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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Introduction to the Industrial and Social
+History of England, by Edward Potts Cheyney
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England
+
+
+Author: Edward Potts Cheyney
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 1, 2007  [eBook #21660]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRIAL
+AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Peter Vachuska, Chuck Greif, Christine P. Travers, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/6/6/21660/21660-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all other
+      inconsistencies are as in the original. Author's spelling has
+      been maintained.
+
+      Bolded font has been represented encased between asterisks.
+
+      The following sentence has been changed,
+      from:
+      the spring crop was taken now IT its turn would enjoy a fallow year.
+      to:
+      the spring crop was taken now IN its turn would enjoy a fallow year.
+
+
+
+
+
+An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England
+
+
+[Illustration: New Sixteenth Century Manor House with Fields still
+Open, Gidea Hall, Essex. Nichols: _Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_.]
+
+
+AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND
+
+by
+
+EDWARD P. CHEYNEY
+
+Professor of European History in the University of Pennsylvania
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+The MacMillan Company
+London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
+1916
+All rights reserved
+Copyright, 1901,
+By The MacMillan Company.
+
+Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1901. Reprinted January,
+October, 1905; November, 1906; October, 1907; July, 1908; February,
+1909; January, 1910; April, December, 1910; January, August, December,
+1911; July, 1912; January, 1913; February, August, 1914; January,
+November, 1915; April, 1916.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+This text-book is intended for college and high-school classes. Most
+of the facts stated in it have become, through the researches and
+publications of recent years, such commonplace knowledge that a
+reference to authority in each case has not seemed necessary.
+Statements on more doubtful points, and such personal opinions as I
+have had occasion to express, although not supported by references,
+are based on a somewhat careful study of the sources. To each chapter
+is subjoined a bibliographical paragraph with the titles of the most
+important secondary authorities. These works will furnish a fuller
+account of the matters that have been treated in outline in this book,
+indicate the original sources, and give opportunity and suggestions
+for further study. An introductory chapter and a series of narrative
+paragraphs prefixed to other chapters are given with the object of
+correlating matters of economic and social history with other aspects
+of the life of the nation.
+
+My obligation and gratitude are due, as are those of all later
+students, to the group of scholars who have within our own time laid
+the foundations of the study of economic history, and whose names and
+books will be found referred to in the bibliographical paragraphs.
+
+                                        EDWARD P. CHEYNEY.
+
+  University of Pennsylvania,
+      January, 1901.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+  Growth Of The Nation To The Middle Of The
+  Fourteenth Century                                         Page
+
+   1. The Geography of England................................. 1
+
+   2. Prehistoric Britain...................................... 4
+
+   3. Roman Britain............................................ 5
+
+   4. Early Saxon England...................................... 8
+
+   5. Danish and Late Saxon England........................... 12
+
+   6. The Period following the Norman Conquest................ 15
+
+   7. The Period of the Early Angevin Kings, 1154-1338........ 22
+
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+  Rural Life and Organization
+
+   8. The Mediæval Village.................................... 31
+
+   9. The Vill as an Agricultural System...................... 33
+
+  10. Classes of People on the Manor.......................... 39
+
+  11. The Manor Courts........................................ 45
+
+  12. The Manor as an Estate of a Lord........................ 49
+
+  13. Bibliography............................................ 52
+
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+  Town Life And Organization
+
+  14. The Town Government..................................... 57
+
+  15. The Gild Merchant....................................... 59
+
+  16. The Craft Gilds......................................... 64
+
+  17. Non-industrial Gilds.................................... 71
+
+  18. Bibliography............................................ 73
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+  Mediæval Trade And Commerce
+
+  19. Markets and Fairs....................................... 75
+
+  20. Trade Relations between Towns........................... 79
+
+  21. Foreign Trading Relations............................... 81
+
+  22. The Italian and Eastern Trade........................... 84
+
+  23. The Flanders Trade and the Staple....................... 87
+
+  24. The Hanse Trade......................................... 89
+
+  25. Foreigners settled in England........................... 90
+
+  26. Bibliography............................................ 94
+
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+  The Black Death And The Peasants' Rebellion
+
+  _Economic Changes of the Later Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth
+  Centuries_
+
+  27. National Affairs from 1338 to 1461...................... 96
+
+  28. The Black Death and its Effects......................... 99
+
+  29. The Statutes of Laborers............................... 106
+
+  30. The Peasants' Rebellion of 1381........................ 111
+
+  31. Commutation of Services................................ 125
+
+  32. The Abandonment of Demesne Farming..................... 128
+
+  33. The Decay of Serfdom................................... 129
+
+  34. Changes in Town Life and Foreign Trade................. 133
+
+  35. Bibliography........................................... 134
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+  The Breaking Up Of The Mediæval System
+
+  _Economic Changes of the Later Fifteenth and the Sixteenth
+  Centuries_
+
+  36. National Affairs from 1461 to 1603..................... 136
+
+  37. Enclosures............................................. 141
+
+  38. Internal Divisions in the Craft Gilds.................. 147
+
+  39. Change of Location of Industries....................... 151
+
+  40. The Influence of the Government on the Gilds........... 154
+
+  41. General Causes and Evidences of the Decay of the Gilds. 159
+
+  42. The Growth of Native Commerce.......................... 161
+
+  43. The Merchants Adventurers.............................. 164
+
+  44. Government Encouragement of Commerce................... 167
+
+  45. The Currency........................................... 169
+
+  46. Interest............................................... 171
+
+  47. Paternal Government.................................... 173
+
+  48. Bibliography........................................... 176
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+  The Expansion Of England
+
+  _Economic Changes of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth
+  Centuries_
+
+  49. National Affairs from 1603 to 1760..................... 177
+
+  50. The Extension of Agriculture........................... 183
+
+  51. The Domestic System of Manufactures.................... 185
+
+  52. Commerce under the Navigation Acts..................... 189
+
+  53. Finance................................................ 193
+
+  54. Bibliography........................................... 198
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+  The Period Of The Industrial Revolution
+
+  _Economic Changes of the Later Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth
+  Centuries_
+
+  55. National Affairs from 1760 to 1830..................... 199
+
+  56. The Great Mechanical Inventions........................ 203
+
+  57. The Factory System..................................... 212
+
+  58. Iron, Coal, and Transportation......................... 214
+
+  59. The Revival of Enclosures.............................. 216
+
+  60. Decay of Domestic Manufacture.......................... 220
+
+  61. The _Laissez-faire_ Theory............................. 224
+
+  62. Cessation of Government Regulation..................... 228
+
+  63. Individualism.......................................... 232
+
+  64. Social Conditions at the Beginning of the Nineteenth
+      Century................................................ 235
+
+  65. Bibliography........................................... 239
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+  The Extension Of Government Control
+
+  _Factory Laws, the Modification of Land Ownership, Sanitary
+  Regulations, and New Public Services_
+
+  66. National Affairs from 1830 to 1900..................... 240
+
+  67. The Beginning of Factory Legislation................... 244
+
+  68. Arguments for and against Factory Legislation.......... 249
+
+  69. Factory Legislation to 1847............................ 254
+
+  70. The Extension of Factory Legislation................... 256
+
+  71. Employers' Liability Acts.............................. 260
+
+  72. Preservation of Remaining Open Lands................... 262
+
+  73. Allotments............................................. 267
+
+  74. Small Holdings......................................... 269
+
+  75. Government Sanitary Control............................ 271
+
+  76. Industries Carried on by Government.................... 273
+
+  77. Bibliography........................................... 276
+
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+  The Extension Of Voluntary Association
+
+  _Trade Unions, Trusts, and Coöperation_
+
+  78. The Rise of Trade Unions............................... 277
+
+  79. Opposition of the Law and of Public Opinion. The
+      Combination Acts....................................... 279
+
+  80. Legalization and Popular Acceptance of Trade Unions.... 281
+
+  81. The Growth of Trade Unions............................. 288
+
+  82. Federation of Trade Unions............................. 289
+
+  83. Employers' Organizations............................... 293
+
+  84. Trusts and Trade Combinations.......................... 294
+
+  85. Coöperation in Distribution............................ 295
+
+  86. Coöperation in Production.............................. 300
+
+  87. Coöperation in Farming................................. 302
+
+  88. Coöperation in Credit.................................. 306
+
+  89. Profit Sharing......................................... 307
+
+  90. Socialism.............................................. 310
+
+  91. Bibliography........................................... 311
+
+
+
+
+An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of
+England
+
+
+
+
+INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+GROWTH OF THE NATION
+
+To The Middle Of The Fourteenth Century
+
+
+*1. The Geography of England.*--The British Isles lie northwest of the
+Continent of Europe. They are separated from it by the Channel and the
+North Sea, at the narrowest only twenty miles wide, and at the
+broadest not more than three hundred.
+
+The greatest length of England from north to south is three hundred
+and sixty-five miles, and its greatest breadth some two hundred and
+eighty miles. Its area, with Wales, is 58,320 square miles, being
+somewhat more than one-quarter the size of France or of Germany, just
+one-half the size of Italy, and somewhat larger than either
+Pennsylvania or New York.
+
+The backbone of the island is near the western coast, and consists of
+a body of hard granitic and volcanic rock rising into mountains of two
+or three thousand feet in height. These do not form one continuous
+chain but are in several detached groups. On the eastern flank of
+these mountains and underlying all the rest of the island is a series
+of stratified rocks. The harder portions of these strata still stand
+up as long ridges,--the "wolds," "wealds," "moors," and "downs" of the
+more eastern and south-eastern parts of England. The softer strata
+have been worn away into great broad valleys, furnishing the central
+and eastern plains or lowlands of the country.
+
+The rivers of the south and of the far north run for the most part by
+short and direct courses to the sea. The rivers of the midlands are
+much longer and larger. As a result of the gradual sinking of the
+island, in recent geological periods the sea has extended some
+distance up the course of these rivers, making an almost unbroken
+series of estuaries along the whole coast.
+
+The climate of England is milder and more equable than is indicated by
+the latitude, which is that of Labrador in the western hemisphere and
+of Prussia and central Russia on the Continent of Europe. This is due
+to the fact that the Gulf Stream flows around its southern and western
+shores, bringing warmth and a superabundance of moisture from the
+southern Atlantic.
+
+These physical characteristics have been of immense influence on the
+destinies of England. Her position was far on the outskirts of the
+world as it was known to ancient and mediæval times, and England
+played a correspondingly inconspicuous part during those periods. In
+the habitable world as it has been known since the fifteenth century,
+on the other hand, that position is a distinctly central one, open
+alike to the eastern and the western hemisphere, to northern and
+southern lands.
+
+[Illustration: Physiographic Map of *England And Wales*. Engraved by
+Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
+
+Her situation of insularity and at the same time of proximity to the
+Continent laid her open to frequent invasion in early times, but after
+she secured a navy made her singularly safe from subjugation. It made
+the development of many of her institutions tardy, yet at the same
+time gave her the opportunity to borrow and assimilate what she would
+from the customs of foreign nations. Her separation by water from
+the Continent favored a distinct and continuous national life, while
+her nearness to it allowed her to participate in all the more
+important influences which affected the nations of central Europe.
+
+Within the mountainous or elevated regions a variety of mineral
+resources, especially iron, copper, lead, and tin, exist in great
+abundance, and have been worked from the earliest ages. Potter's clay
+and salt also exist, the former furnishing the basis of industry for
+an extensive section of the midlands. By far the most important
+mineral possession of England, however, is her coal. This exists in
+the greatest abundance and in a number of sections of the north and
+west of the country. Practically unknown in the Middle Ages, and only
+slightly utilized in early modern times, within the eighteenth and
+nineteenth centuries her coal supply has come to be the principal
+foundation of England's great manufacturing and commercial
+development.
+
+The lowlands, which make up far the larger part of the country, are
+covered with soil which furnishes rich farming areas, though in many
+places this soil is a heavy and impervious clay, expensive to drain
+and cultivate. The hard ridges are covered with thin soil only. Many
+of them therefore remained for a long time covered with forest, and
+they are devoted even yet to grazing or to occasional cultivation
+only.
+
+The abundance of harbors and rivers, navigable at least to the small
+vessels of the Middle Ages, has made a seafaring life natural to a
+large number of the people, and commercial intercourse comparatively
+easy with all parts of the country bordering on the coast or on these
+rivers.
+
+Thus, to sum up these geographical characteristics, the insular
+situation of England, her location on the earth's surface, and the
+variety of her material endowments gave her a tolerably well-balanced
+if somewhat backward economic position during the Middle Ages, and
+have enabled her since the fifteenth century to pass through a
+continuous and rapid development, until she has obtained within the
+nineteenth century, for the time at least, a distinct economic
+precedency among the nations of the world.
+
+
+*2. Prehistoric Britain.*--The materials from which to construct a
+knowledge of the history of mankind before the time of written records
+are few and unsatisfactory. They consist for the most part of the
+remains of dwelling-places, fortifications, and roadways; of weapons,
+implements, and ornaments lost or abandoned at the time; of burial
+places and their contents; and of such physical characteristics of
+later populations as have survived from an early period. Centuries of
+human habitation of Britain passed away, leaving only such scanty
+remains and the obscure and doubtful knowledge that can be drawn from
+them. Through this period, however, successive races seem to have
+invaded and settled the country, combining with their predecessors, or
+living alongside of them, or in some cases, perhaps, exterminating
+them.
+
+When contemporary written records begin, just before the beginning of
+the Christian era, one race, the Britons, was dominant, and into it
+had merged to all appearances all others. The Britons were a Celtic
+people related to the inhabitants of that part of the Continent of
+Europe which lies nearest to Britain. They were divided into a dozen
+or more separate tribes, each occupying a distinct part of the
+country. They lived partly by the pasturing of sheep and cattle,
+partly by a crude agriculture. They possessed most of the familiar
+grains and domestic animals, and could weave and dye cloth, make
+pottery, build boats, forge iron, and work other metals, including
+tin. They had, however, no cities, no manufactures beyond the most
+primitive, and but little foreign trade to connect them with the
+Continent. At the head of each tribe was a reigning chieftain of
+limited powers, surrounded by lesser chiefs. The tribes were in a
+state of incessant warfare one with the other.
+
+
+*3. Roman Britain.*--This condition of insular isolation and barbarism
+was brought to a close in the year 55 B.C. by the invasion of the
+Roman army. Julius Cæsar, the Roman general who was engaged in the
+conquest and government of Gaul, or modern France, feared that the
+Britons might bring aid to certain newly subjected and still restless
+Gallic tribes. He therefore transported a body of troops across the
+Channel and fought two campaigns against the tribes in the southeast
+of Britain. His success in the second campaign was, however, not
+followed up, and he retired without leaving any permanent garrison in
+the country. The Britons were then left alone, so far as military
+invasion was concerned, for almost a century, though in the meantime
+trade with the adjacent parts of the Continent became more common, and
+Roman influence showed itself in the manners and customs of the
+people. In the year 44 A.D., just ninety years after Cæsar's
+campaigns, the conquest of Britain was resumed by the Roman armies and
+completed within the next thirty years. Britain now became an integral
+part of the great, well-ordered, civilized, and wealthy Roman Empire.
+During the greater part of that long period, Britain enjoyed profound
+peace, internal and external trade were safe, and much of the culture
+and refinement of Italy and Gaul must have made their way even to this
+distant province. A part of the inhabitants adopted the Roman
+language, dress, customs, and manner of life. Discharged veterans from
+the Roman legions, wealthy civil officials and merchants, settled
+permanently in Britain. Several bodies of turbulent tribesmen who had
+been defeated on the German frontier were transported by the
+government into Britain. The population must, therefore, have become
+very mixed, containing representatives of most of the races which had
+been conquered by the Roman armies. A permanent military force was
+maintained in Britain with fortified stations along the eastern and
+southern coast, on the Welsh frontier, and along a series of walls or
+dikes running across the island from the Tyne to Solway Firth.
+Excellent roads were constructed through the length and breadth of the
+land for the use of this military body and to connect the scattered
+stations. Along these highways population spread and the remains of
+spacious villas still exist to attest the magnificence of the wealthy
+provincials. The roads served also as channels of trade by which goods
+could readily be carried from one part of the country to another.
+Foreign as well as internal trade became extensive, although exports
+were mostly of crude natural products, such as hides, skins, and furs,
+cattle and sheep, grain, pig-iron, lead and tin, hunting-dogs and
+slaves. The rapid development of towns and cities was a marked
+characteristic of Roman Britain. Fifty-nine towns or cities of various
+grades of self-government are named in the Roman survey, and many of
+these must have been populous, wealthy, and active, judging from the
+extensive ruins that remain, and the enormous number of Roman coins
+that have since been found. Christianity was adopted here as in other
+parts of the Roman Empire, though the extent of its influence is
+unknown.
+
+During the Roman occupation much waste land was reclaimed. Most of the
+great valley regions and many of the hillsides had been originally
+covered with dense forests, swamps spread along the rivers and
+extended far inland from the coast; so that almost the only parts
+capable of tillage were the high treeless plains, the hill tops, and
+certain favored stretches of open country. The reduction of these
+waste lands to human habitation has been an age-long task. It was
+begun in prehistoric times, it has been carried further by each
+successive race, and brought to final completion only within our own
+century. A share in this work and the great roads were the most
+permanent results of the Roman period of occupation and government.
+Throughout the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era the
+Roman administration and society in Britain were evidently
+disintegrating. Several successive generals of the Roman troops
+stationed in Britain rose in revolt with their soldiers, declared
+their independence of Rome, or passed over to the Continent to enter
+into a struggle for the control of the whole Empire. In 383 and 407
+the military forces were suddenly depleted in this way and the
+provincial government disorganized, while the central government of
+the Empire was so weak that it was unable to reëstablish a firm
+administration. During the same period barbarian invaders were making
+frequent inroads into Britain. The Picts and Scots from modern
+Scotland, Saxon pirates, and, later, ever increasing swarms of Angles,
+Jutes, and Frisians from across the North Sea ravaged and ultimately
+occupied parts of the borders and the coasts. The surviving records of
+this period of disintegration and reorganization are so few that we
+are left in all but total ignorance as to what actually occurred. For
+more than two hundred years we can only guess at the course of events,
+or infer it from its probable analogy to what we know was occurring in
+the other parts of the Empire, or from the conditions we find to have
+been in existence as knowledge of succeeding times becomes somewhat
+more full. It seems evident that the government of the province of
+Britain gradually went to pieces, and that that of the different
+cities or districts followed. Internal dissensions and the lack of
+military organization and training of the mass of the population
+probably added to the difficulty of resisting marauding bands of
+barbarian invaders. These invading bands became larger, and their
+inroads more frequent and extended, until finally they abandoned their
+home lands entirely and settled permanently in those districts in
+which they had broken the resistance of the Roman-British natives.
+Even while the Empire had been strong the heavy burden of taxation and
+the severe pressure of administrative regulations had caused a decline
+in wealth and population. Now disorder, incessant ravages of the
+barbarians, isolation from other lands, probably famine and
+pestilence, brought rapid decay to the prosperity and civilization of
+the country. Cities lost their trade, wealth, and population, and many
+of them ceased altogether for a time to exist. Britain was rapidly
+sinking again into a land of barbarism.
+
+
+*4. Early Saxon England.*--An increasing number of contemporary records
+give a somewhat clearer view of the condition of England toward the
+close of the sixth century. The old Roman organization and
+civilization had disappeared entirely, and a new race, with a new
+language, a different religion, another form of government, changed
+institutions and customs, had taken its place. A number of petty
+kingdoms had been formed during the fifth and early sixth centuries,
+each under a king or chieftain, as in the old Celtic times before the
+Roman invasion, but now of Teutonic or German race. The kings and
+their followers had come from the northwestern portions of Germany.
+How far they had destroyed the earlier inhabitants, how far they had
+simply combined with them or enslaved them, has been a matter of much
+debate, and one on which discordant opinions are held, even by recent
+students. It seems likely on the whole that the earlier races,
+weakened by defeat and by the disappearance of the Roman control, were
+gradually absorbed and merged into the body of their conquerors; so
+that the petty Angle and Saxon kings of the sixth and seventh
+centuries ruled over a mixed race, in which their own was the most
+influential, though not necessarily the largest element. The arrival
+from Rome in 597 of Augustine, the first Christian missionary to the
+now heathen inhabitants of Britain, will serve as a point to mark the
+completion of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the country. By this time
+the new settlers had ceased to come in, and there were along the coast
+and inland some seven or eight different kingdoms. These were,
+however, so frequently divided and reunited that no fixed number
+remained long in existence. The Jutes had established the kingdom of
+Kent in the south-eastern extremity of the island; the South and the
+West Saxons were established on the southern coast and inland to the
+valley of the Thames; the East Saxons had a kingdom just north of the
+mouth of the Thames, and the Middle Saxons held London and the
+district around. The rest of the island to the north and inland
+exclusive of what was still unconquered was occupied by various
+branches of the Angle stock grouped into the kingdoms of East Anglia,
+Mercia, and Northumbria. During the seventh and eighth centuries there
+were constant wars of conquest among these kingdoms. Eventually, about
+800 A.D., the West Saxon monarchy made itself nominally supreme over
+all the others. Notwithstanding this political supremacy of the West
+Saxons, it was the Angles who were the most numerous and widely
+spread, and who gave their name, England, to the whole land.
+
+Agriculture was at this time almost the sole occupation of the people.
+The trade and commerce that had centred in the towns and flowed along
+the Roman roads and across the Channel had long since come to an end
+with the Roman civilization of which it was a part. In Saxon England
+cities scarcely existed except as fortified places of defence. The
+products of each rural district sufficed for its needs in food and in
+materials for clothing, so that internal trade was but slight.
+Manufactures were few, partly from lack of skill, partly from lack of
+demand or appreciation; but weaving, the construction of agricultural
+implements and weapons, ship-building, and the working of metals had
+survived from Roman times, or been brought over as part of the stock
+of knowledge of the invaders. Far the greater part of the population
+lived in villages, as they probably had done in Roman and in
+prehistoric times. The village with the surrounding farming lands,
+woods, and waste grounds made up what was known in later times as the
+"township."
+
+The form of government in the earlier separate kingdoms, as in the
+united monarchy after its consolidation, gave limited though
+constantly increasing powers to the king. A body of nobles known as
+the "witan" joined with the king in most of the actions of government.
+The greater part of the small group of government functions which were
+undertaken in these barbarous times were fulfilled by local gatherings
+of the principal men. A district formed from a greater or less number
+of townships, with a meeting for the settlement of disputes, the
+punishment of crimes, the witnessing of agreements, and other
+purposes, was known as a "hundred" or a "wapentake." A "shire" was a
+grouping of hundreds, with a similar gathering of its principal men
+for judicial, military, and fiscal purposes. Above the shire came the
+whole kingdom.
+
+The most important occurrences of the early Saxon period were the
+general adoption of Christianity and the organization of the church.
+Between A.D. 597 and 650 Christianity gained acceptance through the
+preaching and influence of missionaries, most of whom were sent from
+Rome, though some came from Christian Scotland and Ireland. The
+organization of the church followed closely. It was largely the work
+of Archbishop Theodore, and was practically complete before the close
+of the seventh century. By this organization England was divided into
+seventeen dioceses or church districts, religious affairs in each of
+these districts being under the supervision of a bishop. The bishop's
+church, called a "cathedral," was endowed by religious kings and
+nobles with extensive lands, so that the bishop was a wealthy landed
+proprietor, in addition to having control of the clergy of his
+diocese, and exercising a powerful influence over the consciences and
+actions of its lay population. The bishoprics were grouped into two
+"provinces," those of Canterbury and York, the bishops of these two
+dioceses having the higher title of archbishop, and having a certain
+sort of supervision over the other bishops of their province. Churches
+were gradually built in the villages, and each township usually became
+a parish with a regularly established priest. He was supported partly
+by the produce of the "glebe," or land belonging to the parish church,
+partly by tithe, a tax estimated at one-tenth of the income of each
+man's land, partly by the offerings of the people. The bishops, the
+parish priests, and others connected with the diocese, the cathedral,
+and the parish churches made up the ordinary or "secular" clergy.
+There were also many religious men and women who had taken vows to
+live under special "rules" in religious societies withdrawn from the
+ordinary life of the world, and were therefore known as "regular"
+clergy. These were the monks and nuns. In Anglo-Saxon England the
+regular clergy lived according to the rule of St. Benedict, and were
+gathered into groups, some smaller, some larger, but always
+established in one building, or group of buildings. These monasteries,
+like the bishoprics, were endowed with lands which were increased from
+time to time by pious gifts of kings, nobles, and other laymen.
+Ecclesiastical bodies thus came in time to hold a very considerable
+share of the land of the country. The wealth and cultivation of the
+clergy and the desire to adorn and render more attractive their
+buildings and religious services fostered trade with foreign
+countries. The intercourse kept up with the church on the Continent
+also did something to lessen the isolation of England from the rest of
+the world. To these broadening influences must be added the effect
+which the Councils made up of churchmen from all England exerted in
+fostering the tardy growth of the unity of the country.
+
+
+*5. Danish and Late Saxon England.*--At the end of the eighth century
+the Danes or Northmen, the barbarous and heathen inhabitants of the
+islands and coast-lands of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, began to make
+rapid forays into the districts of England which lay near enough to
+the coasts or rivers to be at their mercy. Soon they became bolder or
+more numerous and established fortified camps along the English
+rivers, from which they ravaged the surrounding country. Still later,
+in the tenth and eleventh centuries, under their own kings as leaders,
+they became conquerors and permanent settlers of much of the country,
+and even for a time put a Danish dynasty on the throne to govern
+English and Danes alike. A succession of kings of the West Saxon line
+had struggled with varying success to drive the Danes from the country
+or to limit that portion of it which was under their control; but as a
+matter of fact the northern, eastern, and central portions of England
+were for more than a century and a half almost entirely under Danish
+rule. The constant immigration from Scandinavia during this time added
+an important element to the population--an element which soon,
+however, became completely absorbed in the mixed stock of the English
+people.
+
+The marauding Danish invaders were early followed by fellow-countrymen
+who were tradesmen and merchants. The Scandinavian countries had
+developed an early and active trade with the other lands bordering on
+the Baltic and North seas, and England under Danish influence was
+drawn into the same lines of commerce. The Danes were also more
+inclined to town life than the English, so that advantageously
+situated villages now grew into trading towns, and the sites of some
+of the old Roman cities began again to be filled with a busy
+population. With trading came a greater development of handicrafts, so
+that the population of later Anglo-Saxon England had somewhat varied
+occupations and means of support, instead of being exclusively
+agricultural, as in earlier centuries.
+
+During these later centuries of the Saxon period, from 800 to 1066,
+the most conspicuous and most influential ruler was King Alfred. When
+he became king, in 871, the Danish invaders were so completely
+triumphant as to force him to flee with a few followers to the forest
+as a temporary refuge. He soon emerged, however, with the nucleus of
+an army and, during his reign, which continued till 901, defeated the
+Danes repeatedly, obtained their acceptance of Christianity, forced
+upon them a treaty which restricted their rule to the northeastern
+shires, and transmitted to his son a military and naval organization
+which enabled him to win back much even of this part of England. He
+introduced greater order, prosperity, and piety into the church, and
+partly by his own writing, partly by his patronage of  learned men,
+reawakened an interest in Anglo-Saxon literature and in learning which
+the ravages of the Danes and the demoralization of the country had
+gone far to destroy. Alfred, besides his actual work as king,
+impressed the recognition of his fine nature and strong character
+deeply on the men of his time and the memory of all subsequent times.
+
+The power of the kingship in the Anglo-Saxon system of government was
+strengthened by the life and work of such kings as Alfred and some of
+his successors. There were other causes also which were tending to
+make the central government more of a reality. A national taxation,
+the Danegeld, was introduced for the purpose of ransoming the country
+from the Danes; the grant of lands by the king brought many persons
+through the country into closer relations with him; the royal judicial
+powers tended to increase with the development of law and
+civilization; the work of government was carried on by better-trained
+officials.
+
+On the other hand, a custom grew up in the tenth and early eleventh
+century of placing whole groups of shires under the government of
+great earls or viceroys, whose subjection to the central government of
+the king was but scant. Church bodies and others who had received
+large grants of land from the king were also coming to exercise over
+their tenants judicial, fiscal, and probably even military powers,
+which would seem more properly to belong to government officials. The
+result was that although the central government as compared with the
+local government of shires and hundreds was growing more active, the
+king's power as compared with the personal power of the great nobles
+was becoming less strong. Violence was common, and there were but few
+signs of advancing prosperity or civilization, when an entirely new
+set of influences came into existence with the conquest by the duke of
+Normandy in the year 1066.
+
+
+*6. The Period following the Norman Conquest.*--Normandy was a province
+of France lying along the shore of the English Channel. Its line of
+dukes and at least a considerable proportion of its people were of the
+same Scandinavian or Norse race which made up such a large element in
+the population of England. They had, however, learned more of the arts
+of life and of government from the more successfully preserved
+civilization of the Continent. The relations between England and
+Normandy began to be somewhat close in the early part of the eleventh
+century; the fugitive king of England, Ethelred, having taken refuge
+there, and marrying the sister of the duke. Edward the Confessor,
+their son, who was subsequently restored to the English throne, was
+brought up in Normandy, used the French language, and was accompanied
+on his return by Norman followers. Nine years after the accession of
+Edward, in 1051, William, the duke of Normandy, visited England and is
+said to have obtained a promise that he should receive the crown on
+the death of Edward, who had no direct heir. Accordingly, in 1065,
+when Edward died and Harold, a great English earl, was chosen king,
+William immediately asserted his claim and made strenuous military
+preparations for enforcing it. He took an army across the Channel in
+1066, as Cæsar had done more than a thousand years before, and at the
+battle of Hastings or Senlac defeated the English army, King Harold
+himself being killed in the engagement. William then pressed on toward
+London, preventing any gathering of new forces, and obtained his
+recognition as king. He was crowned on Christmas Day, 1066. During the
+next five years he put down a series of rebellions on the part of the
+native English, after which he and his descendants were acknowledged
+as sole kings of England.
+
+The Norman Conquest was not, however, a mere change of dynasty. It led
+to at least three other changes of the utmost importance. It added a
+new element to the population, it brought England into contact with
+the central and southern countries of the Continent, instead of merely
+with the northern as before, and it made the central government of the
+country vastly stronger. There is no satisfactory means of discovering
+how many Normans and others from across the Channel migrated into
+England with the Conqueror or in the wake of the Conquest, but there
+is no doubt that the number was large and their influence more than
+proportionate to their numbers. Within the lifetime of William, whose
+death occurred in 1087, of his two sons, William II and Henry I, and
+the nominal reign of Stephen extending to 1154, the whole body of the
+nobility, the bishops and abbots, and the government officials had
+come to be of Norman or other continental origin. Besides these the
+architects and artisans who built the castles and fortresses, and the
+cathedrals, abbeys, and parish churches, whose erection throughout the
+land was such a marked characteristic of the period, were immigrants
+from Normandy. Merchants from the Norman cities of Rouen and Caen came
+to settle in London and other English cities, and weavers from
+Flanders were settled in various towns and even rural districts. For a
+short time these newcomers remained a separate people, but before the
+twelfth century was over they had become for the most part
+indistinguishable from the great mass of the English people amongst
+whom they had come. They had nevertheless made that people stronger,
+more vigorous, more active-minded, and more varied in their
+occupations and interests.
+
+King William and his successors retained their continental  dominions
+and even extended them after their acquisition of the English kingdom,
+so that trade between the two sides of the Channel was more natural
+and easy than before. The strong government of the Norman kings gave
+protection and encouragement to this commerce, and by keeping down the
+violence of the nobles favored trade within the country. The English
+towns had been growing in number, size, and wealth in the years just
+before the Conquest. The contests of the years immediately following
+1066 led to a short period of decay, but very soon increasing trade
+and handicraft led to still greater progress. London, especially, now
+made good its position as one of the great cities of Europe, and that
+preëminence among English towns which it has never since lost. The
+fishing and seaport towns along the southern and eastern coast also,
+and even a number of inland towns, came to hold a much more
+influential place in the nation than they had possessed in the
+Anglo-Saxon period.
+
+The increased power of the monarchy arose partly from its military
+character as based upon a conquest of the country, partly from the
+personal character of William and his immediate successors, partly
+from the more effective machinery for administration of the affairs of
+government, which was either brought over from Normandy or developed
+in England. A body of trained, skilful government officials now
+existed, who were able to carry out the wishes of the king, collect
+his revenues, administer justice, gather armies, and in other ways
+make his rule effective to an extent unknown in the preceding period.
+The sheriffs, who had already existed as royal representatives in the
+shires in Anglo-Saxon times, now possessed far more extensive powers,
+and came up to Westminster to report and to present their financial
+accounts to the royal exchequer twice a year. Royal officials acting
+as judges not only settled an increasingly large number of cases that
+were brought before them at the king's court, but travelled through
+the country, trying suits and punishing criminals in the different
+shires. The king's income was vastly larger than that of the
+Anglo-Saxon monarchs had been. The old Danegeld was still collected
+from time to time, though under a different name, and the king's
+position as landlord of the men who had received the lands confiscated
+at the Conquest was utilized to obtain additional payments.
+
+Perhaps the greatest proof of the power and efficiency of the
+government in the Norman period was the compilation of the great body
+of statistics known as "Domesday Book." In 1085 King William sent
+commissioners to every part of England to collect a variety of
+information about the financial conditions on which estates were held,
+their value, and fitness for further taxation. The information
+obtained from this investigation was drawn up in order and written in
+two large manuscript volumes which still exist in the Public Record
+Office at London. It is a much more extensive body of information than
+was collected for any other country of Europe until many centuries
+afterward. Yet its statements, though detailed and exact and of great
+interest from many points of view, are disappointing to the student of
+history. They were obtained for the financial purposes of government,
+and cannot be made to give the clear picture of the life of the people
+and of the relations of different classes to one another which would
+be so welcome, and which is so easily obtained from the great variety
+of more private documents which came into existence a century and a
+half later.
+
+The church during this period was not relatively so conspicuous as
+during Saxon times, but the number of the clergy, both secular and
+regular, was very large, the bishops and abbots powerful, and the
+number of monasteries and nunneries increasing. The most important
+ecclesiastical change was the development of church courts. The
+bishops or their representatives began to hold courts for the trial of
+churchmen, the settlement of such suits as churchmen were parties to,
+and the decision of cases in certain fields of law. This gave the
+church a new influence, in addition to that which it held from its
+spiritual duties, from its position as landlord over such extensive
+tracts, and from the superior enlightenment and mental ability of its
+prominent officials, but it also gave greater occasion for conflict
+with the civil government and with private persons.
+
+After the death of Henry I in 1135 a miserable period of confusion and
+violence ensued. Civil war broke out between two claimants for the
+crown, Stephen the grandson, and Matilda the granddaughter, of William
+the Conqueror. The organization of government was allowed to fall into
+disorder, and but little effort was made to collect the royal revenue,
+to fulfil the newly acquired judicial duties, or to insist upon order
+being preserved in the country. The nobles took opposite sides in the
+contest for the crown, and made use of the weakness of government to
+act as if they were themselves sovereigns over their estates and the
+country adjacent to their castles with no ruler above them. Private
+warfare, oppression of less powerful men, seizure of property, went on
+unchecked. Every baron's castle became an independent establishment
+carried on in accordance only with the unbridled will of its lord, as
+if there were no law and no central authority to which he must bow.
+The will of the lord was often one of reckless violence, and there was
+more disorder and suffering in England than at any time since the
+ravages of the Danes.
+
+In Anglo-Saxon times, when a weak king appeared, the shire moots, or
+the rulers of groups of shires, exercised the authority which the
+central government had lost. In the twelfth century, when the power of
+the royal government was similarly diminished through the weakness of
+Stephen and the confusions of the civil war, it was a certain class of
+men, the great nobles, that fell heir to the lost strength of
+government. This was because of the development of feudalism during
+the intervening time. The greater landholders had come to exercise
+over those who held land from them certain powers which in modern
+times belong to the officers of government only. A landlord could call
+upon his tenants for military service to him, and for the contribution
+of money for his expenses; he held a court to decide suits between one
+tenant and another, and frequently to punish their crimes and
+misdemeanors; in case of the death of a tenant leaving a minor heir,
+his landlord became guardian and temporary holder of the land, and if
+there were no heirs, the land reverted to him, not to the national
+government. These relations which the great landholders held toward
+their tenants, the latter, who often themselves were landlords over
+whole townships or other great tracts of land with their population,
+held toward their tenants. Sometimes these subtenants granted land to
+others below them, and over these the last landlord also exercised
+feudal rights, and so on till the actual occupants and cultivators of
+the soil were reached. The great nobles had thus come to stand in a
+middle position. Above them was the king, below them these successive
+stages of tenants and subtenants. Their tenants owed to them the same
+financial and political services and duties as they owed to the king.
+From the time of the Norman Conquest, all land in England was looked
+upon as being held from the king directly by a comparatively few, and
+indirectly through them by all others who held land at all. Moreover,
+from a time at least soon after the Norman Conquest, the services and
+payments above mentioned came to be recognized as due from all tenants
+to their lords, and were gradually systematized and defined. Each
+person or ecclesiastical body that held land from the king owed him
+the military service of a certain number of knights or armed horse
+soldiers. The period for which this service was owed was generally
+estimated as forty days once a year. Subtenants similarly owed
+military service to their landlords, though in the lesser grades this
+was almost invariably commuted for money. "Wardship and marriage" was
+the expression applied to the right of the lord to the guardianship of
+the estate of a minor heir of his tenant, and to the choice of a
+husband or wife for the heir when he came of proper age. This right
+also was early turned into the form of a money consideration. There
+were a number of money payments pure and simple. "Relief" was a
+payment to the landlord, usually of a year's income of the estate,
+made by an heir on obtaining his inheritance. There were three
+generally acknowledged "aids" or payments of a set sum in proportion
+to the amount of land held. These were on the occasion of the
+knighting of the lord's son, of the marriage of his daughter, and for
+his ransom in case he was captured in war. Land could be confiscated
+if the tenant violated his duties to his landlord, and it "escheated"
+to the lord in case of failure of heirs. Every tenant was bound to
+attend his landlord to help form a court for judicial work, and to
+submit to the judgment of a court of his fellow-tenants for his own
+affairs.
+
+In addition to the relations of landlord and tenant and to the power
+of jurisdiction, taxation, and military service which landlords
+exercised over their tenants, there was considered to be a close
+personal relationship between them. Every tenant on obtaining his land
+went through a ceremony known as "homage," by which he promised
+faithfulness and service to his lord, vowing on his knees to be his
+man. The lord in return promised faithfulness, protection, and justice
+to his tenant. It was this combination of landholding, political
+rights, and sworn personal fidelity that made up feudalism. It existed
+in this sense in England from the later Saxon period till late in the
+Middle Ages, and even in some of its characteristics to quite modern
+times. The conquest by William of Normandy through the wholesale
+confiscation and regrant of lands, and through his military
+arrangements, brought about an almost sudden development and spread of
+feudalism in England, and it was rapidly systematized and completed in
+the reigns of his two sons. By its very nature feudalism gives great
+powers to the higher ranks of the nobility, the great landholders.
+Under the early Norman kings, however, their strength was kept in
+tolerably complete check. The anarchy of the reign of Stephen was an
+indication of the natural tendencies of feudalism without a vigorous
+king. This time of confusion when, as the contemporary chronicle says,
+"every man did that which was good in his own eyes," was brought to an
+end by the accession to the throne of Henry II, a man whose personal
+abilities and previous training enabled him to bring the royal
+authority to greater strength than ever, and to put an end to the
+oppressions of the turbulent nobles.
+
+
+*7. The Period of the Early Angevin Kings, 1154-1338.*--The two
+centuries which now followed saw either the completion or the
+initiation of most of the characteristics of the English race with
+which we are familiar in historic times. The race, the language, the
+law, and the political organization have remained fundamentally the
+same as they became during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. No
+considerable new addition was made to the population, and the elements
+which it already contained became so thoroughly fused that it has
+always since been practically a homogeneous body. The Latin language
+remained through this whole period and till long afterward the
+principal language of records, documents, and the affairs of the
+church. French continued to be the language of the daily intercourse
+of the upper classes, of the pleadings in the law courts, and of
+certain documents and records. But English was taking its modern form,
+asserting itself as the real national language, and by the close of
+this period had come into general use for the vast majority of
+purposes. Within the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Universities
+of Oxford and Cambridge grew up, and within the fourteenth took their
+later shape of self-governing groups of colleges. Successive orders of
+religious men and women were formed under rules intended to overcome
+the defects which had appeared in the early Benedictine rule. The
+organized church became more and more powerful, and disputes
+constantly arose as to the limits between its power and that of the
+ordinary government. The question was complicated from the fact that
+the English Church was but one branch of the general church of Western
+Christendom, whose centre and principal authority was vested in the
+Pope at Rome. One of the most serious of these conflicts was between
+King Henry II and Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, principally on the
+question of how far clergymen should be subject to the same laws as
+laymen. The personal dispute ended in the murder of the archbishop, in
+1170, but the controversy itself got no farther than a compromise. A
+contest broke out between King John and the Pope in 1205 as to the
+right of the king to dictate the selection of a new archbishop of
+Canterbury. By 1213 the various forms of influence which the church
+could bring to bear were successful in forcing the king to give way.
+He therefore made humble apologies and accepted the nominee of the
+Pope for the office. Later in the thirteenth century there was much
+popular opposition to papal taxation of England.
+
+In the reign of Henry II, the conquest of Ireland was begun. In 1283
+Edward I, great-grandson of Henry, completed the conquest of Wales,
+which had remained incompletely conquered from Roman times onward. In
+1292 Edward began that interference in the affairs of Scotland which
+led on to long wars and a nominal conquest. For a while therefore it
+seemed that England was about to create a single monarchy out of the
+whole of the British Islands. Moreover, Henry II was already count of
+Anjou and Maine by inheritance from his father when he became duke of
+Normandy and king of England by inheritance from his mother. He also
+obtained control of almost all the remainder of the western and
+southern provinces of France by his marriage with Eleanor of
+Aquitaine. It seemed, therefore, that England might become the centre
+of a considerable empire composed partly of districts on the
+Continent, partly of the British Islands. As a matter of fact, Wales
+long remained separated from England in organization and feeling,
+little progress was made with the real conquest of Ireland till in the
+sixteenth century, and the absorption of Scotland failed entirely.
+King John, in 1204, lost most of the possessions of the English kings
+south of the Channel and they were not regained within this period.
+The unification of the English government and people really occurred
+during this period, but it was only within the boundaries which were
+then as now known as England.
+
+Henry II was a vigorous, clear-headed, far-sighted ruler. He not only
+put down the rebellious barons with a strong hand, and restored the
+old royal institutions, as already stated, but added new powers of
+great importance, especially in the organization of the courts of
+justice. He changed the occasional visits of royal officials to
+different parts of the country to regular periodical circuits, the
+kingdom being divided into districts in each of which a group of
+judges held court at least once in each year. In 1166, by the Assize
+of Clarendon, he made provision for a sworn body of men in each
+neighborhood to bring accusations against criminals, thus making the
+beginning of the grand jury system. He also provided that a group of
+men should be put upon their oath to give a decision in a dispute
+about the possession of land, if either one of the claimants asked for
+it, thus introducing the first form of the trial by jury. The
+decisions of the judges within this period came to be so consistent
+and so well recorded as to make the foundation of the Common Law the
+basis of modern law in all English-speaking countries.
+
+Henry's successor was his son Richard I, whose government was quite
+unimportant except for the romantic personal adventures of the king
+when on a crusade, and in his continental dominions. Henry's second
+son John reigned from 1199 to 1216. Although of good natural
+abilities, he was extraordinarily indolent, mean, treacherous, and
+obstinate. By his inactivity during a long quarrel with the king of
+France he lost all his provinces on the Continent, except those in the
+far south. His contest with the Pope had ended in failure and
+humiliation. He had angered the barons by arbitrary taxation and by
+many individual acts of outrage or oppression. Finally he had
+alienated the affections of the mass of the population by introducing
+foreign mercenaries to support his tyranny and permitting to them
+unbridled excess and violence. As a result of this widespread
+unpopularity, a rebellion was organized, including almost the whole of
+the baronage of England, guided by the counsels of Stephen Langton,
+archbishop of Canterbury, and supported by the citizens of London. The
+indefiniteness of feudal relations was a constant temptation to kings
+and other lords to carry their exactions and demands upon their
+tenants to an unreasonable and oppressive length. Henry I, on his
+accession in 1100, in order to gain popularity, had voluntarily
+granted a charter reciting a number of these forms of oppression and
+promising to put an end to them. The rebellious barons now took this
+old charter as a basis, added to it many points which had become
+questions of dispute during the century since it had been granted, and
+others which were of special interest to townsmen and the middle and
+even lower classes. They then demanded the king's promise to issue a
+charter containing these points. John resisted for a while, but at
+last gave way and signed the document which has since been known as
+the "Great Charter," or Magna Carta. This has always been considered
+as, in a certain sense, the guarantee of English liberties and the
+foundation of the settled constitution of the kingdom. The fact that
+it was forced from a reluctant king by those who spoke for the whole
+nation, that it placed definite limitations on his power, and that it
+was confirmed again and again by later kings, has done more to give it
+this position than its temporary and in many cases insignificant
+provisions, accompanied only by a comparatively few statements of
+general principles.
+
+The beginnings of the construction of the English parliamentary
+constitution fall within the next reign, that of John's son, Henry
+III, 1216-1272. He was a child at his accession, and when he became a
+man proved to have but few qualities which would enable him to
+exercise a real control over the course of events. Conflicts were
+constant between the king and confederations of the barons, for the
+greater part of the time under the leadership of Simon de Montfort,
+earl of Leicester. The special points of difference were the king's
+preference for foreign adventurers in his distribution of offices, his
+unrestrained munificence to them, their insolence and oppression
+relying on the king's support, the financial demands which were
+constantly being made, and the king's encouragement of the high claims
+and pecuniary exactions of the Pope. At first these conflicts took the
+form of disputes in the Great Council, but ultimately they led to
+another outbreak of civil war. The Great Council of the kingdom was a
+gathering of the nobles, bishops, and abbots summoned by the king from
+time to time for advice and participation in the more important work
+of government. It had always existed in one form or another, extending
+back continuously to the "witenagemot" of the Anglo-Saxons. During the
+reign of Henry the name "Parliament" was coming to be more regularly
+applied to it, its meetings were more frequent and its self-assertion
+more vigorous. But most important of all, a new class of members was
+added to it. In 1265, in addition to the nobles and great prelates,
+the sheriffs were ordered to see that two knights were selected from
+each of their shires, and two citizens from each of a long list of the
+larger towns, to attend and take part in the discussions of
+Parliament. This plan was not continued regularly at first, but
+Henry's successor, Edward I, who reigned from 1272 to 1307, adopted it
+deliberately, and from 1295 forward the "Commons," as they came to be
+called, were always included in Parliament. Within the next century a
+custom arose according to which the representatives of the shires and
+the towns sat in a separate body from the nobles and churchmen, so
+that Parliament took on its modern form of two houses, the House of
+Lords and the House of Commons.
+
+Until this time and long afterward the personal character and
+abilities of the king were far the most important single factor in the
+growth of the nation. Edward I was one of the greatest of English
+kings, ranking with Alfred, William the Conqueror, and Henry II. His
+conquests of Wales and of Scotland have already been mentioned, and
+these with the preparation they involved and a war with France into
+which he was drawn necessarily occupied the greater part of his time
+and energy. But he found the time to introduce good order and control
+into the government in all its branches; to make a great investigation
+into the judicial and administrative system, the results of which,
+commonly known as the "Hundred Rolls," are comparable to Domesday Book
+in extent and character; to develop the organization of Parliament,
+and above all to enact through it a series of great reforming
+statutes. The most important of these were the First and Second
+Statutes of Westminster, in 1275 and 1285, which made provisions for
+good order in the country, for the protection of merchants, and for
+other objects; the Statute of Mortmain, passed in 1279, which put a
+partial stop to injurious gifts of land to the church, and the Statute
+_Quia Emptores_, passed in 1290, which was intended to prevent the
+excessive multiplication of subtenants. This was done by providing
+that whenever in the future any landholder should dispose of a piece
+of land it should be held from the same lord the grantor had held it
+from, not from the grantor himself. He also gave more liberal charters
+to the towns, privileges to foreign merchants, and constant
+encouragement to trade. The king's firm hand and prudent judgment were
+felt in a wide circle of regulations applying to taxes, markets and
+fairs, the purchase of royal supplies, the currency, the
+administration of local justice, and many other fields. Yet after all
+it was the organization of Parliament that was the most important work
+of Edward's reign. This completed the unification of the country. The
+English people were now one race, under one law, with one Parliament
+representing all parts of the country. It was possible now for the
+whole nation to act as a unit, and for laws to be passed which would
+apply to the whole country and draw its different sections continually
+more closely together. National growth was now possible in a sense in
+which it had not been before.
+
+The reign of Edward II, like his own character, was insignificant
+compared with that of his father. He was deposed in 1327, and his son,
+Edward III, came to the throne as a boy of fourteen years. The first
+years of his reign were also relatively unimportant. By the time he
+reached his majority, however, other events were imminent which for
+the next century or more gave a new direction to the principal
+interests and energies of England. A description of these events will
+be given in a later chapter.
+
+For the greater part of the long period which has now been sketched in
+outline it is almost solely the political and ecclesiastical events
+and certain personal experiences which have left their records in
+history. We can obtain but vague outlines of the actual life of the
+people. An important Anglo-Saxon document describes the organization
+of a great landed estate, and from Domesday Book and other early
+Norman records may be drawn certain inferences as to the degree of
+freedom of the masses of the people and certain facts as to
+agriculture and trade. From the increasing body of public records in
+the twelfth century can be gathered detached pieces of information as
+to actual social and economic conditions, but the knowledge that can
+be obtained is even yet slight and uncertain. With the thirteenth
+century, however, all this is changed. During the latter part of the
+period just described, that is to say the reigns of Henry III and the
+three Edwards, we have almost as full knowledge of economic as of
+political conditions, of the life of the mass of the people as of that
+of courtiers and ecclesiastics. From a time for which 1250 may be
+taken as an approximate date, written documents began to be so
+numerous, so varied, and so full of information as to the affairs of
+private life, that it becomes possible to obtain a comparatively full
+and clear knowledge of the methods of agriculture, handicraft, and
+commerce, of the classes of society, the prevailing customs and ideas,
+and in general of the mode of life and social organization of the mass
+of the people, this being the principal subject of economic and social
+history. The next three chapters will therefore be devoted
+respectively to a description of rural life, of town life, and of
+trading relations, as they were during the century from 1250 to 1350,
+while the succeeding chapters will trace the main lines of economic
+and social change during succeeding periods down to the present time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+RURAL LIFE AND ORGANIZATION
+
+
+*8. The Mediæval Village.*--In the Middle Ages in the greater part of
+England all country life was village life. The farmhouses were not
+isolated or separated from one another by surrounding fields, as they
+are so generally in modern times, but were gathered into villages.
+Each village was surrounded by arable lands, meadows, pastures, and
+woods which spread away till they reached the confines of the similar
+fields of the next adjacent village. Such an agricultural village with
+its population and its surrounding lands is usually spoken of as a
+"vill." The word "manor" is also applied to it, though this word is
+also used in other senses, and has differed in meaning at different
+periods. The word "hamlet" means a smaller group of houses separated
+from but forming in some respects a part of a vill or manor.
+
+The village consisted of a group of houses ranging in number from ten
+or twelve to as many as fifty or perhaps even more, grouped around
+what in later times would be called a "village green," or along two or
+three intersecting lanes. The houses were small, thatch-roofed, and
+one-roomed, and doubtless very miserable. Such buildings as existed
+for the protection of cattle or the preservation of crops were closely
+connected with the dwelling portions of the houses. In many cases they
+were under the same roof. Each vill possessed its church, which was
+generally, though by no means always, close to the houses of the
+village. There was usually a manor house, which varied in size from
+an actual castle to a building of a character scarcely distinguishable
+from the primitive houses of the villagers. This might be occupied
+regularly or occasionally by the lord of the manor, but might
+otherwise be inhabited by the steward or by a tenant, or perhaps only
+serve as the gathering place of the manor courts.
+
+Connected with the manor house was an enclosure or courtyard commonly
+surrounded by buildings for general farm purposes and for cooking or
+brewing. A garden orchard was often attached.
+
+[Illustration: Thirteenth Century Manor House, Millichope, Shropshire.
+(Wright, _History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments_.)]
+
+The location of the vill was almost invariably such that a stream with
+its border meadows passed through or along its confines, the mill
+being often the only building that lay detached from the village
+group. A greater or less extent of woodland is also constantly
+mentioned.
+
+The vill was thus made up of the group of houses of the villagers
+including the parish church and the manor house, all surrounded by a
+wide tract of arable land, meadow, pasture, and woods. Where the lands
+were extensive there might perhaps be a small group of houses forming
+a separate hamlet at some distance from the village, and occasionally
+a detached mill, grange, or other building. Its characteristic
+appearance, however, must have been that of a close group of buildings
+surrounded by an extensive tract of open land.
+
+[Illustration: Thirteenth Century Manor House, Boothby Pagnell,
+Lincolnshire. (Turner, _Domestic Architecture in England_.)]
+
+
+*9. The Vill as an Agricultural System.*--The support of the vill was in
+its agriculture. The plan by which the lands of the whole group of
+cultivators lay together in a large tract surrounding the village is
+spoken of as the "open field" system. The arable portions of this were
+ploughed in pieces equalling approximately acres, half-acres, or
+quarter-acres.
+
+[Illustration: Village with Open Fields, Nörtershausen, near Coblentz.
+Germany. (From a photograph taken in 1894.)]
+
+The mediæval English acre was a long narrow strip forty rods in length
+and four rods in width, a half-acre or quarter-acre being of the same
+length, but of two rods or one rod in width. The rod was of different
+lengths in different parts of the country, depending on local custom,
+but the most common length was that prescribed by statute, that is to
+say, sixteen and a half feet. The length of the acre, forty rods, has
+given rise to one of the familiar units of length, the furlong, that
+is, a "furrow-long," or the length of a furrow. A rood is a piece of
+land one rod wide and forty rods long, that is, the fourth of an acre.
+A series of such strips were ploughed up successively, being separated
+from each other either by leaving the width of a furrow or two
+unploughed, or by marking the division with stones, or perhaps by
+simply throwing the first furrow of the next strip in the opposite
+direction when it was ploughed. When an unploughed border was left
+covered with grass or stones, it was called a "balk." A number of such
+acres or fractions of acres with their slight dividing ridges thus lay
+alongside of one another in a group, the number being defined by the
+configuration of the ground, by a traditional division among a given
+number of tenants, or by some other cause. Other groups of strips lay
+at right angles or inclined to these, so that the whole arable land of
+the village when ploughed or under cultivation had, like many French,
+German, or Swiss landscapes at the present time, something of the
+appearance of a great irregular checker-board or patchwork quilt, each
+large square being divided in one direction by parallel lines.
+Usually the cultivated open fields belonging to a village were divided
+into three or more large tracts or fields and these were cultivated
+according to some established rotation of crops. The most common of
+these was the three-field system, by which in any one year all the
+strips in one tract or field would be planted with wheat, rye, or some
+other crop which is planted in the fall and harvested the next summer;
+a second great field would be planted with oats, barley, peas, or some
+such crop as is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall; the
+third field would be fallow, recuperating its fertility. The next year
+all the acres in the field which had lain fallow the year before might
+be planted with a fall crop, the wheat field of the previous year
+being planted with a spring crop, and the oats field in its turn now
+lying uncultivated for a year. The third year a further exchange would
+be made by which a fall crop would succeed the fallow of that year and
+the spring crop of the previous year, a spring crop would succeed the
+last year's fall crop and the field from which the spring crop was
+taken now in its turn would enjoy a fallow year. In the fourth year
+the rotation would begin over again.
+
+[Illustration: Village with Open Fields, Udenhausen, near Coblentz,
+Germany. (From a photograph taken in 1894.)]
+
+Agriculture was extremely crude. But eight or nine bushels of wheat or
+rye were expected from an acre, where now in England the average is
+thirty. The plough regularly required eight draught animals, usually
+oxen, in breaking up the ground, though lighter ploughs were used in
+subsequent cultivation. The breed of all farm animals was small, carts
+were few and cumbrous, the harvesting of grain was done with a sickle,
+and the mowing of grass with a short, straight scythe. The distance of
+the outlying parts of the fields from the farm buildings of the
+village added its share to the laboriousness of agricultural life.
+
+[Illustration: Modern Ploughing with Six Oxen in Sussex. (Hudson, W.
+H.: _Nature in Downland_. Published by Longmans, Green & Co.)]
+
+[Illustration: Open Fields of Hayford Bridge, Oxfordshire, 1607.
+(Facsimile map published by the University of Oxford.)]
+
+The variety of food crops raised was small. Potatoes were of course
+unknown, and other root crops and fresh vegetables apparently were
+little cultivated. Wheat and rye of several varieties were raised as
+bread-stuff, barley and some other grains for the brewing of beer.
+Field peas and beans were raised, sometimes for food, but generally as
+forage for cattle. The main supply of winter forage for the farm
+animals had, however, to be secured in the form of hay, and for this
+reliance was placed entirely on the natural meadows, as no clover or
+grasses which could be artificially raised on dry ground were yet
+known. Meadow land was constantly estimated at twice the value of
+arable ground or more. To obtain a sufficient support for the oxen,
+horses, and breeding animals through the winter required, therefore, a
+constant struggle. Owing to this difficulty animals that were to be
+used for food purposes were regularly killed in the fall and salted
+down. Much of the unhealthiness of medieval life is no doubt
+attributable to the use of salt meat as so large a part of what was at
+best a very monotonous diet.
+
+Summer pasture for the horses, cattle, sheep, and swine of the village
+was found partly on the arable land after the grain crops had been
+taken off, or while it was lying fallow. Since all the acres in any
+one great field were planted with the same crop, this would be taken
+off from the whole expanse at practically the same time, and the
+animals of the whole village might then wander over it, feeding on the
+stubble, the grass of the balks, and such other growth as sprung up
+before the next ploughing, or before freezing weather. Pasturage was
+also found on the meadows after the hay had been cut. But the largest
+amount of all was on the "common pasture," the uncultivated land and
+woods which in the thirteenth century was still sufficiently
+abundant in most parts of England to be found in considerable extent
+on almost every manor. Pasturage in all these forms was for the most
+part common for all the animals of the vill, which were sent out under
+the care of shepherds or other guardians. There were, however,
+sometimes enclosed pieces of pasture land in the possession of the
+lord of the manor or of individual villagers.
+
+The land of the vill was held and cultivated according to a system of
+scattered acres. That is to say, the land held by any one man was not
+all in one place, but scattered through various parts of the open
+fields of the vill. He would have an acre or two, or perhaps only a
+part of an acre, in one place, another strip not adjacent to it, but
+somewhere else in the fields, still another somewhere else, and so on
+for his whole holding, while the neighbor whose house was next to his
+in the village would have pieces of land similarly scattered through
+the fields, and in many cases probably have them adjacent to his. The
+result was that the various acres or other parts of any one man's
+holding were mingled apparently inextricably with those of other men,
+customary familiarity only distinguishing which pieces belonged to
+each villager.
+
+In some manors there was total irregularity as to the number of acres
+in the occupation of any one man; in others there was a striking
+regularity. The typical holding, the group of scattered acres
+cultivated by one man or held by some two or three in common, was
+known as a "virgate," or by some equivalent term, and although of no
+universal equality, was more frequently of thirty acres than of any
+other number. Usually one finds on a given manor that ten or fifteen
+of the villagers have each a virgate of a given number of acres,
+several more have each a half virgate or a quarter. Occasionally, on
+the other hand, each of them has a different number of acres. In
+almost all cases, however, the agricultural holdings of the villagers
+were relatively small. For instance, on a certain manor in Norfolk
+there were thirty-six holdings, twenty of them below ten acres, eight
+between ten and twenty, six between twenty and thirty, and two between
+thirty and forty. On another, in Essex, there were nine holdings of
+five acres each, two of six, twelve of ten, three of twelve, one of
+eighteen, four of twenty, one of forty, and one of fifty. Sometimes
+larger holdings in the hands of individual tenants are to be found,
+rising to one hundred acres or more. Still these were quite
+exceptional and the mass of the villagers had very small groups of
+acres in their possession.
+
+It is to be noted next that a large proportion of the cultivated
+strips were not held in virgates or otherwise by the villagers at all,
+but were in the direct possession and cultivation of the lord of the
+manor. This land held directly by the lord of the manor and cultivated
+for him was called the "demesne," and frequently included one-half or
+even a larger proportion of all the land of the vill. Much of the
+meadow and pasture land, and frequently all of the woods, was included
+in the demesne. Some of the demesne land was detached from the land of
+the villagers, enclosed and separately cultivated or pastured; but for
+the most part it lay scattered through the same open fields and was
+cultivated by the same methods and according to the same rotation as
+the land of the small tenants of the vill, though it was kept under
+separate management.
+
+
+*10. Classes of People on the Manor.*--Every manor was in the hands of a
+lord. He might be a knight, esquire, or mere freeman, but in the great
+majority of cases the lord of the manor was a nobleman, a bishop,
+abbot, or other ecclesiastical official, or the king. But whether the
+manor was the whole estate of a man of the lesser gentry, or merely
+one part of the possessions of a great baron, an ecclesiastical
+corporation, or the crown, the relation between its possessor as lord
+of the manor and the other inhabitants as his tenants was the same. In
+the former case he was usually resident upon the manor; in the latter
+the individual or corporate lord was represented by a steward or other
+official who made occasional visits, and frequently, on large manors,
+by a resident bailiff. There was also almost universally a reeve, who
+was chosen from among the tenants and who had to carry on the demesne
+farm in the interests of the lord.
+
+[Illustration: Seal, with Representation of a Manor House. (Turner,
+_Domestic Architecture in England_.)]
+
+The tenants of the manor, ranging from holders of considerable amounts
+of land, perhaps as much as a hundred acres, through various
+gradations down to mere cotters, who held no more than a cottage with
+perhaps a half-acre or a rood of land, or even with no land at all,
+are usually grouped in the "extents" or contemporary descriptions of
+the manors and their inhabitants into several distinct classes. Some
+are described as free tenants, or tenants holding freely. Others, and
+usually the largest class, are called villains, or customary tenants.
+Some, holding only a half or a quarter virgate, are spoken of as half
+or quarter villains. Again, a numerous class are described by some
+name indicating that they hold only a dwelling-house, or at least that
+their holding of land is but slight. These are generally spoken of as
+cotters.
+
+All these tenants hold land from the lord of the manor and make
+payments and perform services in return for their land. The free
+tenants most commonly make payments in money only. At special periods
+in the year they give a certain number of shillings or pence to the
+lord. Occasionally they are required to make some payment in kind, a
+cock or a hen, some eggs, or other articles of consumption. These
+money payments and payments of articles of money value are called
+"rents of assize," or established rents. Not unusually, however, the
+free tenant has to furnish _precariæ_ or "boon-works" to the lord.
+That is, he must, either in his own person or through a man hired for
+the purpose, furnish one or more days' labor at the specially busy
+seasons of the year, at fall and spring ploughing, at mowing or
+harvest time. Free tenants were also frequently bound to pay relief
+and heriot. Relief was a sum of money paid to the lord by an heir on
+obtaining land by inheritance. Custom very generally established the
+amount to be paid as the equivalent of one year's ordinary payments.
+Heriot was a payment made in kind or in money from the property left
+by a deceased tenant, and very generally consisted by custom of the
+best animal which had been in the possession of the man, or its
+equivalent in value. On many manors heriot was not paid by free
+tenants, but only by those of lower rank.
+
+The services and payments of the villains or customary tenants were of
+various descriptions. They had usually to make some money payments at
+regular periods of the year, like the free tenants, and, even more
+frequently than they, some regular payments in kind. But the fine paid
+on the inheritance of their land was less definitely restricted in
+amount, and heriot was more universally and more regularly collected.
+The greater part of their liability to the lord of the manor was,
+however, in the form of personal, corporal service. Almost universally
+the villain was required to work for a certain number of days in each
+week on the demesne of the lord. This "week-work" was most frequently
+for three days a week, sometimes for two, sometimes for four;
+sometimes for one number of days in the week during a part of the
+year, for another number during the remainder. In addition to this
+were usually the _precariæ_ or boon-works already referred to.
+Sometimes as part of, sometimes in addition to, the week-work and the
+boon-work, the villain was required to plough so many acres in the
+fall and spring; to mow, toss, and carry in the hay from so many
+acres; to haul and scatter so many loads of manure; carry grain to the
+barn or the market, build hedges, dig ditches, gather brush, weed
+grain, break clods, drive sheep or swine, or any other of the forms of
+agricultural labor as local custom on each manor had established his
+burdens. Combining the week-work, the regular boon-works, and the
+extra specified services, it will be seen that the labor required from
+the customary tenant was burdensome in the extreme. Taken on the
+average, much more than half of the ordinary villain's time must have
+been given in services to the lord of the manor.
+
+The cotters made similar payments and performed similar labors, though
+less in amount. A widespread custom required them to work for the lord
+one day a week throughout the year, with certain regular payments, and
+certain additional special services.
+
+Besides the possession of their land and rights of common pasture,
+however, there were some other compensations and alleviations of the
+burdens of the villains and cotters. At the boon-works and other
+special services performed by the tenants, it was a matter of custom
+that the lord of the manor provide food for one or two meals a day,
+and custom frequently defined the kind, amount, and value of the food
+for each separate meal; as where it is said in a statement of
+services: "It is to be known that all the above customary tenants
+ought to reap one day in autumn at one boon-work of wheat, and they
+shall have among them six bushels of wheat for their bread, baked in
+the manor, and broth and meat, that is to say, two men have one
+portion of beef and cheese, and beer for drinking. And the aforesaid
+customary tenants ought to work in autumn at two boon-works of oats.
+And they shall have six bushels of rye for their bread as described
+above, broth as before, and herrings, viz. six herrings for each man,
+and cheese as before, and water for drinking."
+
+Thus the payments and services of the free tenants were principally of
+money, and apparently not burdensome; those of the villains were
+largely in corporal service and extremely heavy; while those of the
+cotters were smaller, in correspondence with their smaller holdings of
+land and in accordance with the necessity that they have their time in
+order to make their living by earning wages.
+
+The villains and cotters were in bondage to the lord of the manor.
+This was a matter of legal status quite independent of the amount of
+land which the tenant held or of the services which he performed,
+though, generally speaking, the great body of the smaller tenants and
+of the laborers were of servile condition. In general usage the words
+_villanus_, _nativus_, _servus_, _custumarius_, and _rusticus_ are
+synonymous, and the cotters belonged legally to the same servile
+class.
+
+The distinction between free tenants and villains, using this word, as
+is customary, to include all those who were legally in servitude, was
+not a very clearly marked one. Their economic position was often so
+similar that the classes shaded into one another. But the villain was,
+as has been seen, usually burdened with much heavier services. He was
+subject to special payments, such as "merchet," a payment made to the
+lord of the manor when a woman of villain rank was married, and
+"leyr," a payment made by women for breach of chastity. He could be
+"tallaged" or taxed to any extent the lord saw fit. He was bound to
+the soil. He could not leave the manor to seek for better conditions
+of life elsewhere. If he ran away, his lord could obtain an order from
+a court and have him brought back. When permission was obtained to
+remain away from the manor as an inhabitant of another vill or of a
+town, it was only upon payment of a periodical sum, frequently known
+as "chevage" or head money. He could not sell his cattle without
+paying the lord for permission. He had practically no standing in the
+courts of the country. In any suit against his lord the proof of his
+condition of villainage was sufficient to put him out of court, and
+his only recourse was the local court of the manor, where the lord
+himself or his representative presided. Finally, in the eyes of the
+law, the villain had no property of his own, all his possessions
+being, in the last resort, the property of his lord. This legal
+theory, however, apparently had but little application to real life;
+for in the ordinary course of events the customary tenant, if only by
+custom, not by law, yet held and bequeathed to his descendants his
+land and his chattels quite as if they were his own.
+
+Serfdom, as it existed in England in the thirteenth century, can
+hardly be defined in strict legal terms. It can be described most
+correctly as a condition in which the villain tenant of the manor was
+bound to the locality and to his services and payments there by a
+legal bond, instead of merely by an economic bond, as was the case
+with the small free tenant.
+
+There were commonly a few persons in the vill who were not in the
+general body of cultivators of the land and were not therefore in the
+classes so far described. Since the vill was generally a parish also,
+the village contained the parish priest, who, though he might usually
+hold some acres in the open fields, and might belong to the peasant
+class, was of course somewhat set apart from the villagers by his
+education and his ordination. The mill was a valued possession of the
+lord of the manor, for by an almost universal custom the tenants were
+bound to have their grain ground there, and this monopoly enabled the
+miller to pay a substantial rent to the lord while keeping enough
+profit for himself to become proverbially well-to-do.
+
+There was often a blacksmith, whom we find sometimes exempted from
+other services on condition of keeping the demesne ploughs and other
+iron implements in order. A chance weaver or other craftsman is
+sometimes found, and when the vill was near sea or river or forest
+some who made their living by industries dependent on the locality. In
+the main, however, the whole life of the vill gathered around the
+arable, meadow, and pasture land, and the social position of the
+tenants, except for the cross division of serfdom, depended upon the
+respective amounts of land which they held.
+
+
+*11. The Manor Courts.*--The manor was the sphere of operations of a
+manor court. On every manor the tenants gathered at frequent periods
+for a great amount of petty judicial and regulative work. The most
+usual period for the meeting of the manor court was once every three
+weeks, though in some manors no trace of a meeting is found more
+frequently than three times, or even twice, a year. In these  cases,
+however, it is quite probable that less formal meetings occurred of
+which no regular record was kept. Different kinds of gatherings of the
+tenants are usually distinguished according to the authority under
+which they were held, or the class of tenants of which they were made
+up. If the court was held by the lord simply because of his feudal
+rights as a landholder, and was busied only with matters of the
+inheritance, transfer, or grant of lands, the fining of tenants for
+the breach of manorial custom, or failure to perform their duties to
+the lord of the manor, the election of tenants to petty offices on the
+manor, and such matters, it was described in legal language as a court
+baron. If a court so occupied was made up of villain tenants only, it
+was called a customary court. If, on the other hand, the court also
+punished general offences, petty crimes, breaches of contract,
+breaches of the assize, that is to say, the established standard of
+amount, price, or quality of bread or beer, the lord of the manor
+drawing his authority to hold such a court either actually or
+supposedly from a grant from the king, such a court was called a court
+leet. With the court leet was usually connected the so-called view of
+frank pledge. Frank pledge was an ancient system, according to which
+all men were obliged to be enrolled in groups, so that if any one
+committed an offence, the other members of the group would be obliged
+to produce him for trial. View of frank pledge was the right to punish
+by fine any who failed to so enroll themselves. In the court baron and
+the customary court it was said by lawyers that the body of attendants
+were the judges, and the steward, representing the lord of the manor,
+only a presiding official; while in the court leet the steward was the
+actual judge of the tenants. In practice, however, it is probable that
+not much was made of these distinctions, and that the periodic
+gatherings were made to do duty for all business of any kind that
+needed attention, while the procedure was that which had become
+customary on that special manor, irrespective of the particular form
+of authority for the court.
+
+[Illustration: Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Sutton
+Courtenay, Berkshire. (_Domestic Architecture in the Fourteenth
+Century._)]
+
+The manor court was presided over by a steward or other officer
+representing the lord of the manor. Apparently all adult male tenants
+were expected to be present, and any inhabitant was liable to be
+summoned. A court was usually held in each manor, but sometimes a lord
+of several neighboring manors would hold the court for all of these
+in some one place. As most manors belonged to lords who had many
+manors in their possession, the steward or other official commonly
+proceeded from one manor or group of manors to another, holding the
+courts in each. Before the close of the thirteenth century the records
+of the manor courts, or at least of the more important of them, began
+to be kept with very great regularity and fulness, and it is to the
+mass of these manor court rolls which still remain that we owe most of
+our detailed knowledge of the condition of the body of the people in
+the later Middle Ages. The variety and the amount of business
+transacted at the court were alike considerable. When a tenant had
+died it was in the meeting of the manor court that his successor
+obtained a regrant of the land. The required relief was there
+assessed, and the heriot from the property of the deceased recorded.
+New grants of land were made, and transfers, leases, and abandonments
+by one tenant and assignments to another announced. For each of these
+processes of land transfer a fine was collected for the lord of the
+manor. Such entries as the following are constantly found: "John of
+Durham has come into court and taken one bond-land which Richard Avras
+formerly held but gave up because of his poverty; to have and hold for
+his lifetime, paying and doing the accustomed services as Richard paid
+and did them. He gives for entrance 6_s._ 8_d._;" "Agnes Mabeley is
+given possession of a quarter virgate of land which her mother held,
+and gives the lord 33_s._ 4_d._ for entrance."
+
+Disputes as to the right of possession of land and questions of dowry
+and inheritance were decided, a jury being granted in many cases by
+the lord at the petition of a claimant and on payment of a fee.
+Another class of cases consisted in the imposition of fines or
+amerciaments for the violation of the customs of the manor, of the
+rules of the lord, or of the requirements of the culprit's tenure;
+such as a villain marrying without leave, failure to perform
+boon-works or bad performance of work, failure to place the tenant's
+sheep in the lord's fold, cutting of wood or brush, making unlawful
+paths across the fields, the meadows, or the common, encroachment in
+ploughing upon other men's land or upon the common, or failure to send
+grain to the lord's mill for grinding. Sometimes the offence was of a
+more general nature, such as breach of assize, breach of contract,
+slander, assault, or injury to property. Still another part of the
+work of the court was the election of petty manorial officers; a
+reeve, a reaper, ale-tasters, and perhaps others. The duty of filling
+such offices when elected by the tenants and approved by the lord or
+his steward was, as has been said, one of the burdens of villainage.
+However, when a villain was fulfilling the office of reeve, it was
+customary for him to be relieved of at least a part of the payments
+and services to which he would otherwise be subject. Finally the manor
+court meetings were employed for the adoption of general regulations
+as to the use of the commons and other joint interests, and for the
+announcement of the orders of the steward in the keeping of the peace.
+
+
+*12. The Manor as an Estate of a Lord.*--The manor was profitable to the
+lord in various ways. He received rents in money and kind. These
+included the rents of assize from free and villain land tenants, rent
+from the tenant of the mill, and frequently from other sources. Then
+came the profits derived from the cultivation of the demesne land. In
+this the lord of the manor was simply a large farmer, except that he
+had a supply of labor bound to remain at hand and to give service
+without wages almost up to his needs. Finally there were the profits
+of the manor courts. As has been seen, these consisted of a great
+variety of fees, fines, amerciaments, and collections made by the
+steward or other official. Such varied payments and profits combined
+to make up the total value of the manor to the landowner. Not only the
+slender income of the country squire or knight whose estate consisted
+of a single manor of some ten or twenty pounds yearly value, but the
+vast wealth of the great noble or of the rich monastery or powerful
+bishopric was principally made up of the sum of such payments from a
+considerable number of manors. An appreciable part of the income of
+the government even was derived from the manors still in the
+possession of the crown.
+
+The mediæval manor was a little world in itself. The large number of
+scattered acres which made up the demesne farm cultivated in the
+interests of the lord of the manor, the small groups of scattered
+strips held by free holders or villain tenants who furnished most of
+the labor on the demesne farm, the little patches of ground held by
+mere laborers whose living was mainly gained by hired service on the
+land of the lord or of more prosperous tenants, the claims which all
+had to the use of the common pasture for their sheep and cattle and of
+the woods for their swine, all these together made up an agricultural
+system which secured a revenue for the lord, provided food and the raw
+material for primitive manufactures for the inhabitants of the vill,
+and furnished some small surplus which could be sold.
+
+[Illustration: Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Great
+Malvern, Worcestershire. (_Domestic Architecture in the Fourteenth
+Century._)]
+
+Life on the mediæval manor was hard. The greater part of the
+population was subject to the burdens of serfdom, and all, both free
+and serf, shared in the arduousness of labor, coarseness and lack of
+variety of food, unsanitary surroundings, and liability to the rigor
+of winter and the attacks of pestilence. Yet the average condition of
+comfort of the mass of the rural inhabitants of England was probably
+as high as at any subsequent time. Food in proportion to wages was
+very cheap, and the almost universal possession of some land made it
+possible for the very poorest to avoid starvation. Moreover, the great
+extent to which custom governed all payments, services, and rights
+must have prevented much of the extreme depression which has
+occasionally existed in subsequent periods in which greater
+competition has distinguished more clearly the capable from the
+incompetent.
+
+From the social rather than from the economic point of view the life
+of the mediæval manor was perhaps most clearly marked by this
+predominance of custom and by a second characteristic nearly related.
+This was the singularly close relationship in which all the
+inhabitants of the manor were bound to one another, and their
+correspondingly complete separation from the outside world. The common
+pasture, the intermingled strips of the holdings in the open fields,
+the necessary coöperation in the performance of their daily labor on
+the demesne land, the close contiguity of their dwellings, their
+universal membership in the same parish church, their common
+attendance and action in the manor courts, all must have combined to
+make the vill an organization of singular unity. This self-centred
+life, economically, judicially, and ecclesiastically so nearly
+independent of other bodies, put obstacles in the way of change. It
+prohibited intercourse beyond the manor, and opposed the growth of a
+feeling of common national life. The manorial life lay at the base of
+the stability which marked the mediæval period.
+
+
+*13. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+GENERAL WORKS
+
+
+Certain general works which refer to long periods of economic history
+will be mentioned here and not again referred to, excepting in special
+cases. It is to be understood that they contain valuable matter on the
+subject, not only of this, but of succeeding chapters. They should
+therefore be consulted in addition to the more specific works named
+under each chapter.
+
+Cunningham, William: _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, two
+volumes. The most extensive and valuable work that covers the whole
+field of English economic history.
+
+Ashley, W. J.: _English Economic History_, two volumes. The first
+volume is a full and careful analysis of mediæval economic conditions,
+with detailed notes and references to the primary sources. The second
+volume is a work of original investigation, referring particularly to
+conditions in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but it does not
+give such a clear analysis of the conditions of its period as the
+first volume.
+
+Traill, H. D.: _Social England_, six volumes. A composite work
+including a great variety of subjects, but seldom having the most
+satisfactory account of any one of them.
+
+Rogers, J. E. T.: _History of Agriculture and Prices_; _Six Centuries
+of Work and Wages_; _Economic Interpretation of History_. Professor
+Rogers' work is very extensive and detailed, and his books were
+largely pioneer studies. His statistical and other facts are useful,
+but his general statements are not very valuable, and his conclusions
+are not convincing.
+
+Palgrave, R. H. I.: _Dictionary of Political Economy_. Many of the
+articles on subjects of economic history are the best and most recent
+studies on their respective subjects, and the bibliographies contained
+in them are especially valuable.
+
+Four single-volume text-books have been published on this general
+subject:--
+
+Cunningham, William, and McArthur, E. A.: _Outlines of English
+Industrial History_.
+
+Gibbins, H. de B.: _Industry in England_.
+
+Warner, George Townsend: _Landmarks in English Industrial History_.
+
+Price, L. L.: _A Short History of English Commerce and Industry_.
+
+
+SPECIAL WORKS
+
+Seebohm, Frederic: _The English Village Community_. Although written
+for another purpose,--to suggest a certain view of the origin of the
+medieval manor,--the first five chapters of this book furnish the
+clearest existing descriptive account of the fundamental facts of
+rural life in the thirteenth century. Its publication marked an era in
+the recognition of the main features of manorial organization. Green,
+for instance, the historian of the English people, seems to have had
+no clear conception of many of those characteristics of ordinary rural
+life which Mr. Seebohm has made familiar.
+
+Vinogradoff, Paul: _Villainage in England_.
+
+Pollock, Sir Frederick, and Maitland, F. W.: _History of English Law_,
+Vol. 1.
+
+These two works are of especial value for the organization of the
+manor courts and the legal condition of the population.
+
+
+SOURCES
+
+Much that can be explained only with great difficulty becomes clear to
+the student immediately when he reads the original documents. Concrete
+illustrations of general statements moreover make the work more
+interesting and real. It has therefore been found desirable by many
+teachers to bring their students into contact with at least a few
+typical illustrative documents. The sources for the subject generally
+are given in the works named above. An admirable bibliography has been
+recently published by
+
+Gross, Charles: _The Sources and Literature of English History from
+the Earliest Times to about 1485_. References to abundant material for
+the illustration or further investigation of the subject of this
+chapter will be found in the following pamphlet:--
+
+Davenport, Frances G.: _A Classified List of Printed Original
+Materials for English Manorial and Agrarian History_.
+
+Sources for the mediæval period are almost all in Latin or French.
+Some of them, however, have been more accessible by being translated
+into English and reprinted in convenient form. A few of these are
+given in C. W. Colby: _Selections from the Sources of English
+History_, and G. C. Lee: _Source Book of English History_.
+
+In the _Series of Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources
+of European History_, published by the Department of History of the
+University of Pennsylvania, several numbers include documents in this
+field. Vol. III, No. 5, is devoted entirely to manorial documents.
+
+
+DISCUSSIONS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE MANOR
+
+The question of the origin of the mediæval manorial organization,
+whether it is principally of native English or of Roman origin, or
+hewn from still other materials, although not treated in this
+text-book, has been the subject of much interest and discussion. One
+view of the case is the thesis of Seebohm's book, referred to above.
+Other books treating of it are the following:--
+
+Earle, John: _Land Charters and Saxonic Documents_, Introduction.
+
+Gomme, G. L.: _The Village Community_.
+
+Ashley, W. J.: A translation of Fustel de Coulanges, _Origin of
+Property in Land_, Introduction.
+
+Andrews, Charles M.: _The Old English Manor_, Introduction.
+
+Maitland, F. W.: _Domesday Book and Beyond_.
+
+Meitzen, August: _Siedelung und Agrarwesen_, Vol. II, Chap. 7.
+
+The writings of Kemble and of Sir Henry Maine belong rather to a past
+period of study and speculation, but their ideas still lie at the base
+of discussions on the subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TOWN LIFE AND ORGANIZATION
+
+
+[Illustration: Town Wall of Southampton, Built in the Thirteenth
+Century. (Turner: _Domestic Architecture in England_.)]
+
+
+*14. The Town Government.*--In the middle of the thirteenth century
+there were some two hundred towns in England distinguishable by their
+size, form of government, and the occupations of their inhabitants,
+from the rural agricultural villages which have just been described.
+London probably had more than 25,000 inhabitants; York and Bristol may
+each have had as many as 10,000. The population of the others varied
+from as many as 6000 to less than 1000. Perhaps the most usual
+population of an English mediæval town lay between 1500 and 4000. They
+were mostly walled, though such protection was hardly necessary, and
+the military element in English towns was therefore but slightly
+developed. Those towns which contained cathedrals, and were therefore
+the seats of bishoprics, were called cities. All other organized towns
+were known as boroughs, though this distinction in the use of the
+terms city and borough was by no means always preserved. The towns
+differed widely in their form of government; but all had charters from
+the king or from some nobleman, abbey, or bishopric on whose lands
+they had grown up. Such a charter usually declared the right of the
+town to preserve the ancient customs which had come to be recognized
+among its inhabitants, and granted to it certain privileges,
+exemptions, and rights of self-government. The most universal and
+important of these privileges were the following: the town paid the
+tolls and dues owed to the king or other lord by its inhabitants in a
+lump sum, collecting the amount from its own citizens as the latter or
+their own authorities saw fit; the town courts had jurisdiction over
+most suits and offences, relieving the townsmen from answering at
+hundred and county court suits which concerned matters within their
+own limits; the townsmen, where the king granted the charter, were
+exempt from the payment of tolls of various kinds throughout his
+dominions; they could pass ordinances and regulations controlling the
+trade of the town, the administration of its property, and its
+internal affairs generally, and could elect officials to carry out
+such regulations. These officials also corresponded and negotiated in
+the name of the town with the authorities of other towns and with the
+government. From the close of the thirteenth century all towns of
+any importance were represented in Parliament. These elements of
+independence were not all possessed by every town, and some had
+special privileges not enumerated in the above list. The first charter
+of a town was apt to be vague and inadequate, but from time to time a
+new charter was obtained giving additional privileges and defining the
+old rights more clearly. Nor had all those who dwelt within the town
+limits equal participation in its advantages. These were usually
+restricted to those who were known as citizens or burgesses; full
+citizenship depending primarily on the possession of a house and land
+within the town limits. In addition to the burgesses there were
+usually some inhabitants of the town--strangers, Jews, fugitive
+villains from the rural villages, or perhaps only poorer natives of
+the town--who did not share in these privileges. Those who did possess
+all civil rights of the townsmen were in many ways superior in
+condition to men in the country. In addition to the advantages of the
+municipal organization mentioned above, all burgesses were personally
+free, there was entire exemption from the vexatious petty payments of
+the rural manors, and burgage tenure was thee nearest to actual land
+ownership existent during the Middle Ages.
+
+[Illustration: Charter of Henry II to the Borough of Nottingham.
+(_Records of Borough of Nottingham_. Published by the Corporation.)]
+
+
+*15. The Gild Merchant.*--The town was most clearly marked off from the
+country by the occupations by which its people earned their living.
+These were, in the first place, trading; secondly, manufacturing or
+handicrafts. Agriculture of course existed also, since most townsmen
+possessed some lands lying outside of the enclosed portions of the
+town. On these they raised crops and pastured their cattle. Of these
+varied occupations, however, it was trade which gave character and,
+indeed, existence itself to the town. Foreign goods were brought to
+the towns from abroad for sale, the surplus products of rural manors
+found their way there for marketing; the products of one part of the
+country which were needed in other parts were sought for and purchased
+in the towns. Men also sold the products of their own labor, not only
+food products, such as bread, meat, and fish, but also objects of
+manufacture, as cloth, arms, leather, and goods made of wood, leather,
+or metal. For the protection and regulation of this trade the
+organization known as the gild merchant had grown up in each town.
+The gild merchant seems to have included all of the population of the
+town who habitually engaged in the business of selling, whether
+commodities of their own manufacture or those they had previously
+purchased. Membership in the gild was not exactly coincident with
+burgess-ship; persons who lived outside of the town were sometimes
+admitted into that organization, and, on the other hand, some
+inhabitants of the town were not included among its members.
+Nevertheless, since practically all of the townsmen made their living
+by trade in some form or another, the group of burgesses and the group
+of gild members could not have been very different. The authority of
+the gild merchant within its field of trade regulation seems to have
+been as complete as that of the town community as a whole in its field
+of judicial, financial, and administrative jurisdiction. The gild
+might therefore be defined as that form of organization of the
+inhabitants of the town which controlled its trade and industry. The
+principal reason for the existence of the gild was to preserve to its
+own members the monopoly of trade. No one not in the gild merchant of
+the town could buy or sell there except under conditions imposed by
+the gild. Foreigners coming from other countries or traders from other
+English towns were prohibited from buying or selling in any way that
+might interfere with the interests of the gildsmen. They must buy and
+sell at such times and in such places and only such articles as were
+provided for by the gild regulations. They must in all cases pay the
+town tolls, from which members of the gild were exempt. At
+Southampton, for instance, we find the following provisions: "And no
+one in the city of Southampton shall buy anything to sell again in the
+same city unless he is of the gild merchant or of the franchise."
+Similarly at Leicester, in 1260, it was ordained that no gildsman
+should form a partnership with a stranger, allowing him to join in the
+profits of the sale of wool or other merchandise.
+
+[Illustration: Hall of Merchants' Company of York. (Lambert: _Two
+Thousand Years of Gild Life_. Published by A. Brown & Sons, Hull.)]
+
+[Illustration: Interior of Hall of Merchants' Company of York.
+(Lambert: _Two Thousand Years of Gild Life_. Published by A. Brown &
+Sons, Hull.)]
+
+As against outsiders the gild merchant was a protective body, as
+regards its own members it was looked upon and constantly spoken of as
+a fraternity. Its members must all share in the common expenditures,
+they are called brethren of the society, their competition with one
+another is reduced to its lowest limits. For instance, we find the
+provision that "any one who is of the gild merchant may share in all
+merchandise which another gildsman shall buy."
+
+[Illustration: Earliest Merchant Gild Roll of the Borough of
+Leicester. (Bateson: _Records of the Borough of Leicester_. Published
+by C. J. Clay & Sons, Cambridge.)]
+
+The presiding officer was usually known as the alderman, while the
+names given to other officials, such as stewards, deans, bailiffs,
+chaplains, skevins, and ushers, and the duties they performed, varied
+greatly from time to time.
+
+Meetings were held at different periods, sometimes annually, in many
+cases more frequently. At these meetings new ordinances were passed,
+officers elected, and other business transacted. It was also a
+convivial occasion, a gild feast preceding or following the other
+labors of the meeting. In some gilds the meeting was regularly known
+as "the drinking." There were likewise frequent sittings of the
+officials of the fraternity, devoted to the decision of disputes
+between brethren, the admission of new members, the fining or
+expulsion of offenders against the gild ordinances, and other routine
+work. These meetings were known as "morrowspeches".
+
+The greater part of the activity of the gild merchant consisted in the
+holding of its meetings with their accompanying feasts, and in the
+enforcement of its regulations upon its members and upon outsiders. It
+fulfilled, however, many fraternal duties for its members. It is
+provided in one set of statutes that, "If a gildsman be imprisoned in
+England in time of peace, the alderman, with the steward and with one
+of the skevins, shall go, at the cost of the gild, to procure the
+deliverance of the one who is in prison." In another, "If any of the
+brethren shall fall into poverty or misery, all the brethren are to
+assist him by common consent out of the chattels of the house or
+fraternity, or of their proper own." The funeral rites, especially,
+were attended by the man's gild brethren. "And when a gildsman dies,
+all those who are of the gild and are in the city shall attend the
+service for the dead, and gildsmen shall bear the body and bring it to
+the place of burial." The gild merchant also sometimes  fulfilled
+various religious, philanthropic, and charitable duties, not only to
+its members, but to the public generally, and to the poor. The time of
+the fullest development of the gild merchant varied, of course, in
+different towns, but its widest expansion was probably in the early
+part of the period we are studying, that is, during the thirteenth
+century. Later it came to be in some towns indistinguishable from the
+municipal government in general, its members the same as the
+burgesses, its officers represented by the officers of the town. In
+some other towns the gild merchant gradually lost its control over
+trade, retaining only its fraternal, charitable, and religious
+features. In still other cases the expression gradually lost all
+definite significance and its meaning became a matter for antiquarian
+dispute.
+
+
+*16. The Craft Gilds.*--By the fourteenth century the gild merchant of
+the town was a much less conspicuous institution than it had
+previously been. Its decay was largely the result of the growth of a
+group of organizations in each town which were spoken of as crafts,
+fraternities, gilds, misteries, or often merely by the name of their
+occupation, as "the spurriers," "the dyers," "the fishmongers." These
+organizations are usually described in later writings as craft gilds.
+It is not to be understood that the gild merchant and the craft gilds
+never existed contemporaneously in any town. The former began earlier
+and decayed before the craft gilds reached their height, but there was
+a considerable period when it must have been a common thing for a man
+to be a member both of the gild merchant of the town and of the
+separate organization of his own trade. The later gilds seem to have
+grown up in response to the needs of handicraft much as the gild
+merchant had grown up to regulate trade, though trading occupations
+also were eventually drawn into the craft gild form of organization.
+The weavers seem to have been the earliest occupation to be organized
+into a craft gild; but later almost every form of industry which gave
+employment to a handful of craftsmen in any town had its separate
+fraternity. Since even nearly allied trades, such as the glovers,
+girdlers, pocket makers, skinners, white tawyers, and other workers in
+leather; or the fletchers, the makers of arrows, the bowyers, the
+makers of bows, and the stringers, the makers of bowstrings, were
+organized into separate bodies, the number of craft gilds in any one
+town was often very large. At London there were by 1350 at least as
+many as forty, at York, some time later, more than fifty.
+
+[Illustration: Old Townhall of Leicester, Formerly Hall of Corpus
+Christi Gild. (Drawing made in 1826.)]
+
+The craft gilds existed usually under the authority of the town
+government, though frequently they obtained authorization or even a
+charter from the crown. They were formed primarily to regulate and
+preserve the monopoly of their own occupations in their own town, just
+as the gild merchant existed to regulate the trade of the town in
+general. No one could carry on any trade without being subject to the
+organization which controlled that trade. Membership, however, was not
+intentionally restricted. Any man who was a capable workman and
+conformed to the rules of the craft was practically a member of the
+organization of that industry. It is a common requirement in the
+earliest gild statutes that every man who wishes to carry on that
+particular industry should have his ability testified to by some known
+members of the craft. But usually full membership and influence in the
+gild was reached as a matter of course by the artisans passing through
+the successive grades of apprentice, journeyman, and master. As an
+apprentice he was bound to a master for a number of years, living in
+his house and learning the trade in his shop. There was usually a
+signed contract entered into between the master and the parents of
+the apprentice, by which the former agreed to provide all necessary
+clothing, food, and lodging, and teach to the apprentice all he
+himself knew about his craft. The latter, on the other hand, was bound
+to keep secret his master's affairs, to obey all his commandments, and
+to behave himself properly in all things. After the expiration of the
+time agreed upon for his apprenticeship, which varied much in
+individual cases, but was apt to be about seven years, he became free
+of the trade as a journeyman, a full workman. The word "journeyman"
+may refer to the engagement being by the day, from the French word
+_journée_, or to the habit of making journeys from town to town in
+search of work, or it may be derived from some other origin. As a
+journeyman he served for wages in the employ of a master. In many
+cases he saved enough money for the small requirements of setting up
+an independent shop. Then as full master artisan or tradesman he might
+take part in all the meetings and general administration of the
+organized body of his craft, might hold office, and would himself
+probably have one or more journeymen in his employ and apprentices
+under his guardianship. As almost all industries were carried on in
+the dwelling-houses of the craftsmen, no establishments could be of
+very considerable size, and the difference of position between master,
+journeyman, and apprentice could not have been great. The craft gild
+was organized with its regular rules, its officers, and its meetings.
+The rules or ordinances of the fraternity were drawn up at some one
+time and added to or altered from time to time afterward. The approval
+of the city authorities was frequently sought for such new statutes as
+well as for the original ordinances, and in many towns appears to have
+been necessary. The rules provided for officers and their powers, the
+time and character of meetings, and for a considerable variety of
+functions. These varied of course in different trades and in different
+towns, but some characteristics were almost universal. Provisions were
+always either tacitly or formally included for the preservation of the
+monopoly of the crafts in the town. The hours of labor were regulated.
+Night work was very generally prohibited, apparently because of the
+difficulty of oversight at that time, as was work on Saturday
+afternoons, Sundays, and other holy days. Provisions were made for the
+inspection of goods by the officers of the gild, all workshops and
+goods for sale being constantly subject to their examination, if they
+should wish it. In those occupations that involved buying and selling
+the necessities of life, such as those of the fishmongers and the
+bakers, the officers of the fraternity, like the town authorities,
+were engaged in a continual struggle with "regrators," "forestallers,"
+and "engrossers," which were appellations as odious as they were
+common in the mediæval town. Regrating meant buying to sell again at a
+higher price without having made any addition to the value of the
+goods; forestalling was going to the place of production to buy, or in
+any other way trying to outwit fellow-dealers by purchasing things
+before they came into the open market where all had the same
+opportunity; engrossing was buying up the whole supply, or so much of
+it as not to allow other dealers to get what they needed, the modern
+"cornering of the market." These practices, which were regarded as so
+objectionable in the eyes of mediæval traders, were frequently nothing
+more than what would be considered commendable enterprise in a more
+competitive age. Another class of rules was for mutual assistance, for
+kindliness among members, and for the obedience and faithfulness of
+journeymen and apprentices. There were provisions for assistance to
+members of the craft when in need, or to their widows and orphans, for
+the visitation of those sick or in prison, for common attendance at
+the burial services of deceased members, and for other charitable and
+philanthropic objects. Thus the craft gild, like the gild merchant,
+combined close social relationship with a distinctly recognized and
+enforced regulation of the trade. This regulation provided for the
+protection of members of the organization from outside competition,
+and it also prevented any considerable amount of competition among
+members; it supported the interests of the full master members of the
+craft as against those in the journeyman stage, and enforced the
+custom of the trade in hours, materials, methods of manufacture, and
+often in prices.
+
+[Illustration: Table of Assize of Bread in Record Book of City of
+Hull. (Lambert: _Two Thousand Years of Gild Life_. Published by A.
+Brown & Sons, Hull.)]
+
+The officers were usually known as masters, wardens, or stewards.
+Their powers extended to the preservation of order among the master
+members of the craft at the meetings, and among the journeymen and
+apprentices of the craft at all times; to the supervision, either
+directly or through deputies, of the work of the members, seeing that
+it conformed to the rules and was not false in any way; to the
+settlement, if possible, of disputes among members of the craft; to
+the administration of its charitable work; and to the representation
+of the organized body of the craft before town or other authorities.
+
+Common religious observances were held by the craftsmen not only at
+the funerals of members, but on the day of the saint to which the gild
+was especially dedicated. Most fraternities kept up a shrine or chapel
+in some parish church. Fines for the breach of gild rules were often
+ordered to be paid in wax that the candles about the body of dead
+brethren and in the gild chapel should never be wanting. All the
+brethren of the gild, dressed in common suits of livery, walked in
+procession from their hall or meeting room to the church, performed
+their devotions and joined in the services in commemoration of the
+dead. Members of the craft frequently bequeathed property for the
+partial support of a chaplain and payment of other expenses connected
+with their "obits," or masses for the repose of their souls and those
+of their relatives.
+
+Closely connected with the religious observances was the convivial
+side of the gild's life. On the annual gild day, or more frequently,
+the members all gathered at their hall or some inn to a feast, which
+varied in luxuriousness according to the wealth of the fraternity,
+from bread, cheese, and ale to all the exuberance of which the Middle
+Ages were capable.
+
+Somewhat later, we find the craft gilds taking entire charge  of the
+series or cycles of "mystery plays," which were given in various
+towns. The words of the plays produced at York, Coventry, Chester, and
+Woodkirk have come down to us and are of extreme interest as embryonic
+forms of the drama and examples of purely vernacular language. It is
+quite certain that such groups of plays were given by the crafts in a
+number of other towns. They were generally given on Corpus Christi
+day, a feast which fell in the early summer time, when out-door
+pleasures were again enjoyable after the winter's confinement. A cycle
+consisted of a series of dialogues or short plays, each based upon
+some scene of biblical story, so arranged that the whole Bible
+narrative should be given consecutively from the Creation to the
+Second Advent. One of the crafts, starting early in the morning, would
+draw a pageant consisting of a platform on wheels, to a regularly
+appointed spot in a conspicuous part of the town, and on this
+platform, with some rude scenery, certain members of the gild or men
+employed by them would proceed to recite a dialogue in verse
+representative of some early part of the Bible story. After they had
+finished, their pageant would be dragged to another station, where
+they repeated their performance. In the meantime a second company had
+taken their former place, and recited a dialogue representative of a
+second scene. So the whole day would be occupied by the series of
+performances. The town and the craftsmen valued the celebration
+because it was an occasion for strangers visiting their city and thus
+increasing the volume of trade, as well as because it furnished an
+opportunity for the gratification of their social and dramatic
+instincts.
+
+It was not only at the periodical business meetings, or on the feast
+days, or in the preparation for the dramatic shows, that the gildsmen
+were thrown together. Usually all the members of one craft lived on
+the same street or in the same part of the town, and were therefore
+members of the same parish church and constantly brought under one
+another's observation in all the daily concerns of life. All things
+combined to make the craft a natural and necessary centre for the
+interest of each of its members.
+
+
+*17. Non-industrial Gilds.*--Besides the gilds merchant, which included
+persons of all industrial occupations, and the craft gilds, which were
+based upon separate organizations of each industry, there were gilds
+or fraternities in existence which had no industrial functions
+whatever. These are usually spoken of as "religious" or "social"
+gilds. It would perhaps be better to describe them simply as
+non-industrial gilds; for their religious and social functions they
+had in common, as has been seen, both with the gild merchant and the
+craft organizations. They only differed from these in not being based
+upon or interested in the monopoly or oversight of any kind of trade
+or handicraft. They differed also from the craft gilds in that all
+their members were on an equal basis, there being no such industrial
+grades as apprentice, journeyman, and master; and from both of the
+organizations already discussed in the fact that they existed in small
+towns and even in mere villages, as well as in industrial centres.
+
+In these associations the religious, social, and charitable elements
+were naturally more prominent than in those fraternities which were
+organized primarily for some kind of economic regulation. They were
+generally named after some saint. The ordinances usually provided for
+one or more solemn services in the year, frequently with a procession
+in livery, and sometimes with a considerable amount of pantomime or
+symbolic show. For instance, the gild of St. Helen at Beverly, in
+their procession to the church of the Friars Minors on the day of
+their patron saint, were preceded by an old man carrying a cross;
+after him a fair young man dressed as St. Helen; then another old man
+carrying a shovel, these being intended to typify the finding of the
+cross. Next came the sisters two and two, after them the brethren of
+the gild, and finally the officers. There were always provisions for
+solemnities at the funerals of members, for burial at the expense of
+the gild if the member who had died left no means for a suitable
+ceremony, and for prayers for deceased members. What might be called
+the insurance feature was also much more nearly universal than in the
+case of the industrial fraternities. Help was given in case of theft,
+fire, sickness, or almost any kind of loss which was not chargeable to
+the member's own misdoing. Finally it was very customary for such
+gilds to provide for the support of a certain number of dependents,
+aged men or women, cripples, or lepers, for charity's sake; and
+occasionally educational facilities were also provided by them from
+their regular income or from bequests made for the purpose. The
+social-religious gilds were extremely numerous, and seem frequently to
+have existed within the limits of a craft, including some of its
+members and not others, or within a certain parish, including some of
+the parishioners, but not all.
+
+Thus if there were men in the mediæval town who were not members of
+some trading or craft body, they would in all probability be members
+of some society based merely on religious or social feeling. The whole
+tendency of mediæval society was toward organization, combination,
+close union with one's fellows. It might be said that all town life
+involved membership in some organization, and usually in that one into
+which a man was drawn by the occupation in which he made his living.
+These gilds or the town government itself controlled even the affairs
+of private economic life in the city, just as the customary
+agriculture of the country prevented much freedom of action there.
+Methods of trading, or manufacture, the kind and amount of material to
+be used, hours of labor, conditions of employment, even prices of
+work, were regulated by the gild ordinances. The individual gildsman
+had as little opportunity to emancipate himself from the controlling
+force of the association as the individual tenant on the rural manor
+had to free himself from the customary agriculture and the customary
+services. Whether we study rural or urban society, whether we look at
+the purely economic or at the broader social side of existence, life
+in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was corporate rather than
+individual.
+
+
+*18. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Gross, Charles: _The Gild Merchant_, two volumes. The first volume
+consists of a full account and discussion of the character and
+functions of the gild merchant, with a number of appendices on cognate
+subjects. The second volume contains the documents on which the first
+is based.
+
+Seligman, E. R. A.: _Two Chapters on Mediæval Gilds_.
+
+Brentano, L.: _The History and Development of English Gilds_. An essay
+prefixed to a volume of ordinances of English Gilds, edited by T.
+Smith. Brentano's essay is only referred to because of the paucity of
+works on the subject, as it is fanciful and unsatisfactory. No
+thorough and scholarly description of the craft gilds exists. On the
+other hand, a considerable body of original materials is easily
+accessible in English, as in the following works:--
+
+Riley: _Memorials of London and London Life_.
+
+Smith, Toulmin: _English Gilds_.
+
+Various documents illustrative of town and gild history will also be
+found in Vol. II, No. 1, of the _Translations and Reprints_,
+published by the Department of History of the University of
+Pennsylvania.
+
+Better descriptions exist for the position of the gilds in special
+towns than for their general character, especially in London by
+Herbert, in Hull by Lambert, in Shrewsbury by Hibbert, and in Coventry
+by Miss Harris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MEDIÆVAL TRADE AND COMMERCE
+
+
+*19. Markets and Fairs.*--Within the towns, in addition to the ordinary
+trading described in the last chapter, much buying and selling was
+done at the weekly or semi-weekly markets. The existence of a market
+in a town was the result of a special grant from the king, sometimes
+to the burgesses themselves, sometimes to a neighboring nobleman or
+abbey. In the latter case the tolls paid by outsiders who bought or
+sold cattle or victuals in the market did not go to the town or gild
+authorities, but to the person who was said to "own" the market. Many
+places which differed in scarcely any other way from agricultural
+villages possessed markets, so that "market towns" became a
+descriptive term for small towns midway in size between the larger
+boroughs or cities and mere villages. The sales at markets were
+usually of the products of the surrounding country, especially of
+articles of food consumption, so that the fact of the existence of a
+market on one or more days of the week in a large town was of
+comparatively little importance from the point of view of more general
+trade.
+
+Far more important was the similar institution of periodical fairs.
+Fairs, like markets, existed only by grant from the king. They
+differed from markets, however, in being held only once a year or at
+most semi-annually or quarterly, in being invariably in the possession
+of private persons, never of town governments, and in the fact that
+during their continuance as a rule all buying and selling except at
+the fairs was suspended within a considerable circuit. Several hundred
+grants of fairs are recorded on the rolls of royal charters, most of
+them to abbeys, bishoprics, and noblemen; but comparatively few of
+them were of sufficient size or importance to play any considerable
+part in the trade and commerce of the country. Moreover, the
+development of the towns with their continuous trade tended to draw
+custom away from all the fairs except those which had obtained some
+especial importance and an international reputation. Of these,
+however, there was still a considerable number whose influence was
+very great. The best known were those of Winchester, of Stourbridge
+near Cambridge, of St. Ives belonging to the abbot of Ramsay, and of
+Boston. In early times fairs were frequently held in the churchyards,
+but this came to be looked upon as a scandal, and was prohibited by a
+law of 1285. The fairs were in many cases held just beyond the limits
+of a town in an open field or on a smooth hillside. Each year, some
+time before the opening day of the fair, this ground was formally
+occupied by the servants of the owner of the fair, wooden booths were
+erected or ground set apart for those who should put up their own
+tents or prefer to sell in the open. Then as merchants appeared from
+foreign or English towns they chose or were assigned places which they
+were bound to retain during the continuance of the fair. By the time
+of the opening of the fair those who expected to sell were arranged in
+long rows or groups, according to the places they came from, or the
+kind of goods in which they dealt. After the opening had been
+proclaimed no merchant of the nearby town could buy or sell, except
+within the borders of the fair. The town authorities resigned their
+functions into the hands of the officials whom the lord of the fair
+had placed in charge of it, and for the time for which the fair was
+held, usually from six to twelve days, everything within the enclosure
+of the fair, within the town, and in the surrounding neighborhood was
+under their control.
+
+[Illustration: Location of Some of the Principal Fairs in the
+Thirteenth Century.]
+
+Tolls were collected for the advantage of the lord of the fair from
+all goods as they were brought into or taken out from the bounds of
+the fair, or at the time of their sale; stallage was paid for the rent
+of booths, fees were charged for the use of space, and for using the
+lord's weights and scales. Good order was preserved and fair dealing
+enforced by the officials of the lord. To prevent offences and settle
+disputes arising in the midst of the busy trading the officials of the
+lord formed a court which sat continually and followed a summary
+procedure. This was known as a court of "pie-powder," that is _pied
+poudré_, or _dusty foot_, so called, no doubt, from its readiness to
+hear the suits of merchants and wayfarers, as they were, without
+formality or delay. At this court a great variety of cases came up,
+such as disputes as to debts, failure to perform contracts of sale or
+purchase, false measurements, theft, assault, defamation, and
+misdemeanors of all kinds. Sometimes the court decided offhand,
+sometimes compurgation was allowed immediately or on the next day,
+sometimes juries were formed and gave decisions. The law which the
+court of pie-powder administered was often referred to as the "law
+merchant," a somewhat less rigid system than the common law, and one
+whose rules were generally defined, in these courts and in the king's
+courts, by juries chosen from among the merchants themselves.
+
+At these fairs, even more than in the towns, merchants from a distance
+gathered to buy the products peculiar to the part of England where the
+fair was held, and to sell their own articles of importation or
+production. The large fairs furnished by far the best markets of the
+time. We find mention made in the records of one court of pie-powder
+of men from a dozen or twenty English towns, from Bordeaux, and from
+Rouen. The men who came from any one town, whether of England or the
+Continent, acted and were treated as common members of the gild
+merchant of that town, as forming a sort of community, and being to a
+certain extent responsible for one another. They did their buying and
+selling, it is true, separately, but if disputes arose, the whole
+group were held responsible for each member. For example, the
+following entry was made in the roll of the fair of St. Ives in the
+year 1275: "William of Fleetbridge and Anne his wife complain of
+Thomas Coventry of Leicester for unjustly withholding from them 55_s._
+2-1/2_d._ for a sack of wool.... Elias is ordered to attach the
+community of Leicester to answer ... and of the said community Allan
+Parker, Adam Nose and Robert Howell are attached by three bundles of
+ox-hides, three hundred bundles of sheep skins and six sacks of wool."
+
+
+*20. Trade Relations between Towns.*--The fairs were only temporary
+selling places. When the time for which the fair was held had expired
+the booths were removed, the merchants returned to their native cities
+or travelled away to some other fair, and the officials were
+withdrawn. The place was deserted until the next quarter or year. But
+in the towns, as has been already stated, more or less continuous
+trade went on; not only petty retail trade and that of the weekly or
+semi-weekly markets between townsmen or countrymen coming from the
+immediate vicinity, but a wholesale trade between the merchants of
+that town and those from other towns in England or on the Continent.
+
+It was of this trade above all that the gild merchant of  each town
+possessed the regulation. Merchants from another town were treated
+much the same, whether that town was English or foreign. In fact,
+"foreigner" or "alien," as used in the town records, of Bristol, for
+instance, may apply to citizens of London or Oxford just as well as to
+those of Paris or Cologne. Such "foreign" merchants could deal when
+they came to a town only with members of the gild, and only on the
+conditions required by the gild. Usually they could buy or sell only
+at wholesale, and tolls were collected from them upon their sales or
+purchases. They were prohibited from dealing in some kinds of articles
+altogether, and frequently the duration of their stay in the town was
+limited to a prescribed period. Under such circumstances the
+authorities of various towns entered into trade agreements with those
+of other towns providing for mutual concessions and advantages.
+Correspondence was also constantly going on between the officials of
+various towns for the settlement of individual points of dispute, for
+the return of fugitive apprentices, asking that justice might be done
+to aggrieved citizens, and on occasion threatening reprisal.
+Southampton had formal agreements with more than seventy towns or
+other trading bodies. During a period of twenty years the city
+authorities of London sent more than 300 letters on such matters to
+the officials of some 90 other towns in England and towns on the
+Continent. The merchants from any one town did not therefore trade or
+act entirely as separate individuals, but depended on the prestige of
+their town, or the support of the home authorities, or the privileges
+already agreed upon by treaty. The non-payment of a debt by a merchant
+of one town usually made any fellow-townsman liable to seizure where
+the debt was owed, until the debtor could be made to pay. In 1285, by
+a law of Edward I, this was prohibited as far as England was
+concerned, but a merchant from a French town might still have his
+person and property seized for a debt of which he may have had no
+previous knowledge. External trade was thus not so much individual,
+between some Englishmen and others; or international, between
+Englishmen and Frenchmen, Flemings, Spaniards, or Germans, as it was
+intermunicipal, as it has been well described. Citizens of various
+towns, London, Bristol, Venice, Ghent, Arras, or Lubeck, for instance,
+carried on their trade under the protection their city had obtained
+for them.
+
+
+*21. Foreign Trading Relations.*--The regulations and restrictions of
+fairs and town markets and gilds merchant must have tended largely to
+the discouragement of foreign trade. Indeed, the feeling of the body
+of English town merchants was one of strong dislike to foreigners and
+a desire to restrict their trade within the narrowest limits. In
+addition to the burdens and limitations placed upon all traders not of
+their own town, it was very common in the case of merchants from
+abroad to require that they should only remain within the town for the
+purpose of selling for forty days, and that they should board not at
+an inn but in the household of some town merchant, who could thus keep
+oversight of their movements, and who would be held responsible if his
+guest violated the law in any way. This was called the custom of
+"hostage."
