gilds’ origin +is that they were born spontaneously from the needs of the +people, that they were a natural line of development for youthful +industry, in self-protection, to take.</p> + +<p>Charters or privileges claimed by the gilds date from the +11th century, though they are most abundant in the 13th. The +most ancient charter published in the <i>Recueil des Ordonnances</i> +is that of the chandlers of Paris, dated 1061. This document, +however, is now supposed to have been forged in the 15th century. +From 1121 dates the first charter of the <i>marchands de +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span>l’eau de Paris</i>. In 1160, Louis the VII gave to Thèce, wife of +Yrves Lacohe, and her heirs, the ‘mastery’ of five gilds which +dealt with leathers, the tanners, the curriers, the shoe-makers, +the leather-dressers, and the purse-makers. In 1162 come new +privileges granted in regulation of the bakers. In 1183 Philip +Augustus rented <i>a cens</i> four houses which he had confiscated +from the Jews, to the drapers’ gild. A lord in 1219 sold the +confrérie of cloth-merchants a house, and gave them the leases +of several adjoining houses.</p> + +<p>The book which is the object of this study—the <i>Livre des +Métiers</i>, owes its origin to a capable official of Louis IX, +Étienne Boileau. He was appointed prévôt of Paris about +1260.⁠<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> This official had the rank of the first bailiff of France. +His ‘office’ was the Châtelet, where he judged in person the +greater part of the civil and criminal cases in Paris and the +<i>vicomté</i>; he was judge of appeal from the feudal nobles and +ecclesiastics who still had fiefs in Paris. He had charge of the +military service, of the policing, the finance and ‘justice’ of +Paris and its suburbs. This official, or the holder of this office, +“who administered with firmness and loyalty,” wished to correct +the faults incident to the jurisdiction over the gilds, by +establishing in writing the ‘constitution’ of each gild. The +masters of the gilds accordingly presented their regulations, +and the result is a register of the laws and customs of 101 +craft-gilds of Paris.⁠<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Some of the privileges or implied immunities +pretend exceeding antiquity. The stone-cutters claim +immunity from the duty of the watch from the time of Charles +Martel. Upholsterers cite privileges granted by Louis the VII, +and the bakers claim from Philip Augustus the right to exclude +‘foreign’ bakers (i.e. bakers from outside Paris), from the +markets except on Saturdays. What we have then in this invaluable +<i>Livre</i> is a cross-section of the commercial and industrial +life of Paris in the third quarter of the 13th century. A +study of this manuscript will show a vivid and complete picture +of the working class, and, by implication, of the upper nobility’s +commercial habits.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span></p> + +<p>The gilds were composed of three grades of individuals: +apprentices, <i>valets</i>, and masters. The term <i>ouvrier</i> was applied +in general to all the divisions, even more loosely than our +term <i>workman</i>.</p> + +<p>The apprentice, though considered as a member of the +gild, was not of the corporation until his apprenticeship was +over. The term was begun by a contract between master and +aspirant. Usually this contract was oral, because the writing +of a document was too expensive a process. At any rate, it +was always a mutual engagement, sworn to, before the Jurés, +an engagement which imposed on both parties mutual duties +which neither should attempt to evade. A regulation concerning +the agreement runs as follows: “The master who takes +an apprentice should summon to the ceremony of the contract +two masters and two <i>valets</i>, to hear the agreement made between +master and apprentice, and it is fitting that the <i>master +who guards the gild</i> should be called also.” The Jurés before +authorizing the contract, were supposed to make careful inquiries +as to the ability and the financial position of the master.</p> + +<p>About forty of the gilds were allowed to have as many +apprentices as they liked. Among these were the corn-dealers, +the gold-beaters, the ale-brewers, green-grocers, farriers, +drawers of iron wire, millers, shoe-makers and the <i>barilliers</i>. +Usually, however, the number was limited to one or two. The +mercers, the fullers, weavers of silk-stuffs, knife-handle and +blade makers were allowed to have two, while the rope-makers, +pewterers, precious stone dealers, braid-makers, drapers, goldsmiths, +and shield-makers contented themselves with one. +The motives for such limitation were at least <i>double</i>: the altruistic +reason was that the master should not have too many to +teach well; the self-protective reason was that the gild should +at no time be swamped in competition by too many (prospective) +masters.</p> + +<p>The term of apprenticeship was also most scrupulously +fixed. The conditions are usually a definite term without payment +of fee or a term gradually lessened according to the increase +in the size of the fee. The haberdashers and the pewterers +could fix the duration of apprenticeship at will; other +terms vary from 3 to 8, to 10-12 years, with fees varying from +20 Parisian <i>sous</i> (5 fr.) to 100 Parisian <i>sous</i> (20 fr.), by +means of which the apprentice could buy off part of his time +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>of service. There seems, however, to have been no attempt to +make the time directly proportionate to the costliness of the +raw material and the difficulty of the process, or the skill required +in the craft. The rope-makers require an apprenticeship +of 4 years, the brass-wire drawers 6 years, the chest-makers +7 years, the makers of iron shields 8 years, the curriers +of shoe-leather 9, the jewellers 10, and the coral and shell bead-makers +12 years. The wool-weavers demand 4 years plus 4 +<i>livres</i>, 5 years and 3 <i>livres</i>, 6 years and one <i>livre</i>, or 7 years +without fee. Power over the length of term resided of course +in the hands of the masters, and the rules contain only the +minimum requirement. We read, “No one can or ought to take +or have more than two apprentices, and he cannot take them +for less than 7 years of service and twenty <i>sous</i> of Paris, which +apprentices must give to the masters; or at 7 years without +money, but more money and longer service he can require if +need be.” How irrational the terms were may be seen from +the fact that while the goldsmith’s term is 10 years, the brass-wire +drawers (a far less “skilled” gild) required 10 years and +20 <i>sous</i>, or 12 years and no fee, and that of three bead-making +gilds, one demanded 6 years and 46 <i>sous</i>, another 10 years and +46 <i>sous</i>, and the third 12 years without possible shortening of +the term. If the apprentice, however, bought off part of his +regular term, the master was not permitted to take another +apprentice till the complete period was over. An extra apprentice +was sometimes allowed if the wife of a master knew +the trade. “No one of the craft aforesaid can have more than +one apprentice, and if he has a wife, can have only one if she +does not know the trade, but if the man and the woman know +the trade, they can have two apprentices, but they can have as +many <i>valets</i> as they wish.” Among the masons, a Juré could +have two apprentices, the other masters could employ only one.