Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/123

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the Council and the Crown attempted to regulate every branch of trade. Its duty was to determine prices and fix wages, so that each might be kept in harmony with the acts of the Legislature; to arrange the conditions of apprenticeship, and discuss all minor details. In company with the Lord Mayor and other civic dignitaries, its members inspected the shops and stores of the respective traders, and received and examined into their complaints. In connection with the municipal authorities of London there were local councils in nearly every provincial town who fulfilled similar duties, reporting to the control body or the Privy Council such matters as were to be submitted to Parliament. When these representations had been duly considered, the necessary statutes were passed and forwarded through the chancellor to the mayors of the various towns and cities. By these arrangements no person was allowed to commence any description of trade or manufacture till he had served a regular apprenticeship, and had proved himself competent to exercise his craft to the satisfaction of the authorities. But the care of the Legislature was not extended solely to able-bodied adults; attempts were made to compel every child to be brought up to some special business or calling. Such a principle may have been plausible in theory, but it broke down in practice; the Legislature, however, insisted that the mayors in towns and the magistrates in counties should find means to apprentice every child to agriculture, so that they might not be drawn to "dishonest courses," whenever the parents