+
+The king, on the other hand, and the classes most influential in the
+national government, the nobility and the churchmen, favored foreign
+trade. A series of privileges, guarantees, and concessions were
+consequently issued by the government to individual foreign merchants,
+to foreign towns, and even to foreigners generally, the object of
+which was to encourage their coming to England to trade. The most
+remarkable instance of this was the so-called _Carta Mercatoria_
+issued by Edward I in 1303. It was given according to its own terms,
+for the peace and security of merchants coming to England from
+Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Navarre, Lombardy, Tuscany,
+Provence, Catalonia, Aquitaine, Toulouse, Quercy, Flanders, Brabant,
+and all other foreign lands. It allowed such merchants to bring in and
+sell almost all kinds of goods, and freed them from the payment of
+many tolls and payments habitually exacted by the towns; it gave them
+permission to sell to strangers as well as to townsmen, and to retail
+as well as sell by wholesale. It freed them from the necessity of
+dwelling with native merchants, and of bringing their stay to a close
+within a restricted time. Town and market authorities were required by
+it to give prompt justice to foreigners according to the law merchant,
+and it was promised that a royal judge would be specially appointed to
+listen to appeals. It is quite evident that if this charter had been
+enforced some of the most familiar and valued customs of the merchants
+of the various English towns would have been abrogated. In consequence
+of vigorous protests and bitter resistance on the part of the townsmen
+its provisions were partly withdrawn, partly ignored, and the position
+of foreign merchants in England continued to depend on the tolerably
+consistent support of the crown. Even this was modified by the steady
+policy of hostility, limitation, and control on the part of the native
+merchants.
+
+With the exception of some intercourse between the northern towns and
+the Scandinavian countries, the foreign trade of England was carried
+on almost entirely by foreigners. English merchants, until after the
+fourteenth century, seem to have had neither the ability, the
+enterprise, nor the capital to go to continental cities in any numbers
+to sell the products of their own country or to buy goods which would
+be in demand when imported into England. Foreigners were more
+enterprising. From Flemish, French, German, Italian, and even Spanish
+cities merchants came over as traders. The product of England which
+was most in demand was wool. Certain parts of England were famous
+throughout all Europe for the quality and quantity of the wool raised
+there. The relative good order of England and its exemption from civil
+war made it possible to raise sheep more extensively than in countries
+where foraging parties from rival bodies of troops passed frequently
+to and fro. Many of the monasteries, especially in the north and west,
+had large outlying wastes of land which were regularly used for the
+raising of sheep. The product of these northern and western pastures
+as well as the surplus product of the demesnes and larger holdings of
+the ordinary manors was brought to the fairs and towns for sale and
+bought up readily by foreign merchants. Sheepskins, hides, and tanned
+leather were also exported, as were certain coarse woven fabrics. Tin
+and lead were well-known products, at that time almost peculiar to
+England, and in years of plentiful production, grain, salt meat, and
+dairy products were exported. England was far behind most of the
+Continent in industrial matters, so that there was much that could be
+brought into the country that would be in demand, both of the natural
+productions of foreign countries and of their manufactured articles.
+
+Trade relations existed between England and the Scandinavian
+countries, northern Germany, southern Germany, the Netherlands,
+northeastern, northwestern, and southern France, Spain and Portugal,
+and various parts of Italy. Of these lines of trade the most important
+were the trade with the Hanse cities of northern Germany, with the
+Flemish cities, and with those in Italy, especially Venice.
+
+
+*22. The Italian and Eastern Trade.*--The merchandise which Venice had
+to offer was of an especially varied nature. Her prosperity had begun
+with a coastwise trade along the shores of the Adriatic. Later,
+especially during the period of the Crusades, her training had been
+extended to the eastern Mediterranean, where she obtained trading
+concessions from the Greek Emperor and formed a half commercial, half
+political empire of her own among the island cities and coast
+districts of the Ionian Sea, along the Dardanelles and the Sea of
+Marmora, and finally in the Black Sea. From these regions she brought
+the productions peculiar to the eastern Mediterranean: wines, sugar,
+dried fruits and nuts, cotton, drugs, dyestuffs, and certain kinds of
+leather and other manufactured articles.
+
+[Illustration: Trade Routes between England and the Continent in the
+Fourteenth Century. Engraved by Bormay and Co., N.Y.]
+
+Eventually Venice became the special possessor of a still more distant
+trade, that of the far East. The products of Arabia and Persia, India
+and the East Indian Islands, and even of China, all through the Middle
+Ages, as in antiquity, made their way by long and difficult routes to
+the western countries of Europe. Silk and cotton, both raw and
+manufactured into fine goods, indigo and other dyestuffs, aromatic
+woods and gums, narcotics and other drugs, pearls, rubies, diamonds,
+sapphires, turquoises, and other precious stones, gold and silver, and
+above all the edible spices, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and
+allspice, could be obtained only in Asia. There were three principal
+routes by which these goods were brought into Europe: first, along the
+Red Sea and overland across Egypt; second, up the Persian Gulf to its
+head, and then either along the Euphrates to a certain point whence
+the caravan route turned westward to the Syrian coast, or along the
+Tigris to its upper waters, and then across to the Black Sea at
+Trebizond; third, by caravan routes across Asia, then across the
+Caspian Sea, and overland again, either to the Black Sea or through
+Russia to the Baltic. A large part of this trade was gathered up by
+the Italian cities, especially Venice, at its various outlets upon the
+Mediterranean or adjacent waters. She had for exportation therefore,
+in addition to her own manufactures, merchandise which had been
+gathered from all parts of the then known world. The Venetian laws
+regulated commerce with the greatest minuteness. All goods purchased
+by Venetian traders must as a rule be brought first to the city and
+unloaded and stored in the city warehouses. A certain amount of
+freedom of export by land or water was then allowed, but by far the
+greater proportion of the goods remained under the partial control of
+the government. When conditions were considered favorable, the Senate
+voted a certain number of government galleys for a given voyage. There
+were several objective points for these voyages, but one was regularly
+England and Flanders, and the group of vessels sent to those countries
+was known as the "Flanders Fleet." Such an expedition was usually
+ordered about once a year, and consisted of two to five galleys. These
+were put under the charge of an admiral and provided with sailing
+masters, crews of rowers, and armed men to protect them, all at the
+expense of the merchants who should send goods in the vessels.
+Stringent regulations were also imposed upon them by the government,
+defining the length of their stay and appointing a series of stopping
+places, usually as follows: Capo d'Istria, Corfu, Otranto, Syracuse,
+Messina, Naples, Majorca, certain Spanish ports, Lisbon; then across
+the Bay of Biscay to the south coast of England, where usually the
+fleet divided, part going to Sluys, Middleburg, or Antwerp, in the
+Netherlands; the remainder going to Southampton, Sandwich, London, or
+elsewhere in England. At one or other of the southern ports of
+England the fleet would reassemble on its return, the whole outward
+and return voyage usually taking about a year.
+
+The merchants who had come with the fleet thereupon proceeded to
+dispose of their goods in the southern towns and fairs of England and
+to buy wool or other goods which might be taken back to Venice or
+disposed of on the way. A somewhat similar trade was kept up with
+other Italian cities, especially with Genoa and Florence, though these
+lines of trade were more extensive in the fifteenth century than in
+the fourteenth.
+
+
+*23. The Flanders Trade and the Staple.*--A trade of greater bulk and
+greater importance, though it did not include articles from such a
+distance as that of Italy, was the trade with the Flemish cities. This
+was more closely connected with English wool production than was that
+with any other country. Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Courtrai, Arras, and a
+number of other cities in Flanders and the adjacent provinces of the
+Netherlands and France had become populous and rich, principally from
+their weaving industry. For their manufacture of fine fabrics they
+needed the English wool, and in turn their fine woven goods were in
+constant demand for the use of the wealthier classes in England.
+English skill was not yet sufficient to produce anything more than the
+crudest and roughest of textile fabrics. The fine cloths, linens,
+cambrics, cloth of gold and silver, tapestries and hangings, were the
+product of the looms of the Flemish cities. Other fine manufactured
+goods, such as armor and weapons, glass and furniture, and articles
+which had been brought in the way of trade to the Netherlands, were
+all exported thence and sold in England.
+
+The Flemish dealers who habitually engaged in the English trade were
+organized among themselves in a company or league known as the
+"Flemish Hanse of London." A considerable number of towns held such
+membership in the organization that their citizens could take part in
+the trade and share in the benefits and privileges of the society, and
+no citizen of these towns could trade in England without paying the
+dues and submitting himself to the rules of the Hanse. The export
+trade from England to the Netherlands was controlled from the English
+side by the system known as the "Staple." From early times it had been
+customary to gather English standard products in certain towns in
+England or abroad for sale. These towns were known as "staples" or
+"staple towns," and wool, woolfells, leather, tin, and lead, the goods
+most extensively exported, were known as "staple goods." Subsequently
+the government took control of the matter, and appointed a certain
+town in the Netherlands to which staple goods must be sent in the
+first place when they were exported from England. Later certain towns
+in England were appointed as staple towns, where all goods of the
+kinds mentioned above should be taken to be registered, weighed, and
+taxed before exportation. Just at the close of the period under
+discussion, in 1354, a careful organization was given to the system of
+staple towns in England, by which in each of the ten or twelve towns
+to which staple goods must be brought for exportation, a Mayor of the
+Staple and two Constables were elected by the "merchants of the
+staple," native and foreign. These officials had a number of duties,
+some of them more particularly in the interest of the king and
+treasury, others in the interest of the foreign merchants, still
+others merely for the preservation of good order and the enforcement
+of justice. The law merchant was made the basis of judgment, and every
+effort made to grant protection to foreigners and at the same time
+secure the financial interests of the government. But the policy of
+the government was by no means consistent. Both before and after this
+date, the whole system of staples was repeatedly abolished for a time
+and the whole trade in these articles thrown open. Again, the location
+of the staple towns was shifted from England to the continent and
+again back to England. Eventually, in 1363, the staple came to be
+established at Calais, and all "staplers," or exporters of staple
+goods from England, were forced to give bonds that their cargoes would
+be taken direct to Calais to be sold.
+
+
+*24. The Hanse Trade.*--The trade with Germany was at this time almost
+all with the group of citizens which made up the German Hanse or
+League. This was a union of a large number of towns of northern
+Germany, such as Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Dantzig, Brunswick, and
+perhaps sixty or eighty others. By a series of treaties and agreements
+among themselves, these towns had formed a close confederation which
+acted as a single whole in obtaining favorable trading concessions and
+privileges in various countries. There had been a considerable trade
+between the merchants of these towns and England from an early time.
+They brought the products of the Baltic lands, such as lumber, tar,
+salt, iron, silver, salted and smoked fish, furs, amber, certain
+coarse manufactures, and goods obtained by Hanseatic merchants through
+their more distant trade connections, such as fine woven goods, armor
+and other metal goods, and even spices and other Eastern goods,
+obtained from the great Russian fairs. The Hanse cities had entered
+into treaties with the English government, and possessed valuable
+concessions and privileges, and imported and exported quite
+extensively. The term "sterling," as applied to standard English
+money, is derived from the word "Easterling," which was used as
+synonymous with "German," "Hansard," "Dutch," and several other names
+descriptive of these traders.
+
+The trade with the cities of northwestern France was similar to that
+with the neighboring towns of Flanders. That with northwestern France
+consisted especially of salt, sail-cloth, and wine. The trade with
+Poitou, Gascony, and Guienne was more extensive, as was natural from
+their long political connection with England. The chief part of the
+export from southern France was wine, though a variety of other
+articles, including fruits and some manufactured articles, were sent
+to England. A trade of quite a varied character also existed between
+England and the various countries of the Spanish Peninsula, including
+Portugal. Foreign trade with all of these countries was destined to
+increase largely during the later fourteenth and the fifteenth
+century, but its foundations were well laid within the first half of
+the fourteenth. Vessels from all these countries appeared from time to
+time in the harbors of England, and their merchants traded under
+government patronage and support in many English towns and fairs.
+
+
+*25. Foreigners settled in England.*--The fact that almost all of the
+foreign trade of England was in the hands of aliens necessarily
+involved their presence in the country temporarily or permanently in
+considerable numbers. The closely related fact that the English were
+distinctly behind the people of the Continent in economic knowledge,
+skill, and wealth also led foreigners to seek England as a field for
+profitable exercise of their abilities in finance, in trade, and
+manufactures. The most conspicuous of these foreigners at the close of
+the thirteenth century and during the early part of the fourteenth
+were the Italian bankers. Florence was not only a great trading and
+manufacturing city, but a money centre, a capitalist city. The Bardi,
+Peruzzi, Alberti, Frescobaldi, and other banking companies received
+deposits from citizens of Florence and other Italian cities, and
+loaned the money, as well as their own capital, to governments, great
+nobles, and ecclesiastical corporations in other countries. When the
+Jews were expelled from England in 1290, there being no considerable
+amount of money among native Englishmen, the Italian bankers were the
+only source from which the government could secure ready money. When a
+tax had been authorized by Parliament, but the product of it could be
+obtained only after a year or more spent in its collection, the
+Florentines were at hand to offer the money at once, receiving
+security for repayment when the receipts from the tax should come in.
+Government monopolies like the Cornwall tin mines were leased to them
+for a lump sum; arrangements were made by which the bankers furnished
+a certain amount of money each day during a campaign or a royal
+progress. The immediate needs of an impecunious king were regularly
+satisfied with money borrowed to be repaid some months afterward. The
+equipment for all of the early expeditions of the Hundred Years' War
+was obtained with money borrowed from the Florentines. Payments abroad
+were also made by means of bills of exchange negotiated by the same
+money-lenders. Direct payment of interest was forbidden by law, but
+they seem to have been rewarded by valuable government concessions, by
+the profits on exchange, and no doubt by the indirect payment of
+interest, notwithstanding its illegality.
+
+The Italian bankers evidently loaned to others besides the king, for
+in 1327 the Knights Hospitallers in England repaid to the Society of
+the Bardi £848 5_d._, and to the Peruzzi £551 12_s._ 11_d._ They
+continued to loan freely to the king, till in 1348 he was indebted to
+one company alone to the extent of more than £50,000, a sum equal in
+modern value to about $3,000,000. The king now failed to repay what he
+had promised, and the banking companies fell into great straits.
+Defalcations having occurred in other countries also, some of them
+failed, and after the middle of the century they never held so
+conspicuous a place, though some Italians continued to act as bankers
+and financiers through the remainder of the fourteenth and fifteenth
+century. Many Italian merchants who were not bankers, especially
+Venetians and Genoese, were settled in England, but their occupation
+did not make them so conspicuous as the financiers of the same nation.
+
+[Illustration: The Steelyard in the Seventeenth Century. (Herbert:
+_History of London Livery Companies_.)]
+
+The German or Hanse merchants had a settlement of their own in London,
+known as the "Steelyard," "Gildhall of the Dutch," or the
+"Easterling's House." They had similar establishments on a smaller
+scale in Boston and Lynn, and perhaps in other towns. Their
+permission to own property and to live in their own house instead of
+in the houses of native merchants, as was the usual custom, was
+derived, like most privileges of foreigners, from the gift of the
+king. Little by little they had purchased property surrounding their
+original grants until they had a great group of buildings, including a
+meeting and dining hall, tower, kitchen, storage house, offices and
+other warehouses, and a considerable number of dwelling-houses, all
+enclosed by a wall and fences. It was located immediately on the
+Thames just above London Bridge so that their vessels unloaded at
+their own wharf. The merchants or their agents lived under strict
+rules, the gates being invariably closed at nine o'clock, and all
+discords among their own nation were punished by their own officers.
+Their trade was profitable to the king through payment of customs, and
+after the failure of the Italian bankers the merchants of the
+Steelyard made considerable loans to the English government either
+directly or acting for citizens at home. In 1343, when the king had
+been granted a tax of 40_s._ a sack on all wool exported, he
+immediately borrowed the value of it from Tiedemann van Limberg and
+Johann van Wolde, Easterlings. Similarly in 1346 the Easterlings
+loaned the king money for three years, holding his second crown as
+security. Like the Florentines, at one time they took the Cornwall tin
+mines at farm. They had many privileges not accorded generally to
+foreigners, but were exceedingly unpopular alike with the population
+and the authorities of the city of London. There were some other
+Germans domiciled in England, but nowhere else were they so
+conspicuous or influential as at the Steelyard.
+
+[Illustration: Ground Plan of the Steelyard in the Seventeenth
+Century. (Lappenberg. _Geschichte des Hansischen Stahlhofes_.)]
+
+The trade with Flanders brought Flemish merchants into England
+temporarily, but they do not seem to have formed any settlement or
+located permanently in any one place. Flemish artisans, on the other
+hand, had migrated to England from early times and were scattered here
+and there in several towns and villages. In the early part of the
+fourteenth century Edward III made it a matter of deliberate policy to
+encourage the immigration of Flemish weavers and other handicraftsmen,
+with the expectation that they would teach their art to the more
+backward native English. In 1332 he issued a charter of protection and
+privilege to a Fleming named John Kempe, a weaver of woollen cloth,
+offering the same privilege and protection to all other weavers,
+dyers, and fullers who should care to come to England to live. In 1337
+a similar charter was given to a body of weavers coming from Zealand
+to England. It is believed that a considerable number of immigrants
+from the Netherlands came in at this period, settled largely in the
+smaller towns and rural villages, and taking English apprentices
+brought about a great improvement in the character of English
+manufactures. Flemings are also met with in local records in various
+occupations, even in agriculture.
+
+There were other foreigners resident in England, especially Gascons
+from the south of France, and Spaniards; but the main elements of
+alien population in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were those
+which have just been described, Italians, Germans from the Hanse
+towns, and Flemings. These were mainly occupied as bankers, merchants,
+and handicraftsmen.
+
+
+*26. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Dr. Cunningham's _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_ is
+particularly full and valuable on this subject. He has given further
+details on one branch of it in his _Alien Immigrants in England_.
+
+Schanz, Georg: _Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende des Mittelalters_.
+This work refers to a later period than that included in this chapter,
+but the summaries which the author gives of earlier conditions are in
+many cases the best accounts that we have.
+
+Ashley, W. J.: _Early History of the Woolen Industry in England_.
+
+Pauli, R.: _Pictures from Old England_. Contains an interesting
+account of the Steelyard.
+
+Pirenne, Henri: _La Hanse flamande de Londres_.
+
+Von Ochenkowski, W.: _England's Wirthsschaftliche Entwickelung im
+Ausgange des Mittelalters_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE BLACK DEATH AND THE PEASANTS' REBELLION
+
+Economic Changes Of The Later Fourteenth And Early Fifteenth Centuries
+
+
+*27. National Affairs from 1338 to 1461.*--For the last century or more
+England had been standing with her back to the Continent. Deprived of
+most of their French possessions, engaged in the struggle to bring
+Wales, Scotland, and Ireland under the English crown, occupied with
+repeated conflicts with their barons or with the development of the
+internal organization of the country, John, Henry III, and the two
+Edwards had had less time and inclination to interest themselves in
+continental affairs than had Henry II and Richard. But after 1337 a
+new influence brought England for the next century into close
+connection with the rest of Europe. This was the "Hundred Years' War"
+between England and France. Several causes had for years combined to
+make this war unavoidable: the interference of France in the dispute
+with Scotland, the conflicts between the rising fishing and trading
+towns on the English and the French side of the Channel, the desire of
+the French king to drive the English kings from their remaining
+provinces in the south of France, and the reluctance of the English
+kings to accept their dependent position in France. Edward III
+commenced the war in 1338 with the invasion of France, and it was
+continued with comparatively short intervals of peace until 1452.
+During its progress the English won three of the most brilliant
+military victories in their history, at Crécy, Poitiers, and
+Agincourt, in 1346, 1356, and 1415. But most of the campaigns were
+characterized by brutality, destructive ravaging, and the reduction of
+cities by famine. The whole contest indeed often degenerated into
+desultory, objectless warfare. A permanent settlement was attempted at
+Bretigny in 1360. The English required the dismemberment of France by
+the surrender of almost one-third of the country and the payment by
+the French of a large ransom for their king, who had been captured by
+the English. In return King Edward withdrew any other claims he might
+have to territory, or the French crown. These terms were, however, so
+humiliating to the French that they did not adhere to them, the war
+soon broke out again, and finally terminated in the driving out of the
+English from all of France except the city of Calais, in the middle
+years of the next century.
+
+The many alliances, embassies, exchanges of visits, and other
+international intercourse which the prosecution of the Hundred Years'
+War involved brought England into a closer participation in the
+general life of Europe than ever before, and caused the ebb and flow
+of a tide of influences between England and the Continent which deeply
+affected economic, political, and religious life on both sides of the
+Channel.
+
+The Universities continued to flourish during almost the whole of this
+period. It was from Oxford as a centre, under the influence of John
+Wycliffe, a lecturer there, that a great revival and reforming
+movement in the church emanated. From about 1370 Wycliffe and others
+began to agitate for a more earnest religious life. They translated
+the Bible into English, wrote devotional and polemic tracts, preached
+throughout the country, spoke and wrote against the evils in the
+church at the time, then against its accepted form of organization,
+and finally against its official teachings. They thus became heretics.
+Thousands were influenced by their teachings, and a wave of religious
+revival and ecclesiastical rebellion spread over the country. The
+powers of the church and the civil government were ultimately brought
+to bear to crush out the "Lollards," as those who held heretical
+beliefs at that time were called. New and stringent laws were passed
+in 1401 and 1415, several persons were burned at the stake, and a
+large number forced to recant, or frightened into keeping their
+opinions secret. This religious movement gradually died out, and by
+the middle of the fifteenth century nothing more is heard of
+Lollardry.
+
+Wycliffe had been not only a religious innovator, but a writer of much
+excellent English. Contemporary with him or slightly later were a
+number of writers who used the native language and created permanent
+works of literature. _The Vision of Piers Plowman_ is the longest and
+best of a number of poems written by otherwise unknown men. Geoffrey
+Chaucer, one of England's greatest poets, wrote at first in French,
+then in English; his _Canterbury Tales_ showing a perfected English
+form, borrowed originally, like so much of what was best in England at
+the time, from Italy or France, but assimilated, improved, and
+reconstructed until it seemed a purely English production. During the
+reign of Edward III English became the official language of the courts
+and the usual language of conversation, even among the higher classes.
+
+Edward III lived until 1377. Through his long reign of half a century,
+during which he was entirely dependent on the grants of Parliament for
+the funds needed to carry on the war against France, this body
+obtained the powers, privileges, and organization which made it
+thereafter such an influential part of the government. His successor,
+Richard II, after a period of moderate government tried to rule with a
+high hand, but in 1399 was deposed through the influence of his
+cousin, Henry of Lancaster, who was crowned as Henry IV. Henry's title
+to the throne, according to hereditary principles, was defective, for
+the son of an older brother was living. He was, however, a mere child,
+and there was no considerable opposition to Henry's accession. Under
+the Lancastrian line, as Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI, who now
+reigned successively, are called, Parliament reached the highest
+position which it had yet attained, a position higher in fact than it
+held for several centuries afterward. Henry VI was a child at the
+death of his father in 1422. On coming to be a man he proved too mild
+in temper to control the great nobles who, by the chances of
+inheritance, had become almost as powerful as the great feudal barons
+of early Norman times. The descendants of the older branch of the
+royal family were now represented by a vigorous and capable man, the
+duke of York. An effort was therefore made about 1450 by one party of
+the nobles to depose Henry VI in favor of the duke of York. A number
+of other nobles took the side of the king, and civil war broke out.
+After a series of miserable contests known as the "Wars of the Roses"
+the former party was successful, at least temporarily, and the duke of
+York became king in 1461 as Edward IV.
+
+
+*28. The Black Death and its Effects.*--During the earlier mediæval
+centuries the most marked characteristic of society was its stability.
+Institutions continued with but slight changes during a long period.
+With the middle of the fourteenth century changes become more
+prominent. Some of the most conspicuous of these gather around a
+series of attacks of epidemic disease during the latter half of the
+century.
+
+[Illustration: Distribution of Population According to the Poll-tax of
+1377. Engraved by Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
+
+From the autumn of 1348 to the spring of 1350 a wave of pestilence
+was spreading over England from the southwest northward and eastward,
+progressively attacking every part of the country. The disease was new
+to Europe. Its course in the individual case, like its progress
+through the community, was very rapid. The person attacked either died
+within two or three days or even less, or showed signs of recovery
+within the same period. The proportion of cases which resulted fatally
+was extremely large; the infectious character of the disease quite
+remarkable. It was, in fact, an extremely violent epidemic attack, the
+most violent in history, of the bubonic plague, with which we have
+unfortunately become again familiar within recent years.
+
+From much careful examination of several kinds of contemporary
+evidence it seems almost certain that as each locality was
+successively attacked in 1348 and 1349 something like a half of the
+population died. In other words, whereas in an ordinary year at that
+time perhaps one-twentieth of the people died, in the plague year
+one-half died. Such entries as the following are frequent in the
+contemporary records. At the abbey of Newenham, "in the time of this
+mortality or pestilence there died in this house twenty monks and
+three lay brothers, whose names are entered in other books. And
+Walter, the abbot, and two monks were left alive there after the
+sickness." At Leicester, "in the little parish of St. Leonard there
+died more than 380, in the parish of Holy Cross more than 400, in that
+of St. Margaret more than 700; and so in every parish great numbers."
+The close arrangement of houses in the villages, the crowding of
+dwellings along narrow streets in the towns, the promiscuous life in
+the monasteries and in the inns, the uncleanly habits of living
+universally prevalent, all helped to make possible this sweeping away
+of perhaps a majority of the population by an attack of epidemic
+disease. It had devastated several of the countries of Europe before
+appearing in England, having been introduced into Europe apparently
+along the great trade routes from the far East. Within a few months
+the attack in each successive district subsided, the disease in the
+southwestern counties of England having run its course between August,
+1348, and May, 1349, in and about London between November, 1348, and
+July, 1349, in the eastern counties in the summer of 1349, and in the
+more northern counties through the last months of that year or within
+the spring of 1350. Pestilence was frequent throughout the Middle
+Ages, but this attack was not only vastly more destructive and general
+than any which had preceded it, but the disease when once introduced
+became a frequent scourge in subsequent times, especially during the
+remainder of the fourteenth century. In 1361, 1368, and 1396 attacks
+are noticed as occurring more or less widely through the country, but
+none were so extensive as that which is usually spoken of as the
+"Black Death" of 1348-1349. The term "Black Death" was not used
+contemporaneously, nor until comparatively modern times. The
+occurrence of the pestilence, however, made an extremely strong
+impression on men's minds, and as "the great mortality," "the great
+pestilence," or "the great death," it appears widely in the records
+and the literature of the time.
+
+Such an extensive and sudden destruction of life could not take place
+without leaving its mark in many directions. Monasteries were
+depopulated, and the value of their property and the strictness of
+their discipline diminished. The need for priests led to the
+ordination of those who were less carefully prepared and selected. The
+number of students at Oxford and Cambridge was depleted; the building
+and adornment of many churches suspended. The war between England and
+France, though promptly renewed, involved greater difficulty in
+obtaining equipment, and ultimately required new devices to meet its
+expense. Many of the towns lost numbers and property that were never
+regained, and the distribution of population throughout England was
+appreciably changed.
+
+But the most evident and far-reaching results of the series of
+pestilences occurring through the last half of the fourteenth century
+were those connected with rural life and the arrangement of classes
+described in Chapter II.
+
+The lords of manors might seem at first thought to have reaped
+advantage from the unusually high death rate. The heriots collected on
+the death of tenants were more numerous; reliefs paid by their
+successors on obtaining the land were repeated far more frequently
+than usual; much land escheated to the lord on the extinction of the
+families of free tenants, or fell into his hands for redisposal on the
+failure of descendants of villains or cotters. But these were only
+temporary and casual results. In other ways the diminution of
+population was distinctly disadvantageous to the lords of manors. They
+obtained much lower rents for mills and other such monopolies, because
+there were fewer people to have their grain ground and the tenants of
+the mills could therefore not make as much profit. The rents of assize
+or regular periodical payments in money and in kind made by free and
+villain tenants were less in amount, since the tenants were fewer and
+much land was unoccupied. The profits of the manor courts were less,
+for there were not so many suitors to attend, to pay fees, and to be
+fined. The manor court rolls for these years give long lists of
+vacancies of holdings, often naming the days of the deaths of the
+tenants. Their successors are often children, and in many cases whole
+families were swept away and the land taken into the hands of the
+lord of the manor. Juries appointed at one meeting of the manor court
+are sometimes all dead by the time of the next meeting. There are
+constant complaints by the stewards that certain land "is of no value
+because the tenants are all dead;" in one place that a water-mill is
+worthless because "all the tenants who used it are dead," in another
+that the rents are £7 14_s._ less than in the previous year because
+fourteen holdings, consisting of 102 acres of land, are in the hands
+of the lord, in still another that the rents of assize which used to
+be £20 are now only £2 and the court fees have fallen from 40 to 5
+shillings "because the tenants there are dead." There was also less
+required service performed on the demesne lands, for many of the
+villain holdings from which it was owed were now vacant. Last, and
+most seriously of all, the lords of manors suffered as employers of
+labor. It had always been necessary to hire additional labor for the
+cultivation of the demesne farm and for the personal service of the
+manor, and through recent decades somewhat more had come to be hired
+because of a gradual increase of the practice of commutation of
+services. That is, villain tenants were allowed to pay the value of
+their required days' work in money instead of in actual service. The
+bailiff or reeve then hired men as they were wanted, so that quite an
+appreciable part of the work of the manor had come to be done by
+laborers hired for wages.
+
+After the Black Death the same demesne lands were to be cultivated,
+and in most cases the larger holdings remained or descended or were
+regranted to those who would expect to continue their cultivation.
+Thus the demand for laborers remained approximately as great as it had
+been before. The number of laborers, on the other hand, was vastly
+diminished. They were therefore eagerly sought for by employers.
+Naturally they took advantage of their position to demand higher
+wages, and in many cases combined to refuse to work at the old
+accustomed rates. A royal ordinance of 1349 states that, "because a
+great part of the people, especially of workmen and servants, have
+lately died in the pestilence, many, seeing the necessity of masters
+and great scarcity of servants, will not serve unless they may receive
+excessive wages." A contemporary chronicler says that "laborers were
+so elated and contentious that they did not pay any attention to the
+command of the king, and if anybody wanted to hire them he was bound
+to pay them what they asked, and so he had his choice either to lose
+his harvest and crops or give in to the proud and covetous desires of
+the workmen." Thus, because of this rise in wages, at the very time
+that many of the usual sources of income of the lords of manors were
+less remunerative, the expenses of carrying on their farming
+operations were largely increased. On closer examination, therefore,
+it becomes evident that the income of the lords of manors, whether
+individuals or corporations, was not increased, but considerably
+diminished, and that their position was less favorable than it had
+been before the pestilence.
+
+The freeholders of land below lords of manors were disadvantageously
+affected in as far as they had to hire laborers, but in other ways
+were in a more favorable position. The rent which they had to pay was
+often reduced. Land was everywhere to be had in plenty, and a threat
+to give up their holdings and go to where more favorable terms could
+be secured was generally effective in obtaining better terms where
+they were.
+
+The villain holders legally of course did not have this opportunity,
+but practically they secured many of its advantages. It is probable
+that many took up additional land, perhaps on an improved tenure.
+Their payments and their labor, whether done in the form of required
+"week-work," or, if this were commuted, done for hire, were much
+valued, and concessions made to them accordingly. They might, as they
+frequently did, take to flight, giving up their land and either
+obtaining a new grant somewhere else or becoming laborers without
+lands of their own.
+
+This last-named class, made up of those who depended entirely on
+agricultural labor on the land of others for their support, was a
+class which had been increasing in numbers, and which was the most
+distinctly favored by the demand for laborers and the rise of wages.
+They were the representatives of the old cotter class, recruited from
+those who either inherited no land or found it more advantageous to
+work for wages than to take up small holdings with their burdens.
+
+But the most important social result of the Black Death and the period
+of pestilence which followed it was the general shock it gave to the
+old settled life and established relations of men to one another. It
+introduced many immediate changes, and still more causes of ultimate
+change; but above all it altered the old stability, so that change in
+future would be easy.
+
+
+*29. The Statutes of Laborers.*--The change which showed itself most
+promptly, the rise in the prevailing rate of wages, was met by the
+strenuous opposition of the law. In the summer of 1349, while the
+pestilence was still raging in the north of England, the king, acting
+on the advice of his Council, issued a proclamation to all the
+sheriffs and the officials of the larger towns, declaring that the
+laborers were taking advantage of the needs of their lords to demand
+excessive wages, and prohibiting them from asking more than had been
+due and accustomed in the year before the outbreak of the pestilence
+or for the preceding five or six years. Every laborer when offered
+service at these wages must accept it; the lords of manors having the
+first right to the labor of those living on their manors, provided
+they did not insist on retaining an unreasonable number. If any
+laborers, men or women, bond or free, should refuse to accept such an
+offer of work, they were to be imprisoned till they should give bail
+to serve as required. Commissioners were then appointed by the king in
+each county to inquire into and punish violations of this ordinance.
+
+[Illustration: The Stocks at Shalford, near Guildford. Present State.
+(Jusserand: _English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century_.
+Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)]
+
+When Parliament next met, in February, 1351, the Commons sent a
+petition to the king stating that his ordinance had not been obeyed
+and that laborers were claiming double and treble what they had
+received in the years before the pestilence. In response to the
+petition what is usually called the "First Statute of Laborers" was
+enacted. It repeated the requirement that men must accept work when it
+was offered to them, established definite rates of wages for various
+classes of laborers, and required all such persons to swear twice a
+year before the stewards, bailiffs, or other officials that they would
+obey this law. If they refused to swear or disobeyed the law, they
+were to be put in the stocks for three days or more and then sent to
+the nearest jail till they should agree to serve as required. It was
+ordered that stocks should be built in each village for this purpose,
+and that the judges should visit each county twice a year to inquire
+into the enforcement of the law. In 1357 the law was reënacted, with
+some changes of the destination of the fines collected for its breach.
+In 1361 there was a further reënactment of the law with additional
+penalties. If laborers will not work unless they are given higher
+wages than those established by law, they can be taken and imprisoned
+by lords of manors for as much as fifteen days, and then be sent to
+the next jail to await the coming of the justices. If any one after
+accepting service leaves it, he is to be arrested and sued before the
+justices. If he cannot be found, he is to be outlawed and a writ sent
+to every sheriff in England ordering that he should be arrested, sent
+back, and imprisoned till he pays his fine and makes amends to the
+party injured; "and besides for the falsity he shall be burnt in the
+forehead with an iron made and formed to this letter F in token of
+Falsity, if the party aggrieved shall ask for it." This last
+provision, however, was probably intended as a threat rather than an
+actual punishment, for its application was suspended for some months,
+and even then it was to be inflicted only on the advice of the
+judges, and the iron was to remain in the custody of the sheriff. The
+statute was reënacted with slight variations thirteen times within the
+century after its original introduction; namely, in addition to the
+dates already mentioned, in 1362, 1368, 1378, 1388, 1402, 1406, 1414,
+1423, 1427, 1429, and 1444.
+
+[Illustration: Laborers Reaping. From a Fourteenth Century Manuscript.
+(Jusserand: _English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century_.
+Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)]
+
+The necessity for these repeated reissues of the statutes of laborers
+indicates that the general rise of wages was not prevented. Forty
+years after the pestilence the law of 1388 is said to be passed,
+"because that servants and laborers are not, nor by a long time have
+been willing to serve and labor without outrageous and excessive
+hire." Direct testimony also indicates that the prevailing rate of
+wages was much higher, probably half as much again, as it  had been
+before the pestilence. Nevertheless, the enforcement of the law in
+individual cases must have been a very great hardship. The fines which
+were collected from breakers of the law were of sufficient amount to
+be estimated at one time as part payment of a tax, at another as a
+valuable source of income to the lords of manors. Their enforcement
+was intrusted at different times to the local justices of the peace,
+the royal judges on circuit, and special commissioners.
+
+The inducement to the passage of the laws prohibiting a rise in wages
+was no doubt partly the self-interest of the employing classes who
+were alone represented in Parliament, but partly also the feeling that
+the laboring class were taking advantage of an abnormal condition of
+affairs to change the well established customary rates of remuneration
+of labor. The most significant fact indicated by the laws, however,
+was the existence of a distinct class of laborers. In earlier times
+when almost all rural dwellers held some land this can hardly have
+been the case; it is quite evident that there was now an increasing
+class who made their living simply by working for wages. Another fact
+frequently referred to in the laws is the frequent passage of laborers
+from one district to another; it is evident that the population was
+becoming somewhat less stationary. Therefore while the years following
+the great pestilence were a period of difficulty for the lords of
+manors and the employing classes, for the lower classes the same
+period was one of increasing opportunity and a breaking down of old
+restrictions. Whether or not the statutes had any real effect in
+keeping the rate of wages lower than it would have otherwise become is
+hard to determine, but there is no doubt that the efforts to enforce
+the law and the frequent punishment of individuals for its violation
+embittered the minds of the laborers and helped to throw them into
+opposition to the government and to the upper classes generally. The
+statutes of laborers thus became one of the principal causes of the
+growth of that hostility which culminated in the Peasants' Rebellion.
+
+
+*30. The Peasants' Rebellion of 1381.*--From the scanty contemporary
+records still remaining we can obtain glimpses of a widespread
+restlessness among the masses of the English people during the latter
+half of the fourteenth century. According to a petition submitted to
+Parliament in 1377 the villains were refusing to pay their customary
+services to their lords and to acknowledge the requirements of their
+serfdom. They were also gathering together in great bodies to resist
+the efforts of the lords to collect from them their dues and to force
+them to submit to the decisions of the manor courts. The ready
+reception given to the religious revival preached by the Lollards
+throughout the country indicates an attitude of independence and of
+self-assertion on the part of the people of which there had been no
+sign during earlier times. The writer who represents most nearly
+popular feeling, the author of the _Vision of Piers Plowman_, reflects
+a certain restless and questioning mysticism which has no particular
+plan of reform to propose, but is nevertheless thoroughly dissatisfied
+with the world as it is. Lastly, a series of vague appeals to revolt,
+written in the vernacular, partly in prose, partly in doggerel rhyme,
+have been preserved and seem to testify to a deliberate propaganda of
+lawlessness. Some of the general causes of this rising tide of
+discontent are quite apparent. The efforts to enforce the statutes of
+laborers, as has been said, kept continual friction between the
+employing and the employed class. Parliament, which kept petitioning
+for reënactments of these laws, the magistrates and special
+commissioners who enforced them, and the landowners who appealed to
+them for relief, were alike engaged in creating class antagonism and
+multiplying individual grievances. Secondly, the very improvement in
+the economic position of the lower classes, which was undoubtedly in
+progress, made them doubly impatient of the many burdens which still
+pressed upon them. Another cause for the prevalent unrest may have
+lain in the character of much of the teaching of the time. Undisguised
+communism was preached by a wandering priest, John Ball, and the
+injustice of the claims of the property-holding classes was a very
+natural inference from much of the teachings of Wycliffe and his "poor
+priests." Again, the corruption of the court, the incapacity of the
+ministers, and the failure of the war in France were all reasons for
+popular anger, if the masses of the people can be supposed to have had
+any knowledge of such distant matters.
+
+[Illustration: Adam and Eve. From a Fourteenth Century Manuscript.
+(Jusserand: _English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century_.
+Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)]
+
+But the most definite and widespread cause of discontent was probably
+the introduction of a new form of taxation, the general poll tax.
+Until this time taxes had either been direct taxes laid upon land and
+personal property, or indirect taxes laid upon various objects of
+export and import. In 1377, however, Parliament agreed to the
+imposition of a tax of four pence a head on all laymen, and
+Convocation soon afterward taxed all the clergy, regular and secular,
+the same amount. Notwithstanding this grant and increased taxes of the
+old forms, the government still needed more money for the expenses of
+the war with France, and in April, 1379, a graduated poll tax was laid
+on all persons above sixteen years of age. This was regulated
+according to the rank of the payer from mere laborers, who were to pay
+four pence, up to earls, who must pay £4. But this only produced some
+£20,000, while more than £100,000 were needed; therefore in November
+of 1380 a third poll tax was laid in the following manner. The tax was
+to be collected at the rate of three groats or one shilling for each
+person over fifteen years of age. But although the total amount
+payable from any town or manor was to be as many shillings as there
+were inhabitants over fourteen years of age, it was to be assessed in
+each manor upon individuals in proportion to their means, the more
+well-to-do paying more, the poorer paying less; but with the limits
+that no one should have to pay more than £1 for himself and his wife,
+and no one less than four pence for himself and his wife.
+
+The poll tax was extremely unpopular. In the first place, it was a new
+tax, and to all appearances an additional weight given to the burden
+of contributing to the never ending expenses of the government of
+which the people were already weary. Moreover, it fell upon everybody,
+even upon those who from their lack of property had probably never
+before paid any tax. The inhabitants of every cottage were made to
+realize, by the payment of what amounted to two or three days' wages,
+that they had public and political as well as private and economic
+burdens. Lastly, the method of assessing the tax gave scope for much
+unfairness and favoritism.
+
+In addition to this general unpopularity of the poll tax there was a
+special reason for opposition in the circumstances of that imposed in
+1380. As the returns began to come in they were extremely
+disappointing to the government. Therefore in March, 1381, the king,
+suspecting negligence on the part of the collectors, appointed groups
+of commissioners for a number of different districts who were directed
+to go from place to place investigating the former collection and
+enforcing payment from any who had evaded it before. This no doubt
+seemed to many of the ignorant people the imposition of a second tax.
+The first rumors of disorder came in May from some of the villages of
+Essex, where the tax-collectors and the commissioners who followed
+them were driven away violently by the people. Finally, during the
+second week in June, rioting began in several parts of England almost
+simultaneously. In Essex those who had refused to pay the poll tax and
+driven out the collectors now went from village to village persuading
+or compelling the people to join them. In Kent the villagers seized
+pilgrims on their way to Canterbury and forced them to take an oath to
+resist any tax except the old taxes, to be faithful to "King Richard
+and the Commons," to join their party when summoned, and never to
+allow John of Gaunt to become king. A riot broke out at Dartford in
+Kent, then Canterbury was overrun and the sheriff was forced to give
+up the tax rolls to be destroyed. They proceeded to break into
+Maidstone jail and release the prisoners there, and subsequently
+entered Rochester. These Kentish insurgents then set out toward
+London, wishing no doubt to obtain access to the young king, who was
+known to be there, but also directed by an instinctive desire to
+strike at the capital of the kingdom. By Wednesday, the 12th of June,
+they had formed a rendezvous at Blackheath some five miles below the
+city. Some of the Essex men had crossed the river and joined them,
+others had also taken their way toward London, marching along the
+northern side of the Thames. At the same time, or by the next day,
+another band was approaching London from Hertfordshire on the north.
+The body of insurgents gathered at Blackheath, who were stated by
+contemporary chroniclers, no doubt with the usual exaggeration, to
+have numbered 60,000, succeeded in communicating with King Richard, a
+boy of fourteen years, who was residing at the Tower of London with
+his mother and principal ministers and several great nobles, asking
+him to come to meet them. On the next day, Corpus Christi day, June
+12th, he was rowed with a group of nobles to the other bank of the
+river, where the insurgents were crowding to the water side. The
+confusion and danger were so great that the king did not land, and the
+conference amounted to nothing. During the same day, however, the
+rebels pressed on to the city, and a part of the populace of London
+having left the drawbridge open for them, they made their way in. The
+evening of the same day the men from Essex entered through one of the
+city gates which had also been opened for them by connivance from
+within. There had already been much destruction of property and of
+life. As the rebels passed along the roads, the villagers joined them
+and many of the lower classes of the town population as well. In
+several cases they burned the houses of the gentry and of the great
+ecclesiastics, destroyed tax and court rolls and other documents, and
+put to death persons connected with the law. When they had made their
+way into London they burned and pillaged the Savoy palace, the city
+house of the duke of Lancaster, and the houses of the Knights
+Hospitallers at Clerkenwell and at Temple Bar. By this time leaders
+had arisen among the rebels. Wat Tyler, John Ball, and Jack Straw were
+successful in keeping their followers from stealing and in giving some
+semblance of a regular plan to their proceedings. On the morning of
+Friday, the 14th, the king left the Tower, and while he was absent the
+rebels made their way in, ransacked the rooms, seized and carried out
+to Tower Hill Simon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, who was Lord
+Chancellor, Robert Hales, Grand Master of the Hospitallers, who was
+then Lord Treasurer, and some lower officials. These were all put
+through the hasty forms of an irregular trial and then beheaded. There
+were also many murders throughout the city. Foreigners especially were
+put to death, probably by Londoners themselves or by the rural
+insurgents at their instigation. A considerable number of Flemings
+were assassinated, some being drawn from one of the churches where
+they had taken refuge. The German merchants of the Steelyard were
+attacked and driven through the streets, but took refuge in their
+well-defended buildings.
+
+During the same three days, insurrection had broken out in several
+other parts of England. Disorders are mentioned in Kent, Essex,
+Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon,
+Hampshire, Sussex, Somerset, Leicester, Lincoln, York, Bedford,
+Northampton, Surrey, and Wiltshire. There are also indications of
+risings in nine other counties. In Suffolk the leadership was taken by
+a man named John Wrawe, a priest like John Ball. On June 12th, the
+same day that the rendezvous was held on Blackheath, a great body of
+peasants under Wrawe attacked and pillaged a manor house belonging to
+Richard Lyons, an unpopular minister of the last days of Edward III.
+The next day they looted a parish church where were stored the
+valuables of Sir John Cavendish, Chief Justice of the Court of King's
+Bench and Chancellor of the town of Cambridge. On the 14th they
+occupied Bury, where they sacked the houses of unpopular men and
+finally captured and put to death Cavendish himself, John of
+Cambridge, prior of the St. Edmund's Abbey, and John of Lakenheath, an
+officer of the king. The rioters also forced the monks of the abbey to
+hand over to them all the documents giving to the monastery power over
+the townsmen. There were also a large number of detached attacks on
+persons and on manor houses, where manor court rolls and other
+documents were destroyed and property carried off. There was more
+theft here than in London; but much of the plundering was primarily
+intended to settle old disputes rather than for its own sake. In
+Norfolk the insurrection broke out a day or two later than in Suffolk,
+and is notable as having among its patrons a considerable number of
+the lesser gentry and other well-to-do persons. The principal leader,
+however, was a certain Geoffrey Lister. This man had issued a
+proclamation calling in all the people to meet on the 17th of June on
+Mushold Heath, just outside the city of Norwich. A great multitude
+gathered, and they summoned Sir Robert Salle, who was in the military
+service of the king, but was living at Norwich, and who had risen from
+peasant rank to knighthood, to come out for a conference. When he
+declined their request to become their leader they assassinated him,
+and subsequently made their way into the city, of which they kept
+control for several days. Throughout Norfolk and Cambridgeshire we
+hear of the same murders of men who had obtained the hatred of the
+lower classes in general, or that of individuals who were temporarily
+influential with the insurgents. There were also numerous instances of
+the destruction of court rolls found at the manor houses of lay lords
+of manors or obtained from the muniment rooms of the monasteries. It
+seems almost certain that there was some agreement beforehand among
+the leaders of the revolt in the eastern districts of England, and
+probably also with the leaders in Essex and Kent.
+
+Another locality where we have full knowledge of the occurrences
+during the rebellion is the town and monastery of St. Albans, just
+north of London. The rising here was either instigated by, or, at
+least, drew its encouragement from, the leaders who gathered at
+London. The townsmen and villains from surrounding manors invaded the
+great abbey, opened the prison, demanded and obtained all the charters
+bearing on existing disputes, and reclaimed a number of millstones
+which were kept by the abbey as a testimony to the monopoly of all
+grinding by the abbey mill. In many other places disorders were in
+progress. For a few days in the middle of June a considerable part of
+England was at the mercy of the revolted peasants and artisans, under
+the leadership partly of men who had arisen among their own class,
+partly of certain persons of higher position who had sufficient reason
+for throwing in their lot with them.
+
+[Illustration: Extension of the Peasant's Insurrection of 1381.
+Engraved by Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
+
+The culmination of the revolt was at the time of the execution of the
+great ministers of government on Tower Hill on the morning of the
+14th. At that very time the young king had met a body of the rebels,
+mostly made up of men from Essex and Hertfordshire at Mile End, just
+outside of one of the gates of London. In a discussion in which they
+stated their grievances, the king apparently in good faith, but as it
+afterward proved in bad, promised to give them what they demanded,
+begged them to disperse and go to their homes, only leaving
+representatives from each village to take back the charters of
+emancipation which he proceeded to have prepared and issued to them.
+There had been no intentional antagonism to the king himself, and a
+great part of the insurgents took him at his word and scattered to
+their homes. The charters which they took with them were of the
+following form:--
+
+"Richard, by the grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of
+Ireland, to all his bailiffs and faithful ones, to whom these present
+letters shall come, greeting. Know that of our special grace, we have
+manumitted all of our lieges and each of our subjects and others of
+the County of Hertford; and them and each of them have made free from
+all bondage, and by these presents make them quit. And moreover we
+pardon our same lieges and subjects for all kinds of felonies,
+treasons, transgressions, and extortions, however done or perpetrated
+by them or any of them, and also outlawry, if any shall have been
+promulgated on this account against them or any of them; and our most
+complete peace to them and each of them we concede in these matters.
+In testimony of which things we have caused these our letters to be
+made patent. Witness, myself, at London, on the fifteenth day of June,
+in the fourth year of our reign."
+
+The most prominent leaders remained behind, and a large body of
+rioters spent the rest of Friday and the following night in London.
+The king, after the interview at Mile End, had returned to the Tower,
+then to the Queen's Wardrobe, a little palace at the other side of
+London, where he spent the night with his mother. In the morning he
+mounted his horse, and with a small group of attendants rode toward
+the Tower. As he passed through the open square of Smithfield he met
+Wat Tyler, also on horseback, accompanied by the great body of rebels.
+Tyler rode forward to confer with the king, but an altercation having
+broken out between him and some of the king's attendants, the mayor of
+London, Sir William Walworth, suddenly dashed forward, struck him from
+his horse with the blow of a sword, and while on the ground he was
+stabbed to death by the other attendants of the king. There was a
+moment of extreme danger of an attack by the leaderless rebels on the
+king and his companions, but the ready promises of the king, his
+natural gifts of pretence, and the strange attachment which the
+peasants showed to him through all the troubles, tided over a little
+time until they had been led outside of the city gates, and the armed
+forces which many gentlemen had in their houses in the city had at
+last been gathered together and brought to where they had the
+disorganized body of rebels at their mercy. These were then disarmed,
+bidden to go to their homes, and a proclamation issued that if any
+stranger remained in London over Sunday he would pay for it with his
+life.
+
+The downfall of Tyler and the dispersion of the insurgents at London
+turned the tide of the whole revolt. In the various districts where
+disorders were in progress the news of that failure came as a blow to
+all their own hopes of success. The revolt had been already
+disintegrating rather than gaining in strength and unity; and now its
+leaders lost heart, and local bodies of gentry proportionately took
+courage to suppress revolt in their own localities. The most
+conspicuous and influential of such efforts was that of Henry de
+Spencer, bishop of Norwich. This warlike prelate was in Rutlandshire
+when the news of the revolt came. He hastened toward Norwich; on his
+way met an embassy from the rioters to the king; seized and beheaded
+two of its peasant members, and still pushing on met the great body of
+the rebels near Walsham, where after a short conflict and some
+parleying the latter were dispersed, and their leaders captured and
+hung without any ceremony other than the last rites of religion. As a
+matter of fact the rising had no cohesion sufficient to withstand
+attack from any constituted authority or from representatives of the
+dominant classes.
+
+The king's government acted promptly. On the 17th of June, two days
+after the death of Tyler, a proclamation was issued forbidding
+unauthorized gatherings of people; on the 23d a second, requiring all
+tenants, villains, and freemen alike to perform their usual services
+to their lords; and on the 2d of July a third, withdrawing the
+charters of pardon and manumission which had been granted on the 15th
+of June. Special sessions of the courts were organized in the
+rebellious districts, and the leaders of the revolt were searched out
+and executed by hanging or decapitation.
+
+On the 3d of November Parliament met. The king's treasurer explained
+that he had issued the charters under constraint, and recognizing
+their illegality, with the expectation of withdrawing them as soon as
+possible, which he had done. The suggestion of the king that the
+villains should be regularly enfranchised by a statute was declined in
+vigorous terms by Parliament. Laws were passed relieving all those who
+had made grants under compulsion from carrying them out, enabling
+those whose charters had been destroyed to obtain new ones under the
+great seal, granting exemption from prosecution to all who had
+exercised illegal violence in putting down the late insurrection, and
+finally granting a general pardon, though with many exceptions, to the
+late insurgents.
+
+Thus the rising of June, 1381, had become a matter of the past by the
+close of the year. The general conditions which brought about a
+popular uprising have already been discussed. The specific objects
+which the rioters had in view in each part of the country are a much
+more obscure and complicated question.
+
+There is no reason to believe that there was any general political
+object, other than opposition to the new and burdensome taxation, and
+disgust with the existing ministry. Nor was there any religious object
+in view. No doubt a large part of the disorder had no general purpose
+whatever, but consisted in an attempt, at a period of confusion and
+relaxation of the law, to settle by violence purely local or personal
+disputes and grievances.
+
+Apart from these considerations the objects of the rioters were of an
+economic nature. There was a general effort to destroy the rolls of
+the manor courts. These rolls, kept either in manor houses, or in the
+castles of great lords, or in the monasteries, were the record of the
+burdens and payments and disabilities of the villagers. Previous
+payments of heriot, relief, merchet, and fines, acknowledgments of
+serfdom, the obtaining of their land on burdensome conditions, were
+all recorded on the rolls and could be produced to prove the custom of
+the manor to the disadvantage of the tenant. It is true that these
+same rolls showed who held each piece of ground and defined the
+succession to it, and that they were long afterward to be recognized
+in the national courts as giving to the customary holder the right of
+retaining and of inheriting the land, so that it might seem an injury
+to themselves to destroy the manor court records. But in that period
+when tenants were in such demand their hold on their land had been in
+no danger of being disturbed. If these records were destroyed, the
+villains might well expect that they could claim to be practically
+owners of the houses and little groups of acres which they and their
+ancestors had held from time immemorial; and this without the
+necessity for payments and reservations to which the rolls testified.
+
+Again, lawyers and all connected with the law were the objects of
+special hostility on the part of insurgents. This must have been
+largely from the same general cause as that just mentioned. It was
+lawyers who acted as stewards for the great lords, it was through
+lawyers that the legal claims of lords of manors were enforced in the
+king's courts. It was also the judges and lawyers who put in force the
+statutes of laborers, and who so generally acted as collectors of the
+poll tax.
+
+More satisfactory relations with their lords were demanded by
+insurgents who were freeholders, as well as by those who were
+villains. Protests are recorded against the tolls on sales and
+purchases, and against attendance at the manorial courts, and a
+maximum limit to the rent of land is asked for. Finally, the removal
+of the burdens of serfdom was evidently one of the general objects of
+the rebels, though much of the initiative of the revolt was taken by
+men from Kent, where serfdom did not exist. The servitude of the
+peasantry is the burden of the sermon of John Ball at Blackheath, its
+abolition was demanded in several places by the insurgents, and the
+charters of emancipation as given by the king professed to make them
+"free from all bondage."
+
+These objects were in few if any cases obtained. It is extremely
+difficult to trace any direct results from the rising other than
+those involved in its failure, the punishment of the leaders, and the
+effort to restore everything to its former condition. There was indeed
+a conservative reaction in several directions. The authorities of
+London forbade the admission of any former villain to citizenship, and
+the Commons in Parliament petitioned the king to reduce the rights of
+villains still further. On the whole, the revolt is rather an
+illustration of the general fact that great national crises have left
+but a slight impress on society, while the important changes have
+taken place slowly and by an almost imperceptible development. The
+results of the rising are rather to be looked for in giving increased
+rapidity and definite direction to changes already in progress, than
+in starting any new movement or in obtaining the results which the
+insurgents may have wished.
+
+
+*31. Commutation of Services.*--One of these changes, already in
+progress long before the outbreak of the revolt, has already been
+referred to. A silent transformation was going on inside of the
+manorial life in the form of a gradual substitution of money payments
+by the villain tenants for the old labor for two, three, or four days
+a week, and at special times during the year. This was often described
+as "selling to the tenants their services." They "bought" their
+exemption from furnishing actual work by paying the value of it in
+money to the official representing the lord of the manor.
+
+This was a mutually advantageous arrangement. The villain's time would
+be worth more to himself than to his lord; for if he had sufficient
+land in his possession he could occupy himself profitably on it, or if
+he had not so much land he could choose his time for hiring himself
+out to the best advantage. The lord, on the other hand, obtained money
+which could be spent in paying men whose services would be more
+willing and interested, and who could be engaged at more available
+times. It is not, therefore, a matter of surprise that the practice of
+allowing tenants to pay for their services arose early. Commutation is
+noticeable as early as the thirteenth century and not very unusual in
+the first half of the fourteenth. After the pestilence, however, there
+was a very rapid substitution of money payments for labor payments.
+The process continued through the remainder of the fourteenth century
+and the early fifteenth, and by the middle of that century the
+enforcement of regular labor services had become almost unknown. The
+boon-works continued to be claimed after the week-work had
+disappeared, since labor was not so easy to obtain at the specially
+busy seasons of the year, and the required few days' services at
+ploughing or mowing or harvesting were correspondingly valuable. But
+even these were extremely unusual after the middle of the fifteenth
+century.
+
+This change was dependent on at least two conditions, an increased
+amount of money in circulation and an increased number of free
+laborers available for hire. These conditions were being more and more
+completely fulfilled. Trade at fairs and markets and in the towns was
+increasing through the whole fourteenth century. The increase of
+weaving and other handicrafts produced more wealth and trade. Money
+coming from abroad and from the royal mints made its way into
+circulation and came into the hands of the villain tenants, through
+the sale of surplus products or as payment for their labor. The sudden
+destruction of one-half of the population by the Black Death while the
+amount of money in the country remained the same, doubled the
+circulation _per capita_. Tenants were thus able to offer regular
+money payments to their lords in lieu of their personal services.
+
+During the same period the number of free laborers who could be hired
+to perform the necessary work on the demesne was increasing. Even
+before the pestilence there were men and women on every manor who held
+little or no land and who could be secured by the lord for voluntary
+labor if the compulsory labor of the villains was given up. Some of
+these laborers were fugitive villains who had fled from one manor to
+another to secure freedom, and this class became much more numerous
+under the circumstance of disorganization after the Black Death. Thus
+the second condition requisite for the extensive commutation was
+present also.
+
+It might be supposed that after the pestilence, when wages were high
+and labor was so hard to procure, lords of manors would be unwilling
+to allow further commutation, and would even try to insist on the
+performance of actual labor in cases where commutation had been
+previously allowed. Indeed, it has been very generally stated that
+there was such a reaction. The contrary, however, was the case.
+Commutation was never more rapid than in the generation immediately
+after the first attack of the pestilence. The laborers seem to have
+been in so favorable a position, that the dread of their flight was a
+controlling inducement to the lords to allow the commutation of their
+services if they desired it. The interest of the lords in their labor
+services was also, as will be seen, becoming less.
+
+When a villain's labor services had been commuted into money, his
+position must have risen appreciably. One of the main characteristics
+of his position as a villain tenant had been the uncertainty of his
+services, the fact that during the days in which he must work for his
+lord he could be put to any kind of labor, and that the number of days
+he must serve was itself only restricted by the custom of the manor
+His services once commuted into a definite sum of money, all
+uncertainty ceased. Moreover, his money payments to the lord, although
+rising from an entirely different source, were almost indistinguishable
+from the money rents paid by the freeholder. Therefore, serf though he
+might still be in legal status, his position was much more like that
+of a freeman.
+
+
+*32. The Abandonment of Demesne Farming.*--A still more important change
+than the commutation of services was in progress during the fourteenth
+and fifteenth centuries. This was the gradual withdrawal of the lords
+of manors from the cultivation of the demesne farms. From very early
+times it had been customary for lords of manors to grant out small
+portions of the demesne, or of previously uncultivated land, to
+tenants at a money rent. The great demesne farm, however, had been
+still kept up as the centre of the agricultural system of the vill.
+But now even this was on many manors rented out to a tenant or group
+of tenants. The earliest known instances are just at the beginning of
+the fourteenth century, but the labor troubles of the latter half of
+the century made the process more usual, and within the next hundred
+years the demesne lands seem to have been practically all rented out
+to tenants. In other words, whereas, during the earlier Middle Ages
+lords of manors had usually carried on the cultivation of the demesne
+lands themselves, under the administration of their bailiffs and with
+the labor of the villains, making their profit by obtaining a food
+supply for their own households or by selling the surplus products,
+now they gave up their cultivation and rented them out to some one
+else, making their profit by receiving a money payment as rent. They
+became therefore landlords of the modern type. A typical instance of
+this change is where the demesne land of the manor of Wilburton in
+Cambridgeshire, consisting of 246 acres of arable land and 42 acres
+of meadow, was rented in 1426 to one of the villain tenants of the
+manor for a sum of £8 a year. The person who took the land was usually
+either a free or a villain tenant of the same or a neighboring manor.
+The land was let only for a certain number of years, but afterward was
+usually relet either to the same or to another tenant. The word
+_farmer_ originally meant one of these tenants who took the demesne or
+some other piece of land, paying for it a "farm" or _firma_, that is,
+a settled established sum, in place of the various forms of profit
+that might have been secured from it by the lord of the manor. The
+free and villain holdings which came into the hands of the lord by
+failure of heirs in those times of frequent extinction of families
+were also granted out very generally at a money rent, so that a large
+number of the cultivators of the soil came to be tenants at a money
+rent, that is, lease-holders or "farmers." These free renting farmers,
+along with the smaller freeholders, made up the "yeomen" of England.
+
+
+*33. The Decay of Serfdom.*--It is in the changes discussed in the last
+two paragraphs that is to be found the key to the disappearance of
+serfdom in England. Men had been freed from villainage in individual
+cases by various means. Manumission of serfs had occurred from time to
+time through all the mediæval centuries. It was customary in such
+cases either to give a formal charter granting freedom to the man
+himself and to his descendants, or to have entered on the manor court
+roll the fact of his obtaining his enfranchisement. Occasionally men
+were manumitted in order that they might be ordained as clergymen. In
+the period following the pestilences of the fourteenth century the
+difficulty in recruiting the ranks of the priesthood made the practice
+more frequent The charters of manumission issued by the king to the
+insurgents of 1381 would have granted freedom on a large scale had
+they not been disowned and subsequently withdrawn. Still other
+villains had obtained freedom by flight from the manors where they had
+been born. When a villain who had fled was discovered he could be
+reclaimed by the lord of the manor by obtaining a writ from the court,
+but many obstacles might be placed in the way of obtaining this writ,
+and it must always have involved so much difficulty as to make it
+doubtful whether it was worth while. So long as a villain was anywhere
+else than on the manor to which he belonged, he was practically a free
+man, but few of the disabilities of villainage existing except as
+between him and his own lord. Therefore, if a villain was willing to
+sacrifice his little holding and make the necessary break with his
+usual surroundings, he might frequently escape into a veritable
+freedom.
+
+The attitude of the common law was favorable to liberty as against
+servitude, and in cases of doubt the decisions of the royal courts
+were almost invariably favorable to the freedom of the villain.
+
+But all these possibilities of liberty were only for individual cases.
+Villainage as an institution continued to exist and to characterize
+the position of the mass of the peasantry. The number of freemen
+through the country was larger, but the serfdom of the great majority
+can scarcely have been much influenced by these individual cases. The
+commutation of services, however, and still more the abandonment of
+demesne farming by the lords of manors, were general causes conducive
+to freedom. The former custom indicated that the lords valued the
+money that could be paid by the villains more than they did their
+compulsory services. That is, villains whose services were paid for in
+money were practically renters of land from the lords, no  longer
+serfs on the land of the lords. The lord of the manor could still of
+course enforce his claim to the various payments and restrictions
+arising from the villainage of his tenants, but their position as
+payers of money was much less servile than as performers of forced
+labor. The willingness of the lords to accept money instead of service
+showed as before stated that there were other persons who could be
+hired to do the work. The villains were valued more as tenants now
+that there were others to serve as laborers. The occupants of
+customary holdings were a higher class and a class more worth the
+lord's consideration and favor than the mere laborers. The villains
+were thus raised into partial freedom by having a free class still
+below them.
+
+[Illustration: An Old Street in Worcester. (Britton: _Picturesque
+Antiquities of English Cities_.)]
+
+The effect of the relinquishment of the old demesne farms by the lords
+of the manors was still more influential in destroying serfdom. The
+lords had valued serfdom above all because it furnished an adequate
+and absolutely certain supply of labor. The villains had to stay on
+the manor and provide the labor necessary for the cultivation of the
+demesne. But if the demesne was rented out to a farmer or divided
+among several holders, the interest of the lord in the labor supply on
+the manor was very much diminished. Even if he agreed in his lease of
+the demesne to the new farmer that the villains should perform their
+customary services in as far as these had not been commuted, yet the
+farmer could not enforce this of himself, and the lord of the manor
+was probably languid or careless or dilatory in doing so. The other
+payments and burdens of serfdom were not so lucrative, and as the
+ranks of the old villain class were depleted by the extinction of
+families, and fewer inhabitants were bound to attend the manor courts,
+they became less so. It became, therefore, gradually more common, then
+quite universal, for the lords of manors to cease to enforce the
+requirements of serfdom. A legal relation of which neither party is
+reminded is apt to become obsolete; and that is what practically
+happened to serfdom in England. It is true that many persons were
+still legally serfs, and occasionally the fact of their serfdom was
+asserted in the courts or inferred by granting them manumission. These
+occasional enfranchisements continued down into the second half of the
+sixteenth century, and the claim that a certain man was a villain was
+pleaded in the courts as late as 1618. But long before this time
+serfdom had ceased to have much practical importance. It may be said
+that by the middle of the fifteenth century the mass of the English
+rural population were free men and no longer serfs. With their labor
+services commuted to money and the other conditions of their
+villainage no longer enforced, they became an indistinguishable part
+either of the yeomanry or of the body of agricultural laborers.
+
+[Illustration: Town Houses in the Fifteenth Century. (Wright, T.:
+_History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments_.)]
+
+
+*34. Changes in Town Life and Foreign Trade.*--The changes discussed in
+the last three sections apply in the main to rural life. The economic
+and social history of the towns during the same period, except in as
+far as it was part of the general national experience, consisted in a
+still more complete adoption of those characteristics which  have
+already been described in Chapter III. Their wealth and prosperity
+became greater, they were still more independent of the rural
+districts and of the central government, the intermunicipal character
+of their dealings, the closeness of connection between their
+industrial interests and their government, the completeness with which
+all occupations were organized under the "gild system," were all of
+them still more marked in 1450 than they had been in 1350. It is true
+that far-reaching changes were beginning, but they were only
+beginning, and did not reach an important development until a time
+later than that included in this chapter. The same thing is true in
+the field of foreign trade. The latter part of the fourteenth and the
+early fifteenth century saw a considerable increase and development of
+the trade of England, but it was still on the same lines and carried
+on by the same methods as before. The great proportion of it was in
+the hands of foreigners, and there was the same inconsistency in the
+policy of the central government on the occasions when it did
+intervene or take any action on the subject. The important changes in
+trade and in town life which have their beginning in this period will
+be discussed in connection with those of the next period in Chapter
+VI.
+
+
+*35. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Jessop, Augustus: _The Coming of the Friars and other Essays_. Two
+interesting essays in this volume are on _The Black Death in East
+Anglia_.
+
+Gasquet, F. A.: _The Great Pestilence of 1349_.
+
+Creighton, C.: _History of Epidemics in Britain_, two volumes. This
+gives especial attention to the nature of the disease.
+
+Trevelyan, G. M.: _England in the Age of Wycliffe_. This book,
+published in 1899, gives by far the fullest account of the Peasant
+Rising which has so far appeared in English.
+
+Petit-Dutaillis, C., et Reville, A.: _Le Soulèvement des Travailleurs
+d'Angleterre en 1381_. The best account of the Rebellion.
+
+Powell, Edgar: _The Peasant Rising in East Anglia in 1381_. Especially
+valuable for its accounts of the poll tax.
+
+Powell, Edgar, and Trevelyan, G. M.: _Documents Illustrating the
+Peasants' Rising and the Lollards_.
+
+Page, Thomas Walker: _The End of Villainage in England_. This
+monograph, published in 1900, is particularly valuable for the new
+facts which it gives concerning the rural changes of the fourteenth
+century.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE BREAKING UP OF THE MEDIÆVAL SYSTEM
+
+Economic Changes Of The Later Fifteenth And The Sixteenth Centuries
+
+
+*36. National Affairs from 1461 to 1603.*--The close of the fifteenth
+and the opening of the sixteenth century has been by universal consent
+settled upon as the passage from one era to another, from the Middle
+Ages to modern times. This period of transition was marked in England
+by at least three great movements: a new type of intellectual life, a
+new ideal of government, and the Reformation. The greatest changes in
+English literature and intellectual interests are traceable to foreign
+influence. In the fifteenth century the paramount foreign influence
+was that of Italy. From the middle of the fifteenth century an
+increasing number of young Englishmen went to Italy to study, and
+brought back with them an interest in the study of Greek and of other
+subjects to which this led. Somewhat later the social intercourse of
+Englishmen with Italy exercised a corresponding influence on more
+courtly literature. In 1491 the teaching of Greek was begun at Oxford
+by Grocyn, and after this time the passion for classical learning
+became deep, widespread, and enthusiastic. But not only were the
+subjects of intellectual interest different, but the attitude of mind
+in the study of these subjects was much more critical than it had been
+in the Middle Ages. The discoveries of new routes to the far East and
+of America, as well as the new speculations in natural science which
+came at this time, reacted on the minds of men and broadened their
+whole mental outlook. The production of works of pure literature had
+suffered a decline after the time of Wycliffe and Chaucer, from which
+there was no considerable revival till the early part of the sixteenth
+century. Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_, written in Latin in 1514, was a
+philosophical work thrown into the form of a literary dialogue and
+description of an imaginary commonwealth. But writing became
+constantly more abundant and more varied through the reigns of Henry
+VIII, 1509-1547, Edward VI, 1547-1553, and Mary, 1553-1558, until it
+finally blossomed out into the splendid Elizabethan literature, just
+at the close of our period.
+
+A stronger royal government had begun with Edward IV. The conclusion
+of the war with France made the king's need for money less, and at the
+same time new sources of income appeared. Edward, therefore, from
+1461, neglected to call Parliament annually, as had been usual, and
+frequently allowed three or more years to go by without any
+consultation with it. He also exercised very freely what was called
+the dispensing power, that is, the power to suspend the law in certain
+cases, and in other ways asserted the royal prerogative as no previous
+king had done for two hundred years. But the true founder of the
+almost absolute monarchy of this period was Henry VII, who reigned
+from 1485 to 1509. He was not the nearest heir to the throne, but
+acted as the representative of the Lancastrian line, and by his
+marriage with the lady who represented the claim of the York family
+joined the two contending factions. He was the first of the Tudor
+line, his successors being his son, Henry VIII, and the three children
+of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. Henry VII was an able,
+shrewd, far-sighted, and masterful man. During his reign he put an
+end to the disorders of the nobility; made Parliament relatively
+insignificant by calling it even less frequently than Edward IV had
+done, and by initiating its legislation when it did meet. He also
+increased and regulated the income of the crown, and rendered its
+expenditures subject to control. He was able to keep ambassadors
+regularly abroad, for the first time, and in many other ways to
+support a more expensive administration, though often by unpopular and
+illegal means of extortion from the people. He formed foreign
+political and commercial treaties in all directions, and encouraged
+the voyages of the Cabots to America. He brought a great deal of
+business constantly before the Royal Council, but chose its members
+for their ability rather than for their high rank. In these various
+ways he created a strong personal government, which left but little
+room for Parliament or people to do anything except carry out his
+will. In these respects Henry's immediate successors and their
+ministers followed the same policy. In fact, the Reformation in the
+reign of Henry VIII, and new internal and foreign difficulties in the
+reign of Elizabeth, brought the royal power into a still higher and
+more independent position.
+
+The need for a general reformation of the church had long been
+recognized. More than one effort had been made by the ecclesiastical
+authorities to insist on higher intellectual and moral standards for
+the clergy and to rid the church of various evil customs and abuses.
+Again, there had been repeated efforts to clothe the king, who was at
+the head of all civil government, with extensive control and oversight
+of church affairs also. Men holding different views on questions of
+church government and religious belief from those held by the general
+Christian church in the Middle Ages, had written and taught and found
+many to agree with them. Thus efforts to bring about changes in the
+established church had not been wanting, but they had produced no
+permanent result. In the early years of the sixteenth century,
+however, several causes combined to bring about a movement of this
+nature extending over a number of years and profoundly affecting all
+subsequent history. This is known as the Reformation. The first steps
+of the Reformation in England were taken as the result of a dispute
+between King Henry VIII and the Pope. In the first place, several laws
+were passed through Parliament, beginning with the year 1529,
+abolishing a number of petty evils and abusive practices in the church
+courts. The Pope's income from England was then cut off, and his
+jurisdiction and all other forms of authority in England brought to an
+end. Finally, the supremacy of the king over the church and clergy and
+over all ecclesiastical affairs was declared and enforced. By the year
+1535 the ancient connection between the church in England and the Pope
+was severed. Thus in England, as in many continental countries at
+about the same time, a national church arose independent of Rome.
+Next, changes began to be made in the doctrine and practices of the
+church. The organization under bishops was retained, though they were
+now appointed by the king. Pilgrimages and the worship of saints were
+forbidden, the Bible translated into English, and other changes
+gradually introduced. The monastic life came under the condemnation of
+the reformers. The monasteries were therefore dissolved and their
+property confiscated and sold, between the years 1536 and 1542. In the
+reign of Edward VI, 1547-1553, the Reformation was carried much
+further. An English prayerbook was issued which was to be used in all
+religious worship, the adornments of the churches were removed, the
+services made more simple, and doctrines introduced which assimilated
+the church of England to the contemporary Protestant churches on the
+Continent.
+
+Queen Mary, who had been brought up in the Roman faith, tried to make
+England again a Roman Catholic country, and in the later years of her
+reign encouraged severe persecutions, causing many to be burned at the
+stake, in the hope of thus crushing out heresy. After her death,
+however, in 1558, Queen Elizabeth adopted a more moderate position,
+and the church of England was established by law in much the form it
+had possessed at the death of Henry VIII.
+
+In the meantime, however, there had been growing up a far more
+spontaneous religious movement than the official Reformation which has
+just been described. Many thousands of persons had become deeply
+interested in religion and enthusiastic in their faith, and had come
+to hold different views on church government, doctrines, and practices
+from those approved of either by the Roman Catholic church or by the
+government of England. Those who held such views were known as
+Puritans, and throughout the reign of Elizabeth were increasing in
+numbers and making strenuous though unsuccessful efforts to introduce
+changes in the established church.
+
+The reign of Elizabeth was marked not only by the continuance of royal
+despotism, by brilliant literary production, and by the struggle of
+the established church against the Catholics on the one side and the
+Puritans on the other, but by difficult and dangerous foreign
+relations.
+
+More than once invasion by the continental powers was imminent.
+Elizabeth was threatened with deposition by the English adherents of
+Mary, Queen of Scots, supported by France and Spain. The English
+government pursued a policy of interference in the internal conflicts
+of other countries that brought it frequently to the verge of war with
+their governments and sometimes beyond. Hostility bordering on open
+warfare was therefore the most frequent condition of English foreign
+relations. Especially was this true of the relations with Spain. The
+most serious contest with that country was the war which culminated in
+the battle of the Armada in 1588. Spain had organized an immense fleet
+which was intended to go to the Netherlands and convoy an army to be
+taken thence for the invasion of England. While passing through the
+English Channel, a storm broke upon them, they were attacked and
+harried by the English and later by the Dutch, and the whole fleet was
+eventually scattered and destroyed. The danger of invasion was greatly
+reduced after this time and until the end of Elizabeth's reign in
+1603.
+
+
+*37. Enclosures.*--The century and a half which extends from the middle
+years of the fifteenth century to the close of the sixteenth was, as
+has been shown, a period remarkable for the extent and variety of its
+changes in almost every aspect of society. In the political,
+intellectual, and religious world the sixteenth century seemed far
+removed from the fifteenth. It is not therefore a matter of surprise
+that economic changes were numerous and fundamental, and that social
+organization in town and country alike was completely transformed.
+
+During the period last discussed, the fourteenth and the early
+fifteenth century, the manorial system had changed very considerably
+from its mediæval form. The demesne lands had been quite generally
+leased to renting farmers, and a new class of tenants was consequently
+becoming numerous; serfdom had fallen into decay; the old manorial
+officers, the steward, the bailiff, and the reeve had fallen into
+unimportance; the manor courts were not so active, so regular, or so
+numerously attended. These changes were gradual and were still
+uncompleted at the middle of the fifteenth century; but there was
+already showing itself a new series of changes, affecting still other
+parts of manorial life, which became steadily more extensive during
+the remainder of the fifteenth and through much of the sixteenth
+century. These changes are usually grouped under the name
+"enclosures."
+
+The enclosure of land previously open was closely connected with the
+increase of sheep-raising. The older form of agriculture,
+grain-raising, labored under many difficulties. The price of labor was
+high, there had been no improvement in the old crude methods of
+culture, nor, in the open fields and under the customary rules, was
+there opportunity to introduce any. On the other hand, the inducements
+to sheep-raising were numerous. There was a steady demand at good
+prices for wool, both for export, as of old, and for the manufactures
+within England, which were now increasing. Sheep-raising required
+fewer hands and therefore high wages were less an obstacle, and it
+gave opportunity for the investment of capital and for comparative
+freedom from the restrictions of local custom. Therefore, instead of
+raising sheep simply as a part of ordinary farming, lords of manors,
+freeholders, farming tenants, and even customary tenants began here
+and there to raise sheep for wool as their principal or sole
+production. Instances are mentioned of five thousand, ten thousand,
+twenty thousand, and even twenty-four thousand sheep in the possession
+of a single person. This custom spread more and more widely, and so
+attracted the attention of observers as to be frequently mentioned in
+the laws and literature of the time.
+
+[Illustration: Partially enclosed Fields of Cuxham, Oxfordshire, 1767.
+(Facsimile map, published by the University of Oxford.)]
+
+But sheep could not be raised to any considerable extent on land
+divided according to the old open field system. In a vill whose fields
+all lay open, sheep must either be fed with those of other men on
+the common pasture, or must be kept in small groups by shepherds
+within the confines of the various acres or other small strips of the
+sheep-raiser's holding. No large number could of course be kept in
+this way, so the first thing to be done by the sheep-raiser was to get
+enough strips together in one place to make it worth while to put a
+hedge or other fence around them, or else to separate off in the same
+way a part or the whole of the open pastures or meadows. This was the
+process known as enclosing. Separate enclosed fields, which had
+existed only occasionally in mediæval farming, became numerous in this
+time, as they have become practically universal in modern farming in
+English-speaking countries.
+
+But it was ordinarily impracticable to obtain groups of adjacent acres
+or sufficiently extensive rights on the common pasture for enclosing
+without getting rid of some of the other tenants. In this way
+enclosing led to evictions. Either the lord of the manor or some one
+or more of the tenants enclosed the lands which they had formerly held
+and also those which were formerly occupied by some other holders, who
+were evicted from their land for this purpose.
+
+Some of the tenants must have been protected in their holdings by the
+law. As early as 1468 Chief Justice Bryan had declared that "tenant by
+the custom is as well inheritor to have his land according to the
+custom as he which hath a freehold at the common law." Again, in 1484,
+another chief justice declared that a tenant by custom who continued
+to pay his service could not be ejected by the lord of the manor. Such
+tenants came to be known as copyholders, because the proof of their
+customary tenure was found in the manor court rolls, from which a copy
+was taken to serve as a title. Subsequently copyhold became one of
+the most generally recognized forms of land tenure in England, and
+gave practically as secure title as did a freehold. At this time,
+however, notwithstanding the statements just given, the law was
+probably not very definite or not very well understood, and customary
+tenants may have had but little practical protection of the law
+against eviction. Moreover, the great body of the small tenants were
+probably no longer genuine customary tenants. The great proportion of
+small farms had probably not been inherited by a long line of tenants,
+but had repeatedly gone back into the hands of the lords of the manors
+and been subsequently rented out again, with or without a lease, to
+farmers or rent-paying tenants. These were in most cases probably the
+tenants who were now evicted to make room for the new enclosed sheep
+farms.
+
+By these enclosures and evictions in some cases the open lands of
+whole vills were enclosed, the old agriculture came to an end, and as
+the enclosers were often non-residents, the whole farming population
+disappeared from the village. Since sheep-raising required such a
+small number of laborers, the farm laborers also had to leave to seek
+work elsewhere, and the whole village, therefore, was deserted, the
+houses fell into ruin, and the township lost its population entirely.
+This was commonly spoken of at the time as "the decaying of towns,"
+and those who were responsible for it were denounced as enemies of
+their country. In most cases, however, the enclosures and depopulation
+were only partial. A number of causes combined to carry this movement
+forward. England was not yet a wealthy country, but such capital as
+existed, especially in the towns, was utilized and made remunerative
+by investment in the newly enclosed farms and in carrying on the
+expenses of enclosure. The dissolution of the monasteries between 1536
+and 1542 brought the lands which they had formerly held into the
+possession of a class of men who were anxious to make them as
+remunerative as possible, and who had no feeling against enclosures.
+
+Nevertheless, the changes were much disapproved. Sir Thomas More
+condemns them in the _Utopia_, as do many other writers of the same
+period and of the reign of Elizabeth. The landlords, the enclosers,
+the city merchants who took up country lands, were preached against
+and inveighed against by such preachers as Latimer, Lever, and Becon,
+and in a dozen or more pamphlets still extant. The government also put
+itself into opposition to the changes which were in progress. It was
+believed that there was danger of a reduction of the population and
+thus of a lack of soldiers; it was feared that not enough grain would
+be raised to provide food for the people; the dangerous masses of
+wandering beggars were partly at least recruited from the evicted
+tenants; there was a great deal of discontent in the country due to
+the high rents, lack of occupation, and general dislike of change. A
+series of laws were therefore carried through Parliament and other
+measures taken, the object of which was to put a stop to the increase
+of sheep-farming and its results. In 1488 a statute was enacted
+prohibiting the turning of tillage land into pasture. In 1514 a new
+law was passed reënacting this and requiring the repair by their
+owners of any houses which had fallen into decay because of the
+substitution of pasture for tillage, and their reoccupation with
+tenants. In 1517 a commission of investigation into enclosures was
+appointed by the government. In 1518 the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal
+Wolsey, issued a proclamation requiring all those who had enclosed
+lands since 1509 to throw them open again, or else give proof that
+their enclosure was for the public advantage. In 1534 the earlier
+laws were reënacted and a further provision made that no person
+holding rented lands should keep more than twenty-four hundred sheep.
+In 1548 a new commission on enclosures was appointed which made
+extensive investigations, instituted prosecutions, and recommended new
+legislation. A law for more careful enforcement was passed in 1552,
+and the old laws were reënacted in 1554 and 1562. This last law was
+repealed in 1593, but in 1598 others were enacted and later extended.
+In 1624, however, all the laws on the subject were repealed. As a
+matter of fact, the laws seem to have been generally ineffective. The
+nobility and gentry were in the main in favor of the enclosures, as
+they increased their rents even when they were not themselves the
+enclosers; and it was through these classes that legislation had to be
+enforced at this time if it was to be effective.
+
+[Illustration: Sixteenth Century Manor House and Village, Maddingley,
+Cambridgeshire. Nichols: _Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_.]
+
+Besides the official opposition of the government, there were
+occasional instances of rioting or violent destruction of hedges and
+other enclosures by the people who felt themselves aggrieved by them.
+Three times these riots rose to the height of an insurrection. In 1536
+the so-called "Pilgrimage of Grace" was a rising of the people partly
+in opposition to the introduction of the Reformation, partly in
+opposition to enclosures. In 1549 a series of risings occurred, the
+most serious of which was the "camp" under Kett in Norfolk, and in
+1552 again there was an insurrection in Buckinghamshire. These risings
+were harshly repressed by the government. The rural changes,
+therefore, progressed steadily, notwithstanding the opposition of the
+law, of certain forms of public opinion, and of the violence of mobs.
+Probably enclosures more or less complete were made during this period
+in as many as half the manors of England. They were at their height in
+the early years of the sixteenth century, during its latter half
+they were not so numerous, and by its close the enclosing movement had
+about run its course, at least for the time.
+
+
+*38. Internal Divisions in the Craft Gilds.*--Changes in town life
+occurred during this period corresponding quite closely to the
+enclosures and their results in the country. These consisted in the
+decay of the gilds, the dispersion of certain town industries through
+the rural districts, and the loss of prosperity of many of the old
+towns. In the earlier craft gilds each man had normally been
+successively an apprentice, a journeyman, and a full master craftsman,
+with a little establishment of his own and full participation in the
+administration of the fraternity. There was coming now to be a class
+of artisans who remained permanently employed and never attained to
+the position of master craftsmen. This was sometimes the result of a
+deliberate process of exclusion on the part of those who were already
+masters. In 1480, for instance, a new set of ordinances given to the
+Mercers' Gild of Shrewsbury declares that the fines assessed on
+apprentices at their entry to be masters had been excessive and should
+be reduced. Similarly, the Oxford Town Council in 1531 restricts the
+payment required from any person who should come to be a full brother
+of any craft in that town to twenty shillings, a sum which would equal
+perhaps fifty dollars in modern value. In the same year Parliament
+forbade the collection of more than two shillings and sixpence from
+any apprentice at the time of his apprenticeship, and of more than
+three shillings and fourpence when he enters the trade fully at the
+expiration of his time. This indicates that the fines previously
+charged must have been almost prohibitive. In some trades the masters
+required apprentices at the time of indenture to take an oath that
+they would not set up independent establishments when they had
+fulfilled the years of their apprenticeship, a custom which was
+forbidden by Parliament in 1536. In other cases it was no doubt the
+lack of sufficient capital and enterprise which kept a large number of
+artisans from ever rising above the class of journeymen.
+
+Under these circumstances the journeymen evidently ceased to feel that
+they enjoyed any benefits from the organized crafts, for they began to
+form among themselves what are generally described as "yeomen gilds"
+or "journeymen gilds." At first the masters opposed such bodies and
+the city officials supported the old companies by prohibiting the
+journeymen from holding assemblies, wearing a special livery, or
+otherwise acting as separate bodies. Ultimately, however, they seem to
+have made good their position, and existed in a number of different
+crafts in more or less subordination to the organizations of the
+masters. The first mention of such bodies is soon after the Peasants'
+Rebellion, but in most cases the earliest rise of a journeyman gild in
+any industry was in the latter part of the fifteenth or in the
+sixteenth century. They were organizations quite similar to the older
+bodies from which they were a split, except that they had of course no
+general control over the industry. They had, however, meetings,
+officers, feasts, and charitable funds. In addition to these functions
+there is reason to believe that they made use of their organization to
+influence the rate of wages and to coerce other journeymen. Their
+relations to the masters' companies were frequently defined by regular
+written agreements between the two parties. Journeymen gilds existed
+among the saddlers, cordwainers, tailors, blacksmiths, carpenters,
+drapers, ironmongers, founders, fishmongers, cloth-workers, and
+armorers in London, among the weavers in Coventry, the tailors in
+Exeter and in Bristol, the shoemakers in Oxford, and no doubt in some
+other trades in these and other towns.
+
+Among the masters also changes were taking place in the same
+direction. Instead of all master artisans or tradesmen in any one
+industry holding an equal position and taking an equal part in the
+administration of affairs of the craft, there came, at least in some
+of the larger companies, to be quite distinct groups usually described
+as those "of the livery" and those "not of the livery." The expression
+no doubt arose from the former class being the more well-to-do and
+active masters who had sufficient means to purchase the suits of
+livery worn on state occasions, and who in other ways were the leading
+and controlling members of the organization. This came, before the
+close of the fifteenth century, in many crafts to be a recognized
+distinction of class or station in the company. A statement of the
+members in one of the London fraternities made in 1493 gives a good
+instance of this distinction of classes, as well as of the subordinate
+body last described. There were said to be at that date in the
+Drapers' Company of the craft of drapers in the clothing, including
+the masters and four wardens, one hundred and fourteen, of the
+brotherhood out of the clothing one hundred and fifteen, of the
+bachelors' company sixty. It was from this prominence of the liveried
+gildsmen, that the term "Livery Companies" came to be applied to the
+greater London gilds. It was the wealthy merchants and the craftsmen
+of the livery of the various fraternities who rode in procession to
+welcome kings or ambassadors at their entrance into the city, to add
+lustre to royal wedding ceremonies, or give dignity to other state
+occasions. In 1483 four hundred and six members of livery companies
+riding in mulberry colored coats attended the coronation procession of
+Richard III. The mayors and sheriffs and aldermen of London were
+almost always livery men in one or another of the companies. A
+substantial fee had usually to be paid when a member was chosen into
+the livery, which again indicates that they were the wealthier
+members. Those of the livery controlled the policy of the gild to the
+exclusion of the less conspicuous members, even though these were also
+independent masters with journeymen and apprentices of their own.
+
+But the practical administration of the affairs of the wealthier
+companies came in many cases to be in the hands of a still smaller
+group of members. This group was often known as the "Court of
+Assistants," and consisted of some twelve, twenty, or more members who
+possessed higher rights than the others, and, with the wardens or
+other officials, decided disputes, negotiated with the government or
+other authorities, disposed of the funds, and in other ways governed
+the organized craft or trade. At a general meeting of the members of
+the Mercers of London, for instance, on July 23, 1463, the following
+resolution was passed: "It is accorded that for the holding of many
+courts and congregations of the fellowship, it is odious and grievous
+to the body of the fellowship and specially for matters of no great
+effect, that hereafter yearly shall be chosen and associated to the
+wardens for the time being twelve other sufficient persons to be
+assistants to the said wardens, and all matters by them finished to be
+holden firm and stable, and the fellowship to abide by them." Sixteen
+years later these assistants with the wardens were given the right to
+elect their successors.
+
+Thus before the close of the sixteenth century the craft and trading
+organizations had gone through a very considerable internal change. In
+the fourteenth century they had been bodies of masters of
+approximately equal position, in which the journeymen participated in
+some of the elements of membership, and would for the most part in due
+time become masters and full members. Now the journeymen had become
+for the most part a separate class, without prospect of mastership.
+Among the masters themselves a distinct division between the more and
+the less wealthy had taken place, and an aristocratic form of
+government had grown up which put the practical control of each of the
+companies in the hands of a comparatively small, self-perpetuating
+ruling body. These developments were all more marked, possibly some of
+them were only true, in the case of the London companies. London,
+also, so far as known, is the only English town in which the companies
+were divided into two classes, the twelve "Greater Companies," and the
+fifty or more "Lesser Companies"; the former having practical control
+of the government of the city, the latter having no such influence.
+
+
+*39. Change of Location of Industries.*--The changes described above
+were, as has been said, the result of development from within the
+craft and trading organizations themselves, resulting probably in the
+main from increasing wealth. There were other contemporary changes in
+these companies which were rather the result of external influences.
+One of these external factors was the old difficulty which arose from
+artisans and traders who were not members of the organized companies.
+There had always been men who had carried on work surreptitiously
+outside of the limits of the authorized organizations of their
+respective industries. They had done this from inability or
+unwillingness to conform to the requirements of gild membership, or
+from a desire to obtain more employment by underbidding in price, or
+additional profit by using unapproved materials or methods. Most of
+the bodies of ordinances mention such workmen and traders, men who
+have not gone through a regular apprenticeship, "foreigners" who have
+come in from some other locality and are not freemen of the city where
+they wish to work, irresponsible men who will not conform to the
+established rules of the trade. This class of persons was becoming
+more numerous through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
+notwithstanding the efforts of the gilds, supported by municipal and
+national authority. The prohibition of any workers setting up business
+in a town unless they had previously obtained the approval of the
+officials of their trade was more and more vigorous in the later
+ordinances; the fines imposed upon masters who engaged journeymen who
+had not paid the dues, newcomers into the town, were higher. The
+complaints of the intrusion of outsiders were more loud and frequent.
+There was evidently more unsupervised, unregulated labor.
+
+But the increase in the number of these unorganized laborers, these
+craftsmen and traders not under the control of the gilds, was most
+marked in the rural districts, that is to say, in market towns and in
+villages entirely outside of the old manufacturing and trading
+centres. Even in the fourteenth century there were a number of
+weavers, and probably of other craftsmen, who worked in the villages
+in the vicinity of the larger towns, such as London, Norwich, and
+York, and took their products to be sold on fair or market days in
+these towns. But toward the end of the fifteenth century this rural
+labor received a new kind of encouragement and a corresponding
+extension far beyond anything before existing. The English
+cloth-making industry at this period was increasing rapidly. Whereas
+during the earlier periods, as we have seen, wool was the greatest of
+English exports, now it was coming to be manufactured within the
+country. In connection with this manufacture a new kind of industrial
+organization began to show itself which, when it was completed,
+became known as the "domestic system." A class of merchants or
+manufacturers arose who are spoken of as "clothiers," or "merchant
+clothiers," who bought the wool or other raw material, and gave it out
+to carders or combers, spinners, weavers, fullers, and other
+craftsmen, paying them for their respective parts in the process of
+manufacture, and themselves disposing of the product at home or for
+export. The clothiers were in this way a new class of employers,
+putting the master weavers or other craftsmen to work for wages. The
+latter still had their journeymen and apprentices, but the initiative
+in their industry was taken by the merchants, who provided the raw
+material and much of the money capital, and took charge of the sale of
+the completed goods. The craftsmen who were employed in this form of
+industry did not usually dwell in the old populous and wealthy towns.
+It is probable that the restrictions of the gild ordinances were
+disadvantageous both to the clothiers and to the small master
+craftsmen, and that the latter, as well as journeymen who had no
+chance to obtain an independent position, now that the town craft
+organizations were under the control of the more wealthy members, were
+very ready to migrate to rural villages. Thus, in as far as the
+weaving industry was growing up under the management of the employing
+clothiers, it was slipping out from under the control of the town
+gilds by its location in the country. The same thing occurred in other
+cases, even without the intermediation of a new employing class. We
+hear of mattress makers, of rope makers, of tile makers, and other
+artisans establishing themselves in the country villages outside of
+the towns, where, as a law of 1495 says, "the wardens have no power or
+authority to make search." In certain parts of England, in the
+southwest, the west, and the northwest, independent weavers now set up
+for themselves in rural districts as those of the eastern counties
+had long done, buying their own raw materials, bringing their
+manufactures to completion, and then taking them to the neighboring
+towns and markets to sell, or hawking them through the rural
+districts.
+
+These changes, along with others occurring simultaneously, led to a
+considerable diminution of the prosperity of many of the large towns.
+They were not able to pay their usual share of taxation, the
+population of some of them declined, whole streets or quarters, when
+destroyed by fire or other catastrophe, were left unbuilt and in
+ruins. Many of the largest and oldest towns of England are mentioned
+in the statutes of the reign of Henry VIII as being more or less
+depleted in population. The laws and literature of the time are
+ringing with complaints of the "decay of the towns," where the
+reference is to cities, as well as where it is to rural villages.
+Certain new towns, it is true, were rising into greater importance,
+and certain rural districts were becoming populous with this body of
+artisans whose living was made partly by their handicraft, partly by
+small farming. Nevertheless the old city craft organizations were
+permanently weakened and impoverished by thus losing control of such a
+large proportion of their various industries. The occupations which
+were carried on in the country were pursued without supervision by the
+gilds. They retained control only of that part of industry which was
+still carried on in the towns.
+
+
+*40. The Influence of the Government on the Gilds.*--Internal divisions
+and external changes in the distribution of industry were therefore
+alike tending to weaken the gild organization. It had to suffer also
+from the hostility or intrusion of the national government. Much of
+the policy of the government tended, it is true, as in the case of the
+enclosures, to check the changes in progress, and thus to protect the
+gild system. It has been seen that laws were passed to prohibit the
+exclusion of apprentices and journeymen from full membership in the
+crafts. As early as 1464 a law was passed to regulate the growing
+system of employment of craftsmen by clothiers. This was carried
+further in a law of 1511, and further still in 1551 and 1555. The
+manufacture of rope in the country parts of Dorsetshire was prohibited
+and restricted to the town of Bridport in 1529; the cloth manufacture
+which was growing up through the "hamlets, thorps, and villages" in
+Worcestershire was forbidden in 1553 to be carried on except in the
+five old towns of Worcester, Evesham, Droitwich, Kidderminster, and
+Bromsgrove; in 1543 it was enacted that coverlets were not to be
+manufactured in Yorkshire outside of the city of York, and there was
+still further legislation in the same direction. Numerous acts were
+also passed for the purpose of restoring the populousness of the
+towns. There is, however, little reason to believe that these laws had
+much more effect in preventing the narrowing of the control of the
+gilds and the scattering of industries from the towns to the country
+than the various laws against enclosures had, and the latter object
+was practically surrendered by the numerous exceptions to it in laws
+passed in 1557, 1558, and 1575. All the laws favoring the older towns
+were finally repealed in 1623.
+
+Another class of laws may seem to have favored the craft
+organizations. These were the laws regulating the carrying on of
+various industries, in some of which the enforcement of the laws was
+intrusted to the gild authorities. The statute book during the
+sixteenth century is filled with laws "for the true making of pins,"
+"for the making of friezes and cottons in Wales," "for the true
+currying of leather," "for the making of iron gads," "for setting
+prices on wines," for the regulation of the coopers, the tanners, the
+makers of woollen cloth, the dyers, the tallow chandlers, the saddlers
+and girdlers, and dozens of other occupations. But although in many of
+these laws the wardens of the appropriate crafts are given authority
+to carry out the requirements of the statute, either of themselves or
+along with the town officials or the justices of the peace; yet, after
+all, it is the rules established by government that they are to carry
+out, not their own rules, and in many of the statutes the craft
+authorities are entirely ignored. This is especially true of the
+"Statute of Apprentices," passed in the fifth year of the reign of
+Queen Elizabeth, 1563. This great industrial code, which remained on
+the statute book for two hundred and fifty years, being repealed only
+in 1813, was primarily a reënactment of the statutes of laborers,
+which had been continued from time to time ever since their
+introduction in 1349. It made labor compulsory and imposed on the
+justices of the peace the duty of meeting in each locality once a year
+to establish wages for each kind of industry. It required a seven
+years' apprenticeship for every person who should engage in any trade;
+established a working day of twelve hours in summer and during
+daylight in winter; and enacted that all engagements, except those for
+piece work, should be by the year, with six months' notice of a close
+of the contract by either employer or employee. By this statute all
+the relations between master and journeyman and the rules of
+apprenticeship were regulated by the government instead of by the
+individual craft gilds. It is evident that the old trade organizations
+were being superseded in much of their work by the national
+government. Freedom of action was also restricted by the same power in
+other respects also. As early as 1436 a law had been passed,
+declaring that the ordinances made by the gilds were in many cases
+unreasonable and injurious, requiring them to submit their existing
+ordinances to the justices at Westminster, and prohibiting them from
+issuing any new ones until they had received the approval of these
+officials. There is no indication of the enforcement of this law. In
+1504, however, it was reënacted with the modification that approval
+might be sought from the justices on circuit. In 1530 the same
+requirement was again included in the law already referred to
+prohibiting excessive entrance fees. As the independent legislation of
+the gilds for their industries was already much restricted by the town
+governments, their remaining power to make rules for themselves must
+now have been very slight. Their power of jurisdiction was likewise
+limited by a law passed in 1504, prohibiting the companies from making
+any rule forbidding their members to appeal to the ordinary national
+courts in trade disputes.
+
+[Illustration: Residence of Chantry Priests of Altar of St. Nicholas,
+near Lincoln Cathedral. (_Domestic Architecture in the Fourteenth
+Century._)]
+
+But the heaviest blow to the gilds on the part of the government came
+in 1547, as a result of the Reformation. Both the organizations formed
+for the control of the various industries, the craft gilds, and those
+which have been described in Chapter III as non-industrial, social, or
+religious gilds, had property in their possession which had been
+bequeathed or given to them by members on condition that the gild
+would always support or help to support a priest, should see that mass
+was celebrated for the soul of the donor and his family, should keep a
+light always burning before a certain shrine, or for other religious
+objects. These objects were generally looked upon as superstitious by
+the reformers who became influential under Edward VI, and in the first
+year of his reign a statute was passed which confiscated to the crown,
+to be used for educational or other purposes, all the properly of
+every kind of the purely religious and social gilds, and that part of
+the property of the craft gilds which was employed by them for
+religious purposes. One of the oldest forms of voluntary organization
+in England therefore came to an end altogether, and one of the
+strongest bonds which had held the members of the craft gilds together
+as social bodies was removed. After this time the companies had no
+religious functions, and were besides deprived of a considerable
+proportion of their wealth. This blow fell, moreover, just at a time
+when all the economic influences were tending toward their weakening
+or actual disintegration.
+
+[Illustration: Monastery turned into a Farmhouse, Dartford Priory,
+Kent. Nichols: _Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_.]
+
+The trade and craft companies of London, like those of other towns,
+were called upon at first to pay over to the government annually the
+amount which they had before used for religious purposes. Three years
+after the confiscation they were required to pay a lump sum
+representing the capitalized value of this amount, estimated for the
+London companies at £20,000. In order to do so they were of course
+forced to sell or mortgage much of their land. That which they
+succeeded in retaining, however, or bought subsequently was relieved
+of all government charges, and being situated for the most part in the
+heart of London, ultimately became extremely valuable and is still in
+their possession. So far have the London companies, however, departed
+from their original purpose that their members have long ceased to
+have any connection with the occupations from which the bodies take
+their names.
+
+
+*41. General Causes and Evidences of the Decay of the Gilds.*--An
+analogous narrowing of the interests of the crafts occurred in the
+form of a cessation of the mystery plays. Dramatic shows continued to
+be brought out yearly by the crafts in many towns well into the
+sixteenth century. It is to be noticed, however, that this was no
+longer done spontaneously. The town governments insisted that the
+pageants should be provided as of old, and on the approach of Corpus
+Christi day, or whatever festival was so celebrated in the particular
+town, instructions were given for their production, pecuniary help
+being sometimes provided to assist the companies in their expense. The
+profit which came to the town from the influx of visitors to see the
+pageants was a great inducement to the town government to  insist on
+their continuance. On the other hand, the competition of dramas played
+by professional actors tended no doubt to hasten the effect of the
+impoverishment and loss of vitality of the gilds. In the last half of
+the sixteenth century the mystery plays seem to have come finally to
+an end.
+
+Thus the gilds lost the unity of their membership, were weakened by
+the growth of industry outside of their sphere of control, superseded
+by the government in many of their economic functions, deprived of
+their administrative, legislative, and jurisdictional freedom, robbed
+of their religious duties and of the property which had enabled them
+to fulfil them, and no longer possessed even the bond of their
+dramatic interests. So the fraternities which had embodied so much of
+the life of the people of the towns during the thirteenth, fourteenth,
+and fifteenth centuries now came to include within their organization
+fewer and fewer persons and to affect a smaller and smaller part of
+their interests. Although the companies continued to exist into later
+times, yet long before the close of the period included in this
+chapter they had become relatively inconspicuous and insignificant.
+
+One striking evidence of their diminished strength, and apparently a
+last effort to keep the gild organization in existence, is the curious
+combination or consolidation of the companies under the influence of
+the city governments. Numerous instances of the combination of several
+trades are to be found in the records of every town, as for instance
+the "company of goldsmiths and smiths and others their brethren," at
+Hull in 1598, which consisted of goldsmiths, smiths, pewterers,
+plumbers and glaziers, painters, cutlers, musicians, stationers and
+bookbinders, and basket-makers. A more striking instance is to be
+found in Ipswich in 1576, where the various occupations were all drawn
+up into four companies, as follows: (1) The Mercers; including the
+mariners, shipwrights, bookbinders, printers, fishmongers,
+sword-setters, cooks, fletchers, arrowhead-makers, physicians,
+hatters, cappers, mercers, merchants, and several others. (2) The
+Drapers; including the joiners, carpenters, innholders, freemasons,
+bricklayers, tilers, carriers, casket-makers, surgeons, clothiers, and
+some others. (3) The Tailors; including the cutlers, smiths, barbers,
+chandlers, pewterers, minstrels, peddlers, plumbers, pinners, millers,
+millwrights, coopers, shearmen, glaziers, turners, tinkers, tailors,
+and others. (4) The Shoemakers; including the curriers, collar-makers,
+saddlers, pointers, cobblers, skinners, tanners, butchers, carters,
+and laborers. Each of these four companies was to have an alderman and
+two wardens, and all outsiders who came to the town and wished to set
+up trade were to be placed by the town officials in one or the other
+of the four companies. The basis of union in some of these
+combinations was evidently the similarity of their occupations, as the
+various workers in leather among the "Shoemakers." In other cases
+there is no such similarity, and the only foundation that can be
+surmised for the particular grouping is the contiguity of the streets
+where the greatest number of particular artisans lived, or their
+proportionate wealth. Later, this process reached its culmination in
+such a case as that of Preston in 1628, where all the tradesmen of the
+town were organized as one company or fraternity called "The Wardens
+and Company of Drapers, Mercers, Grocers, Salters, Ironmongers, and
+Haberdashers." The craft and trading gilds in their mediæval character
+had evidently come to an end.
+
+
+*42. The Growth of Native Commerce.*--The most distinctive
+characteristic of English foreign trade down to the middle of the
+fifteenth century consisted in the fact that it had been entirely in
+the hands of foreigners. The period under discussion saw it
+transferred with quite as great completeness to the hands of
+Englishmen. Even before 1450 trading vessels had occasionally been
+sent out from the English seaport towns on more or less extensive
+voyages, carrying out English goods, and bringing back those of other
+countries or of other parts of England. These vessels sometimes
+belonged to the town governments, sometimes to individual merchants.
+This kind of enterprise became more and more common. Individual
+merchants grew famous for the number and size of their ships and the
+extent of their trade; as for instance, William Canynges of Bristol,
+who in 1461 had ten vessels at sea, or Sturmys of the same town, who
+at about the same time sent the first English vessel to trade with the
+eastern Mediterranean, or John Taverner of Hull, who built in 1449 a
+new type of vessel modelled on the carracks of Genoa and the galleys
+of Venice. In the middle of the fourteenth century the longest list of
+merchants of any substance that could be drawn up contained only 169
+names. At the beginning of the sixteenth century there were at least
+3000 merchants engaged in foreign trade, and in 1601 there were about
+3500 trading to the Netherlands alone. These merchants exported the
+old articles of English production and to a still greater extent
+textile goods, the manufacture of which was growing so rapidly in
+England. The export of wool came to an end during the reign of Queen
+Elizabeth, but the export of woven cloth was more than enough to take
+its place. There was not so much cloth now imported, but a much
+greater variety and quantity of food-stuffs and wines, of articles of
+fine manufacture, and of the special products of the countries to
+which English trade extended.
+
+The entrance of English vessels into ports of towns or  countries
+whose own vessels had been accustomed to the control of the trade with
+England, or where the old commercial towns of the Hanseatic League, of
+Flanders, or of Italy had valuable trading concessions, was not
+obtained without difficulty, and there was a constant succession of
+conflicts more or less violent, and of disputes between English and
+foreign sailors and merchants. The progress of English commerce was,
+however, facilitated by the decay in the prosperity of many of these
+older trading towns. The growth of strong governments in Denmark,
+Sweden, Norway, Poland, and Russia resulted in a withdrawal of
+privileges which the Hanseatic League had long possessed, and internal
+dissensions made the League very much weaker in the later fifteenth
+century than it had been during the century and a half before. The
+most important single occurrence showing this tendency was the capture
+of Novgorod by the Russian Czar and his expulsion of the merchants of
+the Hanse from their settlement in that commercial centre. In the same
+way most of the towns along the south coast of the Baltic came under
+the control of the kingdom of Poland.
+
+A similar change came about in Flanders, where the semi-independent
+towns came under the control of the dukes of Burgundy. These
+sovereigns had political interests too extensive to be subordinated to
+the trade interests of individual towns in their dominions. Thus it
+was that Bruges now lost much of its prosperity, while Antwerp became
+one of the greatest commercial cities of Europe. Trading rights could
+now be obtained from centralized governments, and were not dependent
+on the interest or the antagonism of local merchants.
+
+In Italy other influences were leading to much the same results. The
+advance of Turkish conquests was gradually increasing the
+difficulties of the Eastern trade, and the discovery of the route
+around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 finally diverted that branch of
+commerce into new lines. English merchants gained access to some of
+this new Eastern trade through their connection with Portugal, a
+country advantageously situated to inherit the former trade of Italy
+and southern Germany. English commerce also profited by the
+predominance which Florence obtained over Pisa, Genoa, and other
+trading towns. Thus conditions on the Continent were strikingly
+favorable to the growing commercial enterprise of England.
+
+
+*43. The Merchants Adventurers.*--English merchants who exported and
+imported goods in their own vessels were, with the exception of the
+staplers or exporters of wool and other staple articles, usually
+spoken of as "adventurers," "venturers," or "merchants adventurers."
+This term is used in three different senses. Sometimes it simply means
+merchants who entered upon adventure or risk by sending their goods
+outside of the country to new or unrecognized markets, as the
+"adventurers to Iceland," "adventurers to Spain." Again, it is applied
+to groups of merchants in various towns who were organized for mutual
+protection or other advantage, as the "fishmongers adventurers" who
+brought their complaints before the Royal Council in 1542, "The
+Master, Wardens, and Commonalty of Merchant Venturers, of Bristol,"
+existing apparently in the fourteenth century, fully organized by
+1467, and incorporated in 1552, "The Society of Merchants Adventurers
+of Newcastle upon Tyne," or the similar bodies at York and Exeter.
+
+But by far the most frequent use of the term is that by which it was
+applied to those merchants who traded to the Netherlands and adjacent
+countries, especially as exporters of cloth, and who came within this
+period to be recognized and incorporated as the "Merchants
+Adventurers" in a special sense, with headquarters abroad, a coat of
+arms of their own, extensive privileges, great wealth, influence, and
+prominence. These English merchants, trading to the Netherlands in
+other articles than those controlled by the Staplers, apparently
+received privileges of trade from the duke of Brabant as early as the
+thirteenth century, and the right of settling their own disputes
+before their own "consul" in the fourteenth. But their commercial
+enterprises must have been quite insignificant, and it was only during
+the fifteenth century that they became numerous and their trade in
+English cloth extensive. Just at the beginning of this century, in
+1407, the king of England gave a general charter to all merchants
+trading beyond seas to assemble in definite places and choose for
+themselves consuls or governors to arrange for their common trade
+advantage. After this time, certainly by the middle of the century,
+the regular series of governors of the English merchants in the
+Netherlands was established, one of the earliest being William Caxton,
+afterward the founder of printing in England. On the basis of these
+concessions and of the privileges and charters granted by the home
+government the "Merchants Adventurers" gradually became a distinct
+organization, with a definite membership which was obtained by payment
+of a sum which gradually rose from 6_s._ 8_d._ to £20, until it was
+reduced by a law of Parliament in 1497 to £6 13_s._ 4_d._ They had
+local branches in England and on the Continent. In 1498 they were
+granted a coat of arms by Henry VII, and in 1503 by royal charter a
+distinct form of government under a governor and twenty-four
+assistants. In 1564 they were incorporated by a royal charter by the
+title of "The Merchants Adventurers of England." Long before that time
+they had become by far the largest and most influential  company of
+English exporting merchants. It is said that the Merchants Adventurers
+furnished ten out of the sixteen London ships sent to join the fleet
+against the Armada.
+
+Most of their members were London mercers, though there were also in
+the society members of other London companies, and traders whose homes
+were in other English towns than London. The meetings of the company
+in London were held for a long while in the Mercers' hall, and their
+records were kept in the same minute book as those of the Mercers
+until 1526. On the Continent their principal office, hall, or
+gathering place, the residence of their Governor and location of the
+"Court,", or central government of the company, was at different times
+at Antwerp, Bruges, Calais, Hamburg, Stade, Groningen and Middleburg;
+for the longest time probably at the first of these places. The larger
+part of the foreign trade of England during the fifteenth and most of
+the sixteenth century was carried on and extended as well as
+controlled and regulated by this great commercial company.