</p> + +<p>Exceptions to rules of apprenticeship were made for the +sons of masters, or of their wives, and in this beginning of +family privileges, we see foreshadowed the tyranny of the +close-corporation control of the gild in latter centuries. All +the sons of the master and his wife, if she knows the trade, +may rise to the ‘mastery’ usually with no fixed term of apprenticeship. +If the children were illegitimate, no privileges +were granted them. In the case of the goldsmith we see still +wider family privileges, for we read “of his lineage and of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>lineage of his wife, whether distant or close, he can have as +many (apprentices) as he wishes.” The wool-weaver was +allowed in his house two large looms and one small one for +himself and for each of his married sons, and one loom each +for a brother and a nephew, if they “knew how to work with +their hands.” In the gild of the iron shield-makers and several +others, appears the obligation of teaching the son of a poor +master or his orphans free.</p> + +<p>The conditions of the contract of apprenticeship shed +much light on the lives of these little workmen, and the statutes +recognize the possibility of their being led astray by “leur +folour et leur joliveté.” The apprentice, we are told, should +obey all the orders of the master, and not complain without +justice of the master’s oppression to the <i>prud’hommes</i> of the +gild. He had to clean the workshop, run errands for the family +and for the business. That apprentices were not always +docile, nor their circumstances congenial, the many rules dealing +with their flight suggest. An apprentice who had taken +flight from his master could not be received into the workshop +of another member of the gild until the complete period of his +apprenticeship contract had elapsed. The pâter-notriers had +to wait a year and a day after the flight of an apprentice, and +the tablet-makers 26 weeks, before taking in another. After +three attempts to escape, all obligation between gild and apprentice +ceased. “And this regulation the <i>prud’hommes</i> of the +gild make to restrain the folly and jollity of the apprentices, +for they do great harm to their masters and themselves, when +they run away; for when the apprentice is enrolled to learn, +and runs away in a month or two, he forgets as much as he +has learned, and thus he wastes his time and does harm to his +master.” The wool-weavers and the locksmiths insisted that +the escaping apprentice pay the master what his training had +cost.</p> + +<p>The statutes recognize the right of the master to sell the +apprentice to another master under certain circumstances. +“No cutler can sell his apprentice unless he (the master) lies +on a bed of sickness (<i>lit de langueur</i>), or is going across seas, +or is leaving the gild for good or does it because of poverty.”</p> + +<p>The master’s obligations to the apprentice consisted in +lodging, feeding and clothing him and in teaching him the +trade. That masters did not always scrupulously abide by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>these duties, various law-suits and <i>régles</i> attest. Only the +tablet-makers and the important wool-merchants, provide, in +their statutes, for a defence of the apprentice’s rights. There +we find that if the master fails in his duties, the gild masters, +upon complaint of the apprentice, “must admonish the said +master, and if he does not comply, they must seek out a new +master for the apprentice.” In another place, we learn of a +fine imposed on the master who provoked his apprentice to +flight.</p> + +<p>A decree from the Châtelet: 3 Sept., 1399, gives a living +vignette of these domestic relations a century after our period.⁠<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +“We have enjoined and commanded the said master that he +treat the said Larin, his apprentice, as the son of a <i>prud’homme</i> +should be treated, and that he abide by the matters contained +in the said contract, without having him beaten by his wife, +but that he should beat him himself if he misbehaved.” In the +same year also a father succeeded in breaking his son’s contract +because the goldsmith, the boy’s master, by hitting him +with a bunch of keys, had “made a hole in his head.”</p> + +<p>The possible marriage of an apprentice during the term +of his service is provided for thus: “If any apprentice marries +during the time that he has promised to serve his master, and +does not wish to eat dinner and supper with his master, he +ought to have four <i>deniers</i> every working day for his support.”</p> + +<p>It is not very clear from our texts, whether an examination +at the end of his term was usual or infrequent. Only +rarely is the demand for a <i>chef-d’oeuvre</i> mentioned. The +saddle-bow makers claim that after an apprentice has made +his <i>chef-d’oeuvre</i> he should become more important in the +workshop “so that his master may not send him out into the +city to fetch his bread and his wine just like a boy.” The goldsmith’s +statutes provide that if he becomes skilful enough to +pay his expenses and to earn 100 <i>sous</i> a year, he may be freed +from his contract and allowed to earn a salary. At the end of +the period, however, <i>any</i> apprentice must declare before the +Jurés on his oath that he had fulfilled his term according to +contract.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span></p> + +<p>To our mind, the apprentice system here revealed does not +seem devised for the best interest of the child. Too much +power for good or ill lies with the master. If he so wishes, +there seems to be little to prevent his letting his charge remain +in a state of childish and unprofessional ignorance. The long +term of service, the wide power of master upon man seem devised +to add to the master’s profits, not to his charge’s skill.</p> + +<p>The <i>valet</i>, <i>sergent</i> or <i>aloué</i>, i.e. hired man, was an individual +who had finished his term of service as apprenticeship +but had not yet risen to the dignity, as master, of having an +establishment of his own. Women of this grade, in gilds to +which they were admitted, were called <i>chambrières</i> or <i>meschinettes</i>. +Usually the master could have as many <i>valets</i> as he +wished, but occasionally the number was limited so as to prevent +rich and attractive workshops getting many <i>valets</i>, and, +accordingly, something approaching a monopoly of the trade.