Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/586

 502 Outlines of European History Craft guilds The tradesmen in the medieval towns were at once manu- facturers and merchants ; that is, they made, as well as offered for sale, the articles which they kept in their shops. Those who belonged to a particular trade — the bakers, the butchers, the sword makers, the armorers, etc. — formed unions or guilds to protect their special interests. The oldest statutes of a guild in Paris are those of the candle makers, which go back to 1061. The number of trades differed greatly in different towns, but the guilds all had the same object — to prevent any one from practicing a trade who had not been duly admitted to the union. The guild A young man had to spend several years in learning his trade. During this time he lived in the house of a " master workman " as an " apprentice," but received no remuneration. He then became a " journeyman " and 'Could earn wages, although he was still allowed to work only for master workmen and not directly for the public. A simple trade might be learned in three years, but to become a goldsmith one must be an apprentice for ten years. The number of apprentices that a master workman might employ was strictly limited, in order that the journeymen might not be- come too numerous. The way in which each trade was to be practiced was care- fully regulated, as well as the time that should be spent in work each day. The system of guilds discouraged enterprise but main- tained uniform standards everywhere. Had it not been for these unions, the defenseless, isolated workmen, serfs as they had formerly been, would have found it impossible to secure freedom and municipal independence from the feudal lords who had formerly been their masters. Section 88. Business in the Later Middle Ages The chief reason for the growth of the towns and their in- creasing prosperity was a great development of trade throughout western Europe. Commerce had pretty much disappeared with