+
+[Illustration: Hall of the Merchants Adventurers at Bruges. (Blade:
+_Life of Caxton_. Published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.)]
+
+During the latter half of the sixteenth century, however, other
+companies of merchants were formed to trade with various countries,
+most of them receiving a government charter and patronage. Of these
+the Russia or Muscovy Company obtained recognition from the government
+in 1554, and in 1557, when an ambassador from that country came to
+London, a hundred and fifty merchants trading to Russia received him
+in state. In 1581 the Levant or Turkey Company was formed, and its
+members carried their merchandise as far as the Persian Gulf. In 1585
+the Barbary or Morocco Company was formed, but seems to have failed.
+In 1588, however, a Guinea Company began trading, and in 1600 the
+greatest of all, the East India Company, was chartered. The
+expeditions sent out by the Bristol merchants and then by the king
+under the Cabots, those other voyages so full of romance in search of
+a northwest or a northeast passage to the Orient, and the no less
+adventurous efforts to gain entrance to the Spanish possessions in the
+west, were a part of the same effort of commercial companies or
+interests to carry their trading into new lands.
+
+
+*44. Government Encouragement of Commerce.*--Before the accession of
+Henry VII it is almost impossible to discover any deliberate or
+continuous policy of the government in commercial matters. From this
+time forward, however, through the whole period of the Tudor monarchs
+a tolerably consistent plan was followed of favoring English merchants
+and placing burdens and restrictions upon foreign traders. The
+merchants from the Hanse towns, with their dwellings, warehouses, and
+offices at the Steelyard in London, were subjected to a narrower
+interpretation of the privileges which they possessed by old and
+frequently renewed grants. In 1493 English customs officers began to
+intrude upon their property; in 1504 especially heavy penalties were
+threatened if they should send any cloth to the Netherlands during the
+war between the king and the duke of Burgundy. During the reign of
+Henry VIII the position of the Hansards was on the whole easier, but
+in 1551 their special privileges were taken away, and they were put in
+the same position as all other foreigners. There was a partial regrant
+of advantageous conditions in the early part of the reign of
+Elizabeth, but finally, in 1578, they lost their privileges forever.
+As a matter of fact, German traders now came more and more rarely to
+England, and their settlement above London Bridge was practically
+deserted.
+
+The fleet from Venice also came less and less frequently. Under Henry
+VIII for a period of nine years no fleet came to English ports; then
+after an expedition had been sent out from Venice in 1517, and again
+in 1521, another nine years passed by. The fleet came again in 1531,
+1532, and 1533, and even afterward from time to time occasional
+private Venetian vessels came, till a group of them suffered shipwreck
+on the southern coast in 1587, after which the Venetian flag
+disappeared entirely from those waters.
+
+In the meantime a series of favorable commercial treaties were made in
+various directions by Henry VII and his successors. In 1490 he made a
+treaty with the king of Denmark by which English merchants obtained
+liberty to trade in that country, in Norway, and in Iceland. Within
+the same year a similar treaty was made with Florence, by which the
+English merchants obtained a monopoly of the sale of wool in the
+Florentine dominions, and the right to have an organization of their
+own there, which should settle trade disputes among themselves, or
+share in the settlement of their disputes with foreigners. In 1496 the
+old trading relations with the Netherlands were reëstablished on a
+firmer basis than ever by the treaty which has come in later times to
+be known as the _Intercursus Magnus_. In the same year commercial
+advantages were obtained from France, and in 1499 from Spain. Few
+opportunities were missed by the government during this period to try
+to secure favorable conditions for the growing English trade. Closely
+connected as commercial policy necessarily was with political
+questions, the former was always a matter of interest to the
+government, and in all the ups and downs of the relations of England
+with the Continental countries during the sixteenth century the
+foothold gained by English merchants was always preserved or regained
+after a temporary loss.
+
+The closely related question of English ship-building was  also a
+matter of government encouragement. In 1485 a law was passed declaring
+that wines of the duchies of Guienne and Gascony should be imported
+only in vessels which were English property and manned for the most
+part by Englishmen. In 1489 woad, a dyestuff from southern France, was
+included, and it was ordered that merchandise to be exported from
+England or imported into England should never be shipped in foreign
+vessels if sufficient English vessels were in the harbor at the time.
+Although this policy was abandoned during the short reign of Edward VI
+it was renewed and made permanent under Elizabeth. By indirect means
+also, as by the encouragement of fisheries, English seafaring was
+increased.
+
+As a result of these various forms of commercial influence, the
+enterprise of individual English merchants, the formation of trading
+companies, the assistance given by the government through commercial
+treaties and favoring statutes, English commerce became vastly greater
+than it had ever been before, reaching to Scandinavia and Russia, to
+Germany and the Netherlands, to France and Spain, to Italy and the
+eastern Mediterranean, and even occasionally to America. Moreover, it
+had come almost entirely into the hands of Englishmen; and the goods
+exported and imported were carried for the most part in ships of
+English build and ownership, manned by English sailors.
+
+
+*45. The Currency.*--The changes just described were closely connected
+with contemporary changes in the gold and silver currency. Shillings
+were coined for the first time in the reign of Henry VII, a pound
+weight of standard silver being coined into 37 shillings and 6 pence.
+In 1527 Henry VIII had the same amount of metal coined into 40
+shillings, and later in the year, into 45 shillings. In 1543 coin
+silver was changed from the old standard of 11 ounces 2 pennyweights
+of pure silver to 18 pennyweights of alloy, so as to consist of 10
+ounces of silver to 2 ounces of alloy; and this was coined into 48
+shillings. In 1545 the coin metal was made one-half silver, one-half
+alloy; in 1546, one-third silver, two-thirds alloy; and in 1550,
+one-fourth silver, three-fourths alloy. The gold coinage was
+correspondingly though not so excessively debased. The lowest point of
+debasement for both silver and gold was reached in 1551. In 1560 Queen
+Elizabeth began the work of restoring the currency to something like
+its old standard. The debased money was brought to the mints, where
+the government paid the value of the pure silver in it. Money of a
+high standard and permanently established weight was then issued in
+its place. Much of the confusion and distress prevalent during the
+reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI was doubtless due to this selfish
+and unwise monetary policy.
+
+At about the same time a new influence on the national currency came
+into existence. Strenuous but not very successful efforts had long
+been made to draw bullion into England and prevent English money from
+being taken out. Now some of the silver and gold which was being
+extorted from the natives and extracted from the mines of Mexico and
+Peru by the Spaniards began to make its way into England, as into
+other countries of Europe. These American sources of supply became
+productive by about 1525, but very little of this came into general
+European circulation or reached England till the middle of the
+century. After about 1560, however, through trade, and sometimes by
+even more direct routes, the amount of gold and silver money in
+circulation in England increased enormously. No reliable statistics
+exist, but there can be little doubt that the amount of money in
+England, as in Europe at large, was doubled, trebled, quadrupled, or
+perhaps increased still more largely within the next one hundred
+years.
+
+This increase of money produced many effects. One of the most
+important was its effect on prices. These had begun to rise in the
+early part of the century, principally as a result of the debasement
+of the coinage. In the latter part of the century the rise was much
+greater, due now, no doubt, to the influx of new money. Most
+commodities cost quite four times as much at the end of the sixteenth
+century as they did at its beginning.
+
+Another effect of the increased amount of currency appeared in the
+greater ease with which the use of money capital was obtained. Saving
+up and borrowing were both more practicable. More capital was now in
+existence and more persons could obtain the use of it. As a result,
+manufacturing, trade, and even agriculture could now be conducted on a
+more extensive scale, changes could be introduced, and production was
+apt to be profitable, as prices were increasing and returns would be
+greater even than those calculated upon.
+
+
+*46. Interest.*--Any extensive and varied use of capital is closely
+connected with the payment of interest. In accord with a strict
+interpretation of certain passages in both the Old and the New
+Testament, the Middle Ages regarded the payment of interest for the
+use of money as wicked. Interest was the same as usury and was
+illegal. As a matter of fact, most regular occupations in the Middle
+Ages required very little capital, and this was usually owned by the
+agriculturists, handicraftsmen, or merchants themselves; so that
+borrowing was only necessary for personal expenses or in occasional
+exigencies. With the enclosures, sheep farming, consolidation of
+farms, and other changes in agriculture, with the beginning of
+manufacturing under the control of capitalist manufacturers, with the
+more extensive foreign trading and ship owning, and above all with the
+increase in the actual amount of money in existence, these
+circumstances were changed. It seemed natural that money which one
+person had in his possession, but for which he had no immediate use,
+should be loaned to another who could use it for his own enterprises.
+These enterprises might be useful to the community, advantageous to
+himself, and yet profitable enough to allow him to pay interest for
+the use of the money to the capitalist who loaned it to him. As a
+matter of fact much money was loaned and, legally or illegally,
+interest or usury was paid for it. Moreover, a change had been going
+on in legal opinion parallel to these economic changes, and in 1545 a
+law was passed practically legalizing interest if it was not at a
+higher rate than ten per cent. This was, however, strongly opposed by
+the religious opinion of the time, especially among men of Puritan
+tendencies. They seemed, indeed, to be partially justified by the fact
+that the control of capital was used by the rich men of the time in
+such a way as to cause great hardship. In 1552, therefore, the law of
+1545 was repealed, and interest, except in the few forms in which it
+had always been allowed, was again prohibited. But the tide soon
+turned, and in 1571 interest up to ten per cent was again made lawful.
+From that time forward the term usury was restricted to excessive
+interest, and this alone was prohibited. Yet the practice of receiving
+interest for the loan of money was still generally condemned by
+writers on morals till quite the end of this period; though lawyers,
+merchants, and popular opinion no longer disapproved of it if the rate
+was moderate.
+
+
+*47. Paternal Government.*--In many of the changes which have been
+described in this chapter, the share which government took was one of
+the most important influences. In some cases, as in the laws against
+enclosures, against the migration of industry from the towns to the
+rural districts, and against usury, the policy of King and Parliament
+was not successful in resisting the strong economic forces which were
+at work. In others, however, as in the oversight of industry, in the
+confiscation of the property of the gilds devoted to religious uses,
+in the settlement of the relations between employers and employees, in
+the control of foreign commerce, the policy of the government really
+decided what direction changes should take.
+
+As has been seen in this chapter, after the accession of Henry VII
+there was a constant extension of the sphere of government till it
+came to pass laws upon and provide for and regulate almost all the
+economic interests of the nation. This was a result, in the first
+place, of the breaking down of those social institutions which had
+been most permanent and stable in earlier periods. The manor system in
+the country, landlord farming, the manor courts, labor dues, serfdom,
+were passing rapidly away; the old type of gilds, city regulations,
+trading at fairs, were no longer so general; it was no longer
+foreigners who brought foreign goods to England to be sold, or bought
+English goods for exportation. When these old Customs were changing or
+passing away, the national government naturally took charge to prevent
+the threatened confusion of the process of disintegration. Secondly,
+the government itself, from the latter part of the fifteenth century
+onward, became abler and more vigorous, as has been pointed out in the
+first paragraph of this chapter. The Privy Council of the king
+exercised larger functions, and extended its jurisdiction  into new
+fields. Under these circumstances, when the functions of the central
+government were being so widely extended, it was altogether natural
+that they should come to include the control of all forms of
+industrial life, including agriculture, manufacturing, commerce,
+internal trade, labor, and other social and economic relations.
+Thirdly, the control of economic and social matters by the government
+was in accordance with contemporary opinions and feelings. An
+enlightened absolutism seems to have commended itself to the most
+thoughtful men of that time. A paternalism which regulated a very wide
+circle of interests was unhesitatingly accepted and approved. As a
+result of the decay of mediæval conditions, the strengthening of
+national government, and the prevailing view of the proper functions
+of government, almost all economic conditions were regulated by the
+government to a degree quite unknown before. In the early part of the
+period this regulation was more minute, more intrusive, more evidently
+directed to the immediate advantage of government; but by the close of
+Elizabeth's reign a systematic regulation was established, which,
+while not controlling every detail of industrial life, yet laid down
+the general lines along which most of industrial life must run. Some
+parts of this regulation have already been analyzed. Perhaps the best
+instance and one of the most important parts of it is the Statute of
+Apprentices of 1563, already described in paragraph 40. In the same
+year, 1563, a statute was passed full of minute regulations for the
+fishing and fish-dealing trades. Foreign commerce was carried on by
+regulated companies; that is, companies having charters from the
+government, giving them a monopoly of the trade with certain
+countries, and laying down at least a part of the rules under which
+that trade should be carried on. The importation of most kinds of
+finished goods and the exportation of raw materials were prohibited.
+New industries were encouraged by patents or other government
+concessions. Many laws were passed, of which that of 1571, to
+encourage the industry of making caps, is a type. This law laid down
+the requirement that every person of six years old and upward should
+wear on every Sunday and holy day a woollen cap made in England.
+
+The conformity to standard of manufactures was enforced either by the
+officers of companies which were established under the authority of
+the government or by government officials or patentees, and many of
+the methods and standards of manufacture were themselves defined by
+statutes or proclamation. In agriculture, while the policy was less
+consistent, government regulation was widely applied. There were laws,
+as has been noted, forbidding the possession of more than two thousand
+sheep by any one landholder and of more than two farms by any one
+tenant; laws requiring the keeping of one cow and one calf for every
+sixty sheep, and the raising a quarter of an acre of flax or hemp for
+every sixty acres devoted to other crops. The most characteristic laws
+for the regulation of agriculture, however, were those controlling the
+export of grain. In order to prevent an excessive price, grain-raisers
+were not allowed to export wheat or other grain when it was scarce in
+England. When it was cheap and plenty, they were permitted to do so,
+the conditions under which it was to be allowed or forbidden being
+decided, according to a law of 1571, by the justices of the peace of
+each locality, with the restriction that none should be exported when
+the prevailing price was more than 1_s._ 3_d._ a bushel, a limit which
+was raised to 2_s._ 6_d._ in 1592.
+
+Thus, instead of industrial life being controlled and regulated by
+town governments, merchant and craft gilds, lords of fairs, village
+communities, lords of manors and their stewards, or other local
+bodies, it was now regulated in its main features by the all-powerful
+national government.
+
+
+*48. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Professor Ashley's second volume is of especial value for this period.
+
+Green, Mrs. J. R.: _Town Life in England in the Fifteenth Century_,
+two volumes.
+
+Cheyney, E. P.: _Social Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century,
+Part I, Rural Changes_.
+
+A discussion of the legal character of villain tenure in the sixteenth
+century will be found in articles by Mr. I. S. Leadam, in _The English
+Historical Review_, for October, 1893, and in the _Transactions of the
+English Royal Historical Society_ for 1892, 1893, and 1894; and by
+Professor Ashley in the _English Historical Review_ for April, 1893,
+and _Annals of the American Academy of Political Science_ for January,
+1891. (Reprinted in _English Economic History_, Vol. II, Chap. 4.)
+
+Bourne, H. R. F.: _English Merchants_.
+
+Froude, J. A.: _History of England_. Many scattered passages of great
+interest refer to the economic and social changes of this period, but
+they are frequently exaggerated, and in some cases incorrect. Almost
+the same remark applies to Professor Rogers' _Six Centuries of Work
+and Wages_ and _Industrial and Commercial History of England_.
+
+Busch, Wilhelm: _A History of England under the Tudors_. For the
+economic policy of Henry VII.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND
+
+Economic Changes Of The Seventeenth And Early Eighteenth Centuries
+
+
+*49. National Affairs from 1603 to 1760.*--The last three rulers of the
+Tudor family had died childless. James, king of Scotland, their
+cousin, therefore inherited the throne and became the first English
+king of the Stuart family. James reigned from 1603 to 1625. Many of
+the political and religious problems which had been created by the
+policy of the Tudor sovereigns had now to come up for solution.
+Parliament had long been restive under the almost autocratic
+government of Queen Elizabeth, but the danger of foreign invasion and
+internal rebellion, long-established habit, Elizabeth's personal
+popularity, her age, her sex, and her occasional yielding, all
+combined to prevent any very outspoken opposition. Under King James
+all these things were changed. Yet he had even higher ideas of his
+personal rights, powers, and duties as king than any of his
+predecessors. Therefore during the whole of the reign dispute and ill
+feeling existed between the king, his ministers, and many of the
+judges and other officials, on the one hand, and the majority of the
+House of Commons and among the middle and upper classes of the
+country, on the other. James would willingly have avoided calling
+Parliament altogether and would have carried on the government
+according to his own judgment and that of the ministers he selected,
+but it was absolutely necessary to assemble it for the passing of
+certain laws, and above all for the authorization of taxes to obtain
+the means to carry on the government. The fall in the value of gold
+and silver and the consequent rise of prices, and other economic
+changes, had reduced the income of the government just at a time when
+its necessary expenses were increasing, and when a spendthrift king
+was making profuse additional outlays. Finances were therefore a
+constant difficulty during his reign, as in fact they remained during
+the whole of the seventeenth century.
+
+In religion James wished to maintain the middle course of the
+established church as it had been under Elizabeth. He was even less
+inclined to harsh treatment of the Roman Catholics. On the other hand,
+the tide of Puritan feeling appealing for greater strictness and
+earnestness in the church and a more democratic form of church
+government was rising higher and higher, and with this a desire to
+expel the Roman Catholics altogether. The House of Commons represented
+this strong Protestant feeling, so that still another cause of
+conflict existed between King and Parliament. Similarly, in foreign
+affairs and on many other questions James was at cross purposes with
+the main body of the English nation.
+
+This reign was the period of foundation of England's great colonial
+empire. The effort to establish settlements on the North American
+coast were at last successful in Virginia and New England, and soon
+after in the West Indies. Still other districts were being settled by
+other European nations, ultimately to be absorbed by England. On the
+other side of the world the East India Company began its progress
+toward the subjugation of India. Nearer home, a new policy was carried
+out in Ireland, by which large numbers of English and Scotch
+immigrants were induced to settle in Ulster, the northernmost
+province. Thus that process was begun by which men of English race and
+language, living under English institutions and customs, have
+established centres of population, wealth, and influence in so many
+parts of the world.
+
+Charles I came to the throne in 1625. Most of the characteristics of
+the period of James continued until the quarrels between King and
+Parliament became so bitter that in 1642 civil war broke out. The
+result of four years of fighting was the defeat and capture of the
+king. After fruitless attempts at a satisfactory settlement Charles
+was brought to trial by Parliament in 1649, declared guilty of
+treason, and executed.
+
+A republican form of government was now established, known as the
+"Commonwealth," and kingship and the House of Lords were abolished.
+The army, however, had come to have a will of its own, and quarrels
+between its officers and the majority of Parliament were frequent.
+Both Parliament and army had become unpopular, taxation was heavy, and
+religious disputes troublesome. The majority in Parliament had carried
+the national church so far in the direction of Puritanism that its
+excesses had brought about a strong reactionary feeling. Parliament
+had already sat for more than ten years, hence called the "Long
+Parliament," and had become corrupt and despotic. Under these
+circumstances, one modification after another was made in the form of
+government until in 1653 Oliver Cromwell, the commander of the army
+and long the most influential man in Parliament, dissolved that body
+by military force and was made Lord Protector, with powers not very
+different from those of a king. There was now a period of good order
+and great military and naval success for England; Scotland and
+Ireland, both of which had declared against the Commonwealth, were
+reduced to obedience, and successful foreign wars were waged. But at
+home the government did not succeed in obtaining either popularity or
+general acceptance. Parliament after Parliament was called, but could
+not agree with the Protector. In 1657 Cromwell was given still higher
+powers, but in 1658 he died. His son, Richard Cromwell, was installed
+as Protector. The republican government had, however, been gradually
+drifting back toward the old royal form and spirit, so when the new
+Lord Protector proved to be unequal to the position, when the army
+became rebellious again, and the country threatened to fall into
+anarchy, Monk, an influential general, brought about the reassembling
+of the Long Parliament, and this body recalled the son of Charles I to
+take his hereditary seat as king.
+
+This event occurred in 1660, and is known as the Restoration. Charles
+II reigned for twenty-five years. His reign was in one of its aspects
+a time of reaction in manners and morals against the over-strictness
+of the former Puritan control. In government, notwithstanding the
+independent position of the king, it was the period when some of the
+most important modern institutions came into existence. Permanent
+political parties were formed then for the first time. It was then
+that the custom arose by which the ministers of the government are
+expected to resign when there proves to be a majority in Parliament
+against them. It was then that a "cabinet," or group of ministers
+acting together and responsible for the policy of the king, was first
+formed. The old form of the established church came again into power,
+and harsh laws were enacted against Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers,
+and members of the other sects which had grown up during the earlier
+part of the century.
+
+It was to escape these oppressive laws that many emigrated to the
+colonies in America and established new settlements. Not only was the
+stream of emigration kept up by religious persecutions, but the
+prosperity and abundant opportunity for advancement furnished by the
+colonies attracted great numbers. The government of the Stuart kings,
+as well as that of the Commonwealth, constantly encouraged distant
+settlements for the sake of commerce, shipping, the export of English
+manufactured goods, and the import of raw materials. The expansion of
+the country through its colonial settlements therefore still
+continued.
+
+The great literature which reached its climax in the reign of
+Elizabeth continued in equal variety and abundance throughout the
+reigns of James and Charles. The greater plays of Shakespeare were
+written after the accession of James. Milton belonged to the
+Commonwealth period, and Bunyan, the famous author of _Pilgrim's
+Progress_, was one of those non-conformists in religion who were
+imprisoned under Charles II. With this reign, however, quite a new
+literary type arose, whose most conspicuous representative was Dryden.
+
+In 1685 James II succeeded his brother. Instead of carrying on the
+government in a spirit of concession to national feeling, he adopted
+such an unpopular policy that in 1688 he was forced to flee from
+England, and his son-in-law and daughter, William and Mary, were
+elected to the throne. On their accession Parliament passed and the
+king and queen accepted a "Bill of Rights." This declared the
+illegality of a number of actions which recent sovereigns had claimed
+the right to do, and guaranteed to Englishmen a number of important
+individual rights, which have since been included in many other
+documents, especially in the constitutions of several of the American
+states and the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United
+States. The Bill of Rights is often grouped with the Great Charter,
+and these two documents, along with several of the Acts of the
+Parliaments of Charles I accepted by the king, make the principal
+written elements of the English constitution. The form and powers
+attained by the English government have been, however, rather the
+result of slight changes from time to time, often without intention of
+influencing the constitution, than of any deliberate action. Important
+examples of this are certain customs of legislation which grew up
+under William and Mary. The Mutiny Act, by which the army is kept up,
+was only passed for one year at a time. The grant of taxes was also
+only made annually. Parliament must therefore be called every year in
+order to obtain money to carry on the work of government, and in order
+to keep up the military organization.
+
+As a result of the Revolution of 1688, as the deposition of James II.
+and the appointment of William and Mary are called, and of the changes
+which succeeded it, Parliament gradually became the most powerful part
+of government, and the House of Commons the strongest part of
+Parliament. The king's ministers came more and more to carry out the
+will of Parliament rather than that of the king. Somewhat later the
+custom grew up by which one of the ministers by presiding over the
+whole Cabinet, nominating its members to the king, representing it in
+interviews with the king, and in other ways giving unity to its
+action, created the position of prime minister. Thus the modern
+Parliamentary organization of the government was practically complete
+before the middle of the eighteenth century. William and Mary died
+childless, and Anne, Mary's sister, succeeded, and reigned till 1714.
+She also left no heir. In the meantime arrangements had been made to
+set aside the descendants of James II, who were Roman Catholics, and
+to give the succession to a distant line of Protestant descendants of
+James I. In this way George I, Elector of Hanover, of the house of
+Brunswick, became king, reigned till 1727, and was succeeded by George
+II, who reigned till 1760. The sovereigns of England have been of this
+family ever since.
+
+The years following the Revolution of 1688 were a time of almost
+constant warfare on the Continent, in the colonies, and at sea. In
+many of these wars the real interests of England were but slightly
+concerned. In others her colonial and native dependencies were so
+deeply affected as to make them veritable national wars. Just at the
+close of the period, in 1763, the war known in Europe as the Seven
+Years' War and in America as the French and Indian War was brought to
+an end by the peace of Paris. This peace drew the outlines of the
+widespread empire of Great Britain, for it handed over to her Canada,
+the last of the French possessions in America, and guaranteed her the
+ultimate predominance in India.
+
+
+*50. The Extension of Agriculture.*--During the seventeenth and the
+first half of the eighteenth century there are no such fundamental
+changes in social organization to chronicle as during the preceding
+century and a half. During the first hundred years of the period the
+whole energy of the nation seems to have been thrown into political
+and religious contests. Later there was development and increase of
+production, but they were in the main an extension or expansion of the
+familiar forms, not such a change of form as would cause any
+alteration in the position of the mass of the people.
+
+The practice of enclosing open land had almost ceased before the death
+of Elizabeth. There was some enclosing under James I, but it seems to
+have been quite exceptional. In the main, those common pastures and
+open fields which had not been enclosed by the beginning of this
+period, probably one-half of all England, remained unenclosed till the
+recommencement of the process long afterward. Sheep farming gradually
+ceased to be so exclusively practised, and mixed agriculture became
+general, though few if any of those fields which had been surrounded
+with hedges, and come into the possession of individual farmers, were
+thrown open or distributed again into scattered holdings. Much new
+land came into cultivation or into use for pasture through the
+draining of marshes and fens, and the clearing of forests. This work
+had been begun for the extensive swampy tracts in the east of England
+in the latter years of Elizabeth's reign by private purchasers,
+assisted by an act of Parliament passed in 1601, intended to remove
+legal difficulties. It proceeded slowly, partly because of the expense
+and difficulty of putting up lasting embarkments, and partly because
+of the opposition of the fenmen, or dwellers in the marshy districts,
+whose livelihood was obtained by catching the fish and water fowl that
+the improvements would drive away. With the seventeenth and early
+eighteenth centuries, however, largely through the skill of Dutch
+engineers and laborers, many thousands of acres of fertile land were
+reclaimed and devoted to grazing, and even grain raising. Great
+stretches of old forest and waste land covered with rough underbrush
+were also reduced to cultivation.
+
+There was much writing on agricultural subjects, and methods of
+farming were undoubtedly improved, especially in the eighteenth
+century. Turnips, which could be grown during the remainder of the
+season after a grain crop had been harvested, and which would provide
+fresh food for the cattle during the winter, were introduced from the
+Continent and cultivated to some extent, as were clover and some
+improved grasses. But these improvements progressed but slowly, and
+farming on the whole was carried on along very much the same old lines
+till quite the middle of the eighteenth century. The raising of grain
+was encouraged by a system of government bounties, as already stated
+in another connection. From 1689 onward a bounty was given on all
+grain exported, when the prevailing price was less than six shillings
+a bushel. The result was that England exported wheat in all but famine
+years, that there was a steady encouragement even if without much
+result to improve methods of agriculture, and that landlords were able
+to increase their rents. In the main, English agriculture and the
+organization of the agricultural classes of the population did not
+differ very much at the end of this period from that at the beginning
+except in the one point of quantity, the amount of produce and the
+number of the population being both largely increased.
+
+
+*51. The Domestic System of Manufactures.*--Much greater skill in
+manufacturing was acquired, principally, as in earlier periods,
+through the immigration of foreign artisans. In Queen Elizabeth's time
+a great number of such men with their families, who had been driven
+from the Netherlands by the persecutions of the duke of Alva, came to
+England for refuge. In Sandwich in 1561 some twenty families of
+Flemings settled and began their manufactures of various kinds of
+cloth; in 1565 some thirty Dutch and Walloon families settled in
+Norwich as weavers, in Maidstone a body of similar artisans who were
+thread-makers settled in 1567; in 1570 a similar group carrying on
+various forms of manufacture settled at Colchester; and still others
+settled in some five or six other towns. After 1580 a wave of French
+Huguenots, principally silk-weavers, fled from their native  country
+and were allowed to settle in London, Canterbury, and Coventry. The
+renewed persecutions of the Huguenots, culminating in the revocation
+of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, sent many thousands more into exile,
+large numbers of silk and linen weavers and manufacturers of paper,
+clocks, glass, and metal goods coming from Normandy and Brittany into
+England, and settling not only in London and its suburbs, but in many
+other towns of England. These foreigners, unpopular as they often were
+among the populace, and supported in their opportunities of carrying
+on their industry only by royal authority, really taught new and
+higher industries to the native population and eventually were
+absorbed into it as a more gifted and trained component.
+
+There were also some inventions of new processes or devices for
+manufacture. The "stocking frame," or machine knitting, was invented
+in the time of Queen Elizabeth, but did not get into actual use until
+the next century. It then became for the future an extensive industry,
+especially in London and Nottingham and their vicinity. The weaving of
+cotton goods was introduced and spread especially in the northwest, in
+the neighborhood of Manchester and Bolton. A machine for preparing
+silk thread was invented in 1719. The printing of imported white
+cotton goods, as calicoes and lawns, was begun, but prohibited by
+Parliament in the interest of woven goods manufacturers, though the
+printing of linens was still allowed. Stoneware was also improved.
+These and other new industries introduced by foreigners or developed
+by English inventors or enterprising artisans added to the variety and
+total amount of English manufacture. The old established industries,
+like the old coarser woollen goods and linen manufacture, increased
+but slowly in amount and went through no great changes of method.
+
+[Illustration: Hand-loom Weaving. (Hogarth: _The Industrious and the
+Lazy Apprentice_.)]
+
+These industries old and new were in some cases regulated and
+supervised as to the quality of ware and methods of manufacture, by
+the remaining gilds or companies, with the authority which they
+possessed from the national government. Indeed, there were within the
+later sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries some new companies
+organized or old ones renewed especially for this oversight, and to
+guard the monopoly of their members over certain industries in certain
+towns. In other cases rules were established for the carrying on of a
+certain industry, and a patent or monopoly was then granted by the
+king by which the person or company was given the sole right to carry
+on a certain industry according to those rules, or to enforce the
+rules when it was carried on by other people. In still other
+industries a government official had the oversight and control of
+quality and method of manufacture. Much production, however,
+especially such as went on in the country, was not supervised at all.
+
+[Illustration: Old Cloth-hall at Halifax.]
+
+Far the greater part of manufacturing industry in this period was
+organized according to the "domestic system," the beginnings of which
+have been already noticed within the previous period. That is to say,
+manufacturing was carried on in their own houses by small masters with
+a journeyman and apprentice or two. Much of it was done in the country
+villages or suburbs of the larger towns, and such handicraft was very
+generally connected with a certain amount of cultivation of the soil.
+A small master weaver or nail manufacturer, or soap boiler or potter,
+would also have a little farm and divide his time between the two
+occupations. The implements of manufacture almost always belonged to
+the small master himself, though in the stocking manufacture and the
+silk manufacture they were often owned by employing capitalists and
+rented out to the small manufacturers, or even to journeymen. In some
+cases the raw material--wool, linen, metal, or whatever it might
+be--was purchased by the small manufacturer, and the goods were either
+manufactured for special customers or taken when completed to a
+neighboring town on market days, there to be sold to a local dealer,
+or to a merchant who would transport it to another part of the country
+or export it to other countries. In other cases the raw material,
+especially in the case of cotton, was the property of a town merchant
+or capitalist, who distributed it to the small domestic manufacturers
+in their houses in the villages, paying them for the processes of
+production, and himself collecting the completed product and disposing
+of it by sale or export. This domestic manufacture was especially
+common in the southwest, centre, and northwest of England, and
+manufacturing towns like Birmingham, Halifax, Sheffield, Leeds,
+Bolton, and Manchester were growing up as centres around which it
+gathered. Little or no organization existed among such small
+manufacturers, though their apprentices were of course supposed to be
+taken and their journeymen hired according to the provisions of the
+Statute of Apprentices, and their products were sometimes subjected to
+some governmental or other supervision.
+
+Thus in manufacturing and artisan life as in agricultural the period
+was marked by an extension and increase of the amount of industry, on
+the same general lines as had been reached by 1600, rather than by any
+considerable changes.
+
+
+*52. Commerce under the Navigation Acts.*--The same thing is true of
+commerce, although its vast extension was almost in the nature of a
+revolution. As far back as the reign of Elizabeth most of the imports
+into England were brought in English vessels by English importers, and
+the goods which were exported were sent out by English exporters. The
+goods which were manufactured in scattered villages or town suburbs by
+the domestic manufacturers were gathered by these merchants and sent
+abroad in ever increasing amounts. The total value of English exports
+in 1600 was about 10 million dollars, at the close of the century it
+was some 34 millions, and in 1750 about 63 millions. This trade was
+carried on largely by merchants who were members of those chartered
+trading companies which have been mentioned as existing already in the
+sixteenth century. Some of these were "regulated companies"; that is,
+they had certain requirements laid down in their charters and power to
+adopt further rules and regulations, to which their members must
+conform. Others had similar chartered rights, but all their members
+invested funds in a common capital and traded as a joint stock
+company. In both kinds of cases each company possessed a monopoly of
+some certain field of trade, and was constantly engaged in the
+exclusion of interlopers from its trade. Of these companies the
+Merchants Adventurers, the oldest and one of the wealthiest,
+controlled the export of manufactured cloth to the Netherlands and
+northwestern Germany and remained prominent and active into the
+eighteenth century. The Levant, the Eastland, the Muscovy, and the
+Guinea or Royal African, and, greatest of all, the East India Company,
+continued to exist under various forms, and carried on their distant
+commerce through the whole of this period. With some of the nearer
+parts of Europe--France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy--there was much
+trading by private merchants not organized as companies or only
+organized among themselves. The "Methuen treaty," negotiated with
+Portugal in 1703, gave free entry of English manufactured goods into
+that country in return for a decreased import duty on Portuguese wines
+brought into England.
+
+[Illustration: Principal English Trade Routes About 1700.]
+
+The foreign lands with which these companies traded furnished at the
+beginning of this period the only places to which goods could be
+exported and from which goods could be brought; but very soon that
+series of settlements of English colonists was begun, one of the
+principal inducements for which was that they would furnish an outlet
+for English goods. The "Plantation of Ulster," or introduction of
+English and Scotch settlers into the north of Ireland between 1610 and
+1620, was the beginning of a long process of immigration into that
+country. But far the most important plantations as an outlet for trade
+as in every respect were those made on the coast of North America and
+in the West Indies. The Virginia and the Plymouth Companies played a
+part in the early settlement of these colonies, but they were soon
+superseded by the crown, single proprietaries, or the settlers
+themselves. Virginia, New England, Maryland, the Carolinas, and
+ultimately New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia on the mainland; the
+islands of Bermudas, Barbadoes, and Jamaica, and ultimately Canada,
+came to be populous colonies inhabited by Englishmen and demanding an
+ever increasing supply of English manufactured goods. These colonies
+were controlled by the English government largely for their commercial
+and other forms of economic value. The production of goods needed in
+England but not produced there, such as sugar, tobacco, tar, and
+lumber, was encouraged, but the manufacture of such goods as could be
+exported from England was prohibited. The purchase of slaves in Africa
+and their exportation to the West Indies was encouraged, partly
+because they were paid for in Africa by English manufactured goods,
+partly because their use in the colonies made the supply of sugar and
+some other products plentiful and cheap.
+
+Closely connected with commerce and colonies as a means of disposing
+of England's manufactured goods and of obtaining those things which
+were needed from abroad was commerce for its own sake, for the profits
+which it brought to those engaged in it, and for the indirect value to
+the nation of having a large mercantile navy.
+
+The most important provision for this end was the passage of the
+"Navigation Acts." We have seen that as early as 1485 certain kinds of
+goods could be imported only in English vessels. But in 1651 a law was
+passed, and in 1660 under a more regular government reënacted in still
+more vigorous form, which carried this policy to its fullest extent.
+By these laws all importation of goods into England from any ports of
+Asia, Africa, or America was forbidden, except in vessels belonging to
+English owners, built in England and manned by English seamen; and
+there was the same requirement for goods exported from England to
+those countries. From European ports goods could be brought to England
+only in English vessels or in vessels the property of merchants of the
+country in which the port lay; and similarly for export. These acts
+were directed especially against the Dutch merchants, who were fast
+getting control of the carrying trade. The result of the policy of the
+Navigation Acts was to secure to English merchants and to English
+shipbuilders a monopoly of all the trade with the East Indies and
+Africa and with the American colonies, and to prevent the Dutch from
+competing with English merchants for the greater part of the trade
+with the Continent of Europe.
+
+The characteristics of English commerce in this period, therefore,
+were much the same as in the last. It was, however, still more
+completely controlled by English merchants and was vastly extended in
+amount. Moreover, this extension bid fair to be permanent, as it was
+largely brought about by the growth of populous English colonies in
+Ireland and America, and by the acquisition of great spheres of
+influence in India.
+
+
+*53. Finance.*--The most characteristic changes of the period now being
+studied were in a field to which attention has been but slightly
+called before; that is, in finance. Capital had not existed in any
+large amounts in mediæval England, and even in the later centuries
+there had not been any considerable class of men whose principal
+interest was in the investment of saved-up capital which they had in
+their hands. Agriculture, manufacturing, and even commerce were
+carried on with very small capital and usually with such capital as
+each farmer, artisan, or merchant might have of his own; no use of
+credit to obtain money from individual men or from banks for
+industrial purposes being ordinarily possible. Questions connected
+with money, capital, borrowing, and other points of finance came into
+somewhat greater prominence with the sixteenth century, but they now
+attained an altogether new and more important notice.
+
+Taxation, which had been looked upon as abnormal and occasional during
+earlier times, and only justifiable when some special need for large
+expenditure by the government arose, such as war, a royal marriage, or
+the entertainment of some foreign visitor, now, after long conflicts
+between King and Parliament, which are of still greater constitutional
+than financial importance, came to be looked upon as a regular normal
+custom. In 1660, at the Restoration, a whole system of excise duties,
+taxes on imports and exports, and a hearth tax were established as a
+permanency for paying the expenses of government, besides special
+taxes of various kinds for special demands.
+
+Borrowing, by merchants and others for ordinary purposes of business,
+became much more usual. During most of the seventeenth century the
+goldsmiths were the only bankers. On account of the strong vaults of
+these merchants, their habitual possession of valuable material and
+articles, and perhaps of their reputation for probity, persons who had
+money beyond their immediate needs deposited it with the goldsmiths,
+receiving from them usually six per cent. The goldsmiths then loaned
+it to merchants or to the government, obtaining for it interest at the
+rate of eight per cent or more. This system gradually became better
+established and the high rates decreased. Payments came to be made by
+check, and promissory notes were regularly discounted by the
+goldsmiths.
+
+The greatest extension in the use of credit, however, came from the
+establishment of the Bank of England. In 1691 the original proposition
+for the Bank was made to the government by William Patterson. In 1694
+a charter for the Bank was finally carried through Parliament by the
+efforts of the ministry. The Bank consisted of a group of subscribers
+who agreed to loan to the government £1,200,000, the government to pay
+them an annual interest of eight and one-half per cent, or £100,000 in
+cash, guaranteed by the product of a certain tax. The subscribers were
+at the same time incorporated and authorized to carry on a general
+business of receiving deposits and lending out money at interest. The
+capital which was to be loaned to the government was subscribed
+principally by London merchants, and the Bank began its career in the
+old Grocers' Hall. The regular income of £100,000 a year gave it a
+nucleus of strength, and enabled it to discount notes even beyond its
+actual deposits and to issue its own notes or paper money. Thus money
+could be borrowed to serve as capital for all kinds of enterprises,
+and there was an inducement also for persons to save money and thus
+create capital, since it could always bring them in a return by
+lending it to the Bank even if they were not in a position to put it
+to use themselves. Along with the normal effect of such financial
+inventions in developing all forms of trade and industry, there arose
+a remarkable series of projects and schemes of the wildest and most
+unstable character, and the early eighteenth century saw many losses
+and constant fluctuations in the realm of finance. The most famous
+instance of this was the "South Sea Bubble," a speculative scheme by
+which a regulated company, the South Sea Company, was chartered in
+1719 to carry on the slave-trade to the West Indies and whale-fishing,
+and incidentally to loan money to the government. Its shares rose to
+many fold their par value and fell to almost nothing again within a
+few months, and the government and vast numbers of investors and
+speculators were involved in its failure.
+
+The same period saw the creation of the permanent national debt. In
+earlier times kings and ministers had constantly borrowed money from
+foreign or native lenders, but it was always provided and anticipated
+that it would be repaid at a certain period, with the interest. With
+the later years of the seventeenth century, however, it became
+customary for the government to borrow money without any definite
+contract or expectation as to when it should be paid back, only making
+an agreement to pay a certain rate of interest upon it. This was
+satisfactory to all parties. The government obtained a large sum at
+the time, with the necessity of only paying a small sum every year for
+interest; investors obtained a remunerative use for their money, and
+if they should need the principal, some one else was always ready to
+pay its value to them for the sake of receiving the interest. The
+largest single element of the national debt in its early period was
+the loan of £1,200,000 which served as the basis for the Bank; but
+after that time, as for a short time before, sums were borrowed from
+time to time which were not repaid, but became a permanent part of the
+debt: the total rising to more than £75,000,000 by the middle of the
+century. Incidentally, this, like the deposits at the goldsmiths and
+the Bank, became an opportunity for the investment of savings and an
+inducement to create more capital.
+
+Fire insurance and life insurance both seem to have had their origin
+in the later decades of the seventeenth century.
+
+Thus in the realm of finance there was much more of novelty, of
+actually new development, during this period than in agriculture,
+manufacturing, or commerce. Yet all these forms of economic life and
+of the social organization which corresponded to them were alike in
+one respect, that they were quite minutely regulated by the national
+government. The fabric of paternal government which we saw rising in
+the time of the Tudor sovereigns remained almost intact through the
+whole of this period. The regulation of the conditions of labor, of
+trade, of importation and exportation, of finance, of agriculture, of
+manufacture, in more or less detail, was part of the regular work of
+legislation or administrative action. Either in order to reach certain
+ulterior ends, such as government power, a large navy, or a large body
+of money within the country, or simply as a part of what were looked
+upon at the time as the natural functions of government, laws were
+constantly being passed, charters formulated, treaties entered into,
+and other action taken by government, intended to encourage one kind
+of industry and discourage another, to determine rates of wages and
+hours of labor, prescribe rules for agriculture, or individual trades
+or forms of business, to support some kind of industry which was
+threatened with decay, to restrict certain actions which were thought
+to be disadvantageous, to regulate the whole economic life of the
+nation.
+
+It is true that much of this regulation was on the books rather than
+in actual existence. It would have required a much more extensive and
+efficient civil service, national and local, than England then
+possessed to enforce all or any considerable part of the provisions
+that were made by act of Parliament or ordered by the King and
+Council. Again, new industries were generally declared to be free from
+much of the more minute regulation, so that enterprise where it arose
+was not so apt to be checked, as conservatism where it already existed
+was apt to be perpetuated. Such regulation and control, moreover, were
+quite in accord with the feeling and with the economic and political
+theories of the time, so there was but little sense of  interference
+or tyranny felt by the governed. A regulated industrial organization
+slowly expanding on well-established lines was as characteristic of
+the theory as it was of the practice of the period.
+
+
+*54. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Gardiner, S. R.: _The History of England, 1603-1642_, ten volumes.
+
+Many scattered passages in this work and in its continuations, like
+those in Froude's history, referred to in the last chapter, apply to
+the economic and social history of the period, and they are always
+judicious and valuable.
+
+Hewins, W. A. S.: _English Trade and Finance, chiefly in the
+Seventeenth Century_.
+
+For this period Cunningham, Rogers, and Palgrave, in the books already
+referred to, are almost the only secondary authorities, except such as
+go into great detail on individual points. Cunningham's second volume,
+which includes this period, is extremely full and satisfactory.
+
+Macpherson, D.: _Annals of Commerce_ is, however, a book of somewhat
+broader interest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE PERIOD OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
+
+Economic Changes Of The Later Eighteenth And Early Nineteenth
+Centuries
+
+
+*55. National Affairs from 1760 to 1830.*--The seventy years lying
+between these two dates were covered by the long reign of George III
+and that of his successor George IV. In the political world this
+period had by no means the importance that it possessed in the field
+of economic development. Parliament had already obtained its permanent
+form and powers, and when George III tried to "be a king," as his
+mother urged him, the effort to restore personal government was an
+utter failure. Between 1775 and 1783 occurred the American Revolution,
+by which thirteen of England's most valued colonies were lost to her
+and began their progress toward a greater destiny. The breach between
+the American colonies and the mother country was brought about largely
+by the obstinacy of the king and his ministers in adopting an
+arbitrary and unpopular policy. Other political causes no doubt
+contributed to the result. Yet the greater part of the alienation of
+feeling which underlay the Revolution was due not to political causes,
+but to the economic policy already described, by which American
+commerce and industry were bent to the interests of England.
+
+In the American war France joined the rebellious colonies against
+England, and obtained advantageous terms at the peace. Within ten
+years the two countries had again entered upon a war, this time of
+vastly greater extent, and continuing almost unbroken for more than
+twenty years. This was a result of the outbreak of the French
+Revolution. In 1789 the Estates General of France, a body
+corresponding in its earlier history to the English Parliament, was
+called for the first time for almost two hundred years. This assembly
+and its successors undertook to reorganize French government and
+society. In the course of this radical process principles were
+enunciated proclaiming the absolute liberty and equality of men,
+demanding the participation of all in government, the abolition of
+aristocratic privileges, and finally of royalty itself. In following
+out these ideas, so different from those generally accepted in Europe,
+France was brought into conflict with all the other European states,
+including Great Britain. War broke out in 1793. Fighting took place on
+sea and land and in various parts of the world. France in her new
+enthusiasm developed a strength, vigor, and capacity which enabled her
+to make head against the alliances of almost all the other countries
+of Europe, and even to gain victories and increase her territory at
+their expense. No peace seemed practicable. In her successive internal
+changes of government one of the generals of the army, Napoleon
+Bonaparte, obtained a more and more influential position, until in
+1804 he took the title of Emperor. The wars of the French Revolution
+therefore were merged in the wars of Napoleon. Alliance after alliance
+was made against Napoleon, England commonly taking the initiative in
+the formation of them and paying large monthly subsidies to some of
+the continental governments to enable them to support their armies.
+The English navy won several brilliant victories, especially under
+Nelson, although her land forces played a comparatively small part
+until the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
+
+The naval supremacy thus obtained made the war a matter of pecuniary
+profit to the English nation, notwithstanding its enormous expense;
+for it gave to her vessels almost a complete monopoly of the commerce
+and the carrying trade of the world, and to her manufactures extended
+markets which would otherwise have been closed to her or shared with
+other nations. The cutting off of continental and other sources of
+supply of grain and the opening of new markets greatly increased the
+demand for English grain and enhanced the price paid for it. This
+caused higher rents and further enclosure of open land. Thus the war
+which had been entered upon reluctantly and with much opposition in
+1793, became popular, partly because of the feeling of the English
+people that it had become a life and death struggle with France, but
+largely also because English industries were flourishing under it. The
+wars came to an end with the downfall of Napoleon in 1815, and an
+unwonted period of peace for England set in and lasted for almost
+forty years.
+
+The French Revolution produced another effect in England. It awakened
+a certain amount of admiration for its principles of complete liberty
+and equality and a desire to apply them to English aristocratic
+society and government. In 1790 societies began to be formed, meetings
+held, and pamphlets issued by men who sympathized with the popular
+movements in France. Indeed, some of these reformers were suspected of
+wishing to introduce a republic in England. After the outbreak of the
+war the ministry determined to put down this agitation, and between
+1793 and 1795 all public manifestation of sympathy with such
+principles was crushed out, although at the cost of considerable
+interference with what had been understood to be established personal
+rights. Much discontent continued through the whole period of the
+war, especially among the lower classes, though it did not take the
+form of organized political agitation. It was a period, as will be
+seen, of violent economic and social changes, which, although they
+enriched England as a whole and made it possible for her to support
+the unprecedented expenses of the long war, were very hard upon the
+working classes, who were used to the old ways.
+
+After the peace of 1815, however, political agitation began again. The
+Whig party seemed inclined to resume the effort to carry certain
+moderate reforms which had been postponed on account of the war, and
+down below this movement there was a more radical agitation for
+universal suffrage and for a more democratic type of government
+generally. On the other hand, the Tory government, which had been in
+power during almost the whole war period, was determined to oppose
+everything in the nature of reform or change, on the ground that the
+outrages accompanying the French Revolution arose from just such
+efforts to make reforming alterations in the government. The radical
+agitation was supported by the discontented masses of the people who
+were suffering under heavy taxes, high prices, irregular employment,
+and many other evils which they felt to be due to their exclusion from
+any share in the government. The years intervening between 1815 and
+1830 were therefore a period of constant bitterness and contention
+between the higher and the lower classes. Mass meetings which were
+called by the popular leaders were dissolved by the government,
+radical writers were prosecuted by the government for libel, the
+habeas corpus act was suspended repeatedly, and threatened rioting was
+met with severe measures. The actions of the ministers, while upheld
+by the higher classes, were bitterly attacked by others as being
+unconstitutional and tyrannical.
+
+In 1800 the union of the group of British Islands under one government
+was completed, at least in form. Scotland had come under the same
+crown as England in 1603, and the two Parliaments had been united in
+1707, the title Great Britain having been adopted for the combined
+nations. The king of England had held the title of Lord of Ireland
+from the time of the first conquest, and of King of Ireland since the
+adoption of the title by Henry VIII. The union which now took place
+consisted in the abolition of the separate Irish Parliament and the
+election of Irish members to the combined or "Imperial" Parliament of
+the three kingdoms sitting at Westminster. The official title of the
+united countries has since been "The United Kingdom of Great Britain
+and Ireland."
+
+
+*56. The Great Mechanical Inventions.*--As the eighteenth century
+progressed one form of economic growth seems to have been pressing on
+the general economic organization. This was the constant expansion of
+commerce, the steadily increasing demand for English manufactured
+goods for export.
+
+[Illustration: Distribution of Population According to the Hearth-tax
+of 1750. Engraved by Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
+
+The great quantities of goods which were every year sent abroad in
+English ships to the colonies, to Ireland, to the Continent, to Asia
+and Africa, as well as those used at home, continued to be
+manufactured in most cases by methods, with instruments, under an
+organization of labor the same as that which had been in existence for
+centuries. The cotton and woollen goods which were sold in the West
+Indies and America were still carded, spun, and woven in the scattered
+cottages of domestic weavers and weaver-farmers in the rural districts
+of the west and north of England, by the hand cards, the
+spinning-wheel, the cumbrous, old-fashioned loom. The pieces of goods
+were slowly gathered from the hamlets to the towns, from the towns
+to the seaports, over the poorest of roads, and by the most primitive
+of conveyances. And these antiquated methods of manufacture and
+transportation were all the more at variance with the needs and
+possibilities of the time because there had been, as already pointed
+out, a steady accumulation of capital, and much of it was not
+remuneratively employed. The time had certainly come for some
+improvement in the methods of manufacture.
+
+A closer examination into the process of production in England's
+principal industry, cloth-making, shows that this pressure on old
+methods was already felt. The raw material for such uses, as it comes
+from the back of the sheep, the boll of the cotton plant, or the
+crushed stems of the flax, is a tangled mass of fibre. The first
+necessary step is to straighten out the threads of this fibre, which
+is done in the case of wool by combing, in the others by carding, both
+being done at that time by hand implements. The next step is spinning,
+that is drawing out the fibres, which have been made parallel by
+carding, into a slender cord, and at the same time twisting this
+sufficiently to cause the individual fibres to take hold one of
+another and thus make a thread of some strength. This was sometimes
+done on the old high wheel, which was whirled around by hand and then
+allowed to come to rest while another section of the cotton, wool, or
+flax was drawn from the carded mass by hand, then whirled again,
+twisting this thread and winding it up on the spindle, and so on. Or
+it was done by the low wheel, which was kept whirling continuously by
+the use of a treadle worked by the foot, while the material was being
+drawn out all the time by the two hands, and twisted and wound
+continuously by the horseshoe-shaped device known as the "flyer." When
+the thread had been spun it was placed upon the loom; strong, firmly
+spun material being necessary for the "warp" of upright threads,
+softer and less tightly spun material for the "woof" or "weft," which
+was wrapped on the shuttle and thrown horizontally by hand between the
+two diverging lines of warp threads. After weaving, the fabric was
+subjected to a number of processes of finishing, fulling, shearing,
+dyeing, if that had not been done earlier, and others, according to
+the nature of the cloth or the kind of surface desired.
+
+In these successive stages of manufacture it was the spinning that was
+apt to interpose the greatest obstacle, as it took the most time. From
+time immemorial spinning had been done, as explained, on some form of
+the spinning-wheel, and by women. One weaver continuously at work
+could easily use up the product of five or six spinners. In the
+domestic industry the weaving was of course carried on in the
+dwelling-house by the father of the family with the grown sons or
+journeymen, while the spinning was done for the most part by the women
+and younger children of the family. As it could hardly be expected
+that there would always be as large a proportion as six of the latter
+class to one of the former, outside help must be obtained and much
+delay often submitted to. Many a small master who had agreed to weave
+up the raw material sent him by the master clothier within a given
+time, or a cloth weaver who had planned to complete a piece by next
+market day, was obliged to leave his loom and search through the
+neighborhood for some disengaged laborer's wife or other person who
+would spin the weft for which he was waiting. One of the very few
+inventions of the early part of the century intensified this
+difficulty. Kay's drop box and flying shuttle, invented in 1738, made
+it possible for a man to sit still and by pulling two cords
+alternately throw the shuttle to and fro. One man could therefore
+weave broadcloth instead of its requiring two as before, and
+consequently weaving was more rapid, while no corresponding change had
+been introduced into the process of spinning.
+
+[Illustration: Spinning-Jenny. (Byrn, _Invention in the Nineteenth
+Century_. Published by the Scientific American Company.)]
+
+Indeed, this particular difficulty was so clearly recognized that the
+Royal Society offered a prize for the invention of a machine that
+would spin several threads at the same time.
+
+[Illustration: Arkwright's First Spinning-machine. (Ure: _History of
+the Cotton Manufacture_.)]
+
+No one claimed this reward, but the spirit of invention was
+nevertheless awake, and experiments in more than one mechanical device
+were being made about the middle of the century. The first to be
+brought to actual completion was Hargreaves' spinning-jenny, invented
+in 1764. According to the traditional story James Hargreaves, a small
+master weaver living near Blackburn, on coming suddenly into the house
+caused his wife, who was spinning with the old high wheel, to spring
+up with a start and overset the wheel, which still continued whirling,
+but horizontally, and with its spindle in a vertical position. He was
+at once struck with the idea of using one wheel to cause a number of
+spindles to revolve by means of a continuous band, and by the device
+of substituting for the human hand a pair of bars which could be
+successively separated and closed, and which could be brought closer
+to or removed from the spindles on wheels, to spin several threads at
+the same time. On the basis of this idea and with the help of a
+neighboring mechanic he constructed a machine by which a man could
+spin eight threads at the same time. In honor of his wife he named it
+the "Spinning-jenny." The secret of this device soon came out and
+jennies spinning twenty or thirty or more threads at a time came into
+use here and there through the old spinning districts. At the same
+time a much more effective method was being brought to perfection by
+Richard Arkwright, who followed out some old experiments of Wyatt of
+Northampton. According to this plan the carded material was carried
+through successive pairs of rollers, each pair running more rapidly
+than the previous pair, thus stretching it out, while it was spun
+after leaving the last pair by flyers adapted from the old low or
+treadle spinning-wheel. Arkwright's first patent was taken out in
+1769, and from that time forward he invented, patented, and
+manufactured a series of machines which made possible the spinning of
+a number of threads at the same time very much more rapidly than even
+the spinning-jenny. Great numbers of Arkwright's spinning-machines
+were manufactured and sold by him and his partners. He made others for
+use in cotton mills carried on by himself with various partners in
+different parts of the country. His patent was eventually set aside as
+having been unfairly obtained, and the machines were soon generally
+manufactured and used. Improvements followed. An ingenious weaver
+named Samuel Crompton, perceiving that the roller spinning was more
+rapid but that the jennies would spin the finer thread, combined the
+two devices into one machine, known from its hybrid origin as the
+"mule." This was invented in 1779, and as it was not patented it soon
+came into general use. These inventions in spinning reacted on the
+earlier processes and led to a rapid development of carding and
+combing machines. A carding cylinder had been invented by Paul as far
+back as 1748, and now came into general use, while several
+wool-combing machines were invented in 1792 and 1793.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Richard Arkwright. (Portrait by Wright.)]
+
+So far all these inventions had been in the earlier textile processes.
+Use for the spun thread was found in giving fuller employment to the
+old hand looms, in the stocking manufacture, and for export; but no
+corresponding improvement had taken place in weaving. From 1784 onward
+a clergyman from the south of England, Dr. Edward Cartwright, was
+gradually bringing to perfection a power loom which by the beginning
+of the nineteenth century began to come into general use. The value
+put upon Cartwright's invention may be judged from the fact that
+Parliament voted him a gift of £10,000 in 1809. Arkwright had already
+won a large fortune by his invention, and in 1786 was knighted in
+recognition of his services to the national industry.
+
+[Illustration: Rev. Edmund Cartwright. (Portrait by Robert Fulton.)]
+
+While Cartwright was experimenting on the power loom, an invention was
+made far from England which was in reality an essential part of the
+improvement in the manufacture of cotton goods. This was the American
+cotton gin, for the removal of the seeds from the fibre of the boll,
+invented by Eli Whitney in 1792. Cotton had been introduced into the
+Southern states during the Revolutionary war. Its cultivation and
+export now became profitable, and a source of supply became available
+at the very time that the inventions for its manufacture were being
+perfected.
+
+Spinning-jennies could be used in the household of the weaver; but the
+later spinning-machines were so large and cumbrous that they could not
+be used in a dwelling-house, and required so much power and rapidity
+of motion that human strength was scarcely available. Horse power was
+used to some extent, but water power was soon applied and special
+buildings came to be put up along streams where water power was
+available. The next stage was the application of steam power. Although
+the possibility of using steam for the production of force had long
+been familiar, and indeed used to some extent in the pumping out of
+mines, it did not become available for general uses until the
+improvements of James Watt, patented in 1769 and succeeding years. In
+partnership with a man named Boulton, Watt began the manufacture of
+steam-engines in 1781. In 1785 the first steam-engine was used for
+power in a cotton mill. After that time the use of steam became more
+and more general and by the end of the century steam power was
+evidently superseding water power.
+
+
+*57. The Factory System.*--But other things were needed to make this new
+machinery available. It was much too expensive for the old cottage
+weavers to buy and use. Capital had, therefore, to be brought into
+manufacturing which had been previously used in trade or other
+employments. Capital was in reality abundant relatively to existing
+opportunities for investment, and the early machine spinners and
+weavers drew into partnership moneyed men from the towns who had
+previously no connection with manufacturing. Again, the new industry
+required bodies of laborers working regular hours under the control of
+their employers and in the buildings where the machines were placed
+and the power provided. Such groups of laborers or "mill hands"
+were gradually collected where the new kind of manufacturing was going
+on. Thus factories, in the modern sense, came into existence--a new
+phenomenon in the world.
+
+[Illustration: Mule-spinning in 1835.]
+
+[Illustration: Power-loom Weaving in 1835. (Baines: _History of Cotton
+Manufacture_.)]
+
+These changes in manufacturing and in the organization of labor came
+about earliest in the manufacture of cotton goods, but the new
+machinery and its resulting changes were soon introduced into the
+woollen manufacture, then other textile lines, and ultimately into
+still other branches of manufacturing, such as the production of
+metal, wooden, and leather goods, and, indeed, into nearly all forms
+of production. Manufacturing since the last decades of the eighteenth
+century is therefore usually described as being done by the "factory
+system," as contrasted with the domestic system and the gild system of
+earlier times.
+
+The introduction of the factory system involved many changes: the
+adoption of machinery and artificial power, the use of a vastly
+greater amount of capital, and the collection of scattered laborers
+into great strictly regulated establishments. It was, comparatively
+speaking, sudden, all its main features having been developed within
+the period between 1760 and 1800; and it resulted in the raising of
+many new and difficult social problems. For these reasons the term
+"Industrial Revolution," so generally applied to it, is not an
+exaggerated nor an unsuitable term. Almost all other forms of economic
+occupation have subsequently taken on the main characteristics of the
+factory system, in utilizing improved machinery, in the extensive
+scale on which they are administered, in the use of large capital, and
+in the organization of employees in large bodies. The industrial
+revolution may therefore be regarded as the chief characteristic
+distinguishing this period and the times since from all earlier ages.
+
+[Illustration: A Canal and Factory Town in 1827.]
+
+
+*58. Iron, Coal, and Transportation.*--A vast increase in the production
+of iron and coal was going on concurrently with the rise of the
+factory system. The smelting of iron ore was one of the oldest
+industries of England, but it was a declining rather than an advancing
+industry. This was due to the exhaustion of the woods and forests that
+provided fuel, or to their retention for the future needs of
+ship-building and for pleasure parks. In 1760, however, Mr. Roebuck
+introduced at the Carron iron-works a new kind of blast furnace by
+which iron ore could be smelted with coal as fuel. In 1790 the
+steam-engine was introduced to cause the blast. Production had already
+begun to advance before the latter date, and it now increased by
+thousands of tons a year till far into the present century.
+Improvements were introduced in puddling, rolling, and other processes
+of the manufacture of iron at about the same time. The production of
+coal increased more than proportionately. New devices in mining were
+introduced, such as steam pumps, the custom of supporting the roofs
+of the veins with timber instead of pillars of coal, and Sir Humphry
+Davy's safety lamp of 1815. The smelting of iron and the use of the
+steam-engine made such a demand for coal that capital was applied in
+large quantities to its production, and more than ten million tons a
+year were mined before the century closed.
+
+[Illustration: "The Rocket" Locomotive, 1825. (Smiles: _Life of George
+Stephenson_.)]
+
+Some slight improvements in roads and canals had been made and others
+projected during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; but
+in the last quarter of the century the work of Telford, Macadam, and
+other engineers, and of the private turnpike companies or public
+authorities who engaged them, covered England with good roads. The
+first canal was that from Worsley to Manchester, built by Brindley
+for the duke of Bridgewater in 1761. Within a few years a system of
+canals had been constructed which gave ready transportation for goods
+through all parts of the country. The continuance of this development
+of transportation and its fundamental modification by the introduction
+of railways and steamboats has been one of the most striking
+characteristics of the nineteenth century.
+
+
+*59. The Revival of Enclosures.*--The changes which the latter half of
+the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth brought
+were as profound in the occupation and use of the land as they were in
+the production and transportation of manufactured goods. An
+agricultural revolution was in progress as truly as was the
+industrial.
+
+The improvements in the methods of farming already referred to as
+showing themselves earlier in the century became much more extensive.
+The raising of turnips and other root crops spread from experimental
+to ordinary farms so that a fallow year with no crop at all in the
+ground came to be almost unknown. Clover and artificial grasses for
+hay came to be raised generally, so that the supply of forage for the
+winter was abundant. New breeds of sheep and cattle were obtained by
+careful crossing and plentiful feeding, so that the average size was
+almost doubled, while the meat, and in some cases the wool, was
+improved in quality in even greater proportion. The names of such men
+as Jethro Tull, who introduced the "drill husbandry," Bakewell, the
+great improver of the breeds of cattle, and Arthur Young, the greatest
+agricultural observer and writer of the century, have become almost as
+familiar as those of Crompton, Arkwright, Watt, and other pioneers of
+the factory system. The general improvement in agricultural methods
+was due, not so much to new discoveries or inventions, as it was to
+the large amount of capital which was introduced into their practice.
+Expensive schemes of draining, marling, and other forms of fertilizing
+were carried out, long and careful investigations were entered upon,
+and managers of large farms were trained in special processes by
+landlords and farmers who had the command of large sums of money; and
+with the high prices prevalent they were abundantly remunerated for
+the outlay. Great numbers of "gentlemen farmers," such as Lord
+Townshend, the duke of Bedford, and George III himself, who wrote
+articles for the agricultural papers signed "Farmer George," were
+leaders in this agricultural progress. In 1793 a government Board of
+Agriculture was established, and through the whole latter part of the
+century numerous societies for the encouragement of scientific tillage
+and breeding were organized.
+
+In the early years of the eighteenth century there had been signs of a
+revival of the old process of enclosures, which had been suspended for
+more than a hundred years. This was brought about by private acts of
+Parliament. An act would be passed by Parliament giving legal
+authority to the inhabitants of some parish to throw together the
+scattered strips, and to redivide these and the common meadows and
+pastures in such a way that each person with any claim on the land
+should receive a proportionate share, and should have it separated
+from all others and entirely in his own control. It was the usual
+procedure for the lord of the manor, the rector of the parish, and
+other large landholders and persons of influence to agree on the
+general conditions of enclosure and draw up a bill appointing
+commissioners, and providing for survey, compensation, redistribution,
+and other requirements. They then submitted this bill to Parliament,
+where, unless there was some special reason to the contrary, it was
+passed. Its provisions were then carried out, and although legal and
+parliamentary fees and the expenses of survey and enclosure were
+large, yet as a result each inhabitant who had been able to make out a
+legal claim to any of the land of the parish received either some
+money compensation or a stretch of enclosed land. Such private
+enclosure acts increased slowly in number till about the middle of the
+century, when the increase became much more rapid.
+
+The number of enclosure acts passed by Parliament and the approximate
+extent of land enclosed under their provisions were as follows:--
+
+  1700-1759     244 Enclosure Bills       337,877 Acres
+  1760-1769     385     "      "          704,550   "
+  1770-1779     660     "      "        1,207,800   "
+  1780-1789     246     "      "          450,180   "
+  1790-1799     469     "      "          858,270   "
+  1800-1809     847     "      "        1,550,010   "
+  1810-1819     853     "      "        1,560,990   "
+  1820-1829     205     "      "          375,150   "
+  1830-1839     136     "      "          248,880   "
+  1840-1849      66     "      "          394,747   "
+
+In 1756, 1758, and 1773 general acts were passed encouraging the
+enclosure for common use of open pastures and arable fields, but not
+enclosing or dividing them permanently, and not providing for any
+separate ownership.
+
+In 1801 an act was passed to make simpler and easier the passage of
+private bills for enclosure; and in 1836 another to make possible,
+with the consent of two-thirds of the persons interested, the
+enclosing of certain kinds of common fields even without appealing to
+Parliament in each particular case. Finally, in 1845, the general
+Enclosure Act of that year carried the policy of 1836 further and
+appointed a body of Enclosure Commissioners, to determine on the
+expediency of any proposed enclosure and to attend to carrying it out
+if approved. Six years afterward, however, an amendment was passed
+making it necessary that even after an enclosure had been approved by
+the Commissioners it should go to Parliament for final decision.
+
+By measures such as these the greater part of the lands which had
+remained unenclosed to modern times were transformed into enclosed
+fields for separate cultivation or pasture. This process of enclosure
+was intended to make possible, and no doubt did bring about, much
+improved agriculture. It exerted incidentally a profound effect on the
+rural population. Many persons had habitually used the common pastures
+and open fields for pasture purposes, when they had in reality no
+legal claim whatever to such use. A poor man whose cow, donkey, or
+flock of geese had picked up a precarious livelihood on land of
+undistinguished ownership now found the land all enclosed and his
+immemorial privileges withdrawn without compensation. Naturally there
+was much dissatisfaction. A popular piece of doggerel declared that:--
+
+  "The law locks up the man or woman
+  Who steals the goose from off the common;
+  But leaves the greater villain loose
+  Who steals the common from the goose."
+
+Again, a small holder was frequently given compensation in the form of
+money instead of allotting to him a piece of land which was considered
+by the commissioners too small for effective use. The money was soon
+spent, whereas his former claim on the land had lasted because it
+could not readily be alienated.
+
+A more important effect, however, was the introduction on these
+enclosed lands of a kind of agriculture which the small landholder was
+ill fitted to follow. Improved cultivation, a careful rotation of
+crops, better fertilizers, drainage, farm stock, and labor were the
+characteristics of the new farming, and these were ordinarily
+practicable only to the man who had some capital, knowledge, and
+enterprise. Therefore, coincidently with the enclosures began a
+process by which the smaller tenants began to give up their holdings
+to men who could pay more rent for them by consolidating them into
+larger farms. The freeholders also who owned small farms from time to
+time sold them to neighboring landowners when difficulties forced them
+or high prices furnished inducements.
+
+
+*60. Decay of Domestic Manufacture.*--This process would have been a
+much slower one but for the contemporaneous changes that were going on
+in manufacturing. As has been seen, many small farmers in the rural
+districts made part of their livelihood by weaving or other domestic
+manufacture, or, as more properly described, the domestic
+manufacturers frequently eked out their resources by carrying on some
+farming. But the invention of machinery for spinning not only created
+a new industry, but destroyed the old. Cotton thread could be produced
+vastly more cheaply by machinery. In 1786 a certain quantity of a
+certain grade of spun yarn was worth 38 shillings; ten years later, in
+1796, it was worth only 19 shillings; in 1806 it was worth but 7
+shillings 2 pence, and so on down till, in 1832, it was worth but 3
+shillings. Part of this reduction in price was due to the decrease in
+the cost of raw cotton, but far the most of it to the cheapening of
+spinning.
+
+It was the same a few years later with weaving. Hand-loom weavers in
+Bolton, who received 25 shillings a week as wages in 1800, received
+only 19 shillings and 6 pence in 1810, 9 shillings in 1820, and 5
+shillings 6 pence in 1830. Hand work in other lines of manufacture
+showed the same results. Against such reductions in wages resistance
+was hopeless. Hand work evidently could not compete with machine work.
+No amount of skill or industry or determination could enable the hand
+workers to make their living in the same way as of old. As a matter of
+fact, a long, sad, desperate struggle was kept up by a whole
+generation of hand laborers, especially by the hand-loom weavers, but
+the result was inevitable.
+
+The rural domestic manufacturers were, as a matter of fact, devoting
+themselves to two inferior forms of industry. As far as they were
+handicraftsmen, they were competing with a vastly cheaper and better
+form of manufacture; as far as they were farmers, they were doing the
+same thing with regard to agriculture. Under these circumstances some
+of them gave up their holdings of land and drifted away to the towns
+to keep up the struggle a little longer as hand-loom weavers, and then
+to become laborers in the factories; others gave up their looms and
+devoted themselves entirely to farming for a while, but eventually
+sold their holdings or gave up their leases, and dropped into the
+class of agricultural laborers. The result was the same in either
+case. The small farms were consolidated, the class of yeomanry or
+small farmers died out, and household manufacture gave place to that
+of the factory. Before the end of the century the average size of
+English farms was computed at three hundred acres, and soon afterward
+domestic spinning and weaving were almost unknown.
+
+There was considerable shifting of population. Certain parts of the
+country which had been quite thickly populated with small farmers or
+domestic manufacturers now lost the greater part of their occupants by
+migration to the newer manufacturing districts or to America. As in
+the sixteenth century, some villages disappeared entirely. Goldsmith
+in the _Deserted Village_ described changes that really occurred,
+however opposed to the facts may have been his description of the
+earlier idyllic life whose destruction he deplored.
+
+The existence of unenclosed commons and common fields had been
+accompanied by very poor farming, very thriftless and shiftless
+habits. The improvement of agriculture, the application of capital to
+that occupation, the disappearance of the domestic system of industry,
+and other changes made the enclosure of common land and the
+accompanying changes inevitable. None the less it was a relatively
+sudden and complete interference with the established character of
+rural life, and not only was the process accompanied with much
+suffering, but the form which took its place was marked by some
+serious disadvantages. This form was brought about through the rapid
+culmination of old familiar tendencies. The classes connected with the
+land came to be quite clearly distinguished into three groups: the
+landlords, the tenant farmers, and the farm laborers. The landlord
+class was a comparatively small body of nobility and gentry, a few
+thousand persons, who owned by far the greater portion of the land of
+the country. Their estates were for the most part divided up into
+farms, to the keeping of which in productive condition they
+contributed the greater part of the expense, to the administration of
+which trained stewards applied themselves, and in the improvement of
+which their owners often took a keen and enlightened interest. They
+received high rents, possessed unlimited local influence, and were the
+favored governing class of the country. The class of farmers were men
+of some capital, and frequently of intelligence and enterprise, though
+rarely of education, who held on lease from the landlords farms of
+some one, two, or three or more hundred acres, paying relatively large
+rents, and yet by the excellence of their farming making for
+themselves a liberal income. The farm laborers were the residuum of
+the changes which have been traced in the history of landholding; a
+large class living for the most part miserably in cottages grouped in
+villages, holding no land, and receiving day wages for working on the
+farms just described.
+
+Notwithstanding the improvements in agriculture and the increase in
+the extent of cultivated land, England ceased within the eighteenth
+century to be a self-supporting country in food products. The form
+which the "corn laws" had taken in 1689 had been as follows: the
+raising of wheat was encouraged by prohibiting its importation and
+paying a bounty of about eightpence a bushel for its exportation so
+long as the prevailing price was less than six shillings a bushel.
+When it was between six shillings and six shillings eightpence a
+bushel its importation was forbidden, but there was no bounty paid for
+exportation. Between the last price and ten shillings a bushel it
+could be imported by paying a duty of a shilling a bushel. Above the
+last price it could be imported free. Nevertheless, during the latter
+half of the eighteenth century it became evident that there was no
+longer a sufficient amount of wheat raised for the needs of the
+English people. Between 1770 and 1790 exports and imports about
+balanced one another, but after the latter year the imports always
+exceeded the exports.
+
+This was of course due to the great increase of population and to its
+employment in the field of manufactures. The population in England in
+1700 was about five millions, in 1750 about six millions and a half,
+in 1800 about nine millions, and in 1850 about eighteen millions. That
+is to say, its progress was slow during the first half of the
+eighteenth century, more rapid during the latter half, and vastly more
+rapid during the nineteenth century.
+
+
+*61. The Laissez-faire Theory.*--A scarcely less complete change than
+that which had occurred in manufactures, in agriculture, and in social
+life as based upon these, was that which was in progress at the same
+time in the realm of ideas, especially as applied to questions of
+economic and social life. The complete acceptance of the view that it
+was a natural and desirable part of the work of government to regulate
+the economic life of the people had persisted well past the middle of
+the eighteenth century. But very different tendencies of thought arose
+in the latter part of the century. One of these was the prevailing
+desire for greater liberty. The word liberty was defined differently
+by different men, but for all alike it meant a resistance to
+oppression, a revulsion against interference with personal freedom of
+action, a disinclination to be controlled any more than absolutely
+necessary, a belief that men had a right to be left free to do as they
+chose, so far as such freedom was practicable.
+
+As applied to economic interests this liberty meant freedom for each
+person to make his living in the way he might see fit, and without any
+external restriction. Adam Smith says: "The patrimony of a poor man
+lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands; and to hinder him
+from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks
+proper, without injury to his neighbor, is a plain violation of this
+most sacred property. It is a manifest encroachment upon the just
+liberty both of the workman and of those who might be disposed to
+employ him. As it hinders the one from working at what he thinks
+proper, so it hinders the other from employing whom they think
+proper." Government regulation, therefore, in as far as it restricted
+men's freedom of action in working, employing, buying, selling, etc.,
+was an interference with their natural liberty.
+
+A second influence in the same direction was the prevalent belief that
+most of the evils that existed in society were due to the mistakes of
+civilization, that if men could get back to a "state of nature" and
+start again, things might be much better. It was felt that there was
+too much artificiality, too much interference with natural
+development. Arthur Young condemned the prevailing policy of
+government, "because it consists of prohibiting the natural course of
+things. All restrictive forcible measures in domestic policy are bad."
+Regulation was unwise because it forced men's actions into artificial
+lines when it would have been much better to let them follow natural
+lines. Therefore it was felt not only that men had a right to carry on
+their economic affairs as they chose, but that it was wise to allow
+them to do so, because interference or regulation had been tried and
+found wanting. It had produced evil rather than good.
+
+A third and by far the most important intellectual influence which
+tended toward the destruction of the system of regulation was the
+development of a consistent body of economic teaching, which claimed
+to have discovered natural laws showing the futility and injuriousness
+of any such attempts. Adam Smith's _Wealth of Nations_ was published
+in 1776, the year of the invention of Crompton's mule, and in the
+decade when enclosures were more rapid than at any other time, except
+in the middle years of the Napoleonic wars. This was, therefore, one
+of the earliest, as it was far the most influential, of a series of
+books which represent the changes in ideas correlative to the changes
+in actual life already described. It has been described as having for
+its main object "to demonstrate that the most effectual plan for
+advancing a people to greatness is to maintain that order of things
+which nature has pointed out, by allowing every man, as long as he
+observes the rules of justice, to pursue his own interests in his own
+way, and to bring both his industry and his capital into the freest
+competition with those of his fellow-citizens." But the most distinct
+influence exercised by the writings of Adam Smith and his successors
+was not so much in pointing out that it was unjust or unwise to
+interfere with men's natural liberty in the pursuit of their
+interests, as in showing, as it was believed, that there were natural
+laws which made all interference incapable of reaching the ends it
+aimed at. A series of works were published in the latter years of the
+eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth century by Malthus,
+Ricardo, Macculloch, James Mill, and others, in which principles were
+enunciated and laws formulated which were believed to explain why all
+interference with free competition was useless or worse. Not only was
+the whole subject of economic relations clarified, much that had been
+regarded as wise brought into doubt, and much that had been only
+doubted shown to be absurd, but the attainment of many objects
+previously sought for was, apparently, shown to be impossible, and to
+lie outside of the realm of human control.
+
+It was pointed out, for instance, that because of the limited amount
+of capital in existence at any one time, "a demand for commodities is
+not a demand for labor;" and therefore a law like that which required
+burial in a woollen shroud did not give added occupation to the
+people, but only diverted them from one occupation to another. Ricardo
+developed a law of wages to the effect that they always tend to the
+amount "necessary to enable the laborer to subsist, and to perpetuate
+his race without either increase or diminution," and that any
+artificial raising or lowering of wages is impossible, or else causes
+an increase or diminution in their number which, through competition,
+soon brings back the old rate. Rent was also explained by Ricardo as
+arising from the differences of quality between different pieces of
+land, and as measured by the difference in the productivity of the
+land under consideration and that of the poorest land under
+cultivation at the time; and therefore being in its amount independent
+of direct human control. The Malthusian law of population showed that
+population tended to increase in a geometrical ratio, subsistence for
+the population, on the other hand, only in an arithmetical ratio, and
+that poverty was, therefore, the natural and inevitable result in old
+countries of a pressure of population on subsistence. The sanction of
+science was thus given alike to the desires of the lovers of freedom
+and to the regrets of those who deplored man's departure from the
+state of nature.
+
+All these intellectual tendencies and reasonings of the later
+eighteenth century, therefore, combined to discredit the minute
+regulation of economic society, which had been the traditional policy
+of the immediately preceding centuries. The movement of thought was
+definitely opposed to the continuance or extension of the supervision
+of the government over matters of labor, wages, hours, industry,
+commerce, agriculture, or other phenomena of production, distribution,
+exchange, or consumption. This set of opinions is known as the
+_laissez-faire_ theory of the functions of government, the view that
+the duties of government should be reduced to the smallest possible
+number, and that it should keep out of the economic sphere altogether.
+Adam Smith would have restricted the functions of government to three:
+to protect the nation from the attacks of other nations, to protect
+each person in the nation from the injustice or violence of other
+individuals, and to carry on certain educational or similar
+institutions which were of general utility, but not to any one's
+private interest. Many of his successors would have cut off the last
+duty altogether.
+
+
+*62. Cessation of Government Regulation*--These theoretical opinions
+came to be more and more widely held, more and more influential over
+the most thoughtful of English statesmen and other men of prominence,
+until within the first half of the nineteenth century it may be said
+that their acceptance was general and their influence dominant. They
+fell in with the actual tendencies of the times, and as a result of
+the natural breaking down of old conditions, the rise of new, and the
+general acceptance of this attitude of _laissez-faire_, a rapid and
+general decay of the system of government regulation took place.
+
+The old regulation had never been so complete in reality as it was on
+the statute book, and much of it had died out of itself. Some of the
+provisions of the Statute of Apprentices were persistently
+disregarded, and when appeals were made for its application to farm
+work in the latter part of the eighteenth century Parliament refused
+to enforce it, as they did in the case of discharged soldiers in 1726
+and of certain dyers in 1777. The assize of bread was very irregularly
+enforced, and that of other victuals had been given up altogether.
+Many commercial companies were growing up without regulation by
+government, and in the world of finance the hand of government was
+very light. The new manufactures and the new agriculture grew up to a
+large extent apart from government control or influence; while the
+forms to which the old regulation did apply were dying out. In the new
+factory industry practically the whole body of the employees were
+without the qualifications required by the Statute of Apprentices, as
+well as many of the hand-loom weavers who were drawn into the industry
+by the abundance and cheapness of machine-spun thread. In the early
+years of the nineteenth century a strenuous effort was made by the
+older weavers to have the law enforced against them. The whole matter
+was investigated by Parliament, but instead of enforcing the old law
+they modified it by acts passed in 1803 and 1809, so as to allow of
+greater liberty. The old prohibition of using fulling mills passed in
+1553 was also repealed in 1809. The Statute of Apprentices after being
+weakened piecemeal as just mentioned, and by a further amendment
+removing the wages clauses in 1813, and after being referred to by
+Lord Mansfield as "against the natural rights and contrary to the
+common law rights of the land," was finally removed from the statute
+book in 1814. Even the "Combination Acts," which had forbidden
+laborers to unite to settle wages and hours, were repealed in 1824.
+Similar changes took place in other fields than those of the relations
+between employers and employees. The leading characteristics of
+legislation on questions of commerce, manufactures, and agriculture
+during the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half
+of the nineteenth consist in the fact that it almost wholly tended
+toward freedom from government control. The proportions in which the
+influence of the natural breaking down of an outgrown system, of the
+new conditions which were arising, and of pure theory were combined
+cannot of course be distinguished. All were present. Besides this
+there is always a large number of persons in the community who would
+be primarily benefited by a change, and who therefore take the
+initiative or exercise a special pressure in favor of it.
+
+The Navigation Acts began to go to pieces in 1796, when the old rule
+restricting importations from America, Asia, and Africa to British
+vessels was withdrawn in favor of the United States; in 1811 the same
+permission to send goods to England in other than British vessels was
+given to Brazil, and in 1822 to the Spanish-American countries. The
+whole subject was investigated by a Parliamentary Commission in 1820,
+at the request of the London Chamber of Commerce, and a policy of
+withdrawal from control determined upon. In 1823 a measure was passed
+by which the crown was empowered to form reciprocity treaties with any
+other country so far as shipping was concerned, and agreements were
+immediately entered into with Prussia, Denmark, Hamburg, Sweden, and
+within the next twenty years with most other important countries. The
+old laws of 1660 were repealed in 1826, and a freer system
+substituted, while in 1849 the Navigation Acts were abolished
+altogether. In the meantime the monopoly of the old regulated
+companies was being withdrawn, the India trade being thrown open in
+1813 and given up entirely by the Company in 1833. Gradually the
+commerce of England and of all the English colonies was opened equally
+to the vessels of all nations.
+
+A beginning of removal of the import and export duties, which had been
+laid for the purpose of encouraging or discouraging or otherwise
+influencing certain lines of production or trade, was made in a
+commercial treaty entered into by Pitt with France in 1786. The work
+was seriously taken up again in 1824 and 1825 by Mr. Huskisson, and in
+1842 by Sir Robert Peel. In 1845 the duty was removed from four
+hundred and thirty articles, partly raw materials, partly
+manufactures. But the most serious struggle in the movement for free
+trade was that for the repeal of the corn laws. A new law had been
+passed at the close of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, by which the
+importation of wheat was forbidden so long as the prevailing price was
+not above ten shillings a bushel. This was in pursuance of the old
+traditional policy of encouraging the production of grain in order
+that England might be at least partially self-supporting, and was
+further justified on the ground that the landowners paid the great
+bulk of the taxes, which they could not do if the price of grain were
+allowed to be brought down by foreign competition. Nevertheless an
+active propaganda for the abolition of this law was begun by the
+formation of the "Anti-Corn Law League," in 1839. Richard Cobden
+became the president and the most famous representative of this
+society, which carried on an active agitation for some years. The
+chief interest in the abolition of the law would necessarily be taken
+by the manufacturing employers, the wages of whose employees could
+thus be made lower and more constant, but there were abundant other
+arguments against the laws, and their abandonment was entirely in
+conformity with the spirit of the age. At the close of 1845,
+therefore, Peel proposed their repeal, the matter was brought up in
+Parliament in the early months of 1846, and a sliding scale was
+adopted by which a slight temporary protection should continue until
+1849, when any protective tariff on wheat was to cease altogether,
+though a nominal duty of about one and a half pence a bushel was still
+to be collected. This is known as the "adoption of free trade."
+
+It remains to be noted in this connection that "free trade in land"
+was an expression often used during the same period, and consisted in
+an effort marked by a long series of acts of Parliament and
+regulations of the courts to simplify the title to land, the processes
+of buying and selling it, and in other ways making its use and
+disposal as simple and uncontrolled by external regulation as was
+commerce or any form of industry.
+
+Thus the structure of regulation of industry, which had been built up
+in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or which had survived from
+the Middle Ages, was now torn down; the use of the powers of
+government to make men carry on their economic life in a certain way,
+to buy and sell, labor and hire, manufacture and cultivate, export and
+import, only in such ways as were thought to be best for the nation,
+seemed to be entirely abandoned. The _laissez-faire_ view of
+government was to all appearances becoming entirely dominant.
+
+
+*63. Individualism.*--But the prevailing tendencies of thought and the
+economic teaching of the period were not merely negative and opposed
+to government regulation; they contained a positive element also. If
+there was to be no external control, what incentive would actuate men
+in their industrial existence? What force would hold economic society
+together? The answer was a plain one. Enlightened self-interest was
+the incentive, universal free competition was the force. James
+Anderson, in his _Political Economy_, published in 1801, says,
+"Private interest is the great source of public good, which, though
+operating unseen, never ceases one moment to act with unabating power,
+if it be not perverted by the futile regulations of some short-sighted
+politician." Again, Malthus, in his _Essay on Population_, in 1817,
+says: "By making the passion of self-love beyond comparison stronger
+than the passion of benevolence, the more ignorant are led to pursue
+the general happiness, an end which they would have totally failed to
+attain if the moving principle of their conduct had been benevolence.
+Benevolence, indeed, as the great and constant source of action, would
+require the most perfect knowledge of causes and effects, and
+therefore can only be the attribute of the Deity. In a being so
+short-sighted as man it would lead to the grossest errors, and soon
+transform the fair and cultivated soil of human society into a dreary
+scene of want and confusion."
+
+In other words, a natural and sufficient economic force was always
+tending to act and to produce the best results, except in as far as it
+was interfered with by external regulation. If a man wishes to earn
+wages, to receive payment, he must observe what work another man wants
+done, or what goods another man desires, and offer to do that work or
+furnish those goods, so that the other man may be willing to
+remunerate him. In this way both obtain what they want, and if all
+others are similarly occupied all wants will be satisfied so far as
+practicable. But men must be entirely free to act as they think best,
+to choose what and when and how they will produce. The best results
+will be obtained where the greatest freedom exists, where men may
+compete with one another freed from all trammels, at liberty to pay or
+ask such wages, to demand or offer such prices, to accept or reject
+such goods, as they wish or can agree upon. If everybody else is
+equally free the man who offers the best to his neighbor will be
+preferred. Effort will thus be stimulated, self-reliance encouraged,
+production increased, improvement attained, and economy guaranteed.
+Nor should there be any special favor or encouragement given by
+government or by any other bodies to any special individuals or
+classes of persons or kinds of industry, for in this way capital and
+labor will be diverted from the direction which they would naturally
+take, and the self-reliance and energy of such favored persons
+diminished.
+
+Therefore complete individualism, universal freedom of competition,
+was the ideal of the age, as far as there is ever any universal ideal.
+There certainly was a general belief among the greater number of the
+intelligent and influential classes, that when each person was freely
+seeking his own best interest he was doing the best for himself and
+for all. Economic society was conceived of as a number of freely
+competing units held in equilibrium by the force of competition, much
+as the material universe is held together by the attraction of
+gravitation. Any hindrance to this freedom of the individual to
+compete freely with all others, any artificial support or
+encouragement that gives him an advantage over others, is against his
+own real interest and that of society.
+
+This ideal was necessarily as much opposed to voluntary combinations,
+and to restrictions imposed by custom or agreement, as it was to
+government regulation. Individualism is much more than a mere
+_laissez-faire_ policy of government. It believes that every man
+should remain and be allowed to remain free, unrestricted, undirected,
+unassisted, so that he may be in a position at any time to direct his
+labor, ability, capital, enterprise, in any direction that may seem to
+him most desirable, and may be induced to put forth his best efforts
+to attain success. The arguments on which it was based were drawn from
+the domain of men's natural right to economic as to other freedom;
+from experience, by which it was believed that all regulation had
+proved to be injurious; and from economic doctrine, which was believed
+to have discovered natural laws that proved the necessary result of
+interference to be evil, or at best futile.
+
+The changes of the time were favorable to this ideal. Men had never
+been so free from external control by government or any other power.
+The completion of the process of enclosure left every agriculturist at
+liberty to plant and raise what he chose, and when and how he chose.
+The reform of the poor law in 1834 abolished the act of settlement of
+1662, by which the authorities of each parish had the power to remove
+to the place from which they came any laborers who entered it, and so
+far as the law was concerned, farm laborers were now free to come and
+go where they chose to seek for work. In the new factories, systems of
+transportation, and other large establishments that were taking the
+places of small ones, employees were at liberty to leave their
+engagements at any time they chose, to go to another employer or
+another occupation; and the employer had the same liberty of
+discharging at a moment's notice. Manufacturers were at liberty to
+make anything they chose, and hire laborers in whatever proportion
+they chose. And just as early modern regulation had been given up, so
+the few fragments of mediæval restrictive institutions that had
+survived the intervening centuries were now rapidly abandoned in the
+stress of competitive society. Later forms of restriction, such as
+trade unions and trusts, had not yet grown up. Actual conditions and
+the theoretical statement of what was desirable approximated to one
+another more nearly than they usually have in the world's history.
+
+
+*64. Social Conditions at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century.*--Yet
+somehow the results were disappointing. More and better manufactured
+goods were produced and foreign goods sold, and at vastly lower
+prices. The same result would probably have been true in agriculture
+had not the corn laws long prevented this consummation, and instead
+distributed the surplus to paupers and the holders of government bonds
+through the medium of taxes. There was no doubt of English wealth and
+progress. England held the primacy of the world in commerce, in
+manufactures, in agriculture. Her rapid increase in wealth had enabled
+her to bear the burden, not only of her own part in the Napoleonic
+wars, but of much of the expense of the armament of the continental
+countries. Population also was increasing more rapidly than ever
+before. She stood before the world as the most prominent and
+successful modern nation in all material respects. Yet a closer
+examination into her internal condition shows much that was deeply
+unsatisfactory. The period of transition from the domestic to the
+factory system of industry and from the older to the new farming
+conditions was one of almost unrelieved misery to great masses of
+those who were wedded to the old ways, who had neither the capital,
+the enterprise, nor the physical nor mental adaptability to attach
+themselves to the new. The hand-loom weavers kept up a hopeless
+struggle in the garrets and cellars of the factory towns, while their
+wages were sinking lower and lower till finally the whole generation
+died out. The small farmers who lost the support of spinning and other
+by-industries succumbed in the competition with the larger producers.
+The cottagers whose commons were lost to them by enclosures frequently
+failed to find a niche for themselves in their own part of the
+country, and became paupers or vagabonds. Many of the same sad
+incidents which marked the sixteenth century were characteristic of
+this period of analogous change, when ultimate improvement was being
+bought at the price of much immediate misery.
+
+[Illustration: Carding, Drawing, and Roving in 1835. (Baines: _History
+of Cotton Manufacture_.)]
+
+Even among those who were supposed to have reaped the advantages of
+the changes of the time many unpleasant phenomena appeared. The farm
+laborers were not worse, perhaps were better off on the average, in
+the matter of wages, than those of the previous generation, but they
+were more completely separated from the land than they had ever been
+before, more completely deprived of those wholesome influences which
+come from the use of even a small portion of land, and of the
+incitement to thrift that comes from the possibility of rising. Few
+classes of people have ever been more utterly without enjoyment or
+prospects than the modern English farm laborers. And one class, the
+yeomen, somewhat higher in position and certainly in opportunities,
+had disappeared entirely, recruited into the class of mere laborers.
+
+In the early factories, women and children were employed more
+extensively and more persistently than in earlier forms of industry.
+Their labor was in greater demand than that of men. In 1839, of 31,632
+employees in worsted mills, 18,416, or considerably more than half,
+were under eighteen years of age, and of the 13,216 adults, 10,192
+were women, leaving only 3024 adult men among more than 30,000
+laborers. In 1832, in a certain flax spinning mill near Leeds, where
+about 1200 employees were engaged, 829 were below eighteen, only 390
+above; and in the flax spinning industry generally, in 1835, only
+about one-third were adults, and only about one-third of these were
+men. In the still earlier years of the factory system the proportion
+of women and children was even greater, though reliable general
+statistics are not available. The cheaper wages, the easier control,
+and the smaller size of women and children, now that actual physical
+power was not required, made them more desirable to employers, and in
+many families the men clung to hand work while the women and children
+went into the factories.
+
+The early mills were small, hot, damp, dusty, and unhealthy. They were
+not more so perhaps than the cottages where domestic industry had been
+carried on; but now the hours were more regular, continuous, and
+prolonged in which men, women, and children were subjected to such
+labor. All had to conform alike to the regular hours, and these were
+in the early days excessive. Twelve, thirteen, and even fourteen hours
+a day were not unusual. Regular hours of work, when they are moderate
+in length, and a systematized life, when it is not all labor, are
+probably wholesome, physically and morally; but when the summons to
+cease from work and that to begin it again are separated by such a
+short interval, the factory bell or whistle represents mere tyranny.
+
+Wages were sometimes higher than under the old conditions, but they
+were even more irregular. Greater ups and downs occurred. Periods of
+very active production and of restriction of production alternated
+more decidedly than before, and introduced more irregularity into
+industry for both employers and employees. The town laborer engaged in
+a large establishment was, like the rural laborer on a large farm,
+completely separated from the land, from capital, from any active
+connection with the administration of industry, from any probable
+opportunity of rising out of the laboring class. His prospects were,
+therefore, as limited as his position was laborious and precarious.
+
+The rapid growth of the manufacturing towns, especially in the north,
+drawing the scattered population of other parts of the country into
+their narrow limits, caused a general breakdown in the old
+arrangements for providing water, drainage, and fresh air; and made
+rents high, and consequently living in crowded rooms necessary. The
+factory towns in the early part of the century were filthy, crowded,
+and demoralizing, compared alike with their earlier and their present
+condition.
+
+[Illustration: Cotton Factories in Manchester. (Baines: _History of
+Cotton Manufacture_.)]
+
+In the higher grades of economic society the advantages of the recent
+changes were more distinct, the disadvantages less so. The rise of
+capital and business enterprise into greater importance, and the
+extension of the field of competition, gave greater opportunity to
+employing farmers, merchants, and manufacturers, as well as to the
+capitalists pure and simple. But even for them the keenness of
+competition and the exigencies of providing for the varying
+conditions of distant markets made the struggle for success a harder
+one, and many failed in it.
+
+In many ways therefore it might seem that the great material advances
+which had been made, the removal of artificial restrictions, the
+increase of liberty of action, the extension of the field of
+competition, the more enlightened opinions on economic and social
+relations, had failed to increase human happiness appreciably; indeed,
+for a time had made the condition of the mass of the people worse
+instead of better.
+
+It will not, therefore, be unexpected if some other lines of economic
+and social development, especially those which have become more and
+more prominent during the later progress of the nineteenth century,
+prove to be quite different in direction from those that have been
+studied in this chapter.
+
+
+*65. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Toynbee, Arnold: _The Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century
+in England_.
+
+Lecky, W. E. H.: _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_, Vol.
+VI, Chap. 23.
+
+Baines, E.: _History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain_.
+
+Cooke-Taylor, R. W.: _The Modern Factory System_.
+
+Levi, L.: _History of British Commerce and of the Economic Progress of
+the British Nation_.
+
+Prothero, R. E.: _The Pioneers and Progress of English Farming_.
+
+Rogers, J. E. T.: _Industrial and Commercial History_.
+
+Smith, Adam: _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
+Nations_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE EXTENSION OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL
+
+Factory Laws, The Modification Of Land Ownership, Sanitary
+Regulations, And New Public Services
+
+
+*66. National Affairs from 1830 to 1900.*--The English government in the
+year 1830 might be described as a complete aristocracy. The king had
+practically no powers apart from his ministers, and they were merely
+the representatives of the majority in Parliament. Parliament
+consisted of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The first of
+these Houses was made up for the most part of an hereditary
+aristocracy. The bishops and newly created peers, the only element
+which did not come in by inheritance, were appointed by the king and
+usually from the families of those who already possessed inherited
+titles. The House of Commons had originally been made up of two
+members from each county, and two from each important town. But the
+list of represented towns was still practically the same as it had
+been in the fifteenth century, while intervening economic and other
+changes had, as has been seen, made the most complete alteration in
+the distribution of population. Great manufacturing towns had grown up
+as a result of changes in commerce and of the industrial revolution,
+and these had no representation in Parliament separate from the
+counties in which they lay. On the other hand, towns once of
+respectable size had dwindled until they had only a few dozen
+inhabitants, and in some cases had reverted to open farming country;
+but these, or the landlords who owned the land on which they had been
+built, still retained their two representatives in Parliament. The
+county representatives were voted for by all "forty shilling
+freeholders," that is, landowners whose farms would rent for forty
+shillings a year. But the whole tendency of English landholding, as
+has been seen, had been to decrease the number of landowners in the
+country, so that the actual number of voters was only a very small
+proportion of the rural population.
+
+Such great irregularities of representation had thus grown up that the
+selection of more than a majority of the members of the House of
+Commons was in the hands of a very small number of men, many of them
+already members of the House of Lords, and all members of the
+aristocracy.
+
+Just as Parliament represented only the higher classes, so officers in
+the army and to a somewhat less extent the navy, the officials of the
+established church, the magistrates in the counties, the ambassadors
+abroad, and the cabinet ministers at home, the holders of influential
+positions in the Universities and endowed institutions generally, were
+as a regular thing members of the small class of the landed or
+mercantile aristocracy of England. Perhaps one hundred thousand out of
+the fourteen millions of the people of England were the veritable
+governing classes. They alone had any control of the national and
+local government, or of the most important political and social
+institutions.
+
+The "Reform of Parliament," which meant some degree of equalization of
+the representation of districts, an extension of the franchise, and
+the abolition of some of the irregularities in elections, had been
+proposed from time to time, but had awakened little interest until it
+was advocated by the Radicals under the influence of the French
+Revolution, along with some much more far-reaching propositions.
+Between the years 1820 and 1830, however, a moderate reform of
+Parliament had been advocated by the leaders of the Whig party. In
+1830 this party rather unexpectedly obtained a majority in Parliament,
+for the first time for a long while, and the ministry immediately
+introduced a reform bill. It proposed to take away the right of
+separate representation from fifty-six towns, and to reduce the number
+of representatives from two to one in thirty-one others; to transfer
+these representatives to the more populous towns and counties; to
+extend the franchise to a somewhat larger number and to equalize it;
+and finally to introduce lists of voters, to keep the polls open for
+only two days, and to correct a number of such minor abuses. There was
+a bitter contest in Parliament and in the country at large on the
+proposed change, and the measure was only carried after it had been
+rejected by one House of Commons, passed by a new House elected as a
+test of the question, then defeated by the House of Lords, and only
+passed by them when submitted a second time with the threat by the
+ministry of requiring the king to create enough new peers to pass it,
+if the existing members refused to do so. Its passage was finally
+secured in 1832. It was carried by pressure from below through all its
+stages. The king signed it reluctantly because it had been sent to him
+by Parliament, the House of Lords passed it under threats from the
+ministry, who based their power on the House of Commons. This body in
+turn had to be reconstructed by a new election before it would agree
+to it, and there is no doubt that the voters as well as Parliament
+itself were much influenced by the cry of "the Bill, the whole Bill,
+and nothing but the Bill," raised by mobs, associations, and meetings,
+consisting largely of the masses of the people who possessed no votes
+at all. In the last resort, therefore, it was a victory won by the
+masses, and, little as they profited by it immediately, it proved to
+be the turning point, the first step from aristocracy toward
+democracy.
+
+In 1867 a second Reform Bill was passed, mainly on the lines of the
+first, but giving what amounted to almost universal suffrage to the
+inhabitants of the town constituencies, which included the great body
+of the workingmen. Finally, in 1884 and 1885, the third Reform Bill
+was passed which extended the right of voting to agricultural laborers
+as well, and did much toward equalizing the size of the districts
+represented by each member of the House of Commons. Other reforms have
+been adopted during the same period, and Parliament has thus come to
+represent the whole population instead of merely the aristocracy. But
+there have been even greater changes in local government. By laws
+passed in 1835 and 1882 the cities and boroughs have been given a form
+of government in which the power is in the hands of all the taxpayers.
+In 1888 an act was passed through Parliament forming County Councils,
+elected by universal suffrage and taking over many of the powers
+formerly exercised by the magistrates and large landholders. In 1894
+this was followed by a Parish Council Bill creating even more
+distinctly local bodies, by which the people in each locality, elected
+by universal suffrage, including that of women, may take charge of
+almost all their local concerns under the general legislation of
+Parliament.
+
+Corresponding to these changes in general and local government the
+power of the old ruling classes has been diminished in all directions,
+until it has become little more than that degree of prominence and
+natural leadership which the national sentiment or their economic and
+intellectual advantages give to them. It may be said that England, so
+far as its government goes, has come nearer to complete democracy than
+any other modern country.
+
+In the rapidity of movement, the activity, the energy, the variety of
+interests, the thousand lines of economic, political, intellectual,
+literary, artistic, philanthropic, or religious life which
+characterize the closing years of the nineteenth century, it seems
+impossible to choose a few facts to typify or describe the period, as
+is customary for earlier times.
+
+Little can be done except to point out the main lines of political
+movement, as has been done in this paragraph, or of economic and
+social development, as will be done in the remaining paragraphs of
+this and the next chapter. The great mass of recent occurrences and
+present conditions are as yet rather the human atmosphere in which we
+are living, the problem which we are engaged in solving, than a proper
+subject for historical description and analysis.
+
+[Illustration: Distribution of Population in England and Wales 1891.
+Engraved By Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
+
+
+*67. The Beginning of Factory Legislation.*--One of the greatest
+difficulties with which the early mill owners had to contend was the
+insufficient supply of labor for their factories. Since these had to
+be run by water power, they were placed along the rapid streams in the
+remote parts of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire,
+which were sparsely populated, and where such inhabitants as there
+were had a strong objection to working in factories. However abundant
+population might be in some other parts of England, in the northwest
+where the new manufacturing was growing up, and especially in the
+hilly rural districts, there were but few persons available to perform
+the work which must be done by human hands in connection with the mill
+machinery. There was, however, in existence a source of supply of
+laborers which could furnish almost unlimited numbers and at the
+lowest possible cost. The parish poorhouses or workhouses of the large
+cities were overcrowded with children. The authorities always had
+difficulty in finding occupation for them when they came to an age
+when they could earn their own living, and any plan of putting them to
+work would be received with welcome. This source of supply was early
+discovered and utilized by the manufacturers, and it soon became
+customary for them to take as apprentices large numbers of the
+poorhouse children. They signed indentures with the overseers of the
+poor by which they agreed to give board, clothing, and instruction for
+a certain number of years to the children who were thus bound to them.
+In return they put them to work in the factories. Children from seven
+years of age upward were engaged by hundreds from London and the other
+large cities, and set to work in the cotton spinning factories of the
+north. Since there were no other facilities for boarding them,
+"apprentice houses" were built for them in the vicinity of the
+factories, where they were placed under the care of superintendents or
+matrons. The conditions of life among these pauper children were, as
+might be expected, very hard. They were remotely situated, apart from
+the observation of the community, left to the burdens of unrelieved
+labor and the harshness of small masters or foremen. Their hours of
+labor were excessive. When the demands of trade were active they were
+often arranged in two shifts, each shift working twelve hours, one in
+the day and another in the night, so that it was a common saying in
+the north that "their beds never got cold," one set climbing into bed
+as the other got out. When there was no night work the day work was
+the longer. They were driven at their work and often abused. Their
+food was of the coarsest description, and they were frequently
+required to eat it while at their work, snatching a bite as they could
+while the machinery was still in motion. Much of the time which
+should have been devoted to rest was spent in cleaning the machinery,
+and there seems to have been absolutely no effort made to give them
+any education or opportunity for recreation.
+
+The sad life of these little waifs, overworked, underfed, neglected,
+abused, in the factories and barracks in the remote glens of Yorkshire
+and Lancashire, came eventually to the notice of the outside world.
+Correspondence describing their condition began to appear in the
+newspapers, a Manchester Board of Health made a presentment in 1796
+calling attention to the unsanitary conditions in the cotton factories
+where they worked, contagious fevers were reported to be especially
+frequent in the apprentice houses, and in 1802 Sir Robert Peel,
+himself an employer of nearly a thousand such children, brought the
+matter to the attention of Parliament. An immediate and universal
+desire was expressed to abolish the abuses of the system, and as a
+result the "Health and Morals Act to regulate the Labor of Sound
+Children in Cotton Factories" was passed in the same year. It
+prohibited the binding out for factory labor of children younger than
+nine years, restricted the hours of labor to twelve actual working
+hours a day, and forbade night labor. It required the walls of the
+factories to be properly whitewashed and the buildings to be
+sufficiently ventilated, insisted that the apprentices should be
+furnished with at least one new suit of clothes a year, and provided
+that they should attend religious service and be instructed in the
+fundamental English branches. This was the first of the "Factory
+Acts," for, although its application was so restricted, applying only
+to cotton factories, and for the most part only to bound children, the
+subsequent steps in the formation of the great code of factory
+legislation were for a long while simply a development of the same
+principle, that factory labor involved conditions which it was
+desirable for government to regulate.
+
+At the time of the passage of this law the introduction of steam power
+was already causing a transfer of the bulk of factory industry from
+the rural districts to which the need for water power had confined it
+to the towns where every other requisite for carrying on manufacturing
+was more easily obtainable. Here the children of families resident in
+the town could be obtained, and the practice of using apprentice
+children was largely given up. Many of the same evils, however,
+continued to exist here. The practice of beginning to work while
+extremely young, long hours, night work, unhealthy surroundings,
+proved to be as common among these children to whom the law did not
+apply as they had been among the apprentice children. These evils
+attracted the attention of several persons of philanthropic feeling.
+Robert Owen, especially, a successful manufacturer who had introduced
+many reforms in his own mills, collected a large body of evidence as
+to the excessive labor and early age of employees in the factories
+even where no apprentice labor was engaged. He tried to awaken an
+interest in the matter by the publication of a pamphlet on the
+injurious consequences of the factory system, and to influence various
+members of Parliament to favor the passage of a law intended to
+improve the condition of laboring children and young people. In 1815
+Sir Robert Peel again brought the matter up in Parliament. A committee
+was appointed to investigate the question, and a legislative agitation
+was thus begun which was destained to last for many years and to
+produce a series of laws which have gradually taken most of the
+conditions of employment in large establishments under the control of
+the government. In debates in Parliament, in testimony before
+government commissions of investigation, in petitions, pamphlets, and
+newspapers, the conditions of factory labor were described and
+discussed. Successive laws to modify these conditions were introduced
+into Parliament, debated at great length, amended, postponed,
+reintroduced, and in some cases passed, in others defeated.
+
+
+*68. Arguments for and against Factory Legislation.*--The need for
+regulation which was claimed to exist arose from the long hours of
+work which were customary, from the very early age at which many
+children were sent to be employed in the factories, and from various
+incidents of manufacturing which were considered injurious, or as
+involving unnecessary hardship. The actual working hours in the
+factories in the early part of the century were from twelve and a half
+to fourteen a day. That is to say, factories usually started work in
+the morning at 6 o'clock and continued till 12, when a period from a
+half-hour to an hour was allowed for dinner, then the work began again
+and continued till 7.30 or 8.30 in the evening. It was customary to
+eat breakfast after reaching the mill, but this was done while
+attending the machinery, there being no general stoppage for the
+purpose. Some mills ran even longer hours, opening at 5 A.M. and not
+closing till 9 P.M. In some exceptional cases the hours were only 12;
+from 6 to 12 and from 1 to 7. The inducements to long hours were very
+great. The profits were large, the demand for goods was constantly
+growing, the introduction of gas made it possible to light the
+factories, and the use of artificial power, either water or steam,
+seemed to make the labor much less severe than when the power had been
+provided by human muscles. Few or no holidays were regarded, except
+Sunday, so that work went on in an unending strain of protracted,
+exhausting labor, prolonged for much of the year far into the night.
+
+To these long hours all the hands alike conformed, the children
+commencing and stopping work at the same time as the grown men and
+women. Moreover, the children often began work while extremely young.
+There was a great deal of work in the factories which they could do
+just as well, in some cases even better, than adults. They were
+therefore commonly sent into the mills by their parents at about the
+age of eight years, frequently at seven or even six. As has been
+before stated, more than half of the employees in many factories were
+below eighteen years, and of these a considerable number were mere
+children. Thirdly, there were certain other evils of factory labor
+that attracted attention and were considered by the reformers to be
+remediable. Many accidents occurred because the moving machinery was
+unprotected, the temperature in the cotton mills had to be kept high,
+and ventilation and cleanliness were often entirely neglected. The
+habit of keeping the machinery in motion while meals were being eaten
+was a hardship, and in many ways the employees were practically at the
+mercy of the proprietors of the factories so long as there was no form
+of oversight or of united action to prevent harshness or unfairness.
+
+In the discussions in Parliament and outside there were of course many
+contradictory statements concerning the facts of the case, and much
+denial of general and special charges. The advocates of factory laws
+drew an extremely sombre picture of the evils of the factory system.
+The opponents of such legislation, on the other hand, declared that
+their statements were exaggerated or untrue, and that the condition of
+the factory laborer was not worse than that of other workingmen, or
+harder than that of the domestic worker and his family had been in
+earlier times.
+
+But apart from these recriminations and contradictions,  there were
+certain general arguments used in the debates which can be grouped
+into three classes on each side. For the regulating laws there was in
+the first place the purely sentimental argument, repulsion against the
+hard, unrelieved labor, the abuse, the lack of opportunity for
+enjoyment or recreation of the children of the factory districts; the
+feeling that in wealthy, humane, Christian England, it was unendurable
+that women and little children should work longer hours, be condemned
+to greater hardships, and more completely cut off from the enjoyments
+of life than were the slaves of tropical countries. This is the
+argument of Mrs. Browning's _Cry of the Children_:--
+
+  "Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
+    Ere the sorrow comes with years?
+  They are leaning their young heads against their mothers.
+    And that cannot stop their tears.
+  The young lambs are bleating in the meadows;
+    The young birds are chirping in the nest;
+  The young fawns are playing with the shadows;
+    The young flowers are blowing toward the west;
+  But the young, young children, O my brothers!
+    They are weeping bitterly.
+  They are weeping in the play-time of the others
+    In the country of the free.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  'For oh!' say the children, 'we are weary,
+    And we cannot run or leap:
+  If we cared for any meadows, it were merely
+    To drop down in them and sleep.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  They look up with their pale and sunken faces,
+    And their look is dread to see,
+  For they mind you of their angels in high places,
+    With eyes turned on Deity.
+  'How long,' they say, 'how long, O cruel nation,
+    Will you stand, to move the world on a child's heart
+  Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation
+    And tread onward to your throne amid the mart?'"
+
+Secondly, it was argued that the long hours for the children cut them
+off from all intellectual and moral training, that they were in no
+condition after such protracted labor to profit by any opportunities
+of education that should be supplied, that with the diminished
+influence of the home, and the demoralizing effects that were supposed
+to result from factory labor, ignorance and vice alike would continue
+to be its certain accompaniments, unless the age at which regular work
+was begun should be limited, and the number of hours of labor of young
+persons restricted. Thirdly, it was claimed that there was danger of
+the physical degeneracy of the factory population. Certain diseases,
+especially of the joints and limbs, were discovered to be very
+prevalent in the factory districts. Children who began work so early
+in life and were subjected to such long hours of labor did not grow so
+rapidly, nor reach their full stature, nor retain their vigor so late
+in life, as did the population outside of the factories. Therefore,
+for the very physical preservation of the race, it was declared to be
+necessary to regulate the conditions of factory labor.