</p> + +<p>A <i>valet</i> who had been trained outside Paris had to present +evidence that he had done the preliminary term elsewhere. Of +such a man, too, it was possible to require a kind of surety or +testimonial of a fair dismissal from a former employer. Evidently +the narrow mediaeval view of protection of home industries +led to the discriminations against workmen from outside, +for we read, “It is ordered and decreed that no person of the +said gild should hire any foreign man so long as he can find a +workman who is a member of the gild.” Care was taken too +that disgrace and scandal should not fall upon the gild through +<i>valets</i> of bad character. “<i>Rêveurs</i>, scoundrels, murderers, +knaves, thieves, men of ill fame” are stipulated as improper +candidates, and a wool-weaver whose relations with a woman +were a by-word “was sent out of the city and forbidden the +trade until he should amend his character.”</p> + +<p>The length of the term of hire is not definitely stated in +our regulations, and it varied from a day, a week, a month, to +a year. In the morning all unemployed <i>valets</i> assembled early +in a designated street or square. There they were to stay until +the bell from a certain church sounded. No private individual +could hire an artisan. If a bargain was made, the <i>valet</i> went +to the house of his employer at dawn and stayed under usual +conditions till sunset. The hours accordingly varied largely, +from 14 hours in summer to 8 in winter. Very few <i>valets</i> +lodged and ate with their patron. They ‘went out’ in search of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>their noonday-meal with the provision that, after it, they +should not loiter to wait for a fellow-workman. If the gild +was one which allowed night-work, and the master desired it +of him, the <i>aloué</i> must comply for a raise of pay. Sometimes +the <i>valets</i> rebelled against this compulsion, and were threatened +by the magistrates for this attempt at industrial freedom. +In only one case is vacation mentioned, but as we shall see in +discussing the <i>chômage</i>, there was little need of it. The brass-wire +drawers stipulate, however, that the workmen may have +a vacation in the month of August if they wish.</p> + +<p>Women were admitted to membership in gilds where +their delicate skill and taste made them useful. In 1292 the +group dealing with embroidery was composed of 81 women +and 12 men.</p> + +<p>Occasionally conditions of employment are stated with +more detail. A rule of the sword-cutlers runs this: “No⁠<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +master should take a <i>valet</i> to work unless he has five sets of +clothes with him in order that the workmen may look neat in +case the nobles, counts, barons, knights, and other good folk +should at any time come into the work-room.” The <i>valet</i> could +not be dismissed unreasonably, and rarely the provision is +made that two <i>valets</i> and two masters must agree upon the +dismissal before it could take effect. After a year and a day, +the <i>valet</i> could have his wife come and work with him, if the +gild admitted women.</p> + +<p>A considerable distinction between masters and <i>valets</i> +already existed, though in the smaller organizations the gulf +was less apparent. There were no large factories in the modern +meaning, and in a small workshop conditions of equality +were more likely to obtain. Several facts show, however, that +the <i>valets</i> in some places were beginning to feel themselves +a distinct industrial class. Infrequently they had their own +confrérie and their own jurés. The masters in some cities +already foresaw the possibilities of a kind of class-struggle, +and at⁠<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Beauvais punished with imprisonment and fine men +who attempted combinations in the hope of raising wages. In +1280 at Ypres, workmen rebelled against an ordinance adding +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>one hour to their working day, and in their rioting killed the +mayor. Of course they were severely punished. (But how +modern these actions prove our industrial class of the Middle +Ages to be.)</p> + +<p>The obtaining of the mastership or mastery of a gild, i.e. +the right to set up a workshop, to go into business, depended +on certain qualifications in the aspirants, and certain formal +ceremonies, necessitated by the organization of the gild, and +its (frequent) feudal relationship to the king or his official. +The first requirement was skill, acquired during service as apprentice +and <i>valet</i>, capital, upright character and good conduct. +Most of the sections have such an article as “Quiconques veut +estre de tel mestier, estre le peut pœrtant qu’il sache le mestier, +et ait de coi,” and an article of the <i>drapiers</i> reads: “Il conviendra +qu’il sache faire le mestier de touz poinz, le soy, sans +conseil au ayde d’autruy et qu’il à ce examiné par les gardes +du mestier.” The cook’s regulations require that the son of a +master have an expert in his bake-house until the masters +judged the son skilful enough. This article was evidently designed +to counteract the carelessness of regulation of the +apprentice-work of sons. The formal requirement was the +purchase of the right to trade. At the most 25 gilds were required +to purchase this right, the rest were “free.” Among +these who purchased were the bakers, the criers of wine, +the retailers of bread and vegetables, the farriers, the cutlers, +locksmiths, weavers of silk cloth, masons, hose-makers, poulterers, +potters, old-clothes dealers, purse-makers, saddlers, +shoe-makers, glovers, and fishermen. The necessity was +created by the fact that about 30 of the gilds were fiefs of the +king, and accordingly could be reserved for himself, or bestowed +upon his favorite officers. In general, however, those +the king retained for himself, notably, the dealers in food-necessities, +were free of purchase.</p> + +<p>After purchasing the right from the king, the aspirant +had usually to present himself within a week to be admitted to +the corporation. At a solemn meeting the masters or jurés +“read loudly” and explained the regulations. The recipient of +the privilege then swore by the saints’ relics that he would +keep the laws and carry on his profession carefully and loyally. +Initiation fees were of course variable; the criers paid the +jurés 4 <i>deniers</i> (0 fr. .45), the silk-cloth weavers and hose-makers +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>10 <i>sous</i> (2 fr. .50); the <i>épiciers</i> paid 5 <i>sous</i>⁠<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> + <i>pour boire</i> +to their companions. The time for paying this fee also varied. +The curriers of shoe-leather were allowed to pay their fee a +year and a day after establishment, while the bakers were restrained +only by a limit of four years. The widow of a master +was generously permitted to carry on the business in his stead, +though usually if she remarried a stranger, i.e. a man outside +the gild, she forfeited this right.</p> + +<p>M. Lespinasse makes an interesting distinction in affirming +that the mastership was not a rank, but a privilege; it was +not a case of ‘once a master, always a master.’ Upon the relinquishment +of the activity and privileges implied, a master +became an artisan, and, for instance, the hose-makers assert +that 35 masters among them have fallen into poverty. The +master with all his attempts to protect his position and rights, +bore the not-light burden of taxation from which the <i>valets</i> +were directly, at least, exempt.</p> + +<p>The internal administration of the gild was performed by +officers called <i>jurés</i> or <i>prud’hommes</i>, and the external relation +of the gild in its dealings with other gilds or the city was +supervised by the Crown or the Crown official who held the +gild in fief. The jurés were also called <i>gardes</i>, <i>syndics</i>, <i>éswards</i>, +<i>élus</i>. The typical method of choice was the election of +a certain number by the masters of the gild, and their ratification +and investiture by the Provost of Paris or other Crown +official. Sometimes, however, the Provost or Crown officer +appointed the <i>guards</i> with no semblance of suggestion, in +theory at least, from the gild itself. Occasionally the election +was wholly in the hands of the <i>community</i>. Sometimes the +departing <i>prud’hommes</i> nominated their successors. Among +the haberdashers, failure to serve, if one were elected, called +down upon him a fine of 10 livres (134 fr.). The term of office +was usually a year. The goldsmiths, however, changed their +officers only every three years. The fullers, who had two masters +and two <i>valets</i> as officers, changed them at Christmas and +at St. John’s Day. Before the Provost, the <i>valets</i> named two +masters, and the masters two <i>valets</i>, for service, a <i>nice</i> balance +in the interest of just administration. Women were allowed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>offices for such gilds as they were important in. The workers +in silk-stuffs had three masters and three mistresses; the +weavers of kerchiefs three <i>maîtresses</i>.</p> + +<p>In being invested with office, the jurés, for instance, of the +bakers swore on the relics of the saints that they would ‘guard +the gild’ carefully and loyally, and that in appraising bread, +they would spare neither relatives nor friends, nor condemn +anyone wrongly through hatred or ill-feeling. The chiefs of +the gilds scrutinized the quality of the products, denounced +frauds and infractions of the rules, presided at solemn conclaves +of the gild, and represented it before the law. They +presided at the contract of apprenticeship, received the oaths +of artisans and masters, and administered the funds of the +corporation. In case of appeal from the jurisdiction of the +jurés, the Provost of Paris was the first authority, and above +him was the <i>Parlement de Paris</i>. On the lands of a feudal lord, +the latter usually retained the privilege of administering petty +justice.</p> + +<p>The question of remuneration to the jurés for loss of time +naturally arises. Usually a definite fraction of the fines was +awarded to them. Besides, too, the honor which accrued to +them, exemptions from the duty of the watch and from certain +of the fines of the trade, are mentioned.</p> + +<p>Most gilds had officers of only one rank upon whom all the +duties fell. Occasionally discrimination was made, and two +superior officers chosen from the masters held the power of +handing down decisions while their <i>valet</i>-assistants exercised +supervision, and reported infractions of the rules to the masters. +Perhaps the most frequent number of <i>jurés</i> in a gild was +two or four. The armorers, the iron-shield-makers, the potters, +the rope-makers, bead-makers, gold-beaters, braid-makers, +spinners of silk, etc., had two, the fullers, the tallow-chandlers +four. The brass-shield makers were so few that they did not +elect a juré, but asked the Provost to hear their cases directly. +Only one <i>guard</i> is mentioned in the statutes of the clasp-makers +and the flower-hat makers. The curriers have three, +the farriers six, the goldsmiths two or three, the head-dress +makers eight, and later only four. The bakers and the retailers +of fruit and vegetables had twelve officers.</p> + +<p>The most feudal feature of the craft-gild organization is, +perhaps, the dependence of the gild on the Crown or its officials +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>or vassals. Most of the gilds were dependent upon (relevaient +à) the Prévôt de Paris. To him the <i>prud’hommes</i> carried +complaints, against other gilds, for example, and it was +he who appointed a <i>prud’homme</i> to execute for him the functions +suggested above. We have seen that Louis the Younger +granted to a woman the ‘mastery’ of five gilds, which remained +enfieffed to the sixteenth century. The grand pantler was the +judge of the bakers, and each year appointed a master to look +after the gild. The grand chamberlain looked after the wool-weavers, +haberdashers, tailors and upholsterers, and others +who had to do with clothing and furnishings; the cup-bearer +(<i>échanson</i>) had the wine merchants, and the <i>maréchal</i> the +smiths, farriers, helmeters, locksmiths and other iron-workers. +The grand butler tried to keep order among the wine-shop +keepers. To his mason, Guillaume à Saint Patrie, the king +confided the masons, stone-breakers, plasterers, etc.</p> + +<p>Exact hours for work were not set down; the time of the +world in which the artisan lived was too entirely dominated +by the custom of the Church to permit of hours being designated +as 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. “No one of the gild,” we read, “ought +to work on holy days which the people of the city keep, nor on +Saturdays during <i>charnage</i> (i.e. the time during which it was +permitted to eat meat) after Vespers, nor after Compline on +Saturdays during Lent, nor at night at any time of the year.” +During Lent, Vespers fell at 6 o’clock, and Compline at 9. +<i>Charnage</i> was used loosely to mean not only the period during +which meat could be eaten, but also the period of short days, +while <i>Carême</i> meant the period of long days. Night work was +expressly forbidden for goldsmiths, sheath-makers, weavers, +braid-, chest-, buckles-, beads-makers, pewterers, lamp-makers +and locksmith’s, “for the light at night does not suffice for the +trade[s] aforesaid.” Millers and brewers could work day and +night, and it was permitted to all farriers (but not to locksmiths +and cutlers), to goldsmiths, lamp-makers, brass-wire drawers, +to cast, if need be, during the night, inasmuch as the process +sometimes lasted a day or a week. The restriction upon night +work was ineffective if the work were for the household of the +King, the Queen, the Princes of the blood, the Bishop of Paris, +and other great Lords.</p> + +<p>The Church’s observance of Sundays and fast-days (holy +days) caused among the gilds much cessation from work—<i>chômage</i>. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>The eve of Sunday and important holy days, work +was stopped at <i>Nones</i> or <i>Compline</i>. On Sunday the baths were +not heated, on Sunday the bakers did not make bread, and kept, +besides, twenty-six fast-days and the day of their Patron Saint. +The goldsmiths, the haberdashers, the felt-hat makers, took +turns within the gild in keeping their shops open on Sunday. +The <i>barilliers</i> and the armorers worked without restriction on +the ground that their work was vitally important to noblemen. +A saddler could repair a shield or a harness on Sunday, and +rose-chaplets could be made at any time “during the season of +roses.”</p> + +<p>Inasmuch as the policy of the gilds proscribed the action +of free competition, it was necessary for them, in order to sustain +their reputation, to provide in some way, that the products +should be exactly what they pretended to be. To this end they +legislated carefully as to the quantity and quality of raw +material to be used, and provided for supervision through the +stages of manufacture to the sale of the finished product. The +<i>cervoise</i> (a drink somewhat resembling ale) should have no +constituents save grain and water. The beater of metal-leaves +must have a certain alloy of gold in his silver leaves. The bead-makers +must not string beads which are not perfectly rounded. +The haberdashers complain of the appearance of “several +pieces of bad work to the damage of all the common weal, every +day, by reason of the lack of proper restriction.” At Amiens,⁠<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +the locksmiths were forbidden, for fear of thievery, to make a +key unless the lock was produced, and the butchers to <i>souffler +la viande</i>, to mix tallow in the lard, to sell dog, cat or horse +flesh. In Paris, boxes whose locks were made with ‘hinges’ +were summarily burned, and fines were incurred for putting +old locks on new furniture and new locks on old furniture. +Trimmings of silver were forbidden on bone knife-handles for +fear the makers should sell them for ivory, and knife-handles +must not be covered with silk, brass- or pewter-wire, lead or +iron, because inside, they were only deal, and might deceive an +ignorant buyer. Hemp and flax must not be used in the same +rope.⁠<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> If a tailor spoilt a valuable piece of cloth by bad cutting, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>and the <i>gardes</i> ascertained it, he had to make restitution +to the client, and pay a fine, 3 <i>sous</i> to the king and 2 <i>sous</i> to +the <i>confrérie</i>. If an artisan did the spoiling, he paid the master, +and worked for one day, without pay, for the <i>confrérie</i>.⁠<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +Chandlers seem to have been especially open to temptation. +Too heavy a weight of wick is expressly regulated against in +the provision that four pounds of tallow should carry only a +quarter-pound of wick. Wax tapers must not be adulterated +with tallow.</p> + +<p>Gilds in danger of usurping each other’s business were +jealous of privileges. A tailor must not mend old clothes, nor +a rag-man make new clothes. A curious controversy arose +from the fact that clothes restored by the old-clothes dealers +were frequently mistaken for new. It was finally decided that +this latter gild must not press, fold and hang old garments for +fear of this deception.</p> + +<p>The visits of the <i>gardes</i> were at unexpected times, and +almost all the gilds require their inspection of saleable articles +“poer sauvoir se il i a nulles mesprantures.” The <i>gardes</i> of +the weavers carried an iron rule on which was marked the +length of various kinds of cloth, as it was fixed by law. Goods +which did not comply with the statutes were confiscated, +burned or given to the poor, while the culprit paid a fine. To +make sure that no bad product elude the vigilance of the +guards, further regulations as to the place of manufacture +appear. A wool-weaver could not have two shops on either +side of the street, though we have seen how liberal he might +be as to the number of looms. An armorer was not to get anything +necessary for his trade made outside the shop, therefore +he was forbidden to carry armor through the streets unless +he were poor and lived in an out-of-the-way quarter +where sales would be difficult. The tailor must not cut his +cloth except at a window of the first floor of his shop.</p> + +<p>Fines ranging from three to ten <i>sous</i> were the natural consequence +of faulty production. The corrupt gold-beater paid +3 <i>sous</i>, the jewellers, who dared use colored glass, 10 <i>sous</i>, the +dealers in silk-stuffs paid 8 <i>sous</i>, of which 5 went to the King, +2 to the Master, and 1 to the <i>Confrérie</i>. In 1312, dealers in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>spices who purveyed <i>fausse merchandise</i> were condemned to +lose their commodities, and to pay, besides, 60 <i>sous</i>: “40 to us +(i.e. the King, or to the lord of the place where justice is done), +and 20 <i>sous</i> to the master of the gild at or near the place where +the offence is committed”—to pay the expenses of the gild. As +a further guard against adulterated products, most of the +gilds had a mark or a seal which carried a guarantee of quality +commensurate with the reputation of the gild.</p> + +<p>Before goods could be sold, those who had the right to +weighing and measuring apparatus in their own houses, must +have these sealed by the measurers and gaugers’ gild. Others +must use the scale of the king or his vassal. Most goods were +sold on Friday and Saturday, when the merchants shut up shop +and went to the <i>Halles</i> where markets were held. As a rule, +the gilds were opposed to the hawking of their goods—<i>col-portage</i>; +they preferred the more regular custom of the stalls +of the market. Here, too, they succeeded in legalizing their +privileges against foreigners. For example, the bakers succeeded +in preventing the sale of all ‘foreign’ bread in the city +except on Saturdays. The municipality also watched after its +own interests in the interests of the crafts. Merchants were +forbidden to leave the city before the opening of the Fairs, and +sales must be transacted only in the square of the <i>Halles</i> after +a stroke from the great bell. The craft organizations themselves +were much afraid of possible monopolies. The weavers, +dyers and fullers are expressly forbidden to enter into combinations +to fix a price on goods or a monopoly on materials +“so as to prevent the people of the gild from having work +according to their means.” The retailers of produce were +forbidden to arrange for commodities in advance. “Retailers +ought not to buy in advance of any merchant carriage-loads or +consignments of eggs and cheeses, deliverable at his next trip, +or after any delay whatsoever”; such transactions are wrong +because they offer too much uncertainty and too many frauds +in the conditions of delivery. The mediaeval man feared +‘corners,’ for he felt “the rich will sell back everything, as +dear as it pleases them to do.”