Page:May Walden - Woman and Socialism (1909).pdf/11

 Rh leagues, and became very powerful in controlling commerce so that the evolution of industry passed from the Guild system into that of the Domestic System.

The Domestic System marks the rise of the middle man who bought goods and sold them for a profit, instead of making them for use, as had been done in all previous systems. The master-guilders could not look to customers for the sale of goods, but had to depend upon the middleman and the state of the market. The workers could go wherever they chose. They were not bound to a certain master, but had to offer their labor in competition with all other laborers, for their hands and their tools were the only sources of their living.

Great changes took place in the world during this period (the close of the 16th century), from different causes. We will note only those that concern our argument. The rise of the trading class broke up the feudal system and the serfs became hordes of roving vagabonds. The demand for wool and woollen goods led to the eviction of the peasants from their homes to provide pasture for the sheep, and to force the homeless workers into the woollen cottage factories. Religious oppression in the different European countries forced the people to America (which had just been discovered), in search of liberty. According to Marx, a "bloody legislation" was enforced against these "free" people from this time throughout the whole of the 16th century. Girls, the children of "vagabonds," could be enslaved by any town until their 20th year. "All