+
+On the other hand, apart from denials as to the facts of the case,
+there were several distinct arguments used against the adoption of
+factory laws. In the first place, in the interests of the
+manufacturers, such laws were opposed as an unjust interference with
+their business, an unnecessary and burdensome obstacle to their
+success, and a threat of ruin to a class who by giving employment to
+so many laborers and furnishing so much of the material for commerce
+were of the greatest advantage to the country. Secondly, from a
+somewhat broader point of view, it was declared that if such laws were
+adopted England would no longer be able to compete with other
+countries and would lose her preëminence in manufactures. The factory
+system was being introduced into France, Belgium, the United States,
+and other countries, and in none of these was there any legal
+restriction on the hours of labor or the age of the employees. If
+English manufacturers were forced to reduce the length of the day in
+which production was carried on, they could not produce as cheaply as
+these other countries, and English exports would decrease. This would
+reduce the national prosperity and be especially hard on the working
+classes themselves, as many would necessarily be thrown out of work.
+Thirdly, as a matter of principle it was argued that the policy of
+government regulation had been tried and found wanting, that after
+centuries of existence it had been deliberately given up, and should
+not be reintroduced. Laws restricting hours would interfere with the
+freedom of labor, with the freedom of capital, with the freedom of
+contract. If the employer and the employee were both satisfied with
+the conditions of their labor, why should the government interfere?
+The reason also why such regulation had failed in the past and must
+again, if tried now, was evident. It was an effort to alter the action
+of the natural laws which controlled employment, wages, profits, and
+other economic matters, and was bad in theory, and would therefore
+necessarily be injurious in practice. These and some other less
+general arguments were used over and over again in the various forms
+of the discussion through almost half a century. The laws that were
+passed were carried because the majority in Parliament were either not
+convinced by these reasonings or else determined that, come what
+might, the evils and abuses connected with factory labor should be
+abolished. As a matter of fact, the factory laws were carried by the
+rank and file of the voting members of Parliament, not only against
+the protests of the manufacturers especially interested, but in spite
+of the warnings of those who spoke in the name of established
+teaching, and frequently against the opposition of the political
+leaders of both parties. The greatest number of those who voted for
+them were influenced principally by their sympathies and feelings, and
+yielded to the appeals of certain philanthropic advocates, the most
+devoted and influential of whom was Lord Ashley, afterward earl of
+Shaftesbury, who devoted many years to investigation and agitation on
+the subject both inside and out of Parliament.
+
+
+*69. Factory Legislation to 1847.*--The actual course of factory
+legislation was as follows. The bill originally introduced in 1815,
+after having been subjected to a series of discussions, amendments,
+and postponements, was passed in June, 1819, being the second "Factory
+Act." It applied only to cotton mills, and was in the main merely an
+extension of the act of 1802 to the protection of children who were
+not pauper apprentices. It forbade the employment of any child under
+nine years of age, and prohibited the employment of those between nine
+and sixteen more than twelve hours a day, or at night. In addition to
+the twelve hours of actual labor, at least a half-hour must be allowed
+for breakfast and an hour for dinner. Other minor acts amending or
+extending this were passed from time to time, till in 1833, after two
+successive commissions had made investigations and reports on the
+subject, an important law was passed. It applied practically to all
+textile mills, not merely to those for the spinning of cotton. The
+prohibition of employment of all below nine years was continued,
+children between nine and thirteen were to work only eight hours per
+day, and young persons between thirteen and eighteen only twelve
+hours, and none of these at night. Two whole and eight half holidays
+were required to be given within the year, and each child must have a
+surgeon's certificate of fitness for labor. There were also clauses
+for the education of the children and the cleanliness of the
+factories. But the most important clause of this statute was the
+provision of a corps of four inspectors with assistants who were sworn
+to their duties, salaried, and provided with extensive powers of
+making rules for the execution of the act, of enforcing it, and
+prosecuting for its violation. The earlier laws had not been
+efficiently carried out. Under this act numerous prosecutions and
+convictions took place, and factory regulation began to become a
+reality. The inspectors calculated during their first year of service
+that there were about 56,000 children between nine and thirteen, and
+about 108,000 young persons between thirteen and eighteen, in the
+factories under their supervision.
+
+The decade lying between 1840 and 1850 was one of specially great
+activity in social and economic agitation. Chartism, the abolition of
+the corn laws, the formation of trade unions, mining acts, and further
+extensions of the factory acts were all alike under discussion, and
+they all created the most intense antagonism between parties and
+classes. In 1844 the law commonly known as the "Children's Half-time
+Act" was passed. It contained a large number of general provisions for
+the fencing of dangerous machinery, for its stoppage while being
+cleaned, for the report of accidents to inspectors and district
+surgeons, for the public prosecution for damages of the factory owner
+when he should seem to be responsible for an accident, and for the
+enforcement of the act. Its most distinctive clause, however, was that
+which restricted the labor of children to a half-day, or the whole of
+alternate days, and required their attendance at school for the other
+half of their time. All women were placed by this act in the same
+category as young persons between thirteen and eighteen, so far as the
+restriction of hours of labor to twelve per day and the prohibition
+of night work extended.
+
+The next statute to be passed was an extension of this regulation,
+though it contained the provision which had long been the most
+bitterly contested of any during the whole factory law agitation. This
+was the "Ten-hour Act" of 1847. From an early period in the century
+there had been a strong agitation in favor of restricting by law the
+hours of young persons, and from somewhat later, of women, to ten
+hours per day, and this proposition had been repeatedly introduced and
+defeated in Parliament. It was now carried. By this time the more
+usual length of the working day even when unrestricted had been
+reduced to twelve hours, and in some trades to eleven. It was now made
+by law half-time for children, and ten hours for young persons and
+women, or as rearranged by another law passed three years afterward,
+ten and a half hours for five days of the week and a half-day on
+Saturday. The number of persons to whom the Ten-hour Act applied was
+estimated at something over 360,000. That is, including the children,
+at least three-fourths of all persons employed in textile industries
+had their hours and some other conditions of labor directly regulated
+by law. Moreover, the work of men employed in the same factories was
+so dependent on that of the women and the children, that many of these
+restrictions applied practically to them also.
+
+Further minor changes in hours and other details were made from time
+to time, but there was no later contest on the principle of factory
+legislation. The evil results which had been feared had not shown
+themselves, and many of its strongest opponents had either already, or
+did eventually, acknowledge the beneficial results of the laws.
+
+
+*70. The Extension of Factory Legislation.*--By the successive acts of
+1819, 1833, 1844, and 1847, a normal length of working day and
+regulated conditions generally had been established by government for
+the factories employing women and children. The next development was
+an extension of the regulation of hours and conditions of labor from
+factories proper to other allied fields. Already in 1842 a law had
+been passed regulating labor in mines. This act was passed in response
+to the needs shown by the report of a commission which had been
+appointed in 1840. They made a thorough investigation of the obscure
+conditions of labor underground, and reported a condition of affairs
+which was heart-sickening. Children began their life in the coal
+mines at five, six, or seven years of age. Girls and women worked
+like boys and men, they were less than half clothed, and worked
+alongside of men who were stark naked. There were from twelve to
+fourteen working hours in the twenty-four, and these were often at
+night. Little girls of six or eight years of age made ten to twelve
+trips a day up steep ladders to the surface, carrying half a hundred
+weight of coal in wooden buckets on their backs at each journey. Young
+women appeared before the commissioners, when summoned from their
+work, dressed merely in a pair of trousers, dripping wet from the
+water of the mine, and already weary with the labor of a day scarcely
+more than begun. A common form of labor consisted of drawing on hands
+and knees over the inequalities of a passageway not more than two feet
+or twenty-eight inches high a car or tub filled with three or four
+hundred weight of coal, attached by a chain and hook to a leather band
+around the waist. The mere recital of the testimony taken precluded
+all discussion as to the desirability of reform, and a law was
+immediately passed, almost without dissent, which prohibited for the
+future all work underground by females or by boys under thirteen years
+of age. Inspectors were appointed, and by subsequent acts a whole code
+of regulation of mines as regards age, hours, lighting, ventilation,
+safety, licensing of engineers, and in other respects has been
+created.
+
+[Illustration: Children's Labor in Coal Mines. _Report of Children's
+Employment Commission of 1842._]
+
+[Illustration: Women's Labor in Coal Mines. (_Report of Children's
+Employment Commission, 1842._)]
+
+In 1846 a bill was passed applying to calico printing works
+regulations similar to the factory laws proper. In 1860, 1861, and
+1863 similar laws were passed for bleaching and dyeing for lace works,
+and for bakeries. In 1864 another so-called factory act was passed
+applying to at least six other industries, none of which had any
+connection with textile factories. Three years later, in 1867, two
+acts for factories and workshops respectively took a large number of
+additional industries under their care; and finally, in 1878, the
+"Factory and Workshop Consolidation Act" repealed all the former
+special laws and substituted a veritable factory code containing a
+vast number of provisions for the regulation of industrial
+establishments. This law covered more than fifty printed pages of the
+statute book. Its principle provisions were as follows: The limit of
+prohibited labor was raised from nine to ten years, children in the
+terms of the statute being those between ten and fourteen, and "young
+persons" those between fourteen and eighteen years of age. For all
+such the day's work must begin either at six or seven, and close at
+the same hour respectively in the evening, two hours being allowed for
+meal-times. All Saturdays and eight other days in the year must be
+half-holidays, while the whole of Christmas Day and Good Friday, or
+two alternative days, must be allowed as holidays. Children could work
+for only one-half of each day or on the whole of alternate days, and
+must attend school on the days or parts of days on which they did not
+work. There were minute provisions governing sanitary conditions,
+safety from machinery and in dangerous occupations, meal-times,
+medical certificates of fitness for employment, and reports of
+accidents. Finally there were the necessary body of provisions for
+administration, enforcement, penalties, and exceptions.
+
+Since 1878 there have been a number of extensions of the principle of
+factory legislation, the most important of which are the following. In
+1891 and 1895, amending acts were passed bringing laundries and docks
+within the provisions of the law, making further rules against
+overcrowding and other unsanitary conditions, increasing the age of
+prohibited labor to eleven years, and making a beginning of the
+regulation of "outworkers" or those engaged by "sweaters." "Sweating"
+is manufacturing carried on by contractors or subcontractors on a
+small scale, who usually have the work done in their own homes or in
+single hired rooms by members of their families, or by poorly paid
+employees who by one chance or another are not in a free and
+independent relation to them. Many abuses exist in these "sweatshops."
+The law so far is scarcely more than tentative, but in these
+successive acts provisions have been made by which all manufacturers
+or contractors must keep lists of outworkers engaged by them, and
+submit these to the factory inspectors for supervision.
+
+In 1892 a "Shop-hours Act" was passed prohibiting the employment of
+any person under eighteen years of age more than seventy-four hours in
+any week in any retail or wholesale store, shop, eating-house, market,
+warehouse, or other similar establishment; and in 1893 the "Railway
+Regulation Act" gave power to the Board of Trade to require railway
+companies to provide reasonable and satisfactory schedules of hours
+for all their employees. In 1894 a bill for a compulsory eight-hour
+day for miners was introduced, but was withdrawn before being
+submitted to a vote. In 1899 a bill was passed requiring the provision
+of a sufficient number of seats for all female assistants in retail
+stores. In 1900 a government bill was presented to Parliament carrying
+legislation somewhat farther on the lines of the acts of 1891 and
+1893, but it did not reach its later stages before the adjournment.
+
+
+*71. Employers' Liability Acts.*--Closely allied to the problems
+involved in the factory laws is the question of the liability of
+employers to make compensation for personal injuries suffered by
+workmen in their service. With the increasing use of machinery and of
+steam power for manufacturing and transportation, and in the general
+absence of precaution, accidents to workmen became much more
+numerous. Statistics do not exist for earlier periods, but in 1899
+serious or petty accidents to the number of 70,760 were reported from
+such establishments. By Common Law, in the case of negligence on the
+part of the proprietor or servant of an establishment, damages for
+accident could be sued for and obtained by a workman, not guilty of
+contributory negligence, as by any other person, except in one case.
+If the accident was the result of the negligence of a fellow-employee,
+no compensation for injuries would be allowed by the courts; the
+theory being that in the implied contract between employer and
+employee, the latter agreed to accept the risks of the business, at
+least so far as these arose from the carelessness of his
+fellow-employees.
+
+In the large establishments of modern times, however, vast numbers of
+men were fellow-employees in the eyes of the law, and the doctrine of
+"common employment," as it was called, prevented the recovery of
+damages in so many cases as to attract widespread attention. From 1865
+forward this provision of the law was frequently complained of by
+leaders of the workingmen and others, and as constantly upheld by the
+courts.
+
+In 1876 a committee of the House of Commons on the relations of master
+and servant took evidence on this matter and recommended in its report
+that the common law be amended in this respect. Accordingly in 1880 an
+Employers' Liability Act was passed which abolished the doctrine of
+"common employment" as to much of its application, and made it
+possible for the employee to obtain compensation for accidental injury
+in the great majority of cases.
+
+In 1893 a bill was introduced in Parliament by the ministry of the
+time to abolish all deductions from the responsibility of employers,
+except that of contributory negligence on the part of workmen, but it
+was not passed. In 1897, however, the "Workmen's Compensation Act" was
+passed, changing the basis of the law entirely. By this Act it was
+provided that in case of accident to a workman causing death or
+incapacitating him for a period of more than two weeks, compensation
+in proportion to the wages he formerly earned should be paid by the
+employer as a matter of course, unless "serious and wilful misconduct"
+on the part of the workman could be shown to have existed. The
+liability of employers becomes, therefore, a matter of insurance of
+workmen against accidents arising out of their employment, imposed by
+the law upon employers. It is no longer damages for negligence, but a
+form of compulsory insurance. In other words, since 1897 a legal, if
+only an implied part of the contract between employer and employee in
+all forms of modern industry in which accidents are likely to occur is
+that the employer insures the employee against the dangers of his
+work.
+
+
+*72. Preservation of Remaining Open Lands.*--Turning from the field of
+manufacturing labor to that of agriculture and landholding it will be
+found that there has been some legislation for the protection of the
+agricultural laborer analogous to the factory laws. The Royal
+Commission of 1840-1844 on trades then unprotected by law included a
+report on the condition of rural child labor, but no law followed
+until 1873, when the "Agricultural Children's Act" was passed, but
+proved to be ineffective. The evils of "agricultural gangs," which
+were bodies of poor laborers, mostly children, engaged by a contractor
+and taken from place to place to be hired out to farmers, were
+reported on by a commission in 1862, and partly overcome by the
+"Agricultural Gangs Act" of 1867. There is, however, but little
+systematic government oversight of the farm-laboring class.
+
+Government regulation in the field of landholding has taken a somewhat
+different form. The movement of enclosing which had been in progress
+from the middle of the eighteenth century was brought to an end, and a
+reversal of tendency took place, by which the use and occupation of
+the land was more controlled by the government in the interest of the
+masses of the rural population. By the middle of the century the
+process of enclosing was practically complete. There had been some
+3954 private enclosure acts passed, and under their provisions or
+those of the Enclosure Commissioners more than seven million acres had
+been changed from mediæval to modern condition. But now a reaction set
+in. Along with the open field farming lands it was perceived that open
+commons, village greens, gentlemen's parks, and the old national
+forest lands were being enclosed, and frequently for building or
+railroad, not for agricultural uses, to the serious detriment of the
+health and of the enjoyment of the people, and to the destruction of
+the beauty of the country. The dread of interference by the government
+with matters that might be left to private settlement was also passing
+away. In 1865 the House of Commons appointed a commission to
+investigate the question of open spaces near the city of London, and
+the next year on their recommendation passed a law by which the
+Enclosure Commissioners were empowered to make regulations for the use
+of all commons within fifteen miles of London as public parks, except
+so far as the legal rights of the lords of the manors in which the
+commons lay should prevent. A contest had already arisen between many
+of these lords of manors having the control of open commons, whose
+interest it was to enclose and sell them, and other persons having
+vague rights of pasturage and other use of them, whose interest it
+was to preserve them as open spaces. To aid the latter in their legal
+resistance to proposed enclosures, the "Commons Preservation Society"
+was formed in 1865. As a result a number of the contests were decided
+in the year 1866 in favor of those who opposed enclosures.
+
+The first case to attract attention was that of Wimbledon Common, just
+west of London. Earl Spencer, the lord of the manor of Wimbledon, had
+offered to give up his rights on the common to the inhabitants of the
+vicinity in return for a nominal rent and certain privileges; and had
+proposed that a third of the common should be sold, and the money
+obtained for it used to fence, drain, beautify, and keep up the
+remainder. The neighboring inhabitants, however, preferred the
+spacious common as it stood, and when a bill to carry out Lord
+Spencer's proposal had been introduced into Parliament, they contended
+that they had legal rights on the common which he could not disregard,
+and that they objected to its enclosure. The parliamentary committee
+practically decided in their favor, and the proposition was dropped.
+An important decision in a similar case was made by the courts in
+1870. Berkhamstead Common, an open stretch some three miles long and
+half a mile wide, lying near the town of Berkhamstead, twenty-five
+miles north of London, had been used for pasturing animals, cutting
+turf, digging gravel, gathering furze, and as a place of general
+recreation and enjoyment by the people of the two manors in which it
+lay, from time immemorial. In 1866 Lord Brownlow, the lord of these
+two manors, began making enclosures upon it, erecting two iron fences
+across it so as to enclose 434 acres and to separate the remainder
+into two entirely distinct parts. The legal advisers of Lord Brownlow
+declared that the inhabitants had no rights which would prevent him
+from enclosing parts of the common, although to satisfy them he
+offered to give to them the entire control over one part of it. The
+Commons Preservation Society, however, advised the inhabitants
+differently, and encouraged them to make a legal contest. One of their
+number, Augustus Smith, a wealthy and obstinate man, a member of
+Parliament, and a possessor of rights on the common both as a
+freeholder and a copyholder, was induced to take action in his own
+name and as a representative of other claimants of common rights. He
+engaged in London a force of one hundred and twenty laborers, sent
+them down at night by train, and before morning had broken down Lord
+Brownlow's two miles of iron fences, on which he had spent some £5000,
+and piled their sections neatly up on another part of the common. Two
+lawsuits followed: one by Lord Brownlow against Mr. Smith for
+trespass, the other a cross suit in the Chancery Court by Mr. Smith to
+ascertain the commoner's rights, and prevent the enclosure of the
+common. After a long trial the decision was given in Mr. Smith's
+favor, and not only was Berkhamstead Common thus preserved as an open
+space, but a precedent set for the future decision of other similar
+cases. Within the years between 1866 and 1874 dispute after dispute
+analogous to this arose, and decision after decision was given
+declaring the illegality of enclosures by a lord of a manor where
+there were claims of commoners which they still asserted and valued
+and which could be used as an obstacle to enclosure. Hampstead Heath,
+Ashdown Forest, Malvern Hills, Plumstead, Tooting, Wandsworth,
+Coulston, Dartford, and a great many other commons, village greens,
+roadside wastes, and other open spaces were saved from enclosure, and
+some places were partly opened up again, as a result either of
+lawsuits, of parliamentary action, or of voluntary agreements and
+purchase.
+
+Perhaps the most conspicuous instance was that of Epping Forest. This
+common consisted of an open tract about thirteen miles long and one
+mile wide, containing in 1870 about three thousand acres of open
+common land. Enclosure was being actively carried on by some nineteen
+lords of manors, and some three thousand acres had been enclosed by
+rather high-handed means within the preceding twenty years. Among the
+various landowners who claimed rights of common upon a part of the
+Forest was, however, the City of London, and in 1871 this body began
+suit against the various lords of manors under the claim that it
+possessed pasture rights, not only in the manor of Ilford, in which
+its property of two hundred acres was situated, but, since the
+district was a royal forest, over the whole of it. The City asked that
+the lords of manors should be prevented from enclosing any more of it,
+and required to throw open again what they had enclosed during the
+last twenty years. After a long and expensive legal battle and a
+concurrent investigation by a committee of Parliament, both extending
+over three years, a decision was given in favor of the City of London
+and other commoners, and the lords of manors were forced to give back
+about three thousand acres. The whole was made permanently into a
+public park. The old forest rights of the crown proved to be favorable
+to the commoners, and thus obtained at least one tardy justification
+to set against their long and dark record in the past.
+
+In 1871, in one of the cases which had been appealed, the Lord
+Chancellor laid down a principle indicating a reaction in the judicial
+attitude on the subject, when he declared that no enclosure should be
+made except when there was a manifest advantage in it; as contrasted
+with the policy of enclosing unless there was some strong reason
+against it, as had formerly been approved. In 1876 Parliament passed
+a law amending the acts of 1801 and 1845, and directing the Enclosure
+Commissioners to reverse their rule of action in the same direction.
+That is to say, they were not to approve any enclosure unless it could
+be shown to be to the manifest advantage of the neighborhood, as well
+as to the interest of the parties directly concerned. Finally, in
+1893, by the Commons Law Amendment Act, it was required that every
+proposed enclosure of any kind should first be advertised and
+opportunity given for objection, then submitted to the Board of
+Agriculture for its approval, and this approval should only be given
+when such an enclosure was for the general benefit of the public. No
+desire of a lord of a manor to enclose ground for his private park or
+game preserve, or to use it for building ground, would now be allowed
+to succeed. The interest of the community at large has been placed
+above the private advantage and even liberty of action of landholders.
+The authorities do not merely see that justice is done between lord
+and commoners on the manor, but that both alike shall be restrained
+from doing what is not to the public advantage. Indeed, Parliament
+went one step further, and by an order passed in 1893 set a precedent
+for taking a common entirely out of the hands of the lord of the
+manor, and putting it in the hands of a board to keep it for public
+uses. Thus not only had the enclosing movement diminished for lack of
+open farming land to enclose, but public opinion and law between 1864
+and 1893 interposed to preserve such remaining open land as had not
+been already divided. Whatever land remained that was not in
+individual ownership and occupancy was to be retained under control
+for the community at large.
+
+
+*73. Allotments.*--But this change of attitude was not merely negative.
+There were many instances of government interposition for the
+encouragement of agriculture and for the modification of the relations
+between landlord and tenant. In 1875, 1882, and 1900 the "Agricultural
+Holdings Acts" were passed, by which, when improvements are made by
+the tenant during the period in which he holds the land, compensation
+must be given by the landlord to the tenant when the latter retires.
+No agreement between the landlord and tenant by which the latter gives
+up this right is valid. This policy of controlling the conditions of
+landholding with the object of enforcing justice to the tenant has
+been carried to very great lengths in the Irish Land Bills and the
+Scotch Crofters' Acts, but the conditions that called for such
+legislation in those countries have not existed in England itself.
+There has been, however, much effort in England to bring at least some
+land again into the use of the masses of the rural population. In
+1819, as part of the administration of the poor law, Parliament passed
+an act facilitating the leasing out by the authorities of common land
+belonging to the parishes to the poor, in small "allotments," as they
+were called, by the cultivation of which they might partially support
+themselves. Allotments are small pieces of land, usually from an
+eighth of an acre to an acre in size, rented out for cultivation to
+poor or working-class families. In 1831 parish authorities were
+empowered to buy or enclose land up to as much as five acres for this
+purpose. Subsequently the formation of allotments began to be
+advocated, not only as part of the system of supporting paupers, but
+for its own sake, in order that rural laborers might have some land in
+their own occupation to work on during their spare times, as their
+forefathers had during earlier ages. To encourage this plan of giving
+the mass of the people again an interest in the land the "Allotments
+and Small Holdings Association" was formed in 1885. Laws which were
+passed in 1882 and 1887 made it the duty of the authorities of
+parishes, when there seemed to be a demand for allotments, to provide
+all the land that was needed for the purpose, giving them, if needed,
+and under certain restrictions, the right of compulsory purchase of
+any particular piece of land which they should feel to be desirable.
+This was to be divided up and rented out in allotments from one
+quarter of an acre to an acre in size. By laws passed in 1890 and 1894
+this plan of making it the bounden duty of the local government to
+provide sufficient allotments for the demand, and giving them power to
+purchase land even without the consent of its owners, was carried
+still further and put in the hands of the parish council. The growth
+in numbers of such allotments was very rapid and has not yet ceased.
+The approximate numbers at several periods are as follows:--
+
+  1873            246,398
+  1888            357,795
+  1890            455,005
+  1895            579,133
+
+In addition to those formed and granted out by the public local
+authorities, many large landowners, railroad companies, and others
+have made allotments to their tenants or employees. Large tracts of
+land subdivided into such small patches are now a common sight in
+England, simulating in appearance the old open fields of the Middle
+Ages and early modern times.
+
+
+*74. Small Holdings.*--Closely connected with the extension of
+allotments is the movement for the creation of "small holdings," or
+the reintroduction of small farming. One form of this is that by which
+the local authorities in 1892 were empowered to buy land for the
+purpose of renting it out in small holdings of not more than fifteen
+acres each to persons who would themselves cultivate it.
+
+A still further and much more important development in the same
+direction is the effort to introduce "peasant proprietorship," or the
+ownership of small amounts of farming land by persons who would
+otherwise necessarily be mere laborers on other men's land. There has
+been an old dispute as to the relative advantages of a system of large
+farms, rented by men who have some considerable capital, knowledge,
+and enterprise, as in England; and of a system of small farms, owned
+and worked by men who are mere peasants, as in France. The older
+economists generally advocated the former system as better in itself,
+and also pointed out that a policy of withdrawal by government from
+any regulation was tending to make it universal. Others have been more
+impressed with the good effects of the ownership of land on the mental
+and moral character of the population, and with the desirability of
+the existence of a series of steps by which a thrifty and ambitious
+workingman could rise to a higher position, even in the country. There
+has, therefore, since the middle of the century, been a widespread
+agitation in favor of the creation of smaller farms, of giving
+assistance in their purchase, and of thus introducing a more mixed
+system of rural land occupancy, and bringing back something of the
+earlier English yeoman farming.
+
+This movement obtained recognition by Parliament in the Small Holdings
+Act of 1892, already referred to. This law made it the duty of each
+county council, when there seemed to be any sufficient demand for
+small farms from one to fifty acres in size, to acquire in any way
+possible, though not by compulsory purchase, suitable land, to adapt
+it for farming purposes by fencing, making roads, and, if necessary,
+erecting suitable buildings; and then to dispose of it by sale, or, as
+a matter of exception, as before stated, on lease, to such parties as
+will themselves cultivate it. The terms of sale were to be
+advantageous to the purchaser. He must pay at least as much as a fifth
+of the price down, but one quarter of it might be left on perpetual
+ground-rent, and the remainder, slightly more than one-half, might be
+repaid in half-yearly instalments during any period less than fifty
+years. The county council was also given power to loan money to
+tenants of small holdings to buy from their landlords, where they
+could arrange terms of purchase but had not the necessary means.
+
+Through the intervention of government, therefore, the strict division
+of those connected with the land into landlords, tenant farmers, and
+farm laborers has been to a considerable extent altered, and it is
+generally possible for a laborer to obtain a small piece of land as an
+allotment, or, if more ambitious and able, a small farm, on
+comparatively easy terms. In landholding and agriculture, as in
+manufacturing and trade, government has thus stepped in to prevent
+what would have been the effect of mere free competition, and to bring
+about a distribution and use of the land which have seemed more
+desirable.
+
+
+*75. Government Sanitary Control.*--In the field of buying and selling
+the hand of government has been most felt in provisions for the health
+of the consumer of various articles. Laws against adulteration have
+been passed, and a code of supervision, registry, and enforcement
+constructed. Similarly in broader sanitary lines, by the "Housing of
+the Working Classes Act" of 1890, when it is brought to the attention
+of the local authorities that any street or district is in such a
+condition that its houses or alleys are unfit for human habitation,
+or that the narrowness, want of light or air, or bad drainage makes
+the district dangerous to the health of the inhabitants or their
+neighbors, and that these conditions cannot be readily remedied except
+by an entire rearrangement of the district, then it becomes the duty
+of the local authorities to take the matter in hand. They are bound to
+draw up and, on approval by the proper superior authorities, to carry
+out a plan for widening the streets and approaches to them, providing
+proper sanitary arrangements, tearing down the old houses, and
+building new ones in sufficient number and suitable character to
+provide dwelling accommodation for as many persons of the working
+class as were displaced by the changes. Private rights or claims are
+not allowed to stand in the way of any such public action in favor of
+the general health and well-being, as the local authorities are
+clothed by the law with the right of purchase of the land and
+buildings of the locality at a valuation, even against the wishes of
+the owners, though they must obtain parliamentary confirmation of such
+a compulsory purchase. Several acts have been passed to provide for
+the public acquisition or building of workingmen's dwellings. In 1899
+the "Small Dwellings Acquisition Act" gave power to any local
+authority to loan four-fifths of the cost of purchase of a small
+house, to be repaid by the borrower by instalments within thirty
+years.
+
+Laws for the stamping out of cattle disease have been passed on the
+same principle. In 1878, 1886, 1890, 1893, and 1896 successive acts
+were passed which have given to the Board of Agriculture the right to
+cause the slaughter of any cattle or swine which have become infected
+or been subjected to contagious diseases; Parliament has also set
+apart a sufficient sum of money and appointed a large corps of
+inspectors to carry out the law. Official analysts of fertilizers and
+food-stuffs for cattle have also since 1893 been regularly appointed
+by the government in each county. Adulteration has been taken under
+control by the "Sale of Food and Drugs Act" of 1875, with its later
+amendments and extensions, especially that of 1899.
+
+
+*76. Industries Carried on by Government.*--In addition to the
+regulation in these various respects of industries carried on by
+private persons, and intervention for the protection of the public
+health, the government has extended its functions very considerably by
+taking up certain new duties or services, which it carries out itself
+instead of leaving to private hands.
+
+The post-office is such an old and well-established branch of the
+government's activity as not in itself to be included among newly
+adopted functions, but its administration has been extended since the
+middle of the century over at least four new fields of duty: the
+telegraph, the telephone, the parcels post, and the post-office
+savings-bank.
+
+The telegraph system of England was built up in the main and in its
+early stages by private persons and companies. After more than
+twenty-five years of competitive development, however, there was
+widespread public dissatisfaction with the service. Messages were
+expensive and telegraphing inconvenient. Many towns with populations
+from three thousand to six thousand were without telegraphic
+facilities nearer than five or ten miles, while the offices of
+competing companies were numerous in busy centres. In 1870, therefore,
+all private telegraph companies were bought up by the government at an
+expense of £10,130,000. A strict telegraphic monopoly in the hands of
+the government was established, and the telegraph made an integral
+part of the post-office system.
+
+In 1878 the telephone began to compete with the telegraph,  and its
+relation to the government telegraphic monopoly became a matter of
+question. At first the government adopted the policy of collecting a
+ten per cent royalty on all messages, but allowed telephones to be
+established by private companies. In the meantime the various
+companies were being bought up successively by the National Telephone
+Company which was thus securing a virtual monopoly. In 1892 Parliament
+authorized the Postmaster General to spend £1,000,000, subsequently
+raised to £1,300,000, in the purchase of telephone lines, and
+prohibited any private construction of new lines. As a result, by 1897
+the government had bought up all the main or trunk telephone lines and
+wires, leaving to the National Telephone Company its monopoly of all
+telephone communication inside of the towns. This monopoly was
+supposed to be in its legal possession until 1904, when it was
+anticipated that the government would buy out its property at a
+valuation. In 1898, however, there was an inquiry by Parliament, and a
+new "Telegraph Act" was passed in 1899. The monopoly of the National
+Company was discredited and the government began to enter into
+competition with it within the towns, and to authorize local
+governments and private companies under certain circumstances to do
+the same. It was provided that every extension of an old company and
+every new company must obtain a government license and that on the
+expiring of this license the plant could be bought by the government.
+In the meantime the post-office authorities have power to restrict
+rates. An appropriation of £2,000,000 was put in the hands of the
+Postmaster General to extend the government telephone system. It seems
+quite certain that by 1925, at latest, all telephones will be in the
+hands of the government.
+
+The post-office savings-bank was established in 1861. Any sum from
+one shilling upward is accepted from any depositor until his deposits
+rise to £50 in any one year, or a total of £200 in all. It presents
+great attractions from its security and its convenience. The
+government through the post-office pays two and one-half per cent
+interest. In 1870 there was deposited in the post-office savings-banks
+approximately £14,000,000, in 1880 £31,000,000, and ten years later
+£62,000,000. In 1880 arrangements were made by which government bonds
+and annuities can be bought through the post-office. In 1890 some
+£4,600,000 was invested in government stock in this way.
+
+The parcels post was established in 1883. This branch of the
+post-office does a large part of the work that would otherwise be done
+by private express companies. It takes charge of packages up to eleven
+pounds in weight and under certain circumstances up to twenty-one
+pounds, presented at any branch post-office, and on prepayment of
+regular charges delivers them to their consignees.
+
+In these and other forms each year within recent times has seen some
+extension of the field of government control for the good of the
+community in general, or for the protection of some particular class
+in the community, and there is at the same time a constant increase in
+the number and variety of occupations that the government undertakes.
+Instead of withdrawing from the field of intervention in economic
+concerns, and restricting its activity to the narrowest possible
+limits, as was the tendency in the last period, the government is
+constantly taking more completely under its regulation great branches
+of industry, and even administering various lines of business that
+formerly were carried on by private hands.
+
+
+*77. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Jevons, Stanley: _The State in Relation to Labor_.
+
+"Alfred" (Samuel Kydd): _The History of the Factory Movement from the
+Year 1802 to the Enactment of the Ten Hours Bill in 1847_.
+
+Von Plener, E.: _A History of English Factory Legislation_.
+
+Cooke-Taylor, R. W.: _The Factory System and the Factory Acts_.
+
+Redgrave, Alexander: _The Factory Acts_.
+
+Shaftesbury, The Earl of: _Speeches on Labour Questions_.
+
+Birrell, Augustine: _Law of Employers' Liability_.
+
+Shaw-Lefevre, G.: _English Commons and Forests_.
+
+Far the best sources of information for the adoption of the factory
+laws, as for other nineteenth-century legislation, are the debates in
+Parliament and the various reports of Parliamentary Commissions, where
+access to them can be obtained. The early reports are enumerated in
+the bibliography in Cunningham's second volume. The later can be found
+in the appropriate articles in Palgrave's _Dictionary_. For recent
+legislation, the action of organizations, and social movements
+generally, the articles in _Hazell's Annual_, in its successive issues
+since 1885, are full, trustworthy, and valuable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE EXTENSION OF VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION
+
+Trade Unions, Trusts, And Coöperation
+
+
+*78. The Rise of Trade Unions.*--One of the most manifest effects of the
+introduction of the factory system was the intensification of the
+distinction between employers and employees. When a large number of
+laborers were gathered together in one establishment, all in a similar
+position one to the other and with common interests as to wages, hours
+of labor, and other conditions of their work, the fact that they were
+one homogeneous class could hardly escape their recognition. Since
+these common interests were in so many respects opposed to those of
+their employers, the advantages of combination to obtain added
+strength in the settlement of disputed questions was equally evident.
+As the Statute of Apprentices was no longer in force, and freedom of
+contract had taken its place, a dispute between an employer and a
+single employee would result in the discharge of the latter. If the
+dispute was between the employer and his whole body of employees, each
+one of the latter would be in a vastly stronger position, and there
+would be something like equality in the two sides of the contest.
+
+Under the old gild conditions, when each man rose successively from
+apprentice to journeyman, and from journeyman to employer, when the
+relations between the employing master and his journeymen and
+apprentices were very close, and the advantages of the gild were
+participated in by all grades of the producing body, organizations of
+the employed against the employers could hardly exist. It has been
+seen that the growth of separate combinations was one of the
+indications of a breaking down of the gild system. Even in the later
+times, when establishments were still small and scattered, when the
+government required that engagements should be made for long periods,
+and that none should work in an industry except those who had been
+apprenticed to it, and when rates of wages and hours of labor were
+supposed to be settled by law, the opposition between the interests of
+employers and employees was not very strongly marked. The occasion or
+opportunity for union amongst the workmen in most trades still hardly
+existed. Unions had been formed, it is true, during the first half of
+the eighteenth century and spasmodically in still earlier times. These
+were, however, mostly in trades where the employers made up a wealthy
+merchant class and where the prospect of the ordinary workman ever
+reaching the position of an employer was slight.
+
+The changes of the Industrial Revolution, however, made a profound
+difference. With the growth of factories and the increase in the size
+of business establishments the employer and employee came to be
+farther apart, while at the same time the employees in any one
+establishment or trade were thrown more closely together. The hand of
+government was at about the same time entirely withdrawn from the
+control of wages, hours, length of engagements, and other conditions
+of labor. Any workman was at liberty to enter or leave any occupation
+under any circumstances that he chose, and an employer could similarly
+hire or discharge any laborer for any cause or at any time he saw fit.
+Under these circumstances of homogeneity of the interests of the
+laborers, of opposition of their interests to those of the employer,
+and of the absence of any external control, combinations among the
+workmen, or trade unions, naturally sprang up.
+
+
+*79. Opposition of the Law and of Public Opinion. The Combination
+Acts.*--Their growth, however, was slow and interrupted. The poverty,
+ignorance, and lack of training of the laborers interposed a serious
+obstacle to the formation of permanent unions; and a still more
+tangible difficulty lay in the opposition of the law and of public
+opinion. A trade union may be defined as a permanent organized
+society, the object of which is to obtain more favorable conditions of
+labor for its members. In order to retain its existence a certain
+amount of intelligence and self-control and a certain degree of
+regularity of contributions on the part of its members are necessary,
+and these powers were but slightly developed in the early years of
+this century. In order to obtain the objects of the union a "strike,"
+or concerted refusal to work except on certain conditions, is the
+natural means to be employed. But such action, or in fact the
+existence of a combination contemplating such action, was against the
+law. A series of statutes known as the "Combination Acts" had been
+passed from time to time since the sixteenth century, the object of
+which had been to prevent artisans, either employers or employees,
+from combining to change the rate of wages or other conditions of
+labor, which should be legally established by the government. The last
+of the combination acts were passed in 1799 and 1800, and were an
+undisguised exercise of the power of the employing class to use their
+membership in Parliament to legislate in their own interest. It
+provided that all agreements whatever between journeymen or other
+workmen for obtaining an advance in wages for themselves or for other
+workmen, or for decreasing the number of hours of labor, or for
+endeavoring to prevent any employer from engaging any one whom he
+might choose, or for persuading any other workmen not to work, or for
+refusing to work with any other men, should be illegal. Any justice of
+the peace was empowered to convict by summary process and sentence to
+two months' imprisonment any workmen who entered into such a
+combination.
+
+The ordinary and necessary action of trade unions was illegal by the
+Common Law also, under the doctrine that combined attempts to
+influence wages, hours, prices, or apprenticeship were conspiracies in
+restraint of trade, and that such conspiracies had been repeatedly
+declared to be illegal.
+
+In addition to their illegality, trade unions were extremely unpopular
+with the most influential classes of English society. The employers,
+against whose power they were organized, naturally antagonized them
+for fear they would raise wages and in other ways give the workmen the
+upper hand; they were opposed by the aristocratic feeling of the
+country, because they brought about an increase in the power of the
+lower classes; the clergy deprecated their growth as a manifestation
+of discontent, whereas contentment was the virtue then most regularly
+inculcated upon the lower classes; philanthropists, who had more faith
+in what should be done for than by the workingmen, distrusted their
+self-interested and vaguely directed efforts. Those who were
+interested in England's foreign trade feared that they would increase
+prices, and thus render England incapable of competing with other
+nations, and those who were influenced by the teachings of political
+economy opposed them as being harmful, or at best futile efforts to
+interfere with the free action of those natural forces which, in the
+long run, must govern all questions of labor and wages. If the
+average rate of wages at any particular time was merely the quotient
+obtained by dividing the number of laborers into the wages fund, an
+organized effort to change the rate of wages would necessarily be a
+failure, or could at most only result in driving some other laborers
+out of employment or reducing their wages. Finally, there was a
+widespread feeling that trade unions were unscrupulous bodies which
+overawed the great majority of their fellow-workmen, and then by their
+help tyrannized over the employers and threw trade into recurring
+conditions of confusion. That same great body of uninstructed public
+opinion, which, on the whole, favored the factory laws, was quite
+clearly opposed to trade unions. With the incompetency of their own
+class, the power of the law, and the force of public opinion opposed
+to their existence and actions, it is not a matter of wonder that the
+development of these working-class organizations was only very
+gradual.
+
+Nevertheless these obstacles were one by one removed, and the growth
+of trade unions became one of the most characteristic movements of
+modern industrial history.
+
+
+*80. Legalization and Popular Acceptance of Trade Unions.*--During the
+early years of the century combinations, more or less long lived,
+existed in many trades, sometimes secretly because of their
+illegality, sometimes openly, until it became of sufficient interest
+to some one to prosecute them or their officers, sometimes making the
+misleading claim of being benefit societies. Prosecutions under the
+combination laws were, however, frequent. In the first quarter of the
+century there were many hundred convictions of workmen or their
+delegates or officers. Yet these laws were clear instances of
+interference with the perfect freedom which ought theoretically to be
+allowed to each person to employ his labor or capital in the manner
+he might deem most advantageous. Their inconsistency with the general
+movement of abolition of restrictions then in progress could hardly
+escape observation. Thus the philosophic tendencies of the time
+combined with the aspirations of the leaders of the working classes to
+rouse an agitation in favor of the repeal of the combination laws. The
+matter was brought up in Parliament in 1822, and two successive
+committees were appointed to investigate the questions involved. As a
+result, a thoroughgoing repeal law was passed in 1824, but this in
+turn was almost immediately repealed, and another substituted for it
+in 1825, a great series of strikes having impressed the legislature
+with the belief that the former had gone too far. The law, as finally
+adopted, repealed all the combination acts which stood upon the
+statute book, and relieved from punishment men who met together for
+the sole purpose of agreeing on the rate of wages or the number of
+hours they would work, so long as this agreement referred to the wages
+or hours of those only who were present at the meeting. It declared,
+however, the illegality of any violence, threats, intimidation,
+molestation, or obstruction, used to induce any other workmen to
+strike or to join their association or take any other action in regard
+to hours or wages. Any attempt to bring pressure to bear upon an
+employer to make any change in his business was also forbidden, and
+the common law opposition was left unrepealed. The effect of the
+legislation of 1824 and 1825 was to enable trade unions to exist if
+their activity was restricted to an agreement upon their own wages or
+hours. Any effort, however, to establish wages and hours for other
+persons than those taking part in their meetings, or any strike on
+questions of piecework or number of apprentices or machinery or
+non-union workmen, was still illegal, both by this statute and by
+Common Law. The vague words, "molestation," "obstruction," and
+"intimidation," used in the law were also capable of being construed,
+as they actually were, in such a way as to prevent any considerable
+activity on the part of trade unions. Nevertheless a great stimulus
+was given to the formation of organizations among workingmen, and the
+period of their legal growth and development now began,
+notwithstanding the narrow field of activity allowed them by the law
+as it then stood. Combinations were continually formed for further
+objects, and prosecutions, either under the statute or under Common
+Law, were still very numerous. In 1859 a further change in the law was
+made, by which it became lawful to combine to demand a change of wages
+or hours, even if the action involved other persons than those taking
+part in the agreement, and to exercise peaceful persuasion upon others
+to join the strikers in their action. Within the bounds of the limited
+legal powers granted by the laws of 1825 and 1859, large numbers of
+trade unions were formed, much agitation carried on, strikes won and
+lost, pressure exerted upon Parliament, and the most active and
+capable of the working classes gradually brought to take an interest
+in the movement. This growth was unfortunately accompanied by much
+disorder. During times of industrial struggle non-strikers were
+beaten, employers were assaulted, property was destroyed, and in
+certain industrial communities confusion and outrage occurred every
+few years. The complicity of the trade unions as such in these
+disorders was constantly asserted and as constantly denied; but there
+seems little doubt that while by far the greatest amount of disorder
+was due to individual strikers or their sympathizers, and would have
+occurred, perhaps in even more intense form, if there had been no
+trade unions, yet there were cases where the organized unions were
+themselves responsible. The frequent recurrence of rioting and
+assault, the losses from industrial conflicts, and the agitation of
+the trade unionists for further legalization, all combined to bring
+the matter to attention, and four successive Parliamentary commissions
+of investigation, in addition to those of 1824 and 1825, were
+appointed in 1828, 1856, 1860, and 1867, respectively. The last of
+these was due to a series of prolonged strikes and accompanying
+outrages in Sheffield, Nottingham, and Manchester. The committee
+consisted of able and influential men. It made a full investigation
+and report, and finally recommended, somewhat to the public surprise,
+that further laws for the protection and at the same time for the
+regulation of trade unions be passed. As a result, two laws were
+passed in the year 1871, the Trade Union Act and the Criminal Law
+Amendment Act. By the first of these it was declared that trade unions
+were not to be declared illegal because they were "in restraint of
+trade," and that they might be registered as benefit societies, and
+thereby become quasi-corporations, to the extent of having their funds
+protected by law, and being able to hold property for the proper uses
+of their organization. At the same time the Liberal majority in
+Parliament, who had only passed this law under pressure, and were but
+half hearted in their approval of trade unions, by the second law of
+the same year, made still more clear and vigorous the prohibition of
+"molesting," "obstructing," "threatening," "persistently following,"
+"watching or besetting" any workmen who had not voluntarily joined the
+trade union. As these terms were still undefined, the law might be,
+and it was, still sufficiently elastic to allow magistrates or judges
+who disapproved of trade unionism to punish men for the most ordinary
+forms of persuasion or pressure used in industrial conflicts. An
+agitation was immediately begun for the repeal or modification of
+this later law. This was accomplished finally by the Trade Union Act
+of 1875, by which it was declared that no action committed by a group
+of workmen was punishable unless the same act was criminal if
+committed by a single individual. Peaceful persuasion of non-union
+workmen was expressly permitted, some of the elastic words of
+disapproval used in previous laws were omitted altogether, other
+offences especially likely to occur in such disputes were relegated to
+the ordinary criminal law, and a new act was passed, clearing up the
+whole question of the illegality of conspiracy in such a way as not to
+treat trade unions in any different way from other bodies, or to
+interfere with their existence or normal actions.
+
+Thus, by the four steps taken in 1825, 1859, 1871, and 1875, all trace
+of illegality has been taken away from trade unions and their ordinary
+actions. They have now the same legal right to exist, to hold
+property, and to carry out the objects of their organization that a
+banking or manufacturing company or a social or literary club has.
+
+The passing away of the popular disapproval of trade unions has been
+more gradual and indefinite, but not less real. The employers, after
+many hard-fought battles in their own trades, in the newspapers, and
+in Parliament, have come, in a great number of cases, to prefer that
+there should be a well-organized trade union in their industry rather
+than a chaotic body of restless and unorganized laborers. The
+aristocratic dread of lower-class organizations and activity has
+become less strong and less important, as political violence has
+ceased to threaten and as English society as a whole has become more
+democratic. The Reform Bill of 1867 was a voluntary concession by the
+higher and middle classes to the lower, showing that political dread
+of the working classes and their trade unions had  disappeared. The
+older type of clergymen of the established church, who had all the
+sympathies and prejudices of the aristocracy, has been largely
+superseded, since the days of Kingsley and Maurice, by men who have
+taken the deepest interest in working-class movements, and who teach
+struggle and effort rather than acceptance and contentment.
+
+The formation of trade unions, even while it has led to higher wages,
+shorter hours, and a more independent and self-assertive body of
+laborers, has made labor so much more efficient that, taken in
+connection with other elements of English economic activity, it has
+led to no resulting loss of her industrial supremacy. As to the
+economic arguments against trade unions, they have become less
+influential with the discrediting of much of the theoretical teaching
+on which they were based. In 1867 a book by W. T. Thornton, _On Labor,
+its Wrongful Claims and Rightful Dues_, successfully attacked the
+wages-fund theory, since which time the belief that the rate of wages
+was absolutely determined by the amount of that fund and the number of
+laborers has gradually been given up. The belief in the possibility of
+voluntary limitation of the effect of the so-called "natural laws" of
+the economic teachers of the early and middle parts of the century has
+grown stronger and spread more widely. Finally, the general popular
+feeling of dislike of trade unions has much diminished within the last
+twenty-five years, since their lawfulness has been acknowledged, and
+since their own policy has become more distinctly orderly and
+moderate.
+
+Much of this change in popular feeling toward trade unions was so
+gradual as not to be measurable, but some of its stages can be
+distinguished. Perhaps the first very noticeable step in the general
+acceptance of trade unions, other than their mere legalization, was
+the interest and approval given to the formation of boards of
+conciliation or arbitration from 1867 forward. These were bodies in
+which representatives elected by the employers and representatives
+elected by trade unions met on equal terms to discuss differences, the
+unions thus being acknowledged as the normal form of organization of
+the working classes. In 1885 the Royal Commission on the depression of
+trade spoke with favor cf trade unions. In 1889 the great London
+Dockers' strike called forth the sympathy and the moral and pecuniary
+support of representatives of classes which had probably never before
+shown any favor to such organizations. More than $200,000 was
+subscribed by the public, and every form of popular pressure was
+brought to bear on the employers. In fact, the Dock Laborers' Union
+was partly created and almost entirely supported by outside public
+influence. In the same year the London School Board and County Council
+both declared that all contractors doing their work must pay "fair
+wages," an expression which was afterward defined as being union
+wages. Before 1894 some one hundred and fifty town and county
+governments had adopted a rule that fair wages must be paid to all
+workmen employed directly or indirectly by them. In 1890 and 1893 and
+subsequently the government has made the same declaration in favor of
+the rate of wages established by the unions in each industry. In 1890
+the report of the House of Lords Committee on the sweating system
+recommends in certain cases "well-considered combinations among the
+laborers." Therefore public opinion, like the formal law of the
+country, has passed from its early opposition to the trade unions,
+through criticism and reluctant toleration, to an almost complete
+acceptance and even encouragement. Trade unions have become a part of
+the regularly established institutions of the country, and few persons
+probably would wish to see them go out of existence or be seriously
+weakened.
+
+
+*81. The Growth of Trade Unions.*--The actual growth of trade unionism
+has been irregular, interrupted, and has spread from many scattered
+centres. Hundreds of unions have been formed, lived for a time, and
+gone out of existence; others have survived from the very beginning of
+the century to the present; some have dwindled into insignificance and
+then revived in some special need. The workmen in some parts of the
+country and in certain trades were early and strongly organized, in
+others they have scarcely even yet become interested or made the
+effort to form unions. In the history of the trade-union movement as a
+whole there have been periods of active growth and multiplication and
+strengthening of organizations. Again, there have been times when
+trade unionism was distinctly losing ground, or when internal
+dissension seemed likely to deprive the whole movement of its vigor.
+There have been three periods when progress was particularly rapid,
+between 1830 and 1834, in 1873 and 1874, and from 1889 to the present
+time. But before the middle of the century trade unions existed in
+almost every important line of industry. By careful computation it is
+estimated that there were in Great Britain and Ireland in 1892 about
+1750 distinct unions or separate branches of unions, with some million
+and a half members. This would be about twenty per cent of the adult
+male working-class population, or an average of about one man who is a
+member of a trade union out of five who might be. But the great
+importance and influence of the trade unionists arises not from this
+comparatively small general proportion, but from the fact that the
+organizations are strongest in the most highly skilled and best-paid
+industries, and in the most thickly settled, highly developed parts of
+the country, and that they contain the picked and ablest men in each
+of the industries where they do exist. In some occupations, as cotton
+spinning in Lancashire, boiler making and iron ship building in the
+seaport towns, coal mining in Northumberland, glass making in the
+Midland counties, and others, practically every operative is a member
+of a trade union. Similarly in certain parts of the country much more
+than half of all workingmen are trade unionists. Their influence also
+is far more than in proportion to their numbers, since from their
+membership are chosen practically all workingmen representatives in
+Parliament and local governments and in administrative positions. The
+unions also furnish all the most influential leaders of opinion among
+the working classes.
+
+
+*82. Federation of Trade Unions.*--From the earliest days of trade-union
+organization there have been efforts to extend the unions beyond the
+boundaries of the single occupation or the single locality. The
+earliest form of union was a body made up of the workmen of some one
+industry in some one locality, as the gold beaters of London, or the
+cutlers of Sheffield, or the cotton spinners of Manchester. Three
+forms of extension or federation soon took place: first, the formation
+of national societies composed of men of the same trade through the
+whole country; secondly, the formation of "trades councils,"--bodies
+representing all the different trades in any one locality; and,
+thirdly, the formation of a great national organization of workingmen
+or trade unionists. The first of these forms of extension dates from
+the earliest years of the century, though such bodies had often only a
+transitory existence. The Manchester cotton spinners took the
+initiative in organizing a national body in that industry in 1829; in
+1831 a National Potters' Union is heard of, and others in the same
+decade. The largest and most permanent national bodies, however, such
+as the compositors, the flint-glass makers, miners, and  others were
+formed after 1840; the miners in 1844 numbering 70,000 voting members.
+Several of these national bodies were formed by an amalgamation of a
+number of different but more or less closely allied trades. The most
+conspicuous example of this was the Amalgamated Society of Engineers,
+the formation of which was completed in 1850, and which, beginning in
+that year with 5000 members, had more than doubled them in the next
+five years, doubled them again by 1860, and since then has kept up a
+steady increase in numbers and strength, having 67,928 members in
+1890. The increasing ease of travel and cheapness of postage, and the
+improved education and intelligence of the workingmen, made the
+formation of national societies more practicable, and since the middle
+of the century most of the important societies have become national
+bodies made up of local branches.
+
+The second form of extension, the trades council, dates from a
+somewhat later period. Such a body arose usually when some matter of
+common interest had happened in the labor world, and delegates from
+the various unions in each locality were called upon to organize and
+to subscribe funds, prepare a petition to Parliament, or take other
+common action. In this temporary form they had existed from a much
+earlier date. The first permanent local board, made up of
+representatives of the various local bodies, was that of Liverpool,
+formed in 1848 to protect trade unionists from prosecutions for
+illegal conspiracy. In 1857 a permanent body was formed in Sheffield,
+and in the years immediately following in Glasgow, London, Bristol,
+and other cities. They have since come into existence in most of the
+larger industrial towns, 120 local trades councils existing in 1892.
+Their influence has been variable and limited.
+
+The formation of a general body of organized workingmen of all
+industries and from all parts of the country is an old dream. Various
+such societies were early formed only to play a more or less
+conspicuous rôle for a few years and then drop out of existence. In
+1830 a "National Association for the Protection of Labor" was formed,
+in 1834 a "Grand National Consolidated Trades Union," in 1845 a
+"National Association of United Trades for the Protection of Labor,"
+and in 1874 a "Federation of Organized Trade Societies," each of which
+had a short popularity and influence, and then died.
+
+In the meantime, however, a more practicable if less ambitious plan of
+unification of interests had been discovered in the form of an "Annual
+Trade Union Congress." This institution grew out of the trades
+councils. In 1864 the Glasgow Trades Council called a meeting of
+delegates from all trade unions to take action on the state of the law
+of employment, and in 1867 the Sheffield Trades Council called a
+similar meeting to agree upon measures of opposition to lockouts. The
+next year, 1868, the Manchester Trades Council issued a call for "a
+Congress of the Representatives of Trades Councils, Federations of
+Trades, and Trade Societies in general." Its plan was based on the
+annual meetings of the Social Science Association, and it was
+contemplated that it should meet each year in a different city and sit
+for five or six days. This first general Congress was attended by 34
+delegates, who claimed to represent some 118,000 trade unionists. The
+next meeting, at Birmingham, in 1869, was attended by 48 delegates,
+representing 40 separate societies, with some 250,000 members. With
+the exception of the next year, 1870, the Congress has met annually
+since, the meetings taking place at Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield, and
+other cities, with an attendance varying between one and two hundred
+delegates, representing members ranging from a half-million to eight
+or nine hundred thousand. It elects each year a Parliamentary
+Committee consisting of ten members and a secretary, whose duty is to
+attend in London during the sittings of Parliament and exert what
+influence they can on legislation or appointments in the interests of
+the trade unionists whom they represent. In fact, most of the activity
+of the Congress was for a number of years represented by the
+Parliamentary Committee, the meetings themselves being devoted largely
+to commonplace discussions, points of conflict between the unions
+being intentionally ruled out. In recent years there have been some
+heated contests in the Congress on questions of general policy, but on
+the whole it and its Parliamentary Committee remain a somewhat loose
+and ineffective representation of the unity and solidarity of feeling
+of the great army of trade unionists. As a result, however, of the
+efforts of the unions in their various forms of organization there
+have always, since 1874, been a number of "labor members" of
+Parliament, usually officers of the great national trade unions, and
+many trade unionist members of local government bodies and school
+boards. Representative trade unionists have been appointed as
+government inspectors and other officials, and as members of
+government investigating commissions. Many changes in the law in which
+as workingmen the trade unionists are interested have been carried
+through Parliament or impressed upon the ministry through the
+influence of the organized bodies or their officers.
+
+The trade-union movement has therefore resulted in the formation of a
+powerful group of federated organizations, including far the most
+important and influential part of the working classes, acknowledged by
+the law, more or less fully approved by public opinion, and
+influential in national policy. It is to be noticed that while the
+legalization of trade unions was at first carried out under the claim
+and with the intention that the workingmen would thereby be relieved
+from restrictions and given a greater measure of freedom, yet the
+actual effect of the formation of trade unions has been a limitation
+of the field of free competition as truly as was the passage of the
+factory laws. The control of the government was withdrawn, but the men
+voluntarily limited their individual freedom of action by combining
+into organizations which bound them to act as groups, not as
+individuals. The basis of the trade unions is arrangement by the
+collective body of wages, hours, and other conditions of labor for all
+its members instead of leaving them to individual contract between the
+employer and the single employee. The workman who joins a trade union
+therefore divests himself to that extent of his individual freedom of
+action in order that he may, as he believes, obtain a higher good and
+a more substantial liberty through collective or associated action.
+Just in as far, therefore, as the trade-union movement has extended
+and been approved of by law and public opinion, just so far has the
+ideal of individualism been discredited and its sphere of
+applicability narrowed. Trade unions therefore represent the same
+reaction from complete individual freedom of industrial action as do
+factory laws and the other extensions of the economic functions of
+government discussed in the last chapter.
+
+
+*83. Employers' Organizations.*--From this point of view there has been
+a very close analogy between the actions of workingmen and certain
+recent action among manufacturers and other members of the employing
+classes. In the first place, employers' associations have been formed
+from time to time to take common action in resistance to trade unions
+or for common negotiations with them. As early as 1814 the master
+cutlers formed, notwithstanding the combination laws, the "Sheffield
+Mercantile and Manufacturing Union," for the purpose of keeping down
+piecework wages to their existing rate. In 1851 the "Central
+Association of Employers of Operative Engineers" was formed to resist
+the strong union of the "Amalgamated Engineers." They have also had
+their national bodies, such as the "Iron Trade Employers'
+Association," active in 1878, and their general federations, such as
+the "National Federation of Associated Employers of Labor," which was
+formed in 1873, and included prominent shipbuilders, textile
+manufacturers, engineers, iron manufacturers, and builders. Many of
+these organizations, especially the national or district organizations
+of the employers in single trades, exist for other and more general
+purposes, but incidentally the representatives of the masters'
+associations regularly arrange wages and other labor conditions with
+the representatives of the workingmen's associations. There is,
+therefore, in these cases no more competition among employers as to
+what wages they shall pay than among the workmen as to what wages they
+shall receive. In both cases it is a matter of arrangement between the
+two associations, each representing its own membership. The liberty
+both of the individual manufacturer and of the workman ceases in this
+respect when he joins his association.
+
+
+*84. Trusts and Trade Combinations.*--But the competition among the
+great producers, traders, transportation companies, and other
+industrial leaders has been diminished in recent times in other ways
+than in their relation to their employees. In manufacturing, mining,
+and many wholesale trades, employers' associations have held annual or
+more frequent meetings at which agreements have been made as to
+prices, amount of production, terms of sale, length of  credit, and
+other such matters. In some cases formal combinations have been made
+of all the operators in one trade, with provisions for enforcing trade
+agreements. In such a case all competition comes to an end in that
+particular trade, so far as the subjects of agreement extend. The
+culminating stage in this development has been the formation of
+"trusts," by which the stock of all or practically all the producers
+in some one line is thrown together, and a company formed with regular
+officers or a board of management controlling the whole trade. An
+instance of this is the National Telephone Company, already referred
+to. In all these fields unrestricted competition has been tried and
+found wanting, and has been given up by those most concerned, in favor
+of action which is collective or previously agreed upon. In the field
+of transportation, boards of railway presidents or other combinations
+have been formed, by which rates of fares and freight rates have been
+established, "pooling" or the proportionate distribution of freight
+traffic made, "car trusts" formed, and other non-competitive
+arrangements made. In banking, clearing-house agreements have been
+made, a common policy adopted in times of financial crisis, and
+through gatherings of bankers a common influence exerted on
+legislation and opinion. Thus in the higher as in the lower stages of
+industrial life, in the great business interests, as among workingmen,
+recent movements have all been away from a competitive organization of
+economic society, and in the direction of combination, consolidation,
+and union. Where competition still exists it is probably more intense
+than ever before, but its field of application is much smaller than it
+has been in the past. Government control and voluntary regulation have
+alike limited the field in which competition acts.
+
+
+*85. Coöperation in Distribution.*--Another movement in the same
+direction is the spread of coöperation in its various forms. Numerous
+coöperative societies, with varying objects and methods, formed part
+of the seething agitation, experimentation, and discussion
+characteristic of the early years of the nineteenth century; but the
+coöperative movement as a definite, continuous development dates from
+the organization of the "Rochdale Equitable Pioneers" in 1844. This
+society was composed of twenty-eight working weavers of that town, who
+saved up one pound each, and thus created a capital of twenty-eight
+pounds, which they invested in flour, oatmeal, butter, sugar, and some
+other groceries. They opened a store in the house of one of their
+number in Toad Lane, Rochdale, for the sale of these articles to their
+own members under a plan previously agreed to. The principal points of
+their scheme, afterward known as the "Rochdale Plan," were as follows:
+sale of goods at regular market prices, division of profits to members
+at quarterly intervals in proportion to purchases, subscription to
+capital in instalments by members, and payment of five per cent
+interest. There were also various provisions of minor importance, such
+as absolute purity and honesty of goods, insistance on cash payments,
+devoting a part of their earnings to educational or other
+self-improvement, settling all questions by equal vote. These
+arrangements sprang naturally from the fact that they proposed
+carrying on their store for their own benefit, alike as proprietors,
+shareholders, and consumers of their goods.
+
+The source of the profits they would have to divide among their
+members was the same as in the case of any ordinary store. The
+difference between the wholesale price, at which they would buy, and
+the retail market price, at which they would sell, would be the gross
+profits. From this would have to be paid, normally, rent for their
+store, wages for their salesmen, and interest on their capital. But
+after these were paid there should still remain a certain amount of
+net profit, and this it was which they proposed to divide among
+themselves as purchasers, instead of leaving it to be taken by an
+ordinary store proprietor. The capital they furnished themselves, and
+consequently paid themselves the interest. The first two items also
+amounted to nothing at first, though naturally they must be accounted
+for if their store rose to any success. As a matter of fact, their
+success was immediate and striking. They admitted new members freely,
+and at the end of the first year of their existence had increased in
+numbers to seventy-four with £187 capital. During the year they had
+done a business of £710, and distributed profits of £22. A table of
+the increase of this first successful coöperative establishment at
+succeeding ten years' periods is as follows:--
+
+  ------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------
+        |           |           |          |
+  Date  |  Members  |  Capital  | Business | Profits
+        |           |           |          |
+  ------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------
+   1855 |   1,400   | £ 11,032  | £ 44,902 | £ 3,109
+   1865 |   5,326   |   78,778  |  196,234 |  25,156
+   1875 |   8,415   |  225,682  |  305,657 |  48,212
+   1885 |  11,084   |  324,645  |  252,072 |  45,254
+   1898 |  12,719   | --------  |  292,335 | -------
+  ------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------
+
+They soon extended their business in variety as well as in total
+amount. In 1847 they added the sale of linen and woollen goods, in
+1850 of meat, in 1867 they began baking and selling bread to their
+customers. They opened eventually a dozen or more branch stores in
+Rochdale, the original Toad Lane house being superseded by a great
+distributing building or central store, with a library and reading
+room. They own much property in the town, and have spread their
+activity into many lines.
+
+The example of the Rochdale society was followed by many others,
+especially in the north of England and south of Scotland. A few years
+after its foundation two large and successful societies were started
+in Oldham, having between them by 1860 more than 3000 members, and
+doing a business of some £80,000 a year. In Liverpool, Manchester,
+Birmingham, and other cities similar societies grew up at the same
+period. In 1863 there were some 454 coöperative societies of this kind
+in existence, 381 of them together having 108,000 members and doing an
+annual business of about £2,600,000. One hundred and seventeen of the
+total number of societies were in Lancashire and 96 in Yorkshire. Many
+of these eventually came to have a varied and extensive activity. The
+Leeds Coöperative Society, for instance, had in 1892 a grist mill, 69
+grocery and provision stores, 20 dry goods and millinery shops, 9 boot
+and shoe shops, and 40 butcher shops. It had 12 coal depots, a
+furnishing store, a bakery, a tailoring establishment, a boot and shoe
+factory, a brush factory, and acted as a builder of houses and
+cottages. It had at that time 29,958 members. The work done by these
+coöperative stores is known as "distributive coöperation," or
+"coöperation in distribution." It combines the seller and the buyer
+into one group. From one point of view the society is a store-keeping
+body, buying goods at wholesale and selling them at retail. From
+another point of view, exactly the same group of persons, the members
+of the society, are the customers of the store, the purchasers and
+consumers of the goods. Whenever any body of men form an association
+to carry on an establishment which sells them the goods they need,
+dividing the profits of the buying and selling among the members of
+the association, it is a society for distributive coöperation.
+
+A variation from the Rochdale plan is that used in three or perhaps
+more societies organized in London between 1856 and 1875 by officials
+and employees of the government. These are the Civil Service Supply
+Association, the Civil Service Coöperative Society, and the Army and
+Navy Stores. In these, instead of buying at wholesale and selling at
+retail rates, sharing the profits at the end of a given term, they
+sell as well as buy at wholesale rates, except for the slight increase
+necessary to pay the expenses of carrying on the store. In other
+words, the members obtain their goods for use at cheap rates instead
+of dividing up a business profit.
+
+But these and still other variations have had only a slight connection
+with the working-class coöperative movement just described. A more
+direct development of it was the formation, in 1864, of the Wholesale
+Coöperative Society, at Manchester, a body holding much the same
+relation to the coöperative societies that each of them does to its
+individual members. The shareholders are the retail coöperative
+societies, which supply the capital and control its actions. During
+its first year the Wholesale Society possessed a capital of £2456 and
+did a business of £51,858. In 1865 its capital was something over
+£7000 and business over £120,000. Ten years later, in 1875, its
+capital was £360,527 and yearly business £2,103,226. In 1889 its sales
+were £7,028,994. Its purchasing agents have been widely distributed in
+various parts of the world. In 1873 it purchased and began running a
+cracker factory, shortly afterward a boot and shoe factory, the next
+year a soap factory. Subsequently it has taken up a woollen goods
+factory, cocoa works, and the manufacture of ready-made clothing. It
+employs something over 5000 persons, has large branches in London,
+Newcastle, and Leicester, agencies and depots in various countries,
+and runs six steamships. It possesses also a banking department.
+Coöperative stores, belonging to wholesale and retail distributive
+coöperative societies, are thus a well-established and steadily, if
+somewhat slowly, extending element in modern industrial society.
+
+
+*86. Coöperation in Production.*--But the greatest problems in the
+relations of modern industrial classes to one another are not
+connected with buying and selling, but with employment and wages. The
+competition between employer and employee is more intense than that
+between buyer and seller and has more influence on the constitution of
+society. This opposition of employer and employee is especially
+prominent in manufacturing, and the form of coöperation which is based
+on a combination or union of these two classes is therefore commonly
+called "coöperation in production," as distinguished from coöperation
+in distribution. Societies have been formed on a coöperative basis to
+produce one or another kind of goods from the earliest years of the
+century, but their real development dates from a period somewhat later
+than that of the coöperative stores, that is, from about 1850. In this
+year there were in existence in England bodies of workmen who were
+carrying on, with more or less outside advice, assistance, or control,
+a coöperative tailoring establishment, a bakery, a printing shop, two
+building establishments, a piano factory, a shoe factory, and several
+flour mills. These companies were all formed on the same general plan.
+The workmen were generally the members of the company. They paid
+themselves the prevailing rate of wages, then divided among themselves
+either equally or in proportion to their wages the net profits of the
+business, when there were any, having first reserved a sufficient
+amount to pay interest on capital. As a matter of fact, the capital
+and much of the direction was contributed from outside by persons
+philanthropically interested in the plans, but the ideal recognized
+and desired was that capital should be subscribed, interest received,
+and all administration carried on by the workmen-coöperators
+themselves. In this way, in a coöperative productive establishment,
+there would not be two classes, employer and employee. The same
+individuals would be acting in both capacities, either themselves or
+through their elected managers. All of these early companies failed or
+dissolved, sooner or later, but in the meantime others had been
+established. By 1862 some 113 productive societies had been formed,
+including 28 textile manufacturing companies, 8 boot and shoe
+factories, 7 societies of iron workers, 4 of brush makers, and
+organizations in various other trades. Among the most conspicuous of
+these were three which were much discussed during their period of
+prosperity. They were the Liverpool Working Tailors' Association,
+which lasted from 1850 to 1860, the Manchester Working Tailors'
+Association, which flourished from 1850 to 1872, and the Manchester
+Working Hatters' Association, 1851-1873. These companies had at
+different times from 6 to 30 members each. After the great strike of
+the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, in 1852, a series of iron
+workers' coöperative associations were formed. In the next twenty
+years, between 1862 and 1882, some 163 productive societies were
+formed, and in 1892 there were 143 societies solely for coöperative
+production in existence, with some 25,000 members. Coöperative
+production has been distinctly less prosperous than coöperative
+distribution. Most purely coöperative productive societies have had a
+short and troubled existence, though their dissolution has in many
+cases been the result of contention rather than ordinary failure and
+has not always involved pecuniary loss. In addition to the usual
+difficulties of all business, insufficiency of capital, incompetency
+of buying and selling agents and of managers, dishonesty of trusted
+officials or of debtors, commercial panics, and other adversities to
+which coöperative, quite as much as or even more than individual
+companies have been subject, there are peculiar dangers often fatal to
+their coöperative principles. For instance, more than one such
+association, after going through a period of struggle and sacrifice,
+and emerging into a period of prosperity, has yielded to the
+temptation to hire additional employees just as any other employer
+might, at regular wages, without admitting them to any share in the
+profits, interest, or control of the business. Such a concern is
+little more than an ordinary joint-stock company with an unusually
+large number of shareholders. As a matter of fact, plain, clear-cut
+coöperative production makes up but a small part of that which is
+currently reported and known as such. A fairer statement would be that
+there is a large element of coöperation in a great many productive
+establishments. Nevertheless, productive societies more or less
+consistent to coöperative principles exist in considerable numbers and
+have even shown a distinct increase of growth in recent years.
+
+
+*87. Coöperation in Farming.*--Very much the same statements are true of
+another branch of coöperative effort,--coöperation in farming.
+Experiments were made very early, they have been numerous, mostly
+short-lived, and yet show a tendency to increase within the last
+decade. Sixty or more societies have engaged in coöperative farming,
+but only half a dozen are now in existence. The practicability and
+desirability of the application of coöperative ideals to agriculture
+is nevertheless a subject of constant discussion among those
+interested in coöperation, and new schemes are being tried from time
+to time.
+
+The growth of coöperation, like that of trade unions, has been
+dependent on successive modifications of the law; though it was rather
+its defects than its opposition that caused the difficulty in this
+case. When coöperative organizations were first formed it was found
+that by the common law they could not legally deal as societies with
+non-members; that they could not hold land for investment, or for any
+other purpose than the transaction of their own business, or more than
+one acre even for this purpose; that they could not loan money to
+other societies; that the embezzlement or misuse of their funds by
+their officers was not punishable; and that each member was
+responsible for the debts of the whole society. Eight or ten statutes
+have been passed to cure the legal defects from which coöperative
+associations suffered. The most important of these were the "Frugal
+Investment Clause" in the Friendly Societies Act of 1846, by which
+such associations were allowed to be formed and permitted to hold
+personal property for the purposes of a society for savings; the
+Industrial and Provident Societies Act, of 1852, by which coöperative
+societies were definitely authorized and obtained the right to sue as
+if they were corporations; the Act of 1862, which repealed the former
+acts, gave them the right of incorporation, made each member liable
+for debt only to the extent of his own investment, and allowed them
+greater latitude for investments; the third Industrial and Provident
+Societies Act of 1876, which again repealed previous acts and
+established a veritable code for their regulation and extension; and
+the act of 1894, which amends the law in some further points in which
+it had proved defective. All the needs of the coöperative movement, so
+far as they have been discovered and agreed upon by those interested
+in its propagation, have thus been provided for, so far as the law can
+do so.
+
+Coöperation has always contained an element of philanthropy, or at
+least of enthusiastic belief on the part of those especially
+interested in it, that it was destined to be of great service to
+humanity, and to solve many of the problems of modern social
+organization. Advocates of coöperation have not therefore been content
+simply to organize societies which would conduce to their own profit,
+but have kept up a constant propaganda for their extension. There was
+a period of about twenty years, from 1820 to 1840, before coöperation
+was placed on a solid footing, when it was advocated and tried in
+numerous experiments as a part of the agitation begun by Robert Owen
+for the establishment of socialistic communities. Within this period a
+series of congresses of delegates of coöperative associations was held
+in successive years from 1830 to 1846, and numerous periodicals were
+published for short periods. In 1850 a group of philanthropic and
+enthusiastic young men, including such able and prominent men as
+Thomas Hughes, Frederick D. Maurice, and others who have since been
+connected through long lives with coöperative effort, formed
+themselves into a "Society for promoting Working Men's Associations,"
+which sent out lecturers, published tracts and a newspaper, loaned
+money, promoted legislation, and took other action for the
+encouragement of coöperation. Its members were commonly known as the
+"Christian Socialists." They had but scant success, and in 1854
+dissolved the Association and founded instead a "Working Men's
+College" in London, which long remained a centre of coöperative and
+reformatory agitation.
+
+So far, this effort to extend and regulate the movement came rather
+from outside sympathizers than from coöperators themselves. With 1869,
+however, began a series of annual Coöperative Congresses which, like
+the annual Trade Union Congresses, have sprung from the initiative of
+workingmen themselves and which are still continued. Papers are read,
+addresses made, experiences compared, and most important of all a
+Central Board and a Parliamentary Committee elected for the ensuing
+year. At the thirty-first annual Congress, held in Liverpool in 1899,
+there were 1205 delegates present, representing over a million members
+of coöperative societies. Since 1887 a "Coöperative Festival," or
+exhibition of the products of coöperative workshops and factories, has
+been held each year in connection with the Congress. This exhibition
+is designed especially to encourage coöperative production. At the
+first Congress, in 1869, a Coöperative Union was formed which aims to
+include all the coöperative societies of the country, and as a matter
+of fact does include about three-fourths of them. The Central
+Coöperative Board represents this Union. It is divided into seven
+sections, each having charge of the affairs of one of the seven
+districts into which the country is divided for coöperative work. The
+Board issues a journal, prints pamphlets, keeps up correspondence,
+holds public examinations on auditing, book-keeping, and the
+principles of coöperation, and acts as a statistical, propagandist,
+and regulative body. There is also a "Coöperative Guild" and a
+"Women's Coöperative Guild," the latter with 262 branches and a
+membership of 12,537, in 1898.
+
+The total number of recognized coöperative societies in existence at
+the beginning of the year 1900 has been estimated at 1640, with a
+combined membership of 1,640,078, capital of £19,759,039, and
+investments of £11,681,296. The sale of goods in the year 1898 was
+£65,460,871, and net profits had amounted to £7,165,753. During the
+year 1898, 181 new societies of various kinds were formed.
+
+
+*88. Coöperation in Credit.*--In England building societies are not
+usually recognized as a form of coöperation, but they are in reality
+coöperative in the field of credit in the same way as the associations
+already discussed are in distribution, in production, or in
+agriculture. Building societies are defined in one of the statutes as
+bodies formed "for the purpose of raising by the subscription of the
+members a stock or fund for making advances to members out of the
+funds of the society." The general plan of one of these societies is
+as follows: A number of persons become members, each taking one or
+more shares. Each shareholder is required to pay into the treasury a
+certain sum each month. There is thus created each month a new capital
+sum which can be loaned to some member who may wish to borrow it and
+be able and willing to give security and to pay interest. The borrower
+will afterward have to pay not only his monthly dues, but the interest
+on his loan. The proportionate amount of the interest received is
+credited to each member, borrower and non-borrower alike, so that
+after a certain number of months, by the receipts from dues and
+interest, the borrower will have repaid his loan, whilst the members
+who have not borrowed will receive a corresponding sum in cash.
+Borrowers and lenders are thus the same group of persons, just as
+sellers and consumers are in distributive, and employers and employees
+in productive coöperation. The members of such societies are enabled
+to obtain loans when otherwise they might not be able to; the
+periodical dues create a succession of small amounts to be loaned,
+when otherwise this class of persons could hardly save up a sufficient
+sum to be used as capital; and finally by paying the interest to
+their collective group, so that a proportionate part of it is returned
+to the borrower, and by the continuance of the payment of dues, the
+repayment of the loan is less of a burden than in ordinary loans
+obtained from a bank or a capitalist. Loans to their members have been
+usually restricted to money to be used for the building of a
+dwelling-house or store or the purchase of land; whence their name of
+"building societies." Their formation dates from 1815, their
+extension, from about 1834. The principal laws authorizing and
+regulating their operations were passed in 1836, 1874, and 1894. The
+total number of building societies in England to-day is estimated at
+about 3000, their membership at about 600,000 members with £52,000,000
+of funds. The history of these societies has been marked by a large
+number of failures, and they have lacked the moral elevation of the
+coöperative movement in its other phases. The codifying act of 1894
+established a minute oversight and control over these societies on the
+part of the government authorities while at the same time it extended
+their powers and privileges.
+
+The one feature common to all forms of coöperation is the union of
+previously competing economic classes. In a coöperative store,
+competition between buyer and seller does not exist; and the same is
+true for borrower and lender in a building and loan association and
+for employer and employee in a coöperative factory. Coöperation is
+therefore in line with other recent movements in being a reaction from
+competition.
+
+
+*89. Profit Sharing.*--There is a device which has been introduced into
+many establishments which stands midway between simple competitive
+relations and full coöperation. It diminishes, though it does not
+remove, the opposition between employer and employee. This is "*profit
+sharing.*" In the year 1865 Henry Briggs, Son and Co., operators of
+collieries in Yorkshire, after long and disastrous conflicts with the
+miners' trade unions, offered as a measure of conciliation to their
+employees that whenever the net profit of the business should be more
+than ten per cent on their investment, one-half of all such surplus
+profit should be divided among the workmen in proportion to the wages
+they had earned in the previous year. The expectation was that the
+increased interest and effort and devotion put into the work by the
+men would be such as to make the total earnings of the employers
+greater, notwithstanding their sacrifice to the men of the half of the
+profits above ten per cent. This anticipation was justified. After a
+short period of suspicion on the part of the men, and doubt on the
+part of the employers, both parties seemed to be converted to the
+advantages of profit sharing, a sanguine report of their experience
+was made by a member of the firm to the Social Science Association in
+1868, sums between one and six thousand pounds were divided yearly
+among the employees, while the percentage of profits to the owners
+rose to as much as eighteen per cent. This experiment split on the
+rock of dissension in 1875, but in the meantime others, either in
+imitation of their plan or independently, had introduced the same or
+other forms of profit sharing. Another colliery, two iron works, a
+textile factory, a millinery firm, a printing shop, and some others
+admitted their employees to a share in the profits within the years
+1865 and 1866. The same plan was then introduced into certain retail
+stores, and into a considerable variety of occupations, including
+several large farms where a share of all profits was offered to the
+laborers as a "bonus" in addition to their wages. The results were
+very various, ranging all the way from the most extraordinary success
+to complete and discouraging failure. Up to 1897 about 170
+establishments had introduced some form of profit sharing, 75 of which
+had subsequently given it up, or had gone out of business. In that
+year, however, the plan was still in practice in almost a hundred
+concerns, in some being almost twenty years old.
+
+A great many other employers, corporate or individual, provide
+laborers' dwellings at favorable rents, furnish meals at cost price,
+subsidize insurance funds, offer easy means of becoming shareholders
+in their firms, support reading rooms, music halls, and gymnasiums, or
+take other means of admitting their employees to advantages other than
+the simple receipt of competitive wages. But, after all, the entire
+control of capital and management in the case of firms which share
+profits with their employees remains in the hands of the employers, so
+that there is in these cases an enlightened fulfilment of the
+obligations of the employing class rather than a combination of two
+classes in one.
+
+With the exception of profit sharing, however, all the economic and
+social movements described in this chapter are as truly collective and
+as distinctly opposed to individualism, voluntary though they may be,
+as are the various forms of control exercised by government, described
+in the preceding chapter. In as far as men have combined in trade
+unions, in business trusts, in coöperative organizations, they have
+chosen to seek their prosperity and advantage in united, collective
+action, rather than in unrestricted individual freedom. And in as far
+as such organizations have been legalized, regulated by government,
+and encouraged by public opinion, the confidence of the community at
+large has been shown to rest rather in associative than in competitive
+action. Therefore, whether we look at the rapidly extending sphere of
+government control and service, or at the spread of voluntary
+combinations which restrict individual liberty, it is evident that
+the tendencies of social development at the close of the nineteenth
+century are as strongly toward association and regulation as they were
+at its beginning toward individualism and freedom from all control.
+
+
+*90. Socialism.*--All of these changes are departures from the purely
+competitive ideal of society. Together they constitute a distinct
+movement toward a quite different ideal of society--that which is
+described as socialistic. Socialism in this sense means the adoption
+of measures directed to the general advantage, even though they
+diminish individual freedom and restrict enterprise. It is the
+tendency to consider the general good first, and to limit individual
+rights or introduce collective action wherever this will subserve the
+general good.
+
+Socialism thus understood, the process of limiting private action and
+introducing public control, has gone very far, as has been seen in
+this and the preceding chapter. How far it is destined to extend, to
+what fields of industry collective action is to be applied, and which
+fields are to be left to individual action can only be seen as time
+goes on. Many further changes in the same direction have been
+advocated in Parliament and other public bodies in recent years and
+failed of being agreed to by very small majorities only. It seems
+almost certain from the progress of opinion that further socialistic
+measures will be adopted within the near future. The views of those
+who approve this socialistic tendency and would extend it still
+further are well indicated in the following expressions used in the
+minority report of the Royal Commission on Labor of 1895. "The whole
+force of democratic statesmanship must, in our opinion, henceforth be
+directed to the substitution as fast as possible of public for
+capitalist enterprise, and where the substitution is not yet
+practicable, to the strict and detailed regulation of all industrial
+operations so as to secure to every worker the conditions of efficient
+citizenship."
+
+There is a somewhat different use of the word socialism, according to
+which it means the deliberate adoption of such an organization of
+society as will rid it of competition altogether. This is a complete
+social and philosophic ideal, involving the consistent reorganization
+of all society, and is very different from the mere socialistic
+tendency described above. In the early part of the century, Robert
+Owen developed a philosophy which led him to labor for the
+introduction of communities in which competition should be entirely
+superseded by joint action. He had many adherents then, and others
+since have held similar views. There has, indeed, been a series of
+more or less short-lived attempts to found societies or communities on
+this socialistic basis. Apart from these efforts, however, socialism
+in this sense belongs to the history of thought or philosophic
+speculation, not of actual economic and social development. Professed
+socialists, represented by the Fabyan Society, the Socialist League,
+the Social Democratic Federation, and other bodies, are engaged in the
+spread of socialistic doctrines and the encouragement of all movements
+of associative, anti-individualistic character rather than in efforts
+to introduce immediate practical socialism.
+
+
+*91. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: _The History of Trade Unionism_. This
+excellent history contains, as an Appendix, an extremely detailed
+bibliography on its own subject and others closely allied to it.
+
+Howell, George: _Conflicts of Labor and Capital_.
+
+Rousiers, P. de: _The Labour Question in Britain_.
+
+Holyoake, G. I.: _History of Coöperation_, two volumes. This is the
+classical work on the subject, but its plan is so confused, its style
+so turgid, and its information so scattered, that, however amusing it
+may be, it is more interesting and valuable as a history of the period
+than as a clear account of the movement for which it is named. Mr.
+Holyoake has written two other books on the same subject: _A History
+of the Rochdale Pioneers_ and _The Coöperative Movement of To-day_.
+
+Pizzamiglio, L.: _Distributing Coöperative Societies_.
+
+Jones, Benjamin: _Coöperative Production_.
+
+Gilman, N. P.: _Profit Sharing between Employer and Employee_; and _A
+Dividend to Labor_.
+
+Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: _Problems of Modern Industry_.
+
+Verhaegen, P.: _Socialistes Anglais_.
+
+A series of small modern volumes known as the Social Science Series,
+most of which deal with various phases of the subject of this chapter,
+is published by Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., London, and the list of
+its eighty or more numbers gives a characteristic view of recent
+writing on the subject, as well as further references.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Acres, 33.
+  Adventurers, 164.
+  Agincourt, 97.
+  Agricultural Children's Act, 262.
+  Agricultural Gangs Act, 262.
+  Agricultural Holdings Acts, 268.
+  Alderman, 63.
+  Ale-taster, 49.
+  Alfred, 13.
+  Alien immigrants, 90.
+  Allotments and Small Holdings Association, 269.
+  Amalgamated Society of Engineers, 290.
+  Angevin period, 22.
+  Anti-Corn Law League, 231.
+  Apprentice, 65.
+  Apprentice houses, 246.
+  Apprentices, Statute of, 156, 228.
+  Arkwright, Sir Richard, 209.
+  Armada, 141.
+  Army and navy stores, 299.
+  Arras, 81, 87.
+  Ashley, Lord, 254.
+  Assize of Bread and Beer, 68, 228.
+  Assize, rents of, 41, 49.
+
+
+  Bailiff, 40, 141.
+  Balk, 35.
+  Ball, John, 112.
+  Bank of England, 194.
+  Barbary Company, 166.
+  Bardi, 91.
+  Berkhamstead Common, 264.
+  Beverly, 71.
+  Birmingham, 189.
+  Black Death, 99.
+  Blackheath, 115.
+  Bolton, 189.
+  Boon-works, 41.
+  Boston, 76.
+  Bridgewater Canal, 216.
+  Bristol, 80, 148, 162.
+  Britons, 4.
+  Bryan, Chief-Justice, 143.
+  Building Societies, 306.
+  Burgage Tenure, 59.
+  Burgesses, 59.
+
+
+  Calais, 89, 97.
+  Cambridge, 117.
+  Canterbury, 11, 115.
+  Canynges, William, 162.
+  Carding, 205, 210.
+  _Carta Mercatoria_, 81.
+  Cartwright, Edmund, 210.
+  Cavendish, John, 117.
+  Chaucer, 98.
+  Chester, 70.
+  Chevage, 44.
+  Children's Half-time Act, 255.
+  Children's labor, 237, 246.
+  Church, organization of the, 11.
+  Civil Service Supply Association, 299.
+  Climate, 2.
+  Clothiers, 153.
+  Coal, 3, 214.
+  Coal mines, labor in, 257.
+  Cobden, Richard, 231.
+  Cologne, 80.
+  Colonies, 178, 190.
+  Combination Acts, 279.
+  Combinations, legalization of, 282.
+  Commerce, 81, 134, 161, 189.
+  Common employment, doctrine of, 261.
+  Commons, 37, 263.
+  Commons Preservation Society, 264.
+  Commutation of services, 125.
+  Competition, 226, 233, 311.
+  Coöperation in credit, 306.
+  Coöperation in distribution, 295.
+  Coöperation in farming, 302.
+  Coöperation in production, 300.
+  Coöperative congresses, 305.
+  Coöperative legislation, 303.
+  Copyholders, 143.
+  Corn Laws, 185, 223, 230.
+  Corpus Christi day, 70.
+  Cotters, 40.
+  Cotton gin, 211.
+  Cotton manufacture, 188, 203.
+  County councils, 243.
+  Court of Assistants, 150.
+  Court rolls, 46.
+  Coventry, 70, 148.
+  Craft gilds, 64, 147.
+  Crafts, 64, 147.
+  Crafts, combination of, 160.
+  Crécy, 97.
+  Crompton, Samuel, 210.
+  Cromwell, 179.
+  _Cry of the Children_, 251.
+  Currency, 169.
+  Customary tenants, 41, 143.
+
+
+  Danes, 12.
+  Dartford, 115.
+  Davy, Sir Humphry, 215.
+  Dean, 63.
+  Decaying of towns, 144, 154.
+  Demesne farming, abandonment of, 128, 141.
+  Demesne lands, 39, 104, 131.
+  Dockers' strike, 287.
+  Domesday Book, 18, 29.
+  Domestic system, 153, 185, 188, 220.
+  Drapers, 149, 161.
+  Droitwich, 155.
+
+
+  Eastern trade, 84, 164.
+  East India Company, 166, 190.
+  Employer's Liability Acts, 260.
+  Enclosure commissioners, 218, 263.
+  Enclosures, 141, 216.
+  Engrossers, 68.
+  Epping Forest, 266.
+  _Essay on Population_, 232.
+  Essex, 114.
+  Evesham, 155.
+
+
+  Fabyan Society, 311.
+  Factory Acts, 244.
+  Factory and Workshop Consolidation Act, 258.
+  Factory system, 212.
+  Fairs, 75.
+  Farmers, 129, 144.
+  Federation of trade unions, 289.
+  Fens, 184.
+  Feudalism, 20.
+  Finance, 169, 193.
+  Flanders, 163.
+  Flanders fleet, 86, 167.
+  Flanders trade, 87, 168.
+  Flemish artisans in England, 94, 116.
+  Flemish Hanse of London, 88.
+  Florence, 90, 168.
+  Forestallers, 68.
+  Foreign artisans in England, 94.
+  Foreign trade, 81, 134, 161, 189, 203, 230.
+  Forty-shilling freeholders, 241.
+  Frank pledge, 46.
+  Fraternities, 62, 71.
+  Freeholders, 41, 124, 241.
+  Free-tenants, 41.
+  Free trade in land, 231.
+  French Revolution, 200.
+  Fugitive villains, 59, 130.
+  Fulling mills, 229.
+  Furlong, 34.
+
+
+  Gascony, 90, 94, 169.
+  Geography of England, 1.
+  Ghent, 87.
+  Gildhall, 69, 92.
+  Gild merchant, 59.
+  Gilds, craft, 64.
+  Gilds, non-industrial, 71.
+  Government policy toward gilds, 65, 154.
+  Greater Companies of London, 153.
+  Grocyn, 136.
+  Groningen, 166.
+  Guienne, 90, 169.
+  Guinea Company, 166.
+
+
+  Hales, Robert, 116.
+  Hamburg, 89, 166, 230.
+  Hamlet, 31.
+  Hand-loom weavers, 188, 203, 220.
+  Hanseatic League, 89, 163.
+  Hanse trade, 89, 167.
+  Hargreaves, James, 207.
+  Health and Morals Act, 247.
+  Heriot, 41.
+  Hospitallers, 91, 116.
+  Hostage, 81.
+  Houses of the Working Classes Act, 271.
+  Huguenots, 185.
+  Hull, 160.
+  Hundred Years' War, 96.
+
+
+  Iceland, 168.
+  Individualism, 232.
+  Industrial revolution, 213.
+  Insular situation of England, 2.
+  Insurance, 196.
+  _Intercursus Magnus_, 168.
+  Interest, 171.
+  Ireland, conquest of, 24.
+  Irish union, 203.
+  Iron, 3, 214.
+  Italian trade, 84, 164, 167.
+  Italians in England, 90.
+
+
+  Jack Straw, 116.
+  Jews, 59, 91.
+  John of Gaunt, 114.
+  Journeymen, 66, 147.
+  Journeymen gilds, 148.
+
+
+  Kay, 206.
+  Kempe, John, 94.
+  Kent, 9, 114.
+  Kidderminster, 155.
+
+
+  Laborers, Statutes of, 106.
+  Laissez-faire, 224, 228.
+  Land, reclamation of, 6.
+  Latimer, Hugh, 145.
+  Law merchant, 78.
+  Law of wages, 226.
+  Lawyers, hostility to, 124.
+  Lead, 3, 83, 88.
+  Leather, 83, 88.
+  Leeds, 189.
+  Leet, 46.
+  Leicester, 62, 79.
+  Lesser Companies of London, 151.
+  Levant Company, 166.
+  Leyr, 44.
+  Lister, Geoffrey, 117.
+  Livery Companies, 149.
+  Location of industries, change of, 151.
+  Lollards, 98, 111.
+  London, 149.
+  Lord of manor, 39, 103, 125, 143.
+  Lubeck, 89.
+  Lynn, 93.
+  Lyons, Richard, 117.
+
+
+  Macadam, 215.
+  _Magna Carta_, 26.
+  Malthus, 232.
+  Manchester, 189, 247, 284.
+  Manor, 31.
+  Manor-courts, 123, 141.
+  Manor-house, 31, 123.
+  Manufacturing towns, 189, 238.
+  Manumissions, 120, 129.
+  Markets, 75.
+  Market towns, 75.
+  Masters, 65.
+  Mechanical inventions, 203.
+  Mercers, 147, 150, 166.
+  Merchant gilds, 59.
+  Merchants adventurers, 164.
+  Merchet, 44.
+  Methuen Treaty, 190.
+  Mile End, 120.
+  Mill-hands, 213, 221.
+  Misteries, 64.
+  Monopolies, 187.
+  More, Sir Thomas, 145.
+  Morocco Company, 166.
+  Morrowspeche, 63.
+  Mule spinning, 210.
+  Muscovy Company, 166.
+  Mushold Heath, 117.
+  Mutiny Act, 182.
+  Mystery plays, 70.
+
+
+  Napoleon, 200.
+  National debt, 196.
+  Native commerce, 161.
+  _Nativus_, 43.
+  Navigation laws, 169, 189, 192, 229.
+  Newcastle-on-Tyne, 164.
+  Non-industrial gilds, 71.
+  Norman Conquest, 15.
+  Norway, 163.
+  Norwich, 117.
+  Novgorod, 163.
+
+
+  Open-fields, 33, 142, 217.
+  Origin of the manor, 55.
+  Owen, Robert, 248, 311.
+  Oxford, 102, 147.
+
+
+  Pageants, 159.
+  Parcels post, 275.
+  Parish councils, 243, 269.
+  Parliament, foundation of, 26.
+  Paternal government, 173.
+  Peasant proprietorship, 270.
+  Peasants' rebellion, 111.
+  Peel, Sir Robert (the elder), 247.
+  Peel, Sir Robert (the younger), 230.
+  Peruzzi, 91.
+  Pie Powder Courts, 78.
+  Pilgrimage of Grace, 146.
+  Plymouth Company, 190.
+  Poitiers, 97.
+  Poll tax, 113.
+  Poor Priests, 112.
+  Portugal, 83, 190.
+  Post-office Savings Bank, 274.
+  Power-loom, 210.
+  Prehistoric Britain, 4.
+  Private Enclosure Acts, 217.
+  Privy Council, 138.
+  Profit-sharing, 307.
+  Puritans, 140, 178.
+
+
+  Railway Regulation Act, 260.
+  Reaper, 49.
+  Reeve, 40.
+  Reformation, 138.
+  Reform of Parliament, 241.
+  Regrators, 68.
+  Regulated Companies, 174.
+  Relief, 21, 41.
+  Religious gilds, 71, 158.
+  Rents of Assize, 41.
+  Reorganized Companies, 187.
+  Restoration, 180.
+  Revolution, Industrial, 213.
+  Revolution of 1688, 181.
+  Ricardo, David, 226.
+  Rochdale Pioneers, 296.
+  Rochdale plan, 296.
+  Romans in Britain, 5.
+  Roses, Wars of the, 99.
+  Russia Company, 166.
+  _Rusticus_, 43.
+
+
+  St. Albans, 118.
+  St. Edmund's Abbey, 117.
+  St. Helen of Beverly, 71.
+  St. Ives' Fair, 76, 79.
+  Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 273.
+  Savoy Palace, 116.
+  Saxon invasion, 8.
+  Scattered strips, 38.
+  Scotland, contest with, 24.
+  Serfdom, 43, 120, 124.
+  Serfdom, decay of, 129.
+  _Servus_, 43.
+  Sheep-raising, 142.
+  Sheffield, 189, 284.
+  Shop Hours Act, 260.
+  Shrewsbury, 147.
+  Skevin, 63.
+  Sliding scale, 231.
+  Small Dwellings Acquisition Act, 272.
+  Small holdings, 269.
+  Smith, Adam, 224.
+  Smithfield, 121.
+  Social Democratic Federation, 311.
+  Social gilds, 71, 158.
+  Socialism, 310.
+  Socialist League, 311.
+  Sources, 54.
+  Southampton, 61.
+  South Sea Bubble, 195.
+  Spain, 82, 168.
+  Spencer, Henry de, 122.
+  Spices, 84.
+  Spinning, 205.
+  Spinning-jenny, 207.
+  Stade, 166.
+  Staple, 87.
+  Statute of Apprentices, 156, 228.
+  Statutes of Laborers, 106.
+  Steelyard, 92, 167.
+  Sterling, 89.
+  Steward, 40, 46.
+  Stourbridge Fair, 76.
+  Sturmys, 162.
+  Sudbury, 116.
+  Sweating, 260.
+
+
+  Tallage, 44.
+  Taverner, John, 162.
+  Taxation, 194.
+  Telegraph, government, 273.
+  Telephone, government, 273.
+  Telford, 215.
+  Temple Bar, 116.
+  Ten-hour Act, 256.
+  Three-field system, 36.
+  Tin, 3, 83, 88, 91, 93.
+  Tolls, 57, 78, 82.
+  Town government, 57.
+  Towns, 57, 79, 154.
+  Trade combinations, 294.
+  Trade routes, 84.
+  Trade unions, 279.
+  Trades councils, 289.
+  Transportation, 214.
+  Trusts, 294.
+  Turkey Company, 166.
+
+
+  Ulster, Plantation of, 190.
+  Usury, 171.
+  Utopia, 145.
+
+
+  Venice, 84.
+  Venturers, 164.
+  Vill, 31.
+  Village community, 54.
+  Villages, 31, 114.
+  Villain, 40, 111, 125.
+  Villainage, 130.
+  _Villanus_, 43.
+  Virgate, 38.
+  Virginia Company, 190.
+  _Vision of Piers Plowman_, 98, 111.
+
+
+  Wages in hand occupations, 220.
+  Wages, law of, 226.
+  Wales, conquest of, 24.
+  Walloons, 185.
+  Walworth, Sir William, 121.
+  Wardens, 69, 161.
+  Watt, James, 212.
+  Wat Tyler, 116, 121.
+  _Wealth of Nations_, 225.
+  Weavers, 65, 152, 188.
+  Weaving, 205.
+  Week-work, 42.
+  Whitney, Eli, 211.
+  Wholesale Coöperative Society, 299.
+  Wilburton, 128.
+  Wimbledon Common, 264.
+  Winchester Fair, 76.
+  Wolsey, Cardinal, 145.
+  Women's labor, 237.
+  Woodkirk, 70.
+  Wool, 83, 87, 142, 205, 210, 216.
+  Worcester, 155.
+  Wycliffe, 97.
+
+
+  Yeomen, 129, 221, 237.
+  Yeomen gilds, 148.
+  York, 65, 70.
+  Young, Arthur, 225.
+  Ypres, 87.
+
+
+Printed in the United States of America.
+
+
+
+     *     *     *     *     *
+
+
+
+A HISTORY OF GREECE
+
+For High Schools and Academies
+
+By *GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD*, Ph.D.
+
+_Instructor in the History of Greece and Rome in Harvard University_
+
+8vo. Half Leather. $1.10
+
+
+"Dr. Botsford's 'History of Greece' has the conspicuous merits which
+only a text-book can possess which is written by a master of the
+original sources. Indeed, the use of the text of Homer, Herodotus, the
+dramatists, and the other contemporary writers is very effective, and
+very suggestive as to the right method of teaching and study. The
+style is delightful. For simple, unpretentious narrative and elegant
+English the book is a model. In my judgment, the work is far superior
+to any other text-book for high school or academic use which has yet
+appeared. Its value is enriched by the illustrations, as also by the
+reference lists and the suggestive studies. It will greatly aid in the
+new movement to encourage modern scientific method in the teaching of
+history in the secondary schools of the country. It will be adopted by
+Stanford as the basis of entrance requirements in Grecian history."
+
+  --Professor George Elliot Howard, _Stanford University_, Cal.
+
+
+"Dr. Botsford's ideal is a high one, and he has spared no pains to
+realize it. He has everywhere given a foremost place to the social,
+political, literary, and artistic sides of Greek civilization, and set
+them forth in adequate detail; while in the manifold wars amongst
+themselves and with the common foe he has been careful to give just
+enough to make the course of events clear and to put the causes and
+meaning of the conflicts in a proper light. He has told his tale in a
+straightforward simple style that must prove taking to the mind of the
+schoolboy; and he has from time to time worked in translations from
+passages of the ancient Greek authors, poets, historians, and orators
+alike. This gives one the feeling that we are listening to the Greeks
+telling their own story; we get the events and conditions from their
+point of view and can appreciate them so much more accurately.
+Further, the book is not only clear; the boy can not only read it
+without an uncomfortable sense that he is losing his way in a
+labyrinth, but he can read it with positive pleasure. It is a book,
+too, that will keep, and that one would like to keep; a great quality
+this in a school-book."
+
+  --William A. Lamberton, _University of Pennsylvania_.
+  (In the _Annals of the American Academy of Political
+  and Social Science_.)
+
+
+
+
+EUROPEAN HISTORY
+
+An Outline of its Development
+
+By *GEORGE BURTON ADAMS*
+
+_Yale University, New Haven, Conn._
+
+8vo.      Half Leather.      $1.40
+
+
+"I think the Adams 'European History' is the best single-volume
+text-book in general European history by an American author. In style
+and illustration it is interesting; its well-chosen references
+contribute to develop the students' taste for historical reading; and
+its suggestive questions, etc., are most helpful to the teacher."
+
+  --Professor W. H. Siebert, _Ohio State University_, Columbus, Ohio.
+
+
+
+
+THE GROWTH OF THE FRENCH NATION
+
+By *GEORGE BURTON ADAMS*
+
+_Author of "European History," etc._
+
+12mo.      Cloth.      $1.25
+
+
+"Mr. Adams has dealt in a fascinating way with the chief features of
+the Middle Age, and his book is rendered the more attractive by some
+excellent illustrations. He traces the history of France from the
+conquests by the Romans and Franks down to the presidency of M. Felix
+Faure, and has always something to say that is clear and to the point;
+Mr. Adams seems to us to have seized the salient features of the
+_growth_ of the French nation, and to have fulfilled the promise of
+his title."--_Educational Review._
+
+
+
+
+A STUDENT'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+By *EDWARD CHANNING*
+
+_Professor of History, Harvard University_
+
+With Suggestions to Teachers by Anna Boynton Thompson, _Thayer
+Academy, South Braintree, Mass._
+
+8vo.      Half Leather.      $1.40
+
+
+"Your book has given us good satisfaction. It is the best school
+history I know of to give the student a clear conception of the origin
+and the development of our institutions. It presents to him lucidly
+and forcefully the questions which have been either the sectional or
+the party issues of the past; it portrays in a singularly felicitous
+manner our wonderful growth in population and resources."--M. B.
+Price, _Worcester Academy_, Worcester, Mass.
+
+
+
+
+A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+For School Use
+
+
+By *EDWARD CHANNING*, author of "A Student's History of the United
+States," etc. 12mo. Half leather. 90 cents
+
+"It is an admirable presentation of the origin and growth of our
+nation. From cover to cover it is made intensely interesting, not only
+by striking illustrations and complete maps, but by the arrangement of
+the text and the facts presented in a clear, logical manner. The
+references to other text-books in history is a commendable feature. I
+fully agree with the author's statement in the preface as to the best
+method of studying the history of our country."
+
+  --N. G. Kingsley, _Principal of Doyle-Avenue Grammar School_,
+  Providence, R. I.
+
+
+
+
+A HISTORY OF ENGLAND
+
+For High Schools and Academies
+
+
+By *KATHARINE COMAN, Ph.B.*, Wellesley College, and *ELIZABETH KIMBALL
+KENDALL, M.A.*, Wellesley College. $1.25
+
+"It is in my judgment by far the best history of England that has yet
+been published. The other books in the field are either too meagre or
+too advanced. This book is just what has long been needed, and ought
+to be largely introduced."--Professor Richard Hudson, _University of
+Michigan_, Ann Arbor, Mich.
+
+
+
+
+TOPICS ON GREEK AND ROMAN HISTORY
+
+
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+<html>
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England, by Edward Potts Cheyney</title>
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+<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Introduction to the Industrial and Social
+History of England, by Edward Potts Cheyney</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England</p>
+<p>Author: Edward Potts Cheyney</p>
+<p>Release Date: June 1, 2007  [eBook #21660]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND***</p>
+<br><br><center><h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Peter Vachuska, Chuck Greif, Christine P. Travers,<br>
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br>
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3></center><br><br>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Transcriber's note:<br>
+<br>
+Obvious printer's errors have been corrected,
+all other inconsistencies are as in the original. Author's spelling has been
+maintained.<br>
+<br>
+The following sentence has been changed:<br>
+from:<br>
+the spring crop was taken now <strong>it</strong> its turn would enjoy a fallow year.<br>
+to:<br>
+the spring crop was taken now <strong>in</strong> its turn would enjoy a fallow year.]</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+
+
+
+<h1>An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England</h1>
+
+
+<a id="img001" name="img001"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img001.jpg" width="500" height="312" alt="New Sixteenth Century Manor House with Fields still
+Open, Gidea Hall, Essex.</span><br> Nichols: <i>Progresses of Queen Elizabeth</i>." title="New Sixteenth Century Manor House with Fields still
+Open, Gidea Hall, Essex. Nichols: <i>Progresses of Queen Elizabeth</i>.">
+<p><span class="smcap">New Sixteenth Century Manor House with Fields still
+Open, Gidea Hall, Essex.</span><br> Nichols: <i>Progresses of Queen Elizabeth</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h1>An Introduction<br>
+  to the<br>
+  Industrial and Social History<br>
+  of England</h1>
+
+<p class="p2 center">BY</p>
+
+<h2>EDWARD P. CHEYNEY</h2>
+
+<p class="center">PROFESSOR OF EUROPEAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY
+  OF PENNSYLVANIA</p>
+
+<p class="center p4">New York<br>
+  THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br>
+  LONDON: MACMILLAN &amp; CO., <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span><br>
+  1916</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved</i></p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1901,<br>
+  <span class="smcap">By</span> THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.</p>
+<p class="box">Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1901. Reprinted January,
+October, 1905; November, 1906; October, 1907; July, 1908; February,
+1909; January, 1910; April, December, 1910; January, August, December,
+1911; July, 1912; January, 1913; February, August, 1914; January,
+November, 1915; April, 1916.</p>
+
+
+<h2>PREFACE <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev"></a>(p. v)</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>This text-book is intended for college and high-school classes. Most
+of the facts stated in it have become, through the researches and
+publications of recent years, such commonplace knowledge that a
+reference to authority in each case has not seemed necessary.