</p> + +<p>In the market “good form” must be observed between +members of the same gild. One member must not intrude +before a sale is consummated. “If anyone is in front of the +stall or window of a cook to buy or bargain with the said cook, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>and if any of the other cooks call him before he has left the +stall or window of his own will,” the fine will be 5 <i>sous</i>.</p> + +<p>For the privileges implied in the gild structure, the feudal +authorities demanded a return in the form of taxes. The gild-masters +bore the burden not only of the civil taxes which all +citizens shared, such as the <i>taille</i>, the <i>conduits</i> and <i>péages</i> +(tolls), but also special commercial taxes such as the <i>hauban</i>, +the <i>tonlieu</i>, and the <i>coutume</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>hauban</i>, according to <i>Livre des Métiers</i>, Section I, +Art. 7, “is the name appropriate to a tax assessed from ancient +times, by which it was established that whoever should be a +payer of <i>hauban</i> would have more freedom and less taxes to +pay for his right of trade and commerce.” It was a sort of +agreement offering the advantage of combining in one payment +a large number of daily dues. For this privilege the +bakers owed 6 <i>sous</i>, the retailers of bread and salt, 3 <i>sous</i>, the +butchers 6 <i>sous</i>, the fishermen, purse-makers and curriers 3 +<i>sous</i>, the glovers 3 <i>sous</i>, 8 <i>deniers</i>, and the old-clothes men 6 +<i>sous</i> and 8 <i>deniers</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>tonlieu</i>, also called the tax of buying and selling, was +the real tax on trade. At every sale, the merchant and the +customer owed a small per cent. of the purchase to the city or +lord who controlled the market. About twenty chapters of +Part II in the <i>Livre des Métiers</i> are devoted to an elaborate +schedule of this tax which varied according as the sale was at +shop, fair or market. In general, M. Lespinasse estimates, the +<i>tonlieu</i> equalled 4 <i>deniers</i> per wagon-load, 2 per cart-load, 1 +<i>denier</i> for beast-of-burden’s load, and 1 obole for a man’s load.</p> + +<p>The <i>coutume</i> was very irregularly shared; it usually fell +due at several times through the year. So the bakers owed 6 +<i>deniers</i> at Christmas, 22 at Easter, and 5 at St. John’s Day, and +a <i>tonlieu</i> of 1½ <i>deniers</i> in bread or money per week. The retailers +of produce also owed these taxes if they dealt in bread. +At any earlier period, the <i>coutume</i> was always paid ‘in nature,’ +i.e. in the product itself. Accordingly, the hay-merchants owed +a box of new hay every time the King entered the city. The +wooden-utensils makers furnished seven casks, two feet long, +towards the up-keep of the King’s cellars, and for this service +they were excused from the watch. The farriers owed at first +the <i>fers du Roi</i>; i.e. they had to keep the saddle-horses of the +court well shod. But later this function was compounded in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>terms of money, due to the royal maréchal in consideration of +which he had the horses shod.</p> + +<p>Another feudal obligation irksome to some of the gilds +was the personal “duty of the watch”—the <i>guet</i>. As the masters +of the gilds were alone responsible for this important +service, it was also called the <i>guet de métiers</i>. Each gild had +its turn about every three weeks, when the masters must go +at nightfall to the Châtelet and answer the roll. The watch +then lasted from curfew till the next sunrise. Usually the +gilds which served the aristocracy most directly were exempt +from this duty. Among these were the goldsmiths, <i>barilliers</i>, +armorers, painters, sculptors, bow-makers, flower- and plumed-hat +makers, and haberdashers. How irksome this duty had +become may be inferred from two statutes in the <i>Livre des +Métiers</i>. The garment-cutters say:</p> + +<p>“The <i>prud’hommes</i> of the said gild beg that they be relieved +from (the duty of) the watch, if it please the King, on +account of the fine clothes which they have to make and keep +over night which belong to gentlemen, and on account of the +large number of strange workmen whom they could not entirely +trust to take care of things, and because they have to +cut and sew clothes for gentlemen both day and night in +view of the gentlemen and strangers going away at once, and +because they have to return the garment which they make in +the evening, on the morning of the next day.”</p> + +<p>The old-clothes dealers have two intimate and vivid articles. +Art. 33: “No one who is 60 years old, nor those whose +wives are with child, so long as they be ill, and no one who has +been bled, if he has not been summoned before he had himself +bled, and no one who is going out of the city, if he has not been +summoned before he goes out, need to share the watch. But +they must inform him who has charge of the watch for the +King, by means of their men or their neighbors.”</p> + +<p>Art. 34: “And the <i>prud’hommes</i> of the gild say that they +are grieved that, for 10 years back, those who have charge of +the guard for the King, have not been willing to receive the +excuse from the above-mentioned service from their neighbors +and their workmen, but make come their wives themselves, +either fair or ugly, either young or old, or feeble or fat, to convey +the excuse to the lord, a thing which is most ugly and most +grievous—that a woman should stay and sit at the Châtelet +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>from curfew so long as the watch is out, and then go away +with her son or her daughter, or without either of them, +through strange streets to her home, and through this message-bearing +wrong, sin, yea, villainy has been done.”</p> + +<p><i>Confrérie</i> is a word not very widely used in the <i>Livre</i>. +Seventeen of the gilds display this organism. It served to +systematize the religious impulses of the gild-men’s lives and +also to control the benevolent activities of the older structure. +The tablet-makers require all salaried workers to join the <i>Confrérie</i>, +and at a death in the gild, a man or woman from each +workshop must follow the corpse or pay a fine of ½ pound of +wax. The <i>confrérie</i> usually centered its activity in a church +or chapel in the district where most of the members lived. The +<i>confrérie</i> of the furriers and the upholsterers shared <i>l’Église +des Innocents</i>; the masons attended the <i>Chapelle de St. Bleive</i>; +the bakers <i>St. Pierre aux Liens</i>, and the wine-merchants and +brass-shield makers St. Léonard’s chapel of church <i>St. Merri</i>. +The confraternity usually put itself under the protection of a +particular saint. The goldsmiths chose <i>St. Éloi</i>, and the confraternity +had a seal inscribed “Sigillum confratrie sancti +Elegii auri fabrorum.”