Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/382

 332 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE master- workmen. To attain this stage it was usually neces- sary to prove one's skilled workmanship by passing an ex- amination or producing a " masterpiece,' ' and to have saved enough money to be able to set up in business for one's self. While the master-workman was an employer of labor, since he had journeymen and apprentices under him, he Compari- ^ so belonged to the laboring class because he s °^H With **ad hini^h passed through the preliminary industrial stages and because he usually continued to work organization at his cra £ t along with his employees. He further differed from a modern employer in that he employed but a handful of men in his own house, and was constantly in close personal relations with them, instead of employing large numbers under foremen in a factory. The entire in- dustrial situation was different from that of modern times; there was not the same cleavage between capital and labor, for there was not much capital, nor between employer and employee; and the craft gilds only faintly resembled our labor unions. The members of a gild elected officials, enacted statutes, had a court to settle their own disputes and a common Gild treasury to which all made contributions. One regulations Q f th e i r cn ief concerns was to maintain a com- mon standard of "good and honest workmanship" in the output of every member. Since they worked by hand and usually made a complete article and finished product in- stead of merely feeding a machine or attending to some stage in the manufacture of a bolt or shoe, the medieval artisans took a personal pride in the artistic quality of their work. This feeling was enhanced by the fact that the workman usually sold his product direct to the consumer and so could be held personally responsible for any defects. Mem- bers of a gild charged the same price, since the quality of their goods was supposedly identical and since the organiza- tion often supplied the raw materials at cost price to its members. Moreover, the ideal then prevailed of a just price, that a workman should charge for his manufactures