+Statements on more doubtful points, and such personal opinions as I
+have had occasion to express, although not supported by references,
+are based on a somewhat careful study of the sources. To each chapter
+is subjoined a bibliographical paragraph with the titles of the most
+important secondary authorities. These works will furnish a fuller
+account of the matters that have been treated in outline in this book,
+indicate the original sources, and give opportunity and suggestions
+for further study. An introductory chapter and a series of narrative
+paragraphs prefixed to other chapters are given with the object of
+correlating matters of economic and social history with other aspects
+of the life of the nation.</p>
+
+<p>My obligation and gratitude are due, as are those of all later
+students, to the group of scholars who have within our own time laid
+the foundations of the study of economic history, and whose names and
+books will be found referred to in the bibliographical paragraphs.</p>
+
+<p><span class="left60">EDWARD P. CHEYNEY.</span><br>
+<span class="smcap">University of Pennsylvania</span>,<br>
+<span class="add2em">January, 1901.</span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS <span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevii" name="pagevii"></a>(p. vii)</span></h2>
+
+
+<p>CHAPTER I</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Growth of the Nation To the Middle of the
+  Fourteenth Century</span></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#page001">The Geography of England</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page004">Prehistoric Britain</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page005">Roman Britain</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page008">Early Saxon England</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page012">Danish and Late Saxon England</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page015">The Period following the Norman Conquest</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page022">The Period of the Early Angevin Kings, 1154-1338</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2">CHAPTER II</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Rural Life and Organization</span></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li value="8"><a href="#page031">The Mediæval Village</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page033">The Vill as an Agricultural System</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page039">Classes of People on the Manor</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page045">The Manor Courts</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page049">The Manor as an Estate of a Lord</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page052">Bibliography</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2">CHAPTER III</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Town Life and Organization</span></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li value="14"><a href="#page057">The Town Government</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page059">The Gild Merchant</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page064">The Craft Gilds</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page071">Non-industrial Gilds</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page073">Bibliography</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2">CHAPTER IV <span class="pagenum"><a id="pageviii" name="pageviii"></a>(p. viii)</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mediæval Trade and Commerce</span></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li value="19"><a href="#page075">Markets and Fairs</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page079">Trade Relations between Towns</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page081">Foreign Trading Relations</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page084">The Italian and Eastern Trade</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page087">The Flanders Trade and the Staple</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page089">The Hanse Trade</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page090">Foreigners settled in England</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page094">Bibliography</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2">CHAPTER V</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Black Death and the Peasants' Rebellion</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Economic Changes of the Later Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth
+  Centuries</i></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li value="27"><a href="#page096">National Affairs from 1338 to 1461</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page099">The Black Death and its Effects</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page106">The Statutes of Laborers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page111">The Peasants' Rebellion of 1381</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page125">Commutation of Services</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page128">The Abandonment of Demesne Farming</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page129">The Decay of Serfdom</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page133">Changes in Town Life and Foreign Trade</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page134">Bibliography</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2">CHAPTER VI
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Breaking up of the Mediæval System</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Economic Changes of the Later Fifteenth and the Sixteenth
+  Centuries</i></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li value="36"><a href="#page136">National Affairs from 1461 to 1603</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page141">Enclosures</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page147">Internal Divisions in the Craft Gilds</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page151">Change of Location of Industries</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page154">The Influence of the Government on the Gilds</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page159">General Causes and Evidences of the Decay of the Gilds</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page161">The Growth of Native Commerce</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page164">The Merchants Adventurers</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page167">Government Encouragement of Commerce</a></li>
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a id="pageix" name="pageix"></a>(p. ix)</span>
+<a href="#page169">The Currency</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page171">Interest</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page173">Paternal Government</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page176">Bibliography</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2">CHAPTER VII
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Expansion of England</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Economic Changes of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth
+  Centuries</i></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li value="49"><a href="#page177">National Affairs from 1603 to 1760</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page183">The Extension of Agriculture</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page185">The Domestic System of Manufactures</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page189">Commerce under the Navigation Acts</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page193">Finance</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page198">Bibliography</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2">CHAPTER VIII
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Period of the Industrial Revolution</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Economic Changes of the Later Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth
+  Centuries</i></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li value="55"><a href="#page199">National Affairs from 1760 to 1830</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page203">The Great Mechanical Inventions</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page212">The Factory System</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page214">Iron, Coal, and Transportation</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page216">The Revival of Enclosures</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page220">Decay of Domestic Manufacture</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page224">The <i>Laissez-faire</i> Theory</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page228">Cessation of Government Regulation</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page232">Individualism</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page235">Social Conditions at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page239">Bibliography</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2">CHAPTER IX
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Extension of Government Control</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Factory Laws, the Modification of Land Ownership, Sanitary
+  Regulations, and New Public Services</i></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li value="66"><a href="#page240">National Affairs from 1830 to 1900</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page244">The Beginning of Factory Legislation</a></li>
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagex" name="pagex"></a>(p. x)</span>
+<a href="#page249">Arguments for and against Factory Legislation</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page254">Factory Legislation to 1847</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page256">The Extension of Factory Legislation</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page260">Employers' Liability Acts</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page262">Preservation of Remaining Open Lands</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page267">Allotments</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page269">Small Holdings</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page271">Government Sanitary Control</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page273">Industries Carried on by Government</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page276">Bibliography</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="p2">CHAPTER X</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Extension of Voluntary Association</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Trade Unions, Trusts, and Coöperation</i></p>
+
+<ul>
+<li value="78"><a href="#page277">The Rise of Trade Unions</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page279">Opposition of the Law and of Public Opinion. The Combination Acts</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page281">Legalization and Popular Acceptance of Trade Unions</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page288">The Growth of Trade Unions</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page289">Federation of Trade Unions</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page293">Employers' Organizations</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page294">Trusts and Trade Combinations</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page295">Coöperation in Distribution</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page300">Coöperation in Production</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page302">Coöperation in Farming</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page306">Coöperation in Credit</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page307">Profit Sharing</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page310">Socialism</a></li>
+<li><a href="#page311">Bibliography</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="pagexi" name="pagexi"></a>(p. xi)</span> An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of
+England</h2>
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page001" name="page001"></a>(p. 001)</span> INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND</h2>
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I</h3>
+
+<h5>GROWTH OF THE NATION</h5>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">To the Middle of the Fourteenth Century</span></h5>
+
+
+<p><strong>1. The Geography of England.</strong>&mdash;The British Isles lie northwest of the
+Continent of Europe. They are separated from it by the Channel and the
+North Sea, at the narrowest only twenty miles wide, and at the
+broadest not more than three hundred.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest length of England from north to south is three hundred
+and sixty-five miles, and its greatest breadth some two hundred and
+eighty miles. Its area, with Wales, is 58,320 square miles, being
+somewhat more than one-quarter the size of France or of Germany, just
+one-half the size of Italy, and somewhat larger than either
+Pennsylvania or New York.</p>
+
+<p>The backbone of the island is near the western coast, and consists of
+a body of hard granitic and volcanic rock rising into mountains of two
+or three thousand feet in height. These do not form one continuous
+chain but are in several detached groups. On the eastern flank of
+these mountains and underlying all the rest of the island is a series
+of stratified rocks. The harder portions of these strata still stand
+up as long ridges,&mdash;the "wolds," "wealds," "moors," and "downs" of the
+more eastern and south-eastern <span class="pagenum"><a id="page002" name="page002"></a>(p. 002)</span> parts of England. The softer
+strata have been worn away into great broad valleys, furnishing the
+central and eastern plains or lowlands of the country.</p>
+
+<p>The rivers of the south and of the far north run for the most part by
+short and direct courses to the sea. The rivers of the midlands are
+much longer and larger. As a result of the gradual sinking of the
+island, in recent geological periods the sea has extended some
+distance up the course of these rivers, making an almost unbroken
+series of estuaries along the whole coast.</p>
+
+<p>The climate of England is milder and more equable than is indicated by
+the latitude, which is that of Labrador in the western hemisphere and
+of Prussia and central Russia on the Continent of Europe. This is due
+to the fact that the Gulf Stream flows around its southern and western
+shores, bringing warmth and a superabundance of moisture from the
+southern Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p>These physical characteristics have been of immense influence on the
+destinies of England. Her position was far on the outskirts of the
+world as it was known to ancient and mediæval times, and England
+played a correspondingly inconspicuous part during those periods. In
+the habitable world as it has been known since the fifteenth century,
+on the other hand, that position is a distinctly central one, open
+alike to the eastern and the western hemisphere, to northern and
+southern lands.</p>
+
+<a id="img002" name="img002"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img002.jpg" width="500" height="723" alt="Physiographic Map Of England And Wales. Engraved By
+Bormay &amp; Co., N.Y." title="Physiographic Map Of England And Wales. Engraved By Bormay &amp; Co., N.Y.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Physiographic Map Of <strong>England And Wales</strong>.<br> Engraved By
+Bormay &amp; Co., N.Y.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Her situation of insularity and at the same time of proximity to the
+Continent laid her open to frequent invasion in early times, but after
+she secured a navy made her singularly safe from subjugation. It made
+the development of many of her institutions tardy, yet at the same
+time gave her the opportunity to borrow and assimilate what she would
+from the customs of foreign nations. Her separation <span class="pagenum"><a id="page003" name="page003"></a>(p. 003)</span> by
+water from the Continent favored a distinct and continuous national
+life, while her nearness to it allowed her to participate in all the
+more important influences which affected the nations of central
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Within the mountainous or elevated regions a variety of mineral
+resources, especially iron, copper, lead, and tin, exist in great
+abundance, and have been worked from the earliest ages. Potter's clay
+and salt also exist, the former furnishing the basis of industry for
+an extensive section of the midlands. By far the most important
+mineral possession of England, however, is her coal. This exists in
+the greatest abundance and in a number of sections of the north and
+west of the country. Practically unknown in the Middle Ages, and only
+slightly utilized in early modern times, within the eighteenth and
+nineteenth centuries her coal supply has come to be the principal
+foundation of England's great manufacturing and commercial
+development.</p>
+
+<p>The lowlands, which make up far the larger part of the country, are
+covered with soil which furnishes rich farming areas, though in many
+places this soil is a heavy and impervious clay, expensive to drain
+and cultivate. The hard ridges are covered with thin soil only. Many
+of them therefore remained for a long time covered with forest, and
+they are devoted even yet to grazing or to occasional cultivation
+only.</p>
+
+<p>The abundance of harbors and rivers, navigable at least to the small
+vessels of the Middle Ages, has made a seafaring life natural to a
+large number of the people, and commercial intercourse comparatively
+easy with all parts of the country bordering on the coast or on these
+rivers.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, to sum up these geographical characteristics, the insular
+situation of England, her location on the earth's surface, and the
+variety of her material endowments gave <span class="pagenum"><a id="page004" name="page004"></a>(p. 004)</span> her a tolerably
+well-balanced if somewhat backward economic position during the Middle
+Ages, and have enabled her since the fifteenth century to pass through
+a continuous and rapid development, until she has obtained within the
+nineteenth century, for the time at least, a distinct economic
+precedency among the nations of the world.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>2. Prehistoric Britain.</strong>&mdash;The materials from which to construct a
+knowledge of the history of mankind before the time of written records
+are few and unsatisfactory. They consist for the most part of the
+remains of dwelling-places, fortifications, and roadways; of weapons,
+implements, and ornaments lost or abandoned at the time; of burial
+places and their contents; and of such physical characteristics of
+later populations as have survived from an early period. Centuries of
+human habitation of Britain passed away, leaving only such scanty
+remains and the obscure and doubtful knowledge that can be drawn from
+them. Through this period, however, successive races seem to have
+invaded and settled the country, combining with their predecessors, or
+living alongside of them, or in some cases, perhaps, exterminating
+them.</p>
+
+<p>When contemporary written records begin, just before the beginning of
+the Christian era, one race, the Britons, was dominant, and into it
+had merged to all appearances all others. The Britons were a Celtic
+people related to the inhabitants of that part of the Continent of
+Europe which lies nearest to Britain. They were divided into a dozen
+or more separate tribes, each occupying a distinct part of the
+country. They lived partly by the pasturing of sheep and cattle,
+partly by a crude agriculture. They possessed most of the familiar
+grains and domestic animals, and could weave and dye cloth, make
+pottery, build boats, forge iron, and work other metals, including
+tin. They had, however, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page005" name="page005"></a>(p. 005)</span> no cities, no manufactures beyond
+the most primitive, and but little foreign trade to connect them with
+the Continent. At the head of each tribe was a reigning chieftain of
+limited powers, surrounded by lesser chiefs. The tribes were in a
+state of incessant warfare one with the other.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>3. Roman Britain.</strong>&mdash;This condition of insular isolation and barbarism
+was brought to a close in the year 55 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> by the invasion of the
+Roman army. Julius Cæsar, the Roman general who was engaged in the
+conquest and government of Gaul, or modern France, feared that the
+Britons might bring aid to certain newly subjected and still restless
+Gallic tribes. He therefore transported a body of troops across the
+Channel and fought two campaigns against the tribes in the southeast
+of Britain. His success in the second campaign was, however, not
+followed up, and he retired without leaving any permanent garrison in
+the country. The Britons were then left alone, so far as military
+invasion was concerned, for almost a century, though in the meantime
+trade with the adjacent parts of the Continent became more common, and
+Roman influence showed itself in the manners and customs of the
+people. In the year 44 <span class="smcap">A.D.</span>, just ninety years after Cæsar's
+campaigns, the conquest of Britain was resumed by the Roman armies and
+completed within the next thirty years. Britain now became an integral
+part of the great, well-ordered, civilized, and wealthy Roman Empire.
+During the greater part of that long period, Britain enjoyed profound
+peace, internal and external trade were safe, and much of the culture
+and refinement of Italy and Gaul must have made their way even to this
+distant province. A part of the inhabitants adopted the Roman
+language, dress, customs, and manner of life. Discharged veterans from
+the Roman legions, wealthy civil officials and merchants, settled
+permanently in Britain. Several bodies of turbulent tribesmen
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page006" name="page006"></a>(p. 006)</span> who had been defeated on the German frontier were
+transported by the government into Britain. The population must,
+therefore, have become very mixed, containing representatives of most
+of the races which had been conquered by the Roman armies. A permanent
+military force was maintained in Britain with fortified stations along
+the eastern and southern coast, on the Welsh frontier, and along a
+series of walls or dikes running across the island from the Tyne to
+Solway Firth. Excellent roads were constructed through the length and
+breadth of the land for the use of this military body and to connect
+the scattered stations. Along these highways population spread and the
+remains of spacious villas still exist to attest the magnificence of
+the wealthy provincials. The roads served also as channels of trade by
+which goods could readily be carried from one part of the country to
+another. Foreign as well as internal trade became extensive, although
+exports were mostly of crude natural products, such as hides, skins,
+and furs, cattle and sheep, grain, pig-iron, lead and tin,
+hunting-dogs and slaves. The rapid development of towns and cities was
+a marked characteristic of Roman Britain. Fifty-nine towns or cities
+of various grades of self-government are named in the Roman survey,
+and many of these must have been populous, wealthy, and active,
+judging from the extensive ruins that remain, and the enormous number
+of Roman coins that have since been found. Christianity was adopted
+here as in other parts of the Roman Empire, though the extent of its
+influence is unknown.</p>
+
+<p>During the Roman occupation much waste land was reclaimed. Most of the
+great valley regions and many of the hillsides had been originally
+covered with dense forests, swamps spread along the rivers and
+extended far inland from the coast; so that almost the only parts
+capable of tillage <span class="pagenum"><a id="page007" name="page007"></a>(p. 007)</span> were the high treeless plains, the hill
+tops, and certain favored stretches of open country. The reduction of
+these waste lands to human habitation has been an age-long task. It
+was begun in prehistoric times, it has been carried further by each
+successive race, and brought to final completion only within our own
+century. A share in this work and the great roads were the most
+permanent results of the Roman period of occupation and government.
+Throughout the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era the
+Roman administration and society in Britain were evidently
+disintegrating. Several successive generals of the Roman troops
+stationed in Britain rose in revolt with their soldiers, declared
+their independence of Rome, or passed over to the Continent to enter
+into a struggle for the control of the whole Empire. In 383 and 407
+the military forces were suddenly depleted in this way and the
+provincial government disorganized, while the central government of
+the Empire was so weak that it was unable to reëstablish a firm
+administration. During the same period barbarian invaders were making
+frequent inroads into Britain. The Picts and Scots from modern
+Scotland, Saxon pirates, and, later, ever increasing swarms of Angles,
+Jutes, and Frisians from across the North Sea ravaged and ultimately
+occupied parts of the borders and the coasts. The surviving records of
+this period of disintegration and reorganization are so few that we
+are left in all but total ignorance as to what actually occurred. For
+more than two hundred years we can only guess at the course of events,
+or infer it from its probable analogy to what we know was occurring in
+the other parts of the Empire, or from the conditions we find to have
+been in existence as knowledge of succeeding times becomes somewhat
+more full. It seems evident that the government of the province of
+Britain gradually went to pieces, and that that of the different
+cities or <span class="pagenum"><a id="page008" name="page008"></a>(p. 008)</span> districts followed. Internal dissensions and the
+lack of military organization and training of the mass of the
+population probably added to the difficulty of resisting marauding
+bands of barbarian invaders. These invading bands became larger, and
+their inroads more frequent and extended, until finally they abandoned
+their home lands entirely and settled permanently in those districts
+in which they had broken the resistance of the Roman-British natives.
+Even while the Empire had been strong the heavy burden of taxation and
+the severe pressure of administrative regulations had caused a decline
+in wealth and population. Now disorder, incessant ravages of the
+barbarians, isolation from other lands, probably famine and
+pestilence, brought rapid decay to the prosperity and civilization of
+the country. Cities lost their trade, wealth, and population, and many
+of them ceased altogether for a time to exist. Britain was rapidly
+sinking again into a land of barbarism.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>4. Early Saxon England.</strong>&mdash;An increasing number of contemporary records
+give a somewhat clearer view of the condition of England toward the
+close of the sixth century. The old Roman organization and
+civilization had disappeared entirely, and a new race, with a new
+language, a different religion, another form of government, changed
+institutions and customs, had taken its place. A number of petty
+kingdoms had been formed during the fifth and early sixth centuries,
+each under a king or chieftain, as in the old Celtic times before the
+Roman invasion, but now of Teutonic or German race. The kings and
+their followers had come from the northwestern portions of Germany.
+How far they had destroyed the earlier inhabitants, how far they had
+simply combined with them or enslaved them, has been a matter of much
+debate, and one on which discordant opinions are held, even by recent
+students. It seems likely <span class="pagenum"><a id="page009" name="page009"></a>(p. 009)</span> on the whole that the earlier
+races, weakened by defeat and by the disappearance of the Roman
+control, were gradually absorbed and merged into the body of their
+conquerors; so that the petty Angle and Saxon kings of the sixth and
+seventh centuries ruled over a mixed race, in which their own was the
+most influential, though not necessarily the largest element. The
+arrival from Rome in 597 of Augustine, the first Christian missionary
+to the now heathen inhabitants of Britain, will serve as a point to
+mark the completion of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the country. By
+this time the new settlers had ceased to come in, and there were along
+the coast and inland some seven or eight different kingdoms. These
+were, however, so frequently divided and reunited that no fixed number
+remained long in existence. The Jutes had established the kingdom of
+Kent in the south-eastern extremity of the island; the South and the
+West Saxons were established on the southern coast and inland to the
+valley of the Thames; the East Saxons had a kingdom just north of the
+mouth of the Thames, and the Middle Saxons held London and the
+district around. The rest of the island to the north and inland
+exclusive of what was still unconquered was occupied by various
+branches of the Angle stock grouped into the kingdoms of East Anglia,
+Mercia, and Northumbria. During the seventh and eighth centuries there
+were constant wars of conquest among these kingdoms. Eventually, about
+800 <span class="smcap">A.D.</span>, the West Saxon monarchy made itself nominally supreme over
+all the others. Notwithstanding this political supremacy of the West
+Saxons, it was the Angles who were the most numerous and widely
+spread, and who gave their name, England, to the whole land.</p>
+
+<p>Agriculture was at this time almost the sole occupation of the people.
+The trade and commerce that had centred <span class="pagenum"><a id="page010" name="page010"></a>(p. 010)</span> in the towns and
+flowed along the Roman roads and across the Channel had long since
+come to an end with the Roman civilization of which it was a part. In
+Saxon England cities scarcely existed except as fortified places of
+defence. The products of each rural district sufficed for its needs in
+food and in materials for clothing, so that internal trade was but
+slight. Manufactures were few, partly from lack of skill, partly from
+lack of demand or appreciation; but weaving, the construction of
+agricultural implements and weapons, ship-building, and the working of
+metals had survived from Roman times, or been brought over as part of
+the stock of knowledge of the invaders. Far the greater part of the
+population lived in villages, as they probably had done in Roman and
+in prehistoric times. The village with the surrounding farming lands,
+woods, and waste grounds made up what was known in later times as the
+"township."</p>
+
+<p>The form of government in the earlier separate kingdoms, as in the
+united monarchy after its consolidation, gave limited though
+constantly increasing powers to the king. A body of nobles known as
+the "witan" joined with the king in most of the actions of government.
+The greater part of the small group of government functions which were
+undertaken in these barbarous times were fulfilled by local gatherings
+of the principal men. A district formed from a greater or less number
+of townships, with a meeting for the settlement of disputes, the
+punishment of crimes, the witnessing of agreements, and other
+purposes, was known as a "hundred" or a "wapentake." A "shire" was a
+grouping of hundreds, with a similar gathering of its principal men
+for judicial, military, and fiscal purposes. Above the shire came the
+whole kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>The most important occurrences of the early Saxon period were the
+general adoption of Christianity and the organization <span class="pagenum"><a id="page011" name="page011"></a>(p. 011)</span> of the
+church. Between <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 597 and 650 Christianity gained acceptance
+through the preaching and influence of missionaries, most of whom were
+sent from Rome, though some came from Christian Scotland and Ireland.
+The organization of the church followed closely. It was largely the
+work of Archbishop Theodore, and was practically complete before the
+close of the seventh century. By this organization England was divided
+into seventeen dioceses or church districts, religious affairs in each
+of these districts being under the supervision of a bishop. The
+bishop's church, called a "cathedral," was endowed by religious kings
+and nobles with extensive lands, so that the bishop was a wealthy
+landed proprietor, in addition to having control of the clergy of his
+diocese, and exercising a powerful influence over the consciences and
+actions of its lay population. The bishoprics were grouped into two
+"provinces," those of Canterbury and York, the bishops of these two
+dioceses having the higher title of archbishop, and having a certain
+sort of supervision over the other bishops of their province. Churches
+were gradually built in the villages, and each township usually became
+a parish with a regularly established priest. He was supported partly
+by the produce of the "glebe," or land belonging to the parish church,
+partly by tithe, a tax estimated at one-tenth of the income of each
+man's land, partly by the offerings of the people. The bishops, the
+parish priests, and others connected with the diocese, the cathedral,
+and the parish churches made up the ordinary or "secular" clergy.
+There were also many religious men and women who had taken vows to
+live under special "rules" in religious societies withdrawn from the
+ordinary life of the world, and were therefore known as "regular"
+clergy. These were the monks and nuns. In Anglo-Saxon England the
+regular clergy lived according to the rule of St. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page012" name="page012"></a>(p. 012)</span> Benedict,
+and were gathered into groups, some smaller, some larger, but always
+established in one building, or group of buildings. These monasteries,
+like the bishoprics, were endowed with lands which were increased from
+time to time by pious gifts of kings, nobles, and other laymen.
+Ecclesiastical bodies thus came in time to hold a very considerable
+share of the land of the country. The wealth and cultivation of the
+clergy and the desire to adorn and render more attractive their
+buildings and religious services fostered trade with foreign
+countries. The intercourse kept up with the church on the Continent
+also did something to lessen the isolation of England from the rest of
+the world. To these broadening influences must be added the effect
+which the Councils made up of churchmen from all England exerted in
+fostering the tardy growth of the unity of the country.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>5. Danish and Late Saxon England.</strong>&mdash;At the end of the eighth century
+the Danes or Northmen, the barbarous and heathen inhabitants of the
+islands and coast-lands of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, began to make
+rapid forays into the districts of England which lay near enough to
+the coasts or rivers to be at their mercy. Soon they became bolder or
+more numerous and established fortified camps along the English
+rivers, from which they ravaged the surrounding country. Still later,
+in the tenth and eleventh centuries, under their own kings as leaders,
+they became conquerors and permanent settlers of much of the country,
+and even for a time put a Danish dynasty on the throne to govern
+English and Danes alike. A succession of kings of the West Saxon line
+had struggled with varying success to drive the Danes from the country
+or to limit that portion of it which was under their control; but as a
+matter of fact the northern, eastern, and central portions of England
+were for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page013" name="page013"></a>(p. 013)</span> more than a century and a half almost entirely
+under Danish rule. The constant immigration from Scandinavia during
+this time added an important element to the population&mdash;an element
+which soon, however, became completely absorbed in the mixed stock of
+the English people.</p>
+
+<p>The marauding Danish invaders were early followed by fellow-countrymen
+who were tradesmen and merchants. The Scandinavian countries had
+developed an early and active trade with the other lands bordering on
+the Baltic and North seas, and England under Danish influence was
+drawn into the same lines of commerce. The Danes were also more
+inclined to town life than the English, so that advantageously
+situated villages now grew into trading towns, and the sites of some
+of the old Roman cities began again to be filled with a busy
+population. With trading came a greater development of handicrafts, so
+that the population of later Anglo-Saxon England had somewhat varied
+occupations and means of support, instead of being exclusively
+agricultural, as in earlier centuries.</p>
+
+<p>During these later centuries of the Saxon period, from 800 to 1066,
+the most conspicuous and most influential ruler was King Alfred. When
+he became king, in 871, the Danish invaders were so completely
+triumphant as to force him to flee with a few followers to the forest
+as a temporary refuge. He soon emerged, however, with the nucleus of
+an army and, during his reign, which continued till 901, defeated the
+Danes repeatedly, obtained their acceptance of Christianity, forced
+upon them a treaty which restricted their rule to the northeastern
+shires, and transmitted to his son a military and naval organization
+which enabled him to win back much even of this part of England. He
+introduced greater order, prosperity, and piety into the church, and
+partly by his own writing, partly by his patronage of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page014" name="page014"></a>(p. 014)</span>
+learned men, reawakened an interest in Anglo-Saxon literature and in
+learning which the ravages of the Danes and the demoralization of the
+country had gone far to destroy. Alfred, besides his actual work as
+king, impressed the recognition of his fine nature and strong
+character deeply on the men of his time and the memory of all
+subsequent times.</p>
+
+<p>The power of the kingship in the Anglo-Saxon system of government was
+strengthened by the life and work of such kings as Alfred and some of
+his successors. There were other causes also which were tending to
+make the central government more of a reality. A national taxation,
+the Danegeld, was introduced for the purpose of ransoming the country
+from the Danes; the grant of lands by the king brought many persons
+through the country into closer relations with him; the royal judicial
+powers tended to increase with the development of law and
+civilization; the work of government was carried on by better-trained
+officials.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, a custom grew up in the tenth and early eleventh
+century of placing whole groups of shires under the government of
+great earls or viceroys, whose subjection to the central government of
+the king was but scant. Church bodies and others who had received
+large grants of land from the king were also coming to exercise over
+their tenants judicial, fiscal, and probably even military powers,
+which would seem more properly to belong to government officials. The
+result was that although the central government as compared with the
+local government of shires and hundreds was growing more active, the
+king's power as compared with the personal power of the great nobles
+was becoming less strong. Violence was common, and there were but few
+signs of advancing prosperity or civilization, when an entirely new
+set of influences came into existence with the conquest by the duke of
+Normandy in the year 1066.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page015" name="page015"></a>(p. 015)</span> <strong>6. The Period following the Norman Conquest.</strong>&mdash;Normandy was a
+province of France lying along the shore of the English Channel. Its
+line of dukes and at least a considerable proportion of its people
+were of the same Scandinavian or Norse race which made up such a large
+element in the population of England. They had, however, learned more
+of the arts of life and of government from the more successfully
+preserved civilization of the Continent. The relations between England
+and Normandy began to be somewhat close in the early part of the
+eleventh century; the fugitive king of England, Ethelred, having taken
+refuge there, and marrying the sister of the duke. Edward the
+Confessor, their son, who was subsequently restored to the English
+throne, was brought up in Normandy, used the French language, and was
+accompanied on his return by Norman followers. Nine years after the
+accession of Edward, in 1051, William, the duke of Normandy, visited
+England and is said to have obtained a promise that he should receive
+the crown on the death of Edward, who had no direct heir. Accordingly,
+in 1065, when Edward died and Harold, a great English earl, was chosen
+king, William immediately asserted his claim and made strenuous
+military preparations for enforcing it. He took an army across the
+Channel in 1066, as Cæsar had done more than a thousand years before,
+and at the battle of Hastings or Senlac defeated the English army,
+King Harold himself being killed in the engagement. William then
+pressed on toward London, preventing any gathering of new forces, and
+obtained his recognition as king. He was crowned on Christmas Day,
+1066. During the next five years he put down a series of rebellions on
+the part of the native English, after which he and his descendants
+were acknowledged as sole kings of England.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page016" name="page016"></a>(p. 016)</span> The Norman Conquest was not, however, a mere change of
+dynasty. It led to at least three other changes of the utmost
+importance. It added a new element to the population, it brought
+England into contact with the central and southern countries of the
+Continent, instead of merely with the northern as before, and it made
+the central government of the country vastly stronger. There is no
+satisfactory means of discovering how many Normans and others from
+across the Channel migrated into England with the Conqueror or in the
+wake of the Conquest, but there is no doubt that the number was large
+and their influence more than proportionate to their numbers. Within
+the lifetime of William, whose death occurred in 1087, of his two
+sons, William II and Henry I, and the nominal reign of Stephen
+extending to 1154, the whole body of the nobility, the bishops and
+abbots, and the government officials had come to be of Norman or other
+continental origin. Besides these the architects and artisans who
+built the castles and fortresses, and the cathedrals, abbeys, and
+parish churches, whose erection throughout the land was such a marked
+characteristic of the period, were immigrants from Normandy. Merchants
+from the Norman cities of Rouen and Caen came to settle in London and
+other English cities, and weavers from Flanders were settled in
+various towns and even rural districts. For a short time these
+newcomers remained a separate people, but before the twelfth century
+was over they had become for the most part indistinguishable from the
+great mass of the English people amongst whom they had come. They had
+nevertheless made that people stronger, more vigorous, more
+active-minded, and more varied in their occupations and interests.</p>
+
+<p>King William and his successors retained their continental <span class="pagenum"><a id="page017" name="page017"></a>(p. 017)</span>
+dominions and even extended them after their acquisition of the
+English kingdom, so that trade between the two sides of the Channel
+was more natural and easy than before. The strong government of the
+Norman kings gave protection and encouragement to this commerce, and
+by keeping down the violence of the nobles favored trade within the
+country. The English towns had been growing in number, size, and
+wealth in the years just before the Conquest. The contests of the
+years immediately following 1066 led to a short period of decay, but
+very soon increasing trade and handicraft led to still greater
+progress. London, especially, now made good its position as one of the
+great cities of Europe, and that preëminence among English towns which
+it has never since lost. The fishing and seaport towns along the
+southern and eastern coast also, and even a number of inland towns,
+came to hold a much more influential place in the nation than they had
+possessed in the Anglo-Saxon period.</p>
+
+<p>The increased power of the monarchy arose partly from its military
+character as based upon a conquest of the country, partly from the
+personal character of William and his immediate successors, partly
+from the more effective machinery for administration of the affairs of
+government, which was either brought over from Normandy or developed
+in England. A body of trained, skilful government officials now
+existed, who were able to carry out the wishes of the king, collect
+his revenues, administer justice, gather armies, and in other ways
+make his rule effective to an extent unknown in the preceding period.
+The sheriffs, who had already existed as royal representatives in the
+shires in Anglo-Saxon times, now possessed far more extensive powers,
+and came up to Westminster to report and to present their financial
+accounts to the royal exchequer <span class="pagenum"><a id="page018" name="page018"></a>(p. 018)</span> twice a year. Royal
+officials acting as judges not only settled an increasingly large
+number of cases that were brought before them at the king's court, but
+travelled through the country, trying suits and punishing criminals in
+the different shires. The king's income was vastly larger than that of
+the Anglo-Saxon monarchs had been. The old Danegeld was still
+collected from time to time, though under a different name, and the
+king's position as landlord of the men who had received the lands
+confiscated at the Conquest was utilized to obtain additional
+payments.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the greatest proof of the power and efficiency of the
+government in the Norman period was the compilation of the great body
+of statistics known as "Domesday Book." In 1085 King William sent
+commissioners to every part of England to collect a variety of
+information about the financial conditions on which estates were held,
+their value, and fitness for further taxation. The information
+obtained from this investigation was drawn up in order and written in
+two large manuscript volumes which still exist in the Public Record
+Office at London. It is a much more extensive body of information than
+was collected for any other country of Europe until many centuries
+afterward. Yet its statements, though detailed and exact and of great
+interest from many points of view, are disappointing to the student of
+history. They were obtained for the financial purposes of government,
+and cannot be made to give the clear picture of the life of the people
+and of the relations of different classes to one another which would
+be so welcome, and which is so easily obtained from the great variety
+of more private documents which came into existence a century and a
+half later.</p>
+
+<p>The church during this period was not relatively so conspicuous as
+during Saxon times, but the number of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page019" name="page019"></a>(p. 019)</span> clergy, both
+secular and regular, was very large, the bishops and abbots powerful,
+and the number of monasteries and nunneries increasing. The most
+important ecclesiastical change was the development of church courts.
+The bishops or their representatives began to hold courts for the
+trial of churchmen, the settlement of such suits as churchmen were
+parties to, and the decision of cases in certain fields of law. This
+gave the church a new influence, in addition to that which it held
+from its spiritual duties, from its position as landlord over such
+extensive tracts, and from the superior enlightenment and mental
+ability of its prominent officials, but it also gave greater occasion
+for conflict with the civil government and with private persons.</p>
+
+<p>After the death of Henry I in 1135 a miserable period of confusion and
+violence ensued. Civil war broke out between two claimants for the
+crown, Stephen the grandson, and Matilda the granddaughter, of William
+the Conqueror. The organization of government was allowed to fall into
+disorder, and but little effort was made to collect the royal revenue,
+to fulfil the newly acquired judicial duties, or to insist upon order
+being preserved in the country. The nobles took opposite sides in the
+contest for the crown, and made use of the weakness of government to
+act as if they were themselves sovereigns over their estates and the
+country adjacent to their castles with no ruler above them. Private
+warfare, oppression of less powerful men, seizure of property, went on
+unchecked. Every baron's castle became an independent establishment
+carried on in accordance only with the unbridled will of its lord, as
+if there were no law and no central authority to which he must bow.
+The will of the lord was often one of reckless violence, and there was
+more disorder and suffering in England than at any time since the
+ravages of the Danes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page020" name="page020"></a>(p. 020)</span> In Anglo-Saxon times, when a weak king appeared, the shire
+moots, or the rulers of groups of shires, exercised the authority
+which the central government had lost. In the twelfth century, when
+the power of the royal government was similarly diminished through the
+weakness of Stephen and the confusions of the civil war, it was a
+certain class of men, the great nobles, that fell heir to the lost
+strength of government. This was because of the development of
+feudalism during the intervening time. The greater landholders had
+come to exercise over those who held land from them certain powers
+which in modern times belong to the officers of government only. A
+landlord could call upon his tenants for military service to him, and
+for the contribution of money for his expenses; he held a court to
+decide suits between one tenant and another, and frequently to punish
+their crimes and misdemeanors; in case of the death of a tenant
+leaving a minor heir, his landlord became guardian and temporary
+holder of the land, and if there were no heirs, the land reverted to
+him, not to the national government. These relations which the great
+landholders held toward their tenants, the latter, who often
+themselves were landlords over whole townships or other great tracts
+of land with their population, held toward their tenants. Sometimes
+these subtenants granted land to others below them, and over these the
+last landlord also exercised feudal rights, and so on till the actual
+occupants and cultivators of the soil were reached. The great nobles
+had thus come to stand in a middle position. Above them was the king,
+below them these successive stages of tenants and subtenants. Their
+tenants owed to them the same financial and political services and
+duties as they owed to the king. From the time of the Norman Conquest,
+all land in England was looked upon as being held from the king
+directly <span class="pagenum"><a id="page021" name="page021"></a>(p. 021)</span> by a comparatively few, and indirectly through them
+by all others who held land at all. Moreover, from a time at least
+soon after the Norman Conquest, the services and payments above
+mentioned came to be recognized as due from all tenants to their
+lords, and were gradually systematized and defined. Each person or
+ecclesiastical body that held land from the king owed him the military
+service of a certain number of knights or armed horse soldiers. The
+period for which this service was owed was generally estimated as
+forty days once a year. Subtenants similarly owed military service to
+their landlords, though in the lesser grades this was almost
+invariably commuted for money. "Wardship and marriage" was the
+expression applied to the right of the lord to the guardianship of the
+estate of a minor heir of his tenant, and to the choice of a husband
+or wife for the heir when he came of proper age. This right also was
+early turned into the form of a money consideration. There were a
+number of money payments pure and simple. "Relief" was a payment to
+the landlord, usually of a year's income of the estate, made by an
+heir on obtaining his inheritance. There were three generally
+acknowledged "aids" or payments of a set sum in proportion to the
+amount of land held. These were on the occasion of the knighting of
+the lord's son, of the marriage of his daughter, and for his ransom in
+case he was captured in war. Land could be confiscated if the tenant
+violated his duties to his landlord, and it "escheated" to the lord in
+case of failure of heirs. Every tenant was bound to attend his
+landlord to help form a court for judicial work, and to submit to the
+judgment of a court of his fellow-tenants for his own affairs.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the relations of landlord and tenant and to the power
+of jurisdiction, taxation, and military service <span class="pagenum"><a id="page022" name="page022"></a>(p. 022)</span> which
+landlords exercised over their tenants, there was considered to be a
+close personal relationship between them. Every tenant on obtaining
+his land went through a ceremony known as "homage," by which he
+promised faithfulness and service to his lord, vowing on his knees to
+be his man. The lord in return promised faithfulness, protection, and
+justice to his tenant. It was this combination of landholding,
+political rights, and sworn personal fidelity that made up feudalism.
+It existed in this sense in England from the later Saxon period till
+late in the Middle Ages, and even in some of its characteristics to
+quite modern times. The conquest by William of Normandy through the
+wholesale confiscation and regrant of lands, and through his military
+arrangements, brought about an almost sudden development and spread of
+feudalism in England, and it was rapidly systematized and completed in
+the reigns of his two sons. By its very nature feudalism gives great
+powers to the higher ranks of the nobility, the great landholders.
+Under the early Norman kings, however, their strength was kept in
+tolerably complete check. The anarchy of the reign of Stephen was an
+indication of the natural tendencies of feudalism without a vigorous
+king. This time of confusion when, as the contemporary chronicle says,
+"every man did that which was good in his own eyes," was brought to an
+end by the accession to the throne of Henry II, a man whose personal
+abilities and previous training enabled him to bring the royal
+authority to greater strength than ever, and to put an end to the
+oppressions of the turbulent nobles.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>7. The Period of the Early Angevin Kings, 1154-1338.</strong>&mdash;The two
+centuries which now followed saw either the completion or the
+initiation of most of the characteristics of the English race with
+which we are familiar in historic times. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page023" name="page023"></a>(p. 023)</span> The race, the
+language, the law, and the political organization have remained
+fundamentally the same as they became during the thirteenth and
+fourteenth centuries. No considerable new addition was made to the
+population, and the elements which it already contained became so
+thoroughly fused that it has always since been practically a
+homogeneous body. The Latin language remained through this whole
+period and till long afterward the principal language of records,
+documents, and the affairs of the church. French continued to be the
+language of the daily intercourse of the upper classes, of the
+pleadings in the law courts, and of certain documents and records. But
+English was taking its modern form, asserting itself as the real
+national language, and by the close of this period had come into
+general use for the vast majority of purposes. Within the twelfth and
+thirteenth centuries the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge grew up,
+and within the fourteenth took their later shape of self-governing
+groups of colleges. Successive orders of religious men and women were
+formed under rules intended to overcome the defects which had appeared
+in the early Benedictine rule. The organized church became more and
+more powerful, and disputes constantly arose as to the limits between
+its power and that of the ordinary government. The question was
+complicated from the fact that the English Church was but one branch
+of the general church of Western Christendom, whose centre and
+principal authority was vested in the Pope at Rome. One of the most
+serious of these conflicts was between King Henry II and Thomas,
+archbishop of Canterbury, principally on the question of how far
+clergymen should be subject to the same laws as laymen. The personal
+dispute ended in the murder of the archbishop, in 1170, but the
+controversy itself got no farther than a compromise. A contest broke
+out between King John and the Pope in 1205 <span class="pagenum"><a id="page024" name="page024"></a>(p. 024)</span> as to the right
+of the king to dictate the selection of a new archbishop of
+Canterbury. By 1213 the various forms of influence which the church
+could bring to bear were successful in forcing the king to give way.
+He therefore made humble apologies and accepted the nominee of the
+Pope for the office. Later in the thirteenth century there was much
+popular opposition to papal taxation of England.</p>
+
+<p>In the reign of Henry II, the conquest of Ireland was begun. In 1283
+Edward I, great-grandson of Henry, completed the conquest of Wales,
+which had remained incompletely conquered from Roman times onward. In
+1292 Edward began that interference in the affairs of Scotland which
+led on to long wars and a nominal conquest. For a while therefore it
+seemed that England was about to create a single monarchy out of the
+whole of the British Islands. Moreover, Henry II was already count of
+Anjou and Maine by inheritance from his father when he became duke of
+Normandy and king of England by inheritance from his mother. He also
+obtained control of almost all the remainder of the western and
+southern provinces of France by his marriage with Eleanor of
+Aquitaine. It seemed, therefore, that England might become the centre
+of a considerable empire composed partly of districts on the
+Continent, partly of the British Islands. As a matter of fact, Wales
+long remained separated from England in organization and feeling,
+little progress was made with the real conquest of Ireland till in the
+sixteenth century, and the absorption of Scotland failed entirely.
+King John, in 1204, lost most of the possessions of the English kings
+south of the Channel and they were not regained within this period.
+The unification of the English government and people really occurred
+during this period, but it was only within the boundaries which were
+then as now known as England.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page025" name="page025"></a>(p. 025)</span> Henry II was a vigorous, clear-headed, far-sighted ruler. He
+not only put down the rebellious barons with a strong hand, and
+restored the old royal institutions, as already stated, but added new
+powers of great importance, especially in the organization of the
+courts of justice. He changed the occasional visits of royal officials
+to different parts of the country to regular periodical circuits, the
+kingdom being divided into districts in each of which a group of
+judges held court at least once in each year. In 1166, by the Assize
+of Clarendon, he made provision for a sworn body of men in each
+neighborhood to bring accusations against criminals, thus making the
+beginning of the grand jury system. He also provided that a group of
+men should be put upon their oath to give a decision in a dispute
+about the possession of land, if either one of the claimants asked for
+it, thus introducing the first form of the trial by jury. The
+decisions of the judges within this period came to be so consistent
+and so well recorded as to make the foundation of the Common Law the
+basis of modern law in all English-speaking countries.</p>
+
+<p>Henry's successor was his son Richard I, whose government was quite
+unimportant except for the romantic personal adventures of the king
+when on a crusade, and in his continental dominions. Henry's second
+son John reigned from 1199 to 1216. Although of good natural
+abilities, he was extraordinarily indolent, mean, treacherous, and
+obstinate. By his inactivity during a long quarrel with the king of
+France he lost all his provinces on the Continent, except those in the
+far south. His contest with the Pope had ended in failure and
+humiliation. He had angered the barons by arbitrary taxation and by
+many individual acts of outrage or oppression. Finally he had
+alienated the affections of the mass of the population by introducing
+foreign mercenaries <span class="pagenum"><a id="page026" name="page026"></a>(p. 026)</span> to support his tyranny and permitting to
+them unbridled excess and violence. As a result of this widespread
+unpopularity, a rebellion was organized, including almost the whole of
+the baronage of England, guided by the counsels of Stephen Langton,
+archbishop of Canterbury, and supported by the citizens of London. The
+indefiniteness of feudal relations was a constant temptation to kings
+and other lords to carry their exactions and demands upon their
+tenants to an unreasonable and oppressive length. Henry I, on his
+accession in 1100, in order to gain popularity, had voluntarily
+granted a charter reciting a number of these forms of oppression and
+promising to put an end to them. The rebellious barons now took this
+old charter as a basis, added to it many points which had become
+questions of dispute during the century since it had been granted, and
+others which were of special interest to townsmen and the middle and
+even lower classes. They then demanded the king's promise to issue a
+charter containing these points. John resisted for a while, but at
+last gave way and signed the document which has since been known as
+the "Great Charter," or Magna Carta. This has always been considered
+as, in a certain sense, the guarantee of English liberties and the
+foundation of the settled constitution of the kingdom. The fact that
+it was forced from a reluctant king by those who spoke for the whole
+nation, that it placed definite limitations on his power, and that it
+was confirmed again and again by later kings, has done more to give it
+this position than its temporary and in many cases insignificant
+provisions, accompanied only by a comparatively few statements of
+general principles.</p>
+
+<p>The beginnings of the construction of the English parliamentary
+constitution fall within the next reign, that of John's son, Henry
+III, 1216-1272. He was a child at his accession, and when he became a
+man proved to have but <span class="pagenum"><a id="page027" name="page027"></a>(p. 027)</span> few qualities which would enable him
+to exercise a real control over the course of events. Conflicts were
+constant between the king and confederations of the barons, for the
+greater part of the time under the leadership of Simon de Montfort,
+earl of Leicester. The special points of difference were the king's
+preference for foreign adventurers in his distribution of offices, his
+unrestrained munificence to them, their insolence and oppression
+relying on the king's support, the financial demands which were
+constantly being made, and the king's encouragement of the high claims
+and pecuniary exactions of the Pope. At first these conflicts took the
+form of disputes in the Great Council, but ultimately they led to
+another outbreak of civil war. The Great Council of the kingdom was a
+gathering of the nobles, bishops, and abbots summoned by the king from
+time to time for advice and participation in the more important work
+of government. It had always existed in one form or another, extending
+back continuously to the "witenagemot" of the Anglo-Saxons. During the
+reign of Henry the name "Parliament" was coming to be more regularly
+applied to it, its meetings were more frequent and its self-assertion
+more vigorous. But most important of all, a new class of members was
+added to it. In 1265, in addition to the nobles and great prelates,
+the sheriffs were ordered to see that two knights were selected from
+each of their shires, and two citizens from each of a long list of the
+larger towns, to attend and take part in the discussions of
+Parliament. This plan was not continued regularly at first, but
+Henry's successor, Edward I, who reigned from 1272 to 1307, adopted it
+deliberately, and from 1295 forward the "Commons," as they came to be
+called, were always included in Parliament. Within the next century a
+custom arose according to which the representatives of the shires and
+the towns sat in a <span class="pagenum"><a id="page028" name="page028"></a>(p. 028)</span> separate body from the nobles and
+churchmen, so that Parliament took on its modern form of two houses,
+the House of Lords and the House of Commons.</p>
+
+<p>Until this time and long afterward the personal character and
+abilities of the king were far the most important single factor in the
+growth of the nation. Edward I was one of the greatest of English
+kings, ranking with Alfred, William the Conqueror, and Henry II. His
+conquests of Wales and of Scotland have already been mentioned, and
+these with the preparation they involved and a war with France into
+which he was drawn necessarily occupied the greater part of his time
+and energy. But he found the time to introduce good order and control
+into the government in all its branches; to make a great investigation
+into the judicial and administrative system, the results of which,
+commonly known as the "Hundred Rolls," are comparable to Domesday Book
+in extent and character; to develop the organization of Parliament,
+and above all to enact through it a series of great reforming
+statutes. The most important of these were the First and Second
+Statutes of Westminster, in 1275 and 1285, which made provisions for
+good order in the country, for the protection of merchants, and for
+other objects; the Statute of Mortmain, passed in 1279, which put a
+partial stop to injurious gifts of land to the church, and the Statute
+<i>Quia Emptores</i>, passed in 1290, which was intended to prevent the
+excessive multiplication of subtenants. This was done by providing
+that whenever in the future any landholder should dispose of a piece
+of land it should be held from the same lord the grantor had held it
+from, not from the grantor himself. He also gave more liberal charters
+to the towns, privileges to foreign merchants, and constant
+encouragement to trade. The king's firm hand and prudent judgment were
+felt in a wide circle <span class="pagenum"><a id="page029" name="page029"></a>(p. 029)</span> of regulations applying to taxes,
+markets and fairs, the purchase of royal supplies, the currency, the
+administration of local justice, and many other fields. Yet after all
+it was the organization of Parliament that was the most important work
+of Edward's reign. This completed the unification of the country. The
+English people were now one race, under one law, with one Parliament
+representing all parts of the country. It was possible now for the
+whole nation to act as a unit, and for laws to be passed which would
+apply to the whole country and draw its different sections continually
+more closely together. National growth was now possible in a sense in
+which it had not been before.</p>
+
+<p>The reign of Edward II, like his own character, was insignificant
+compared with that of his father. He was deposed in 1327, and his son,
+Edward III, came to the throne as a boy of fourteen years. The first
+years of his reign were also relatively unimportant. By the time he
+reached his majority, however, other events were imminent which for
+the next century or more gave a new direction to the principal
+interests and energies of England. A description of these events will
+be given in a later chapter.</p>
+
+<p>For the greater part of the long period which has now been sketched in
+outline it is almost solely the political and ecclesiastical events
+and certain personal experiences which have left their records in
+history. We can obtain but vague outlines of the actual life of the
+people. An important Anglo-Saxon document describes the organization
+of a great landed estate, and from Domesday Book and other early
+Norman records may be drawn certain inferences as to the degree of
+freedom of the masses of the people and certain facts as to
+agriculture and trade. From the increasing body of public records in
+the twelfth century can be gathered detached pieces of information as
+to actual social and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page030" name="page030"></a>(p. 030)</span> economic conditions, but the knowledge
+that can be obtained is even yet slight and uncertain. With the
+thirteenth century, however, all this is changed. During the latter
+part of the period just described, that is to say the reigns of Henry
+III and the three Edwards, we have almost as full knowledge of
+economic as of political conditions, of the life of the mass of the
+people as of that of courtiers and ecclesiastics. From a time for
+which 1250 may be taken as an approximate date, written documents
+began to be so numerous, so varied, and so full of information as to
+the affairs of private life, that it becomes possible to obtain a
+comparatively full and clear knowledge of the methods of agriculture,
+handicraft, and commerce, of the classes of society, the prevailing
+customs and ideas, and in general of the mode of life and social
+organization of the mass of the people, this being the principal
+subject of economic and social history. The next three chapters will
+therefore be devoted respectively to a description of rural life, of
+town life, and of trading relations, as they were during the century
+from 1250 to 1350, while the succeeding chapters will trace the main
+lines of economic and social change during succeeding periods down to
+the present time.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page031" name="page031"></a>(p. 031)</span> CHAPTER II</h3>
+
+<h5>RURAL LIFE AND ORGANIZATION</h5>
+
+
+<p><strong>8. The Mediæval Village.</strong>&mdash;In the Middle Ages in the greater part of
+England all country life was village life. The farmhouses were not
+isolated or separated from one another by surrounding fields, as they
+are so generally in modern times, but were gathered into villages.
+Each village was surrounded by arable lands, meadows, pastures, and
+woods which spread away till they reached the confines of the similar
+fields of the next adjacent village. Such an agricultural village with
+its population and its surrounding lands is usually spoken of as a
+"vill." The word "manor" is also applied to it, though this word is
+also used in other senses, and has differed in meaning at different
+periods. The word "hamlet" means a smaller group of houses separated
+from but forming in some respects a part of a vill or manor.</p>
+
+<p>The village consisted of a group of houses ranging in number from ten
+or twelve to as many as fifty or perhaps even more, grouped around
+what in later times would be called a "village green," or along two or
+three intersecting lanes. The houses were small, thatch-roofed, and
+one-roomed, and doubtless very miserable. Such buildings as existed
+for the protection of cattle or the preservation of crops were closely
+connected with the dwelling portions of the houses. In many cases they
+were under the same roof. Each vill possessed its church, which was
+generally, though by no means always, close to the houses of the
+village. There was usually a manor house, which varied in size from
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page032" name="page032"></a>(p. 032)</span> an actual castle to a building of a character scarcely
+distinguishable from the primitive houses of the villagers. This might
+be occupied regularly or occasionally by the lord of the manor, but
+might otherwise be inhabited by the steward or by a tenant, or perhaps
+only serve as the gathering place of the manor courts.</p>
+
+<p>Connected with the manor house was an enclosure or courtyard commonly
+surrounded by buildings for general farm purposes and for cooking or
+brewing. A garden orchard was often attached.</p>
+
+<a id="img003" name="img003"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img003.jpg" width="500" height="336" alt="Thirteenth Century Manor House, Millichope, Shropshire.
+(Wright, <i>History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments</i>.)" title="Thirteenth Century Manor House, Millichope, Shropshire.
+(Wright, <i>History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments</i>.)">
+<p><span class="smcap">Thirteenth Century Manor House, Millichope, Shropshire.</span><br>
+(Wright, <i>History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The location of the vill was almost invariably such that a stream with
+its border meadows passed through or along its confines, the mill
+being often the only building that lay detached from the village
+group. A greater or less extent of woodland is also constantly
+mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>The vill was thus made up of the group of houses of the villagers
+including the parish church and the manor house, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page033" name="page033"></a>(p. 033)</span> all
+surrounded by a wide tract of arable land, meadow, pasture, and woods.
+Where the lands were extensive there might perhaps be a small group of
+houses forming a separate hamlet at some distance from the village,
+and occasionally a detached mill, grange, or other building. Its
+characteristic appearance, however, must have been that of a close
+group of buildings surrounded by an extensive tract of open land.</p>
+
+<a id="img004" name="img004"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img004.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Thirteenth Century Manor House, Boothby Pagnell,
+Lincolnshire. (Turner, <i>Domestic Architecture in England</i>.)" title="Thirteenth Century Manor House, Boothby Pagnell,
+Lincolnshire. (Turner, <i>Domestic Architecture in England</i>.)">
+<p><span class="smcap">Thirteenth Century Manor House, Boothby Pagnell,
+Lincolnshire</span>.<br> (Turner, <i>Domestic Architecture in England</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>9. The Vill as an Agricultural System.</strong>&mdash;The support of the vill was in
+its agriculture. The plan by which the lands of the whole group of
+cultivators lay together in a large tract surrounding the village is
+spoken of as the "open field" system. The arable portions of this were
+ploughed in pieces equalling approximately acres, half-acres, or
+quarter-acres.</p>
+
+<a id="img005" name="img005"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img005.jpg" width="500" height="454" alt="Village with Open Fields, Nörtershausen, near
+Coblentz. Germany. (From a photograph taken in 1894.)" title="Village with Open Fields, Nörtershausen, near
+Coblentz. Germany. (From a photograph taken in 1894.)">
+<p><span class="smcap">Village with Open Fields, Nörtershausen, near
+Coblentz. Germany.</span><br> (From a photograph taken in 1894.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The mediæval English acre was a long narrow strip forty rods in length
+and four rods in width, a half-acre or quarter-acre <span class="pagenum"><a id="page034" name="page034"></a>(p. 034)</span> being of
+the same length, but of two rods or one rod in width. The rod was of
+different lengths in different parts of the country, depending on
+local custom, but the most common length was that prescribed by
+statute, that is to say, sixteen and a half feet. The length of the
+acre, forty rods, has given rise to one of the familiar units of
+length, the furlong, that is, a "furrow-long," or the length of a
+furrow. A rood is a piece of land one rod wide and forty rods long,
+that is, the fourth of an acre. A series of such strips were ploughed
+up successively, being separated from each <span class="pagenum"><a id="page035" name="page035"></a>(p. 035)</span> other either by
+leaving the width of a furrow or two unploughed, or by marking the
+division with stones, or perhaps by simply throwing the first furrow
+of the next strip in the opposite direction when it was ploughed. When
+an unploughed border was left covered with grass or stones, it was
+called a "balk." A number of such acres or fractions of acres with
+their slight dividing ridges thus lay alongside of one another in a
+group, the number being defined by the configuration of the ground, by
+a traditional division among a given number of tenants, or by some
+other cause. Other groups of strips lay at right angles or inclined to
+these, so that the whole arable land of the village when ploughed or
+under cultivation had, like many French, German, or Swiss landscapes
+at the present time, something of the appearance of a great irregular
+checker-board or patchwork quilt, each <span class="pagenum"><a id="page036" name="page036"></a>(p. 036)</span> large square being
+divided in one direction by parallel lines. Usually the cultivated
+open fields belonging to a village were divided into three or more
+large tracts or fields and these were cultivated according to some
+established rotation of crops. The most common of these was the
+three-field system, by which in any one year all the strips in one
+tract or field would be planted with wheat, rye, or some other crop
+which is planted in the fall and harvested the next summer; a second
+great field would be planted with oats, barley, peas, or some such
+crop as is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall; the third
+field would be fallow, recuperating its fertility. The next year all
+the acres in the field which had lain fallow the year before might be
+planted with a fall crop, the wheat field of the previous year being
+planted with a spring crop, and the oats field in its turn now lying
+uncultivated for a year. The third year a further exchange would be
+made by which a fall crop would succeed the fallow of that year and
+the spring crop of the previous year, a spring crop would succeed the
+last year's fall crop and the field from which the spring crop was
+taken now in its turn would enjoy a fallow year. In the fourth year
+the rotation would begin over again.</p>
+
+<a id="img006" name="img006"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img006.jpg" width="500" height="347" alt="Village with Open Fields, Udenhausen, near Coblentz,
+Germany. (From a photograph taken in 1894.)" title="Village with Open Fields, Udenhausen, near Coblentz,
+Germany. (From a photograph taken in 1894.)">
+<p><span class="smcap">Village with Open Fields, Udenhausen, near Coblentz,
+Germany.</span><br> (From a photograph taken in 1894.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Agriculture was extremely crude. But eight or nine bushels of wheat or
+rye were expected from an acre, where now in England the average is
+thirty. The plough regularly required eight draught animals, usually
+oxen, in breaking up the ground, though lighter ploughs were used in
+subsequent cultivation. The breed of all farm animals was small, carts
+were few and cumbrous, the harvesting of grain was done with a sickle,
+and the mowing of grass with a short, straight scythe. The distance of
+the outlying parts of the fields from the farm buildings of the
+village added its share to the laboriousness of agricultural life.</p>
+
+<a id="img007" name="img007"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img007.jpg" width="500" height="321" alt="Modern Ploughing with Six Oxen in Sussex." title="Modern Ploughing with Six Oxen in Sussex.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Modern Ploughing with Six Oxen in Sussex.</span><br>
+(Hudson, W. H.: <i>Nature in Downland</i>. Published by Longmans, Green &amp; Co.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img008" name="img008"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img008.jpg" width="500" height="338" alt="Open Fields of Hayford Bridge, Oxfordshire, 1607." title="Open Fields of Hayford Bridge, Oxfordshire, 1607.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Open Fields of Hayford Bridge, Oxfordshire, 1607.</span><br>
+(Facsimile map published by the University of Oxford.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page037" name="page037"></a>(p. 037)</span> The variety of food crops raised was small. Potatoes were of
+course unknown, and other root crops and fresh vegetables apparently
+were little cultivated. Wheat and rye of several varieties were raised
+as bread-stuff, barley and some other grains for the brewing of beer.
+Field peas and beans were raised, sometimes for food, but generally as
+forage for cattle. The main supply of winter forage for the farm
+animals had, however, to be secured in the form of hay, and for this
+reliance was placed entirely on the natural meadows, as no clover or
+grasses which could be artificially raised on dry ground were yet
+known. Meadow land was constantly estimated at twice the value of
+arable ground or more. To obtain a sufficient support for the oxen,
+horses, and breeding animals through the winter required, therefore, a
+constant struggle. Owing to this difficulty animals that were to be
+used for food purposes were regularly killed in the fall and salted
+down. Much of the unhealthiness of medieval life is no doubt
+attributable to the use of salt meat as so large a part of what was at
+best a very monotonous diet.</p>
+
+<p>Summer pasture for the horses, cattle, sheep, and swine of the village
+was found partly on the arable land after the grain crops had been
+taken off, or while it was lying fallow. Since all the acres in any
+one great field were planted with the same crop, this would be taken
+off from the whole expanse at practically the same time, and the
+animals of the whole village might then wander over it, feeding on the
+stubble, the grass of the balks, and such other growth as sprung up
+before the next ploughing, or before freezing weather. Pasturage was
+also found on the meadows after the hay had been cut. But the largest
+amount of all was on the "common pasture," the uncultivated land and
+woods which in the thirteenth century was still sufficiently <span class="pagenum"><a id="page038" name="page038"></a>(p. 038)</span>
+abundant in most parts of England to be found in considerable extent
+on almost every manor. Pasturage in all these forms was for the most
+part common for all the animals of the vill, which were sent out under
+the care of shepherds or other guardians. There were, however,
+sometimes enclosed pieces of pasture land in the possession of the
+lord of the manor or of individual villagers.</p>
+
+<p>The land of the vill was held and cultivated according to a system of
+scattered acres. That is to say, the land held by any one man was not
+all in one place, but scattered through various parts of the open
+fields of the vill. He would have an acre or two, or perhaps only a
+part of an acre, in one place, another strip not adjacent to it, but
+somewhere else in the fields, still another somewhere else, and so on
+for his whole holding, while the neighbor whose house was next to his
+in the village would have pieces of land similarly scattered through
+the fields, and in many cases probably have them adjacent to his. The
+result was that the various acres or other parts of any one man's
+holding were mingled apparently inextricably with those of other men,
+customary familiarity only distinguishing which pieces belonged to
+each villager.</p>
+
+<p>In some manors there was total irregularity as to the number of acres
+in the occupation of any one man; in others there was a striking
+regularity. The typical holding, the group of scattered acres
+cultivated by one man or held by some two or three in common, was
+known as a "virgate," or by some equivalent term, and although of no
+universal equality, was more frequently of thirty acres than of any
+other number. Usually one finds on a given manor that ten or fifteen
+of the villagers have each a virgate of a given number of acres,
+several more have each a half virgate or a quarter. Occasionally, on
+the other hand, each of them has <span class="pagenum"><a id="page039" name="page039"></a>(p. 039)</span> a different number of
+acres. In almost all cases, however, the agricultural holdings of the
+villagers were relatively small. For instance, on a certain manor in
+Norfolk there were thirty-six holdings, twenty of them below ten
+acres, eight between ten and twenty, six between twenty and thirty,
+and two between thirty and forty. On another, in Essex, there were
+nine holdings of five acres each, two of six, twelve of ten, three of
+twelve, one of eighteen, four of twenty, one of forty, and one of
+fifty. Sometimes larger holdings in the hands of individual tenants
+are to be found, rising to one hundred acres or more. Still these were
+quite exceptional and the mass of the villagers had very small groups
+of acres in their possession.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be noted next that a large proportion of the cultivated
+strips were not held in virgates or otherwise by the villagers at all,
+but were in the direct possession and cultivation of the lord of the
+manor. This land held directly by the lord of the manor and cultivated
+for him was called the "demesne," and frequently included one-half or
+even a larger proportion of all the land of the vill. Much of the
+meadow and pasture land, and frequently all of the woods, was included
+in the demesne. Some of the demesne land was detached from the land of
+the villagers, enclosed and separately cultivated or pastured; but for
+the most part it lay scattered through the same open fields and was
+cultivated by the same methods and according to the same rotation as
+the land of the small tenants of the vill, though it was kept under
+separate management.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>10. Classes of People on the Manor.</strong>&mdash;Every manor was in the hands of a
+lord. He might be a knight, esquire, or mere freeman, but in the great
+majority of cases the lord of the manor was a nobleman, a bishop,
+abbot, or other ecclesiastical official, or the king. But whether the
+manor was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page040" name="page040"></a>(p. 040)</span> the whole estate of a man of the lesser gentry, or
+merely one part of the possessions of a great baron, an ecclesiastical
+corporation, or the crown, the relation between its possessor as lord
+of the manor and the other inhabitants as his tenants was the same. In
+the former case he was usually resident upon the manor; in the latter
+the individual or corporate lord was represented by a steward or other
+official who made occasional visits, and frequently, on large manors,
+by a resident bailiff. There was also almost universally a reeve, who
+was chosen from among the tenants and who had to carry on the demesne
+farm in the interests of the lord.</p>
+
+<a id="img009" name="img009"></a>
+<div class="floatleft">
+<img src="images/img009.jpg" width="200" height="274" alt="Seal, with representation of a Manor House." title="Seal, with representation of a Manor House.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Seal, with representation of a Manor House.</span><br>
+(Turner, <i>Domestic Architecture in England</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The tenants of the manor, ranging from holders of considerable amounts
+of land, perhaps as much as a hundred acres, through various
+gradations down to mere cotters, who held no more than a cottage with
+perhaps a half-acre or a rood of land, or even with no land at all,
+are usually grouped in the "extents" or contemporary descriptions of
+the manors and their inhabitants into several distinct classes. Some
+are described as free tenants, or tenants holding freely. Others, and
+usually the largest class, are called villains, or customary tenants.
+Some, holding only a half or a quarter virgate, are spoken of as half
+or quarter villains. Again, a numerous class are described by some
+name indicating that they hold only a dwelling-house, or at least that
+their holding of land is but slight. These are generally spoken of as
+cotters.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page041" name="page041"></a>(p. 041)</span> All these tenants hold land from the lord of the manor and
+make payments and perform services in return for their land. The free
+tenants most commonly make payments in money only. At special periods
+in the year they give a certain number of shillings or pence to the
+lord. Occasionally they are required to make some payment in kind, a
+cock or a hen, some eggs, or other articles of consumption. These
+money payments and payments of articles of money value are called
+"rents of assize," or established rents. Not unusually, however, the
+free tenant has to furnish <i>precariæ</i> or "boon-works" to the lord. That
+is, he must, either in his own person or through a man hired for the
+purpose, furnish one or more days' labor at the specially busy seasons
+of the year, at fall and spring ploughing, at mowing or harvest time.
+Free tenants were also frequently bound to pay relief and heriot.
+Relief was a sum of money paid to the lord by an heir on obtaining
+land by inheritance. Custom very generally established the amount to
+be paid as the equivalent of one year's ordinary payments. Heriot was
+a payment made in kind or in money from the property left by a
+deceased tenant, and very generally consisted by custom of the best
+animal which had been in the possession of the man, or its equivalent
+in value. On many manors heriot was not paid by free tenants, but only
+by those of lower rank.</p>
+
+<p>The services and payments of the villains or customary tenants were of
+various descriptions. They had usually to make some money payments at
+regular periods of the year, like the free tenants, and, even more
+frequently than they, some regular payments in kind. But the fine paid
+on the inheritance of their land was less definitely restricted in
+amount, and heriot was more universally and more regularly collected.
+The greater part of their liability to the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page042" name="page042"></a>(p. 042)</span> lord of the manor
+was, however, in the form of personal, corporal service. Almost
+universally the villain was required to work for a certain number of
+days in each week on the demesne of the lord. This "week-work" was
+most frequently for three days a week, sometimes for two, sometimes
+for four; sometimes for one number of days in the week during a part
+of the year, for another number during the remainder. In addition to
+this were usually the <i>precariæ</i> or boon-works already referred to.
+Sometimes as part of, sometimes in addition to, the week-work and the
+boon-work, the villain was required to plough so many acres in the
+fall and spring; to mow, toss, and carry in the hay from so many
+acres; to haul and scatter so many loads of manure; carry grain to the
+barn or the market, build hedges, dig ditches, gather brush, weed
+grain, break clods, drive sheep or swine, or any other of the forms of
+agricultural labor as local custom on each manor had established his
+burdens. Combining the week-work, the regular boon-works, and the
+extra specified services, it will be seen that the labor required from
+the customary tenant was burdensome in the extreme. Taken on the
+average, much more than half of the ordinary villain's time must have
+been given in services to the lord of the manor.</p>
+
+<p>The cotters made similar payments and performed similar labors, though
+less in amount. A widespread custom required them to work for the
+lord one day a week throughout the year, with certain regular
+payments, and certain additional special services.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the possession of their land and rights of common pasture,
+however, there were some other compensations and alleviations of the
+burdens of the villains and cotters. At the boon-works and other
+special services performed by the tenants, it was a matter of custom
+that the lord of the manor <span class="pagenum"><a id="page043" name="page043"></a>(p. 043)</span> provide food for one or two meals
+a day, and custom frequently defined the kind, amount, and value of
+the food for each separate meal; as where it is said in a statement of
+services: "It is to be known that all the above customary tenants
+ought to reap one day in autumn at one boon-work of wheat, and they
+shall have among them six bushels of wheat for their bread, baked in
+the manor, and broth and meat, that is to say, two men have one
+portion of beef and cheese, and beer for drinking. And the aforesaid
+customary tenants ought to work in autumn at two boon-works of oats.
+And they shall have six bushels of rye for their bread as described
+above, broth as before, and herrings, viz. six herrings for each man,
+and cheese as before, and water for drinking."</p>
+
+<p>Thus the payments and services of the free tenants were principally of
+money, and apparently not burdensome; those of the villains were
+largely in corporal service and extremely heavy; while those of the
+cotters were smaller, in correspondence with their smaller holdings of
+land and in accordance with the necessity that they have their time in
+order to make their living by earning wages.</p>
+
+<p>The villains and cotters were in bondage to the lord of the manor.
+This was a matter of legal status quite independent of the amount of
+land which the tenant held or of the services which he performed,
+though, generally speaking, the great body of the smaller tenants and
+of the laborers were of servile condition. In general usage the words
+<i>villanus</i>, <i>nativus</i>, <i>servus</i>, <i>custumarius</i>, and <i>rusticus</i> are
+synonymous, and the cotters belonged legally to the same servile
+class.</p>
+
+<p>The distinction between free tenants and villains, using this word, as
+is customary, to include all those who were legally in servitude, was
+not a very clearly marked one. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page044" name="page044"></a>(p. 044)</span> Their economic position was
+often so similar that the classes shaded into one another. But the
+villain was, as has been seen, usually burdened with much heavier
+services. He was subject to special payments, such as "merchet," a
+payment made to the lord of the manor when a woman of villain rank was
+married, and "leyr," a payment made by women for breach of chastity.
+He could be "tallaged" or taxed to any extent the lord saw fit. He was
+bound to the soil. He could not leave the manor to seek for better
+conditions of life elsewhere. If he ran away, his lord could obtain an
+order from a court and have him brought back. When permission was
+obtained to remain away from the manor as an inhabitant of another
+vill or of a town, it was only upon payment of a periodical sum,
+frequently known as "chevage" or head money. He could not sell his
+cattle without paying the lord for permission. He had practically no
+standing in the courts of the country. In any suit against his lord
+the proof of his condition of villainage was sufficient to put him out
+of court, and his only recourse was the local court of the manor,
+where the lord himself or his representative presided. Finally, in the
+eyes of the law, the villain had no property of his own, all his
+possessions being, in the last resort, the property of his lord. This
+legal theory, however, apparently had but little application to real
+life; for in the ordinary course of events the customary tenant, if
+only by custom, not by law, yet held and bequeathed to his descendants
+his land and his chattels quite as if they were his own.</p>
+
+<p>Serfdom, as it existed in England in the thirteenth century, can
+hardly be defined in strict legal terms. It can be described most
+correctly as a condition in which the villain tenant of the manor was
+bound to the locality and to his services and payments there by a
+legal bond, instead of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page045" name="page045"></a>(p. 045)</span> merely by an economic bond, as was
+the case with the small free tenant.</p>
+
+<p>There were commonly a few persons in the vill who were not in the
+general body of cultivators of the land and were not therefore in the
+classes so far described. Since the vill was generally a parish also,
+the village contained the parish priest, who, though he might usually
+hold some acres in the open fields, and might belong to the peasant
+class, was of course somewhat set apart from the villagers by his
+education and his ordination. The mill was a valued possession of the
+lord of the manor, for by an almost universal custom the tenants were
+bound to have their grain ground there, and this monopoly enabled the
+miller to pay a substantial rent to the lord while keeping enough
+profit for himself to become proverbially well-to-do.</p>
+
+<p>There was often a blacksmith, whom we find sometimes exempted from
+other services on condition of keeping the demesne ploughs and other
+iron implements in order. A chance weaver or other craftsman is
+sometimes found, and when the vill was near sea or river or forest
+some who made their living by industries dependent on the locality. In
+the main, however, the whole life of the vill gathered around the
+arable, meadow, and pasture land, and the social position of the
+tenants, except for the cross division of serfdom, depended upon the
+respective amounts of land which they held.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>11. The Manor Courts.</strong>&mdash;The manor was the sphere of operations of a
+manor court. On every manor the tenants gathered at frequent periods
+for a great amount of petty judicial and regulative work. The most
+usual period for the meeting of the manor court was once every three
+weeks, though in some manors no trace of a meeting is found more
+frequently than three times, or even twice, a year. In these <span class="pagenum"><a id="page046" name="page046"></a>(p. 046)</span>
+cases, however, it is quite probable that less formal meetings
+occurred of which no regular record was kept. Different kinds of
+gatherings of the tenants are usually distinguished according to the
+authority under which they were held, or the class of tenants of which
+they were made up. If the court was held by the lord simply because of
+his feudal rights as a landholder, and was busied only with matters of
+the inheritance, transfer, or grant of lands, the fining of tenants
+for the breach of manorial custom, or failure to perform their duties
+to the lord of the manor, the election of tenants to petty offices on
+the manor, and such matters, it was described in legal language as a
+court baron. If a court so occupied was made up of villain tenants
+only, it was called a customary court. If, on the other hand, the
+court also punished general offences, petty crimes, breaches of
+contract, breaches of the assize, that is to say, the established
+standard of amount, price, or quality of bread or beer, the lord of
+the manor drawing his authority to hold such a court either actually
+or supposedly from a grant from the king, such a court was called a
+court leet. With the court leet was usually connected the so-called
+view of frank pledge. Frank pledge was an ancient system, according to
+which all men were obliged to be enrolled in groups, so that if any
+one committed an offence, the other members of the group would be
+obliged to produce him for trial. View of frank pledge was the right
+to punish by fine any who failed to so enroll themselves. In the court
+baron and the customary court it was said by lawyers that the body of
+attendants were the judges, and the steward, representing the lord of
+the manor, only a presiding official; while in the court leet the
+steward was the actual judge of the tenants. In practice, however, it
+is probable that not much was made of these distinctions, and that the
+periodic gatherings were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page047" name="page047"></a>(p. 047)</span> made to do duty for all business of
+any kind that needed attention, while the procedure was that which had
+become customary on that special manor, irrespective of the particular
+form of authority for the court.</p>
+
+<a id="img010" name="img010"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img010.jpg" width="500" height="514" alt="Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Sutton
+Courtenay, Berkshire." title="Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Sutton
+Courtenay, Berkshire.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Sutton
+Courtenay, Berkshire.</span><br> (<i>Domestic Architecture in the Fourteenth
+Century.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The manor court was presided over by a steward or other officer
+representing the lord of the manor. Apparently all adult male tenants
+were expected to be present, and any inhabitant was liable to be
+summoned. A court was usually held in each manor, but sometimes a lord
+of several <span class="pagenum"><a id="page048" name="page048"></a>(p. 048)</span> neighboring manors would hold the court for all
+of these in some one place. As most manors belonged to lords who had
+many manors in their possession, the steward or other official
+commonly proceeded from one manor or group of manors to another,
+holding the courts in each. Before the close of the thirteenth century
+the records of the manor courts, or at least of the more important of
+them, began to be kept with very great regularity and fulness, and it
+is to the mass of these manor court rolls which still remain that we
+owe most of our detailed knowledge of the condition of the body of the
+people in the later Middle Ages. The variety and the amount of
+business transacted at the court were alike considerable. When a
+tenant had died it was in the meeting of the manor court that his
+successor obtained a regrant of the land. The required relief was
+there assessed, and the heriot from the property of the deceased
+recorded. New grants of land were made, and transfers, leases, and
+abandonments by one tenant and assignments to another announced. For
+each of these processes of land transfer a fine was collected for the
+lord of the manor. Such entries as the following are constantly found:
+"John of Durham has come into court and taken one bond-land which
+Richard Avras formerly held but gave up because of his poverty; to
+have and hold for his lifetime, paying and doing the accustomed
+services as Richard paid and did them. He gives for entrance 6<i>s.</i>
+8<i>d.</i>;" "Agnes Mabeley is given possession of a quarter virgate of land
+which her mother held, and gives the lord 33<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> for entrance."</p>
+
+<p>Disputes as to the right of possession of land and questions of dowry
+and inheritance were decided, a jury being granted in many cases by
+the lord at the petition of a claimant and on payment of a fee.
+Another class of cases consisted in the imposition of fines or
+amerciaments for the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page049" name="page049"></a>(p. 049)</span> violation of the customs of the manor,
+of the rules of the lord, or of the requirements of the culprit's
+tenure; such as a villain marrying without leave, failure to perform
+boon-works or bad performance of work, failure to place the tenant's
+sheep in the lord's fold, cutting of wood or brush, making unlawful
+paths across the fields, the meadows, or the common, encroachment in
+ploughing upon other men's land or upon the common, or failure to send
+grain to the lord's mill for grinding. Sometimes the offence was of a
+more general nature, such as breach of assize, breach of contract,
+slander, assault, or injury to property. Still another part of the
+work of the court was the election of petty manorial officers; a
+reeve, a reaper, ale-tasters, and perhaps others. The duty of filling
+such offices when elected by the tenants and approved by the lord or
+his steward was, as has been said, one of the burdens of villainage.
+However, when a villain was fulfilling the office of reeve, it was
+customary for him to be relieved of at least a part of the payments
+and services to which he would otherwise be subject. Finally the manor
+court meetings were employed for the adoption of general regulations
+as to the use of the commons and other joint interests, and for the
+announcement of the orders of the steward in the keeping of the peace.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>12. The Manor as an Estate of a Lord.</strong>&mdash;The manor was profitable to the
+lord in various ways. He received rents in money and kind. These
+included the rents of assize from free and villain land tenants, rent
+from the tenant of the mill, and frequently from other sources. Then
+came the profits derived from the cultivation of the demesne land. In
+this the lord of the manor was simply a large farmer, except that he
+had a supply of labor bound to remain at hand and to give service
+without wages almost up to his needs. Finally there were the profits
+of the manor <span class="pagenum"><a id="page050" name="page050"></a>(p. 050)</span> courts. As has been seen, these consisted of a
+great variety of fees, fines, amerciaments, and collections made by
+the steward or other official. Such varied payments and profits
+combined to make up the total value of the manor to the landowner. Not
+only the slender income of the country squire or knight whose estate
+consisted of a single manor of some ten or twenty pounds yearly value,
+but the vast wealth of the great noble or of the rich monastery or
+powerful bishopric was principally made up of the sum of such payments
+from a considerable number of manors. An appreciable part of the
+income of the government even was derived from the manors still in the
+possession of the crown.</p>
+
+<p>The mediæval manor was a little world in itself. The large number of
+scattered acres which made up the demesne farm cultivated in the
+interests of the lord of the manor, the small groups of scattered
+strips held by free holders or villain tenants who furnished most of
+the labor on the demesne farm, the little patches of ground held by
+mere laborers whose living was mainly gained by hired service on the
+land of the lord or of more prosperous tenants, the claims which all
+had to the use of the common pasture for their sheep and cattle and of
+the woods for their swine, all these together made up an agricultural
+system which secured a revenue for the lord, provided food and the raw
+material for primitive manufactures for the inhabitants of the vill,
+and furnished some small surplus which could be sold.</p>
+
+<a id="img011" name="img011"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img011.jpg" width="500" height="588" alt="Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Great
+Malvern, Worcestershire." title="Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Great
+Malvern, Worcestershire.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Great
+Malvern, Worcestershire.</span><br> (<i>Domestic Architecture in the Fourteenth
+Century.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Life on the mediæval manor was hard. The greater part of the
+population was subject to the burdens of serfdom, and all, both free
+and serf, shared in the arduousness of labor, coarseness and lack of
+variety of food, unsanitary surroundings, and liability to the rigor
+of winter and the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page051" name="page051"></a>(p. 051)</span> attacks of pestilence. Yet the average
+condition of comfort of the mass of the rural inhabitants of England
+was probably as high as at any subsequent time. Food in proportion to
+wages was very cheap, and the almost universal possession of some land
+made it possible for the very poorest to avoid starvation. Moreover,
+the great extent to which custom governed all payments, services, and
+rights <span class="pagenum"><a id="page052" name="page052"></a>(p. 052)</span> must have prevented much of the extreme depression
+which has occasionally existed in subsequent periods in which greater
+competition has distinguished more clearly the capable from the
+incompetent.</p>
+
+<p>From the social rather than from the economic point of view the life
+of the mediæval manor was perhaps most clearly marked by this
+predominance of custom and by a second characteristic nearly related.
+This was the singularly close relationship in which all the
+inhabitants of the manor were bound to one another, and their
+correspondingly complete separation from the outside world. The common
+pasture, the intermingled strips of the holdings in the open fields,
+the necessary coöperation in the performance of their daily labor on
+the demesne land, the close contiguity of their dwellings, their
+universal membership in the same parish church, their common
+attendance and action in the manor courts, all must have combined to
+make the vill an organization of singular unity. This self-centred
+life, economically, judicially, and ecclesiastically so nearly
+independent of other bodies, put obstacles in the way of change. It
+prohibited intercourse beyond the manor, and opposed the growth of a
+feeling of common national life. The manorial life lay at the base of
+the stability which marked the mediæval period.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><strong>13. BIBLIOGRAPHY</strong></h3>
+
+<h5>GENERAL WORKS</h5>
+
+
+<p>Certain general works which refer to long periods of economic history
+will be mentioned here and not again referred to, excepting in special
+cases. It is to be understood that they contain valuable matter on the
+subject, not only of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page053" name="page053"></a>(p. 053)</span> this, but of succeeding chapters. They
+should therefore be consulted in addition to the more specific works
+named under each chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Cunningham, William: <i>Growth of English Industry and Commerce</i>, two
+volumes. The most extensive and valuable work that covers the whole
+field of English economic history.</p>
+
+<p>Ashley, W. J.: <i>English Economic History</i>, two volumes. The first
+volume is a full and careful analysis of mediæval economic conditions,
+with detailed notes and references to the primary sources. The second
+volume is a work of original investigation, referring particularly to
+conditions in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but it does not
+give such a clear analysis of the conditions of its period as the
+first volume.</p>
+
+<p>Traill, H. D.: <i>Social England</i>, six volumes. A composite work
+including a great variety of subjects, but seldom having the most
+satisfactory account of any one of them.</p>
+
+<p>Rogers, J. E. T.: <i>History of Agriculture and Prices</i>; <i>Six Centuries
+of Work and Wages</i>; <i>Economic Interpretation of History</i>. Professor
+Rogers' work is very extensive and detailed, and his books were
+largely pioneer studies. His statistical and other facts are useful,
+but his general statements are not very valuable, and his conclusions
+are not convincing.</p>
+
+<p>Palgrave, R. H. I.: <i>Dictionary of Political Economy</i>. Many of the
+articles on subjects of economic history are the best and most recent
+studies on their respective subjects, and the bibliographies contained
+in them are especially valuable.</p>
+
+<p>Four single-volume text-books have been published on this general
+subject:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Cunningham, William, and McArthur, E. A.: <i>Outlines of English
+Industrial History</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page054" name="page054"></a>(p. 054)</span> Gibbins, H. de B.: <i>Industry in England</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Warner, George Townsend: <i>Landmarks in English Industrial History</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Price, L. L.: <i>A Short History of English Commerce and Industry</i>.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center p2"><span class="smcap">Special Works</span></p>
+
+<p>Seebohm, Frederic: <i>The English Village Community</i>. Although written
+for another purpose,&mdash;to suggest a certain view of the origin of the
+medieval manor,&mdash;the first five chapters of this book furnish the
+clearest existing descriptive account of the fundamental facts of
+rural life in the thirteenth century. Its publication marked an era in
+the recognition of the main features of manorial organization. Green,
+for instance, the historian of the English people, seems to have had
+no clear conception of many of those characteristics of ordinary rural
+life which Mr. Seebohm has made familiar.</p>
+
+<p>Vinogradoff, Paul: <i>Villainage in England</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Pollock, Sir Frederick, and Maitland, F. W.: <i>History of English Law</i>,
+Vol. 1.</p>
+
+<p>These two works are of especial value for the organization of the
+manor courts and the legal condition of the population.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2"><span class="smcap">Sources</span></p>
+
+<p>Much that can be explained only with great difficulty becomes clear to
+the student immediately when he reads the original documents. Concrete
+illustrations of general statements moreover make the work more
+interesting and real. It has therefore been found desirable by many
+teachers to bring their students into contact with at least a few
+typical illustrative documents. The sources for the subject generally
+are given in the works named above. An admirable bibliography has been
+recently published by</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page055" name="page055"></a>(p. 055)</span> Gross, Charles: <i>The Sources and Literature of English
+History from the Earliest Times to about 1485</i>. References to abundant
+material for the illustration or further investigation of the subject
+of this chapter will be found in the following pamphlet:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Davenport, Frances G.: <i>A Classified List of Printed Original
+Materials for English Manorial and Agrarian History</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Sources for the mediæval period are almost all in Latin or French.
+Some of them, however, have been more accessible by being translated
+into English and reprinted in convenient form. A few of these are
+given in C. W. Colby: <i>Selections from the Sources of English
+History</i>, and G. C. Lee: <i>Source Book of English History</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the <i>Series of Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources
+of European History</i>, published by the Department of History of the
+University of Pennsylvania, several numbers include documents in this
+field. Vol. III, No. 5, is devoted entirely to manorial documents.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2"><span class="smcap">Discussions of the Origin of the Manor</span></p>
+
+<p>The question of the origin of the mediæval manorial organization,
+whether it is principally of native English or of Roman origin, or
+hewn from still other materials, although not treated in this
+text-book, has been the subject of much interest and discussion. One
+view of the case is the thesis of Seebohm's book, referred to above.
+Other books treating of it are the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Earle, John: <i>Land Charters and Saxonic Documents</i>, Introduction.</p>
+
+<p>Gomme, G. L.: <i>The Village Community</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Ashley, W. J.: A translation of Fustel de Coulanges, <i>Origin of
+Property in Land</i>, Introduction.</p>
+
+<p>Andrews, Charles M.: <i>The Old English Manor</i>, Introduction.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page056" name="page056"></a>(p. 056)</span> Maitland, F. W.: <i>Domesday Book and Beyond</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Meitzen, August: <i>Siedelung und Agrarwesen</i>, Vol. II, Chap. 7.</p>
+
+<p>The writings of Kemble and of Sir Henry Maine belong rather to a past
+period of study and speculation, but their ideas still lie at the base
+of discussions on the subject.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page057" name="page057"></a>(p. 057)</span> CHAPTER III</h3>
+
+<h5>TOWN LIFE AND ORGANIZATION</h5>
+
+<a id="img012" name="img012"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img012.jpg" width="500" height="419" alt="Town Wall of Southampton, built in the Thirteenth
+Century." title="Town Wall of Southampton, built in the Thirteenth Century.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Town Wall of Southampton, built in the Thirteenth
+Century.</span><br> (Turner: <i>Domestic Architecture in England</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>14. The Town Government.</strong>&mdash;In the middle of the thirteenth century
+there were some two hundred towns in England distinguishable by their
+size, form of government, and the occupations of their inhabitants,
+from the rural agricultural villages which have just been described.
+London probably had more than 25,000 inhabitants; York and Bristol may
+each have had as many as 10,000. The population of the others varied
+from as many as 6000 to less than 1000. Perhaps the most usual
+population of an English mediæval town lay between 1500 and 4000. They
+were mostly walled, though such protection was hardly necessary, and
+the military element in English towns was therefore but slightly
+developed. Those towns which contained cathedrals, and were therefore
+the seats of bishoprics, were called cities. All other organized towns
+were known as boroughs, though this distinction in the use of the
+terms city and borough was by no means always preserved. The towns
+differed widely in their form of government; but all had charters from
+the king or from some nobleman, abbey, or bishopric on whose lands
+they had grown up. Such a charter usually declared the right of the
+town to preserve the ancient customs which had come to be recognized
+among its inhabitants, and granted to it certain privileges,
+exemptions, and rights of self-government. The most universal and
+important of these privileges were the following: the town paid the
+tolls and dues owed to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page058" name="page058"></a>(p. 058)</span> the king or other lord by its
+inhabitants in a lump sum, collecting the amount from its own citizens
+as the latter or their own authorities saw fit; the town courts had
+jurisdiction over most suits and offences, relieving the townsmen from
+answering at hundred and county court suits which concerned matters
+within their own limits; the townsmen, where the king granted the
+charter, were exempt from the payment of tolls of various kinds
+throughout his dominions; they could pass ordinances and regulations
+controlling the trade of the town, the administration of its property,
+and its internal affairs generally, and could elect officials to carry
+out such regulations. These officials also corresponded and negotiated
+in the name of the town with the authorities of other towns and with
+the government. From <span class="pagenum"><a id="page059" name="page059"></a>(p. 059)</span> the close of the thirteenth century
+all towns of any importance were represented in Parliament. These
+elements of independence were not all possessed by every town, and
+some had special privileges not enumerated in the above list. The
+first charter of a town was apt to be vague and inadequate, but from
+time to time a new charter was obtained giving additional privileges
+and defining the old rights more clearly. Nor had all those who dwelt
+within the town limits equal participation in its advantages. These
+were usually restricted to those who were known as citizens or
+burgesses; full citizenship depending primarily on the possession of a
+house and land within the town limits. In addition to the burgesses
+there were usually some inhabitants of the town&mdash;strangers, Jews,
+fugitive villains from the rural villages, or perhaps only poorer
+natives of the town&mdash;who did not share in these privileges. Those who
+did possess all civil rights of the townsmen were in many ways
+superior in condition to men in the country. In addition to the
+advantages of the municipal organization mentioned above, all
+burgesses were personally free, there was entire exemption from the
+vexatious petty payments of the rural manors, and burgage tenure was
+thee nearest to actual land ownership existent during the Middle Ages.</p>
+
+<a id="img013" name="img013"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img013.jpg" width="500" height="667" alt="Charter of Henry II to the Borough of Nottingham." title="Charter of Henry II to the Borough of Nottingham.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Charter of Henry II to the Borough of Nottingham</span>.<br>
+(<i>Records of Borough of Nottingham</i>. Published by the Corporation.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>15. The Gild Merchant.</strong>&mdash;The town was most clearly marked off from the
+country by the occupations by which its people earned their living.
+These were, in the first place, trading; secondly, manufacturing or
+handicrafts. Agriculture of course existed also, since most townsmen
+possessed some lands lying outside of the enclosed portions of the
+town. On these they raised crops and pastured their cattle. Of these
+varied occupations, however, it was trade which gave character and,
+indeed, existence itself to the town. Foreign goods were brought to
+the towns from <span class="pagenum"><a id="page060" name="page060"></a>(p. 060)</span> abroad for sale, the surplus products of
+rural manors found their way there for marketing; the products of one
+part of the country which were needed in other parts were sought for
+and purchased in the towns. Men also sold the products of their own
+labor, not only food products, such as bread, meat, and fish, but also
+objects of manufacture, as cloth, arms, leather, and goods made of
+wood, leather, or metal. For the protection and regulation of this
+trade the organization <span class="pagenum"><a id="page061" name="page061"></a>(p. 061)</span> known as the gild merchant had grown
+up in each town. The gild merchant seems to have included all of the
+population of the town who habitually engaged in the business of
+selling, whether commodities of their own manufacture or those they
+had previously purchased. Membership in the gild was not exactly
+coincident with burgess-ship; persons who lived outside of the town
+were sometimes admitted into that organization, and, on the other
+hand, some inhabitants of the town were not included among its
+members. Nevertheless, since practically all of the townsmen made
+their living by trade in some form or another, the group of burgesses
+and the group of gild members could not have been very different. The
+authority of the gild merchant within its field of trade regulation
+seems to have been as complete as that of the town community as a
+whole in its field of judicial, financial, and administrative
+jurisdiction. The gild might therefore be defined as that form of
+organization of the inhabitants of the town which controlled its trade
+and industry. The principal reason for the existence of the gild was
+to preserve to its own members the monopoly of trade. No one not in
+the gild merchant of the town could buy or sell there except under
+conditions imposed by the gild. Foreigners coming from other countries
+or traders from other English towns were prohibited from buying or
+selling in any way that might interfere with the interests of the
+gildsmen. They must buy and sell at such times and in such places and
+only such articles as were provided for by the gild regulations. They
+must in all cases pay the town tolls, from which members of the gild
+were exempt. At Southampton, for instance, we find the following
+provisions: "And no one in the city of Southampton shall buy anything
+to sell again in the same city unless he is of the gild merchant
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page062" name="page062"></a>(p. 062)</span> or of the franchise." Similarly at Leicester, in 1260, it
+was ordained that no gildsman should form a partnership with a
+stranger, allowing him to join in the profits of the sale of wool or
+other merchandise.</p>
+
+<a id="img014" name="img014"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img014.jpg" width="500" height="529" alt="Hall of Merchants' Company of York." title="Hall of Merchants' Company of York.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Hall of Merchants' Company of York.</span><br> (Lambert: <i>Two
+Thousand Years of Gild Life.</i> Published by A. Brown &amp; Sons, Hull.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img015" name="img015"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img015.jpg" width="500" height="427" alt="Interior of Hall of Merchants' Company of York." title="Interior of Hall of Merchants' Company of York.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Interior of Hall of Merchants' Company of York.</span><br>
+(Lambert: <i>Two Thousand Years of Gild Life.</i> Published by A. Brown &amp;
+Sons, Hull.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As against outsiders the gild merchant was a protective body, as
+regards its own members it was looked upon and constantly spoken of as
+a fraternity. Its members must all share in the common expenditures,
+they are called brethren of the society, their competition with one
+another is reduced to its lowest limits. For instance, we find the
+provision that "any one who is of the gild merchant may share in all
+merchandise which another gildsman shall buy."</p>
+
+<a id="img016" name="img016"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img016.jpg" width="500" height="348" alt="Earliest Merchant Gild Roll of the Borough of
+Leicester." title="Earliest Merchant Gild Roll of the Borough of Leicester.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Earliest Merchant Gild Roll of the Borough of
+Leicester.</span><br> (Bateson: <i>Records of the Borough of Leicester.</i> Published
+by C. J. Clay &amp; Sons, Cambridge.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page063" name="page063"></a>(p. 063)</span> The presiding officer was usually known as the alderman,
+while the names given to other officials, such as stewards, deans,
+bailiffs, chaplains, skevins, and ushers, and the duties they
+performed, varied greatly from time to time.</p>
+
+<p>Meetings were held at different periods, sometimes annually, in many
+cases more frequently. At these meetings new ordinances were passed,
+officers elected, and other business transacted. It was also a
+convivial occasion, a gild feast preceding or following the other
+labors of the meeting. In some gilds the meeting was regularly known
+as "the drinking." There were likewise frequent sittings of the
+officials of the fraternity, devoted to the decision of disputes
+between brethren, the admission of new members, the fining or
+expulsion of offenders against the gild ordinances, and other routine
+work. These meetings were known as "morrowspeches".</p>
+
+<p>The greater part of the activity of the gild merchant consisted in the
+holding of its meetings with their accompanying feasts, and in the
+enforcement of its regulations upon its members and upon outsiders. It
+fulfilled, however, many fraternal duties for its members. It is
+provided in one set of statutes that, "If a gildsman be imprisoned in
+England in time of peace, the alderman, with the steward and with one
+of the skevins, shall go, at the cost of the gild, to procure the
+deliverance of the one who is in prison." In another, "If any of the
+brethren shall fall into poverty or misery, all the brethren are to
+assist him by common consent out of the chattels of the house or
+fraternity, or of their proper own." The funeral rites, especially,
+were attended by the man's gild brethren. "And when a gildsman dies,
+all those who are of the gild and are in the city shall attend the
+service for the dead, and gildsmen shall bear the body and bring it to
+the place of burial." The gild merchant also sometimes <span class="pagenum"><a id="page064" name="page064"></a>(p. 064)</span>
+fulfilled various religious, philanthropic, and charitable duties, not
+only to its members, but to the public generally, and to the poor. The
+time of the fullest development of the gild merchant varied, of
+course, in different towns, but its widest expansion was probably in
+the early part of the period we are studying, that is, during the
+thirteenth century. Later it came to be in some towns
+indistinguishable from the municipal government in general, its
+members the same as the burgesses, its officers represented by the
+officers of the town. In some other towns the gild merchant gradually
+lost its control over trade, retaining only its fraternal, charitable,
+and religious features. In still other cases the expression gradually
+lost all definite significance and its meaning became a matter for
+antiquarian dispute.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>16. The Craft Gilds.</strong>&mdash;By the fourteenth century the gild merchant of
+the town was a much less conspicuous institution than it had
+previously been. Its decay was largely the result of the growth of a
+group of organizations in each town which were spoken of as crafts,
+fraternities, gilds, misteries, or often merely by the name of their
+occupation, as "the spurriers," "the dyers," "the fishmongers." These
+organizations are usually described in later writings as craft gilds.
+It is not to be understood that the gild merchant and the craft gilds
+never existed contemporaneously in any town. The former began earlier
+and decayed before the craft gilds reached their height, but there was
+a considerable period when it must have been a common thing for a man
+to be a member both of the gild merchant of the town and of the
+separate organization of his own trade. The later gilds seem to have
+grown up in response to the needs of handicraft much as the gild
+merchant had grown up to regulate trade, though trading occupations
+also were eventually drawn into the craft gild form <span class="pagenum"><a id="page065" name="page065"></a>(p. 065)</span> of
+organization. The weavers seem to have been the earliest occupation to
+be organized into a craft gild; but later almost every form of
+industry which gave employment to a handful of craftsmen in any town
+had its separate fraternity. Since even nearly allied trades, such as
+the glovers, girdlers, pocket makers, skinners, white tawyers, and
+other workers in leather; or the fletchers, the makers of arrows, the
+bowyers, the makers of bows, and the stringers, the makers of
+bowstrings, were organized into separate bodies, the number of craft
+gilds in any one town was often very large. At London there were by
+1350 at least as many as forty, at York, some time later, more than
+fifty.</p>
+
+<a id="img017" name="img017"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img017.jpg" width="500" height="314" alt="Old Townhall of Leicester, formerly Hall of Corpus
+Christi Gild." title="Old Townhall of Leicester, formerly Hall of Corpus Christi Gild.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Old Townhall of Leicester, formerly Hall of Corpus
+Christi Gild.</span><br> (Drawing made in 1826.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The craft gilds existed usually under the authority of the town
+government, though frequently they obtained authorization or even a
+charter from the crown. They were formed primarily to regulate and
+preserve the monopoly of their own occupations in their own town, just
+as the gild merchant existed to regulate the trade of the town in
+general. No one could carry on any trade without being subject to the
+organization which controlled that trade. Membership, however, was not
+intentionally restricted. Any man who was a capable workman and
+conformed to the rules of the craft was practically a member of the
+organization of that industry. It is a common requirement in the
+earliest gild statutes that every man who wishes to carry on that
+particular industry should have his ability testified to by some known
+members of the craft. But usually full membership and influence in the
+gild was reached as a matter of course by the artisans passing through
+the successive grades of apprentice, journeyman, and master. As an
+apprentice he was bound to a master for a number of years, living in
+his house and learning the trade in his shop. There was usually a
+signed contract entered into between the master <span class="pagenum"><a id="page066" name="page066"></a>(p. 066)</span> and the
+parents of the apprentice, by which the former agreed to provide all
+necessary clothing, food, and lodging, and teach to the apprentice all
+he himself knew about his craft. The latter, on the other hand, was
+bound to keep secret his master's affairs, to obey all his
+commandments, and to behave himself properly in all things. After the
+expiration of the time agreed upon for his apprenticeship, which
+varied much in individual cases, but was apt to be about seven years,
+he became free of the trade as a journeyman, a full workman. The word
+"journeyman" may refer to the engagement being by the day, from the
+French word <i>journée</i>, or to the habit of making journeys from town to
+town in search of work, or it may be derived from some other origin.
+As a journeyman he served for wages in the employ of a master. In many
+cases he saved enough money for the small requirements of setting up
+an independent shop. Then as full master artisan or tradesman he might
+take part in all the meetings and general administration of the
+organized body of his craft, might hold office, and would himself
+probably have one or more journeymen in his employ and apprentices
+under his guardianship. As almost all industries were carried on in
+the dwelling-houses of the craftsmen, no establishments could be of
+very considerable size, and the difference of position between master,
+journeyman, and apprentice could not have been great. The craft gild
+was organized with its regular rules, its officers, and its meetings.
+The rules or ordinances of the fraternity were drawn up at some one
+time and added to or altered from time to time afterward. The approval
+of the city authorities was frequently sought for such new statutes as
+well as for the original ordinances, and in many towns appears to have
+been necessary. The rules provided for officers and their powers, the
+time and character <span class="pagenum"><a id="page067" name="page067"></a>(p. 067)</span> of meetings, and for a considerable
+variety of functions. These varied of course in different trades and
+in different towns, but some characteristics were almost universal.
+Provisions were always either tacitly or formally included for the
+preservation of the monopoly of the crafts in the town. The hours of
+labor were regulated. Night work was very generally prohibited,
+apparently because of the difficulty of oversight at that time, as was
+work on Saturday afternoons, Sundays, and other holy days. Provisions
+were made for the inspection of goods by the officers of the gild, all
+workshops and goods for sale being constantly subject to their
+examination, if they should wish it. In those occupations that
+involved buying and selling the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page068" name="page068"></a>(p. 068)</span> necessities of life, such as
+those of the fishmongers and the bakers, the officers of the
+fraternity, like the town authorities, were engaged in a continual
+struggle with "regrators," "forestallers," and "engrossers," which
+were appellations as odious as they were common in the mediæval town.
+Regrating meant buying to sell again at a higher price without having
+made any addition to the value of the goods; forestalling was going to
+the place of production to buy, or in any other way trying to outwit
+fellow-dealers by purchasing things before they came into the open
+market where all had the same opportunity; engrossing was buying up
+the whole supply, or so much of it as not to allow other dealers to
+get what they needed, the modern "cornering of the market." These
+practices, which were regarded as so objectionable in the eyes of
+mediæval traders, were frequently nothing more than what would be
+considered commendable enterprise in a more competitive age. Another
+class of rules was for mutual assistance, for kindliness among
+members, and for the obedience and faithfulness of journeymen and
+apprentices. There were provisions for assistance to members of the
+craft when in need, or to their widows and orphans, for the visitation
+of those sick or in prison, for common attendance at the burial
+services of deceased members, and for other charitable and
+philanthropic objects. Thus the craft gild, like the gild merchant,
+combined close social relationship with a distinctly recognized and
+enforced regulation of the trade. This regulation provided for the
+protection of members of the organization from outside competition,
+and it also prevented any considerable amount of competition among
+members; it supported the interests of the full master members of the
+craft as against those in the journeyman stage, and enforced the
+custom of the trade in hours, materials, methods of manufacture, and
+often in prices.</p>
+
+<a id="img018" name="img018"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img018.jpg" width="500" height="391" alt="Table of Assize of Bread in Record Book of City of
+Hull." title="Table of Assize of Bread in Record Book of City of Hull.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Table of Assize of Bread in Record Book of City of
+Hull.</span><br> (Lambert: <i>Two Thousand Years of Gild Life.</i> Published by A.
+Brown &amp; Sons, Hull.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page069" name="page069"></a>(p. 069)</span> The officers were usually known as masters, wardens, or
+stewards. Their powers extended to the preservation of order among the
+master members of the craft at the meetings, and among the journeymen
+and apprentices of the craft at all times; to the supervision, either
+directly or through deputies, of the work of the members, seeing that
+it conformed to the rules and was not false in any way; to the
+settlement, if possible, of disputes among members of the craft; to
+the administration of its charitable work; and to the representation
+of the organized body of the craft before town or other authorities.</p>
+
+<p>Common religious observances were held by the craftsmen not only at
+the funerals of members, but on the day of the saint to which the gild
+was especially dedicated. Most fraternities kept up a shrine or chapel
+in some parish church. Fines for the breach of gild rules were often
+ordered to be paid in wax that the candles about the body of dead
+brethren and in the gild chapel should never be wanting. All the
+brethren of the gild, dressed in common suits of livery, walked in
+procession from their hall or meeting room to the church, performed
+their devotions and joined in the services in commemoration of the
+dead. Members of the craft frequently bequeathed property for the
+partial support of a chaplain and payment of other expenses connected
+with their "obits," or masses for the repose of their souls and those
+of their relatives.</p>
+
+<p>Closely connected with the religious observances was the convivial
+side of the gild's life. On the annual gild day, or more frequently,
+the members all gathered at their hall or some inn to a feast, which
+varied in luxuriousness according to the wealth of the fraternity,
+from bread, cheese, and ale to all the exuberance of which the Middle
+Ages were capable.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhat later, we find the craft gilds taking entire charge <span class="pagenum"><a id="page070" name="page070"></a>(p. 070)</span>
+of the series or cycles of "mystery plays," which were given in
+various towns. The words of the plays produced at York, Coventry,
+Chester, and Woodkirk have come down to us and are of extreme interest
+as embryonic forms of the drama and examples of purely vernacular
+language. It is quite certain that such groups of plays were given by
+the crafts in a number of other towns. They were generally given on
+Corpus Christi day, a feast which fell in the early summer time, when
+out-door pleasures were again enjoyable after the winter's
+confinement. A cycle consisted of a series of dialogues or short
+plays, each based upon some scene of biblical story, so arranged that
+the whole Bible narrative should be given consecutively from the
+Creation to the Second Advent. One of the crafts, starting early in
+the morning, would draw a pageant consisting of a platform on wheels,
+to a regularly appointed spot in a conspicuous part of the town, and
+on this platform, with some rude scenery, certain members of the gild
+or men employed by them would proceed to recite a dialogue in verse
+representative of some early part of the Bible story. After they had
+finished, their pageant would be dragged to another station, where
+they repeated their performance. In the meantime a second company had
+taken their former place, and recited a dialogue representative of a
+second scene. So the whole day would be occupied by the series of
+performances. The town and the craftsmen valued the celebration
+because it was an occasion for strangers visiting their city and thus
+increasing the volume of trade, as well as because it furnished an
+opportunity for the gratification of their social and dramatic
+instincts.</p>
+
+<p>It was not only at the periodical business meetings, or on the feast
+days, or in the preparation for the dramatic shows, that the gildsmen
+were thrown together. Usually all the members of one craft lived on
+the same street or in the same <span class="pagenum"><a id="page071" name="page071"></a>(p. 071)</span> part of the town, and were
+therefore members of the same parish church and constantly brought
+under one another's observation in all the daily concerns of life. All
+things combined to make the craft a natural and necessary centre for
+the interest of each of its members.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>17. Non-industrial Gilds.</strong>&mdash;Besides the gilds merchant, which included
+persons of all industrial occupations, and the craft gilds, which were
+based upon separate organizations of each industry, there were gilds
+or fraternities in existence which had no industrial functions
+whatever. These are usually spoken of as "religious" or "social"
+gilds. It would perhaps be better to describe them simply as
+non-industrial gilds; for their religious and social functions they
+had in common, as has been seen, both with the gild merchant and the
+craft organizations. They only differed from these in not being based
+upon or interested in the monopoly or oversight of any kind of trade
+or handicraft. They differed also from the craft gilds in that all
+their members were on an equal basis, there being no such industrial
+grades as apprentice, journeyman, and master; and from both of the
+organizations already discussed in the fact that they existed in small
+towns and even in mere villages, as well as in industrial centres.</p>
+
+<p>In these associations the religious, social, and charitable elements
+were naturally more prominent than in those fraternities which were
+organized primarily for some kind of economic regulation. They were
+generally named after some saint. The ordinances usually provided for
+one or more solemn services in the year, frequently with a procession
+in livery, and sometimes with a considerable amount of pantomime or
+symbolic show. For instance, the gild of St. Helen at Beverly, in
+their procession to the church of the Friars Minors on the day of
+their patron saint, were preceded <span class="pagenum"><a id="page072" name="page072"></a>(p. 072)</span> by an old man carrying a
+cross; after him a fair young man dressed as St. Helen; then another
+old man carrying a shovel, these being intended to typify the finding
+of the cross. Next came the sisters two and two, after them the
+brethren of the gild, and finally the officers. There were always
+provisions for solemnities at the funerals of members, for burial at
+the expense of the gild if the member who had died left no means for a
+suitable ceremony, and for prayers for deceased members. What might be
+called the insurance feature was also much more nearly universal than
+in the case of the industrial fraternities. Help was given in case of
+theft, fire, sickness, or almost any kind of loss which was not
+chargeable to the member's own misdoing. Finally it was very customary
+for such gilds to provide for the support of a certain number of
+dependents, aged men or women, cripples, or lepers, for charity's
+sake; and occasionally educational facilities were also provided by
+them from their regular income or from bequests made for the purpose.
+The social-religious gilds were extremely numerous, and seem
+frequently to have existed within the limits of a craft, including
+some of its members and not others, or within a certain parish,
+including some of the parishioners, but not all.</p>
+
+<p>Thus if there were men in the mediæval town who were not members of
+some trading or craft body, they would in all probability be members
+of some society based merely on religious or social feeling. The whole
+tendency of mediæval society was toward organization, combination,
+close union with one's fellows. It might be said that all town life
+involved membership in some organization, and usually in that one into
+which a man was drawn by the occupation in which he made his living.
+These gilds or the town government itself controlled even the affairs
+of private economic life in the city, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page073" name="page073"></a>(p. 073)</span> just as the customary
+agriculture of the country prevented much freedom of action there.
+Methods of trading, or manufacture, the kind and amount of material to
+be used, hours of labor, conditions of employment, even prices of
+work, were regulated by the gild ordinances. The individual gildsman
+had as little opportunity to emancipate himself from the controlling
+force of the association as the individual tenant on the rural manor
+had to free himself from the customary agriculture and the customary
+services. Whether we study rural or urban society, whether we look at
+the purely economic or at the broader social side of existence, life
+in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was corporate rather than
+individual.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2"><strong>18. BIBLIOGRAPHY</strong></p>
+
+<p>Gross, Charles: <i>The Gild Merchant</i>, two volumes. The first volume
+consists of a full account and discussion of the character and
+functions of the gild merchant, with a number of appendices on cognate
+subjects. The second volume contains the documents on which the first
+is based.</p>
+
+<p>Seligman, E. R. A.: <i>Two Chapters on Mediæval Gilds</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Brentano, L.: <i>The History and Development of English Gilds.</i> An essay
+prefixed to a volume of ordinances of English Gilds, edited by T.
+Smith. Brentano's essay is only referred to because of the paucity of
+works on the subject, as it is fanciful and unsatisfactory. No
+thorough and scholarly description of the craft gilds exists. On the
+other hand, a considerable body of original materials is easily
+accessible in English, as in the following works:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Riley: <i>Memorials of London and London Life</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Smith, Toulmin: <i>English Gilds</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Various documents illustrative of town and gild history will also be
+found in Vol. II, No. 1, of the <i>Translations and Reprints</i>, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page074" name="page074"></a>(p. 074)</span>
+published by the Department of History of the University of
+Pennsylvania.</p>
+
+<p>Better descriptions exist for the position of the gilds in special
+towns than for their general character, especially in London by
+Herbert, in Hull by Lambert, in Shrewsbury by Hibbert, and in Coventry
+by Miss Harris.</p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page075" name="page075"></a>(p. 075)</span> CHAPTER IV</h3>
+
+<h5>MEDIÆVAL TRADE AND COMMERCE</h5>
+
+<p><strong>19. Markets and Fairs.</strong>&mdash;Within the towns, in addition to the ordinary
+trading described in the last chapter, much buying and selling was
+done at the weekly or semi-weekly markets. The existence of a market
+in a town was the result of a special grant from the king, sometimes
+to the burgesses themselves, sometimes to a neighboring nobleman or
+abbey. In the latter case the tolls paid by outsiders who bought or
+sold cattle or victuals in the market did not go to the town or gild
+authorities, but to the person who was said to "own" the market. Many
+places which differed in scarcely any other way from agricultural
+villages possessed markets, so that "market towns" became a
+descriptive term for small towns midway in size between the larger
+boroughs or cities and mere villages. The sales at markets were
+usually of the products of the surrounding country, especially of
+articles of food consumption, so that the fact of the existence of a
+market on one or more days of the week in a large town was of
+comparatively little importance from the point of view of more general
+trade.</p>
+
+<p>Far more important was the similar institution of periodical fairs.
+Fairs, like markets, existed only by grant from the king. They
+differed from markets, however, in being held only once a year or at
+most semi-annually or quarterly, in being invariably in the possession
+of private persons, never of town governments, and in the fact that
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page076" name="page076"></a>(p. 076)</span> during their continuance as a rule all buying and selling
+except at the fairs was suspended within a considerable circuit.
+Several hundred grants of fairs are recorded on the rolls of royal
+charters, most of them to abbeys, bishoprics, and noblemen; but
+comparatively few of them were of sufficient size or importance to
+play any considerable part in the trade and commerce of the country.
+Moreover, the development of the towns with their continuous trade
+tended to draw custom away from all the fairs except those which had
+obtained some especial importance and an international reputation. Of
+these, however, there was still a considerable number whose influence
+was very great. The best known were those of Winchester, of
+Stourbridge near Cambridge, of St. Ives belonging to the abbot of
+Ramsay, and of Boston. In early times fairs were frequently held in
+the churchyards, but this came to be looked upon as a scandal, and was
+prohibited by a law of 1285. The fairs were in many cases held just
+beyond the limits of a town in an open field or on a smooth hillside.
+Each year, some time before the opening day of the fair, this ground
+was formally occupied by the servants of the owner of the fair, wooden
+booths were erected or ground set apart for those who should put up
+their own tents or prefer to sell in the open. Then as merchants
+appeared from foreign or English towns they chose or were assigned
+places which they were bound to retain during the continuance of the
+fair. By the time of the opening of the fair those who expected to
+sell were arranged in long rows or groups, according to the places
+they came from, or the kind of goods in which they dealt. After the
+opening had been proclaimed no merchant of the nearby town could buy
+or sell, except within the borders of the fair. The town authorities
+resigned their functions into the hands of the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page078" name="page078"></a>(p. 078)</span> officials
+whom the lord of the fair had placed in charge of it, and for the time
+for which the fair was held, usually from six to twelve days,
+everything within the enclosure of the fair, within the town, and in
+the surrounding neighborhood was under their control.</p>
+
+<a id="img019" name="img019"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img019.jpg" width="500" height="738" alt="Location Of Some Of The Principal Fairs In The
+Thirteenth Century." title="Location Of Some Of The Principal Fairs In The Thirteenth Century.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Location Of Some Of The Principal Fairs In The
+Thirteenth Century</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Tolls were collected for the advantage of the lord of the fair from
+all goods as they were brought into or taken out from the bounds of
+the fair, or at the time of their sale; stallage was paid for the rent
+of booths, fees were charged for the use of space, and for using the
+lord's weights and scales. Good order was preserved and fair dealing
+enforced by the officials of the lord. To prevent offences and settle
+disputes arising in the midst of the busy trading the officials of the
+lord formed a court which sat continually and followed a summary
+procedure. This was known as a court of "pie-powder," that is <i>pied
+poudré</i>, or <i>dusty foot</i>, so called, no doubt, from its readiness to
+hear the suits of merchants and wayfarers, as they were, without
+formality or delay. At this court a great variety of cases came up,
+such as disputes as to debts, failure to perform contracts of sale or
+purchase, false measurements, theft, assault, defamation, and
+misdemeanors of all kinds. Sometimes the court decided offhand,
+sometimes compurgation was allowed immediately or on the next day,
+sometimes juries were formed and gave decisions. The law which the
+court of pie-powder administered was often referred to as the "law
+merchant," a somewhat less rigid system than the common law, and one
+whose rules were generally defined, in these courts and in the king's
+courts, by juries chosen from among the merchants themselves.</p>
+
+<p>At these fairs, even more than in the towns, merchants from a distance
+gathered to buy the products peculiar to the part of England where the
+fair was held, and to sell <span class="pagenum"><a id="page079" name="page079"></a>(p. 079)</span> their own articles of importation
+or production. The large fairs furnished by far the best markets of
+the time. We find mention made in the records of one court of
+pie-powder of men from a dozen or twenty English towns, from Bordeaux,
+and from Rouen. The men who came from any one town, whether of England
+or the Continent, acted and were treated as common members of the gild
+merchant of that town, as forming a sort of community, and being to a
+certain extent responsible for one another. They did their buying and
+selling, it is true, separately, but if disputes arose, the whole
+group were held responsible for each member. For example, the
+following entry was made in the roll of the fair of St. Ives in the
+year 1275: "William of Fleetbridge and Anne his wife complain of
+Thomas Coventry of Leicester for unjustly withholding from them 55<i>s.</i>
+2&frac12;<i>d.</i> for a sack of wool.... Elias is ordered to attach the
+community of Leicester to answer ... and of the said community Allan
+Parker, Adam Nose and Robert Howell are attached by three bundles of
+ox-hides, three hundred bundles of sheep skins and six sacks of wool."</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>20. Trade Relations between Towns.</strong>&mdash;The fairs were only temporary
+selling places. When the time for which the fair was held had expired
+the booths were removed, the merchants returned to their native cities
+or travelled away to some other fair, and the officials were
+withdrawn. The place was deserted until the next quarter or year. But
+in the towns, as has been already stated, more or less continuous
+trade went on; not only petty retail trade and that of the weekly or
+semi-weekly markets between townsmen or countrymen coming from the
+immediate vicinity, but a wholesale trade between the merchants of
+that town and those from other towns in England or on the Continent.</p>
+
+<p>It was of this trade above all that the gild merchant of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page080" name="page080"></a>(p. 080)</span>
+each town possessed the regulation. Merchants from another town were
+treated much the same, whether that town was English or foreign. In
+fact, "foreigner" or "alien," as used in the town records, of Bristol,
+for instance, may apply to citizens of London or Oxford just as well
+as to those of Paris or Cologne. Such "foreign" merchants could deal
+when they came to a town only with members of the gild, and only on
+the conditions required by the gild. Usually they could buy or sell
+only at wholesale, and tolls were collected from them upon their sales
+or purchases. They were prohibited from dealing in some kinds of
+articles altogether, and frequently the duration of their stay in the
+town was limited to a prescribed period. Under such circumstances the
+authorities of various towns entered into trade agreements with those
+of other towns providing for mutual concessions and advantages.