</p> + +<p>The <i>confrérie’s</i> resources were usually derived from initiation +fees, subscriptions and legacies from members, and a +share of the fines collected in the gild. The organization also +derived benefits from holding real estate. It could transact +business and fall in debt. The <i>confrérie</i> of the wool-weavers +owing 600 pounds, put a tax of 12 <i>sous</i> on every piece of cloth +manufactured in Paris. A statute of the plasterers reads: “If +he finds that the proportion is not good, the plasterer shall pay +five <i>sous</i> as a fine: to the Chappelle Bleive aforesaid, two <i>sous</i>, +to the master who guards the gild, two <i>sous</i>, and to the one who +has measured the plaster 12 <i>deniers</i>.” When a plasterer took +an apprentice for less than six years, he paid 20 <i>sous</i> to the +Chapelle.</p> + +<p>Part of the funds acquired by the <i>confrérie</i> were used +for common expenses, and part for benevolent work. For +every piece of cloth sold the wool-merchants were supposed to +give a <i>denier</i> to buy grain for the poor. The rich confraternity +of the goldsmiths gave every Easter a dinner to the poor of the +Hôtel Dieu, while the cooks set aside a third of their fines to +maintain “les pouvres vieilles gens du mestier qui seront decheuz +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>par fait de marchandise ou de vieillece.” In 1319 the +vair-furriers formed an association⁠<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> with an initiation fee of +10 <i>sous</i> (8 fr. .40) and 6 <i>deniers</i> for the secretary, and a weekly +subscription of one <i>denier</i>, the funds of which were to aid +members in case of sickness or infirmity at the rate of 3 <i>sous</i> +per week during illness, and 6 <i>sous</i> in convalescence. The +curriers mention the use of funds from “la boîte” to support +the orphans of the gild or children of poverty-stricken masters.</p> + +<p>At the first appearance of the <i>confrérie</i>, the Church opposed +it, suspecting in its secrecy, antagonism or some outcroppings +of pagan ritualism.⁠<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Later, however, both Church and <i>confrérie</i> +profited by a close relationship. The monastery of St. +Trond, in return for the right to fall heir to the properties of +members of the shearmen and fuller’s <i>confrérie</i> who died without +wife or child, maintained a hospital for the care of its sick, +and conducted funerals, while the sacristan and a priest arbitrated +on the occasion of disputes within the gild.</p> + +<p class="mt2">Conclusion. The trade-gild régime was a defensive one +against the confused powers of feudalism and the conflicting +activities of competition. It protected the apprentice against +his own folly and his master; it protected the artisan against +diminution in the pay-rate, illegal dismissal, and the usurpation +of other trades on his field. It guarded the master from +insubordination, idleness, bad measure and adulteration, and +by the limitation of the number of workmen assured the sale +of his goods.</p> + +<p>Some of the principles implied in the organization we +may agree with M. Lespinasse⁠<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> are “relatively true,” such as +the protection of infant industry, guarantee of work and property, +examinations and probations to make certain the skill +of the candidates; prohibition of combination of several professions +to prevent the abusive use of them; supervision of +manufacture to assure the soundness of the product; an industrial +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>jurisdiction from apprenticeship to mastery, lack of division +in a craft such as to train in time a fully equipped workman +and a future master; suppression of any parasitic +intermediary between producer and consumer; work in common +and in the public eyes, and solidarity of the industrial +family.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, there are shadows in the picture, and +among them we may distinguish—the immoderate extension +of term of apprenticeship, difficulties set in the way of becoming +a master; arbitrary fiscal measures and dues; meticulous +regulation and too frequent cessation from work; a routine +transmission of methods of manufacture; maintenance of a +fixed price, and prohibitions of combinations such as would +encourage inventions and stimulate a wider economic unit.</p> + +<p>We have studied a particularly agreeable phase of gild +growth. Far off still is the bad opposition between employee +and employed, though the pessimist may see the seeds of the +present in this past. Though one hesitates to call with M. +Fagniez the spirit of the gilds “fundamentally Christian,” he +is glad to recognize such alertness of intelligence, such elaborate +industrial devices and purposes, such thoughtful humanitarian +interests, so complex a system of checks and balances +in our supposedly naïve mediaeval precursors.</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES</h2> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Throughout this paper I shall translate the French word métier by +the more usual word <i>gild</i> when it refers to the organization and not the +craft.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Fagniez: Documents rélatifs à l’Histoire de l’Industrie, etc. Intro.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> Levasseur: <i>Hist. des classes ouv.</i> p. 251.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> For a list of these gilds with their ancient French names and their +modern English equivalents, see <i>Appendix</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> Fagniez: Études sur l’industrie à Paris, p. 67.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> Réglemens sur les arts et les mét. ed. Depping, p. 366.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> “Coutumes de Beauvaisis.” Beaumanoir, éd. Beugnot; p. 429.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> It has been estimated that four <i>sous</i> of Paris of this period are +equivalent to one franc at present.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> Comm. d’Amiens, Doc. inédits, p. 387, p. 370.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Lev.: Hist. des classes ouv., vol. I, page 116.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> Ordonnances touchant les mét., 1312. Art. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Fagniez: “Études sur l’industrie,” p. 290. Text in <i>Doc. rélatifs</i>, +No. 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> M. Lespinasse quotes the text of a decree against <i>confrérie</i> from a +Council at Rouen, 1189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> <i>Liv. des Mét.</i> Avant Propos par M. Lespinasse, p. xiv.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX">APPENDIX.</h2> + +</div> + +<ul> + +<li>Archiers = bow-makers.</li> + +<li>Barilliers = case-makers.</li> + +<li>Batéeurs d’or = gold-beaters.</li> + +<li>Batéeurs d’éstain = pewter-beaters.</li> + +<li>Batéeurs d’or en feuilles = gold-beaters.</li> + +<li>Batéeurs d’archal = brass-beaters.</li> + +<li>Baudraiers = curriers of shoe-leather.</li> + +<li>Blatiers = corn-merchants.</li> + +<li>Blasenniers = saddle-fixtures.</li> + +<li>Boîtiers = locksmiths.</li> + +<li>Boucliers de fer = iron-shield-makers.</li> + +<li>Boucliers d’archal = brass-shield makers.</li> + +<li>Bourreliers = harness-makers.</li> + +<li>Boursiers = purse-makers.</li> + +<li>Boutonniers = button-makers.</li> + +<li>Brachiers = breeches-makers.</li> + +<li>Cavesonniers = slipper-makers.</li> + +<li>Cavetiers = cobblers.</li> + +<li>Cervoisiers = ale-brewers.</li> + +<li>Chandliers de sieu = tallow-chandlers.</li> + +<li>Chanevaceriers = hemp-cloth-makers.</li> + +<li>Chapeliers de fleurs = flower-hatters.</li> + +<li>Chapeliers de coton = cap-makers.</li> + +<li>Chapeliers de paon = plumed hatters.</li> + +<li>Chapeliers de feutre = felt-hatters.</li> + +<li>Chapuiséeurs = saddle-bow makers.</li> + +<li><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>Charpentiers = carpenters.</li> + +<li>Chauciers = hose-makers.</li> + +<li>Couréeurs = belt-makers.</li> + +<li>Cordiers = rope-makers.</li> + +<li>Corduaniers = shoe-makers.</li> + +<li>Couteliers = cutlers.</li> + +<li>Couteliers serves = knife-blade-makers.</li> + +<li>Crespiniers = head-dress-makers.</li> + +<li>Crieurs = criers.</li> + +<li>Cristâliers = jewellers.</li> + +<li>Cuisiniers = cooks.</li> + +<li>Cyrugiens = barbers.</li> + +<li>Déeciers = playing dice-makers.</li> + +<li>Drapiers = woollen-weavers.</li> + +<li>Escueliers = pottery-sellers.</li> + +<li>Espinguiers = pin-makers.</li> + +<li>Estuvéeurs = bath proprietors.</li> + +<li>Faiseurs de clous = nail-makers.</li> + +<li>Fainiers = hay merchants.</li> + +<li>Fermailleurs = clasp and buckle-makers.</li> + +<li>Fripiers = old-clothes men.</li> + +<li>Feseresses de chap d’orfois = modiste.</li> + +<li>Fourreurs de chapeliers = fur-hatters.</li> + +<li>Fevres = iron-workers.</li> + +<li>Fileresses de soie = spinners of coarse silk.</li> + +<li>Fileresses de soie à petits fuseaux = spinners of fine silk.</li> + +<li>Fondeurs = smelters.</li> + +<li>Foulons = fullers.</li> + +<li>Fourbéeurs = sword-cutlers.</li> + +<li>Gantiers = glovers.</li> + +<li>Gueiniers = sheath-makers.</li> + +<li>Haubergiers = coats-of-mail-makers.</li> + +<li>Huiliers = oil-makers.</li> + +<li>Jaugéeurs = gaugers.</li> + +<li>Laciers = braid-makers.</li> + +<li>Lampiers = lamp-makers.</li> + +<li>Lanterniers = lantern-makers.</li> + +<li>Liniers = linen merchants.</li> + +<li>Lormiers = reins-makers.</li> + +<li>Maçons = masons.</li> + +<li>Marchante chanvre = hemp + thread sellers.</li> + +<li>Maréchaux = iron-farriers.</li> + +<li>Merciers = haberdashers.</li> + +<li>Mesuréeurs = measurers.</li> + +<li>Meuniers = millers.</li> + +<li>Orfèvres = goldsmiths.</li> + +<li>Ouv. de menues œuvres d’éstain = pewterers.</li> + +<li>Ouv. de tissus de soie = workers in silk-stuffs.</li> + +<li>Ouv. de drap de soie = silk-cloth.</li> + +<li>Peintres + imagiers = painters and illuminators.</li> + +<li>Paternostriers d’os = bone-bead makers.</li> + +<li>Paternostriers de corail = coral-bead makers.</li> + +<li>Paternostriers d’ambre = amber-bead makers.</li> + +<li>Paternostriers + faiseurs de boucles = brooch and bead-makers.</li> + +<li>Pechéeurs = fishermen.</li> + +<li>Poisonniers d’eau douce = fresh-water-fish-merchants.</li> + +<li>Poisonniers de mer = salt-water-fish-merchants.</li> + +<li>Potiers de terres = potters.</li> + +<li>Potiers d’éstain = pewterers.</li> + +<li>Poulailliers = poulterers.</li> + +<li>Regrattiers de pain de sel = retailers of salt and bread.</li> + +<li>Regrattiers de fruits = green-grocers.</li> + +<li>Selliers = saddlers.</li> + +<li>Serruriers = locksmiths.</li> + +<li>Tabletiers = tablet-makers.</li> + +<li>Tapiciers de tapiz sarrasinois = Oriental carpet-makers.</li> + +<li>Tapiciers de tapiz nostrés = carpet-makers.</li> + +<li>Taverniers = wine-shop-keepers.</li> + +<li>Tisserands de queuvrechiers = kerchief-makers.</li> + +<li>Trefilliers de fer = iron-wire-drawers.</li> + +<li>Trefilliers d’archal = brass-wire-drawers.</li> + +<li>Ymagiers = painters.</li> + +</ul> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="BIBLIOGRAPHY">BIBLIOGRAPHY.</h2> + +</div> + +<p>1. Réglemens sur les Arts et Métiers de Paris, Redigés au <span class="allsmcap">XIII</span><i>ᵉ</i> siècle +et connus sous le nom du Livre des Métiers d’Étienne Boileau; Publiés +pour la première fois en entier ... avec des notes et une Introduction, +par G. B. Depping à Paris. De l’imprimerie de Crapelet, 1837, pp. xxxvi ++ 474. [Collection de Documents Inédits sur l’Histoire de France].</p> + +<p>2. Le <i>Livre des Métiers</i> d’Étienne Boileau, publié par René de +Lespinasse et Francois Bonnardot. [Histoire Générale de Paris—Les +Métiers et les corporations de la Ville de Paris, <span class="allsmcap">XIII</span><i>ᵉ</i> siècle, pp. cliv + 420. +Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1879].</p> + +<p class="noindent mt2"><i>References</i>:</p> + +<p><i>Blanqui</i>, Jêrome-Adolphe: History of Political Economy in Europe. +Trans. from 4th Fr. Ed. by Emily J. Leonard, pp. xxxviii + 590. 1880.</p> + +<p><i>Brentano</i>, Luigi: Essay on the History and Development of Gilds: +Early English Text Society: Vol. 40.</p> + +<p><i>Dendy</i>, F. W., & Boyle, J. R., editors, Extracts from the Records of +the Merchant Adventurers of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Vol. I, pp. lii + 315. +Surtees Society Publ. xviii, 1895.</p> + +<p><i>Fagniez</i>, Gustave: Documents rélatifs à l’Histoire de l’industrie et +du Commerce en France. Vol. I, with an Introduction. pp. lxiv + 349. +Paris, Alph. Picard et Fils. 1898.</p> + +<p><i>Fagniez</i>, Gustave: Études sur l’industrie et la Ind. à Paris aux <span class="allsmcap">XIII</span><i>ᵉ</i> ++ <span class="allsmcap">XIV</span><i>ᵉ</i> siècle. pp. x + 422. Paris, F. Vieweg. 1877.</p> + +<p><i>Felibren</i>, D. Michel: Histoire de la Ville de Paris, 5 vols. in folio. +Paris, 1725.</p> + +<p><i>Forrest</i>, J. Dorsey: “The Development of Western Civilization.” pp. +ix + 406. U. of C. Press. 1907.</p> + +<p><i>Gross</i>, Charles: The Gild Merchant. Vol. I, pp. xxii + 332. Vol. II, +pp. xi + 447. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1890.</p> + +<p><i>Labarte</i>, Jules: Histoire des Arts ind. au moyen âge et à l’epoque de +la Renaissance, 2<i>ᵉ</i> Ed. Paris, 1873. 3 vols.</p> + +<p><i>Lambert</i>, Rev. J. M.: “Two Thousand Years of Gild Life,” etc., etc. +pp. xi + 414. Hull, 1891.</p> + +<p><i>Levasseur</i>, Emile: Histoire des Classes ouvrières de l’industrie en +France avant 1789. 2<i>ᵉ</i> Ed. Paris, 1900. Vol. I, pp. lxxxviii + 715.</p> + +<p><i>Luchaire</i>, Achille: Social France at the Time of Ph. Auguste, trans. +by E. B. Krehbiel. pp. viii + 441. New York, 1912.</p> + +<p><i>Palgrave</i>, Sir R. H. J., ed., Dictionary of Political Economy. 3 vols. +Macmillan & Co. London, 1910.</p> + +<p><i>Pigeonneau</i>: Histoire du Commerce de la France. 2<i>ᵉ</i> Ed. pp. vii ++ 468 (Vol. I). Paris, Librairie Léopold Cerf. 1885-89.</p> + +<p><i>Seligman</i>, E. R. A.: Two Chapters on the Mediaeval Guilds of +England. Publ. of Am. Econ. Associ. Vol. II, No. 5. pp. 389-493, Nov., +1887.</p> + +<p><i>Toulmin Smith</i>: Ed. English Gilds: The Original Ordinances of more +than 100 Gilds. E. E. T. S. Vol. 40.</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">F. B. 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