+Correspondence was also constantly going on between the officials of
+various towns for the settlement of individual points of dispute, for
+the return of fugitive apprentices, asking that justice might be done
+to aggrieved citizens, and on occasion threatening reprisal.
+Southampton had formal agreements with more than seventy towns or
+other trading bodies. During a period of twenty years the city
+authorities of London sent more than 300 letters on such matters to
+the officials of some 90 other towns in England and towns on the
+Continent. The merchants from any one town did not therefore trade or
+act entirely as separate individuals, but depended on the prestige of
+their town, or the support of the home authorities, or the privileges
+already agreed upon by treaty. The non-payment of a debt by a merchant
+of one town usually made any fellow-townsman liable to seizure where
+the debt was owed, until the debtor could be made to pay. In 1285, by
+a law of Edward I, this was prohibited as far as England was
+concerned, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page081" name="page081"></a>(p. 081)</span> but a merchant from a French town might still
+have his person and property seized for a debt of which he may have
+had no previous knowledge. External trade was thus not so much
+individual, between some Englishmen and others; or international,
+between Englishmen and Frenchmen, Flemings, Spaniards, or Germans, as
+it was intermunicipal, as it has been well described. Citizens of
+various towns, London, Bristol, Venice, Ghent, Arras, or Lubeck, for
+instance, carried on their trade under the protection their city had
+obtained for them.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>21. Foreign Trading Relations.</strong>&mdash;The regulations and restrictions of
+fairs and town markets and gilds merchant must have tended largely to
+the discouragement of foreign trade. Indeed, the feeling of the body
+of English town merchants was one of strong dislike to foreigners and
+a desire to restrict their trade within the narrowest limits. In
+addition to the burdens and limitations placed upon all traders not of
+their own town, it was very common in the case of merchants from
+abroad to require that they should only remain within the town for the
+purpose of selling for forty days, and that they should board not at
+an inn but in the household of some town merchant, who could thus keep
+oversight of their movements, and who would be held responsible if his
+guest violated the law in any way. This was called the custom of
+"hostage."</p>
+
+<p>The king, on the other hand, and the classes most influential in the
+national government, the nobility and the churchmen, favored foreign
+trade. A series of privileges, guarantees, and concessions were
+consequently issued by the government to individual foreign merchants,
+to foreign towns, and even to foreigners generally, the object of
+which was to encourage their coming to England to trade. The most
+remarkable instance of this was the so-called <i>Carta Mercatoria</i>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page082" name="page082"></a>(p. 082)</span> issued by Edward I in 1303. It was given according to its own
+terms, for the peace and security of merchants coming to England from
+Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Navarre, Lombardy, Tuscany,
+Provence, Catalonia, Aquitaine, Toulouse, Quercy, Flanders, Brabant,
+and all other foreign lands. It allowed such merchants to bring in and
+sell almost all kinds of goods, and freed them from the payment of
+many tolls and payments habitually exacted by the towns; it gave them
+permission to sell to strangers as well as to townsmen, and to retail
+as well as sell by wholesale. It freed them from the necessity of
+dwelling with native merchants, and of bringing their stay to a close
+within a restricted time. Town and market authorities were required by
+it to give prompt justice to foreigners according to the law merchant,
+and it was promised that a royal judge would be specially appointed to
+listen to appeals. It is quite evident that if this charter had been
+enforced some of the most familiar and valued customs of the merchants
+of the various English towns would have been abrogated. In consequence
+of vigorous protests and bitter resistance on the part of the townsmen
+its provisions were partly withdrawn, partly ignored, and the position
+of foreign merchants in England continued to depend on the tolerably
+consistent support of the crown. Even this was modified by the steady
+policy of hostility, limitation, and control on the part of the native
+merchants.</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of some intercourse between the northern towns and
+the Scandinavian countries, the foreign trade of England was carried
+on almost entirely by foreigners. English merchants, until after the
+fourteenth century, seem to have had neither the ability, the
+enterprise, nor the capital to go to continental cities in any numbers
+to sell the products of their own country or to buy goods which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page083" name="page083"></a>(p. 083)</span> would be in demand when imported into England. Foreigners
+were more enterprising. From Flemish, French, German, Italian, and
+even Spanish cities merchants came over as traders. The product of
+England which was most in demand was wool. Certain parts of England
+were famous throughout all Europe for the quality and quantity of the
+wool raised there. The relative good order of England and its
+exemption from civil war made it possible to raise sheep more
+extensively than in countries where foraging parties from rival bodies
+of troops passed frequently to and fro. Many of the monasteries,
+especially in the north and west, had large outlying wastes of land
+which were regularly used for the raising of sheep. The product of
+these northern and western pastures as well as the surplus product of
+the demesnes and larger holdings of the ordinary manors was brought to
+the fairs and towns for sale and bought up readily by foreign
+merchants. Sheepskins, hides, and tanned leather were also exported,
+as were certain coarse woven fabrics. Tin and lead were well-known
+products, at that time almost peculiar to England, and in years of
+plentiful production, grain, salt meat, and dairy products were
+exported. England was far behind most of the Continent in industrial
+matters, so that there was much that could be brought into the country
+that would be in demand, both of the natural productions of foreign
+countries and of their manufactured articles.</p>
+
+<p>Trade relations existed between England and the Scandinavian
+countries, northern Germany, southern Germany, the Netherlands,
+northeastern, northwestern, and southern France, Spain and Portugal,
+and various parts of Italy. Of these lines of trade the most important
+were the trade with the Hanse cities of northern Germany, with the
+Flemish cities, and with those in Italy, especially Venice.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page084" name="page084"></a>(p. 084)</span> <strong>22. The Italian and Eastern Trade.</strong>&mdash;The merchandise which
+Venice had to offer was of an especially varied nature. Her prosperity
+had begun with a coastwise trade along the shores of the Adriatic.
+Later, especially during the period of the Crusades, her training had
+been extended to the eastern Mediterranean, where she obtained trading
+concessions from the Greek Emperor and formed a half commercial, half
+political empire of her own among the island cities and coast
+districts of the Ionian Sea, along the Dardanelles and the Sea of
+Marmora, and finally in the Black Sea. From these regions she brought
+the productions peculiar to the eastern Mediterranean: wines, sugar,
+dried fruits and nuts, cotton, drugs, dyestuffs, and certain kinds of
+leather and other manufactured articles.</p>
+
+<a id="img020" name="img020"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img020.jpg" width="500" height="373" alt="Trade Routes Between England And The Continent In The
+Fourteenth Century Engraved By Bormay And Co., N.Y." title="Trade Routes Between England And The Continent In The
+Fourteenth Century Engraved By Bormay And Co., N.Y.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Trade Routes Between England And The Continent In The
+Fourteenth Century Engraved By Bormay And Co., N.Y.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Eventually Venice became the special possessor of a still more distant
+trade, that of the far East. The products of Arabia and Persia, India
+and the East Indian Islands, and even of China, all through the Middle
+Ages, as in antiquity, made their way by long and difficult routes to
+the western countries of Europe. Silk and cotton, both raw and
+manufactured into fine goods, indigo and other dyestuffs, aromatic
+woods and gums, narcotics and other drugs, pearls, rubies, diamonds,
+sapphires, turquoises, and other precious stones, gold and silver, and
+above all the edible spices, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and
+allspice, could be obtained only in Asia. There were three principal
+routes by which these goods were brought into Europe: first, along the
+Red Sea and overland across Egypt; second, up the Persian Gulf to its
+head, and then either along the Euphrates to a certain point whence
+the caravan route turned westward to the Syrian coast, or along the
+Tigris to its upper waters, and then across to the Black Sea at
+Trebizond; third, by caravan routes across Asia, then across the
+Caspian Sea, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page086" name="page086"></a>(p. 086)</span> overland again, either to the Black Sea or
+through Russia to the Baltic. A large part of this trade was gathered
+up by the Italian cities, especially Venice, at its various outlets
+upon the Mediterranean or adjacent waters. She had for exportation
+therefore, in addition to her own manufactures, merchandise which had
+been gathered from all parts of the then known world. The Venetian
+laws regulated commerce with the greatest minuteness. All goods
+purchased by Venetian traders must as a rule be brought first to the
+city and unloaded and stored in the city warehouses. A certain amount
+of freedom of export by land or water was then allowed, but by far the
+greater proportion of the goods remained under the partial control of
+the government. When conditions were considered favorable, the Senate
+voted a certain number of government galleys for a given voyage. There
+were several objective points for these voyages, but one was regularly
+England and Flanders, and the group of vessels sent to those countries
+was known as the "Flanders Fleet." Such an expedition was usually
+ordered about once a year, and consisted of two to five galleys. These
+were put under the charge of an admiral and provided with sailing
+masters, crews of rowers, and armed men to protect them, all at the
+expense of the merchants who should send goods in the vessels.
+Stringent regulations were also imposed upon them by the government,
+defining the length of their stay and appointing a series of stopping
+places, usually as follows: Capo d'Istria, Corfu, Otranto, Syracuse,
+Messina, Naples, Majorca, certain Spanish ports, Lisbon; then across
+the Bay of Biscay to the south coast of England, where usually the
+fleet divided, part going to Sluys, Middleburg, or Antwerp, in the
+Netherlands; the remainder going to Southampton, Sandwich, London, or
+elsewhere in England. At one or other of the southern <span class="pagenum"><a id="page087" name="page087"></a>(p. 087)</span> ports
+of England the fleet would reassemble on its return, the whole outward
+and return voyage usually taking about a year.</p>
+
+<p>The merchants who had come with the fleet thereupon proceeded to
+dispose of their goods in the southern towns and fairs of England and
+to buy wool or other goods which might be taken back to Venice or
+disposed of on the way. A somewhat similar trade was kept up with
+other Italian cities, especially with Genoa and Florence, though these
+lines of trade were more extensive in the fifteenth century than in
+the fourteenth.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>23. The Flanders Trade and the Staple.</strong>&mdash;A trade of greater bulk and
+greater importance, though it did not include articles from such a
+distance as that of Italy, was the trade with the Flemish cities. This
+was more closely connected with English wool production than was that
+with any other country. Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Courtrai, Arras, and a
+number of other cities in Flanders and the adjacent provinces of the
+Netherlands and France had become populous and rich, principally from
+their weaving industry. For their manufacture of fine fabrics they
+needed the English wool, and in turn their fine woven goods were in
+constant demand for the use of the wealthier classes in England.
+English skill was not yet sufficient to produce anything more than the
+crudest and roughest of textile fabrics. The fine cloths, linens,
+cambrics, cloth of gold and silver, tapestries and hangings, were the
+product of the looms of the Flemish cities. Other fine manufactured
+goods, such as armor and weapons, glass and furniture, and articles
+which had been brought in the way of trade to the Netherlands, were
+all exported thence and sold in England.</p>
+
+<p>The Flemish dealers who habitually engaged in the English trade were
+organized among themselves in a company <span class="pagenum"><a id="page088" name="page088"></a>(p. 088)</span> or league known as
+the "Flemish Hanse of London." A considerable number of towns held
+such membership in the organization that their citizens could take
+part in the trade and share in the benefits and privileges of the
+society, and no citizen of these towns could trade in England without
+paying the dues and submitting himself to the rules of the Hanse. The
+export trade from England to the Netherlands was controlled from the
+English side by the system known as the "Staple." From early times it
+had been customary to gather English standard products in certain
+towns in England or abroad for sale. These towns were known as
+"staples" or "staple towns," and wool, woolfells, leather, tin, and
+lead, the goods most extensively exported, were known as "staple
+goods." Subsequently the government took control of the matter, and
+appointed a certain town in the Netherlands to which staple goods must
+be sent in the first place when they were exported from England. Later
+certain towns in England were appointed as staple towns, where all
+goods of the kinds mentioned above should be taken to be registered,
+weighed, and taxed before exportation. Just at the close of the period
+under discussion, in 1354, a careful organization was given to the
+system of staple towns in England, by which in each of the ten or
+twelve towns to which staple goods must be brought for exportation, a
+Mayor of the Staple and two Constables were elected by the "merchants
+of the staple," native and foreign. These officials had a number of
+duties, some of them more particularly in the interest of the king and
+treasury, others in the interest of the foreign merchants, still
+others merely for the preservation of good order and the enforcement
+of justice. The law merchant was made the basis of judgment, and every
+effort made to grant protection to foreigners and at the same time
+secure the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page089" name="page089"></a>(p. 089)</span> financial interests of the government. But the
+policy of the government was by no means consistent. Both before and
+after this date, the whole system of staples was repeatedly abolished
+for a time and the whole trade in these articles thrown open. Again,
+the location of the staple towns was shifted from England to the
+continent and again back to England. Eventually, in 1363, the staple
+came to be established at Calais, and all "staplers," or exporters of
+staple goods from England, were forced to give bonds that their
+cargoes would be taken direct to Calais to be sold.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>24. The Hanse Trade.</strong>&mdash;The trade with Germany was at this time almost
+all with the group of citizens which made up the German Hanse or
+League. This was a union of a large number of towns of northern
+Germany, such as Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Dantzig, Brunswick, and
+perhaps sixty or eighty others. By a series of treaties and agreements
+among themselves, these towns had formed a close confederation which
+acted as a single whole in obtaining favorable trading concessions and
+privileges in various countries. There had been a considerable trade
+between the merchants of these towns and England from an early time.
+They brought the products of the Baltic lands, such as lumber, tar,
+salt, iron, silver, salted and smoked fish, furs, amber, certain
+coarse manufactures, and goods obtained by Hanseatic merchants through
+their more distant trade connections, such as fine woven goods, armor
+and other metal goods, and even spices and other Eastern goods,
+obtained from the great Russian fairs. The Hanse cities had entered
+into treaties with the English government, and possessed valuable
+concessions and privileges, and imported and exported quite
+extensively. The term "sterling," as applied to standard English
+money, is derived from the word <span class="pagenum"><a id="page090" name="page090"></a>(p. 090)</span> "Easterling," which was used
+as synonymous with "German," "Hansard," "Dutch," and several other
+names descriptive of these traders.</p>
+
+<p>The trade with the cities of northwestern France was similar to that
+with the neighboring towns of Flanders. That with northwestern France
+consisted especially of salt, sail-cloth, and wine. The trade with
+Poitou, Gascony, and Guienne was more extensive, as was natural from
+their long political connection with England. The chief part of the
+export from southern France was wine, though a variety of other
+articles, including fruits and some manufactured articles, were sent
+to England. A trade of quite a varied character also existed between
+England and the various countries of the Spanish Peninsula, including
+Portugal. Foreign trade with all of these countries was destined to
+increase largely during the later fourteenth and the fifteenth
+century, but its foundations were well laid within the first half of
+the fourteenth. Vessels from all these countries appeared from time to
+time in the harbors of England, and their merchants traded under
+government patronage and support in many English towns and fairs.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>25. Foreigners settled in England.</strong>&mdash;The fact that almost all of the
+foreign trade of England was in the hands of aliens necessarily
+involved their presence in the country temporarily or permanently in
+considerable numbers. The closely related fact that the English were
+distinctly behind the people of the Continent in economic knowledge,
+skill, and wealth also led foreigners to seek England as a field for
+profitable exercise of their abilities in finance, in trade, and
+manufactures. The most conspicuous of these foreigners at the close of
+the thirteenth century and during the early part of the fourteenth
+were the Italian bankers. Florence was not only a great trading and
+manufacturing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page091" name="page091"></a>(p. 091)</span> city, but a money centre, a capitalist city.
+The Bardi, Peruzzi, Alberti, Frescobaldi, and other banking companies
+received deposits from citizens of Florence and other Italian cities,
+and loaned the money, as well as their own capital, to governments,
+great nobles, and ecclesiastical corporations in other countries. When
+the Jews were expelled from England in 1290, there being no
+considerable amount of money among native Englishmen, the Italian
+bankers were the only source from which the government could secure
+ready money. When a tax had been authorized by Parliament, but the
+product of it could be obtained only after a year or more spent in its
+collection, the Florentines were at hand to offer the money at once,
+receiving security for repayment when the receipts from the tax should
+come in. Government monopolies like the Cornwall tin mines were leased
+to them for a lump sum; arrangements were made by which the bankers
+furnished a certain amount of money each day during a campaign or a
+royal progress. The immediate needs of an impecunious king were
+regularly satisfied with money borrowed to be repaid some months
+afterward. The equipment for all of the early expeditions of the
+Hundred Years' War was obtained with money borrowed from the
+Florentines. Payments abroad were also made by means of bills of
+exchange negotiated by the same money-lenders. Direct payment of
+interest was forbidden by law, but they seem to have been rewarded by
+valuable government concessions, by the profits on exchange, and no
+doubt by the indirect payment of interest, notwithstanding its
+illegality.</p>
+
+<p>The Italian bankers evidently loaned to others besides the king, for
+in 1327 the Knights Hospitallers in England repaid to the Society of
+the Bardi £848 5<i>d.</i>, and to the Peruzzi £551 12<i>s.</i> 11<i>d.</i> They
+continued to loan freely to the king, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page092" name="page092"></a>(p. 092)</span> till in 1348 he was
+indebted to one company alone to the extent of more than £50,000, a
+sum equal in modern value to about $3,000,000. The king now failed to
+repay what he had promised, and the banking companies fell into great
+straits. Defalcations having occurred in other countries also, some of
+them failed, and after the middle of the century they never held so
+conspicuous a place, though some Italians continued to act as bankers
+and financiers through the remainder of the fourteenth and fifteenth
+century. Many Italian merchants who were not bankers, especially
+Venetians and Genoese, were settled in England, but their occupation
+did not make them so conspicuous as the financiers of the same nation.</p>
+
+<a id="img021" name="img021"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img021.jpg" width="500" height="338" alt="The Steelyard in the Seventeenth Century." title="The Steelyard in the Seventeenth Century.">
+<p><span class="smcap">The Steelyard in the Seventeenth Century.</span><br> (Herbert:
+<i>History of London Livery Companies</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The German or Hanse merchants had a settlement of their own in London,
+known as the "Steelyard," "Gildhall of the Dutch," or the
+"Easterling's House." They had similar establishments on a smaller
+scale in Boston and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page093" name="page093"></a>(p. 093)</span> Lynn, and perhaps in other towns. Their
+permission to own property and to live in their own house instead of
+in the houses of native merchants, as was the usual custom, was
+derived, like most privileges of foreigners, from the gift of the
+king. Little by little they had purchased property surrounding their
+original grants until they had a great group of buildings, including a
+meeting and dining hall, tower, kitchen, storage house, offices and
+other warehouses, and a considerable number of dwelling-houses, all
+enclosed by a wall and fences. It was located immediately on the
+Thames just above London Bridge so that their vessels unloaded at
+their own wharf. The merchants or their agents lived under strict
+rules, the gates being invariably closed at nine o'clock, and all
+discords among their own nation were punished by their own officers.
+Their trade was profitable to the king through payment of customs, and
+after the failure of the Italian bankers the merchants of the
+Steelyard made considerable loans to the English government either
+directly or acting for citizens at home. In 1343, when the king had
+been granted a tax of 40<i>s.</i> a sack on all wool exported, he
+immediately borrowed the value of it from Tiedemann van Limberg and
+Johann van Wolde, Easterlings. Similarly in 1346 the Easterlings
+loaned the king money for three years, holding his second crown as
+security. Like the Florentines, at one time they took the Cornwall tin
+mines at farm. They had many privileges not accorded generally to
+foreigners, but were exceedingly unpopular alike with the population
+and the authorities of the city of London. There were some other
+Germans domiciled in England, but nowhere else were they so
+conspicuous or influential as at the Steelyard.</p>
+
+<a id="img022" name="img022"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img022.jpg" width="500" height="352" alt="Ground Plan of the Steelyard in the Seventeenth Century." title="Ground Plan of the Steelyard in the Seventeenth Century.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Ground Plan of the Steelyard in the Seventeenth Century</span><br>
+(Lappenberg. <i>Geschichte des Hansischen Stahlhofes</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The trade with Flanders brought Flemish merchants into England
+temporarily, but they do not seem to have formed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page094" name="page094"></a>(p. 094)</span> any
+settlement or located permanently in any one place. Flemish artisans,
+on the other hand, had migrated to England from early times and were
+scattered here and there in several towns and villages. In the early
+part of the fourteenth century Edward III made it a matter of
+deliberate policy to encourage the immigration of Flemish weavers and
+other handicraftsmen, with the expectation that they would teach their
+art to the more backward native English. In 1332 he issued a charter
+of protection and privilege to a Fleming named John Kempe, a weaver of
+woollen cloth, offering the same privilege and protection to all other
+weavers, dyers, and fullers who should care to come to England to
+live. In 1337 a similar charter was given to a body of weavers coming
+from Zealand to England. It is believed that a considerable number of
+immigrants from the Netherlands came in at this period, settled
+largely in the smaller towns and rural villages, and taking English
+apprentices brought about a great improvement in the character of
+English manufactures. Flemings are also met with in local records in
+various occupations, even in agriculture.</p>
+
+<p>There were other foreigners resident in England, especially Gascons
+from the south of France, and Spaniards; but the main elements of
+alien population in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were those
+which have just been described, Italians, Germans from the Hanse
+towns, and Flemings. These were mainly occupied as bankers, merchants,
+and handicraftsmen.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2"><strong>26. BIBLIOGRAPHY</strong></p>
+
+<p>Dr. Cunningham's <i>Growth of English Industry and Commerce</i> is
+particularly full and valuable on this subject. He has given further
+details on one branch of it in his <i>Alien Immigrants in England</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page095" name="page095"></a>(p. 095)</span> Schanz, Georg: <i>Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende des
+Mittelalters</i>. This work refers to a later period than that included
+in this chapter, but the summaries which the author gives of earlier
+conditions are in many cases the best accounts that we have.</p>
+
+<p>Ashley, W. J.: <i>Early History of the Woolen Industry in England</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Pauli, R.: <i>Pictures from Old England</i>. Contains an interesting
+account of the Steelyard.</p>
+
+<p>Pirenne, Henri: <i>La Hanse flamande de Londres</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Von Ochenkowski, W.: <i>England's Wirthsschaftliche Entwickelung im
+Ausgange des Mittelalters</i>.</p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page096" name="page096"></a>(p. 096)</span> CHAPTER V</h3>
+
+<h5>THE BLACK DEATH AND THE PEASANTS' REBELLION</h5>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">Economic Changes of the Later Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth Centuries</span></h5>
+
+<p><strong>27. National Affairs from 1338 to 1461.</strong>&mdash;For the last century or more
+England had been standing with her back to the Continent. Deprived of
+most of their French possessions, engaged in the struggle to bring
+Wales, Scotland, and Ireland under the English crown, occupied with
+repeated conflicts with their barons or with the development of the
+internal organization of the country, John, Henry III, and the two
+Edwards had had less time and inclination to interest themselves in
+continental affairs than had Henry II and Richard. But after 1337 a
+new influence brought England for the next century into close
+connection with the rest of Europe. This was the "Hundred Years' War"
+between England and France. Several causes had for years combined to
+make this war unavoidable: the interference of France in the dispute
+with Scotland, the conflicts between the rising fishing and trading
+towns on the English and the French side of the Channel, the desire of
+the French king to drive the English kings from their remaining
+provinces in the south of France, and the reluctance of the English
+kings to accept their dependent position in France. Edward III
+commenced the war in 1338 with the invasion of France, and it was
+continued with comparatively short intervals of peace until 1452.
+During its progress the English won three of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page097" name="page097"></a>(p. 097)</span> the most
+brilliant military victories in their history, at Crécy, Poitiers, and
+Agincourt, in 1346, 1356, and 1415. But most of the campaigns were
+characterized by brutality, destructive ravaging, and the reduction of
+cities by famine. The whole contest indeed often degenerated into
+desultory, objectless warfare. A permanent settlement was attempted at
+Bretigny in 1360. The English required the dismemberment of France by
+the surrender of almost one-third of the country and the payment by
+the French of a large ransom for their king, who had been captured by
+the English. In return King Edward withdrew any other claims he might
+have to territory, or the French crown. These terms were, however, so
+humiliating to the French that they did not adhere to them, the war
+soon broke out again, and finally terminated in the driving out of the
+English from all of France except the city of Calais, in the middle
+years of the next century.</p>
+
+<p>The many alliances, embassies, exchanges of visits, and other
+international intercourse which the prosecution of the Hundred Years'
+War involved brought England into a closer participation in the
+general life of Europe than ever before, and caused the ebb and flow
+of a tide of influences between England and the Continent which deeply
+affected economic, political, and religious life on both sides of the
+Channel.</p>
+
+<p>The Universities continued to flourish during almost the whole of this
+period. It was from Oxford as a centre, under the influence of John
+Wycliffe, a lecturer there, that a great revival and reforming
+movement in the church emanated. From about 1370 Wycliffe and others
+began to agitate for a more earnest religious life. They translated
+the Bible into English, wrote devotional and polemic tracts, preached
+throughout the country, spoke and wrote <span class="pagenum"><a id="page098" name="page098"></a>(p. 098)</span> against the evils in
+the church at the time, then against its accepted form of
+organization, and finally against its official teachings. They thus
+became heretics. Thousands were influenced by their teachings, and a
+wave of religious revival and ecclesiastical rebellion spread over the
+country. The powers of the church and the civil government were
+ultimately brought to bear to crush out the "Lollards," as those who
+held heretical beliefs at that time were called. New and stringent
+laws were passed in 1401 and 1415, several persons were burned at the
+stake, and a large number forced to recant, or frightened into keeping
+their opinions secret. This religious movement gradually died out, and
+by the middle of the fifteenth century nothing more is heard of
+Lollardry.</p>
+
+<p>Wycliffe had been not only a religious innovator, but a writer of much
+excellent English. Contemporary with him or slightly later were a
+number of writers who used the native language and created permanent
+works of literature. <i>The Vision of Piers Plowman</i> is the longest and
+best of a number of poems written by otherwise unknown men. Geoffrey
+Chaucer, one of England's greatest poets, wrote at first in French,
+then in English; his <i>Canterbury Tales</i> showing a perfected English
+form, borrowed originally, like so much of what was best in England at
+the time, from Italy or France, but assimilated, improved, and
+reconstructed until it seemed a purely English production. During the
+reign of Edward III English became the official language of the courts
+and the usual language of conversation, even among the higher classes.</p>
+
+<p>Edward III lived until 1377. Through his long reign of half a century,
+during which he was entirely dependent on the grants of Parliament for
+the funds needed to carry on the war against France, this body
+obtained the powers, privileges, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page099" name="page099"></a>(p. 099)</span> and organization which made
+it thereafter such an influential part of the government. His
+successor, Richard II, after a period of moderate government tried to
+rule with a high hand, but in 1399 was deposed through the influence
+of his cousin, Henry of Lancaster, who was crowned as Henry IV.
+Henry's title to the throne, according to hereditary principles, was
+defective, for the son of an older brother was living. He was,
+however, a mere child, and there was no considerable opposition to
+Henry's accession. Under the Lancastrian line, as Henry IV, Henry V,
+and Henry VI, who now reigned successively, are called, Parliament
+reached the highest position which it had yet attained, a position
+higher in fact than it held for several centuries afterward. Henry VI
+was a child at the death of his father in 1422. On coming to be a man
+he proved too mild in temper to control the great nobles who, by the
+chances of inheritance, had become almost as powerful as the great
+feudal barons of early Norman times. The descendants of the older
+branch of the royal family were now represented by a vigorous and
+capable man, the duke of York. An effort was therefore made about 1450
+by one party of the nobles to depose Henry VI in favor of the duke of
+York. A number of other nobles took the side of the king, and civil
+war broke out. After a series of miserable contests known as the "Wars
+of the Roses" the former party was successful, at least temporarily,
+and the duke of York became king in 1461 as Edward IV.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>28. The Black Death and its Effects.</strong>&mdash;During the earlier mediæval
+centuries the most marked characteristic of society was its stability.
+Institutions continued with but slight changes during a long period.
+With the middle of the fourteenth century changes become more
+prominent. Some of the most conspicuous of these gather around a
+series of attacks of epidemic disease during the latter half of the
+century.</p>
+
+<a id="img023" name="img023"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img023.jpg" width="500" height="757" alt="Distribution Of Population According To The Poll-Tax Of 1377."
+title="Distribution Of Population According To The Poll-Tax Of 1377.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Distribution Of Population According To The Poll-Tax Of
+1377.<br> Engraved By Bormay &amp; Co., N.Y.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101"></a>(p. 101)</span> From the autumn of 1348 to the spring of 1350 a wave of
+pestilence was spreading over England from the southwest northward and
+eastward, progressively attacking every part of the country. The
+disease was new to Europe. Its course in the individual case, like its
+progress through the community, was very rapid. The person attacked
+either died within two or three days or even less, or showed signs of
+recovery within the same period. The proportion of cases which
+resulted fatally was extremely large; the infectious character of the
+disease quite remarkable. It was, in fact, an extremely violent
+epidemic attack, the most violent in history, of the bubonic plague,
+with which we have unfortunately become again familiar within recent
+years.</p>
+
+<p>From much careful examination of several kinds of contemporary
+evidence it seems almost certain that as each locality was
+successively attacked in 1348 and 1349 something like a half of the
+population died. In other words, whereas in an ordinary year at that
+time perhaps one-twentieth of the people died, in the plague year
+one-half died. Such entries as the following are frequent in the
+contemporary records. At the abbey of Newenham, "in the time of this
+mortality or pestilence there died in this house twenty monks and
+three lay brothers, whose names are entered in other books. And
+Walter, the abbot, and two monks were left alive there after the
+sickness." At Leicester, "in the little parish of St. Leonard there
+died more than 380, in the parish of Holy Cross more than 400, in that
+of St. Margaret more than 700; and so in every parish great numbers."
+The close arrangement of houses in the villages, the crowding of
+dwellings along narrow streets in the towns, the promiscuous life in
+the monasteries and in the inns, the uncleanly habits of living
+universally prevalent, all helped to make possible this sweeping away
+of perhaps a majority of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102"></a>(p. 102)</span> the population by an attack of
+epidemic disease. It had devastated several of the countries of Europe
+before appearing in England, having been introduced into Europe
+apparently along the great trade routes from the far East. Within a
+few months the attack in each successive district subsided, the
+disease in the southwestern counties of England having run its course
+between August, 1348, and May, 1349, in and about London between
+November, 1348, and July, 1349, in the eastern counties in the summer
+of 1349, and in the more northern counties through the last months of
+that year or within the spring of 1350. Pestilence was frequent
+throughout the Middle Ages, but this attack was not only vastly more
+destructive and general than any which had preceded it, but the
+disease when once introduced became a frequent scourge in subsequent
+times, especially during the remainder of the fourteenth century. In
+1361, 1368, and 1396 attacks are noticed as occurring more or less
+widely through the country, but none were so extensive as that which
+is usually spoken of as the "Black Death" of 1348-1349. The term
+"Black Death" was not used contemporaneously, nor until comparatively
+modern times. The occurrence of the pestilence, however, made an
+extremely strong impression on men's minds, and as "the great
+mortality," "the great pestilence," or "the great death," it appears
+widely in the records and the literature of the time.</p>
+
+<p>Such an extensive and sudden destruction of life could not take place
+without leaving its mark in many directions. Monasteries were
+depopulated, and the value of their property and the strictness of
+their discipline diminished. The need for priests led to the
+ordination of those who were less carefully prepared and selected. The
+number of students at Oxford and Cambridge was depleted; the building
+and adornment of many churches suspended. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103"></a>(p. 103)</span> The war between
+England and France, though promptly renewed, involved greater
+difficulty in obtaining equipment, and ultimately required new devices
+to meet its expense. Many of the towns lost numbers and property that
+were never regained, and the distribution of population throughout
+England was appreciably changed.</p>
+
+<p>But the most evident and far-reaching results of the series of
+pestilences occurring through the last half of the fourteenth century
+were those connected with rural life and the arrangement of classes
+described in Chapter II.</p>
+
+<p>The lords of manors might seem at first thought to have reaped
+advantage from the unusually high death rate. The heriots collected on
+the death of tenants were more numerous; reliefs paid by their
+successors on obtaining the land were repeated far more frequently
+than usual; much land escheated to the lord on the extinction of the
+families of free tenants, or fell into his hands for redisposal on the
+failure of descendants of villains or cotters. But these were only
+temporary and casual results. In other ways the diminution of
+population was distinctly disadvantageous to the lords of manors. They
+obtained much lower rents for mills and other such monopolies, because
+there were fewer people to have their grain ground and the tenants of
+the mills could therefore not make as much profit. The rents of assize
+or regular periodical payments in money and in kind made by free and
+villain tenants were less in amount, since the tenants were fewer and
+much land was unoccupied. The profits of the manor courts were less,
+for there were not so many suitors to attend, to pay fees, and to be
+fined. The manor court rolls for these years give long lists of
+vacancies of holdings, often naming the days of the deaths of the
+tenants. Their successors are often children, and in many cases whole
+families were swept away and the land <span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104"></a>(p. 104)</span> taken into the hands
+of the lord of the manor. Juries appointed at one meeting of the manor
+court are sometimes all dead by the time of the next meeting. There
+are constant complaints by the stewards that certain land "is of no
+value because the tenants are all dead;" in one place that a
+water-mill is worthless because "all the tenants who used it are
+dead," in another that the rents are £7 14<i>s.</i> less than in the
+previous year because fourteen holdings, consisting of 102 acres of
+land, are in the hands of the lord, in still another that the rents of
+assize which used to be £20 are now only £2 and the court fees have
+fallen from 40 to 5 shillings "because the tenants there are dead."
+There was also less required service performed on the demesne lands,
+for many of the villain holdings from which it was owed were now
+vacant. Last, and most seriously of all, the lords of manors suffered
+as employers of labor. It had always been necessary to hire additional
+labor for the cultivation of the demesne farm and for the personal
+service of the manor, and through recent decades somewhat more had
+come to be hired because of a gradual increase of the practice of
+commutation of services. That is, villain tenants were allowed to pay
+the value of their required days' work in money instead of in actual
+service. The bailiff or reeve then hired men as they were wanted, so
+that quite an appreciable part of the work of the manor had come to be
+done by laborers hired for wages.</p>
+
+<p>After the Black Death the same demesne lands were to be cultivated,
+and in most cases the larger holdings remained or descended or were
+regranted to those who would expect to continue their cultivation.
+Thus the demand for laborers remained approximately as great as it had
+been before. The number of laborers, on the other hand, was vastly
+diminished. They were therefore eagerly sought for by employers.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105"></a>(p. 105)</span> Naturally they took advantage of their position to demand
+higher wages, and in many cases combined to refuse to work at the old
+accustomed rates. A royal ordinance of 1349 states that, "because a
+great part of the people, especially of workmen and servants, have
+lately died in the pestilence, many, seeing the necessity of masters
+and great scarcity of servants, will not serve unless they may receive
+excessive wages." A contemporary chronicler says that "laborers were
+so elated and contentious that they did not pay any attention to the
+command of the king, and if anybody wanted to hire them he was bound
+to pay them what they asked, and so he had his choice either to lose
+his harvest and crops or give in to the proud and covetous desires of
+the workmen." Thus, because of this rise in wages, at the very time
+that many of the usual sources of income of the lords of manors were
+less remunerative, the expenses of carrying on their farming
+operations were largely increased. On closer examination, therefore,
+it becomes evident that the income of the lords of manors, whether
+individuals or corporations, was not increased, but considerably
+diminished, and that their position was less favorable than it had
+been before the pestilence.</p>
+
+<p>The freeholders of land below lords of manors were disadvantageously
+affected in as far as they had to hire laborers, but in other ways
+were in a more favorable position. The rent which they had to pay was
+often reduced. Land was everywhere to be had in plenty, and a threat
+to give up their holdings and go to where more favorable terms could
+be secured was generally effective in obtaining better terms where
+they were.</p>
+
+<p>The villain holders legally of course did not have this opportunity,
+but practically they secured many of its advantages. It is probable
+that many took up additional <span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106"></a>(p. 106)</span> land, perhaps on an improved
+tenure. Their payments and their labor, whether done in the form of
+required "week-work," or, if this were commuted, done for hire, were
+much valued, and concessions made to them accordingly. They might, as
+they frequently did, take to flight, giving up their land and either
+obtaining a new grant somewhere else or becoming laborers without
+lands of their own.</p>
+
+<p>This last-named class, made up of those who depended entirely on
+agricultural labor on the land of others for their support, was a
+class which had been increasing in numbers, and which was the most
+distinctly favored by the demand for laborers and the rise of wages.
+They were the representatives of the old cotter class, recruited from
+those who either inherited no land or found it more advantageous to
+work for wages than to take up small holdings with their burdens.</p>
+
+<p>But the most important social result of the Black Death and the period
+of pestilence which followed it was the general shock it gave to the
+old settled life and established relations of men to one another. It
+introduced many immediate changes, and still more causes of ultimate
+change; but above all it altered the old stability, so that change in
+future would be easy.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>29. The Statutes of Laborers.</strong>&mdash;The change which showed itself most
+promptly, the rise in the prevailing rate of wages, was met by the
+strenuous opposition of the law. In the summer of 1349, while the
+pestilence was still raging in the north of England, the king, acting
+on the advice of his Council, issued a proclamation to all the
+sheriffs and the officials of the larger towns, declaring that the
+laborers were taking advantage of the needs of their lords to demand
+excessive wages, and prohibiting them from asking more than had been
+due and accustomed in the year before the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107"></a>(p. 107)</span> outbreak of the
+pestilence or for the preceding five or six years. Every laborer when
+offered service at these wages must accept it; the lords of manors
+having the first right to the labor of those living on their manors,
+provided they did not insist on retaining an unreasonable number. If
+any laborers, men or women, bond or free, should refuse to accept such
+an offer of work, they were to be imprisoned till they should give
+bail to serve as required. Commissioners were then appointed by the
+king in each county to inquire into and punish violations of this
+ordinance.</p>
+
+<a id="img024" name="img024"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img024.jpg" width="500" height="377" alt="The Stocks at Shalford, near Guildford."
+title="The Stocks at Shalford, near Guildford.">
+<p><span class="smcap">The Stocks at Shalford, near Guildford.</span><br> Present State.<br>
+(Jusserand: <i>English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century</i>.
+Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Parliament next met, in February, 1351, the Commons sent a
+petition to the king stating that his ordinance had not been obeyed
+and that laborers were claiming double and treble what they had
+received in the years before the pestilence. In response to the
+petition what is usually called the "First Statute of Laborers" was
+enacted. It repeated the requirement that men must accept work when it
+was offered to them, established definite rates of wages for various
+classes of laborers, and required all such persons to swear twice a
+year before the stewards, bailiffs, or other officials that they would
+obey this law. If they refused to swear or disobeyed the law, they
+were to be put in the stocks for three days or more and then sent to
+the nearest jail till they should agree to serve as required. It was
+ordered that stocks should be built in each village for this purpose,
+and that the judges should visit each county twice a year to inquire
+into the enforcement of the law. In 1357 the law was reënacted, with
+some changes of the destination of the fines collected for its breach.
+In 1361 there was a further reënactment of the law with additional
+penalties. If laborers will not work unless they are given higher
+wages than those established by law, they can be taken and imprisoned
+by lords of manors for as much as fifteen days, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108"></a>(p. 108)</span> then be
+sent to the next jail to await the coming of the justices. If any one
+after accepting service leaves it, he is to be arrested and sued
+before the justices. If he cannot be found, he is to be outlawed and a
+writ sent to every sheriff in England ordering that he should be
+arrested, sent back, and imprisoned till he pays his fine and makes
+amends to the party injured; "and besides for the falsity he shall be
+burnt in the forehead with an iron made and formed to this letter F in
+token of Falsity, if the party aggrieved shall ask for it." This last
+provision, however, was probably intended as a threat rather than an
+actual punishment, for its application was suspended for some months,
+and even <span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109"></a>(p. 109)</span> then it was to be inflicted only on the advice of
+the judges, and the iron was to remain in the custody of the sheriff.
+The statute was reënacted with slight variations thirteen times within
+the century after its original introduction; namely, in addition to
+the dates already mentioned, in 1362, 1368, 1378, 1388, 1402, 1406,
+1414, 1423, 1427, 1429, and 1444.</p>
+
+<a id="img025" name="img025"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img025.jpg" width="500" height="339" alt="Laborers Reaping."
+title="Laborers Reaping.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Laborers Reaping.</span><br> From a Fourteenth Century Manuscript.<br>
+(Jusserand: <i>English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century</i>.
+Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The necessity for these repeated reissues of the statutes of laborers
+indicates that the general rise of wages was not prevented. Forty
+years after the pestilence the law of 1388 is said to be passed,
+"because that servants and laborers are not, nor by a long time have
+been willing to serve and labor without outrageous and excessive
+hire." Direct testimony also indicates that the prevailing rate of
+wages was much higher, probably half as much again, as it <span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110"></a>(p. 110)</span>
+had been before the pestilence. Nevertheless, the enforcement of the
+law in individual cases must have been a very great hardship. The
+fines which were collected from breakers of the law were of sufficient
+amount to be estimated at one time as part payment of a tax, at
+another as a valuable source of income to the lords of manors. Their
+enforcement was intrusted at different times to the local justices of
+the peace, the royal judges on circuit, and special commissioners.</p>
+
+<p>The inducement to the passage of the laws prohibiting a rise in wages
+was no doubt partly the self-interest of the employing classes who
+were alone represented in Parliament, but partly also the feeling that
+the laboring class were taking advantage of an abnormal condition of
+affairs to change the well established customary rates of remuneration
+of labor. The most significant fact indicated by the laws, however,
+was the existence of a distinct class of laborers. In earlier times
+when almost all rural dwellers held some land this can hardly have
+been the case; it is quite evident that there was now an increasing
+class who made their living simply by working for wages. Another fact
+frequently referred to in the laws is the frequent passage of laborers
+from one district to another; it is evident that the population was
+becoming somewhat less stationary. Therefore while the years following
+the great pestilence were a period of difficulty for the lords of
+manors and the employing classes, for the lower classes the same
+period was one of increasing opportunity and a breaking down of old
+restrictions. Whether or not the statutes had any real effect in
+keeping the rate of wages lower than it would have otherwise become is
+hard to determine, but there is no doubt that the efforts to enforce
+the law and the frequent punishment of individuals for its violation
+embittered the minds <span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111"></a>(p. 111)</span> of the laborers and helped to throw
+them into opposition to the government and to the upper classes
+generally. The statutes of laborers thus became one of the principal
+causes of the growth of that hostility which culminated in the
+Peasants' Rebellion.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>30. The Peasants' Rebellion of 1381.</strong>&mdash;From the scanty contemporary
+records still remaining we can obtain glimpses of a widespread
+restlessness among the masses of the English people during the latter
+half of the fourteenth century. According to a petition submitted to
+Parliament in 1377 the villains were refusing to pay their customary
+services to their lords and to acknowledge the requirements of their
+serfdom. They were also gathering together in great bodies to resist
+the efforts of the lords to collect from them their dues and to force
+them to submit to the decisions of the manor courts. The ready
+reception given to the religious revival preached by the Lollards
+throughout the country indicates an attitude of independence and of
+self-assertion on the part of the people of which there had been no
+sign during earlier times. The writer who represents most nearly
+popular feeling, the author of the <i>Vision of Piers Plowman</i>, reflects
+a certain restless and questioning mysticism which has no particular
+plan of reform to propose, but is nevertheless thoroughly dissatisfied
+with the world as it is. Lastly, a series of vague appeals to revolt,
+written in the vernacular, partly in prose, partly in doggerel rhyme,
+have been preserved and seem to testify to a deliberate propaganda of
+lawlessness. Some of the general causes of this rising tide of
+discontent are quite apparent. The efforts to enforce the statutes of
+laborers, as has been said, kept continual friction between the
+employing and the employed class. Parliament, which kept petitioning
+for reënactments of these laws, the magistrates and special <span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112"></a>(p. 112)</span>
+commissioners who enforced them, and the landowners who appealed to
+them for relief, were alike engaged in creating class antagonism and
+multiplying individual grievances. Secondly, the very improvement in
+the economic position of the lower classes, which was undoubtedly in
+progress, made them doubly impatient of the many burdens which still
+pressed upon them. Another cause for the prevalent unrest may have
+lain in the character of much of the teaching of the time. Undisguised
+communism was preached by a wandering priest, John Ball, and the
+injustice of the claims of the property-holding classes was a very
+natural inference from much of the teachings of Wycliffe and his "poor
+priests." Again, the corruption of the court, the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>(p. 113)</span> incapacity
+of the ministers, and the failure of the war in France were all
+reasons for popular anger, if the masses of the people can be supposed
+to have had any knowledge of such distant matters.</p>
+
+<a id="img026" name="img026"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img026.jpg" width="500" height="343" alt="Adam and Eve."
+title="Adam and Eve.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Adam and Eve.</span><br> From a Fourteenth Century Manuscript.<br>
+(Jusserand: <i>English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century</i>.
+Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But the most definite and widespread cause of discontent was probably
+the introduction of a new form of taxation, the general poll tax.
+Until this time taxes had either been direct taxes laid upon land and
+personal property, or indirect taxes laid upon various objects of
+export and import. In 1377, however, Parliament agreed to the
+imposition of a tax of four pence a head on all laymen, and
+Convocation soon afterward taxed all the clergy, regular and secular,
+the same amount. Notwithstanding this grant and increased taxes of the
+old forms, the government still needed more money for the expenses of
+the war with France, and in April, 1379, a graduated poll tax was laid
+on all persons above sixteen years of age. This was regulated
+according to the rank of the payer from mere laborers, who were to pay
+four pence, up to earls, who must pay £4. But this only produced some
+£20,000, while more than £100,000 were needed; therefore in November
+of 1380 a third poll tax was laid in the following manner. The tax was
+to be collected at the rate of three groats or one shilling for each
+person over fifteen years of age. But although the total amount
+payable from any town or manor was to be as many shillings as there
+were inhabitants over fourteen years of age, it was to be assessed in
+each manor upon individuals in proportion to their means, the more
+well-to-do paying more, the poorer paying less; but with the limits
+that no one should have to pay more than £1 for himself and his wife,
+and no one less than four pence for himself and his wife.</p>
+
+<p>The poll tax was extremely unpopular. In the first place, it was a new
+tax, and to all appearances an additional weight <span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>(p. 114)</span> given to
+the burden of contributing to the never ending expenses of the
+government of which the people were already weary. Moreover, it fell
+upon everybody, even upon those who from their lack of property had
+probably never before paid any tax. The inhabitants of every cottage
+were made to realize, by the payment of what amounted to two or three
+days' wages, that they had public and political as well as private and
+economic burdens. Lastly, the method of assessing the tax gave scope
+for much unfairness and favoritism.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to this general unpopularity of the poll tax there was a
+special reason for opposition in the circumstances of that imposed in
+1380. As the returns began to come in they were extremely
+disappointing to the government. Therefore in March, 1381, the king,
+suspecting negligence on the part of the collectors, appointed groups
+of commissioners for a number of different districts who were directed
+to go from place to place investigating the former collection and
+enforcing payment from any who had evaded it before. This no doubt
+seemed to many of the ignorant people the imposition of a second tax.
+The first rumors of disorder came in May from some of the villages of
+Essex, where the tax-collectors and the commissioners who followed
+them were driven away violently by the people. Finally, during the
+second week in June, rioting began in several parts of England almost
+simultaneously. In Essex those who had refused to pay the poll tax and
+driven out the collectors now went from village to village persuading
+or compelling the people to join them. In Kent the villagers seized
+pilgrims on their way to Canterbury and forced them to take an oath to
+resist any tax except the old taxes, to be faithful to "King Richard
+and the Commons," to join their party when summoned, and never to
+allow John of Gaunt to become king. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115"></a>(p. 115)</span> A riot broke out at
+Dartford in Kent, then Canterbury was overrun and the sheriff was
+forced to give up the tax rolls to be destroyed. They proceeded to
+break into Maidstone jail and release the prisoners there, and
+subsequently entered Rochester. These Kentish insurgents then set out
+toward London, wishing no doubt to obtain access to the young king,
+who was known to be there, but also directed by an instinctive desire
+to strike at the capital of the kingdom. By Wednesday, the 12th of
+June, they had formed a rendezvous at Blackheath some five miles below
+the city. Some of the Essex men had crossed the river and joined them,
+others had also taken their way toward London, marching along the
+northern side of the Thames. At the same time, or by the next day,
+another band was approaching London from Hertfordshire on the north.
+The body of insurgents gathered at Blackheath, who were stated by
+contemporary chroniclers, no doubt with the usual exaggeration, to
+have numbered 60,000, succeeded in communicating with King Richard, a
+boy of fourteen years, who was residing at the Tower of London with
+his mother and principal ministers and several great nobles, asking
+him to come to meet them. On the next day, Corpus Christi day, June
+12th, he was rowed with a group of nobles to the other bank of the
+river, where the insurgents were crowding to the water side. The
+confusion and danger were so great that the king did not land, and the
+conference amounted to nothing. During the same day, however, the
+rebels pressed on to the city, and a part of the populace of London
+having left the drawbridge open for them, they made their way in. The
+evening of the same day the men from Essex entered through one of the
+city gates which had also been opened for them by connivance from
+within. There had already been much destruction of property and of
+life. As the rebels passed along the roads, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116"></a>(p. 116)</span> the villagers
+joined them and many of the lower classes of the town population as
+well. In several cases they burned the houses of the gentry and of the
+great ecclesiastics, destroyed tax and court rolls and other
+documents, and put to death persons connected with the law. When they
+had made their way into London they burned and pillaged the Savoy
+palace, the city house of the duke of Lancaster, and the houses of the
+Knights Hospitallers at Clerkenwell and at Temple Bar. By this time
+leaders had arisen among the rebels. Wat Tyler, John Ball, and Jack
+Straw were successful in keeping their followers from stealing and in
+giving some semblance of a regular plan to their proceedings. On the
+morning of Friday, the 14th, the king left the Tower, and while he was
+absent the rebels made their way in, ransacked the rooms, seized and
+carried out to Tower Hill Simon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, who
+was Lord Chancellor, Robert Hales, Grand Master of the Hospitallers,
+who was then Lord Treasurer, and some lower officials. These were all
+put through the hasty forms of an irregular trial and then beheaded.
+There were also many murders throughout the city. Foreigners
+especially were put to death, probably by Londoners themselves or by
+the rural insurgents at their instigation. A considerable number of
+Flemings were assassinated, some being drawn from one of the churches
+where they had taken refuge. The German merchants of the Steelyard
+were attacked and driven through the streets, but took refuge in their
+well-defended buildings.</p>
+
+<p>During the same three days, insurrection had broken out in several
+other parts of England. Disorders are mentioned in Kent, Essex,
+Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon,
+Hampshire, Sussex, Somerset, Leicester, Lincoln, York, Bedford,
+Northampton, Surrey, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>(p. 117)</span> and Wiltshire. There are also
+indications of risings in nine other counties. In Suffolk the
+leadership was taken by a man named John Wrawe, a priest like John
+Ball. On June 12th, the same day that the rendezvous was held on
+Blackheath, a great body of peasants under Wrawe attacked and pillaged
+a manor house belonging to Richard Lyons, an unpopular minister of the
+last days of Edward III. The next day they looted a parish church
+where were stored the valuables of Sir John Cavendish, Chief Justice
+of the Court of King's Bench and Chancellor of the town of Cambridge.
+On the 14th they occupied Bury, where they sacked the houses of
+unpopular men and finally captured and put to death Cavendish himself,
+John of Cambridge, prior of the St. Edmund's Abbey, and John of
+Lakenheath, an officer of the king. The rioters also forced the monks
+of the abbey to hand over to them all the documents giving to the
+monastery power over the townsmen. There were also a large number of
+detached attacks on persons and on manor houses, where manor court
+rolls and other documents were destroyed and property carried off.
+There was more theft here than in London; but much of the plundering
+was primarily intended to settle old disputes rather than for its own
+sake. In Norfolk the insurrection broke out a day or two later than in
+Suffolk, and is notable as having among its patrons a considerable
+number of the lesser gentry and other well-to-do persons. The
+principal leader, however, was a certain Geoffrey Lister. This man had
+issued a proclamation calling in all the people to meet on the 17th of
+June on Mushold Heath, just outside the city of Norwich. A great
+multitude gathered, and they summoned Sir Robert Salle, who was in the
+military service of the king, but was living at Norwich, and who had
+risen from peasant rank to knighthood, to come out for a conference.
+When he declined their request <span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118"></a>(p. 118)</span> to become their leader they
+assassinated him, and subsequently made their way into the city, of
+which they kept control for several days. Throughout Norfolk and
+Cambridgeshire we hear of the same murders of men who had obtained the
+hatred of the lower classes in general, or that of individuals who
+were temporarily influential with the insurgents. There were also
+numerous instances of the destruction of court rolls found at the
+manor houses of lay lords of manors or obtained from the muniment
+rooms of the monasteries. It seems almost certain that there was some
+agreement beforehand among the leaders of the revolt in the eastern
+districts of England, and probably also with the leaders in Essex and
+Kent.</p>
+
+<p>Another locality where we have full knowledge of the occurrences
+during the rebellion is the town and monastery of St. Albans, just
+north of London. The rising here was either instigated by, or, at
+least, drew its encouragement from, the leaders who gathered at
+London. The townsmen and villains from surrounding manors invaded the
+great abbey, opened the prison, demanded and obtained all the charters
+bearing on existing disputes, and reclaimed a number of millstones
+which were kept by the abbey as a testimony to the monopoly of all
+grinding by the abbey mill. In many other places disorders were in
+progress. For a few days in the middle of June a considerable part of
+England was at the mercy of the revolted peasants and artisans, under
+the leadership partly of men who had arisen among their own class,
+partly of certain persons of higher position who had sufficient reason
+for throwing in their lot with them.</p>
+
+<a id="img027" name="img027"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img027.jpg" width="500" height="734" alt="Extension Of The Peasant's Insurrection Of 1381."
+title="Extension Of The Peasant's Insurrection Of 1381.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Extension Of The Peasant's Insurrection Of 1381.<br>
+Engraved By Bormay &amp; Co., N.Y.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The culmination of the revolt was at the time of the execution of the
+great ministers of government on Tower Hill on the morning of the
+14th. At that very time the young <span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>(p. 120)</span> king had met a body of
+the rebels, mostly made up of men from Essex and Hertfordshire at Mile
+End, just outside of one of the gates of London. In a discussion in
+which they stated their grievances, the king apparently in good faith,
+but as it afterward proved in bad, promised to give them what they
+demanded, begged them to disperse and go to their homes, only leaving
+representatives from each village to take back the charters of
+emancipation which he proceeded to have prepared and issued to them.
+There had been no intentional antagonism to the king himself, and a
+great part of the insurgents took him at his word and scattered to
+their homes. The charters which they took with them were of the
+following form:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Richard, by the grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of
+Ireland, to all his bailiffs and faithful ones, to whom these present
+letters shall come, greeting. Know that of our special grace, we have
+manumitted all of our lieges and each of our subjects and others of
+the County of Hertford; and them and each of them have made free from
+all bondage, and by these presents make them quit. And moreover we
+pardon our same lieges and subjects for all kinds of felonies,
+treasons, transgressions, and extortions, however done or perpetrated
+by them or any of them, and also outlawry, if any shall have been
+promulgated on this account against them or any of them; and our most
+complete peace to them and each of them we concede in these matters.
+In testimony of which things we have caused these our letters to be
+made patent. Witness, myself, at London, on the fifteenth day of June,
+in the fourth year of our reign."</p>
+
+<p>The most prominent leaders remained behind, and a large body of
+rioters spent the rest of Friday and the following night in London.
+The king, after the interview at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>(p. 121)</span> Mile End, had returned to
+the Tower, then to the Queen's Wardrobe, a little palace at the other
+side of London, where he spent the night with his mother. In the
+morning he mounted his horse, and with a small group of attendants
+rode toward the Tower. As he passed through the open square of
+Smithfield he met Wat Tyler, also on horseback, accompanied by the
+great body of rebels. Tyler rode forward to confer with the king, but
+an altercation having broken out between him and some of the king's
+attendants, the mayor of London, Sir William Walworth, suddenly dashed
+forward, struck him from his horse with the blow of a sword, and while
+on the ground he was stabbed to death by the other attendants of the
+king. There was a moment of extreme danger of an attack by the
+leaderless rebels on the king and his companions, but the ready
+promises of the king, his natural gifts of pretence, and the strange
+attachment which the peasants showed to him through all the troubles,
+tided over a little time until they had been led outside of the city
+gates, and the armed forces which many gentlemen had in their houses
+in the city had at last been gathered together and brought to where
+they had the disorganized body of rebels at their mercy. These were
+then disarmed, bidden to go to their homes, and a proclamation issued
+that if any stranger remained in London over Sunday he would pay for
+it with his life.</p>
+
+<p>The downfall of Tyler and the dispersion of the insurgents at London
+turned the tide of the whole revolt. In the various districts where
+disorders were in progress the news of that failure came as a blow to
+all their own hopes of success. The revolt had been already
+disintegrating rather than gaining in strength and unity; and now its
+leaders lost heart, and local bodies of gentry proportionately took
+courage to suppress revolt in their own localities. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>(p. 122)</span> most
+conspicuous and influential of such efforts was that of Henry de
+Spencer, bishop of Norwich. This warlike prelate was in Rutlandshire
+when the news of the revolt came. He hastened toward Norwich; on his
+way met an embassy from the rioters to the king; seized and beheaded
+two of its peasant members, and still pushing on met the great body of
+the rebels near Walsham, where after a short conflict and some
+parleying the latter were dispersed, and their leaders captured and
+hung without any ceremony other than the last rites of religion. As a
+matter of fact the rising had no cohesion sufficient to withstand
+attack from any constituted authority or from representatives of the
+dominant classes.</p>
+
+<p>The king's government acted promptly. On the 17th of June, two days
+after the death of Tyler, a proclamation was issued forbidding
+unauthorized gatherings of people; on the 23d a second, requiring all
+tenants, villains, and freemen alike to perform their usual services
+to their lords; and on the 2d of July a third, withdrawing the
+charters of pardon and manumission which had been granted on the 15th
+of June. Special sessions of the courts were organized in the
+rebellious districts, and the leaders of the revolt were searched out
+and executed by hanging or decapitation.</p>
+
+<p>On the 3d of November Parliament met. The king's treasurer explained
+that he had issued the charters under constraint, and recognizing
+their illegality, with the expectation of withdrawing them as soon as
+possible, which he had done. The suggestion of the king that the
+villains should be regularly enfranchised by a statute was declined in
+vigorous terms by Parliament. Laws were passed relieving all those who
+had made grants under compulsion from carrying them out, enabling
+those whose charters had been destroyed to obtain new ones under the
+great seal, granting <span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>(p. 123)</span> exemption from prosecution to all who
+had exercised illegal violence in putting down the late insurrection,
+and finally granting a general pardon, though with many exceptions, to
+the late insurgents.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the rising of June, 1381, had become a matter of the past by the
+close of the year. The general conditions which brought about a
+popular uprising have already been discussed. The specific objects
+which the rioters had in view in each part of the country are a much
+more obscure and complicated question.</p>
+
+<p>There is no reason to believe that there was any general political
+object, other than opposition to the new and burdensome taxation, and
+disgust with the existing ministry. Nor was there any religious object
+in view. No doubt a large part of the disorder had no general purpose
+whatever, but consisted in an attempt, at a period of confusion and
+relaxation of the law, to settle by violence purely local or personal
+disputes and grievances.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from these considerations the objects of the rioters were of an
+economic nature. There was a general effort to destroy the rolls of
+the manor courts. These rolls, kept either in manor houses, or in the
+castles of great lords, or in the monasteries, were the record of the
+burdens and payments and disabilities of the villagers. Previous
+payments of heriot, relief, merchet, and fines, acknowledgments of
+serfdom, the obtaining of their land on burdensome conditions, were
+all recorded on the rolls and could be produced to prove the custom of
+the manor to the disadvantage of the tenant. It is true that these
+same rolls showed who held each piece of ground and defined the
+succession to it, and that they were long afterward to be recognized
+in the national courts as giving to the customary holder the right of
+retaining and of inheriting the land, so <span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>(p. 124)</span> that it might seem
+an injury to themselves to destroy the manor court records. But in
+that period when tenants were in such demand their hold on their land
+had been in no danger of being disturbed. If these records were
+destroyed, the villains might well expect that they could claim to be
+practically owners of the houses and little groups of acres which they
+and their ancestors had held from time immemorial; and this without
+the necessity for payments and reservations to which the rolls
+testified.</p>
+
+<p>Again, lawyers and all connected with the law were the objects of
+special hostility on the part of insurgents. This must have been
+largely from the same general cause as that just mentioned. It was
+lawyers who acted as stewards for the great lords, it was through
+lawyers that the legal claims of lords of manors were enforced in the
+king's courts. It was also the judges and lawyers who put in force the
+statutes of laborers, and who so generally acted as collectors of the
+poll tax.</p>
+
+<p>More satisfactory relations with their lords were demanded by
+insurgents who were freeholders, as well as by those who were
+villains. Protests are recorded against the tolls on sales and
+purchases, and against attendance at the manorial courts, and a
+maximum limit to the rent of land is asked for. Finally, the removal
+of the burdens of serfdom was evidently one of the general objects of
+the rebels, though much of the initiative of the revolt was taken by
+men from Kent, where serfdom did not exist. The servitude of the
+peasantry is the burden of the sermon of John Ball at Blackheath, its
+abolition was demanded in several places by the insurgents, and the
+charters of emancipation as given by the king professed to make them
+"free from all bondage."</p>
+
+<p>These objects were in few if any cases obtained. It is extremely
+difficult to trace any direct results from the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125"></a>(p. 125)</span> rising other
+than those involved in its failure, the punishment of the leaders, and
+the effort to restore everything to its former condition. There was
+indeed a conservative reaction in several directions. The authorities
+of London forbade the admission of any former villain to citizenship,
+and the Commons in Parliament petitioned the king to reduce the rights
+of villains still further. On the whole, the revolt is rather an
+illustration of the general fact that great national crises have left
+but a slight impress on society, while the important changes have
+taken place slowly and by an almost imperceptible development. The
+results of the rising are rather to be looked for in giving increased
+rapidity and definite direction to changes already in progress, than
+in starting any new movement or in obtaining the results which the
+insurgents may have wished.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>31. Commutation of Services.</strong>&mdash;One of these changes, already in
+progress long before the outbreak of the revolt, has already been
+referred to. A silent transformation was going on inside of the
+manorial life in the form of a gradual substitution of money payments
+by the villain tenants for the old labor for two, three, or four days
+a week, and at special times during the year. This was often described
+as "selling to the tenants their services." They "bought" their
+exemption from furnishing actual work by paying the value of it in
+money to the official representing the lord of the manor.</p>
+
+<p>This was a mutually advantageous arrangement. The villain's time would
+be worth more to himself than to his lord; for if he had sufficient
+land in his possession he could occupy himself profitably on it, or if
+he had not so much land he could choose his time for hiring himself
+out to the best advantage. The lord, on the other hand, obtained money
+which could be spent in paying men whose services <span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126"></a>(p. 126)</span> would be
+more willing and interested, and who could be engaged at more
+available times. It is not, therefore, a matter of surprise that the
+practice of allowing tenants to pay for their services arose early.
+Commutation is noticeable as early as the thirteenth century and not
+very unusual in the first half of the fourteenth. After the
+pestilence, however, there was a very rapid substitution of money
+payments for labor payments. The process continued through the
+remainder of the fourteenth century and the early fifteenth, and by
+the middle of that century the enforcement of regular labor services
+had become almost unknown. The boon-works continued to be claimed
+after the week-work had disappeared, since labor was not so easy to
+obtain at the specially busy seasons of the year, and the required few
+days' services at ploughing or mowing or harvesting were
+correspondingly valuable. But even these were extremely unusual after
+the middle of the fifteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>This change was dependent on at least two conditions, an increased
+amount of money in circulation and an increased number of free
+laborers available for hire. These conditions were being more and more
+completely fulfilled. Trade at fairs and markets and in the towns was
+increasing through the whole fourteenth century. The increase of
+weaving and other handicrafts produced more wealth and trade. Money
+coming from abroad and from the royal mints made its way into
+circulation and came into the hands of the villain tenants, through
+the sale of surplus products or as payment for their labor. The sudden
+destruction of one-half of the population by the Black Death while the
+amount of money in the country remained the same, doubled the
+circulation <i>per capita</i>. Tenants were thus able to offer regular
+money payments to their lords in lieu of their personal services.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127"></a>(p. 127)</span> During the same period the number of free laborers who could
+be hired to perform the necessary work on the demesne was increasing.
+Even before the pestilence there were men and women on every manor who
+held little or no land and who could be secured by the lord for
+voluntary labor if the compulsory labor of the villains was given up.
+Some of these laborers were fugitive villains who had fled from one
+manor to another to secure freedom, and this class became much more
+numerous under the circumstance of disorganization after the Black
+Death. Thus the second condition requisite for the extensive
+commutation was present also.</p>
+
+<p>It might be supposed that after the pestilence, when wages were high
+and labor was so hard to procure, lords of manors would be unwilling
+to allow further commutation, and would even try to insist on the
+performance of actual labor in cases where commutation had been
+previously allowed. Indeed, it has been very generally stated that
+there was such a reaction. The contrary, however, was the case.
+Commutation was never more rapid than in the generation immediately
+after the first attack of the pestilence. The laborers seem to have
+been in so favorable a position, that the dread of their flight was a
+controlling inducement to the lords to allow the commutation of their
+services if they desired it. The interest of the lords in their labor
+services was also, as will be seen, becoming less.</p>
+
+<p>When a villain's labor services had been commuted into money, his
+position must have risen appreciably. One of the main characteristics
+of his position as a villain tenant had been the uncertainty of his
+services, the fact that during the days in which he must work for his
+lord he could be put to any kind of labor, and that the number of days
+he must serve was itself only restricted by the custom of the manor
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128"></a>(p. 128)</span> His services once commuted into a definite sum of money, all
+uncertainty ceased. Moreover, his money payments to the lord, although
+rising from an entirely different source, were almost
+indistinguishable from the money rents paid by the freeholder.
+Therefore, serf though he might still be in legal status, his position
+was much more like that of a freeman.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>32. The Abandonment of Demesne Farming.</strong>&mdash;A still more important change
+than the commutation of services was in progress during the fourteenth
+and fifteenth centuries. This was the gradual withdrawal of the lords
+of manors from the cultivation of the demesne farms. From very early
+times it had been customary for lords of manors to grant out small
+portions of the demesne, or of previously uncultivated land, to
+tenants at a money rent. The great demesne farm, however, had been
+still kept up as the centre of the agricultural system of the vill.
+But now even this was on many manors rented out to a tenant or group
+of tenants. The earliest known instances are just at the beginning of
+the fourteenth century, but the labor troubles of the latter half of
+the century made the process more usual, and within the next hundred
+years the demesne lands seem to have been practically all rented out
+to tenants. In other words, whereas, during the earlier Middle Ages
+lords of manors had usually carried on the cultivation of the demesne
+lands themselves, under the administration of their bailiffs and with
+the labor of the villains, making their profit by obtaining a food
+supply for their own households or by selling the surplus products,
+now they gave up their cultivation and rented them out to some one
+else, making their profit by receiving a money payment as rent. They
+became therefore landlords of the modern type. A typical instance of
+this change is where the demesne land of the manor of Wilburton in
+Cambridgeshire, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129"></a>(p. 129)</span> consisting of 246 acres of arable land and
+42 acres of meadow, was rented in 1426 to one of the villain tenants
+of the manor for a sum of £8 a year. The person who took the land was
+usually either a free or a villain tenant of the same or a neighboring
+manor. The land was let only for a certain number of years, but
+afterward was usually relet either to the same or to another tenant.
+The word <i>farmer</i> originally meant one of these tenants who took the
+demesne or some other piece of land, paying for it a "farm" or
+<i>firma</i>, that is, a settled established sum, in place of the various
+forms of profit that might have been secured from it by the lord of
+the manor. The free and villain holdings which came into the hands of
+the lord by failure of heirs in those times of frequent extinction of
+families were also granted out very generally at a money rent, so that
+a large number of the cultivators of the soil came to be tenants at a
+money rent, that is, lease-holders or "farmers." These free renting
+farmers, along with the smaller freeholders, made up the "yeomen" of
+England.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>33. The Decay of Serfdom.</strong>&mdash;It is in the changes discussed in the last
+two paragraphs that is to be found the key to the disappearance of
+serfdom in England. Men had been freed from villainage in individual
+cases by various means. Manumission of serfs had occurred from time to
+time through all the mediæval centuries. It was customary in such
+cases either to give a formal charter granting freedom to the man
+himself and to his descendants, or to have entered on the manor court
+roll the fact of his obtaining his enfranchisement. Occasionally men
+were manumitted in order that they might be ordained as clergymen. In
+the period following the pestilences of the fourteenth century the
+difficulty in recruiting the ranks of the priesthood made the practice
+more frequent The charters of manumission <span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130"></a>(p. 130)</span> issued by the king
+to the insurgents of 1381 would have granted freedom on a large scale
+had they not been disowned and subsequently withdrawn. Still other
+villains had obtained freedom by flight from the manors where they had
+been born. When a villain who had fled was discovered he could be
+reclaimed by the lord of the manor by obtaining a writ from the court,
+but many obstacles might be placed in the way of obtaining this writ,
+and it must always have involved so much difficulty as to make it
+doubtful whether it was worth while. So long as a villain was anywhere
+else than on the manor to which he belonged, he was practically a free
+man, but few of the disabilities of villainage existing except as
+between him and his own lord. Therefore, if a villain was willing to
+sacrifice his little holding and make the necessary break with his
+usual surroundings, he might frequently escape into a veritable
+freedom.</p>
+
+<p>The attitude of the common law was favorable to liberty as against
+servitude, and in cases of doubt the decisions of the royal courts
+were almost invariably favorable to the freedom of the villain.</p>
+
+<p>But all these possibilities of liberty were only for individual cases.
+Villainage as an institution continued to exist and to characterize
+the position of the mass of the peasantry. The number of freemen
+through the country was larger, but the serfdom of the great majority
+can scarcely have been much influenced by these individual cases. The
+commutation of services, however, and still more the abandonment of
+demesne farming by the lords of manors, were general causes conducive
+to freedom. The former custom indicated that the lords valued the
+money that could be paid by the villains more than they did their
+compulsory services. That is, villains whose services were paid for in
+money were practically renters of land from the lords, no <span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131"></a>(p. 131)</span>
+longer serfs on the land of the lords. The lord of the manor could
+still of course enforce his claim to the various payments and
+restrictions arising from the villainage of his tenants, but their
+position as payers of money was much less servile than as performers
+of forced labor. The willingness of the lords to accept money instead
+of service showed as before stated that there were other persons who
+could be hired to do the work. The villains were valued more as
+tenants now that there were others to serve as laborers. The occupants
+of customary holdings were a higher class and a class more worth the
+lord's consideration and favor than the mere laborers. The villains
+were thus raised into partial freedom by having a free class still
+below them.</p>
+
+<a id="img028" name="img028"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img028.jpg" width="500" height="368" alt="An Old Street in Worcester."
+title="An Old Street in Worcester.">
+<p><span class="smcap">An Old Street in Worcester.</span><br> (Britton: <i>Picturesque
+Antiquities of English Cities</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The effect of the relinquishment of the old demesne farms by the lords
+of the manors was still more influential in destroying serfdom. The
+lords had valued serfdom above all because it furnished an adequate
+and absolutely certain supply of labor. The villains had to stay on
+the manor and provide the labor necessary for the cultivation of the
+demesne. But if the demesne was rented out to a farmer or divided
+among several holders, the interest of the lord in the labor supply on
+the manor was very much diminished. Even if he agreed in his lease of
+the demesne to the new farmer that the villains should perform their
+customary services in as far as these had not been commuted, yet the
+farmer could not enforce this of himself, and the lord of the manor
+was probably languid or careless or dilatory in doing so. The other
+payments and burdens of serfdom were not so lucrative, and as the
+ranks of the old villain class were depleted by the extinction of
+families, and fewer inhabitants were bound to attend the manor courts,
+they became less so. It became, therefore, gradually more common, then
+quite universal, for the lords of manors to cease to enforce the
+requirements <span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132"></a>(p. 132)</span> of serfdom. A legal relation of which neither
+party is reminded is apt to become obsolete; and that is what
+practically happened to serfdom in England. It is true that many
+persons were still legally serfs, and occasionally the fact of their
+serfdom was asserted in the courts or inferred by granting them
+manumission. These occasional enfranchisements continued down into the
+second half of the sixteenth century, and the claim that a certain man
+was a villain was pleaded in the courts as late as 1618. But long
+before this time serfdom had ceased to have much practical importance.
+It may be said that by the middle of the fifteenth century the mass of
+the English rural population were free men and no longer serfs. With
+their labor services commuted to money and the other conditions of
+their villainage no longer enforced, they became an indistinguishable
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133"></a>(p. 133)</span> part either of the yeomanry or of the body of agricultural
+laborers.</p>
+
+<a id="img029" name="img029"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img029.jpg" width="400" height="558" alt="Town Houses in the Fifteenth Century."
+title="Town Houses in the Fifteenth Century.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Town Houses in the Fifteenth Century.</span><br> (Wright, T.:
+<i>History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>34. Changes in Town Life and Foreign Trade.</strong>&mdash;The changes discussed in
+the last three sections apply in the main to rural life. The economic
+and social history of the towns during the same period, except in as
+far as it was part of the general national experience, consisted in a
+still more complete adoption of those characteristics which <span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134"></a>(p. 134)</span>
+have already been described in Chapter III. Their wealth and
+prosperity became greater, they were still more independent of the
+rural districts and of the central government, the intermunicipal
+character of their dealings, the closeness of connection between their
+industrial interests and their government, the completeness with which
+all occupations were organized under the "gild system," were all of
+them still more marked in 1450 than they had been in 1350. It is true
+that far-reaching changes were beginning, but they were only
+beginning, and did not reach an important development until a time
+later than that included in this chapter. The same thing is true in
+the field of foreign trade. The latter part of the fourteenth and the
+early fifteenth century saw a considerable increase and development of
+the trade of England, but it was still on the same lines and carried
+on by the same methods as before. The great proportion of it was in
+the hands of foreigners, and there was the same inconsistency in the
+policy of the central government on the occasions when it did
+intervene or take any action on the subject. The important changes in
+trade and in town life which have their beginning in this period will
+be discussed in connection with those of the next period in Chapter
+VI.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2"><strong>35. BIBLIOGRAPHY</strong></p>
+
+<p>Jessop, Augustus: <i>The Coming of the Friars and other Essays</i>. Two
+interesting essays in this volume are on <i>The Black Death in East
+Anglia</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Gasquet, F. A.: <i>The Great Pestilence of 1349</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Creighton, C.: <i>History of Epidemics in Britain</i>, two volumes. This
+gives especial attention to the nature of the disease.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135"></a>(p. 135)</span> Trevelyan, G. M.: <i>England in the Age of Wycliffe</i>. This
+book, published in 1899, gives by far the fullest account of the
+Peasant Rising which has so far appeared in English.</p>
+
+<p>Petit-Dutaillis, C., et Reville, A.: <i>Le Soulèvement des Travailleurs
+d'Angleterre en 1381</i>. The best account of the Rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>Powell, Edgar: <i>The Peasant Rising in East Anglia in 1381</i>. Especially
+valuable for its accounts of the poll tax.</p>
+
+<p>Powell, Edgar, and Trevelyan, G. M.: <i>Documents Illustrating the
+Peasants' Rising and the Lollards</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Page, Thomas Walker: <i>The End of Villainage in England</i>. This
+monograph, published in 1900, is particularly valuable for the new
+facts which it gives concerning the rural changes of the fourteenth
+century.</p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136"></a>(p. 136)</span> CHAPTER VI</h3>
+
+<h5>THE BREAKING UP OF THE MEDIÆVAL SYSTEM</h5>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">Economic Changes of the Later Fifteenth and the Sixteenth Centuries</span></h5>
+
+<p><strong>36. National Affairs from 1461 to 1603.</strong>&mdash;The close of the fifteenth
+and the opening of the sixteenth century has been by universal consent
+settled upon as the passage from one era to another, from the Middle
+Ages to modern times. This period of transition was marked in England
+by at least three great movements: a new type of intellectual life, a
+new ideal of government, and the Reformation. The greatest changes in
+English literature and intellectual interests are traceable to foreign
+influence. In the fifteenth century the paramount foreign influence
+was that of Italy. From the middle of the fifteenth century an
+increasing number of young Englishmen went to Italy to study, and
+brought back with them an interest in the study of Greek and of other
+subjects to which this led. Somewhat later the social intercourse of
+Englishmen with Italy exercised a corresponding influence on more
+courtly literature. In 1491 the teaching of Greek was begun at Oxford
+by Grocyn, and after this time the passion for classical learning
+became deep, widespread, and enthusiastic. But not only were the
+subjects of intellectual interest different, but the attitude of mind
+in the study of these subjects was much more critical than it had been
+in the Middle Ages. The discoveries of new routes to the far East and
+of America, as well as the new speculations <span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137"></a>(p. 137)</span> in natural
+science which came at this time, reacted on the minds of men and
+broadened their whole mental outlook. The production of works of pure
+literature had suffered a decline after the time of Wycliffe and
+Chaucer, from which there was no considerable revival till the early
+part of the sixteenth century. Sir Thomas More's <i>Utopia</i>, written in
+Latin in 1514, was a philosophical work thrown into the form of a
+literary dialogue and description of an imaginary commonwealth. But
+writing became constantly more abundant and more varied through the
+reigns of Henry VIII, 1509-1547, Edward VI, 1547-1553, and Mary,
+1553-1558, until it finally blossomed out into the splendid
+Elizabethan literature, just at the close of our period.</p>
+
+<p>A stronger royal government had begun with Edward IV. The conclusion
+of the war with France made the king's need for money less, and at the
+same time new sources of income appeared. Edward, therefore, from
+1461, neglected to call Parliament annually, as had been usual, and
+frequently allowed three or more years to go by without any
+consultation with it. He also exercised very freely what was called
+the dispensing power, that is, the power to suspend the law in certain
+cases, and in other ways asserted the royal prerogative as no previous
+king had done for two hundred years. But the true founder of the
+almost absolute monarchy of this period was Henry VII, who reigned
+from 1485 to 1509. He was not the nearest heir to the throne, but
+acted as the representative of the Lancastrian line, and by his
+marriage with the lady who represented the claim of the York family
+joined the two contending factions. He was the first of the Tudor
+line, his successors being his son, Henry VIII, and the three children
+of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. Henry VII was an able,
+shrewd, far-sighted, and masterful man. During his reign <span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138"></a>(p. 138)</span> he
+put an end to the disorders of the nobility; made Parliament
+relatively insignificant by calling it even less frequently than
+Edward IV had done, and by initiating its legislation when it did
+meet. He also increased and regulated the income of the crown, and
+rendered its expenditures subject to control. He was able to keep
+ambassadors regularly abroad, for the first time, and in many other
+ways to support a more expensive administration, though often by
+unpopular and illegal means of extortion from the people. He formed
+foreign political and commercial treaties in all directions, and
+encouraged the voyages of the Cabots to America. He brought a great
+deal of business constantly before the Royal Council, but chose its
+members for their ability rather than for their high rank. In these
+various ways he created a strong personal government, which left but
+little room for Parliament or people to do anything except carry out
+his will. In these respects Henry's immediate successors and their
+ministers followed the same policy. In fact, the Reformation in the
+reign of Henry VIII, and new internal and foreign difficulties in the
+reign of Elizabeth, brought the royal power into a still higher and
+more independent position.</p>
+
+<p>The need for a general reformation of the church had long been
+recognized. More than one effort had been made by the ecclesiastical
+authorities to insist on higher intellectual and moral standards for
+the clergy and to rid the church of various evil customs and abuses.
+Again, there had been repeated efforts to clothe the king, who was at
+the head of all civil government, with extensive control and oversight
+of church affairs also. Men holding different views on questions of
+church government and religious belief from those held by the general
+Christian church in the Middle Ages, had written and taught and found
+many to agree with them. Thus <span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139"></a>(p. 139)</span> efforts to bring about changes
+in the established church had not been wanting, but they had produced
+no permanent result. In the early years of the sixteenth century,
+however, several causes combined to bring about a movement of this
+nature extending over a number of years and profoundly affecting all
+subsequent history. This is known as the Reformation. The first steps
+of the Reformation in England were taken as the result of a dispute
+between King Henry VIII and the Pope. In the first place, several laws
+were passed through Parliament, beginning with the year 1529,
+abolishing a number of petty evils and abusive practices in the church
+courts. The Pope's income from England was then cut off, and his
+jurisdiction and all other forms of authority in England brought to an
+end. Finally, the supremacy of the king over the church and clergy and
+over all ecclesiastical affairs was declared and enforced. By the year
+1535 the ancient connection between the church in England and the Pope
+was severed. Thus in England, as in many continental countries at
+about the same time, a national church arose independent of Rome.
+Next, changes began to be made in the doctrine and practices of the
+church. The organization under bishops was retained, though they were
+now appointed by the king. Pilgrimages and the worship of saints were
+forbidden, the Bible translated into English, and other changes
+gradually introduced. The monastic life came under the condemnation of
+the reformers. The monasteries were therefore dissolved and their
+property confiscated and sold, between the years 1536 and 1542. In the
+reign of Edward VI, 1547-1553, the Reformation was carried much
+further. An English prayerbook was issued which was to be used in
+all religious worship, the adornments of the churches were removed,
+the services made more simple, and doctrines introduced which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140"></a>(p. 140)</span> assimilated the church of England to the contemporary
+Protestant churches on the Continent.</p>
+
+<p>Queen Mary, who had been brought up in the Roman faith, tried to make
+England again a Roman Catholic country, and in the later years of her
+reign encouraged severe persecutions, causing many to be burned at the
+stake, in the hope of thus crushing out heresy. After her death,
+however, in 1558, Queen Elizabeth adopted a more moderate position,
+and the church of England was established by law in much the form it
+had possessed at the death of Henry VIII.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, however, there had been growing up a far more
+spontaneous religious movement than the official Reformation which has
+just been described. Many thousands of persons had become deeply
+interested in religion and enthusiastic in their faith, and had come
+to hold different views on church government, doctrines, and practices
+from those approved of either by the Roman Catholic church or by the
+government of England. Those who held such views were known as
+Puritans, and throughout the reign of Elizabeth were increasing in
+numbers and making strenuous though unsuccessful efforts to introduce
+changes in the established church.</p>
+
+<p>The reign of Elizabeth was marked not only by the continuance of royal
+despotism, by brilliant literary production, and by the struggle of
+the established church against the Catholics on the one side and the
+Puritans on the other, but by difficult and dangerous foreign
+relations.</p>
+
+<p>More than once invasion by the continental powers was imminent.
+Elizabeth was threatened with deposition by the English adherents of
+Mary, Queen of Scots, supported by France and Spain. The English
+government pursued a policy of interference in the internal conflicts
+of other countries that brought it frequently to the verge of war with
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141"></a>(p. 141)</span> their governments and sometimes beyond. Hostility bordering
+on open warfare was therefore the most frequent condition of English
+foreign relations. Especially was this true of the relations with
+Spain. The most serious contest with that country was the war which
+culminated in the battle of the Armada in 1588. Spain had organized an
+immense fleet which was intended to go to the Netherlands and convoy
+an army to be taken thence for the invasion of England. While passing
+through the English Channel, a storm broke upon them, they were
+attacked and harried by the English and later by the Dutch, and the
+whole fleet was eventually scattered and destroyed. The danger of
+invasion was greatly reduced after this time and until the end of
+Elizabeth's reign in 1603.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>37. Enclosures.</strong>&mdash;The century and a half which extends from the middle
+years of the fifteenth century to the close of the sixteenth was, as
+has been shown, a period remarkable for the extent and variety of its
+changes in almost every aspect of society. In the political,
+intellectual, and religious world the sixteenth century seemed far
+removed from the fifteenth. It is not therefore a matter of surprise
+that economic changes were numerous and fundamental, and that social
+organization in town and country alike was completely transformed.</p>
+
+<p>During the period last discussed, the fourteenth and the early
+fifteenth century, the manorial system had changed very considerably
+from its mediæval form. The demesne lands had been quite generally
+leased to renting farmers, and a new class of tenants was consequently
+becoming numerous; serfdom had fallen into decay; the old manorial
+officers, the steward, the bailiff, and the reeve had fallen into
+unimportance; the manor courts were not so active, so regular, or so
+numerously attended. These changes were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142"></a>(p. 142)</span> gradual and were
+still uncompleted at the middle of the fifteenth century; but there
+was already showing itself a new series of changes, affecting still
+other parts of manorial life, which became steadily more extensive
+during the remainder of the fifteenth and through much of the
+sixteenth century. These changes are usually grouped under the name
+"enclosures."</p>
+
+<p>The enclosure of land previously open was closely connected with the
+increase of sheep-raising. The older form of agriculture,
+grain-raising, labored under many difficulties. The price of labor was
+high, there had been no improvement in the old crude methods of
+culture, nor, in the open fields and under the customary rules, was
+there opportunity to introduce any. On the other hand, the inducements
+to sheep-raising were numerous. There was a steady demand at good
+prices for wool, both for export, as of old, and for the manufactures
+within England, which were now increasing. Sheep-raising required
+fewer hands and therefore high wages were less an obstacle, and it
+gave opportunity for the investment of capital and for comparative
+freedom from the restrictions of local custom. Therefore, instead of
+raising sheep simply as a part of ordinary farming, lords of manors,
+freeholders, farming tenants, and even customary tenants began here
+and there to raise sheep for wool as their principal or sole
+production. Instances are mentioned of five thousand, ten thousand,
+twenty thousand, and even twenty-four thousand sheep in the possession
+of a single person. This custom spread more and more widely, and so
+attracted the attention of observers as to be frequently mentioned in
+the laws and literature of the time.</p>
+
+<a id="img030" name="img030"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img030.jpg" width="500" height="337" alt="Partially enclosed Fields of Cuxham,
+Oxfordshire, 1767." title="Partially enclosed Fields of Cuxham, Oxfordshire, 1767.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Partially enclosed Fields of Cuxham,
+Oxfordshire, 1767.</span><br> (Facsimile map, published by the University of
+Oxford.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But sheep could not be raised to any considerable extent on land
+divided according to the old open field system. In a vill whose fields
+all lay open, sheep must either be fed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143"></a>(p. 143)</span> with those of other
+men on the common pasture, or must be kept in small groups by
+shepherds within the confines of the various acres or other small
+strips of the sheep-raiser's holding. No large number could of course
+be kept in this way, so the first thing to be done by the sheep-raiser
+was to get enough strips together in one place to make it worth while
+to put a hedge or other fence around them, or else to separate off in
+the same way a part or the whole of the open pastures or meadows. This
+was the process known as enclosing. Separate enclosed fields, which
+had existed only occasionally in mediæval farming, became numerous in
+this time, as they have become practically universal in modern farming
+in English-speaking countries.</p>
+
+<p>But it was ordinarily impracticable to obtain groups of adjacent acres
+or sufficiently extensive rights on the common pasture for enclosing
+without getting rid of some of the other tenants. In this way
+enclosing led to evictions. Either the lord of the manor or some one
+or more of the tenants enclosed the lands which they had formerly held
+and also those which were formerly occupied by some other holders, who
+were evicted from their land for this purpose.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the tenants must have been protected in their holdings by the
+law. As early as 1468 Chief Justice Bryan had declared that "tenant by
+the custom is as well inheritor to have his land according to the
+custom as he which hath a freehold at the common law." Again, in 1484,
+another chief justice declared that a tenant by custom who continued
+to pay his service could not be ejected by the lord of the manor. Such
+tenants came to be known as copyholders, because the proof of their
+customary tenure was found in the manor court rolls, from which a copy
+was taken to serve as a title. Subsequently copyhold became one of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144"></a>(p. 144)</span> the most generally recognized forms of land tenure in
+England, and gave practically as secure title as did a freehold. At
+this time, however, notwithstanding the statements just given, the law
+was probably not very definite or not very well understood, and
+customary tenants may have had but little practical protection of the
+law against eviction. Moreover, the great body of the small tenants
+were probably no longer genuine customary tenants. The great
+proportion of small farms had probably not been inherited by a long
+line of tenants, but had repeatedly gone back into the hands of the
+lords of the manors and been subsequently rented out again, with or
+without a lease, to farmers or rent-paying tenants. These were in most
+cases probably the tenants who were now evicted to make room for the
+new enclosed sheep farms.</p>
+
+<p>By these enclosures and evictions in some cases the open lands of
+whole vills were enclosed, the old agriculture came to an end, and as
+the enclosers were often non-residents, the whole farming population
+disappeared from the village. Since sheep-raising required such a
+small number of laborers, the farm laborers also had to leave to seek
+work elsewhere, and the whole village, therefore, was deserted, the
+houses fell into ruin, and the township lost its population entirely.
+This was commonly spoken of at the time as "the decaying of towns,"
+and those who were responsible for it were denounced as enemies of
+their country. In most cases, however, the enclosures and depopulation
+were only partial. A number of causes combined to carry this movement
+forward. England was not yet a wealthy country, but such capital as
+existed, especially in the towns, was utilized and made remunerative
+by investment in the newly enclosed farms and in carrying on the
+expenses of enclosure. The dissolution of the monasteries between 1536
+and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145"></a>(p. 145)</span> 1542 brought the lands which they had formerly held into
+the possession of a class of men who were anxious to make them as
+remunerative as possible, and who had no feeling against enclosures.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the changes were much disapproved. Sir Thomas More
+condemns them in the <i>Utopia</i>, as do many other writers of the same
+period and of the reign of Elizabeth. The landlords, the enclosers,
+the city merchants who took up country lands, were preached against
+and inveighed against by such preachers as Latimer, Lever, and Becon,
+and in a dozen or more pamphlets still extant. The government also put
+itself into opposition to the changes which were in progress. It was
+believed that there was danger of a reduction of the population and
+thus of a lack of soldiers; it was feared that not enough grain would
+be raised to provide food for the people; the dangerous masses of
+wandering beggars were partly at least recruited from the evicted
+tenants; there was a great deal of discontent in the country due to
+the high rents, lack of occupation, and general dislike of change. A
+series of laws were therefore carried through Parliament and other
+measures taken, the object of which was to put a stop to the increase
+of sheep-farming and its results. In 1488 a statute was enacted
+prohibiting the turning of tillage land into pasture. In 1514 a new
+law was passed reënacting this and requiring the repair by their
+owners of any houses which had fallen into decay because of the
+substitution of pasture for tillage, and their reoccupation with
+tenants. In 1517 a commission of investigation into enclosures was
+appointed by the government. In 1518 the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal
+Wolsey, issued a proclamation requiring all those who had enclosed
+lands since 1509 to throw them open again, or else give proof that
+their enclosure was for the public advantage. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146"></a>(p. 146)</span> In 1534 the
+earlier laws were reënacted and a further provision made that no
+person holding rented lands should keep more than twenty-four hundred
+sheep. In 1548 a new commission on enclosures was appointed which made
+extensive investigations, instituted prosecutions, and recommended new
+legislation. A law for more careful enforcement was passed in 1552,
+and the old laws were reënacted in 1554 and 1562. This last law was
+repealed in 1593, but in 1598 others were enacted and later extended.
+In 1624, however, all the laws on the subject were repealed. As a
+matter of fact, the laws seem to have been generally ineffective. The
+nobility and gentry were in the main in favor of the enclosures, as
+they increased their rents even when they were not themselves the
+enclosers; and it was through these classes that legislation had to be
+enforced at this time if it was to be effective.</p>
+
+<a id="img031" name="img031"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img031.jpg" width="500" height="336" alt="Sixteenth Century Manor House and Village, Maddingley,
+Cambridgeshire." title="Sixteenth Century Manor House and Village, Maddingley, Cambridgeshire.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Sixteenth Century Manor House and Village, Maddingley,
+Cambridgeshire.</span><br> Nichols: <i>Progresses of Queen Elizabeth</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Besides the official opposition of the government, there were
+occasional instances of rioting or violent destruction of hedges and
+other enclosures by the people who felt themselves aggrieved by them.
+Three times these riots rose to the height of an insurrection. In 1536
+the so-called "Pilgrimage of Grace" was a rising of the people partly
+in opposition to the introduction of the Reformation, partly in
+opposition to enclosures. In 1549 a series of risings occurred, the
+most serious of which was the "camp" under Kett in Norfolk, and in
+1552 again there was an insurrection in Buckinghamshire. These risings
+were harshly repressed by the government. The rural changes,
+therefore, progressed steadily, notwithstanding the opposition of the
+law, of certain forms of public opinion, and of the violence of mobs.
+Probably enclosures more or less complete were made during this period
+in as many as half the manors of England. They were at their height in
+the early years of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147"></a>(p. 147)</span> the sixteenth century, during its latter
+half they were not so numerous, and by its close the enclosing
+movement had about run its course, at least for the time.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>38. Internal Divisions in the Craft Gilds.</strong>&mdash;Changes in town life
+occurred during this period corresponding quite closely to the
+enclosures and their results in the country. These consisted in the
+decay of the gilds, the dispersion of certain town industries through
+the rural districts, and the loss of prosperity of many of the old
+towns. In the earlier craft gilds each man had normally been
+successively an apprentice, a journeyman, and a full master craftsman,
+with a little establishment of his own and full participation in the
+administration of the fraternity. There was coming now to be a class
+of artisans who remained permanently employed and never attained to
+the position of master craftsmen. This was sometimes the result of a
+deliberate process of exclusion on the part of those who were already
+masters. In 1480, for instance, a new set of ordinances given to the
+Mercers' Gild of Shrewsbury declares that the fines assessed on
+apprentices at their entry to be masters had been excessive and should
+be reduced. Similarly, the Oxford Town Council in 1531 restricts the
+payment required from any person who should come to be a full brother
+of any craft in that town to twenty shillings, a sum which would equal
+perhaps fifty dollars in modern value. In the same year Parliament
+forbade the collection of more than two shillings and sixpence from
+any apprentice at the time of his apprenticeship, and of more than
+three shillings and fourpence when he enters the trade fully at the
+expiration of his time. This indicates that the fines previously
+charged must have been almost prohibitive. In some trades the masters
+required apprentices at the time of indenture to take an oath that
+they would not set up independent establishments when <span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148"></a>(p. 148)</span> they
+had fulfilled the years of their apprenticeship, a custom which was
+forbidden by Parliament in 1536. In other cases it was no doubt the
+lack of sufficient capital and enterprise which kept a large number of
+artisans from ever rising above the class of journeymen.</p>
+
+<p>Under these circumstances the journeymen evidently ceased to feel that
+they enjoyed any benefits from the organized crafts, for they began to
+form among themselves what are generally described as "yeomen gilds"
+or "journeymen gilds." At first the masters opposed such bodies and
+the city officials supported the old companies by prohibiting the
+journeymen from holding assemblies, wearing a special livery, or
+otherwise acting as separate bodies. Ultimately, however, they seem to
+have made good their position, and existed in a number of different
+crafts in more or less subordination to the organizations of the
+masters. The first mention of such bodies is soon after the Peasants'
+Rebellion, but in most cases the earliest rise of a journeyman gild in
+any industry was in the latter part of the fifteenth or in the
+sixteenth century. They were organizations quite similar to the older
+bodies from which they were a split, except that they had of course no
+general control over the industry. They had, however, meetings,
+officers, feasts, and charitable funds. In addition to these functions
+there is reason to believe that they made use of their organization to
+influence the rate of wages and to coerce other journeymen. Their
+relations to the masters' companies were frequently defined by regular
+written agreements between the two parties. Journeymen gilds existed
+among the saddlers, cordwainers, tailors, blacksmiths, carpenters,
+drapers, ironmongers, founders, fishmongers, cloth-workers, and
+armorers in London, among the weavers in Coventry, the tailors in
+Exeter and in Bristol, the shoemakers in Oxford, and no doubt in some
+other trades in these and other towns.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149"></a>(p. 149)</span> Among the masters also changes were taking place in the same
+direction. Instead of all master artisans or tradesmen in any one
+industry holding an equal position and taking an equal part in the
+administration of affairs of the craft, there came, at least in some
+of the larger companies, to be quite distinct groups usually described
+as those "of the livery" and those "not of the livery." The expression
+no doubt arose from the former class being the more well-to-do and
+active masters who had sufficient means to purchase the suits of
+livery worn on state occasions, and who in other ways were the leading
+and controlling members of the organization. This came, before the
+close of the fifteenth century, in many crafts to be a recognized
+distinction of class or station in the company. A statement of the
+members in one of the London fraternities made in 1493 gives a good
+instance of this distinction of classes, as well as of the subordinate
+body last described. There were said to be at that date in the
+Drapers' Company of the craft of drapers in the clothing, including
+the masters and four wardens, one hundred and fourteen, of the
+brotherhood out of the clothing one hundred and fifteen, of the
+bachelors' company sixty. It was from this prominence of the liveried
+gildsmen, that the term "Livery Companies" came to be applied to the
+greater London gilds. It was the wealthy merchants and the craftsmen
+of the livery of the various fraternities who rode in procession to
+welcome kings or ambassadors at their entrance into the city, to add
+lustre to royal wedding ceremonies, or give dignity to other state
+occasions. In 1483 four hundred and six members of livery companies
+riding in mulberry colored coats attended the coronation procession of
+Richard III. The mayors and sheriffs and aldermen of London were
+almost always livery men in one or another of the companies. A
+substantial fee had usually <span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150"></a>(p. 150)</span> to be paid when a member was
+chosen into the livery, which again indicates that they were the
+wealthier members. Those of the livery controlled the policy of the
+gild to the exclusion of the less conspicuous members, even though
+these were also independent masters with journeymen and apprentices of
+their own.</p>
+
+<p>But the practical administration of the affairs of the wealthier
+companies came in many cases to be in the hands of a still smaller
+group of members. This group was often known as the "Court of
+Assistants," and consisted of some twelve, twenty, or more members who
+possessed higher rights than the others, and, with the wardens or
+other officials, decided disputes, negotiated with the government or
+other authorities, disposed of the funds, and in other ways governed
+the organized craft or trade. At a general meeting of the members of
+the Mercers of London, for instance, on July 23, 1463, the following
+resolution was passed: "It is accorded that for the holding of many
+courts and congregations of the fellowship, it is odious and grievous
+to the body of the fellowship and specially for matters of no great
+effect, that hereafter yearly shall be chosen and associated to the
+wardens for the time being twelve other sufficient persons to be
+assistants to the said wardens, and all matters by them finished to be
+holden firm and stable, and the fellowship to abide by them." Sixteen
+years later these assistants with the wardens were given the right to
+elect their successors.</p>
+
+<p>Thus before the close of the sixteenth century the craft and trading
+organizations had gone through a very considerable internal change. In
+the fourteenth century they had been bodies of masters of
+approximately equal position, in which the journeymen participated in
+some of the elements of membership, and would for the most part in due
+time <span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151"></a>(p. 151)</span> become masters and full members. Now the journeymen had
+become for the most part a separate class, without prospect of
+mastership. Among the masters themselves a distinct division between
+the more and the less wealthy had taken place, and an aristocratic
+form of government had grown up which put the practical control of
+each of the companies in the hands of a comparatively small,
+self-perpetuating ruling body. These developments were all more
+marked, possibly some of them were only true, in the case of the
+London companies. London, also, so far as known, is the only English
+town in which the companies were divided into two classes, the twelve
+"Greater Companies," and the fifty or more "Lesser Companies"; the
+former having practical control of the government of the city, the
+latter having no such influence.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>39. Change of Location of Industries.</strong>&mdash;The changes described above
+were, as has been said, the result of development from within the
+craft and trading organizations themselves, resulting probably in the
+main from increasing wealth. There were other contemporary changes in
+these companies which were rather the result of external influences.
+One of these external factors was the old difficulty which arose from
+artisans and traders who were not members of the organized companies.
+There had always been men who had carried on work surreptitiously
+outside of the limits of the authorized organizations of their
+respective industries. They had done this from inability or
+unwillingness to conform to the requirements of gild membership, or
+from a desire to obtain more employment by underbidding in price, or
+additional profit by using unapproved materials or methods. Most of
+the bodies of ordinances mention such workmen and traders, men who
+have not gone through a regular apprenticeship, "foreigners" who
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152"></a>(p. 152)</span> have come in from some other locality and are not freemen of
+the city where they wish to work, irresponsible men who will not
+conform to the established rules of the trade. This class of persons
+was becoming more numerous through the fifteenth and sixteenth
+centuries, notwithstanding the efforts of the gilds, supported by
+municipal and national authority. The prohibition of any workers
+setting up business in a town unless they had previously obtained the
+approval of the officials of their trade was more and more vigorous in
+the later ordinances; the fines imposed upon masters who engaged
+journeymen who had not paid the dues, newcomers into the town, were
+higher. The complaints of the intrusion of outsiders were more loud
+and frequent. There was evidently more unsupervised, unregulated
+labor.</p>
+
+<p>But the increase in the number of these unorganized laborers, these
+craftsmen and traders not under the control of the gilds, was most
+marked in the rural districts, that is to say, in market towns and in
+villages entirely outside of the old manufacturing and trading
+centres. Even in the fourteenth century there were a number of
+weavers, and probably of other craftsmen, who worked in the villages
+in the vicinity of the larger towns, such as London, Norwich, and
+York, and took their products to be sold on fair or market days in
+these towns. But toward the end of the fifteenth century this rural
+labor received a new kind of encouragement and a corresponding
+extension far beyond anything before existing. The English cloth-making
+industry at this period was increasing rapidly. Whereas during the
+earlier periods, as we have seen, wool was the greatest of English
+exports, now it was coming to be manufactured within the country. In
+connection with this manufacture a new kind of industrial organization
+began to show itself which, when it was completed, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153"></a>(p. 153)</span> became
+known as the "domestic system." A class of merchants or manufacturers
+arose who are spoken of as "clothiers," or "merchant clothiers," who
+bought the wool or other raw material, and gave it out to carders or
+combers, spinners, weavers, fullers, and other craftsmen, paying them
+for their respective parts in the process of manufacture, and
+themselves disposing of the product at home or for export. The
+clothiers were in this way a new class of employers, putting the
+master weavers or other craftsmen to work for wages. The latter still
+had their journeymen and apprentices, but the initiative in their
+industry was taken by the merchants, who provided the raw material and
+much of the money capital, and took charge of the sale of the
+completed goods. The craftsmen who were employed in this form of
+industry did not usually dwell in the old populous and wealthy towns.
+It is probable that the restrictions of the gild ordinances were
+disadvantageous both to the clothiers and to the small master
+craftsmen, and that the latter, as well as journeymen who had no
+chance to obtain an independent position, now that the town craft
+organizations were under the control of the more wealthy members, were
+very ready to migrate to rural villages. Thus, in as far as the
+weaving industry was growing up under the management of the employing
+clothiers, it was slipping out from under the control of the town
+gilds by its location in the country. The same thing occurred in other
+cases, even without the intermediation of a new employing class. We
+hear of mattress makers, of rope makers, of tile makers, and other
+artisans establishing themselves in the country villages outside of
+the towns, where, as a law of 1495 says, "the wardens have no power or
+authority to make search." In certain parts of England, in the
+southwest, the west, and the northwest, independent weavers now set up
+for themselves <span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154"></a>(p. 154)</span> in rural districts as those of the eastern
+counties had long done, buying their own raw materials, bringing their
+manufactures to completion, and then taking them to the neighboring
+towns and markets to sell, or hawking them through the rural
+districts.</p>
+
+<p>These changes, along with others occurring simultaneously, led to a
+considerable diminution of the prosperity of many of the large towns.
+They were not able to pay their usual share of taxation, the
+population of some of them declined, whole streets or quarters, when
+destroyed by fire or other catastrophe, were left unbuilt and in
+ruins. Many of the largest and oldest towns of England are mentioned
+in the statutes of the reign of Henry VIII as being more or less
+depleted in population. The laws and literature of the time are
+ringing with complaints of the "decay of the towns," where the
+reference is to cities, as well as where it is to rural villages.
+Certain new towns, it is true, were rising into greater importance,
+and certain rural districts were becoming populous with this body of
+artisans whose living was made partly by their handicraft, partly by
+small farming. Nevertheless the old city craft organizations were
+permanently weakened and impoverished by thus losing control of such a
+large proportion of their various industries. The occupations which
+were carried on in the country were pursued without supervision by the
+gilds. They retained control only of that part of industry which was
+still carried on in the towns.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>40. The Influence of the Government on the Gilds.</strong>&mdash;Internal divisions
+and external changes in the distribution of industry were therefore
+alike tending to weaken the gild organization. It had to suffer also
+from the hostility or intrusion of the national government. Much of
+the policy of the government tended, it is true, as in the case of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155"></a>(p. 155)</span> enclosures, to check the changes in progress, and thus to
+protect the gild system. It has been seen that laws were passed to
+prohibit the exclusion of apprentices and journeymen from full
+membership in the crafts. As early as 1464 a law was passed to
+regulate the growing system of employment of craftsmen by clothiers.
+This was carried further in a law of 1511, and further still in 1551
+and 1555. The manufacture of rope in the country parts of Dorsetshire
+was prohibited and restricted to the town of Bridport in 1529; the
+cloth manufacture which was growing up through the "hamlets, thorps,
+and villages" in Worcestershire was forbidden in 1553 to be carried on
+except in the five old towns of Worcester, Evesham, Droitwich,
+Kidderminster, and Bromsgrove; in 1543 it was enacted that coverlets
+were not to be manufactured in Yorkshire outside of the city of York,
+and there was still further legislation in the same direction.
+Numerous acts were also passed for the purpose of restoring the
+populousness of the towns. There is, however, little reason to believe
+that these laws had much more effect in preventing the narrowing of
+the control of the gilds and the scattering of industries from the
+towns to the country than the various laws against enclosures had, and
+the latter object was practically surrendered by the numerous
+exceptions to it in laws passed in 1557, 1558, and 1575. All the laws
+favoring the older towns were finally repealed in 1623.</p>
+
+<p>Another class of laws may seem to have favored the craft
+organizations. These were the laws regulating the carrying on of
+various industries, in some of which the enforcement of the laws was
+intrusted to the gild authorities. The statute book during the
+sixteenth century is filled with laws "for the true making of pins,"
+"for the making of friezes and cottons in Wales," "for the true
+currying of leather," <span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156"></a>(p. 156)</span> "for the making of iron gads," "for
+setting prices on wines," for the regulation of the coopers, the
+tanners, the makers of woollen cloth, the dyers, the tallow chandlers,
+the saddlers and girdlers, and dozens of other occupations. But
+although in many of these laws the wardens of the appropriate crafts
+are given authority to carry out the requirements of the statute,
+either of themselves or along with the town officials or the justices
+of the peace; yet, after all, it is the rules established by
+government that they are to carry out, not their own rules, and in
+many of the statutes the craft authorities are entirely ignored. This
+is especially true of the "Statute of Apprentices," passed in the
+fifth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1563. This great
+industrial code, which remained on the statute book for two hundred
+and fifty years, being repealed only in 1813, was primarily a
+reënactment of the statutes of laborers, which had been continued from
+time to time ever since their introduction in 1349. It made labor
+compulsory and imposed on the justices of the peace the duty of
+meeting in each locality once a year to establish wages for each kind
+of industry. It required a seven years' apprenticeship for every
+person who should engage in any trade; established a working day of
+twelve hours in summer and during daylight in winter; and enacted that
+all engagements, except those for piece work, should be by the year,
+with six months' notice of a close of the contract by either employer
+or employee. By this statute all the relations between master and
+journeyman and the rules of apprenticeship were regulated by the
+government instead of by the individual craft gilds. It is evident
+that the old trade organizations were being superseded in much of
+their work by the national government. Freedom of action was also
+restricted by the same power in other respects also. As early as 1436
+a law had been <span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157"></a>(p. 157)</span> passed, declaring that the ordinances made by
+the gilds were in many cases unreasonable and injurious, requiring
+them to submit their existing ordinances to the justices at
+Westminster, and prohibiting them from issuing any new ones until they
+had received the approval of these officials. There is no indication
+of the enforcement of this law. In 1504, however, it was reënacted
+with the modification that approval might be sought from the justices
+on circuit. In <span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158"></a>(p. 158)</span> 1530 the same requirement was again included
+in the law already referred to prohibiting excessive entrance fees. As
+the independent legislation of the gilds for their industries was
+already much restricted by the town governments, their remaining power
+to make rules for themselves must now have been very slight. Their
+power of jurisdiction was likewise limited by a law passed in 1504,
+prohibiting the companies from making any rule forbidding their
+members to appeal to the ordinary national courts in trade disputes.</p>
+
+<a id="img032" name="img032"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img032.jpg" width="500" height="514" alt="Residence of Chantry Priests of Altar of St. Nicholas,
+near Lincoln Cathedral." title="Residence of Chantry Priests of Altar of St. Nicholas, near Lincoln Cathedral.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Residence of Chantry Priests of Altar of St. Nicholas,
+Near Lincoln Cathedral.</span><br> (<i>Domestic Architecture in the Fourteenth
+Century.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But the heaviest blow to the gilds on the part of the government came
+in 1547, as a result of the Reformation. Both the organizations formed
+for the control of the various industries, the craft gilds, and those
+which have been described in Chapter III as non-industrial, social, or
+religious gilds, had property in their possession which had been
+bequeathed or given to them by members on condition that the gild
+would always support or help to support a priest, should see that mass
+was celebrated for the soul of the donor and his family, should keep a
+light always burning before a certain shrine, or for other religious
+objects. These objects were generally looked upon as superstitious by
+the reformers who became influential under Edward VI, and in the first
+year of his reign a statute was passed which confiscated to the crown,
+to be used for educational or other purposes, all the properly of
+every kind of the purely religious and social gilds, and that part of
+the property of the craft gilds which was employed by them for
+religious purposes. One of the oldest forms of voluntary organization
+in England therefore came to an end altogether, and one of the
+strongest bonds which had held the members of the craft gilds together
+as social bodies was removed. After this time the companies had no
+religious functions, and were besides deprived of a considerable
+proportion of their <span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159"></a>(p. 159)</span> wealth. This blow fell, moreover, just
+at a time when all the economic influences were tending toward their
+weakening or actual disintegration.</p>
+
+<a id="img033" name="img033"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img033.jpg" width="500" height="298" alt="Monastery turned into a Farmhouse, Dartford Priory,
+Kent." title="Monastery turned into a Farmhouse, Dartford Priory, Kent.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Monastery turned into a Farmhouse, Dartford Priory,
+Kent.</span><br> Nichols: <i>Progresses of Queen Elizabeth</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The trade and craft companies of London, like those of other towns,
+were called upon at first to pay over to the government annually the
+amount which they had before used for religious purposes. Three years
+after the confiscation they were required to pay a lump sum
+representing the capitalized value of this amount, estimated for the
+London companies at £20,000. In order to do so they were of course
+forced to sell or mortgage much of their land. That which they
+succeeded in retaining, however, or bought subsequently was relieved
+of all government charges, and being situated for the most part in the
+heart of London, ultimately became extremely valuable and is still in
+their possession. So far have the London companies, however, departed
+from their original purpose that their members have long ceased to
+have any connection with the occupations from which the bodies take
+their names.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>41. General Causes and Evidences of the Decay of the Gilds.</strong>&mdash;An
+analogous narrowing of the interests of the crafts occurred in the
+form of a cessation of the mystery plays. Dramatic shows continued to
+be brought out yearly by the crafts in many towns well into the
+sixteenth century. It is to be noticed, however, that this was no
+longer done spontaneously. The town governments insisted that the
+pageants should be provided as of old, and on the approach of Corpus
+Christi day, or whatever festival was so celebrated in the particular
+town, instructions were given for their production, pecuniary help
+being sometimes provided to assist the companies in their expense. The
+profit which came to the town from the influx of visitors to see the
+pageants was a great inducement to the town government to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160"></a>(p. 160)</span>
+insist on their continuance. On the other hand, the competition of
+dramas played by professional actors tended no doubt to hasten the
+effect of the impoverishment and loss of vitality of the gilds. In the
+last half of the sixteenth century the mystery plays seem to have come
+finally to an end.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the gilds lost the unity of their membership, were weakened by
+the growth of industry outside of their sphere of control, superseded
+by the government in many of their economic functions, deprived of
+their administrative, legislative, and jurisdictional freedom, robbed
+of their religious duties and of the property which had enabled them
+to fulfil them, and no longer possessed even the bond of their
+dramatic interests. So the fraternities which had embodied so much of
+the life of the people of the towns during the thirteenth, fourteenth,
+and fifteenth centuries now came to include within their organization
+fewer and fewer persons and to affect a smaller and smaller part of
+their interests. Although the companies continued to exist into later
+times, yet long before the close of the period included in this
+chapter they had become relatively inconspicuous and insignificant.</p>
+
+<p>One striking evidence of their diminished strength, and apparently a
+last effort to keep the gild organization in existence, is the curious
+combination or consolidation of the companies under the influence of
+the city governments. Numerous instances of the combination of several
+trades are to be found in the records of every town, as for instance
+the "company of goldsmiths and smiths and others their brethren," at
+Hull in 1598, which consisted of goldsmiths, smiths, pewterers,
+plumbers and glaziers, painters, cutlers, musicians, stationers and
+bookbinders, and basket-makers. A more striking instance is to be
+found in Ipswich in 1576, where the various occupations were all drawn
+up into four <span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161"></a>(p. 161)</span> companies, as follows: (1) The Mercers;
+including the mariners, shipwrights, bookbinders, printers,
+fishmongers, sword-setters, cooks, fletchers, arrowhead-makers,
+physicians, hatters, cappers, mercers, merchants, and several others.
+(2) The Drapers; including the joiners, carpenters, innholders,
+freemasons, bricklayers, tilers, carriers, casket-makers, surgeons,
+clothiers, and some others. (3) The Tailors; including the cutlers,
+smiths, barbers, chandlers, pewterers, minstrels, peddlers, plumbers,
+pinners, millers, millwrights, coopers, shearmen, glaziers, turners,
+tinkers, tailors, and others. (4) The Shoemakers; including the
+curriers, collar-makers, saddlers, pointers, cobblers, skinners,
+tanners, butchers, carters, and laborers. Each of these four companies
+was to have an alderman and two wardens, and all outsiders who came to
+the town and wished to set up trade were to be placed by the town
+officials in one or the other of the four companies. The basis of
+union in some of these combinations was evidently the similarity of
+their occupations, as the various workers in leather among the
+"Shoemakers." In other cases there is no such similarity, and the only
+foundation that can be surmised for the particular grouping is the
+contiguity of the streets where the greatest number of particular
+artisans lived, or their proportionate wealth. Later, this process
+reached its culmination in such a case as that of Preston in 1628,
+where all the tradesmen of the town were organized as one company or
+fraternity called "The Wardens and Company of Drapers, Mercers,
+Grocers, Salters, Ironmongers, and Haberdashers." The craft and
+trading gilds in their mediæval character had evidently come to an
+end.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>42. The Growth of Native Commerce.</strong>&mdash;The most distinctive
+characteristic of English foreign trade down to the middle of the
+fifteenth century consisted in the fact that it <span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162"></a>(p. 162)</span> had been
+entirely in the hands of foreigners. The period under discussion saw
+it transferred with quite as great completeness to the hands of
+Englishmen. Even before 1450 trading vessels had occasionally been
+sent out from the English seaport towns on more or less extensive
+voyages, carrying out English goods, and bringing back those of other
+countries or of other parts of England. These vessels sometimes
+belonged to the town governments, sometimes to individual merchants.
+This kind of enterprise became more and more common. Individual
+merchants grew famous for the number and size of their ships and the
+extent of their trade; as for instance, William Canynges of Bristol,
+who in 1461 had ten vessels at sea, or Sturmys of the same town, who
+at about the same time sent the first English vessel to trade with the
+eastern Mediterranean, or John Taverner of Hull, who built in 1449 a
+new type of vessel modelled on the carracks of Genoa and the galleys
+of Venice. In the middle of the fourteenth century the longest list of
+merchants of any substance that could be drawn up contained only 169
+names. At the beginning of the sixteenth century there were at least
+3000 merchants engaged in foreign trade, and in 1601 there were about
+3500 trading to the Netherlands alone. These merchants exported the
+old articles of English production and to a still greater extent
+textile goods, the manufacture of which was growing so rapidly in
+England. The export of wool came to an end during the reign of Queen
+Elizabeth, but the export of woven cloth was more than enough to take
+its place. There was not so much cloth now imported, but a much
+greater variety and quantity of food-stuffs and wines, of articles of
+fine manufacture, and of the special products of the countries to
+which English trade extended.</p>
+
+<p>The entrance of English vessels into ports of towns or <span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163"></a>(p. 163)</span>
+countries whose own vessels had been accustomed to the control of the
+trade with England, or where the old commercial towns of the Hanseatic
+League, of Flanders, or of Italy had valuable trading concessions, was
+not obtained without difficulty, and there was a constant succession
+of conflicts more or less violent, and of disputes between English and
+foreign sailors and merchants. The progress of English commerce was,
+however, facilitated by the decay in the prosperity of many of these
+older trading towns. The growth of strong governments in Denmark,
+Sweden, Norway, Poland, and Russia resulted in a withdrawal of
+privileges which the Hanseatic League had long possessed, and internal
+dissensions made the League very much weaker in the later fifteenth
+century than it had been during the century and a half before. The
+most important single occurrence showing this tendency was the capture
+of Novgorod by the Russian Czar and his expulsion of the merchants of
+the Hanse from their settlement in that commercial centre. In the same
+way most of the towns along the south coast of the Baltic came under
+the control of the kingdom of Poland.</p>
+
+<p>A similar change came about in Flanders, where the semi-independent
+towns came under the control of the dukes of Burgundy. These
+sovereigns had political interests too extensive to be subordinated to
+the trade interests of individual towns in their dominions. Thus it
+was that Bruges now lost much of its prosperity, while Antwerp became
+one of the greatest commercial cities of Europe. Trading rights could
+now be obtained from centralized governments, and were not dependent
+on the interest or the antagonism of local merchants.</p>
+
+<p>In Italy other influences were leading to much the same results. The
+advance of Turkish conquests was gradually <span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164"></a>(p. 164)</span> increasing the
+difficulties of the Eastern trade, and the discovery of the route
+around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 finally diverted that branch of
+commerce into new lines. English merchants gained access to some of
+this new Eastern trade through their connection with Portugal, a
+country advantageously situated to inherit the former trade of Italy
+and southern Germany. English commerce also profited by the
+predominance which Florence obtained over Pisa, Genoa, and other
+trading towns. Thus conditions on the Continent were strikingly
+favorable to the growing commercial enterprise of England.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>43. The Merchants Adventurers.</strong>&mdash;English merchants who exported and
+imported goods in their own vessels were, with the exception of the
+staplers or exporters of wool and other staple articles, usually
+spoken of as "adventurers," "venturers," or "merchants adventurers."
+This term is used in three different senses. Sometimes it simply means
+merchants who entered upon adventure or risk by sending their goods
+outside of the country to new or unrecognized markets, as the
+"adventurers to Iceland," "adventurers to Spain." Again, it is applied
+to groups of merchants in various towns who were organized for mutual
+protection or other advantage, as the "fishmongers adventurers" who
+brought their complaints before the Royal Council in 1542, "The
+Master, Wardens, and Commonalty of Merchant Venturers, of Bristol,"
+existing apparently in the fourteenth century, fully organized by
+1467, and incorporated in 1552, "The Society of Merchants Adventurers
+of Newcastle upon Tyne," or the similar bodies at York and Exeter.</p>
+
+<p>But by far the most frequent use of the term is that by which it was
+applied to those merchants who traded to the Netherlands and adjacent
+countries, especially as exporters of cloth, and who came within this
+period to be recognized <span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165"></a>(p. 165)</span> and incorporated as the "Merchants
+Adventurers" in a special sense, with headquarters abroad, a coat of
+arms of their own, extensive privileges, great wealth, influence, and
+prominence. These English merchants, trading to the Netherlands in
+other articles than those controlled by the Staplers, apparently
+received privileges of trade from the duke of Brabant as early as the
+thirteenth century, and the right of settling their own disputes
+before their own "consul" in the fourteenth. But their commercial
+enterprises must have been quite insignificant, and it was only during
+the fifteenth century that they became numerous and their trade in
+English cloth extensive. Just at the beginning of this century, in
+1407, the king of England gave a general charter to all merchants
+trading beyond seas to assemble in definite places and choose for
+themselves consuls or governors to arrange for their common trade
+advantage. After this time, certainly by the middle of the century,
+the regular series of governors of the English merchants in the
+Netherlands was established, one of the earliest being William Caxton,
+afterward the founder of printing in England. On the basis of these
+concessions and of the privileges and charters granted by the home
+government the "Merchants Adventurers" gradually became a distinct
+organization, with a definite membership which was obtained by payment
+of a sum which gradually rose from 6<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i> to £20, until it was
+reduced by a law of Parliament in 1497 to £6 13<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> They had
+local branches in England and on the Continent. In 1498 they were
+granted a coat of arms by Henry VII, and in 1503 by royal charter a
+distinct form of government under a governor and twenty-four
+assistants. In 1564 they were incorporated by a royal charter by the
+title of "The Merchants Adventurers of England." Long before that time
+they had become by far the largest and most influential <span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166"></a>(p. 166)</span>
+company of English exporting merchants. It is said that the Merchants
+Adventurers furnished ten out of the sixteen London ships sent to join
+the fleet against the Armada.</p>
+
+<p>Most of their members were London mercers, though there were also in
+the society members of other London companies, and traders whose homes
+were in other English towns than London. The meetings of the company
+in London were held for a long while in the Mercers' hall, and their
+records were kept in the same minute book as those of the Mercers
+until 1526. On the Continent their principal office, hall, or
+gathering place, the residence of their Governor and location of the
+"Court,", or central government of the company, was at different times
+at Antwerp, Bruges, Calais, Hamburg, Stade, Groningen and Middleburg;
+for the longest time probably at the first of these places. The larger
+part of the foreign trade of England during the fifteenth and most of
+the sixteenth century was carried on and extended as well as
+controlled and regulated by this great commercial company.</p>
+
+<a id="img034" name="img034"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img034.jpg" width="500" height="328" alt="Hall of the Merchants Adventurers at Bruges."
+title="Hall of the Merchants Adventurers at Bruges.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Hall of the Merchants Adventurers at Bruges.</span><br> (Blade:
+<i>Life of Caxton</i>. Published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner &amp; Co.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>During the latter half of the sixteenth century, however, other
+companies of merchants were formed to trade with various countries,
+most of them receiving a government charter and patronage. Of these
+the Russia or Muscovy Company obtained recognition from the government
+in 1554, and in 1557, when an ambassador from that country came to
+London, a hundred and fifty merchants trading to Russia received him
+in state. In 1581 the Levant or Turkey Company was formed, and its
+members carried their merchandise as far as the Persian Gulf. In 1585
+the Barbary or Morocco Company was formed, but seems to have failed.
+In 1588, however, a Guinea Company began trading, and in 1600 the
+greatest of all, the East India Company, was chartered. The
+expeditions sent out by the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167"></a>(p. 167)</span> Bristol merchants and then by
+the king under the Cabots, those other voyages so full of romance in
+search of a northwest or a northeast passage to the Orient, and the no
+less adventurous efforts to gain entrance to the Spanish possessions
+in the west, were a part of the same effort of commercial companies or
+interests to carry their trading into new lands.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>44. Government Encouragement of Commerce.</strong>&mdash;Before the accession of
+Henry VII it is almost impossible to discover any deliberate or
+continuous policy of the government in commercial matters. From this
+time forward, however, through the whole period of the Tudor monarchs
+a tolerably consistent plan was followed of favoring English merchants
+and placing burdens and restrictions upon foreign traders. The
+merchants from the Hanse towns, with their dwellings, warehouses, and
+offices at the Steelyard in London, were subjected to a narrower
+interpretation of the privileges which they possessed by old and
+frequently renewed grants. In 1493 English customs officers began to
+intrude upon their property; in 1504 especially heavy penalties were
+threatened if they should send any cloth to the Netherlands during the
+war between the king and the duke of Burgundy. During the reign of
+Henry VIII the position of the Hansards was on the whole easier, but
+in 1551 their special privileges were taken away, and they were put in
+the same position as all other foreigners. There was a partial regrant
+of advantageous conditions in the early part of the reign of
+Elizabeth, but finally, in 1578, they lost their privileges forever.
+As a matter of fact, German traders now came more and more rarely to
+England, and their settlement above London Bridge was practically
+deserted.</p>
+
+<p>The fleet from Venice also came less and less frequently. Under Henry
+VIII for a period of nine years no fleet came <span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168"></a>(p. 168)</span> to English
+ports; then after an expedition had been sent out from Venice in 1517,
+and again in 1521, another nine years passed by. The fleet came again
+in 1531, 1532, and 1533, and even afterward from time to time
+occasional private Venetian vessels came, till a group of them
+suffered shipwreck on the southern coast in 1587, after which the
+Venetian flag disappeared entirely from those waters.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime a series of favorable commercial treaties were made in
+various directions by Henry VII and his successors. In 1490 he made a
+treaty with the king of Denmark by which English merchants obtained
+liberty to trade in that country, in Norway, and in Iceland. Within
+the same year a similar treaty was made with Florence, by which the
+English merchants obtained a monopoly of the sale of wool in the
+Florentine dominions, and the right to have an organization of their
+own there, which should settle trade disputes among themselves, or
+share in the settlement of their disputes with foreigners. In 1496 the
+old trading relations with the Netherlands were reëstablished on a
+firmer basis than ever by the treaty which has come in later times to
+be known as the <i>Intercursus Magnus</i>. In the same year commercial
+advantages were obtained from France, and in 1499 from Spain. Few
+opportunities were missed by the government during this period to try
+to secure favorable conditions for the growing English trade. Closely
+connected as commercial policy necessarily was with political
+questions, the former was always a matter of interest to the
+government, and in all the ups and downs of the relations of England
+with the Continental countries during the sixteenth century the
+foothold gained by English merchants was always preserved or regained
+after a temporary loss.</p>
+
+<p>The closely related question of English ship-building was <span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169"></a>(p. 169)</span>
+also a matter of government encouragement. In 1485 a law was passed
+declaring that wines of the duchies of Guienne and Gascony should be
+imported only in vessels which were English property and manned for
+the most part by Englishmen. In 1489 woad, a dyestuff from southern
+France, was included, and it was ordered that merchandise to be
+exported from England or imported into England should never be shipped
+in foreign vessels if sufficient English vessels were in the harbor at
+the time. Although this policy was abandoned during the short reign of
+Edward VI it was renewed and made permanent under Elizabeth. By
+indirect means also, as by the encouragement of fisheries, English
+seafaring was increased.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of these various forms of commercial influence, the
+enterprise of individual English merchants, the formation of trading
+companies, the assistance given by the government through commercial
+treaties and favoring statutes, English commerce became vastly greater
+than it had ever been before, reaching to Scandinavia and Russia, to
+Germany and the Netherlands, to France and Spain, to Italy and the
+eastern Mediterranean, and even occasionally to America. Moreover, it
+had come almost entirely into the hands of Englishmen; and the goods
+exported and imported were carried for the most part in ships of
+English build and ownership, manned by English sailors.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>45. The Currency.</strong>&mdash;The changes just described were closely connected
+with contemporary changes in the gold and silver currency. Shillings
+were coined for the first time in the reign of Henry VII, a pound
+weight of standard silver being coined into 37 shillings and 6 pence.
+In 1527 Henry VIII had the same amount of metal coined into 40
+shillings, and later in the year, into 45 shillings. In 1543 coin
+silver was changed from the old standard of 11 ounces <span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170"></a>(p. 170)</span> 2
+pennyweights of pure silver to 18 pennyweights of alloy, so as to
+consist of 10 ounces of silver to 2 ounces of alloy; and this was
+coined into 48 shillings. In 1545 the coin metal was made one-half
+silver, one-half alloy; in 1546, one-third silver, two-thirds alloy;
+and in 1550, one-fourth silver, three-fourths alloy. The gold coinage
+was correspondingly though not so excessively debased. The lowest
+point of debasement for both silver and gold was reached in 1551. In
+1560 Queen Elizabeth began the work of restoring the currency to
+something like its old standard. The debased money was brought to the
+mints, where the government paid the value of the pure silver in it.
+Money of a high standard and permanently established weight was then
+issued in its place. Much of the confusion and distress prevalent
+during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI was doubtless due to
+this selfish and unwise monetary policy.</p>
+
+<p>At about the same time a new influence on the national currency came
+into existence. Strenuous but not very successful efforts had long
+been made to draw bullion into England and prevent English money from
+being taken out. Now some of the silver and gold which was being
+extorted from the natives and extracted from the mines of Mexico and
+Peru by the Spaniards began to make its way into England, as into
+other countries of Europe. These American sources of supply became
+productive by about 1525, but very little of this came into general
+European circulation or reached England till the middle of the
+century. After about 1560, however, through trade, and sometimes by
+even more direct routes, the amount of gold and silver money in
+circulation in England increased enormously. No reliable statistics
+exist, but there can be little doubt that the amount of money in
+England, as in Europe at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171"></a>(p. 171)</span> large, was doubled, trebled,
+quadrupled, or perhaps increased still more largely within the next
+one hundred years.</p>
+
+<p>This increase of money produced many effects. One of the most
+important was its effect on prices. These had begun to rise in the
+early part of the century, principally as a result of the debasement
+of the coinage. In the latter part of the century the rise was much
+greater, due now, no doubt, to the influx of new money. Most
+commodities cost quite four times as much at the end of the sixteenth
+century as they did at its beginning.</p>
+
+<p>Another effect of the increased amount of currency appeared in the
+greater ease with which the use of money capital was obtained. Saving
+up and borrowing were both more practicable. More capital was now in
+existence and more persons could obtain the use of it. As a result,
+manufacturing, trade, and even agriculture could now be conducted on a
+more extensive scale, changes could be introduced, and production was
+apt to be profitable, as prices were increasing and returns would be
+greater even than those calculated upon.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>46. Interest.</strong>&mdash;Any extensive and varied use of capital is closely
+connected with the payment of interest. In accord with a strict
+interpretation of certain passages in both the Old and the New
+Testament, the Middle Ages regarded the payment of interest for the
+use of money as wicked. Interest was the same as usury and was
+illegal. As a matter of fact, most regular occupations in the Middle
+Ages required very little capital, and this was usually owned by the
+agriculturists, handicraftsmen, or merchants themselves; so that
+borrowing was only necessary for personal expenses or in occasional
+exigencies. With the enclosures, sheep farming, consolidation of
+farms, and other changes <span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172"></a>(p. 172)</span> in agriculture, with the beginning
+of manufacturing under the control of capitalist manufacturers, with
+the more extensive foreign trading and ship owning, and above all with
+the increase in the actual amount of money in existence, these
+circumstances were changed. It seemed natural that money which one
+person had in his possession, but for which he had no immediate use,
+should be loaned to another who could use it for his own enterprises.
+These enterprises might be useful to the community, advantageous to
+himself, and yet profitable enough to allow him to pay interest for
+the use of the money to the capitalist who loaned it to him. As a
+matter of fact much money was loaned and, legally or illegally,
+interest or usury was paid for it. Moreover, a change had been going
+on in legal opinion parallel to these economic changes, and in 1545 a
+law was passed practically legalizing interest if it was not at a
+higher rate than ten per cent. This was, however, strongly opposed by
+the religious opinion of the time, especially among men of Puritan
+tendencies. They seemed, indeed, to be partially justified by the fact
+that the control of capital was used by the rich men of the time in
+such a way as to cause great hardship. In 1552, therefore, the law of
+1545 was repealed, and interest, except in the few forms in which it
+had always been allowed, was again prohibited. But the tide soon
+turned, and in 1571 interest up to ten per cent was again made lawful.
+From that time forward the term usury was restricted to excessive
+interest, and this alone was prohibited. Yet the practice of receiving
+interest for the loan of money was still generally condemned by
+writers on morals till quite the end of this period; though lawyers,
+merchants, and popular opinion no longer disapproved of it if the rate
+was moderate.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173"></a>(p. 173)</span> <strong>47. Paternal Government.</strong>&mdash;In many of the changes which have
+been described in this chapter, the share which government took was
+one of the most important influences. In some cases, as in the laws
+against enclosures, against the migration of industry from the towns
+to the rural districts, and against usury, the policy of King and
+Parliament was not successful in resisting the strong economic forces
+which were at work. In others, however, as in the oversight of
+industry, in the confiscation of the property of the gilds devoted to
+religious uses, in the settlement of the relations between employers
+and employees, in the control of foreign commerce, the policy of the
+government really decided what direction changes should take.</p>
+
+<p>As has been seen in this chapter, after the accession of Henry VII
+there was a constant extension of the sphere of government till it
+came to pass laws upon and provide for and regulate almost all the
+economic interests of the nation. This was a result, in the first
+place, of the breaking down of those social institutions which had
+been most permanent and stable in earlier periods. The manor system in
+the country, landlord farming, the manor courts, labor dues, serfdom,
+were passing rapidly away; the old type of gilds, city regulations,
+trading at fairs, were no longer so general; it was no longer
+foreigners who brought foreign goods to England to be sold, or bought
+English goods for exportation. When these old Customs were changing or
+passing away, the national government naturally took charge to prevent
+the threatened confusion of the process of disintegration. Secondly,
+the government itself, from the latter part of the fifteenth century
+onward, became abler and more vigorous, as has been pointed out in the
+first paragraph of this chapter. The Privy Council of the king
+exercised larger functions, and extended its jurisdiction <span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174"></a>(p. 174)</span>
+into new fields. Under these circumstances, when the functions of the
+central government were being so widely extended, it was altogether
+natural that they should come to include the control of all forms of
+industrial life, including agriculture, manufacturing, commerce,
+internal trade, labor, and other social and economic relations.
+Thirdly, the control of economic and social matters by the government
+was in accordance with contemporary opinions and feelings. An
+enlightened absolutism seems to have commended itself to the most
+thoughtful men of that time. A paternalism which regulated a very wide
+circle of interests was unhesitatingly accepted and approved. As a
+result of the decay of mediæval conditions, the strengthening of
+national government, and the prevailing view of the proper functions
+of government, almost all economic conditions were regulated by the
+government to a degree quite unknown before. In the early part of the
+period this regulation was more minute, more intrusive, more evidently
+directed to the immediate advantage of government; but by the close of
+Elizabeth's reign a systematic regulation was established, which,
+while not controlling every detail of industrial life, yet laid down
+the general lines along which most of industrial life must run. Some
+parts of this regulation have already been analyzed. Perhaps the best
+instance and one of the most important parts of it is the Statute of
+Apprentices of 1563, already described in paragraph 40. In the same
+year, 1563, a statute was passed full of minute regulations for the
+fishing and fish-dealing trades. Foreign commerce was carried on by
+regulated companies; that is, companies having charters from the
+government, giving them a monopoly of the trade with certain
+countries, and laying down at least a part of the rules under which
+that trade should be carried on. The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175"></a>(p. 175)</span> importation of most
+kinds of finished goods and the exportation of raw materials were
+prohibited. New industries were encouraged by patents or other
+government concessions. Many laws were passed, of which that of 1571,
+to encourage the industry of making caps, is a type. This law laid
+down the requirement that every person of six years old and upward
+should wear on every Sunday and holy day a woollen cap made in
+England.</p>
+
+<p>The conformity to standard of manufactures was enforced either by the
+officers of companies which were established under the authority of
+the government or by government officials or patentees, and many of
+the methods and standards of manufacture were themselves defined by
+statutes or proclamation. In agriculture, while the policy was less
+consistent, government regulation was widely applied. There were laws,
+as has been noted, forbidding the possession of more than two thousand
+sheep by any one landholder and of more than two farms by any one
+tenant; laws requiring the keeping of one cow and one calf for every
+sixty sheep, and the raising a quarter of an acre of flax or hemp for
+every sixty acres devoted to other crops. The most characteristic laws
+for the regulation of agriculture, however, were those controlling the
+export of grain. In order to prevent an excessive price, grain-raisers
+were not allowed to export wheat or other grain when it was scarce in
+England. When it was cheap and plenty, they were permitted to do so,
+the conditions under which it was to be allowed or forbidden being
+decided, according to a law of 1571, by the justices of the peace of
+each locality, with the restriction that none should be exported when
+the prevailing price was more than 1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i> a bushel, a limit which
+was raised to 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> in 1592.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, instead of industrial life being controlled and regulated
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176"></a>(p. 176)</span> by town governments, merchant and craft gilds, lords of
+fairs, village communities, lords of manors and their stewards, or
+other local bodies, it was now regulated in its main features by the
+all-powerful national government.</p>
+
+
+<p class="center p2"><strong>48. BIBLIOGRAPHY</strong></p>
+
+<p>Professor Ashley's second volume is of especial value for this period.</p>
+
+<p>Green, Mrs. J. R.: <i>Town Life in England in the Fifteenth Century</i>,
+two volumes.</p>
+
+<p>Cheyney, E. P.: <i>Social Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century,
+Part I, Rural Changes</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A discussion of the legal character of villain tenure in the sixteenth
+century will be found in articles by Mr. I. S. Leadam, in <i>The English
+Historical Review</i>, for October, 1893, and in the <i>Transactions of the
+English Royal Historical Society</i> for 1892, 1893, and 1894; and by
+Professor Ashley in the <i>English Historical Review</i> for April, 1893,
+and <i>Annals of the American Academy of Political Science</i> for January,
+1891. (Reprinted in <i>English Economic History</i>, Vol. II, Chap. 4.)</p>
+
+<p>Bourne, H. R. F.: <i>English Merchants</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Froude, J. A.: <i>History of England</i>. Many scattered passages of great
+interest refer to the economic and social changes of this period, but
+they are frequently exaggerated, and in some cases incorrect. Almost
+the same remark applies to Professor Rogers' <i>Six Centuries of Work
+and Wages</i> and <i>Industrial and Commercial History of England</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Busch, Wilhelm: <i>A History of England under the Tudors</i>. For the
+economic policy of Henry VII.</p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177"></a>(p. 177)</span> CHAPTER VII</h3>
+
+<h5>THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND</h5>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">Economic Changes of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries</span></h5>
+
+<p><strong>49. National Affairs from 1603 to 1760.</strong>&mdash;The last three rulers of the
+Tudor family had died childless. James, king of Scotland, their
+cousin, therefore inherited the throne and became the first English
+king of the Stuart family. James reigned from 1603 to 1625. Many of
+the political and religious problems which had been created by the
+policy of the Tudor sovereigns had now to come up for solution.
+Parliament had long been restive under the almost autocratic
+government of Queen Elizabeth, but the danger of foreign invasion and
+internal rebellion, long-established habit, Elizabeth's personal
+popularity, her age, her sex, and her occasional yielding, all
+combined to prevent any very outspoken opposition. Under King James
+all these things were changed. Yet he had even higher ideas of his
+personal rights, powers, and duties as king than any of his
+predecessors. Therefore during the whole of the reign dispute and ill
+feeling existed between the king, his ministers, and many of the
+judges and other officials, on the one hand, and the majority of the
+House of Commons and among the middle and upper classes of the
+country, on the other. James would willingly have avoided calling
+Parliament altogether and would have carried on the government
+according to his own judgment and that of the ministers he selected,
+but it <span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178"></a>(p. 178)</span> was absolutely necessary to assemble it for the
+passing of certain laws, and above all for the authorization of taxes
+to obtain the means to carry on the government. The fall in the value
+of gold and silver and the consequent rise of prices, and other
+economic changes, had reduced the income of the government just at a
+time when its necessary expenses were increasing, and when a
+spendthrift king was making profuse additional outlays. Finances were
+therefore a constant difficulty during his reign, as in fact they
+remained during the whole of the seventeenth century.</p>
+
+<p>In religion James wished to maintain the middle course of the
+established church as it had been under Elizabeth. He was even less
+inclined to harsh treatment of the Roman Catholics. On the other hand,
+the tide of Puritan feeling appealing for greater strictness and
+earnestness in the church and a more democratic form of church
+government was rising higher and higher, and with this a desire to
+expel the Roman Catholics altogether. The House of Commons represented
+this strong Protestant feeling, so that still another cause of
+conflict existed between King and Parliament. Similarly, in foreign
+affairs and on many other questions James was at cross purposes with
+the main body of the English nation.</p>
+
+<p>This reign was the period of foundation of England's great colonial
+empire. The effort to establish settlements on the North American
+coast were at last successful in Virginia and New England, and soon
+after in the West Indies. Still other districts were being settled by
+other European nations, ultimately to be absorbed by England. On the
+other side of the world the East India Company began its progress
+toward the subjugation of India. Nearer home, a new policy was carried
+out in Ireland, by which large numbers of English and Scotch
+immigrants were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179"></a>(p. 179)</span> induced to settle in Ulster, the
+northernmost province. Thus that process was begun by which men of
+English race and language, living under English institutions and
+customs, have established centres of population, wealth, and influence
+in so many parts of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Charles I came to the throne in 1625. Most of the characteristics of
+the period of James continued until the quarrels between King and
+Parliament became so bitter that in 1642 civil war broke out. The
+result of four years of fighting was the defeat and capture of the
+king. After fruitless attempts at a satisfactory settlement Charles
+was brought to trial by Parliament in 1649, declared guilty of
+treason, and executed.</p>
+
+<p>A republican form of government was now established, known as the
+"Commonwealth," and kingship and the House of Lords were abolished.
+The army, however, had come to have a will of its own, and quarrels
+between its officers and the majority of Parliament were frequent.
+Both Parliament and army had become unpopular, taxation was heavy, and
+religious disputes troublesome. The majority in Parliament had carried
+the national church so far in the direction of Puritanism that its
+excesses had brought about a strong reactionary feeling. Parliament
+had already sat for more than ten years, hence called the "Long
+Parliament," and had become corrupt and despotic. Under these
+circumstances, one modification after another was made in the form of
+government until in 1653 Oliver Cromwell, the commander of the army
+and long the most influential man in Parliament, dissolved that body
+by military force and was made Lord Protector, with powers not very
+different from those of a king. There was now a period of good order
+and great military and naval success for England; Scotland and
+Ireland, both of which had declared <span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180"></a>(p. 180)</span> against the
+Commonwealth, were reduced to obedience, and successful foreign wars
+were waged. But at home the government did not succeed in obtaining
+either popularity or general acceptance. Parliament after Parliament
+was called, but could not agree with the Protector. In 1657 Cromwell
+was given still higher powers, but in 1658 he died. His son, Richard
+Cromwell, was installed as Protector. The republican government had,
+however, been gradually drifting back toward the old royal form and
+spirit, so when the new Lord Protector proved to be unequal to the
+position, when the army became rebellious again, and the country
+threatened to fall into anarchy, Monk, an influential general, brought
+about the reassembling of the Long Parliament, and this body recalled
+the son of Charles I to take his hereditary seat as king.</p>
+
+<p>This event occurred in 1660, and is known as the Restoration. Charles
+II reigned for twenty-five years. His reign was in one of its aspects
+a time of reaction in manners and morals against the over-strictness
+of the former Puritan control. In government, notwithstanding the
+independent position of the king, it was the period when some of the
+most important modern institutions came into existence. Permanent
+political parties were formed then for the first time. It was then
+that the custom arose by which the ministers of the government are
+expected to resign when there proves to be a majority in Parliament
+against them. It was then that a "cabinet," or group of ministers
+acting together and responsible for the policy of the king, was first
+formed. The old form of the established church came again into power,
+and harsh laws were enacted against Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers,
+and members of the other sects which had grown up during the earlier
+part of the century.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181"></a>(p. 181)</span> It was to escape these oppressive laws that many emigrated to
+the colonies in America and established new settlements. Not only was
+the stream of emigration kept up by religious persecutions, but the
+prosperity and abundant opportunity for advancement furnished by the
+colonies attracted great numbers. The government of the Stuart kings,
+as well as that of the Commonwealth, constantly encouraged distant
+settlements for the sake of commerce, shipping, the export of English
+manufactured goods, and the import of raw materials. The expansion of
+the country through its colonial settlements therefore still
+continued.</p>
+
+<p>The great literature which reached its climax in the reign of
+Elizabeth continued in equal variety and abundance throughout the
+reigns of James and Charles. The greater plays of Shakespeare were
+written after the accession of James. Milton belonged to the
+Commonwealth period, and Bunyan, the famous author of <i>Pilgrim's
+Progress</i>, was one of those non-conformists in religion who were
+imprisoned under Charles II. With this reign, however, quite a new
+literary type arose, whose most conspicuous representative was Dryden.</p>
+
+<p>In 1685 James II succeeded his brother. Instead of carrying on the
+government in a spirit of concession to national feeling, he adopted
+such an unpopular policy that in 1688 he was forced to flee from
+England, and his son-in-law and daughter, William and Mary, were
+elected to the throne. On their accession Parliament passed and the
+king and queen accepted a "Bill of Rights." This declared the
+illegality of a number of actions which recent sovereigns had claimed
+the right to do, and guaranteed to Englishmen a number of important
+individual rights, which have since been included in many other
+documents, especially in the constitutions of several of the American
+states and the first <span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182"></a>(p. 182)</span> ten amendments to the Constitution of
+the United States. The Bill of Rights is often grouped with the Great
+Charter, and these two documents, along with several of the Acts of
+the Parliaments of Charles I accepted by the king, make the principal
+written elements of the English constitution. The form and powers
+attained by the English government have been, however, rather the
+result of slight changes from time to time, often without intention of
+influencing the constitution, than of any deliberate action. Important
+examples of this are certain customs of legislation which grew up
+under William and Mary. The Mutiny Act, by which the army is kept up,
+was only passed for one year at a time. The grant of taxes was also
+only made annually. Parliament must therefore be called every year in
+order to obtain money to carry on the work of government, and in order
+to keep up the military organization.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of the Revolution of 1688, as the deposition of James II.
+and the appointment of William and Mary are called, and of the changes
+which succeeded it, Parliament gradually became the most powerful part
+of government, and the House of Commons the strongest part of
+Parliament. The king's ministers came more and more to carry out the
+will of Parliament rather than that of the king. Somewhat later the
+custom grew up by which one of the ministers by presiding over the
+whole Cabinet, nominating its members to the king, representing it in
+interviews with the king, and in other ways giving unity to its
+action, created the position of prime minister. Thus the modern
+Parliamentary organization of the government was practically complete
+before the middle of the eighteenth century. William and Mary died
+childless, and Anne, Mary's sister, succeeded, and reigned till 1714.
+She also left no heir. In the meantime arrangements had been made to
+set aside <span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183"></a>(p. 183)</span> the descendants of James II, who were Roman
+Catholics, and to give the succession to a distant line of Protestant
+descendants of James I. In this way George I, Elector of Hanover, of
+the house of Brunswick, became king, reigned till 1727, and was
+succeeded by George II, who reigned till 1760. The sovereigns of
+England have been of this family ever since.</p>
+
+<p>The years following the Revolution of 1688 were a time of almost
+constant warfare on the Continent, in the colonies, and at sea. In
+many of these wars the real interests of England were but slightly
+concerned. In others her colonial and native dependencies were so
+deeply affected as to make them veritable national wars. Just at the
+close of the period, in 1763, the war known in Europe as the Seven
+Years' War and in America as the French and Indian War was brought to
+an end by the peace of Paris. This peace drew the outlines of the
+widespread empire of Great Britain, for it handed over to her Canada,
+the last of the French possessions in America, and guaranteed her the
+ultimate predominance in India.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>50. The Extension of Agriculture.</strong>&mdash;During the seventeenth and the
+first half of the eighteenth century there are no such fundamental
+changes in social organization to chronicle as during the preceding
+century and a half. During the first hundred years of the period the
+whole energy of the nation seems to have been thrown into political
+and religious contests. Later there was development and increase of
+production, but they were in the main an extension or expansion of the
+familiar forms, not such a change of form as would cause any
+alteration in the position of the mass of the people.</p>
+
+<p>The practice of enclosing open land had almost ceased before the death
+of Elizabeth. There was some enclosing under <span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184"></a>(p. 184)</span> James I, but it
+seems to have been quite exceptional. In the main, those common
+pastures and open fields which had not been enclosed by the beginning
+of this period, probably one-half of all England, remained unenclosed
+till the recommencement of the process long afterward. Sheep farming
+gradually ceased to be so exclusively practised, and mixed agriculture
+became general, though few if any of those fields which had been
+surrounded with hedges, and come into the possession of individual
+farmers, were thrown open or distributed again into scattered
+holdings. Much new land came into cultivation or into use for pasture
+through the draining of marshes and fens, and the clearing of forests.
+This work had been begun for the extensive swampy tracts in the east
+of England in the latter years of Elizabeth's reign by private
+purchasers, assisted by an act of Parliament passed in 1601, intended
+to remove legal difficulties. It proceeded slowly, partly because of
+the expense and difficulty of putting up lasting embarkments, and
+partly because of the opposition of the fenmen, or dwellers in the
+marshy districts, whose livelihood was obtained by catching the fish
+and water fowl that the improvements would drive away. With the
+seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, however, largely through
+the skill of Dutch engineers and laborers, many thousands of acres of
+fertile land were reclaimed and devoted to grazing, and even grain
+raising. Great stretches of old forest and waste land covered with
+rough underbrush were also reduced to cultivation.</p>
+
+<p>There was much writing on agricultural subjects, and methods of
+farming were undoubtedly improved, especially in the eighteenth
+century. Turnips, which could be grown during the remainder of the
+season after a grain crop had been harvested, and which would provide
+fresh food for the cattle during the winter, were introduced from the
+Continent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185"></a>(p. 185)</span> and cultivated to some extent, as were clover and
+some improved grasses. But these improvements progressed but slowly,
+and farming on the whole was carried on along very much the same old
+lines till quite the middle of the eighteenth century. The raising of
+grain was encouraged by a system of government bounties, as already
+stated in another connection. From 1689 onward a bounty was given on
+all grain exported, when the prevailing price was less than six
+shillings a bushel. The result was that England exported wheat in all
+but famine years, that there was a steady encouragement even if
+without much result to improve methods of agriculture, and that
+landlords were able to increase their rents. In the main, English
+agriculture and the organization of the agricultural classes of the
+population did not differ very much at the end of this period from
+that at the beginning except in the one point of quantity, the amount
+of produce and the number of the population being both largely
+increased.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>51. The Domestic System of Manufactures.</strong>&mdash;Much greater skill in
+manufacturing was acquired, principally, as in earlier periods,
+through the immigration of foreign artisans. In Queen Elizabeth's time
+a great number of such men with their families, who had been driven
+from the Netherlands by the persecutions of the duke of Alva, came to
+England for refuge. In Sandwich in 1561 some twenty families of
+Flemings settled and began their manufactures of various kinds of
+cloth; in 1565 some thirty Dutch and Walloon families settled in
+Norwich as weavers, in Maidstone a body of similar artisans who were
+thread-makers settled in 1567; in 1570 a similar group carrying on
+various forms of manufacture settled at Colchester; and still others
+settled in some five or six other towns. After 1580 a wave of French
+Huguenots, principally silk-weavers, fled from their native <span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186"></a>(p. 186)</span>
+country and were allowed to settle in London, Canterbury, and
+Coventry. The renewed persecutions of the Huguenots, culminating in
+the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, sent many thousands
+more into exile, large numbers of silk and linen weavers and
+manufacturers of paper, clocks, glass, and metal goods coming from
+Normandy and Brittany into England, and settling not only in London
+and its suburbs, but in many other towns of England. These foreigners,
+unpopular as they often were among the populace, and supported in
+their opportunities of carrying on their industry only by royal
+authority, really taught new and higher industries to the native
+population and eventually were absorbed into it as a more gifted and
+trained component.</p>
+
+<p>There were also some inventions of new processes or devices for
+manufacture. The "stocking frame," or machine knitting, was invented
+in the time of Queen Elizabeth, but did not get into actual use until
+the next century. It then became for the future an extensive industry,
+especially in London and Nottingham and their vicinity. The weaving of
+cotton goods was introduced and spread especially in the northwest, in
+the neighborhood of Manchester and Bolton. A machine for preparing
+silk thread was invented in 1719. The printing of imported white
+cotton goods, as calicoes and lawns, was begun, but prohibited by
+Parliament in the interest of woven goods manufacturers, though the
+printing of linens was still allowed. Stoneware was also improved.
+These and other new industries introduced by foreigners or developed
+by English inventors or enterprising artisans added to the variety and
+total amount of English manufacture. The old established industries,
+like the old coarser woollen goods and linen manufacture, increased
+but slowly in amount and went through no great changes of method.</p>
+
+<a id="img035" name="img035"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img035.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Hand-loom Weaving."
+title="Hand-loom Weaving.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Hand-loom Weaving.</span><br> (Hogarth: <i>The Industrious and the
+Lazy Apprentice.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187"></a>(p. 187)</span> These industries old and new were in some cases regulated and
+supervised as to the quality of ware and methods of manufacture, by
+the remaining gilds or companies, with the authority which they
+possessed from the national government. Indeed, there were within the
+later sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries some new companies
+organized or old ones renewed especially for this oversight, and to
+guard the monopoly of their members over certain industries in certain
+towns. In other cases rules were established for the carrying on of a
+certain industry, and a patent or monopoly was then granted by the
+king by which the person or company was given the sole right to carry
+on a certain industry according to those rules, or to enforce the
+rules when it was carried on by other people. In still other
+industries a government official had the oversight and control
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188"></a>(p. 188)</span> of quality and method of manufacture. Much production,
+however, especially such as went on in the country, was not supervised
+at all.</p>
+
+<a id="img036" name="img036"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img036.jpg" width="500" height="361" alt="Old Cloth-hall at Halifax."
+title="Old Cloth-hall at Halifax.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Old Cloth-hall at Halifax.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Far the greater part of manufacturing industry in this period was
+organized according to the "domestic system," the beginnings of which
+have been already noticed within the previous period. That is to say,
+manufacturing was carried on in their own houses by small masters with
+a journeyman and apprentice or two. Much of it was done in the country
+villages or suburbs of the larger towns, and such handicraft was very
+generally connected with a certain amount of cultivation of the soil.
+A small master weaver or nail manufacturer, or soap boiler or potter,
+would also have a little farm and divide his time between the two
+occupations. The implements of manufacture almost always belonged to
+the small master himself, though in the stocking manufacture and the
+silk manufacture they were often owned by employing capitalists and
+rented out to the small manufacturers, or even to journeymen. In some
+cases the raw material&mdash;wool, linen, metal, or whatever it might
+be&mdash;was purchased by the small manufacturer, and the goods were either
+manufactured for special customers or taken when completed to a
+neighboring town on market days, there to be sold to a local dealer,
+or to a merchant who would transport it to another part of the country
+or export it to other countries. In other cases the raw material,
+especially in the case of cotton, was the property of a town merchant
+or capitalist, who distributed it to the small domestic manufacturers
+in their houses in the villages, paying them for the processes of
+production, and himself collecting the completed product and disposing
+of it by sale or export. This domestic manufacture was especially
+common in the southwest, centre, and northwest of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189"></a>(p. 189)</span> England,
+and manufacturing towns like Birmingham, Halifax, Sheffield, Leeds,
+Bolton, and Manchester were growing up as centres around which it
+gathered. Little or no organization existed among such small
+manufacturers, though their apprentices were of course supposed to be
+taken and their journeymen hired according to the provisions of the
+Statute of Apprentices, and their products were sometimes subjected to
+some governmental or other supervision.</p>
+
+<p>Thus in manufacturing and artisan life as in agricultural the period
+was marked by an extension and increase of the amount of industry, on
+the same general lines as had been reached by 1600, rather than by any
+considerable changes.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>52. Commerce under the Navigation Acts.</strong>&mdash;The same thing is true of
+commerce, although its vast extension was almost in the nature of a
+revolution. As far back as the reign of Elizabeth most of the imports
+into England were brought in English vessels by English importers, and
+the goods which were exported were sent out by English exporters. The
+goods which were manufactured in scattered villages or town suburbs by
+the domestic manufacturers were gathered by these merchants and sent
+abroad in ever increasing amounts. The total value of English exports
+in 1600 was about 10 million dollars, at the close of the century it
+was some 34 millions, and in 1750 about 63 millions. This trade was
+carried on largely by merchants who were members of those chartered
+trading companies which have been mentioned as existing already in the
+sixteenth century. Some of these were "regulated companies"; that is,
+they had certain requirements laid down in their charters and power to
+adopt further rules and regulations, to which their members must
+conform. Others had similar chartered rights, but all their members
+invested funds in a common capital and traded as a joint stock
+company. In both kinds <span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190"></a>(p. 190)</span> of cases each company possessed a
+monopoly of some certain field of trade, and was constantly engaged in
+the exclusion of interlopers from its trade. Of these companies the
+Merchants Adventurers, the oldest and one of the wealthiest,
+controlled the export of manufactured cloth to the Netherlands and
+northwestern Germany and remained prominent and active into the
+eighteenth century. The Levant, the Eastland, the Muscovy, and the
+Guinea or Royal African, and, greatest of all, the East India Company,
+continued to exist under various forms, and carried on their distant
+commerce through the whole of this period. With some of the nearer
+parts of Europe&mdash;France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy&mdash;there was much
+trading by private merchants not organized as companies or only
+organized among themselves. The "Methuen treaty," negotiated with
+Portugal in 1703, gave free entry of English manufactured goods into
+that country in return for a decreased import duty on Portuguese wines
+brought into England.</p>
+
+<a id="img037" name="img037"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img037.jpg" width="500" height="283" alt="Principal English Trade Routes About 1700."
+title="Principal English Trade Routes About 1700.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Principal English Trade Routes About 1700</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The foreign lands with which these companies traded furnished at the
+beginning of this period the only places to which goods could be
+exported and from which goods could be brought; but very soon that
+series of settlements of English colonists was begun, one of the
+principal inducements for which was that they would furnish an outlet
+for English goods. The "Plantation of Ulster," or introduction of
+English and Scotch settlers into the north of Ireland between 1610 and
+1620, was the beginning of a long process of immigration into that
+country. But far the most important plantations as an outlet for trade
+as in every respect were those made on the coast of North America and
+in the West Indies. The Virginia and the Plymouth Companies played a
+part in the early settlement of these colonies, but they were soon
+superseded by the crown, single <span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192"></a>(p. 192)</span> proprietaries, or the
+settlers themselves. Virginia, New England, Maryland, the Carolinas,
+and ultimately New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia on the mainland;
+the islands of Bermudas, Barbadoes, and Jamaica, and ultimately
+Canada, came to be populous colonies inhabited by Englishmen and
+demanding an ever increasing supply of English manufactured goods.
+These colonies were controlled by the English government largely for
+their commercial and other forms of economic value. The production of
+goods needed in England but not produced there, such as sugar,
+tobacco, tar, and lumber, was encouraged, but the manufacture of such
+goods as could be exported from England was prohibited. The purchase
+of slaves in Africa and their exportation to the West Indies was
+encouraged, partly because they were paid for in Africa by English
+manufactured goods, partly because their use in the colonies made the
+supply of sugar and some other products plentiful and cheap.</p>
+
+<p>Closely connected with commerce and colonies as a means of disposing
+of England's manufactured goods and of obtaining those things which
+were needed from abroad was commerce for its own sake, for the profits
+which it brought to those engaged in it, and for the indirect value to
+the nation of having a large mercantile navy.</p>
+
+<p>The most important provision for this end was the passage of the
+"Navigation Acts." We have seen that as early as 1485 certain kinds of
+goods could be imported only in English vessels. But in 1651 a law was
+passed, and in 1660 under a more regular government reënacted in still
+more vigorous form, which carried this policy to its fullest extent.
+By these laws all importation of goods into England from any ports of
+Asia, Africa, or America was forbidden, except in vessels belonging to
+English owners, built in England and manned by English seamen; and
+there was the same requirement <span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193"></a>(p. 193)</span> for goods exported from
+England to those countries. From European ports goods could be brought
+to England only in English vessels or in vessels the property of
+merchants of the country in which the port lay; and similarly for
+export. These acts were directed especially against the Dutch
+merchants, who were fast getting control of the carrying trade. The
+result of the policy of the Navigation Acts was to secure to English
+merchants and to English shipbuilders a monopoly of all the trade with
+the East Indies and Africa and with the American colonies, and to
+prevent the Dutch from competing with English merchants for the
+greater part of the trade with the Continent of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The characteristics of English commerce in this period, therefore,
+were much the same as in the last. It was, however, still more
+completely controlled by English merchants and was vastly extended in
+amount. Moreover, this extension bid fair to be permanent, as it was
+largely brought about by the growth of populous English colonies in
+Ireland and America, and by the acquisition of great spheres of
+influence in India.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>53. Finance.</strong>&mdash;The most characteristic changes of the period now being
+studied were in a field to which attention has been but slightly
+called before; that is, in finance. Capital had not existed in any
+large amounts in mediæval England, and even in the later centuries
+there had not been any considerable class of men whose principal
+interest was in the investment of saved-up capital which they had in
+their hands. Agriculture, manufacturing, and even commerce were
+carried on with very small capital and usually with such capital as
+each farmer, artisan, or merchant might have of his own; no use of
+credit to obtain money from individual men or from banks for
+industrial purposes being ordinarily possible. Questions connected
+with money, capital, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194"></a>(p. 194)</span> borrowing, and other points of finance
+came into somewhat greater prominence with the sixteenth century, but
+they now attained an altogether new and more important notice.</p>
+
+<p>Taxation, which had been looked upon as abnormal and occasional during
+earlier times, and only justifiable when some special need for large
+expenditure by the government arose, such as war, a royal marriage, or
+the entertainment of some foreign visitor, now, after long conflicts
+between King and Parliament, which are of still greater constitutional
+than financial importance, came to be looked upon as a regular normal
+custom. In 1660, at the Restoration, a whole system of excise duties,
+taxes on imports and exports, and a hearth tax were established as a
+permanency for paying the expenses of government, besides special
+taxes of various kinds for special demands.</p>
+
+<p>Borrowing, by merchants and others for ordinary purposes of business,
+became much more usual. During most of the seventeenth century the
+goldsmiths were the only bankers. On account of the strong vaults of
+these merchants, their habitual possession of valuable material and
+articles, and perhaps of their reputation for probity, persons who had
+money beyond their immediate needs deposited it with the goldsmiths,
+receiving from them usually six per cent. The goldsmiths then loaned
+it to merchants or to the government, obtaining for it interest at the
+rate of eight per cent or more. This system gradually became better
+established and the high rates decreased. Payments came to be made by
+check, and promissory notes were regularly discounted by the
+goldsmiths.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest extension in the use of credit, however, came from the
+establishment of the Bank of England. In 1691 the original proposition
+for the Bank was made to the government by William Patterson. In 1694
+a charter for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195"></a>(p. 195)</span> the Bank was finally carried through
+Parliament by the efforts of the ministry. The Bank consisted of a
+group of subscribers who agreed to loan to the government £1,200,000,
+the government to pay them an annual interest of eight and one-half
+per cent, or £100,000 in cash, guaranteed by the product of a certain
+tax. The subscribers were at the same time incorporated and authorized
+to carry on a general business of receiving deposits and lending out
+money at interest. The capital which was to be loaned to the
+government was subscribed principally by London merchants, and the
+Bank began its career in the old Grocers' Hall. The regular income of
+£100,000 a year gave it a nucleus of strength, and enabled it to
+discount notes even beyond its actual deposits and to issue its own
+notes or paper money. Thus money could be borrowed to serve as capital
+for all kinds of enterprises, and there was an inducement also for
+persons to save money and thus create capital, since it could always
+bring them in a return by lending it to the Bank even if they were not
+in a position to put it to use themselves. Along with the normal
+effect of such financial inventions in developing all forms of trade
+and industry, there arose a remarkable series of projects and schemes
+of the wildest and most unstable character, and the early eighteenth
+century saw many losses and constant fluctuations in the realm of
+finance. The most famous instance of this was the "South Sea Bubble,"
+a speculative scheme by which a regulated company, the South Sea
+Company, was chartered in 1719 to carry on the slave-trade to the West
+Indies and whale-fishing, and incidentally to loan money to the
+government. Its shares rose to many fold their par value and fell to
+almost nothing again within a few months, and the government and vast
+numbers of investors and speculators were involved in its failure.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196"></a>(p. 196)</span> The same period saw the creation of the permanent national
+debt. In earlier times kings and ministers had constantly borrowed
+money from foreign or native lenders, but it was always provided and
+anticipated that it would be repaid at a certain period, with the
+interest. With the later years of the seventeenth century, however, it
+became customary for the government to borrow money without any
+definite contract or expectation as to when it should be paid back,
+only making an agreement to pay a certain rate of interest upon it.
+This was satisfactory to all parties. The government obtained a large
+sum at the time, with the necessity of only paying a small sum every
+year for interest; investors obtained a remunerative use for their
+money, and if they should need the principal, some one else was always
+ready to pay its value to them for the sake of receiving the interest.
+The largest single element of the national debt in its early period
+was the loan of £1,200,000 which served as the basis for the Bank; but
+after that time, as for a short time before, sums were borrowed from
+time to time which were not repaid, but became a permanent part of the
+debt: the total rising to more than £75,000,000 by the middle of the
+century. Incidentally, this, like the deposits at the goldsmiths and
+the Bank, became an opportunity for the investment of savings and an
+inducement to create more capital.</p>
+
+<p>Fire insurance and life insurance both seem to have had their origin
+in the later decades of the seventeenth century.</p>
+
+<p>Thus in the realm of finance there was much more of novelty, of
+actually new development, during this period than in agriculture,
+manufacturing, or commerce. Yet all these forms of economic life and
+of the social organization which corresponded to them were alike in
+one respect, that <span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197"></a>(p. 197)</span> they were quite minutely regulated by the
+national government. The fabric of paternal government which we saw
+rising in the time of the Tudor sovereigns remained almost intact
+through the whole of this period. The regulation of the conditions of
+labor, of trade, of importation and exportation, of finance, of
+agriculture, of manufacture, in more or less detail, was part of the
+regular work of legislation or administrative action. Either in order
+to reach certain ulterior ends, such as government power, a large
+navy, or a large body of money within the country, or simply as a part
+of what were looked upon at the time as the natural functions of
+government, laws were constantly being passed, charters formulated,
+treaties entered into, and other action taken by government, intended
+to encourage one kind of industry and discourage another, to determine
+rates of wages and hours of labor, prescribe rules for agriculture, or
+individual trades or forms of business, to support some kind of
+industry which was threatened with decay, to restrict certain actions
+which were thought to be disadvantageous, to regulate the whole
+economic life of the nation.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that much of this regulation was on the books rather than
+in actual existence. It would have required a much more extensive and
+efficient civil service, national and local, than England then
+possessed to enforce all or any considerable part of the provisions
+that were made by act of Parliament or ordered by the King and
+Council. Again, new industries were generally declared to be free from
+much of the more minute regulation, so that enterprise where it arose
+was not so apt to be checked, as conservatism where it already existed
+was apt to be perpetuated. Such regulation and control, moreover, were
+quite in accord with the feeling and with the economic and political
+theories of the time, so there was but little sense of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198"></a>(p. 198)</span>
+interference or tyranny felt by the governed. A regulated industrial
+organization slowly expanding on well-established lines was as
+characteristic of the theory as it was of the practice of the period.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2"><strong>54. BIBLIOGRAPHY</strong></p>
+
+<p>Gardiner, S. R.: <i>The History of England, 1603-1642</i>, ten volumes.</p>
+
+<p>Many scattered passages in this work and in its continuations, like
+those in Froude's history, referred to in the last chapter, apply to
+the economic and social history of the period, and they are always
+judicious and valuable.</p>
+
+<p>Hewins, W. A. S.: <i>English Trade and Finance, chiefly in the
+Seventeenth Century</i>.</p>
+
+<p>For this period Cunningham, Rogers, and Palgrave, in the books already
+referred to, are almost the only secondary authorities, except such as
+go into great detail on individual points. Cunningham's second volume,
+which includes this period, is extremely full and satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>Macpherson, D.: <i>Annals of Commerce</i> is, however, a book of somewhat
+broader interest.</p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199"></a>(p. 199)</span> CHAPTER VIII</h3>
+
+<h5>THE PERIOD OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION</h5>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">Economic Changes of the Later Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth
+Centuries</span></h5>
+
+<p><strong>55. National Affairs from 1760 to 1830.</strong>&mdash;The seventy years lying
+between these two dates were covered by the long reign of George III
+and that of his successor George IV. In the political world this
+period had by no means the importance that it possessed in the field
+of economic development. Parliament had already obtained its permanent
+form and powers, and when George III tried to "be a king," as his
+mother urged him, the effort to restore personal government was an
+utter failure. Between 1775 and 1783 occurred the American Revolution,
+by which thirteen of England's most valued colonies were lost to her
+and began their progress toward a greater destiny. The breach between
+the American colonies and the mother country was brought about largely
+by the obstinacy of the king and his ministers in adopting an
+arbitrary and unpopular policy. Other political causes no doubt
+contributed to the result. Yet the greater part of the alienation of
+feeling which underlay the Revolution was due not to political causes,
+but to the economic policy already described, by which American
+commerce and industry were bent to the interests of England.</p>
+
+<p>In the American war France joined the rebellious colonies against
+England, and obtained advantageous terms at the peace. Within ten
+years the two countries had again <span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200"></a>(p. 200)</span> entered upon a war, this
+time of vastly greater extent, and continuing almost unbroken for more
+than twenty years. This was a result of the outbreak of the French
+Revolution. In 1789 the Estates General of France, a body
+corresponding in its earlier history to the English Parliament, was
+called for the first time for almost two hundred years. This assembly
+and its successors undertook to reorganize French government and
+society. In the course of this radical process principles were
+enunciated proclaiming the absolute liberty and equality of men,
+demanding the participation of all in government, the abolition of
+aristocratic privileges, and finally of royalty itself. In following
+out these ideas, so different from those generally accepted in Europe,
+France was brought into conflict with all the other European states,
+including Great Britain. War broke out in 1793. Fighting took place on
+sea and land and in various parts of the world. France in her new
+enthusiasm developed a strength, vigor, and capacity which enabled her
+to make head against the alliances of almost all the other countries
+of Europe, and even to gain victories and increase her territory at
+their expense. No peace seemed practicable. In her successive internal
+changes of government one of the generals of the army, Napoleon
+Bonaparte, obtained a more and more influential position, until in
+1804 he took the title of Emperor. The wars of the French Revolution
+therefore were merged in the wars of Napoleon. Alliance after alliance
+was made against Napoleon, England commonly taking the initiative in
+the formation of them and paying large monthly subsidies to some of
+the continental governments to enable them to support their armies.
+The English navy won several brilliant victories, especially under
+Nelson, although her land forces played a comparatively small part
+until the battle of Waterloo in 1815.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201"></a>(p. 201)</span> The naval supremacy thus obtained made the war a matter of
+pecuniary profit to the English nation, notwithstanding its enormous
+expense; for it gave to her vessels almost a complete monopoly of the
+commerce and the carrying trade of the world, and to her manufactures
+extended markets which would otherwise have been closed to her or
+shared with other nations. The cutting off of continental and other
+sources of supply of grain and the opening of new markets greatly
+increased the demand for English grain and enhanced the price paid for
+it. This caused higher rents and further enclosure of open land. Thus
+the war which had been entered upon reluctantly and with much
+opposition in 1793, became popular, partly because of the feeling of
+the English people that it had become a life and death struggle with
+France, but largely also because English industries were flourishing
+under it. The wars came to an end with the downfall of Napoleon in
+1815, and an unwonted period of peace for England set in and lasted
+for almost forty years.</p>
+
+<p>The French Revolution produced another effect in England. It awakened
+a certain amount of admiration for its principles of complete liberty
+and equality and a desire to apply them to English aristocratic
+society and government. In 1790 societies began to be formed, meetings
+held, and pamphlets issued by men who sympathized with the popular
+movements in France. Indeed, some of these reformers were suspected of
+wishing to introduce a republic in England. After the outbreak of the
+war the ministry determined to put down this agitation, and between
+1793 and 1795 all public manifestation of sympathy with such
+principles was crushed out, although at the cost of considerable
+interference with what had been understood to be established personal
+rights. Much discontent continued <span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202"></a>(p. 202)</span> through the whole period
+of the war, especially among the lower classes, though it did not take
+the form of organized political agitation. It was a period, as will be
+seen, of violent economic and social changes, which, although they
+enriched England as a whole and made it possible for her to support
+the unprecedented expenses of the long war, were very hard upon the
+working classes, who were used to the old ways.</p>
+
+<p>After the peace of 1815, however, political agitation began again. The
+Whig party seemed inclined to resume the effort to carry certain
+moderate reforms which had been postponed on account of the war, and
+down below this movement there was a more radical agitation for
+universal suffrage and for a more democratic type of government
+generally. On the other hand, the Tory government, which had been in
+power during almost the whole war period, was determined to oppose
+everything in the nature of reform or change, on the ground that the
+outrages accompanying the French Revolution arose from just such
+efforts to make reforming alterations in the government. The radical
+agitation was supported by the discontented masses of the people who
+were suffering under heavy taxes, high prices, irregular employment,
+and many other evils which they felt to be due to their exclusion from
+any share in the government. The years intervening between 1815 and
+1830 were therefore a period of constant bitterness and contention
+between the higher and the lower classes. Mass meetings which were
+called by the popular leaders were dissolved by the government,
+radical writers were prosecuted by the government for libel, the
+habeas corpus act was suspended repeatedly, and threatened rioting was
+met with severe measures. The actions of the ministers, while upheld
+by the higher classes, were bitterly attacked by others as being
+unconstitutional and tyrannical.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203"></a>(p. 203)</span> In 1800 the union of the group of British Islands under one
+government was completed, at least in form. Scotland had come under
+the same crown as England in 1603, and the two Parliaments had been
+united in 1707, the title Great Britain having been adopted for the
+combined nations. The king of England had held the title of Lord of
+Ireland from the time of the first conquest, and of King of Ireland
+since the adoption of the title by Henry VIII. The union which now
+took place consisted in the abolition of the separate Irish Parliament
+and the election of Irish members to the combined or "Imperial"
+Parliament of the three kingdoms sitting at Westminster. The official
+title of the united countries has since been "The United Kingdom of
+Great Britain and Ireland."</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>56. The Great Mechanical Inventions.</strong>&mdash;As the eighteenth century
+progressed one form of economic growth seems to have been pressing on
+the general economic organization. This was the constant expansion of
+commerce, the steadily increasing demand for English manufactured
+goods for export.</p>
+
+<a id="img038" name="img038"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img038.jpg" width="500" height="737" alt="Distribution Of Population According To The Hearth-Tax
+Of 1750."
+title="Distribution Of Population According To The Hearth-Tax
+Of 1750.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Distribution Of Population According To The Hearth-Tax
+Of 1750.<br> Engraved By Bormay &amp; Co., N.Y.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The great quantities of goods which were every year sent abroad in
+English ships to the colonies, to Ireland, to the Continent, to Asia
+and Africa, as well as those used at home, continued to be
+manufactured in most cases by methods, with instruments, under an
+organization of labor the same as that which had been in existence for
+centuries. The cotton and woollen goods which were sold in the West
+Indies and America were still carded, spun, and woven in the scattered
+cottages of domestic weavers and weaver-farmers in the rural districts
+of the west and north of England, by the hand cards, the
+spinning-wheel, the cumbrous, old-fashioned loom. The pieces of goods
+were slowly gathered from the hamlets to the towns, from the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205"></a>(p. 205)</span> towns to the seaports, over the poorest of roads, and by
+the most primitive of conveyances. And these antiquated methods of
+manufacture and transportation were all the more at variance with the
+needs and possibilities of the time because there had been, as already
+pointed out, a steady accumulation of capital, and much of it was not
+remuneratively employed. The time had certainly come for some
+improvement in the methods of manufacture.</p>
+
+<p>A closer examination into the process of production in England's
+principal industry, cloth-making, shows that this pressure on old
+methods was already felt. The raw material for such uses, as it comes
+from the back of the sheep, the boll of the cotton plant, or the
+crushed stems of the flax, is a tangled mass of fibre. The first
+necessary step is to straighten out the threads of this fibre, which
+is done in the case of wool by combing, in the others by carding, both
+being done at that time by hand implements. The next step is spinning,
+that is drawing out the fibres, which have been made parallel by
+carding, into a slender cord, and at the same time twisting this
+sufficiently to cause the individual fibres to take hold one of
+another and thus make a thread of some strength. This was sometimes
+done on the old high wheel, which was whirled around by hand and then
+allowed to come to rest while another section of the cotton, wool, or
+flax was drawn from the carded mass by hand, then whirled again,
+twisting this thread and winding it up on the spindle, and so on. Or
+it was done by the low wheel, which was kept whirling continuously by
+the use of a treadle worked by the foot, while the material was being
+drawn out all the time by the two hands, and twisted and wound
+continuously by the horseshoe-shaped device known as the "flyer." When
+the thread had been spun it was placed upon the loom; strong, firmly
+spun material being necessary for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206"></a>(p. 206)</span> the "warp" of upright
+threads, softer and less tightly spun material for the "woof" or
+"weft," which was wrapped on the shuttle and thrown horizontally by
+hand between the two diverging lines of warp threads. After weaving,
+the fabric was subjected to a number of processes of finishing,
+fulling, shearing, dyeing, if that had not been done earlier, and
+others, according to the nature of the cloth or the kind of surface
+desired.</p>
+
+<p>In these successive stages of manufacture it was the spinning that was
+apt to interpose the greatest obstacle, as it took the most time. From
+time immemorial spinning had been done, as explained, on some form of
+the spinning-wheel, and by women. One weaver continuously at work
+could easily use up the product of five or six spinners. In the
+domestic industry the weaving was of course carried on in the
+dwelling-house by the father of the family with the grown sons or
+journeymen, while the spinning was done for the most part by the women
+and younger children of the family. As it could hardly be expected
+that there would always be as large a proportion as six of the latter
+class to one of the former, outside help must be obtained and much
+delay often submitted to. Many a small master who had agreed to weave
+up the raw material sent him by the master clothier within a given
+time, or a cloth weaver who had planned to complete a piece by next
+market day, was obliged to leave his loom and search through the
+neighborhood for some disengaged laborer's wife or other person who
+would spin the weft for which he was waiting. One of the very few
+inventions of the early part of the century intensified this
+difficulty. Kay's drop box and flying shuttle, invented in 1738, made
+it possible for a man to sit still and by pulling two cords
+alternately throw the shuttle to and fro. One man could therefore
+weave broadcloth instead of its <span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207"></a>(p. 207)</span> requiring two as before, and
+consequently weaving was more rapid, while no corresponding change had
+been introduced into the process of spinning.</p>
+
+<a id="img039" name="img039"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img039.jpg" width="500" height="394" alt="Spinning-jenny."
+title="Spinning-jenny.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Spinning-jenny.</span><br> (Byrn, <i>Invention in the Nineteenth
+Century</i>. Published by the Scientific American Company.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Indeed, this particular difficulty was so clearly recognized that the
+Royal Society offered a prize for the invention of a machine that
+would spin several threads at the same time.</p>
+
+<a id="img040" name="img040"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img040.jpg" width="500" height="443" alt="Arkwright's First Spinning-machine."
+title="Arkwright's First Spinning-machine.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Arkwright's First Spinning-machine.</span><br> (Ure: <i>History of
+the Cotton Manufacture</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>No one claimed this reward, but the spirit of invention was
+nevertheless awake, and experiments in more than one mechanical device
+were being made about the middle of the century. The first to be
+brought to actual completion was Hargreaves' spinning-jenny, invented
+in 1764. According <span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208"></a>(p. 208)</span> to the traditional story James
+Hargreaves, a small master weaver living near Blackburn, on coming
+suddenly into the house caused his wife, who was spinning with the old
+high wheel, to spring up with a start and overset the wheel, which
+still continued whirling, but horizontally, and with its spindle in a
+vertical position. He was at once struck with the idea of using one
+wheel to cause a number of spindles to revolve by means of a
+continuous band, and by the device of substituting for the human hand
+a pair of bars which could be successively separated and closed, and
+which could be brought closer to or removed from the spindles on
+wheels, to spin several threads at the same time. On the basis of this
+idea and with the help of a neighboring mechanic he constructed a
+machine by which a man could spin eight threads at the same time. In
+honor of his wife he named it the "Spinning-jenny." The secret of this
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209"></a>(p. 209)</span> device soon came out and jennies spinning twenty or thirty
+or more threads at a time came into use here and there through the old
+spinning districts. At the same time a much more effective method was
+being brought to perfection by Richard Arkwright, who followed out
+some old experiments of Wyatt of Northampton. According to this plan
+the carded material was carried through successive pairs of rollers,
+each pair running more rapidly than the previous pair, thus stretching
+it out, while it was spun after leaving the last pair by flyers
+adapted from the old low or treadle spinning-wheel. Arkwright's first
+patent was taken out in 1769, and from that time forward he invented,
+patented, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210"></a>(p. 210)</span> and manufactured a series of machines which made
+possible the spinning of a number of threads at the same time very
+much more rapidly than even the spinning-jenny. Great numbers of
+Arkwright's spinning-machines were manufactured and sold by him and
+his partners. He made others for use in cotton mills carried on by
+himself with various partners in different parts of the country. His
+patent was eventually set aside as having been unfairly obtained, and
+the machines were soon generally manufactured and used. Improvements
+followed. An ingenious weaver named Samuel Crompton, perceiving that
+the roller spinning was more rapid but that the jennies would spin the
+finer thread, combined the two devices into one machine, known from
+its hybrid origin as the "mule." This was invented in 1779, and as it
+was not patented it soon came into general use. These inventions in
+spinning reacted on the earlier processes and led to a rapid
+development of carding and combing machines. A carding cylinder had
+been invented by Paul as far back as 1748, and now came into general
+use, while several wool-combing machines were invented in 1792 and
+1793.</p>
+
+<a id="img041" name="img041"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img041.jpg" width="400" height="458" alt="Sir Richard Arkwright."
+title="Sir Richard Arkwright.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Sir Richard Arkwright.</span><br> (Portrait by Wright.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>So far all these inventions had been in the earlier textile processes.
+Use for the spun thread was found in giving fuller employment to the
+old hand looms, in the stocking manufacture, and for export; but no
+corresponding improvement had taken place in weaving. From 1784 onward
+a clergyman from the south of England, Dr. Edward Cartwright, was
+gradually bringing to perfection a power loom which by the beginning
+of the nineteenth century began to come into general use. The value
+put upon Cartwright's invention may be judged from the fact that
+Parliament voted him a gift of £10,000 in 1809. Arkwright had already
+won a large fortune by his invention, and in 1786 was knighted in
+recognition of his services to the national industry.</p>
+
+<a id="img042" name="img042"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img042.jpg" width="400" height="528" alt="Rev. Edmund Cartwright."
+title="Rev. Edmund Cartwright.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Rev. Edmund Cartwright.</span><br> (Portrait by Robert Fulton.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211"></a>(p. 211)</span> While Cartwright was experimenting on the power loom, an
+invention was made far from England which was in reality an essential
+part of the improvement in the manufacture of cotton goods. This was
+the American cotton gin, for the removal of the seeds from the fibre
+of the boll, invented by Eli Whitney in 1792. Cotton had been
+introduced into the Southern states during the Revolutionary war. Its
+cultivation and export now became profitable, and a source of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212"></a>(p. 212)</span> supply became available at the very time that the inventions
+for its manufacture were being perfected.</p>
+
+<p>Spinning-jennies could be used in the household of the weaver; but the
+later spinning-machines were so large and cumbrous that they could not
+be used in a dwelling-house, and required so much power and rapidity
+of motion that human strength was scarcely available. Horse power was
+used to some extent, but water power was soon applied and special
+buildings came to be put up along streams where water power was
+available. The next stage was the application of steam power. Although
+the possibility of using steam for the production of force had long
+been familiar, and indeed used to some extent in the pumping out of
+mines, it did not become available for general uses until the
+improvements of James Watt, patented in 1769 and succeeding years. In
+partnership with a man named Boulton, Watt began the manufacture of
+steam-engines in 1781. In 1785 the first steam-engine was used for
+power in a cotton mill. After that time the use of steam became more
+and more general and by the end of the century steam power was
+evidently superseding water power.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>57. The Factory System.</strong>&mdash;But other things were needed to make this new
+machinery available. It was much too expensive for the old cottage
+weavers to buy and use. Capital had, therefore, to be brought into
+manufacturing which had been previously used in trade or other
+employments. Capital was in reality abundant relatively to existing
+opportunities for investment, and the early machine spinners and
+weavers drew into partnership moneyed men from the towns who had
+previously no connection with manufacturing. Again, the new industry
+required bodies of laborers working regular hours under the control of
+their employers and in the buildings where the machines were placed
+and the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213"></a>(p. 213)</span> power provided. Such groups of laborers or "mill
+hands" were gradually collected where the new kind of manufacturing
+was going on. Thus factories, in the modern sense, came into
+existence&mdash;a new phenomenon in the world.</p>
+
+<a id="img043" name="img043"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img043.jpg" width="500" height="329" alt="Mule-spinning in 1835."
+title="Mule-spinning in 1835.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Mule-spinning in 1835.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img044" name="img044"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img044.jpg" width="500" height="345" alt="Power-loom Weaving in 1835."
+title="Power-loom Weaving in 1835.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Power-loom Weaving in 1835</span>. (Baines: <i>History of Cotton
+Manufacture</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>These changes in manufacturing and in the organization of labor came
+about earliest in the manufacture of cotton goods, but the new
+machinery and its resulting changes were soon introduced into the
+woollen manufacture, then other textile lines, and ultimately into
+still other branches of manufacturing, such as the production of
+metal, wooden, and leather goods, and, indeed, into nearly all forms
+of production. Manufacturing since the last decades of the eighteenth
+century is therefore usually described as being done by the "factory
+system," as contrasted with the domestic system and the gild system of
+earlier times.</p>
+
+<p>The introduction of the factory system involved many changes: the
+adoption of machinery and artificial power, the use of a vastly
+greater amount of capital, and the collection of scattered laborers
+into great strictly regulated establishments. It was, comparatively
+speaking, sudden, all its main features having been developed within
+the period between 1760 and 1800; and it resulted in the raising of
+many new and difficult social problems. For these reasons the term
+"Industrial Revolution," so generally applied to it, is not an
+exaggerated nor an unsuitable term. Almost all other forms of economic
+occupation have subsequently taken on the main characteristics of the
+factory system, in utilizing improved machinery, in the extensive
+scale on which they are administered, in the use of large capital, and
+in the organization of employees in large bodies. The industrial
+revolution may therefore be regarded as the chief characteristic
+distinguishing this period and the times since from all earlier ages.</p>
+
+<a id="img045" name="img045"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img045.jpg" width="500" height="321" alt="A Canal and Factory Town in 1827."
+title="A Canal and Factory Town in 1827.">
+<p><span class="smcap">A Canal and Factory Town in 1827</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214"></a>(p. 214)</span> <strong>58. Iron, Coal, and Transportation.</strong>&mdash;A vast increase in the
+production of iron and coal was going on concurrently with the rise of
+the factory system. The smelting of iron ore was one of the oldest
+industries of England, but it was a declining rather than an advancing
+industry. This was due to the exhaustion of the woods and forests that
+provided fuel, or to their retention for the future needs of
+ship-building and for pleasure parks. In 1760, however, Mr. Roebuck
+introduced at the Carron iron-works a new kind of blast furnace by
+which iron ore could be smelted with coal as fuel. In 1790 the
+steam-engine was introduced to cause the blast. Production had already
+begun to advance before the latter date, and it now increased by
+thousands of tons a year till far into the present century.
+Improvements were introduced in puddling, rolling, and other processes
+of the manufacture of iron at about the same time. The production of
+coal increased more than proportionately. New devices in mining were
+introduced, such as steam <span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215"></a>(p. 215)</span> pumps, the custom of supporting
+the roofs of the veins with timber instead of pillars of coal, and Sir
+Humphry Davy's safety lamp of 1815. The smelting of iron and the use
+of the steam-engine made such a demand for coal that capital was
+applied in large quantities to its production, and more than ten
+million tons a year were mined before the century closed.</p>
+
+<a id="img046" name="img046"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img046.jpg" width="500" height="423" alt="&quot;The Rocket&quot; Locomotive, 1825."
+title="&quot;The Rocket&quot; Locomotive, 1825.">
+<p><span class="smcap">&quot;The Rocket&quot; Locomotive</span>, 1825.<br> (Smiles: <i>Life of George
+Stephenson</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Some slight improvements in roads and canals had been made and others
+projected during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; but
+in the last quarter of the century the work of Telford, Macadam, and
+other engineers, and of the private turnpike companies or public
+authorities who engaged them, covered England with good roads. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216"></a>(p. 216)</span> first canal was that from Worsley to Manchester, built by
+Brindley for the duke of Bridgewater in 1761. Within a few years a
+system of canals had been constructed which gave ready transportation
+for goods through all parts of the country. The continuance of this
+development of transportation and its fundamental modification by the
+introduction of railways and steamboats has been one of the most
+striking characteristics of the nineteenth century.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>59. The Revival of Enclosures.</strong>&mdash;The changes which the latter half of
+the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth brought
+were as profound in the occupation and use of the land as they were in
+the production and transportation of manufactured goods. An
+agricultural revolution was in progress as truly as was the
+industrial.</p>
+
+<p>The improvements in the methods of farming already referred to as
+showing themselves earlier in the century became much more extensive.
+The raising of turnips and other root crops spread from experimental
+to ordinary farms so that a fallow year with no crop at all in the
+ground came to be almost unknown. Clover and artificial grasses for
+hay came to be raised generally, so that the supply of forage for the
+winter was abundant. New breeds of sheep and cattle were obtained by
+careful crossing and plentiful feeding, so that the average size was
+almost doubled, while the meat, and in some cases the wool, was
+improved in quality in even greater proportion. The names of such men
+as Jethro Tull, who introduced the "drill husbandry," Bakewell, the
+great improver of the breeds of cattle, and Arthur Young, the greatest
+agricultural observer and writer of the century, have become almost as
+familiar as those of Crompton, Arkwright, Watt, and other pioneers of
+the factory system. The general improvement in agricultural methods
+was due, not so much to new discoveries or inventions, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217"></a>(p. 217)</span> as it
+was to the large amount of capital which was introduced into their
+practice. Expensive schemes of draining, marling, and other forms of
+fertilizing were carried out, long and careful investigations were
+entered upon, and managers of large farms were trained in special
+processes by landlords and farmers who had the command of large sums
+of money; and with the high prices prevalent they were abundantly
+remunerated for the outlay. Great numbers of "gentlemen farmers," such
+as Lord Townshend, the duke of Bedford, and George III himself, who
+wrote articles for the agricultural papers signed "Farmer George,"
+were leaders in this agricultural progress. In 1793 a government Board
+of Agriculture was established, and through the whole latter part of
+the century numerous societies for the encouragement of scientific
+tillage and breeding were organized.</p>
+
+<p>In the early years of the eighteenth century there had been signs of a
+revival of the old process of enclosures, which had been suspended for
+more than a hundred years. This was brought about by private acts of
+Parliament. An act would be passed by Parliament giving legal
+authority to the inhabitants of some parish to throw together the
+scattered strips, and to redivide these and the common meadows and
+pastures in such a way that each person with any claim on the land
+should receive a proportionate share, and should have it separated
+from all others and entirely in his own control. It was the usual
+procedure for the lord of the manor, the rector of the parish, and
+other large landholders and persons of influence to agree on the
+general conditions of enclosure and draw up a bill appointing
+commissioners, and providing for survey, compensation, redistribution,
+and other requirements. They then submitted this bill to Parliament,
+where, unless there was some special reason <span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218"></a>(p. 218)</span> to the contrary,
+it was passed. Its provisions were then carried out, and although
+legal and parliamentary fees and the expenses of survey and enclosure
+were large, yet as a result each inhabitant who had been able to make
+out a legal claim to any of the land of the parish received either
+some money compensation or a stretch of enclosed land. Such private
+enclosure acts increased slowly in number till about the middle of the
+century, when the increase became much more rapid.</p>
+
+<p>The number of enclosure acts passed by Parliament and the approximate
+extent of land enclosed under their provisions were as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table  border="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Enclosure acts, and approximate extent of land enclosed.">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="30%">
+    <col width="10%">
+    <col width="10%">
+    <col width="10%">
+    <col width="30%">
+    <col width="10%">
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td>1700-1759</td>
+<td class="td-right">244</td>
+<td class="td-center">Enclosure</td>
+<td class="td-center">Bills</td>
+<td class="td-right">337,877</td>
+<td class="td-center">Acres</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1760-1769</td>
+<td class="td-right">385</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-right">704,550</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1770-1779</td>
+<td class="td-right">660</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-right">1,207,800</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1780-1789</td>
+<td class="td-right">246</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-right">450,180</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1790-1799</td>
+<td class="td-right">469</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-right">858,270</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1800-1809</td>
+<td class="td-right">847</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-right">1,550,010</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1810-1819</td>
+<td class="td-right">853</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-right">1,560,990</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1820-1829</td>
+<td class="td-right">205</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-right">375,150</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1830-1839</td>
+<td class="td-right">136</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-right">248,880</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1840-1849</td>
+<td class="td-right">66</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+<td class="td-right">394,747</td>
+<td class="td-center">"</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>In 1756, 1758, and 1773 general acts were passed encouraging the
+enclosure for common use of open pastures and arable fields, but not
+enclosing or dividing them permanently, and not providing for any
+separate ownership.</p>
+
+<p>In 1801 an act was passed to make simpler and easier the passage of
+private bills for enclosure; and in 1836 another to make possible,
+with the consent of two-thirds of the persons interested, the
+enclosing of certain kinds of common fields even without appealing to
+Parliament in each particular case. Finally, in 1845, the general
+Enclosure Act of that year carried the policy of 1836 further and
+appointed a body of Enclosure Commissioners, to determine <span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219"></a>(p. 219)</span> on
+the expediency of any proposed enclosure and to attend to carrying it
+out if approved. Six years afterward, however, an amendment was passed
+making it necessary that even after an enclosure had been approved by
+the Commissioners it should go to Parliament for final decision.</p>
+
+<p>By measures such as these the greater part of the lands which had
+remained unenclosed to modern times were transformed into enclosed
+fields for separate cultivation or pasture. This process of enclosure
+was intended to make possible, and no doubt did bring about, much
+improved agriculture. It exerted incidentally a profound effect on the
+rural population. Many persons had habitually used the common pastures
+and open fields for pasture purposes, when they had in reality no
+legal claim whatever to such use. A poor man whose cow, donkey, or
+flock of geese had picked up a precarious livelihood on land of
+undistinguished ownership now found the land all enclosed and his
+immemorial privileges withdrawn without compensation. Naturally there
+was much dissatisfaction. A popular piece of doggerel declared that:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem20">
+  "The law locks up the man or woman<br>
+  Who steals the goose from off the common;<br>
+  But leaves the greater villain loose<br>
+  Who steals the common from the goose."</p>
+
+<p>Again, a small holder was frequently given compensation in the form of
+money instead of allotting to him a piece of land which was considered
+by the commissioners too small for effective use. The money was soon
+spent, whereas his former claim on the land had lasted because it
+could not readily be alienated.</p>
+
+<p>A more important effect, however, was the introduction on these
+enclosed lands of a kind of agriculture which the small landholder was
+ill fitted to follow. Improved cultivation, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220"></a>(p. 220)</span> a careful
+rotation of crops, better fertilizers, drainage, farm stock, and labor
+were the characteristics of the new farming, and these were ordinarily
+practicable only to the man who had some capital, knowledge, and
+enterprise. Therefore, coincidently with the enclosures began a
+process by which the smaller tenants began to give up their holdings
+to men who could pay more rent for them by consolidating them into
+larger farms. The freeholders also who owned small farms from time to
+time sold them to neighboring landowners when difficulties forced them
+or high prices furnished inducements.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>60. Decay of Domestic Manufacture.</strong>&mdash;This process would have been a
+much slower one but for the contemporaneous changes that were going on
+in manufacturing. As has been seen, many small farmers in the rural
+districts made part of their livelihood by weaving or other domestic
+manufacture, or, as more properly described, the domestic
+manufacturers frequently eked out their resources by carrying on some
+farming. But the invention of machinery for spinning not only created
+a new industry, but destroyed the old. Cotton thread could be produced
+vastly more cheaply by machinery. In 1786 a certain quantity of a
+certain grade of spun yarn was worth 38 shillings; ten years later, in
+1796, it was worth only 19 shillings; in 1806 it was worth but 7
+shillings 2 pence, and so on down till, in 1832, it was worth but 3
+shillings. Part of this reduction in price was due to the decrease in
+the cost of raw cotton, but far the most of it to the cheapening of
+spinning.</p>
+
+<p>It was the same a few years later with weaving. Hand-loom weavers in
+Bolton, who received 25 shillings a week as wages in 1800, received
+only 19 shillings and 6 pence in 1810, 9 shillings in 1820, and 5
+shillings 6 pence in 1830. Hand work in other lines of manufacture
+showed the same <span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221"></a>(p. 221)</span> results. Against such reductions in wages
+resistance was hopeless. Hand work evidently could not compete with
+machine work. No amount of skill or industry or determination could
+enable the hand workers to make their living in the same way as of
+old. As a matter of fact, a long, sad, desperate struggle was kept up
+by a whole generation of hand laborers, especially by the hand-loom
+weavers, but the result was inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>The rural domestic manufacturers were, as a matter of fact, devoting
+themselves to two inferior forms of industry. As far as they were
+handicraftsmen, they were competing with a vastly cheaper and better
+form of manufacture; as far as they were farmers, they were doing the
+same thing with regard to agriculture. Under these circumstances some
+of them gave up their holdings of land and drifted away to the towns
+to keep up the struggle a little longer as hand-loom weavers, and then
+to become laborers in the factories; others gave up their looms and
+devoted themselves entirely to farming for a while, but eventually
+sold their holdings or gave up their leases, and dropped into the
+class of agricultural laborers. The result was the same in either
+case. The small farms were consolidated, the class of yeomanry or
+small farmers died out, and household manufacture gave place to that
+of the factory. Before the end of the century the average size of
+English farms was computed at three hundred acres, and soon afterward
+domestic spinning and weaving were almost unknown.</p>
+
+<p>There was considerable shifting of population. Certain parts of the
+country which had been quite thickly populated with small farmers or
+domestic manufacturers now lost the greater part of their occupants by
+migration to the newer manufacturing districts or to America. As in
+the sixteenth century, some villages disappeared entirely. Goldsmith
+in the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222"></a>(p. 222)</span> <i>Deserted Village</i> described changes that really
+occurred, however opposed to the facts may have been his description
+of the earlier idyllic life whose destruction he deplored.</p>
+
+<p>The existence of unenclosed commons and common fields had been
+accompanied by very poor farming, very thriftless and shiftless
+habits. The improvement of agriculture, the application of capital to
+that occupation, the disappearance of the domestic system of industry,
+and other changes made the enclosure of common land and the
+accompanying changes inevitable. None the less it was a relatively
+sudden and complete interference with the established character of
+rural life, and not only was the process accompanied with much
+suffering, but the form which took its place was marked by some
+serious disadvantages. This form was brought about through the rapid
+culmination of old familiar tendencies. The classes connected with the
+land came to be quite clearly distinguished into three groups: the
+landlords, the tenant farmers, and the farm laborers. The landlord
+class was a comparatively small body of nobility and gentry, a few
+thousand persons, who owned by far the greater portion of the land of
+the country. Their estates were for the most part divided up into
+farms, to the keeping of which in productive condition they
+contributed the greater part of the expense, to the administration of
+which trained stewards applied themselves, and in the improvement of
+which their owners often took a keen and enlightened interest. They
+received high rents, possessed unlimited local influence, and were the
+favored governing class of the country. The class of farmers were men
+of some capital, and frequently of intelligence and enterprise, though
+rarely of education, who held on lease from the landlords farms of
+some one, two, or three or more hundred acres, paying relatively large
+rents, and yet by the excellence of their farming making <span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223"></a>(p. 223)</span> for
+themselves a liberal income. The farm laborers were the residuum of
+the changes which have been traced in the history of landholding; a
+large class living for the most part miserably in cottages grouped in
+villages, holding no land, and receiving day wages for working on the
+farms just described.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the improvements in agriculture and the increase in
+the extent of cultivated land, England ceased within the eighteenth
+century to be a self-supporting country in food products. The form
+which the "corn laws" had taken in 1689 had been as follows: the
+raising of wheat was encouraged by prohibiting its importation and
+paying a bounty of about eightpence a bushel for its exportation so
+long as the prevailing price was less than six shillings a bushel.
+When it was between six shillings and six shillings eightpence a
+bushel its importation was forbidden, but there was no bounty paid for
+exportation. Between the last price and ten shillings a bushel it
+could be imported by paying a duty of a shilling a bushel. Above the
+last price it could be imported free. Nevertheless, during the latter
+half of the eighteenth century it became evident that there was no
+longer a sufficient amount of wheat raised for the needs of the
+English people. Between 1770 and 1790 exports and imports about
+balanced one another, but after the latter year the imports always
+exceeded the exports.</p>
+
+<p>This was of course due to the great increase of population and to its
+employment in the field of manufactures. The population in England in
+1700 was about five millions, in 1750 about six millions and a half,
+in 1800 about nine millions, and in 1850 about eighteen millions. That
+is to say, its progress was slow during the first half of the
+eighteenth century, more rapid during the latter half, and vastly more
+rapid during the nineteenth century.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224"></a>(p. 224)</span> <strong>61. The Laissez-faire Theory.</strong>&mdash;A scarcely less complete
+change than that which had occurred in manufactures, in agriculture,
+and in social life as based upon these, was that which was in progress
+at the same time in the realm of ideas, especially as applied to
+questions of economic and social life. The complete acceptance of the
+view that it was a natural and desirable part of the work of
+government to regulate the economic life of the people had persisted
+well past the middle of the eighteenth century. But very different
+tendencies of thought arose in the latter part of the century. One of
+these was the prevailing desire for greater liberty. The word liberty
+was defined differently by different men, but for all alike it meant a
+resistance to oppression, a revulsion against interference with
+personal freedom of action, a disinclination to be controlled any more
+than absolutely necessary, a belief that men had a right to be left
+free to do as they chose, so far as such freedom was practicable.</p>
+
+<p>As applied to economic interests this liberty meant freedom for each
+person to make his living in the way he might see fit, and without any
+external restriction. Adam Smith says: "The patrimony of a poor man
+lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands; and to hinder him
+from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks
+proper, without injury to his neighbor, is a plain violation of this
+most sacred property. It is a manifest encroachment upon the just
+liberty both of the workman and of those who might be disposed to
+employ him. As it hinders the one from working at what he thinks
+proper, so it hinders the other from employing whom they think
+proper." Government regulation, therefore, in as far as it restricted
+men's freedom of action in working, employing, buying, selling, etc.,
+was an interference with their natural liberty.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225"></a>(p. 225)</span> A second influence in the same direction was the prevalent
+belief that most of the evils that existed in society were due to the
+mistakes of civilization, that if men could get back to a "state of
+nature" and start again, things might be much better. It was felt that
+there was too much artificiality, too much interference with natural
+development. Arthur Young condemned the prevailing policy of
+government, "because it consists of prohibiting the natural course of
+things. All restrictive forcible measures in domestic policy are bad."
+Regulation was unwise because it forced men's actions into artificial
+lines when it would have been much better to let them follow natural
+lines. Therefore it was felt not only that men had a right to carry on
+their economic affairs as they chose, but that it was wise to allow
+them to do so, because interference or regulation had been tried and
+found wanting. It had produced evil rather than good.</p>
+
+<p>A third and by far the most important intellectual influence which
+tended toward the destruction of the system of regulation was the
+development of a consistent body of economic teaching, which claimed
+to have discovered natural laws showing the futility and injuriousness
+of any such attempts. Adam Smith's <i>Wealth of Nations</i> was published
+in 1776, the year of the invention of Crompton's mule, and in the
+decade when enclosures were more rapid than at any other time, except
+in the middle years of the Napoleonic wars. This was, therefore, one
+of the earliest, as it was far the most influential, of a series of
+books which represent the changes in ideas correlative to the changes
+in actual life already described. It has been described as having for
+its main object "to demonstrate that the most effectual plan for
+advancing a people to greatness is to maintain that order of things
+which nature has pointed out, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226"></a>(p. 226)</span> by allowing every man, as long
+as he observes the rules of justice, to pursue his own interests in
+his own way, and to bring both his industry and his capital into the
+freest competition with those of his fellow-citizens." But the most
+distinct influence exercised by the writings of Adam Smith and his
+successors was not so much in pointing out that it was unjust or
+unwise to interfere with men's natural liberty in the pursuit of their
+interests, as in showing, as it was believed, that there were natural
+laws which made all interference incapable of reaching the ends it
+aimed at. A series of works were published in the latter years of the
+eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth century by Malthus,
+Ricardo, Macculloch, James Mill, and others, in which principles were
+enunciated and laws formulated which were believed to explain why all
+interference with free competition was useless or worse. Not only was
+the whole subject of economic relations clarified, much that had been
+regarded as wise brought into doubt, and much that had been only
+doubted shown to be absurd, but the attainment of many objects
+previously sought for was, apparently, shown to be impossible, and to
+lie outside of the realm of human control.</p>
+
+<p>It was pointed out, for instance, that because of the limited amount
+of capital in existence at any one time, "a demand for commodities is
+not a demand for labor;" and therefore a law like that which required
+burial in a woollen shroud did not give added occupation to the
+people, but only diverted them from one occupation to another. Ricardo
+developed a law of wages to the effect that they always tend to the
+amount "necessary to enable the laborer to subsist, and to perpetuate
+his race without either increase or diminution," and that any
+artificial raising or lowering of wages is impossible, or else causes
+an increase or diminution in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227"></a>(p. 227)</span> their number which, through
+competition, soon brings back the old rate. Rent was also explained by
+Ricardo as arising from the differences of quality between different
+pieces of land, and as measured by the difference in the productivity
+of the land under consideration and that of the poorest land under
+cultivation at the time; and therefore being in its amount independent
+of direct human control. The Malthusian law of population showed that
+population tended to increase in a geometrical ratio, subsistence for
+the population, on the other hand, only in an arithmetical ratio, and
+that poverty was, therefore, the natural and inevitable result in old
+countries of a pressure of population on subsistence. The sanction of
+science was thus given alike to the desires of the lovers of freedom
+and to the regrets of those who deplored man's departure from the
+state of nature.</p>
+
+<p>All these intellectual tendencies and reasonings of the later
+eighteenth century, therefore, combined to discredit the minute
+regulation of economic society, which had been the traditional policy
+of the immediately preceding centuries. The movement of thought was
+definitely opposed to the continuance or extension of the supervision
+of the government over matters of labor, wages, hours, industry,
+commerce, agriculture, or other phenomena of production, distribution,
+exchange, or consumption. This set of opinions is known as the
+<i>laissez-faire</i> theory of the functions of government, the view that
+the duties of government should be reduced to the smallest possible
+number, and that it should keep out of the economic sphere altogether.
+Adam Smith would have restricted the functions of government to three:
+to protect the nation from the attacks of other nations, to protect
+each person in the nation from the injustice or violence of other
+individuals, and to carry on certain educational or similar
+institutions which were of general <span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228"></a>(p. 228)</span> utility, but not to any
+one's private interest. Many of his successors would have cut off the
+last duty altogether.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>62. Cessation of Government Regulation</strong>&mdash;These theoretical opinions
+came to be more and more widely held, more and more influential over
+the most thoughtful of English statesmen and other men of prominence,
+until within the first half of the nineteenth century it may be said
+that their acceptance was general and their influence dominant. They
+fell in with the actual tendencies of the times, and as a result of
+the natural breaking down of old conditions, the rise of new, and the
+general acceptance of this attitude of <i>laissez-faire</i>, a rapid and
+general decay of the system of government regulation took place.</p>
+
+<p>The old regulation had never been so complete in reality as it was on
+the statute book, and much of it had died out of itself. Some of the
+provisions of the Statute of Apprentices were persistently
+disregarded, and when appeals were made for its application to farm
+work in the latter part of the eighteenth century Parliament refused
+to enforce it, as they did in the case of discharged soldiers in 1726
+and of certain dyers in 1777. The assize of bread was very irregularly
+enforced, and that of other victuals had been given up altogether.
+Many commercial companies were growing up without regulation by
+government, and in the world of finance the hand of government was
+very light. The new manufactures and the new agriculture grew up to a
+large extent apart from government control or influence; while the
+forms to which the old regulation did apply were dying out. In the new
+factory industry practically the whole body of the employees were
+without the qualifications required by the Statute of Apprentices, as
+well as many of the hand-loom weavers who were drawn into the industry
+by the abundance and cheapness of machine-spun <span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229"></a>(p. 229)</span> thread. In
+the early years of the nineteenth century a strenuous effort was made
+by the older weavers to have the law enforced against them. The whole
+matter was investigated by Parliament, but instead of enforcing the
+old law they modified it by acts passed in 1803 and 1809, so as to
+allow of greater liberty. The old prohibition of using fulling mills
+passed in 1553 was also repealed in 1809. The Statute of Apprentices
+after being weakened piecemeal as just mentioned, and by a further
+amendment removing the wages clauses in 1813, and after being referred
+to by Lord Mansfield as "against the natural rights and contrary to
+the common law rights of the land," was finally removed from the
+statute book in 1814. Even the "Combination Acts," which had forbidden
+laborers to unite to settle wages and hours, were repealed in 1824.
+Similar changes took place in other fields than those of the relations
+between employers and employees. The leading characteristics of
+legislation on questions of commerce, manufactures, and agriculture
+during the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half
+of the nineteenth consist in the fact that it almost wholly tended
+toward freedom from government control. The proportions in which the
+influence of the natural breaking down of an outgrown system, of the
+new conditions which were arising, and of pure theory were combined
+cannot of course be distinguished. All were present. Besides this
+there is always a large number of persons in the community who would
+be primarily benefited by a change, and who therefore take the
+initiative or exercise a special pressure in favor of it.</p>
+
+<p>The Navigation Acts began to go to pieces in 1796, when the old rule
+restricting importations from America, Asia, and Africa to British
+vessels was withdrawn in favor of the United States; in 1811 the same
+permission to send goods <span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230"></a>(p. 230)</span> to England in other than British
+vessels was given to Brazil, and in 1822 to the Spanish-American
+countries. The whole subject was investigated by a Parliamentary
+Commission in 1820, at the request of the London Chamber of Commerce,
+and a policy of withdrawal from control determined upon. In 1823 a
+measure was passed by which the crown was empowered to form
+reciprocity treaties with any other country so far as shipping was
+concerned, and agreements were immediately entered into with Prussia,
+Denmark, Hamburg, Sweden, and within the next twenty years with most
+other important countries. The old laws of 1660 were repealed in 1826,
+and a freer system substituted, while in 1849 the Navigation Acts were
+abolished altogether. In the meantime the monopoly of the old
+regulated companies was being withdrawn, the India trade being thrown
+open in 1813 and given up entirely by the Company in 1833. Gradually
+the commerce of England and of all the English colonies was opened
+equally to the vessels of all nations.</p>
+
+<p>A beginning of removal of the import and export duties, which had been
+laid for the purpose of encouraging or discouraging or otherwise
+influencing certain lines of production or trade, was made in a
+commercial treaty entered into by Pitt with France in 1786. The work
+was seriously taken up again in 1824 and 1825 by Mr. Huskisson, and in
+1842 by Sir Robert Peel. In 1845 the duty was removed from four
+hundred and thirty articles, partly raw materials, partly
+manufactures. But the most serious struggle in the movement for free
+trade was that for the repeal of the corn laws. A new law had been
+passed at the close of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, by which the
+importation of wheat was forbidden so long as the prevailing price was
+not above ten shillings a bushel. This was in pursuance <span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231"></a>(p. 231)</span> of
+the old traditional policy of encouraging the production of grain in
+order that England might be at least partially self-supporting, and
+was further justified on the ground that the landowners paid the great
+bulk of the taxes, which they could not do if the price of grain were
+allowed to be brought down by foreign competition. Nevertheless an
+active propaganda for the abolition of this law was begun by the
+formation of the "Anti-Corn Law League," in 1839. Richard Cobden
+became the president and the most famous representative of this
+society, which carried on an active agitation for some years. The
+chief interest in the abolition of the law would necessarily be taken
+by the manufacturing employers, the wages of whose employees could
+thus be made lower and more constant, but there were abundant other
+arguments against the laws, and their abandonment was entirely in
+conformity with the spirit of the age. At the close of 1845,
+therefore, Peel proposed their repeal, the matter was brought up in
+Parliament in the early months of 1846, and a sliding scale was
+adopted by which a slight temporary protection should continue until
+1849, when any protective tariff on wheat was to cease altogether,
+though a nominal duty of about one and a half pence a bushel was still
+to be collected. This is known as the "adoption of free trade."</p>
+
+<p>It remains to be noted in this connection that "free trade in land"
+was an expression often used during the same period, and consisted in
+an effort marked by a long series of acts of Parliament and
+regulations of the courts to simplify the title to land, the processes
+of buying and selling it, and in other ways making its use and
+disposal as simple and uncontrolled by external regulation as was
+commerce or any form of industry.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the structure of regulation of industry, which had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232"></a>(p. 232)</span> been
+built up in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or which had
+survived from the Middle Ages, was now torn down; the use of the
+powers of government to make men carry on their economic life in a
+certain way, to buy and sell, labor and hire, manufacture and
+cultivate, export and import, only in such ways as were thought to be
+best for the nation, seemed to be entirely abandoned. The
+<i>laissez-faire</i> view of government was to all appearances becoming
+entirely dominant.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>63. Individualism.</strong>&mdash;But the prevailing tendencies of thought and the
+economic teaching of the period were not merely negative and opposed
+to government regulation; they contained a positive element also. If
+there was to be no external control, what incentive would actuate men
+in their industrial existence? What force would hold economic society
+together? The answer was a plain one. Enlightened self-interest was
+the incentive, universal free competition was the force. James
+Anderson, in his <i>Political Economy</i>, published in 1801, says,
+"Private interest is the great source of public good, which, though
+operating unseen, never ceases one moment to act with unabating power,
+if it be not perverted by the futile regulations of some short-sighted
+politician." Again, Malthus, in his <i>Essay on Population</i>, in 1817,
+says: "By making the passion of self-love beyond comparison stronger
+than the passion of benevolence, the more ignorant are led to pursue
+the general happiness, an end which they would have totally failed to
+attain if the moving principle of their conduct had been benevolence.
+Benevolence, indeed, as the great and constant source of action, would
+require the most perfect knowledge of causes and effects, and
+therefore can only be the attribute of the Deity. In a being so
+short-sighted as man it would lead to the grossest errors, and soon
+transform <span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233"></a>(p. 233)</span> the fair and cultivated soil of human society into
+a dreary scene of want and confusion."</p>
+
+<p>In other words, a natural and sufficient economic force was always
+tending to act and to produce the best results, except in as far as it
+was interfered with by external regulation. If a man wishes to earn
+wages, to receive payment, he must observe what work another man wants
+done, or what goods another man desires, and offer to do that work or
+furnish those goods, so that the other man may be willing to
+remunerate him. In this way both obtain what they want, and if all
+others are similarly occupied all wants will be satisfied so far as
+practicable. But men must be entirely free to act as they think best,
+to choose what and when and how they will produce. The best results
+will be obtained where the greatest freedom exists, where men may
+compete with one another freed from all trammels, at liberty to pay or
+ask such wages, to demand or offer such prices, to accept or reject
+such goods, as they wish or can agree upon. If everybody else is
+equally free the man who offers the best to his neighbor will be
+preferred. Effort will thus be stimulated, self-reliance encouraged,
+production increased, improvement attained, and economy guaranteed.
+Nor should there be any special favor or encouragement given by
+government or by any other bodies to any special individuals or
+classes of persons or kinds of industry, for in this way capital and
+labor will be diverted from the direction which they would naturally
+take, and the self-reliance and energy of such favored persons
+diminished.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore complete individualism, universal freedom of competition,
+was the ideal of the age, as far as there is ever any universal ideal.
+There certainly was a general belief among the greater number of the
+intelligent and influential classes, that when each person was freely
+seeking his own <span class="pagenum"><a id="page234" name="page234"></a>(p. 234)</span> best interest he was doing the best for
+himself and for all. Economic society was conceived of as a number of
+freely competing units held in equilibrium by the force of
+competition, much as the material universe is held together by the
+attraction of gravitation. Any hindrance to this freedom of the
+individual to compete freely with all others, any artificial support
+or encouragement that gives him an advantage over others, is against
+his own real interest and that of society.</p>
+
+<p>This ideal was necessarily as much opposed to voluntary combinations,
+and to restrictions imposed by custom or agreement, as it was to
+government regulation. Individualism is much more than a mere
+<i>laissez-faire</i> policy of government. It believes that every man
+should remain and be allowed to remain free, unrestricted, undirected,
+unassisted, so that he may be in a position at any time to direct his
+labor, ability, capital, enterprise, in any direction that may seem to
+him most desirable, and may be induced to put forth his best efforts
+to attain success. The arguments on which it was based were drawn from
+the domain of men's natural right to economic as to other freedom;
+from experience, by which it was believed that all regulation had
+proved to be injurious; and from economic doctrine, which was believed
+to have discovered natural laws that proved the necessary result of
+interference to be evil, or at best futile.</p>
+
+<p>The changes of the time were favorable to this ideal. Men had never
+been so free from external control by government or any other power.
+The completion of the process of enclosure left every agriculturist at
+liberty to plant and raise what he chose, and when and how he chose.
+The reform of the poor law in 1834 abolished the act of settlement of
+1662, by which the authorities of each parish <span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235"></a>(p. 235)</span> had the power
+to remove to the place from which they came any laborers who entered
+it, and so far as the law was concerned, farm laborers were now free
+to come and go where they chose to seek for work. In the new
+factories, systems of transportation, and other large establishments
+that were taking the places of small ones, employees were at liberty
+to leave their engagements at any time they chose, to go to another
+employer or another occupation; and the employer had the same liberty
+of discharging at a moment's notice. Manufacturers were at liberty to
+make anything they chose, and hire laborers in whatever proportion
+they chose. And just as early modern regulation had been given up, so
+the few fragments of mediæval restrictive institutions that had
+survived the intervening centuries were now rapidly abandoned in the
+stress of competitive society. Later forms of restriction, such as
+trade unions and trusts, had not yet grown up. Actual conditions and
+the theoretical statement of what was desirable approximated to one
+another more nearly than they usually have in the world's history.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>64. Social Conditions at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century.</strong>&mdash;Yet
+somehow the results were disappointing. More and better manufactured
+goods were produced and foreign goods sold, and at vastly lower
+prices. The same result would probably have been true in agriculture
+had not the corn laws long prevented this consummation, and instead
+distributed the surplus to paupers and the holders of government bonds
+through the medium of taxes. There was no doubt of English wealth and
+progress. England held the primacy of the world in commerce, in
+manufactures, in agriculture. Her rapid increase in wealth had enabled
+her to bear the burden, not only of her own part in the Napoleonic
+wars, but of much of the expense of the armament of the continental
+countries. Population also was increasing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236"></a>(p. 236)</span> more rapidly than
+ever before. She stood before the world as the most prominent and
+successful modern nation in all material respects. Yet a closer
+examination into her internal condition shows much that was deeply
+unsatisfactory. The period of transition from the domestic to the
+factory system of industry and from the older to the new farming
+conditions was one of almost unrelieved misery to great masses of
+those who were wedded to the old ways, who had neither the capital,
+the enterprise, nor the physical nor mental adaptability to attach
+themselves to the new. The hand-loom weavers kept up a hopeless
+struggle in the garrets and cellars of the factory towns, while their
+wages were sinking lower and lower till finally the whole generation
+died out. The small farmers who lost the support of spinning and other
+by-industries succumbed in the competition with the larger producers.
+The cottagers whose commons were lost to them by enclosures frequently
+failed to find a niche for themselves in their own part of the
+country, and became paupers or vagabonds. Many of the same sad
+incidents which marked the sixteenth century were characteristic of
+this period of analogous change, when ultimate improvement was being
+bought at the price of much immediate misery.</p>
+
+<a id="img047" name="img047"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img047.jpg" width="500" height="330" alt="Carding, Drawing, and Roving in 1835."
+title="Carding, Drawing, and Roving in 1835.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Carding, Drawing, and Roving in 1835.</span><br> (Baines: <i>History
+of Cotton Manufacture</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Even among those who were supposed to have reaped the advantages of
+the changes of the time many unpleasant phenomena appeared. The farm
+laborers were not worse, perhaps were better off on the average, in
+the matter of wages, than those of the previous generation, but they
+were more completely separated from the land than they had ever been
+before, more completely deprived of those wholesome influences which
+come from the use of even a small portion of land, and of the
+incitement to thrift that comes from the possibility of rising. Few
+classes of people have ever been more utterly without enjoyment or
+prospects than the modern <span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237"></a>(p. 237)</span> English farm laborers. And one
+class, the yeomen, somewhat higher in position and certainly in
+opportunities, had disappeared entirely, recruited into the class of
+mere laborers.</p>
+
+<p>In the early factories, women and children were employed more
+extensively and more persistently than in earlier forms of industry.
+Their labor was in greater demand than that of men. In 1839, of 31,632
+employees in worsted mills, 18,416, or considerably more than half,
+were under eighteen years of age, and of the 13,216 adults, 10,192
+were women, leaving only 3024 adult men among more than 30,000
+laborers. In 1832, in a certain flax spinning mill near Leeds, where
+about 1200 employees were engaged, 829 were below eighteen, only 390
+above; and in the flax spinning industry generally, in 1835, only
+about one-third were adults, and only about one-third of these were
+men. In the still earlier years of the factory system the proportion
+of women and children was even greater, though reliable general
+statistics are not available. The cheaper wages, the easier control,
+and the smaller size of women and children, now that actual physical
+power was not required, made them more desirable to employers, and in
+many families the men clung to hand work while the women and children
+went into the factories.</p>
+
+<p>The early mills were small, hot, damp, dusty, and unhealthy. They were
+not more so perhaps than the cottages where domestic industry had been
+carried on; but now the hours were more regular, continuous, and
+prolonged in which men, women, and children were subjected to such
+labor. All had to conform alike to the regular hours, and these were
+in the early days excessive. Twelve, thirteen, and even fourteen hours
+a day were not unusual. Regular hours of work, when they are moderate
+in length, and a systematized <span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238"></a>(p. 238)</span> life, when it is not all
+labor, are probably wholesome, physically and morally; but when the
+summons to cease from work and that to begin it again are separated by
+such a short interval, the factory bell or whistle represents mere
+tyranny.</p>
+
+<p>Wages were sometimes higher than under the old conditions, but they
+were even more irregular. Greater ups and downs occurred. Periods of
+very active production and of restriction of production alternated
+more decidedly than before, and introduced more irregularity into
+industry for both employers and employees. The town laborer engaged in
+a large establishment was, like the rural laborer on a large farm,
+completely separated from the land, from capital, from any active
+connection with the administration of industry, from any probable
+opportunity of rising out of the laboring class. His prospects were,
+therefore, as limited as his position was laborious and precarious.</p>
+
+<p>The rapid growth of the manufacturing towns, especially in the north,
+drawing the scattered population of other parts of the country into
+their narrow limits, caused a general breakdown in the old
+arrangements for providing water, drainage, and fresh air; and made
+rents high, and consequently living in crowded rooms necessary. The
+factory towns in the early part of the century were filthy, crowded,
+and demoralizing, compared alike with their earlier and their present
+condition.</p>
+
+<a id="img048" name="img048"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img048.jpg" width="500" height="324" alt="Cotton Factories in Manchester."
+title="Cotton Factories in Manchester.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Cotton Factories in Manchester.</span><br> (Baines: <i>History of
+Cotton Manufacture</i>.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the higher grades of economic society the advantages of the recent
+changes were more distinct, the disadvantages less so. The rise of
+capital and business enterprise into greater importance, and the
+extension of the field of competition, gave greater opportunity to
+employing farmers, merchants, and manufacturers, as well as to the
+capitalists pure and simple. But even for them the keenness of
+competition <span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239"></a>(p. 239)</span> and the exigencies of providing for the varying
+conditions of distant markets made the struggle for success a harder
+one, and many failed in it.</p>
+
+<p>In many ways therefore it might seem that the great material advances
+which had been made, the removal of artificial restrictions, the
+increase of liberty of action, the extension of the field of
+competition, the more enlightened opinions on economic and social
+relations, had failed to increase human happiness appreciably; indeed,
+for a time had made the condition of the mass of the people worse
+instead of better.</p>
+
+<p>It will not, therefore, be unexpected if some other lines of economic
+and social development, especially those which have become more and
+more prominent during the later progress of the nineteenth century,
+prove to be quite different in direction from those that have been
+studied in this chapter.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2"><strong>65. BIBLIOGRAPHY</strong></p>
+
+<p>Toynbee, Arnold: <i>The Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century
+in England.</i></p>
+
+<p>Lecky, W. E. H.: <i>History of England in the Eighteenth Century</i>, Vol.
+VI, Chap. 23.</p>
+
+<p>Baines, E.: <i>History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Cooke-Taylor, R. W.: <i>The Modern Factory System</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Levi, L.: <i>History of British Commerce and of the Economic Progress of
+the British Nation</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Prothero, R. E.: <i>The Pioneers and Progress of English Farming</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Rogers, J. E. T.: <i>Industrial and Commercial History</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Smith, Adam: <i>An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
+Nations.</i></p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240"></a>(p. 240)</span> CHAPTER IX</h3>
+
+<h5>THE EXTENSION OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL</h5>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">Factory Laws, the Modification of Land Ownership, Sanitary
+Regulations, and New Public Services</span></h5>
+
+<p><strong>66. National Affairs from 1830 to 1900.</strong>&mdash;The English government in the
+year 1830 might be described as a complete aristocracy. The king had
+practically no powers apart from his ministers, and they were merely
+the representatives of the majority in Parliament. Parliament
+consisted of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The first of
+these Houses was made up for the most part of an hereditary
+aristocracy. The bishops and newly created peers, the only element
+which did not come in by inheritance, were appointed by the king and
+usually from the families of those who already possessed inherited
+titles. The House of Commons had originally been made up of two
+members from each county, and two from each important town. But the
+list of represented towns was still practically the same as it had
+been in the fifteenth century, while intervening economic and other
+changes had, as has been seen, made the most complete alteration in
+the distribution of population. Great manufacturing towns had grown up
+as a result of changes in commerce and of the industrial revolution,
+and these had no representation in Parliament separate from the
+counties in which they lay. On the other hand, towns once of
+respectable size had dwindled until they had only a few dozen
+inhabitants, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241"></a>(p. 241)</span> in some cases had reverted to open farming
+country; but these, or the landlords who owned the land on which they
+had been built, still retained their two representatives in
+Parliament. The county representatives were voted for by all "forty
+shilling freeholders," that is, landowners whose farms would rent for
+forty shillings a year. But the whole tendency of English landholding,
+as has been seen, had been to decrease the number of landowners in the
+country, so that the actual number of voters was only a very small
+proportion of the rural population.</p>
+
+<p>Such great irregularities of representation had thus grown up that the
+selection of more than a majority of the members of the House of
+Commons was in the hands of a very small number of men, many of them
+already members of the House of Lords, and all members of the
+aristocracy.</p>
+
+<p>Just as Parliament represented only the higher classes, so officers in
+the army and to a somewhat less extent the navy, the officials of the
+established church, the magistrates in the counties, the ambassadors
+abroad, and the cabinet ministers at home, the holders of influential
+positions in the Universities and endowed institutions generally, were
+as a regular thing members of the small class of the landed or
+mercantile aristocracy of England. Perhaps one hundred thousand out of
+the fourteen millions of the people of England were the veritable
+governing classes. They alone had any control of the national and
+local government, or of the most important political and social
+institutions.</p>
+
+<p>The "Reform of Parliament," which meant some degree of equalization of
+the representation of districts, an extension of the franchise, and
+the abolition of some of the irregularities in elections, had been
+proposed from time to time, but had awakened little interest until it
+was advocated by the Radicals under the influence of the French
+Revolution, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242"></a>(p. 242)</span> along with some much more far-reaching
+propositions. Between the years 1820 and 1830, however, a moderate
+reform of Parliament had been advocated by the leaders of the Whig
+party. In 1830 this party rather unexpectedly obtained a majority in
+Parliament, for the first time for a long while, and the ministry
+immediately introduced a reform bill. It proposed to take away the
+right of separate representation from fifty-six towns, and to reduce
+the number of representatives from two to one in thirty-one others; to
+transfer these representatives to the more populous towns and
+counties; to extend the franchise to a somewhat larger number and to
+equalize it; and finally to introduce lists of voters, to keep the
+polls open for only two days, and to correct a number of such minor
+abuses. There was a bitter contest in Parliament and in the country at
+large on the proposed change, and the measure was only carried after
+it had been rejected by one House of Commons, passed by a new House
+elected as a test of the question, then defeated by the House of
+Lords, and only passed by them when submitted a second time with the
+threat by the ministry of requiring the king to create enough new
+peers to pass it, if the existing members refused to do so. Its
+passage was finally secured in 1832. It was carried by pressure from
+below through all its stages. The king signed it reluctantly because
+it had been sent to him by Parliament, the House of Lords passed it
+under threats from the ministry, who based their power on the House of
+Commons. This body in turn had to be reconstructed by a new election
+before it would agree to it, and there is no doubt that the voters as
+well as Parliament itself were much influenced by the cry of "the
+Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill," raised by mobs,
+associations, and meetings, consisting largely of the masses of the
+people who possessed no votes at all. In <span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243"></a>(p. 243)</span> the last resort,
+therefore, it was a victory won by the masses, and, little as they
+profited by it immediately, it proved to be the turning point, the
+first step from aristocracy toward democracy.</p>
+
+<p>In 1867 a second Reform Bill was passed, mainly on the lines of the
+first, but giving what amounted to almost universal suffrage to the
+inhabitants of the town constituencies, which included the great body
+of the workingmen. Finally, in 1884 and 1885, the third Reform Bill
+was passed which extended the right of voting to agricultural laborers
+as well, and did much toward equalizing the size of the districts
+represented by each member of the House of Commons. Other reforms have
+been adopted during the same period, and Parliament has thus come to
+represent the whole population instead of merely the aristocracy. But
+there have been even greater changes in local government. By laws
+passed in 1835 and 1882 the cities and boroughs have been given a form
+of government in which the power is in the hands of all the taxpayers.
+In 1888 an act was passed through Parliament forming County Councils,
+elected by universal suffrage and taking over many of the powers
+formerly exercised by the magistrates and large landholders. In 1894
+this was followed by a Parish Council Bill creating even more
+distinctly local bodies, by which the people in each locality, elected
+by universal suffrage, including that of women, may take charge of
+almost all their local concerns under the general legislation of
+Parliament.</p>
+
+<p>Corresponding to these changes in general and local government the
+power of the old ruling classes has been diminished in all directions,
+until it has become little more than that degree of prominence and
+natural leadership which the national sentiment or their economic and
+intellectual advantages give to them. It may be said that England,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244"></a>(p. 244)</span> so far as its government goes, has come nearer to complete
+democracy than any other modern country.</p>
+
+<p>In the rapidity of movement, the activity, the energy, the variety of
+interests, the thousand lines of economic, political, intellectual,
+literary, artistic, philanthropic, or religious life which
+characterize the closing years of the nineteenth century, it seems
+impossible to choose a few facts to typify or describe the period, as
+is customary for earlier times.</p>
+
+<p>Little can be done except to point out the main lines of political
+movement, as has been done in this paragraph, or of economic and
+social development, as will be done in the remaining paragraphs of
+this and the next chapter. The great mass of recent occurrences and
+present conditions are as yet rather the human atmosphere in which we
+are living, the problem which we are engaged in solving, than a proper
+subject for historical description and analysis.</p>
+
+<a id="img049" name="img049"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img049.jpg" width="500" height="740" alt="Distribution Of Population In England And Wales 1891."
+title="Distribution Of Population In England And Wales 1891.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Distribution Of Population In England And Wales 1891.<br>
+Engraved By Bormay &amp; Co., N.Y.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>67. The Beginning of Factory Legislation.</strong>&mdash;One of the greatest
+difficulties with which the early mill owners had to contend was the
+insufficient supply of labor for their factories. Since these had to
+be run by water power, they were placed along the rapid streams in the
+remote parts of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and
+Nottinghamshire, which were sparsely populated, and where such
+inhabitants as there were had a strong objection to working in
+factories. However abundant population might be in some other parts of
+England, in the northwest where the new manufacturing was growing up,
+and especially in the hilly rural districts, there were but few
+persons available to perform the work which must be done by human
+hands in connection with the mill machinery. There was, however, in
+existence a source of supply of laborers which could furnish almost
+unlimited numbers and at the lowest possible cost. The parish
+poorhouses or workhouses of the large cities were overcrowded
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246"></a>(p. 246)</span> with children. The authorities always had difficulty in
+finding occupation for them when they came to an age when they could
+earn their own living, and any plan of putting them to work would be
+received with welcome. This source of supply was early discovered and
+utilized by the manufacturers, and it soon became customary for them
+to take as apprentices large numbers of the poorhouse children. They
+signed indentures with the overseers of the poor by which they agreed
+to give board, clothing, and instruction for a certain number of years
+to the children who were thus bound to them. In return they put them
+to work in the factories. Children from seven years of age upward were
+engaged by hundreds from London and the other large cities, and set to
+work in the cotton spinning factories of the north. Since there were
+no other facilities for boarding them, "apprentice houses" were built
+for them in the vicinity of the factories, where they were placed
+under the care of superintendents or matrons. The conditions of life
+among these pauper children were, as might be expected, very hard.
+They were remotely situated, apart from the observation of the
+community, left to the burdens of unrelieved labor and the harshness
+of small masters or foremen. Their hours of labor were excessive. When
+the demands of trade were active they were often arranged in two
+shifts, each shift working twelve hours, one in the day and another in
+the night, so that it was a common saying in the north that "their
+beds never got cold," one set climbing into bed as the other got out.
+When there was no night work the day work was the longer. They were
+driven at their work and often abused. Their food was of the coarsest
+description, and they were frequently required to eat it while at
+their work, snatching a bite as they could while the machinery was
+still in motion. Much of the time <span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247"></a>(p. 247)</span> which should have been
+devoted to rest was spent in cleaning the machinery, and there seems
+to have been absolutely no effort made to give them any education or
+opportunity for recreation.</p>
+
+<p>The sad life of these little waifs, overworked, underfed, neglected,
+abused, in the factories and barracks in the remote glens of Yorkshire
+and Lancashire, came eventually to the notice of the outside world.
+Correspondence describing their condition began to appear in the
+newspapers, a Manchester Board of Health made a presentment in 1796
+calling attention to the unsanitary conditions in the cotton factories
+where they worked, contagious fevers were reported to be especially
+frequent in the apprentice houses, and in 1802 Sir Robert Peel,
+himself an employer of nearly a thousand such children, brought the
+matter to the attention of Parliament. An immediate and universal
+desire was expressed to abolish the abuses of the system, and as a
+result the "Health and Morals Act to regulate the Labor of Sound
+Children in Cotton Factories" was passed in the same year. It
+prohibited the binding out for factory labor of children younger than
+nine years, restricted the hours of labor to twelve actual working
+hours a day, and forbade night labor. It required the walls of the
+factories to be properly whitewashed and the buildings to be
+sufficiently ventilated, insisted that the apprentices should be
+furnished with at least one new suit of clothes a year, and provided
+that they should attend religious service and be instructed in the
+fundamental English branches. This was the first of the "Factory
+Acts," for, although its application was so restricted, applying only
+to cotton factories, and for the most part only to bound children, the
+subsequent steps in the formation of the great code of factory
+legislation were for a long while simply a development of the same
+principle, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248"></a>(p. 248)</span> that factory labor involved conditions which it
+was desirable for government to regulate.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of the passage of this law the introduction of steam power
+was already causing a transfer of the bulk of factory industry from
+the rural districts to which the need for water power had confined it
+to the towns where every other requisite for carrying on manufacturing
+was more easily obtainable. Here the children of families resident in
+the town could be obtained, and the practice of using apprentice
+children was largely given up. Many of the same evils, however,
+continued to exist here. The practice of beginning to work while
+extremely young, long hours, night work, unhealthy surroundings,
+proved to be as common among these children to whom the law did not
+apply as they had been among the apprentice children. These evils
+attracted the attention of several persons of philanthropic feeling.
+Robert Owen, especially, a successful manufacturer who had introduced
+many reforms in his own mills, collected a large body of evidence as
+to the excessive labor and early age of employees in the factories
+even where no apprentice labor was engaged. He tried to awaken an
+interest in the matter by the publication of a pamphlet on the
+injurious consequences of the factory system, and to influence various
+members of Parliament to favor the passage of a law intended to
+improve the condition of laboring children and young people. In 1815
+Sir Robert Peel again brought the matter up in Parliament. A committee
+was appointed to investigate the question, and a legislative agitation
+was thus begun which was destained to last for many years and to
+produce a series of laws which have gradually taken most of the
+conditions of employment in large establishments under the control of
+the government. In debates in Parliament, in testimony before
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249"></a>(p. 249)</span> government commissions of investigation, in petitions,
+pamphlets, and newspapers, the conditions of factory labor were
+described and discussed. Successive laws to modify these conditions
+were introduced into Parliament, debated at great length, amended,
+postponed, reintroduced, and in some cases passed, in others defeated.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>68. Arguments for and against Factory Legislation.</strong>&mdash;The need for
+regulation which was claimed to exist arose from the long hours of
+work which were customary, from the very early age at which many
+children were sent to be employed in the factories, and from various
+incidents of manufacturing which were considered injurious, or as
+involving unnecessary hardship. The actual working hours in the
+factories in the early part of the century were from twelve and a half
+to fourteen a day. That is to say, factories usually started work in
+the morning at 6 o'clock and continued till 12, when a period from a
+half-hour to an hour was allowed for dinner, then the work began again
+and continued till 7.30 or 8.30 in the evening. It was customary to
+eat breakfast after reaching the mill, but this was done while
+attending the machinery, there being no general stoppage for the
+purpose. Some mills ran even longer hours, opening at 5 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> and not
+closing till 9 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> In some exceptional cases the hours were only 12;
+from 6 to 12 and from 1 to 7. The inducements to long hours were very
+great. The profits were large, the demand for goods was constantly
+growing, the introduction of gas made it possible to light the
+factories, and the use of artificial power, either water or steam,
+seemed to make the labor much less severe than when the power had been
+provided by human muscles. Few or no holidays were regarded, except
+Sunday, so that work went on in an unending strain of protracted,
+exhausting labor, prolonged for much of the year far into the night.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250"></a>(p. 250)</span> To these long hours all the hands alike conformed, the
+children commencing and stopping work at the same time as the grown
+men and women. Moreover, the children often began work while extremely
+young. There was a great deal of work in the factories which they
+could do just as well, in some cases even better, than adults. They
+were therefore commonly sent into the mills by their parents at about
+the age of eight years, frequently at seven or even six. As has been
+before stated, more than half of the employees in many factories were
+below eighteen years, and of these a considerable number were mere
+children. Thirdly, there were certain other evils of factory labor
+that attracted attention and were considered by the reformers to be
+remediable. Many accidents occurred because the moving machinery was
+unprotected, the temperature in the cotton mills had to be kept high,
+and ventilation and cleanliness were often entirely neglected. The
+habit of keeping the machinery in motion while meals were being eaten
+was a hardship, and in many ways the employees were practically at the
+mercy of the proprietors of the factories so long as there was no form
+of oversight or of united action to prevent harshness or unfairness.</p>
+
+<p>In the discussions in Parliament and outside there were of course many
+contradictory statements concerning the facts of the case, and much
+denial of general and special charges. The advocates of factory laws
+drew an extremely sombre picture of the evils of the factory system.
+The opponents of such legislation, on the other hand, declared that
+their statements were exaggerated or untrue, and that the condition of
+the factory laborer was not worse than that of other workingmen, or
+harder than that of the domestic worker and his family had been in
+earlier times.</p>
+
+<p>But apart from these recriminations and contradictions, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251"></a>(p. 251)</span>
+there were certain general arguments used in the debates which can be
+grouped into three classes on each side. For the regulating laws there
+was in the first place the purely sentimental argument, repulsion
+against the hard, unrelieved labor, the abuse, the lack of opportunity
+for enjoyment or recreation of the children of the factory districts;
+the feeling that in wealthy, humane, Christian England, it was
+unendurable that women and little children should work longer hours,
+be condemned to greater hardships, and more completely cut off from
+the enjoyments of life than were the slaves of tropical countries.
+This is the argument of Mrs. Browning's <i>Cry of the Children</i>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem20">
+<p>"Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Ere the sorrow comes with years?</span><br>
+  They are leaning their young heads against their mothers.<br>
+<span class="add1em">And that cannot stop their tears.</span><br>
+  The young lambs are bleating in the meadows;<br>
+<span class="add1em">The young birds are chirping in the nest;</span><br>
+  The young fawns are playing with the shadows;<br>
+<span class="add1em">The young flowers are blowing toward the west;</span><br>
+  But the young, young children, O my brothers!<br>
+<span class="add1em">They are weeping bitterly.</span><br>
+  They are weeping in the play-time of the others<br>
+<span class="add1em">In the country of the free.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="smallpo">
+
+<p>'For oh!' say the children, 'we are weary,<br>
+<span class="add1em">And we cannot run or leap:</span><br>
+  If we cared for any meadows, it were merely<br>
+<span class="add1em">To drop down in them and sleep.'</span></p>
+
+<hr class="smallpo">
+
+<p>They look up with their pale and sunken faces,<br>
+<span class="add1em">And their look is dread to see,</span><br>
+  For they mind you of their angels in high places,<br>
+<span class="add1em">With eyes turned on Deity.</span><br>
+  'How long,' they say, 'how long, O cruel nation,<br>
+<span class="add1em">Will you stand, to move the world on a child's heart</span><br>
+  Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation<br>
+<span class="add1em">And tread onward to your throne amid the mart?'"</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252"></a>(p. 252)</span> Secondly, it was argued that the long hours for the children
+cut them off from all intellectual and moral training, that they were
+in no condition after such protracted labor to profit by any
+opportunities of education that should be supplied, that with the
+diminished influence of the home, and the demoralizing effects that
+were supposed to result from factory labor, ignorance and vice alike
+would continue to be its certain accompaniments, unless the age at
+which regular work was begun should be limited, and the number of
+hours of labor of young persons restricted. Thirdly, it was claimed
+that there was danger of the physical degeneracy of the factory
+population. Certain diseases, especially of the joints and limbs, were
+discovered to be very prevalent in the factory districts. Children who
+began work so early in life and were subjected to such long hours of
+labor did not grow so rapidly, nor reach their full stature, nor
+retain their vigor so late in life, as did the population outside of
+the factories. Therefore, for the very physical preservation of the
+race, it was declared to be necessary to regulate the conditions of
+factory labor.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, apart from denials as to the facts of the case,
+there were several distinct arguments used against the adoption of
+factory laws. In the first place, in the interests of the
+manufacturers, such laws were opposed as an unjust interference with
+their business, an unnecessary and burdensome obstacle to their
+success, and a threat of ruin to a class who by giving employment to
+so many laborers and furnishing so much of the material for commerce
+were of the greatest advantage to the country. Secondly, from a
+somewhat broader point of view, it was declared that if such laws were
+adopted England would no longer be able to compete with other
+countries and would lose her preëminence in manufactures. The factory
+system was being <span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253"></a>(p. 253)</span> introduced into France, Belgium, the United
+States, and other countries, and in none of these was there any legal
+restriction on the hours of labor or the age of the employees. If
+English manufacturers were forced to reduce the length of the day in
+which production was carried on, they could not produce as cheaply as
+these other countries, and English exports would decrease. This would
+reduce the national prosperity and be especially hard on the working
+classes themselves, as many would necessarily be thrown out of work.
+Thirdly, as a matter of principle it was argued that the policy of
+government regulation had been tried and found wanting, that after
+centuries of existence it had been deliberately given up, and should
+not be reintroduced. Laws restricting hours would interfere with the
+freedom of labor, with the freedom of capital, with the freedom of
+contract. If the employer and the employee were both satisfied with
+the conditions of their labor, why should the government interfere?
+The reason also why such regulation had failed in the past and must
+again, if tried now, was evident. It was an effort to alter the action
+of the natural laws which controlled employment, wages, profits, and
+other economic matters, and was bad in theory, and would therefore
+necessarily be injurious in practice. These and some other less
+general arguments were used over and over again in the various forms
+of the discussion through almost half a century. The laws that were
+passed were carried because the majority in Parliament were either not
+convinced by these reasonings or else determined that, come what
+might, the evils and abuses connected with factory labor should be
+abolished. As a matter of fact, the factory laws were carried by the
+rank and file of the voting members of Parliament, not only against
+the protests of the manufacturers especially interested, but in spite
+of the warnings of those <span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254"></a>(p. 254)</span> who spoke in the name of
+established teaching, and frequently against the opposition of the
+political leaders of both parties. The greatest number of those who
+voted for them were influenced principally by their sympathies and
+feelings, and yielded to the appeals of certain philanthropic
+advocates, the most devoted and influential of whom was Lord Ashley,
+afterward earl of Shaftesbury, who devoted many years to investigation
+and agitation on the subject both inside and out of Parliament.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>69. Factory Legislation to 1847.</strong>&mdash;The actual course of factory
+legislation was as follows. The bill originally introduced in 1815,
+after having been subjected to a series of discussions, amendments,
+and postponements, was passed in June, 1819, being the second "Factory
+Act." It applied only to cotton mills, and was in the main merely an
+extension of the act of 1802 to the protection of children who were
+not pauper apprentices. It forbade the employment of any child under
+nine years of age, and prohibited the employment of those between nine
+and sixteen more than twelve hours a day, or at night. In addition to
+the twelve hours of actual labor, at least a half-hour must be allowed
+for breakfast and an hour for dinner. Other minor acts amending or
+extending this were passed from time to time, till in 1833, after two
+successive commissions had made investigations and reports on the
+subject, an important law was passed. It applied practically to all
+textile mills, not merely to those for the spinning of cotton. The
+prohibition of employment of all below nine years was continued,
+children between nine and thirteen were to work only eight hours per
+day, and young persons between thirteen and eighteen only twelve
+hours, and none of these at night. Two whole and eight half holidays
+were required to be given within the year, and each child must have a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255"></a>(p. 255)</span> surgeon's certificate of fitness for labor. There were also
+clauses for the education of the children and the cleanliness of the
+factories. But the most important clause of this statute was the
+provision of a corps of four inspectors with assistants who were sworn
+to their duties, salaried, and provided with extensive powers of
+making rules for the execution of the act, of enforcing it, and
+prosecuting for its violation. The earlier laws had not been
+efficiently carried out. Under this act numerous prosecutions and
+convictions took place, and factory regulation began to become a
+reality. The inspectors calculated during their first year of service
+that there were about 56,000 children between nine and thirteen, and
+about 108,000 young persons between thirteen and eighteen, in the
+factories under their supervision.</p>
+
+<p>The decade lying between 1840 and 1850 was one of specially great
+activity in social and economic agitation. Chartism, the abolition of
+the corn laws, the formation of trade unions, mining acts, and further
+extensions of the factory acts were all alike under discussion, and
+they all created the most intense antagonism between parties and
+classes. In 1844 the law commonly known as the "Children's Half-time
+Act" was passed. It contained a large number of general provisions for
+the fencing of dangerous machinery, for its stoppage while being
+cleaned, for the report of accidents to inspectors and district
+surgeons, for the public prosecution for damages of the factory owner
+when he should seem to be responsible for an accident, and for the
+enforcement of the act. Its most distinctive clause, however, was that
+which restricted the labor of children to a half-day, or the whole of
+alternate days, and required their attendance at school for the other
+half of their time. All women were placed by this act in the same
+category as young persons between thirteen and eighteen, so far as the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256"></a>(p. 256)</span> restriction of hours of labor to twelve per day and the
+prohibition of night work extended.</p>
+
+<p>The next statute to be passed was an extension of this regulation,
+though it contained the provision which had long been the most
+bitterly contested of any during the whole factory law agitation. This
+was the "Ten-hour Act" of 1847. From an early period in the century
+there had been a strong agitation in favor of restricting by law the
+hours of young persons, and from somewhat later, of women, to ten
+hours per day, and this proposition had been repeatedly introduced and
+defeated in Parliament. It was now carried. By this time the more
+usual length of the working day even when unrestricted had been
+reduced to twelve hours, and in some trades to eleven. It was now made
+by law half-time for children, and ten hours for young persons and
+women, or as rearranged by another law passed three years afterward,
+ten and a half hours for five days of the week and a half-day on
+Saturday. The number of persons to whom the Ten-hour Act applied was
+estimated at something over 360,000. That is, including the children,
+at least three-fourths of all persons employed in textile industries
+had their hours and some other conditions of labor directly regulated
+by law. Moreover, the work of men employed in the same factories was
+so dependent on that of the women and the children, that many of these
+restrictions applied practically to them also.</p>
+
+<p>Further minor changes in hours and other details were made from time
+to time, but there was no later contest on the principle of factory
+legislation. The evil results which had been feared had not shown
+themselves, and many of its strongest opponents had either already, or
+did eventually, acknowledge the beneficial results of the laws.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>70. The Extension of Factory Legislation.</strong>&mdash;By the successive
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257"></a>(p. 257)</span> acts of 1819, 1833, 1844, and 1847, a normal length of
+working day and regulated conditions generally had been established by
+government for the factories employing women and children. The next
+development was an extension of the regulation of hours and conditions
+of labor from factories proper to other allied fields. Already in 1842
+a law had been passed regulating labor in mines. This act was passed
+in response to the needs shown by the report of a commission which had
+been appointed in 1840. They made a thorough investigation of the
+obscure conditions of labor underground, and reported a condition of
+affairs which was heart-sickening. Children began their life in the
+coal <span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258"></a>(p. 258)</span> mines at five, six, or seven years of age. Girls and
+women worked like boys and men, they were less than half clothed, and
+worked alongside of men who were stark naked. There were from twelve
+to fourteen working hours in the twenty-four, and these were often at
+night. Little girls of six or eight years of age made ten to twelve
+trips a day up steep ladders to the surface, carrying half a hundred
+weight of coal in wooden buckets on their backs at each journey. Young
+women appeared before the commissioners, when summoned from their
+work, dressed merely in a pair of trousers, dripping wet from the
+water of the mine, and already weary with the labor of a day scarcely
+more than begun. A common form of labor consisted of drawing on hands
+and knees over the inequalities of a passageway not more than two feet
+or twenty-eight inches high a car or tub filled with three or four
+hundred weight of coal, attached by a chain and hook to a leather band
+around the waist. The mere recital of the testimony taken precluded
+all discussion as to the desirability of reform, and a law was
+immediately passed, almost without dissent, which prohibited for the
+future all work underground by females or by boys under thirteen years
+of age. Inspectors were appointed, and by subsequent acts a whole code
+of regulation of mines as regards age, hours, lighting, ventilation,
+safety, licensing of engineers, and in other respects has been
+created.</p>
+
+<a id="img050" name="img050"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img050.jpg" width="500" height="257" alt="Children's Labor in Coal Mines."
+title="Children's Labor in Coal Mines.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Children's Labor in Coal Mines.</span><br> <i>Report of Children's
+Employment Commission of 1842.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<a id="img051" name="img051"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img051.jpg" width="500" height="452" alt="Women's Labor in Coal Mines."
+title="Women's Labor in Coal Mines.">
+<p><span class="smcap">Women's Labor in Coal Mines.</span><br> (<i>Report of Children's
+Employment Commission, 1842.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1846 a bill was passed applying to calico printing works
+regulations similar to the factory laws proper. In 1860, 1861, and
+1863 similar laws were passed for bleaching and dyeing for lace works,
+and for bakeries. In 1864 another so-called factory act was passed
+applying to at least six other industries, none of which had any
+connection with textile factories. Three years later, in 1867, two
+acts for factories and workshops respectively took a large number of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259"></a>(p. 259)</span> additional industries under their care; and finally, in
+1878, the "Factory and Workshop Consolidation Act" repealed all the
+former special laws and substituted a veritable factory code
+containing a vast number of provisions for the regulation of
+industrial establishments. This law covered more than fifty printed
+pages of the statute book. Its principle provisions were as follows:
+The limit of prohibited labor was raised from nine to ten years,
+children in the terms of the statute being those between ten and
+fourteen, and "young persons" those between fourteen and eighteen
+years of age. For all such the day's work must begin either at six or
+seven, and close at the same hour respectively in the evening, two
+hours being allowed for meal-times. All Saturdays and eight other days
+in the year must be half-holidays, while the whole of Christmas Day
+and Good Friday, or two alternative days, must be allowed as holidays.
+Children could work for only one-half of each day or on the whole of
+alternate days, and must attend school on the days or parts of days on
+which they did not work. There were minute provisions governing
+sanitary conditions, safety from machinery and in dangerous
+occupations, meal-times, medical certificates of fitness for
+employment, and reports of accidents. Finally there were the necessary
+body of provisions for administration, enforcement, penalties, and
+exceptions.</p>
+
+<p>Since 1878 there have been a number of extensions of the principle of
+factory legislation, the most important of which are the following. In
+1891 and 1895, amending acts were passed bringing laundries and docks
+within the provisions of the law, making further rules against
+overcrowding and other unsanitary conditions, increasing the age of
+prohibited labor to eleven years, and making a beginning of the
+regulation of "outworkers" or those engaged by <span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260"></a>(p. 260)</span> "sweaters."
+"Sweating" is manufacturing carried on by contractors or
+subcontractors on a small scale, who usually have the work done in
+their own homes or in single hired rooms by members of their families,
+or by poorly paid employees who by one chance or another are not in a
+free and independent relation to them. Many abuses exist in these
+"sweatshops." The law so far is scarcely more than tentative, but in
+these successive acts provisions have been made by which all
+manufacturers or contractors must keep lists of outworkers engaged by
+them, and submit these to the factory inspectors for supervision.</p>
+
+<p>In 1892 a "Shop-hours Act" was passed prohibiting the employment of
+any person under eighteen years of age more than seventy-four hours in
+any week in any retail or wholesale store, shop, eating-house, market,
+warehouse, or other similar establishment; and in 1893 the "Railway
+Regulation Act" gave power to the Board of Trade to require railway
+companies to provide reasonable and satisfactory schedules of hours
+for all their employees. In 1894 a bill for a compulsory eight-hour
+day for miners was introduced, but was withdrawn before being
+submitted to a vote. In 1899 a bill was passed requiring the provision
+of a sufficient number of seats for all female assistants in retail
+stores. In 1900 a government bill was presented to Parliament carrying
+legislation somewhat farther on the lines of the acts of 1891 and
+1893, but it did not reach its later stages before the adjournment.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>71. Employers' Liability Acts.</strong>&mdash;Closely allied to the problems
+involved in the factory laws is the question of the liability of
+employers to make compensation for personal injuries suffered by
+workmen in their service. With the increasing use of machinery and of
+steam power for manufacturing and transportation, and in the general
+absence <span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261"></a>(p. 261)</span> of precaution, accidents to workmen became much more
+numerous. Statistics do not exist for earlier periods, but in 1899
+serious or petty accidents to the number of 70,760 were reported from
+such establishments. By Common Law, in the case of negligence on the
+part of the proprietor or servant of an establishment, damages for
+accident could be sued for and obtained by a workman, not guilty of
+contributory negligence, as by any other person, except in one case.
+If the accident was the result of the negligence of a fellow-employee,
+no compensation for injuries would be allowed by the courts; the
+theory being that in the implied contract between employer and
+employee, the latter agreed to accept the risks of the business, at
+least so far as these arose from the carelessness of his
+fellow-employees.</p>
+
+<p>In the large establishments of modern times, however, vast numbers of
+men were fellow-employees in the eyes of the law, and the doctrine of
+"common employment," as it was called, prevented the recovery of
+damages in so many cases as to attract widespread attention. From 1865
+forward this provision of the law was frequently complained of by
+leaders of the workingmen and others, and as constantly upheld by the
+courts.</p>
+
+<p>In 1876 a committee of the House of Commons on the relations of master
+and servant took evidence on this matter and recommended in its report
+that the common law be amended in this respect. Accordingly in 1880 an
+Employers' Liability Act was passed which abolished the doctrine of
+"common employment" as to much of its application, and made it
+possible for the employee to obtain compensation for accidental injury
+in the great majority of cases.</p>
+
+<p>In 1893 a bill was introduced in Parliament by the ministry of the
+time to abolish all deductions from the responsibility of employers,
+except that of contributory negligence <span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262"></a>(p. 262)</span> on the part of
+workmen, but it was not passed. In 1897, however, the "Workmen's
+Compensation Act" was passed, changing the basis of the law entirely.
+By this Act it was provided that in case of accident to a workman
+causing death or incapacitating him for a period of more than two
+weeks, compensation in proportion to the wages he formerly earned
+should be paid by the employer as a matter of course, unless "serious
+and wilful misconduct" on the part of the workman could be shown to
+have existed. The liability of employers becomes, therefore, a matter
+of insurance of workmen against accidents arising out of their
+employment, imposed by the law upon employers. It is no longer damages
+for negligence, but a form of compulsory insurance. In other words,
+since 1897 a legal, if only an implied part of the contract between
+employer and employee in all forms of modern industry in which
+accidents are likely to occur is that the employer insures the
+employee against the dangers of his work.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>72. Preservation of Remaining Open Lands.</strong>&mdash;Turning from the field of
+manufacturing labor to that of agriculture and landholding it will be
+found that there has been some legislation for the protection of the
+agricultural laborer analogous to the factory laws. The Royal
+Commission of 1840-1844 on trades then unprotected by law included a
+report on the condition of rural child labor, but no law followed
+until 1873, when the "Agricultural Children's Act" was passed, but
+proved to be ineffective. The evils of "agricultural gangs," which
+were bodies of poor laborers, mostly children, engaged by a contractor
+and taken from place to place to be hired out to farmers, were
+reported on by a commission in 1862, and partly overcome by the
+"Agricultural Gangs Act" of 1867. There is, however, but little
+systematic government oversight of the farm-laboring class.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263"></a>(p. 263)</span> Government regulation in the field of landholding has taken a
+somewhat different form. The movement of enclosing which had been in
+progress from the middle of the eighteenth century was brought to an
+end, and a reversal of tendency took place, by which the use and
+occupation of the land was more controlled by the government in the
+interest of the masses of the rural population. By the middle of the
+century the process of enclosing was practically complete. There had
+been some 3954 private enclosure acts passed, and under their
+provisions or those of the Enclosure Commissioners more than seven
+million acres had been changed from mediæval to modern condition. But
+now a reaction set in. Along with the open field farming lands it was
+perceived that open commons, village greens, gentlemen's parks, and
+the old national forest lands were being enclosed, and frequently for
+building or railroad, not for agricultural uses, to the serious
+detriment of the health and of the enjoyment of the people, and to the
+destruction of the beauty of the country. The dread of interference by
+the government with matters that might be left to private settlement
+was also passing away. In 1865 the House of Commons appointed a
+commission to investigate the question of open spaces near the city of
+London, and the next year on their recommendation passed a law by
+which the Enclosure Commissioners were empowered to make regulations
+for the use of all commons within fifteen miles of London as public
+parks, except so far as the legal rights of the lords of the manors in
+which the commons lay should prevent. A contest had already arisen
+between many of these lords of manors having the control of open
+commons, whose interest it was to enclose and sell them, and other
+persons having vague rights of pasturage and other use of them,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264"></a>(p. 264)</span> whose interest it was to preserve them as open spaces. To
+aid the latter in their legal resistance to proposed enclosures, the
+"Commons Preservation Society" was formed in 1865. As a result a
+number of the contests were decided in the year 1866 in favor of those
+who opposed enclosures.</p>
+
+<p>The first case to attract attention was that of Wimbledon Common, just
+west of London. Earl Spencer, the lord of the manor of Wimbledon, had
+offered to give up his rights on the common to the inhabitants of the
+vicinity in return for a nominal rent and certain privileges; and had
+proposed that a third of the common should be sold, and the money
+obtained for it used to fence, drain, beautify, and keep up the
+remainder. The neighboring inhabitants, however, preferred the
+spacious common as it stood, and when a bill to carry out Lord
+Spencer's proposal had been introduced into Parliament, they contended
+that they had legal rights on the common which he could not disregard,
+and that they objected to its enclosure. The parliamentary committee
+practically decided in their favor, and the proposition was dropped.
+An important decision in a similar case was made by the courts in
+1870. Berkhamstead Common, an open stretch some three miles long and
+half a mile wide, lying near the town of Berkhamstead, twenty-five
+miles north of London, had been used for pasturing animals, cutting
+turf, digging gravel, gathering furze, and as a place of general
+recreation and enjoyment by the people of the two manors in which it
+lay, from time immemorial. In 1866 Lord Brownlow, the lord of these
+two manors, began making enclosures upon it, erecting two iron fences
+across it so as to enclose 434 acres and to separate the remainder
+into two entirely distinct parts. The legal advisers of Lord Brownlow
+declared that the inhabitants had no rights which would prevent him
+from enclosing parts of the common, although <span class="pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265"></a>(p. 265)</span> to satisfy them
+he offered to give to them the entire control over one part of it. The
+Commons Preservation Society, however, advised the inhabitants
+differently, and encouraged them to make a legal contest. One of their
+number, Augustus Smith, a wealthy and obstinate man, a member of
+Parliament, and a possessor of rights on the common both as a
+freeholder and a copyholder, was induced to take action in his own
+name and as a representative of other claimants of common rights. He
+engaged in London a force of one hundred and twenty laborers, sent
+them down at night by train, and before morning had broken down Lord
+Brownlow's two miles of iron fences, on which he had spent some £5000,
+and piled their sections neatly up on another part of the common. Two
+lawsuits followed: one by Lord Brownlow against Mr. Smith for
+trespass, the other a cross suit in the Chancery Court by Mr. Smith to
+ascertain the commoner's rights, and prevent the enclosure of the
+common. After a long trial the decision was given in Mr. Smith's
+favor, and not only was Berkhamstead Common thus preserved as an open
+space, but a precedent set for the future decision of other similar
+cases. Within the years between 1866 and 1874 dispute after dispute
+analogous to this arose, and decision after decision was given
+declaring the illegality of enclosures by a lord of a manor where
+there were claims of commoners which they still asserted and valued
+and which could be used as an obstacle to enclosure. Hampstead Heath,
+Ashdown Forest, Malvern Hills, Plumstead, Tooting, Wandsworth,
+Coulston, Dartford, and a great many other commons, village greens,
+roadside wastes, and other open spaces were saved from enclosure, and
+some places were partly opened up again, as a result either of
+lawsuits, of parliamentary action, or of voluntary agreements and
+purchase.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266"></a>(p. 266)</span> Perhaps the most conspicuous instance was that of Epping
+Forest. This common consisted of an open tract about thirteen miles
+long and one mile wide, containing in 1870 about three thousand acres
+of open common land. Enclosure was being actively carried on by some
+nineteen lords of manors, and some three thousand acres had been
+enclosed by rather high-handed means within the preceding twenty
+years. Among the various landowners who claimed rights of common upon
+a part of the Forest was, however, the City of London, and in 1871
+this body began suit against the various lords of manors under the
+claim that it possessed pasture rights, not only in the manor of
+Ilford, in which its property of two hundred acres was situated, but,
+since the district was a royal forest, over the whole of it. The City
+asked that the lords of manors should be prevented from enclosing any
+more of it, and required to throw open again what they had enclosed
+during the last twenty years. After a long and expensive legal battle
+and a concurrent investigation by a committee of Parliament, both
+extending over three years, a decision was given in favor of the City
+of London and other commoners, and the lords of manors were forced to
+give back about three thousand acres. The whole was made permanently
+into a public park. The old forest rights of the crown proved to be
+favorable to the commoners, and thus obtained at least one tardy
+justification to set against their long and dark record in the past.</p>
+
+<p>In 1871, in one of the cases which had been appealed, the Lord
+Chancellor laid down a principle indicating a reaction in the judicial
+attitude on the subject, when he declared that no enclosure should be
+made except when there was a manifest advantage in it; as contrasted
+with the policy of enclosing unless there was some strong reason
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267"></a>(p. 267)</span> against it, as had formerly been approved. In 1876
+Parliament passed a law amending the acts of 1801 and 1845, and
+directing the Enclosure Commissioners to reverse their rule of action
+in the same direction. That is to say, they were not to approve any
+enclosure unless it could be shown to be to the manifest advantage of
+the neighborhood, as well as to the interest of the parties directly
+concerned. Finally, in 1893, by the Commons Law Amendment Act, it was
+required that every proposed enclosure of any kind should first be
+advertised and opportunity given for objection, then submitted to the
+Board of Agriculture for its approval, and this approval should only
+be given when such an enclosure was for the general benefit of the
+public. No desire of a lord of a manor to enclose ground for his
+private park or game preserve, or to use it for building ground, would
+now be allowed to succeed. The interest of the community at large has
+been placed above the private advantage and even liberty of action of
+landholders. The authorities do not merely see that justice is done
+between lord and commoners on the manor, but that both alike shall be
+restrained from doing what is not to the public advantage. Indeed,
+Parliament went one step further, and by an order passed in 1893 set a
+precedent for taking a common entirely out of the hands of the lord of
+the manor, and putting it in the hands of a board to keep it for
+public uses. Thus not only had the enclosing movement diminished for
+lack of open farming land to enclose, but public opinion and law
+between 1864 and 1893 interposed to preserve such remaining open land
+as had not been already divided. Whatever land remained that was not
+in individual ownership and occupancy was to be retained under control
+for the community at large.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>73. Allotments.</strong>&mdash;But this change of attitude was not <span class="pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268"></a>(p. 268)</span> merely
+negative. There were many instances of government interposition for
+the encouragement of agriculture and for the modification of the
+relations between landlord and tenant. In 1875, 1882, and 1900 the
+"Agricultural Holdings Acts" were passed, by which, when improvements
+are made by the tenant during the period in which he holds the land,
+compensation must be given by the landlord to the tenant when the
+latter retires. No agreement between the landlord and tenant by which
+the latter gives up this right is valid. This policy of controlling
+the conditions of landholding with the object of enforcing justice to
+the tenant has been carried to very great lengths in the Irish Land
+Bills and the Scotch Crofters' Acts, but the conditions that called
+for such legislation in those countries have not existed in England
+itself. There has been, however, much effort in England to bring at
+least some land again into the use of the masses of the rural
+population. In 1819, as part of the administration of the poor law,
+Parliament passed an act facilitating the leasing out by the
+authorities of common land belonging to the parishes to the poor, in
+small "allotments," as they were called, by the cultivation of which
+they might partially support themselves. Allotments are small pieces
+of land, usually from an eighth of an acre to an acre in size, rented
+out for cultivation to poor or working-class families. In 1831 parish
+authorities were empowered to buy or enclose land up to as much as
+five acres for this purpose. Subsequently the formation of allotments
+began to be advocated, not only as part of the system of supporting
+paupers, but for its own sake, in order that rural laborers might have
+some land in their own occupation to work on during their spare times,
+as their forefathers had during earlier ages. To encourage this plan
+of giving the mass of the people again <span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name="page269"></a>(p. 269)</span> an interest in the
+land the "Allotments and Small Holdings Association" was formed in
+1885. Laws which were passed in 1882 and 1887 made it the duty of the
+authorities of parishes, when there seemed to be a demand for
+allotments, to provide all the land that was needed for the purpose,
+giving them, if needed, and under certain restrictions, the right of
+compulsory purchase of any particular piece of land which they should
+feel to be desirable. This was to be divided up and rented out in
+allotments from one quarter of an acre to an acre in size. By laws
+passed in 1890 and 1894 this plan of making it the bounden duty of the
+local government to provide sufficient allotments for the demand, and
+giving them power to purchase land even without the consent of its
+owners, was carried still further and put in the hands of the parish
+council. The growth in numbers of such allotments was very rapid and
+has not yet ceased. The approximate numbers at several periods are as
+follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table  border="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Approximate numbers at several periods.">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="20%">
+    <col width="20%">
+    <col width="60%">
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td>1873</td>
+<td>246,398</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1888</td>
+<td>357,795</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1890</td>
+<td>455,005</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1895</td>
+<td>579,133</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>In addition to those formed and granted out by the public local
+authorities, many large landowners, railroad companies, and others
+have made allotments to their tenants or employees. Large tracts of
+land subdivided into such small patches are now a common sight in
+England, simulating in appearance the old open fields of the Middle
+Ages and early modern times.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>74. Small Holdings.</strong>&mdash;Closely connected with the extension of
+allotments is the movement for the creation of "small holdings," or
+the reintroduction of small farming. One form of this is that by which
+the local authorities in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270"></a>(p. 270)</span> 1892 were empowered to buy land for
+the purpose of renting it out in small holdings of not more than
+fifteen acres each to persons who would themselves cultivate it.</p>
+
+<p>A still further and much more important development in the same
+direction is the effort to introduce "peasant proprietorship," or the
+ownership of small amounts of farming land by persons who would
+otherwise necessarily be mere laborers on other men's land. There has
+been an old dispute as to the relative advantages of a system of large
+farms, rented by men who have some considerable capital, knowledge,
+and enterprise, as in England; and of a system of small farms, owned
+and worked by men who are mere peasants, as in France. The older
+economists generally advocated the former system as better in itself,
+and also pointed out that a policy of withdrawal by government from
+any regulation was tending to make it universal. Others have been more
+impressed with the good effects of the ownership of land on the mental
+and moral character of the population, and with the desirability of
+the existence of a series of steps by which a thrifty and ambitious
+workingman could rise to a higher position, even in the country. There
+has, therefore, since the middle of the century, been a widespread
+agitation in favor of the creation of smaller farms, of giving
+assistance in their purchase, and of thus introducing a more mixed
+system of rural land occupancy, and bringing back something of the
+earlier English yeoman farming.</p>
+
+<p>This movement obtained recognition by Parliament in the Small Holdings
+Act of 1892, already referred to. This law made it the duty of each
+county council, when there seemed to be any sufficient demand for
+small farms from one to fifty acres in size, to acquire in any way
+possible, though not by compulsory purchase, suitable land, to adapt
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page271" name="page271"></a>(p. 271)</span> it for farming purposes by fencing, making roads, and, if
+necessary, erecting suitable buildings; and then to dispose of it by
+sale, or, as a matter of exception, as before stated, on lease, to
+such parties as will themselves cultivate it. The terms of sale were
+to be advantageous to the purchaser. He must pay at least as much as a
+fifth of the price down, but one quarter of it might be left on
+perpetual ground-rent, and the remainder, slightly more than one-half,
+might be repaid in half-yearly instalments during any period less than
+fifty years. The county council was also given power to loan money to
+tenants of small holdings to buy from their landlords, where they
+could arrange terms of purchase but had not the necessary means.</p>
+
+<p>Through the intervention of government, therefore, the strict division
+of those connected with the land into landlords, tenant farmers, and
+farm laborers has been to a considerable extent altered, and it is
+generally possible for a laborer to obtain a small piece of land as an
+allotment, or, if more ambitious and able, a small farm, on
+comparatively easy terms. In landholding and agriculture, as in
+manufacturing and trade, government has thus stepped in to prevent
+what would have been the effect of mere free competition, and to bring
+about a distribution and use of the land which have seemed more
+desirable.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>75. Government Sanitary Control.</strong>&mdash;In the field of buying and selling
+the hand of government has been most felt in provisions for the health
+of the consumer of various articles. Laws against adulteration have
+been passed, and a code of supervision, registry, and enforcement
+constructed. Similarly in broader sanitary lines, by the "Housing of
+the Working Classes Act" of 1890, when it is brought to the attention
+of the local authorities that any street or district is in such a
+condition that its houses or alleys are unfit for <span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272"></a>(p. 272)</span> human
+habitation, or that the narrowness, want of light or air, or bad
+drainage makes the district dangerous to the health of the inhabitants
+or their neighbors, and that these conditions cannot be readily
+remedied except by an entire rearrangement of the district, then it
+becomes the duty of the local authorities to take the matter in hand.
+They are bound to draw up and, on approval by the proper superior
+authorities, to carry out a plan for widening the streets and
+approaches to them, providing proper sanitary arrangements, tearing
+down the old houses, and building new ones in sufficient number and
+suitable character to provide dwelling accommodation for as many
+persons of the working class as were displaced by the changes. Private
+rights or claims are not allowed to stand in the way of any such
+public action in favor of the general health and well-being, as the
+local authorities are clothed by the law with the right of purchase of
+the land and buildings of the locality at a valuation, even against
+the wishes of the owners, though they must obtain parliamentary
+confirmation of such a compulsory purchase. Several acts have been
+passed to provide for the public acquisition or building of
+workingmen's dwellings. In 1899 the "Small Dwellings Acquisition Act"
+gave power to any local authority to loan four-fifths of the cost of
+purchase of a small house, to be repaid by the borrower by instalments
+within thirty years.</p>
+
+<p>Laws for the stamping out of cattle disease have been passed on the
+same principle. In 1878, 1886, 1890, 1893, and 1896 successive acts
+were passed which have given to the Board of Agriculture the right to
+cause the slaughter of any cattle or swine which have become infected
+or been subjected to contagious diseases; Parliament has also set
+apart a sufficient sum of money and appointed a large corps of
+inspectors to carry out the law. Official analysts of fertilizers
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273"></a>(p. 273)</span> and food-stuffs for cattle have also since 1893 been
+regularly appointed by the government in each county. Adulteration has
+been taken under control by the "Sale of Food and Drugs Act" of 1875,
+with its later amendments and extensions, especially that of 1899.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>76. Industries Carried on by Government.</strong>&mdash;In addition to the
+regulation in these various respects of industries carried on by
+private persons, and intervention for the protection of the public
+health, the government has extended its functions very considerably by
+taking up certain new duties or services, which it carries out itself
+instead of leaving to private hands.</p>
+
+<p>The post-office is such an old and well-established branch of the
+government's activity as not in itself to be included among newly
+adopted functions, but its administration has been extended since the
+middle of the century over at least four new fields of duty: the
+telegraph, the telephone, the parcels post, and the post-office
+savings-bank.</p>
+
+<p>The telegraph system of England was built up in the main and in its
+early stages by private persons and companies. After more than
+twenty-five years of competitive development, however, there was
+widespread public dissatisfaction with the service. Messages were
+expensive and telegraphing inconvenient. Many towns with populations
+from three thousand to six thousand were without telegraphic
+facilities nearer than five or ten miles, while the offices of
+competing companies were numerous in busy centres. In 1870, therefore,
+all private telegraph companies were bought up by the government at an
+expense of £10,130,000. A strict telegraphic monopoly in the hands of
+the government was established, and the telegraph made an integral
+part of the post-office system.</p>
+
+<p>In 1878 the telephone began to compete with the telegraph, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274"></a>(p. 274)</span>
+and its relation to the government telegraphic monopoly became a
+matter of question. At first the government adopted the policy of
+collecting a ten per cent royalty on all messages, but allowed
+telephones to be established by private companies. In the meantime the
+various companies were being bought up successively by the National
+Telephone Company which was thus securing a virtual monopoly. In 1892
+Parliament authorized the Postmaster General to spend £1,000,000,
+subsequently raised to £1,300,000, in the purchase of telephone lines,
+and prohibited any private construction of new lines. As a result, by
+1897 the government had bought up all the main or trunk telephone
+lines and wires, leaving to the National Telephone Company its
+monopoly of all telephone communication inside of the towns. This
+monopoly was supposed to be in its legal possession until 1904, when
+it was anticipated that the government would buy out its property at a
+valuation. In 1898, however, there was an inquiry by Parliament, and a
+new "Telegraph Act" was passed in 1899. The monopoly of the National
+Company was discredited and the government began to enter into
+competition with it within the towns, and to authorize local
+governments and private companies under certain circumstances to do
+the same. It was provided that every extension of an old company and
+every new company must obtain a government license and that on the
+expiring of this license the plant could be bought by the government.
+In the meantime the post-office authorities have power to restrict
+rates. An appropriation of £2,000,000 was put in the hands of the
+Postmaster General to extend the government telephone system. It seems
+quite certain that by 1925, at latest, all telephones will be in the
+hands of the government.</p>
+
+<p>The post-office savings-bank was established in 1861. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275"></a>(p. 275)</span> Any
+sum from one shilling upward is accepted from any depositor until his
+deposits rise to £50 in any one year, or a total of £200 in all. It
+presents great attractions from its security and its convenience. The
+government through the post-office pays two and one-half per cent
+interest. In 1870 there was deposited in the post-office savings-banks
+approximately £14,000,000, in 1880 £31,000,000, and ten years later
+£62,000,000. In 1880 arrangements were made by which government bonds
+and annuities can be bought through the post-office. In 1890 some
+£4,600,000 was invested in government stock in this way.</p>
+
+<p>The parcels post was established in 1883. This branch of the
+post-office does a large part of the work that would otherwise be done
+by private express companies. It takes charge of packages up to eleven
+pounds in weight and under certain circumstances up to twenty-one
+pounds, presented at any branch post-office, and on prepayment of
+regular charges delivers them to their consignees.</p>
+
+<p>In these and other forms each year within recent times has seen some
+extension of the field of government control for the good of the
+community in general, or for the protection of some particular class
+in the community, and there is at the same time a constant increase in
+the number and variety of occupations that the government
+undertakes. Instead of withdrawing from the field of intervention
+in economic concerns, and restricting its activity to the narrowest
+possible limits, as was the tendency in the last period, the
+government is constantly taking more completely under its regulation
+great branches of industry, and even administering various lines of
+business that formerly were carried on by private hands.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276"></a>(p. 276)</span> <strong>77. BIBLIOGRAPHY</strong></p>
+
+<p>Jevons, Stanley: <i>The State in Relation to Labor</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Alfred" (Samuel Kydd): <i>The History of the Factory Movement from the
+Year 1802 to the Enactment of the Ten Hours Bill in 1847</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Von Plener, E.: <i>A History of English Factory Legislation</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Cooke-Taylor, R. W.: <i>The Factory System and the Factory Acts</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Redgrave, Alexander: <i>The Factory Acts</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Shaftesbury, The Earl of: <i>Speeches on Labour Questions</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Birrell, Augustine: <i>Law of Employers' Liability</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Shaw-Lefevre, G.: <i>English Commons and Forests</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Far the best sources of information for the adoption of the factory
+laws, as for other nineteenth-century legislation, are the debates in
+Parliament and the various reports of Parliamentary Commissions, where
+access to them can be obtained. The early reports are enumerated in
+the bibliography in Cunningham's second volume. The later can be found
+in the appropriate articles in Palgrave's <i>Dictionary</i>. For recent
+legislation, the action of organizations, and social movements
+generally, the articles in <i>Hazell's Annual</i>, in its successive issues
+since 1885, are full, trustworthy, and valuable.</p>
+
+<h3><span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name="page277"></a>(p. 277)</span> CHAPTER X</h3>
+
+<h5>THE EXTENSION OF VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION</h5>
+
+<h5><span class="smcap">Trade Unions, Trusts, and Coöperation</span></h5>
+
+<p><strong>78. The Rise of Trade Unions.</strong>&mdash;One of the most manifest effects of the
+introduction of the factory system was the intensification of the
+distinction between employers and employees. When a large number of
+laborers were gathered together in one establishment, all in a similar
+position one to the other and with common interests as to wages, hours
+of labor, and other conditions of their work, the fact that they were
+one homogeneous class could hardly escape their recognition. Since
+these common interests were in so many respects opposed to those of
+their employers, the advantages of combination to obtain added
+strength in the settlement of disputed questions was equally evident.
+As the Statute of Apprentices was no longer in force, and freedom of
+contract had taken its place, a dispute between an employer and a
+single employee would result in the discharge of the latter. If the
+dispute was between the employer and his whole body of employees, each
+one of the latter would be in a vastly stronger position, and there
+would be something like equality in the two sides of the contest.</p>
+
+<p>Under the old gild conditions, when each man rose successively from
+apprentice to journeyman, and from journeyman to employer, when the
+relations between the employing master and his journeymen and
+apprentices were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278"></a>(p. 278)</span> very close, and the advantages of the gild
+were participated in by all grades of the producing body,
+organizations of the employed against the employers could hardly
+exist. It has been seen that the growth of separate combinations was
+one of the indications of a breaking down of the gild system. Even in
+the later times, when establishments were still small and scattered,
+when the government required that engagements should be made for long
+periods, and that none should work in an industry except those who had
+been apprenticed to it, and when rates of wages and hours of labor
+were supposed to be settled by law, the opposition between the
+interests of employers and employees was not very strongly marked. The
+occasion or opportunity for union amongst the workmen in most trades
+still hardly existed. Unions had been formed, it is true, during the
+first half of the eighteenth century and spasmodically in still
+earlier times. These were, however, mostly in trades where the
+employers made up a wealthy merchant class and where the prospect of
+the ordinary workman ever reaching the position of an employer was
+slight.</p>
+
+<p>The changes of the Industrial Revolution, however, made a profound
+difference. With the growth of factories and the increase in the size
+of business establishments the employer and employee came to be
+farther apart, while at the same time the employees in any one
+establishment or trade were thrown more closely together. The hand of
+government was at about the same time entirely withdrawn from the
+control of wages, hours, length of engagements, and other conditions
+of labor. Any workman was at liberty to enter or leave any occupation
+under any circumstances that he chose, and an employer could similarly
+hire or discharge any laborer for any cause or at any time he saw fit.
+Under these circumstances of homogeneity of the interests <span class="pagenum"><a id="page279" name="page279"></a>(p. 279)</span> of
+the laborers, of opposition of their interests to those of the
+employer, and of the absence of any external control, combinations
+among the workmen, or trade unions, naturally sprang up.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>79. Opposition of the Law and of Public Opinion. The Combination
+Acts.</strong>&mdash;Their growth, however, was slow and interrupted. The poverty,
+ignorance, and lack of training of the laborers interposed a serious
+obstacle to the formation of permanent unions; and a still more
+tangible difficulty lay in the opposition of the law and of public
+opinion. A trade union may be defined as a permanent organized
+society, the object of which is to obtain more favorable conditions of
+labor for its members. In order to retain its existence a certain
+amount of intelligence and self-control and a certain degree of
+regularity of contributions on the part of its members are necessary,
+and these powers were but slightly developed in the early years of
+this century. In order to obtain the objects of the union a "strike,"
+or concerted refusal to work except on certain conditions, is the
+natural means to be employed. But such action, or in fact the
+existence of a combination contemplating such action, was against the
+law. A series of statutes known as the "Combination Acts" had been
+passed from time to time since the sixteenth century, the object of
+which had been to prevent artisans, either employers or employees,
+from combining to change the rate of wages or other conditions of
+labor, which should be legally established by the government. The last
+of the combination acts were passed in 1799 and 1800, and were an
+undisguised exercise of the power of the employing class to use their
+membership in Parliament to legislate in their own interest. It
+provided that all agreements whatever between journeymen or other
+workmen for obtaining an advance in wages for themselves <span class="pagenum"><a id="page280" name="page280"></a>(p. 280)</span> or
+for other workmen, or for decreasing the number of hours of labor, or
+for endeavoring to prevent any employer from engaging any one whom he
+might choose, or for persuading any other workmen not to work, or for
+refusing to work with any other men, should be illegal. Any justice of
+the peace was empowered to convict by summary process and sentence to
+two months' imprisonment any workmen who entered into such a
+combination.</p>
+
+<p>The ordinary and necessary action of trade unions was illegal by the
+Common Law also, under the doctrine that combined attempts to
+influence wages, hours, prices, or apprenticeship were conspiracies in
+restraint of trade, and that such conspiracies had been repeatedly
+declared to be illegal.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to their illegality, trade unions were extremely unpopular
+with the most influential classes of English society. The employers,
+against whose power they were organized, naturally antagonized them
+for fear they would raise wages and in other ways give the workmen the
+upper hand; they were opposed by the aristocratic feeling of the
+country, because they brought about an increase in the power of the
+lower classes; the clergy deprecated their growth as a manifestation
+of discontent, whereas contentment was the virtue then most regularly
+inculcated upon the lower classes; philanthropists, who had more faith
+in what should be done for than by the workingmen, distrusted their
+self-interested and vaguely directed efforts. Those who were
+interested in England's foreign trade feared that they would increase
+prices, and thus render England incapable of competing with other
+nations, and those who were influenced by the teachings of political
+economy opposed them as being harmful, or at best futile efforts to
+interfere with the free action of those natural forces which, in the
+long run, must <span class="pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281"></a>(p. 281)</span> govern all questions of labor and wages. If
+the average rate of wages at any particular time was merely the
+quotient obtained by dividing the number of laborers into the wages
+fund, an organized effort to change the rate of wages would
+necessarily be a failure, or could at most only result in driving some
+other laborers out of employment or reducing their wages. Finally,
+there was a widespread feeling that trade unions were unscrupulous
+bodies which overawed the great majority of their fellow-workmen, and
+then by their help tyrannized over the employers and threw trade into
+recurring conditions of confusion. That same great body of
+uninstructed public opinion, which, on the whole, favored the factory
+laws, was quite clearly opposed to trade unions. With the incompetency
+of their own class, the power of the law, and the force of public
+opinion opposed to their existence and actions, it is not a matter of
+wonder that the development of these working-class organizations was
+only very gradual.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless these obstacles were one by one removed, and the growth
+of trade unions became one of the most characteristic movements of
+modern industrial history.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>80. Legalization and Popular Acceptance of Trade Unions.</strong>&mdash;During the
+early years of the century combinations, more or less long lived,
+existed in many trades, sometimes secretly because of their
+illegality, sometimes openly, until it became of sufficient interest
+to some one to prosecute them or their officers, sometimes making the
+misleading claim of being benefit societies. Prosecutions under the
+combination laws were, however, frequent. In the first quarter of the
+century there were many hundred convictions of workmen or their
+delegates or officers. Yet these laws were clear instances of
+interference with the perfect freedom which ought theoretically to be
+allowed to each person to employ his labor <span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282"></a>(p. 282)</span> or capital in the
+manner he might deem most advantageous. Their inconsistency with the
+general movement of abolition of restrictions then in progress could
+hardly escape observation. Thus the philosophic tendencies of the time
+combined with the aspirations of the leaders of the working classes to
+rouse an agitation in favor of the repeal of the combination laws. The
+matter was brought up in Parliament in 1822, and two successive
+committees were appointed to investigate the questions involved. As a
+result, a thoroughgoing repeal law was passed in 1824, but this in
+turn was almost immediately repealed, and another substituted for it
+in 1825, a great series of strikes having impressed the legislature
+with the belief that the former had gone too far. The law, as finally
+adopted, repealed all the combination acts which stood upon the
+statute book, and relieved from punishment men who met together for
+the sole purpose of agreeing on the rate of wages or the number of
+hours they would work, so long as this agreement referred to the wages
+or hours of those only who were present at the meeting. It declared,
+however, the illegality of any violence, threats, intimidation,
+molestation, or obstruction, used to induce any other workmen to
+strike or to join their association or take any other action in regard
+to hours or wages. Any attempt to bring pressure to bear upon an
+employer to make any change in his business was also forbidden, and
+the common law opposition was left unrepealed. The effect of the
+legislation of 1824 and 1825 was to enable trade unions to exist if
+their activity was restricted to an agreement upon their own wages or
+hours. Any effort, however, to establish wages and hours for other
+persons than those taking part in their meetings, or any strike on
+questions of piecework or number of apprentices or machinery or
+non-union workmen, was still illegal, both by this statute and by
+Common Law. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name="page283"></a>(p. 283)</span> The vague words, "molestation," "obstruction,"
+and "intimidation," used in the law were also capable of being
+construed, as they actually were, in such a way as to prevent any
+considerable activity on the part of trade unions. Nevertheless a
+great stimulus was given to the formation of organizations among
+workingmen, and the period of their legal growth and development now
+began, notwithstanding the narrow field of activity allowed them by
+the law as it then stood. Combinations were continually formed for
+further objects, and prosecutions, either under the statute or under
+Common Law, were still very numerous. In 1859 a further change in the
+law was made, by which it became lawful to combine to demand a change
+of wages or hours, even if the action involved other persons than
+those taking part in the agreement, and to exercise peaceful
+persuasion upon others to join the strikers in their action. Within
+the bounds of the limited legal powers granted by the laws of 1825 and
+1859, large numbers of trade unions were formed, much agitation
+carried on, strikes won and lost, pressure exerted upon Parliament,
+and the most active and capable of the working classes gradually
+brought to take an interest in the movement. This growth was
+unfortunately accompanied by much disorder. During times of industrial
+struggle non-strikers were beaten, employers were assaulted, property
+was destroyed, and in certain industrial communities confusion and
+outrage occurred every few years. The complicity of the trade unions
+as such in these disorders was constantly asserted and as constantly
+denied; but there seems little doubt that while by far the greatest
+amount of disorder was due to individual strikers or their
+sympathizers, and would have occurred, perhaps in even more intense
+form, if there had been no trade unions, yet there were cases where
+the organized unions were themselves responsible. The frequent
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284"></a>(p. 284)</span> recurrence of rioting and assault, the losses from
+industrial conflicts, and the agitation of the trade unionists for
+further legalization, all combined to bring the matter to attention,
+and four successive Parliamentary commissions of investigation, in
+addition to those of 1824 and 1825, were appointed in 1828, 1856,
+1860, and 1867, respectively. The last of these was due to a series of
+prolonged strikes and accompanying outrages in Sheffield, Nottingham,
+and Manchester. The committee consisted of able and influential men.
+It made a full investigation and report, and finally recommended,
+somewhat to the public surprise, that further laws for the protection
+and at the same time for the regulation of trade unions be passed. As
+a result, two laws were passed in the year 1871, the Trade Union Act
+and the Criminal Law Amendment Act. By the first of these it was
+declared that trade unions were not to be declared illegal because
+they were "in restraint of trade," and that they might be registered
+as benefit societies, and thereby become quasi-corporations, to the
+extent of having their funds protected by law, and being able to hold
+property for the proper uses of their organization. At the same time
+the Liberal majority in Parliament, who had only passed this law under
+pressure, and were but half hearted in their approval of trade unions,
+by the second law of the same year, made still more clear and vigorous
+the prohibition of "molesting," "obstructing," "threatening,"
+"persistently following," "watching or besetting" any workmen who had
+not voluntarily joined the trade union. As these terms were still
+undefined, the law might be, and it was, still sufficiently elastic to
+allow magistrates or judges who disapproved of trade unionism to
+punish men for the most ordinary forms of persuasion or pressure used
+in industrial conflicts. An agitation was immediately begun for the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285"></a>(p. 285)</span> repeal or modification of this later law. This was
+accomplished finally by the Trade Union Act of 1875, by which it was
+declared that no action committed by a group of workmen was punishable
+unless the same act was criminal if committed by a single individual.
+Peaceful persuasion of non-union workmen was expressly permitted, some
+of the elastic words of disapproval used in previous laws were omitted
+altogether, other offences especially likely to occur in such disputes
+were relegated to the ordinary criminal law, and a new act was passed,
+clearing up the whole question of the illegality of conspiracy in such
+a way as not to treat trade unions in any different way from other
+bodies, or to interfere with their existence or normal actions.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, by the four steps taken in 1825, 1859, 1871, and 1875, all trace
+of illegality has been taken away from trade unions and their ordinary
+actions. They have now the same legal right to exist, to hold
+property, and to carry out the objects of their organization that a
+banking or manufacturing company or a social or literary club has.</p>
+
+<p>The passing away of the popular disapproval of trade unions has been
+more gradual and indefinite, but not less real. The employers, after
+many hard-fought battles in their own trades, in the newspapers, and
+in Parliament, have come, in a great number of cases, to prefer that
+there should be a well-organized trade union in their industry rather
+than a chaotic body of restless and unorganized laborers. The
+aristocratic dread of lower-class organizations and activity has
+become less strong and less important, as political violence has
+ceased to threaten and as English society as a whole has become more
+democratic. The Reform Bill of 1867 was a voluntary concession by the
+higher and middle classes to the lower, showing that political dread
+of the working classes and their trade unions had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page286" name="page286"></a>(p. 286)</span>
+disappeared. The older type of clergymen of the established church,
+who had all the sympathies and prejudices of the aristocracy, has been
+largely superseded, since the days of Kingsley and Maurice, by men who
+have taken the deepest interest in working-class movements, and who
+teach struggle and effort rather than acceptance and contentment.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of trade unions, even while it has led to higher wages,
+shorter hours, and a more independent and self-assertive body of
+laborers, has made labor so much more efficient that, taken in
+connection with other elements of English economic activity, it has
+led to no resulting loss of her industrial supremacy. As to the
+economic arguments against trade unions, they have become less
+influential with the discrediting of much of the theoretical teaching
+on which they were based. In 1867 a book by W. T. Thornton, <i>On Labor,
+its Wrongful Claims and Rightful Dues</i>, successfully attacked the
+wages-fund theory, since which time the belief that the rate of wages
+was absolutely determined by the amount of that fund and the number of
+laborers has gradually been given up. The belief in the possibility of
+voluntary limitation of the effect of the so-called "natural laws" of
+the economic teachers of the early and middle parts of the century has
+grown stronger and spread more widely. Finally, the general popular
+feeling of dislike of trade unions has much diminished within the last
+twenty-five years, since their lawfulness has been acknowledged, and
+since their own policy has become more distinctly orderly and
+moderate.</p>
+
+<p>Much of this change in popular feeling toward trade unions was so
+gradual as not to be measurable, but some of its stages can be
+distinguished. Perhaps the first very noticeable step in the general
+acceptance of trade unions, other than their mere legalization, was
+the interest and approval <span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287"></a>(p. 287)</span> given to the formation of boards
+of conciliation or arbitration from 1867 forward. These were bodies in
+which representatives elected by the employers and representatives
+elected by trade unions met on equal terms to discuss differences, the
+unions thus being acknowledged as the normal form of organization of
+the working classes. In 1885 the Royal Commission on the depression of
+trade spoke with favor cf trade unions. In 1889 the great London
+Dockers' strike called forth the sympathy and the moral and pecuniary
+support of representatives of classes which had probably never before
+shown any favor to such organizations. More than $200,000 was
+subscribed by the public, and every form of popular pressure was
+brought to bear on the employers. In fact, the Dock Laborers' Union
+was partly created and almost entirely supported by outside public
+influence. In the same year the London School Board and County Council
+both declared that all contractors doing their work must pay "fair
+wages," an expression which was afterward defined as being union
+wages. Before 1894 some one hundred and fifty town and county
+governments had adopted a rule that fair wages must be paid to all
+workmen employed directly or indirectly by them. In 1890 and 1893 and
+subsequently the government has made the same declaration in favor of
+the rate of wages established by the unions in each industry. In 1890
+the report of the House of Lords Committee on the sweating system
+recommends in certain cases "well-considered combinations among the
+laborers." Therefore public opinion, like the formal law of the
+country, has passed from its early opposition to the trade unions,
+through criticism and reluctant toleration, to an almost complete
+acceptance and even encouragement. Trade unions have become a part of
+the regularly established institutions of the country, and few persons
+probably would wish to see them go out of existence or be seriously
+weakened.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288"></a>(p. 288)</span> <strong>81. The Growth of Trade Unions.</strong>&mdash;The actual growth of trade
+unionism has been irregular, interrupted, and has spread from many
+scattered centres. Hundreds of unions have been formed, lived for a
+time, and gone out of existence; others have survived from the very
+beginning of the century to the present; some have dwindled into
+insignificance and then revived in some special need. The workmen in
+some parts of the country and in certain trades were early and
+strongly organized, in others they have scarcely even yet become
+interested or made the effort to form unions. In the history of the
+trade-union movement as a whole there have been periods of active
+growth and multiplication and strengthening of organizations. Again,
+there have been times when trade unionism was distinctly losing
+ground, or when internal dissension seemed likely to deprive the whole
+movement of its vigor. There have been three periods when progress was
+particularly rapid, between 1830 and 1834, in 1873 and 1874, and from
+1889 to the present time. But before the middle of the century trade
+unions existed in almost every important line of industry. By careful
+computation it is estimated that there were in Great Britain and
+Ireland in 1892 about 1750 distinct unions or separate branches of
+unions, with some million and a half members. This would be about
+twenty per cent of the adult male working-class population, or an
+average of about one man who is a member of a trade union out of five
+who might be. But the great importance and influence of the trade
+unionists arises not from this comparatively small general proportion,
+but from the fact that the organizations are strongest in the most
+highly skilled and best-paid industries, and in the most thickly
+settled, highly developed parts of the country, and that they contain
+the picked and ablest men in each of the industries where they do
+exist. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name="page289"></a>(p. 289)</span> In some occupations, as cotton spinning in
+Lancashire, boiler making and iron ship building in the seaport towns,
+coal mining in Northumberland, glass making in the Midland counties,
+and others, practically every operative is a member of a trade union.
+Similarly in certain parts of the country much more than half of all
+workingmen are trade unionists. Their influence also is far more than
+in proportion to their numbers, since from their membership are chosen
+practically all workingmen representatives in Parliament and local
+governments and in administrative positions. The unions also furnish
+all the most influential leaders of opinion among the working classes.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>82. Federation of Trade Unions.</strong>&mdash;From the earliest days of trade-union
+organization there have been efforts to extend the unions beyond the
+boundaries of the single occupation or the single locality. The
+earliest form of union was a body made up of the workmen of some one
+industry in some one locality, as the gold beaters of London, or the
+cutlers of Sheffield, or the cotton spinners of Manchester. Three
+forms of extension or federation soon took place: first, the formation
+of national societies composed of men of the same trade through the
+whole country; secondly, the formation of "trades councils,"&mdash;bodies
+representing all the different trades in any one locality; and,
+thirdly, the formation of a great national organization of workingmen
+or trade unionists. The first of these forms of extension dates from
+the earliest years of the century, though such bodies had often only a
+transitory existence. The Manchester cotton spinners took the
+initiative in organizing a national body in that industry in 1829; in
+1831 a National Potters' Union is heard of, and others in the same
+decade. The largest and most permanent national bodies, however, such
+as the compositors, the flint-glass makers, miners, and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name="page290"></a>(p. 290)</span>
+others were formed after 1840; the miners in 1844 numbering 70,000
+voting members. Several of these national bodies were formed by an
+amalgamation of a number of different but more or less closely allied
+trades. The most conspicuous example of this was the Amalgamated
+Society of Engineers, the formation of which was completed in 1850,
+and which, beginning in that year with 5000 members, had more than
+doubled them in the next five years, doubled them again by 1860, and
+since then has kept up a steady increase in numbers and strength,
+having 67,928 members in 1890. The increasing ease of travel and
+cheapness of postage, and the improved education and intelligence of
+the workingmen, made the formation of national societies more
+practicable, and since the middle of the century most of the important
+societies have become national bodies made up of local branches.</p>
+
+<p>The second form of extension, the trades council, dates from a
+somewhat later period. Such a body arose usually when some matter of
+common interest had happened in the labor world, and delegates from
+the various unions in each locality were called upon to organize and
+to subscribe funds, prepare a petition to Parliament, or take other
+common action. In this temporary form they had existed from a much
+earlier date. The first permanent local board, made up of
+representatives of the various local bodies, was that of Liverpool,
+formed in 1848 to protect trade unionists from prosecutions for
+illegal conspiracy. In 1857 a permanent body was formed in Sheffield,
+and in the years immediately following in Glasgow, London, Bristol,
+and other cities. They have since come into existence in most of the
+larger industrial towns, 120 local trades councils existing in 1892.
+Their influence has been variable and limited.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of a general body of organized workingmen <span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name="page291"></a>(p. 291)</span> of
+all industries and from all parts of the country is an old dream.
+Various such societies were early formed only to play a more or less
+conspicuous rôle for a few years and then drop out of existence. In
+1830 a "National Association for the Protection of Labor" was formed,
+in 1834 a "Grand National Consolidated Trades Union," in 1845 a
+"National Association of United Trades for the Protection of Labor,"
+and in 1874 a "Federation of Organized Trade Societies," each of which
+had a short popularity and influence, and then died.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, however, a more practicable if less ambitious plan of
+unification of interests had been discovered in the form of an "Annual
+Trade Union Congress." This institution grew out of the trades
+councils. In 1864 the Glasgow Trades Council called a meeting of
+delegates from all trade unions to take action on the state of the law
+of employment, and in 1867 the Sheffield Trades Council called a
+similar meeting to agree upon measures of opposition to lockouts. The
+next year, 1868, the Manchester Trades Council issued a call for "a
+Congress of the Representatives of Trades Councils, Federations of
+Trades, and Trade Societies in general." Its plan was based on the
+annual meetings of the Social Science Association, and it was
+contemplated that it should meet each year in a different city and sit
+for five or six days. This first general Congress was attended by 34
+delegates, who claimed to represent some 118,000 trade unionists. The
+next meeting, at Birmingham, in 1869, was attended by 48 delegates,
+representing 40 separate societies, with some 250,000 members. With
+the exception of the next year, 1870, the Congress has met annually
+since, the meetings taking place at Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield, and
+other cities, with an attendance varying between one and two hundred
+delegates, representing <span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292"></a>(p. 292)</span> members ranging from a half-million
+to eight or nine hundred thousand. It elects each year a Parliamentary
+Committee consisting of ten members and a secretary, whose duty is to
+attend in London during the sittings of Parliament and exert what
+influence they can on legislation or appointments in the interests of
+the trade unionists whom they represent. In fact, most of the activity
+of the Congress was for a number of years represented by the
+Parliamentary Committee, the meetings themselves being devoted largely
+to commonplace discussions, points of conflict between the unions
+being intentionally ruled out. In recent years there have been some
+heated contests in the Congress on questions of general policy, but on
+the whole it and its Parliamentary Committee remain a somewhat loose
+and ineffective representation of the unity and solidarity of feeling
+of the great army of trade unionists. As a result, however, of the
+efforts of the unions in their various forms of organization there
+have always, since 1874, been a number of "labor members" of
+Parliament, usually officers of the great national trade unions, and
+many trade unionist members of local government bodies and school
+boards. Representative trade unionists have been appointed as
+government inspectors and other officials, and as members of
+government investigating commissions. Many changes in the law in which
+as workingmen the trade unionists are interested have been carried
+through Parliament or impressed upon the ministry through the
+influence of the organized bodies or their officers.</p>
+
+<p>The trade-union movement has therefore resulted in the formation of a
+powerful group of federated organizations, including far the most
+important and influential part of the working classes, acknowledged by
+the law, more or less fully approved by public opinion, and
+influential in national <span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name="page293"></a>(p. 293)</span> policy. It is to be noticed that
+while the legalization of trade unions was at first carried out under
+the claim and with the intention that the workingmen would thereby be
+relieved from restrictions and given a greater measure of freedom, yet
+the actual effect of the formation of trade unions has been a
+limitation of the field of free competition as truly as was the
+passage of the factory laws. The control of the government was
+withdrawn, but the men voluntarily limited their individual freedom of
+action by combining into organizations which bound them to act as
+groups, not as individuals. The basis of the trade unions is
+arrangement by the collective body of wages, hours, and other
+conditions of labor for all its members instead of leaving them to
+individual contract between the employer and the single employee. The
+workman who joins a trade union therefore divests himself to that
+extent of his individual freedom of action in order that he may, as he
+believes, obtain a higher good and a more substantial liberty through
+collective or associated action. Just in as far, therefore, as the
+trade-union movement has extended and been approved of by law and
+public opinion, just so far has the ideal of individualism been
+discredited and its sphere of applicability narrowed. Trade unions
+therefore represent the same reaction from complete individual freedom
+of industrial action as do factory laws and the other extensions of
+the economic functions of government discussed in the last chapter.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>83. Employers' Organizations.</strong>&mdash;From this point of view there has been
+a very close analogy between the actions of workingmen and certain
+recent action among manufacturers and other members of the employing
+classes. In the first place, employers' associations have been formed
+from time to time to take common action in resistance to trade unions
+or for common negotiations with them. As <span class="pagenum"><a id="page294" name="page294"></a>(p. 294)</span> early as 1814 the
+master cutlers formed, notwithstanding the combination laws, the
+"Sheffield Mercantile and Manufacturing Union," for the purpose of
+keeping down piecework wages to their existing rate. In 1851 the
+"Central Association of Employers of Operative Engineers" was formed
+to resist the strong union of the "Amalgamated Engineers." They have
+also had their national bodies, such as the "Iron Trade Employers'
+Association," active in 1878, and their general federations, such as
+the "National Federation of Associated Employers of Labor," which was
+formed in 1873, and included prominent shipbuilders, textile
+manufacturers, engineers, iron manufacturers, and builders. Many of
+these organizations, especially the national or district organizations
+of the employers in single trades, exist for other and more general
+purposes, but incidentally the representatives of the masters'
+associations regularly arrange wages and other labor conditions with
+the representatives of the workingmen's associations. There is,
+therefore, in these cases no more competition among employers as to
+what wages they shall pay than among the workmen as to what wages they
+shall receive. In both cases it is a matter of arrangement between the
+two associations, each representing its own membership. The liberty
+both of the individual manufacturer and of the workman ceases in this
+respect when he joins his association.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>84. Trusts and Trade Combinations.</strong>&mdash;But the competition among the
+great producers, traders, transportation companies, and other
+industrial leaders has been diminished in recent times in other ways
+than in their relation to their employees. In manufacturing, mining,
+and many wholesale trades, employers' associations have held annual or
+more frequent meetings at which agreements have been made as to
+prices, amount of production, terms of sale, length of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295"></a>(p. 295)</span>
+credit, and other such matters. In some cases formal combinations have
+been made of all the operators in one trade, with provisions for
+enforcing trade agreements. In such a case all competition comes to an
+end in that particular trade, so far as the subjects of agreement
+extend. The culminating stage in this development has been the
+formation of "trusts," by which the stock of all or practically all
+the producers in some one line is thrown together, and a company
+formed with regular officers or a board of management controlling the
+whole trade. An instance of this is the National Telephone Company,
+already referred to. In all these fields unrestricted competition has
+been tried and found wanting, and has been given up by those most
+concerned, in favor of action which is collective or previously agreed
+upon. In the field of transportation, boards of railway presidents or
+other combinations have been formed, by which rates of fares and
+freight rates have been established, "pooling" or the proportionate
+distribution of freight traffic made, "car trusts" formed, and other
+non-competitive arrangements made. In banking, clearing-house
+agreements have been made, a common policy adopted in times of
+financial crisis, and through gatherings of bankers a common influence
+exerted on legislation and opinion. Thus in the higher as in the lower
+stages of industrial life, in the great business interests, as among
+workingmen, recent movements have all been away from a competitive
+organization of economic society, and in the direction of combination,
+consolidation, and union. Where competition still exists it is
+probably more intense than ever before, but its field of application
+is much smaller than it has been in the past. Government control and
+voluntary regulation have alike limited the field in which competition
+acts.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>85. Coöperation in Distribution.</strong>&mdash;Another movement in <span class="pagenum"><a id="page296" name="page296"></a>(p. 296)</span> the
+same direction is the spread of coöperation in its various forms.
+Numerous coöperative societies, with varying objects and methods,
+formed part of the seething agitation, experimentation, and discussion
+characteristic of the early years of the nineteenth century; but the
+coöperative movement as a definite, continuous development dates from
+the organization of the "Rochdale Equitable Pioneers" in 1844. This
+society was composed of twenty-eight working weavers of that town, who
+saved up one pound each, and thus created a capital of twenty-eight
+pounds, which they invested in flour, oatmeal, butter, sugar, and some
+other groceries. They opened a store in the house of one of their
+number in Toad Lane, Rochdale, for the sale of these articles to their
+own members under a plan previously agreed to. The principal points of
+their scheme, afterward known as the "Rochdale Plan," were as follows:
+sale of goods at regular market prices, division of profits to members
+at quarterly intervals in proportion to purchases, subscription to
+capital in instalments by members, and payment of five per cent
+interest. There were also various provisions of minor importance, such
+as absolute purity and honesty of goods, insistance on cash payments,
+devoting a part of their earnings to educational or other
+self-improvement, settling all questions by equal vote. These
+arrangements sprang naturally from the fact that they proposed
+carrying on their store for their own benefit, alike as proprietors,
+shareholders, and consumers of their goods.</p>
+
+<p>The source of the profits they would have to divide among their
+members was the same as in the case of any ordinary store. The
+difference between the wholesale price, at which they would buy, and
+the retail market price, at which they would sell, would be the gross
+profits. From this would have to be paid, normally, rent for their
+store, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page297" name="page297"></a>(p. 297)</span> wages for their salesmen, and interest on their
+capital. But after these were paid there should still remain a certain
+amount of net profit, and this it was which they proposed to divide
+among themselves as purchasers, instead of leaving it to be taken by
+an ordinary store proprietor. The capital they furnished themselves,
+and consequently paid themselves the interest. The first two items
+also amounted to nothing at first, though naturally they must be
+accounted for if their store rose to any success. As a matter of fact,
+their success was immediate and striking. They admitted new members
+freely, and at the end of the first year of their existence had
+increased in numbers to seventy-four with £187 capital. During the
+year they had done a business of £710, and distributed profits of £22.
+A table of the increase of this first successful coöperative
+establishment at succeeding ten years' periods is as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table  border="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Increase.">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="20%">
+    <col width="20%">
+    <col width="20%">
+    <col width="20%">
+    <col width="20%">
+</colgroup>
+<tr>
+<td class="td-center"><span class="smcap">Date</span></td>
+<td class="td-right"><span class="smcap">Members</span></td>
+<td class="td-right"><span class="smcap">Capital</span></td>
+<td class="td-right"><span class="smcap">Business</span></td>
+<td class="td-right"><span class="smcap">Profits</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td colspan="5">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="td-center">1855</td>
+<td class="td-right">1,400</td>
+<td class="td-right">£ 11,032</td>
+<td class="td-right">£ 44,902</td>
+<td class="td-right">£ 3,109</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="td-center">1865</td>
+<td class="td-right">5,326</td>
+<td class="td-right">78,778</td>
+<td class="td-right">196,234</td>
+<td class="td-right">25,156</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="td-center">1875</td>
+<td class="td-right">8,415</td>
+<td class="td-right">225,682</td>
+<td class="td-right">305,657</td>
+<td class="td-right">48,212</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="td-center">1885</td>
+<td class="td-right">11,084</td>
+<td class="td-right">324,645</td>
+<td class="td-right">252,072</td>
+<td class="td-right">45,254</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="td-center">1898</td>
+<td class="td-right">12,719</td>
+<td class="td-right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+<td class="td-right">292,335</td>
+<td class="td-right">&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>They soon extended their business in variety as well as in total
+amount. In 1847 they added the sale of linen and woollen goods, in
+1850 of meat, in 1867 they began baking and selling bread to their
+customers. They opened eventually a dozen or more branch stores in
+Rochdale, the original Toad Lane house being superseded by a great
+distributing building or central store, with a library and reading
+room. They own much property in the town, and have spread their
+activity into many lines.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page298" name="page298"></a>(p. 298)</span> The example of the Rochdale society was followed by many
+others, especially in the north of England and south of Scotland. A
+few years after its foundation two large and successful societies were
+started in Oldham, having between them by 1860 more than 3000 members,
+and doing a business of some £80,000 a year. In Liverpool, Manchester,
+Birmingham, and other cities similar societies grew up at the same
+period. In 1863 there were some 454 coöperative societies of this kind
+in existence, 381 of them together having 108,000 members and doing an
+annual business of about £2,600,000. One hundred and seventeen of the
+total number of societies were in Lancashire and 96 in Yorkshire. Many
+of these eventually came to have a varied and extensive activity. The
+Leeds Coöperative Society, for instance, had in 1892 a grist mill, 69
+grocery and provision stores, 20 dry goods and millinery shops, 9 boot
+and shoe shops, and 40 butcher shops. It had 12 coal depots, a
+furnishing store, a bakery, a tailoring establishment, a boot and shoe
+factory, a brush factory, and acted as a builder of houses and
+cottages. It had at that time 29,958 members. The work done by these
+coöperative stores is known as "distributive coöperation," or
+"coöperation in distribution." It combines the seller and the buyer
+into one group. From one point of view the society is a store-keeping
+body, buying goods at wholesale and selling them at retail. From
+another point of view, exactly the same group of persons, the members
+of the society, are the customers of the store, the purchasers and
+consumers of the goods. Whenever any body of men form an association
+to carry on an establishment which sells them the goods they need,
+dividing the profits of the buying and selling among the members of
+the association, it is a society for distributive coöperation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299"></a>(p. 299)</span> A variation from the Rochdale plan is that used in three or
+perhaps more societies organized in London between 1856 and 1875 by
+officials and employees of the government. These are the Civil Service
+Supply Association, the Civil Service Coöperative Society, and the
+Army and Navy Stores. In these, instead of buying at wholesale and
+selling at retail rates, sharing the profits at the end of a given
+term, they sell as well as buy at wholesale rates, except for the
+slight increase necessary to pay the expenses of carrying on the
+store. In other words, the members obtain their goods for use at cheap
+rates instead of dividing up a business profit.</p>
+
+<p>But these and still other variations have had only a slight connection
+with the working-class coöperative movement just described. A more
+direct development of it was the formation, in 1864, of the Wholesale
+Coöperative Society, at Manchester, a body holding much the same
+relation to the coöperative societies that each of them does to its
+individual members. The shareholders are the retail coöperative
+societies, which supply the capital and control its actions. During
+its first year the Wholesale Society possessed a capital of £2456 and
+did a business of £51,858. In 1865 its capital was something over
+£7000 and business over £120,000. Ten years later, in 1875, its
+capital was £360,527 and yearly business £2,103,226. In 1889 its sales
+were £7,028,994. Its purchasing agents have been widely distributed in
+various parts of the world. In 1873 it purchased and began running a
+cracker factory, shortly afterward a boot and shoe factory, the next
+year a soap factory. Subsequently it has taken up a woollen goods
+factory, cocoa works, and the manufacture of ready-made clothing. It
+employs something over 5000 persons, has large branches in London,
+Newcastle, and Leicester, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300"></a>(p. 300)</span> agencies and depots in various
+countries, and runs six steamships. It possesses also a banking
+department. Coöperative stores, belonging to wholesale and retail
+distributive coöperative societies, are thus a well-established and
+steadily, if somewhat slowly, extending element in modern industrial
+society.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>86. Coöperation in Production.</strong>&mdash;But the greatest problems in the
+relations of modern industrial classes to one another are not
+connected with buying and selling, but with employment and wages. The
+competition between employer and employee is more intense than that
+between buyer and seller and has more influence on the constitution of
+society. This opposition of employer and employee is especially
+prominent in manufacturing, and the form of coöperation which is based
+on a combination or union of these two classes is therefore commonly
+called "coöperation in production," as distinguished from coöperation
+in distribution. Societies have been formed on a coöperative basis to
+produce one or another kind of goods from the earliest years of the
+century, but their real development dates from a period somewhat later
+than that of the coöperative stores, that is, from about 1850. In this
+year there were in existence in England bodies of workmen who were
+carrying on, with more or less outside advice, assistance, or control,
+a coöperative tailoring establishment, a bakery, a printing shop, two
+building establishments, a piano factory, a shoe factory, and several
+flour mills. These companies were all formed on the same general plan.
+The workmen were generally the members of the company. They paid
+themselves the prevailing rate of wages, then divided among themselves
+either equally or in proportion to their wages the net profits of the
+business, when there were any, having first reserved a sufficient
+amount to pay interest on capital. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page301" name="page301"></a>(p. 301)</span> As a matter of fact, the
+capital and much of the direction was contributed from outside by
+persons philanthropically interested in the plans, but the ideal
+recognized and desired was that capital should be subscribed, interest
+received, and all administration carried on by the workmen-coöperators
+themselves. In this way, in a coöperative productive establishment,
+there would not be two classes, employer and employee. The same
+individuals would be acting in both capacities, either themselves or
+through their elected managers. All of these early companies failed or
+dissolved, sooner or later, but in the meantime others had been
+established. By 1862 some 113 productive societies had been formed,
+including 28 textile manufacturing companies, 8 boot and shoe
+factories, 7 societies of iron workers, 4 of brush makers, and
+organizations in various other trades. Among the most conspicuous of
+these were three which were much discussed during their period of
+prosperity. They were the Liverpool Working Tailors' Association,
+which lasted from 1850 to 1860, the Manchester Working Tailors'
+Association, which flourished from 1850 to 1872, and the Manchester
+Working Hatters' Association, 1851-1873. These companies had at
+different times from 6 to 30 members each. After the great strike of
+the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, in 1852, a series of iron
+workers' coöperative associations were formed. In the next twenty
+years, between 1862 and 1882, some 163 productive societies were
+formed, and in 1892 there were 143 societies solely for coöperative
+production in existence, with some 25,000 members. Coöperative
+production has been distinctly less prosperous than coöperative
+distribution. Most purely coöperative productive societies have had a
+short and troubled existence, though their dissolution has in many
+cases been the result of contention rather <span class="pagenum"><a id="page302" name="page302"></a>(p. 302)</span> than ordinary
+failure and has not always involved pecuniary loss. In addition to the
+usual difficulties of all business, insufficiency of capital,
+incompetency of buying and selling agents and of managers, dishonesty
+of trusted officials or of debtors, commercial panics, and other
+adversities to which coöperative, quite as much as or even more than
+individual companies have been subject, there are peculiar dangers
+often fatal to their coöperative principles. For instance, more than
+one such association, after going through a period of struggle and
+sacrifice, and emerging into a period of prosperity, has yielded to
+the temptation to hire additional employees just as any other employer
+might, at regular wages, without admitting them to any share in the
+profits, interest, or control of the business. Such a concern is
+little more than an ordinary joint-stock company with an unusually
+large number of shareholders. As a matter of fact, plain, clear-cut
+coöperative production makes up but a small part of that which is
+currently reported and known as such. A fairer statement would be that
+there is a large element of coöperation in a great many productive
+establishments. Nevertheless, productive societies more or less
+consistent to coöperative principles exist in considerable numbers and
+have even shown a distinct increase of growth in recent years.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>87. Coöperation in Farming.</strong>&mdash;Very much the same statements are true of
+another branch of coöperative effort,&mdash;coöperation in farming.
+Experiments were made very early, they have been numerous, mostly
+short-lived, and yet show a tendency to increase within the last
+decade. Sixty or more societies have engaged in coöperative farming,
+but only half a dozen are now in existence. The practicability and
+desirability of the application of coöperative ideals to agriculture
+is nevertheless a subject of constant discussion <span class="pagenum"><a id="page303" name="page303"></a>(p. 303)</span> among those
+interested in coöperation, and new schemes are being tried from time
+to time.</p>
+
+<p>The growth of coöperation, like that of trade unions, has been
+dependent on successive modifications of the law; though it was rather
+its defects than its opposition that caused the difficulty in this
+case. When coöperative organizations were first formed it was found
+that by the common law they could not legally deal as societies with
+non-members; that they could not hold land for investment, or for any
+other purpose than the transaction of their own business, or more than
+one acre even for this purpose; that they could not loan money to
+other societies; that the embezzlement or misuse of their funds by
+their officers was not punishable; and that each member was
+responsible for the debts of the whole society. Eight or ten statutes
+have been passed to cure the legal defects from which coöperative
+associations suffered. The most important of these were the "Frugal
+Investment Clause" in the Friendly Societies Act of 1846, by which
+such associations were allowed to be formed and permitted to hold
+personal property for the purposes of a society for savings; the
+Industrial and Provident Societies Act, of 1852, by which coöperative
+societies were definitely authorized and obtained the right to sue as
+if they were corporations; the Act of 1862, which repealed the former
+acts, gave them the right of incorporation, made each member liable
+for debt only to the extent of his own investment, and allowed them
+greater latitude for investments; the third Industrial and Provident
+Societies Act of 1876, which again repealed previous acts and
+established a veritable code for their regulation and extension; and
+the act of 1894, which amends the law in some further points in which
+it had proved defective. All the needs of the coöperative movement, so
+far as they have <span class="pagenum"><a id="page304" name="page304"></a>(p. 304)</span> been discovered and agreed upon by those
+interested in its propagation, have thus been provided for, so far as
+the law can do so.</p>
+
+<p>Coöperation has always contained an element of philanthropy, or at
+least of enthusiastic belief on the part of those especially
+interested in it, that it was destined to be of great service to
+humanity, and to solve many of the problems of modern social
+organization. Advocates of coöperation have not therefore been content
+simply to organize societies which would conduce to their own profit,
+but have kept up a constant propaganda for their extension. There was
+a period of about twenty years, from 1820 to 1840, before coöperation
+was placed on a solid footing, when it was advocated and tried in
+numerous experiments as a part of the agitation begun by Robert Owen
+for the establishment of socialistic communities. Within this period a
+series of congresses of delegates of coöperative associations was held
+in successive years from 1830 to 1846, and numerous periodicals were
+published for short periods. In 1850 a group of philanthropic and
+enthusiastic young men, including such able and prominent men as
+Thomas Hughes, Frederick D. Maurice, and others who have since been
+connected through long lives with coöperative effort, formed
+themselves into a "Society for promoting Working Men's Associations,"
+which sent out lecturers, published tracts and a newspaper, loaned
+money, promoted legislation, and took other action for the
+encouragement of coöperation. Its members were commonly known as the
+"Christian Socialists." They had but scant success, and in 1854
+dissolved the Association and founded instead a "Working Men's
+College" in London, which long remained a centre of coöperative and
+reformatory agitation.</p>
+
+<p>So far, this effort to extend and regulate the movement <span class="pagenum"><a id="page305" name="page305"></a>(p. 305)</span> came
+rather from outside sympathizers than from coöperators themselves.
+With 1869, however, began a series of annual Coöperative Congresses
+which, like the annual Trade Union Congresses, have sprung from the
+initiative of workingmen themselves and which are still continued.
+Papers are read, addresses made, experiences compared, and most
+important of all a Central Board and a Parliamentary Committee elected
+for the ensuing year. At the thirty-first annual Congress, held in
+Liverpool in 1899, there were 1205 delegates present, representing
+over a million members of coöperative societies. Since 1887 a
+"Coöperative Festival," or exhibition of the products of coöperative
+workshops and factories, has been held each year in connection with
+the Congress. This exhibition is designed especially to encourage
+coöperative production. At the first Congress, in 1869, a Coöperative
+Union was formed which aims to include all the coöperative societies
+of the country, and as a matter of fact does include about
+three-fourths of them. The Central Coöperative Board represents this
+Union. It is divided into seven sections, each having charge of the
+affairs of one of the seven districts into which the country is
+divided for coöperative work. The Board issues a journal, prints
+pamphlets, keeps up correspondence, holds public examinations on
+auditing, book-keeping, and the principles of coöperation, and acts as
+a statistical, propagandist, and regulative body. There is also a
+"Coöperative Guild" and a "Women's Coöperative Guild," the latter
+with 262 branches and a membership of 12,537, in 1898.</p>
+
+<p>The total number of recognized coöperative societies in existence at
+the beginning of the year 1900 has been estimated at 1640, with a
+combined membership of 1,640,078, capital of £19,759,039, and
+investments of £11,681,296. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page306" name="page306"></a>(p. 306)</span> The sale of goods in the year
+1898 was £65,460,871, and net profits had amounted to £7,165,753.
+During the year 1898, 181 new societies of various kinds were formed.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>88. Coöperation in Credit.</strong>&mdash;In England building societies are not
+usually recognized as a form of coöperation, but they are in reality
+coöperative in the field of credit in the same way as the associations
+already discussed are in distribution, in production, or in
+agriculture. Building societies are defined in one of the statutes as
+bodies formed "for the purpose of raising by the subscription of the
+members a stock or fund for making advances to members out of the
+funds of the society." The general plan of one of these societies is
+as follows: A number of persons become members, each taking one or
+more shares. Each shareholder is required to pay into the treasury a
+certain sum each month. There is thus created each month a new capital
+sum which can be loaned to some member who may wish to borrow it and
+be able and willing to give security and to pay interest. The borrower
+will afterward have to pay not only his monthly dues, but the interest
+on his loan. The proportionate amount of the interest received is
+credited to each member, borrower and non-borrower alike, so that
+after a certain number of months, by the receipts from dues and
+interest, the borrower will have repaid his loan, whilst the members
+who have not borrowed will receive a corresponding sum in cash.
+Borrowers and lenders are thus the same group of persons, just as
+sellers and consumers are in distributive, and employers and employees
+in productive coöperation. The members of such societies are enabled
+to obtain loans when otherwise they might not be able to; the
+periodical dues create a succession of small amounts to be loaned,
+when otherwise this class of persons could hardly save up a sufficient
+sum to be used as capital; and finally <span class="pagenum"><a id="page307" name="page307"></a>(p. 307)</span> by paying the
+interest to their collective group, so that a proportionate part of it
+is returned to the borrower, and by the continuance of the payment of
+dues, the repayment of the loan is less of a burden than in ordinary
+loans obtained from a bank or a capitalist. Loans to their members
+have been usually restricted to money to be used for the building of a
+dwelling-house or store or the purchase of land; whence their name of
+"building societies." Their formation dates from 1815, their
+extension, from about 1834. The principal laws authorizing and
+regulating their operations were passed in 1836, 1874, and 1894. The
+total number of building societies in England to-day is estimated at
+about 3000, their membership at about 600,000 members with £52,000,000
+of funds. The history of these societies has been marked by a large
+number of failures, and they have lacked the moral elevation of the
+coöperative movement in its other phases. The codifying act of 1894
+established a minute oversight and control over these societies on the
+part of the government authorities while at the same time it extended
+their powers and privileges.</p>
+
+<p>The one feature common to all forms of coöperation is the union of
+previously competing economic classes. In a coöperative store,
+competition between buyer and seller does not exist; and the same is
+true for borrower and lender in a building and loan association and
+for employer and employee in a coöperative factory. Coöperation is
+therefore in line with other recent movements in being a reaction from
+competition.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>89. Profit Sharing.</strong>&mdash;There is a device which has been introduced into
+many establishments which stands midway between simple competitive
+relations and full coöperation. It diminishes, though it does not
+remove, the opposition between employer and employee. This is "<strong>profit
+sharing.</strong>" <span class="pagenum"><a id="page308" name="page308"></a>(p. 308)</span> In the year 1865 Henry Briggs, Son and Co.,
+operators of collieries in Yorkshire, after long and disastrous
+conflicts with the miners' trade unions, offered as a measure of
+conciliation to their employees that whenever the net profit of the
+business should be more than ten per cent on their investment,
+one-half of all such surplus profit should be divided among the
+workmen in proportion to the wages they had earned in the previous
+year. The expectation was that the increased interest and effort and
+devotion put into the work by the men would be such as to make the
+total earnings of the employers greater, notwithstanding their
+sacrifice to the men of the half of the profits above ten per cent.
+This anticipation was justified. After a short period of suspicion on
+the part of the men, and doubt on the part of the employers, both
+parties seemed to be converted to the advantages of profit sharing, a
+sanguine report of their experience was made by a member of the firm
+to the Social Science Association in 1868, sums between one and six
+thousand pounds were divided yearly among the employees, while the
+percentage of profits to the owners rose to as much as eighteen per
+cent. This experiment split on the rock of dissension in 1875, but in
+the meantime others, either in imitation of their plan or
+independently, had introduced the same or other forms of profit
+sharing. Another colliery, two iron works, a textile factory, a
+millinery firm, a printing shop, and some others admitted their
+employees to a share in the profits within the years 1865 and 1866.
+The same plan was then introduced into certain retail stores, and into
+a considerable variety of occupations, including several large farms
+where a share of all profits was offered to the laborers as a "bonus"
+in addition to their wages. The results were very various, ranging all
+the way from the most extraordinary success to complete and
+discouraging failure. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page309" name="page309"></a>(p. 309)</span> Up to 1897 about 170 establishments
+had introduced some form of profit sharing, 75 of which had
+subsequently given it up, or had gone out of business. In that year,
+however, the plan was still in practice in almost a hundred concerns,
+in some being almost twenty years old.</p>
+
+<p>A great many other employers, corporate or individual, provide
+laborers' dwellings at favorable rents, furnish meals at cost price,
+subsidize insurance funds, offer easy means of becoming shareholders
+in their firms, support reading rooms, music halls, and gymnasiums, or
+take other means of admitting their employees to advantages other than
+the simple receipt of competitive wages. But, after all, the entire
+control of capital and management in the case of firms which share
+profits with their employees remains in the hands of the employers, so
+that there is in these cases an enlightened fulfilment of the
+obligations of the employing class rather than a combination of two
+classes in one.</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of profit sharing, however, all the economic and
+social movements described in this chapter are as truly collective and
+as distinctly opposed to individualism, voluntary though they may be,
+as are the various forms of control exercised by government, described
+in the preceding chapter. In as far as men have combined in trade
+unions, in business trusts, in coöperative organizations, they have
+chosen to seek their prosperity and advantage in united, collective
+action, rather than in unrestricted individual freedom. And in as far
+as such organizations have been legalized, regulated by government,
+and encouraged by public opinion, the confidence of the community at
+large has been shown to rest rather in associative than in competitive
+action. Therefore, whether we look at the rapidly extending sphere of
+government control and service, or at the spread of voluntary
+combinations which restrict individual <span class="pagenum"><a id="page310" name="page310"></a>(p. 310)</span> liberty, it is
+evident that the tendencies of social development at the close of the
+nineteenth century are as strongly toward association and regulation
+as they were at its beginning toward individualism and freedom from
+all control.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><strong>90. Socialism.</strong>&mdash;All of these changes are departures from the purely
+competitive ideal of society. Together they constitute a distinct
+movement toward a quite different ideal of society&mdash;that which is
+described as socialistic. Socialism in this sense means the adoption
+of measures directed to the general advantage, even though they
+diminish individual freedom and restrict enterprise. It is the
+tendency to consider the general good first, and to limit individual
+rights or introduce collective action wherever this will subserve the
+general good.</p>
+
+<p>Socialism thus understood, the process of limiting private action and
+introducing public control, has gone very far, as has been seen in
+this and the preceding chapter. How far it is destined to extend, to
+what fields of industry collective action is to be applied, and which
+fields are to be left to individual action can only be seen as time
+goes on. Many further changes in the same direction have been
+advocated in Parliament and other public bodies in recent years and
+failed of being agreed to by very small majorities only. It seems
+almost certain from the progress of opinion that further socialistic
+measures will be adopted within the near future. The views of those
+who approve this socialistic tendency and would extend it still
+further are well indicated in the following expressions used in the
+minority report of the Royal Commission on Labor of 1895. "The whole
+force of democratic statesmanship must, in our opinion, henceforth be
+directed to the substitution as fast as possible of public for
+capitalist enterprise, and where the substitution is not yet
+practicable, to the strict and detailed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page311" name="page311"></a>(p. 311)</span> regulation of all
+industrial operations so as to secure to every worker the conditions
+of efficient citizenship."</p>
+
+<p>There is a somewhat different use of the word socialism, according to
+which it means the deliberate adoption of such an organization of
+society as will rid it of competition altogether. This is a complete
+social and philosophic ideal, involving the consistent reorganization
+of all society, and is very different from the mere socialistic
+tendency described above. In the early part of the century, Robert
+Owen developed a philosophy which led him to labor for the
+introduction of communities in which competition should be entirely
+superseded by joint action. He had many adherents then, and others
+since have held similar views. There has, indeed, been a series of
+more or less short-lived attempts to found societies or communities on
+this socialistic basis. Apart from these efforts, however, socialism
+in this sense belongs to the history of thought or philosophic
+speculation, not of actual economic and social development. Professed
+socialists, represented by the Fabyan Society, the Socialist League,
+the Social Democratic Federation, and other bodies, are engaged in the
+spread of socialistic doctrines and the encouragement of all movements
+of associative, anti-individualistic character rather than in efforts
+to introduce immediate practical socialism.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2"><strong>91. BIBLIOGRAPHY</strong></p>
+
+<p>Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: <i>The History of Trade Unionism.</i> This
+excellent history contains, as an Appendix, an extremely detailed
+bibliography on its own subject and others closely allied to it.</p>
+
+<p>Howell, George: <i>Conflicts of Labor and Capital.</i></p>
+
+<p>Rousiers, P. de: <i>The Labour Question in Britain.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page312" name="page312"></a>(p. 312)</span> Holyoake, G. I.: <i>History of Coöperation</i>, two volumes. This
+is the classical work on the subject, but its plan is so confused, its
+style so turgid, and its information so scattered, that, however
+amusing it may be, it is more interesting and valuable as a history of
+the period than as a clear account of the movement for which it is
+named. Mr. Holyoake has written two other books on the same subject:
+<i>A History of the Rochdale Pioneers</i> and <i>The Coöperative Movement of
+To-day</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Pizzamiglio, L.: <i>Distributing Coöperative Societies</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Jones, Benjamin: <i>Coöperative Production</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Gilman, N. P.: <i>Profit Sharing between Employer and Employee</i>; and <i>A
+Dividend to Labor</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: <i>Problems of Modern Industry</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Verhaegen, P.: <i>Socialistes Anglais</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A series of small modern volumes known as the Social Science Series,
+most of which deal with various phases of the subject of this chapter,
+is published by Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., London, and the list of
+its eighty or more numbers gives a characteristic view of recent
+writing on the subject, as well as further references.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a id="page313" name="page313"></a>(p. 313)</span> INDEX</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<p>
+Acres,
+<a href="#page033">33</a>.<br>
+Adventurers,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>.<br>
+Agincourt,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>.<br>
+Agricultural Children's Act,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>.<br>
+Agricultural Gangs Act,
+<a href="#page262">262</a>.<br>
+Agricultural Holdings Acts,
+<a href="#page268">268</a>.<br>
+Alderman,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>.<br>
+Ale-taster,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>.<br>
+Alfred,
+<a href="#page013">13</a>.<br>
+Alien immigrants,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>.<br>
+Allotments and Small Holdings Association,
+<a href="#page269">269</a>.<br>
+Amalgamated Society of Engineers,
+<a href="#page290">290</a>.<br>
+Angevin period,
+<a href="#page022">22</a>.<br>
+Anti-Corn Law League,
+<a href="#page231">231</a>.<br>
+Apprentice,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>.<br>
+Apprentice houses,
+<a href="#page246">246</a>.<br>
+Apprentices, Statute of,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>,
+<a href="#page228">228</a>.<br>
+Arkwright, Sir Richard,
+<a href="#page209">209</a>.<br>
+Armada,
+<a href="#page141">141</a>.<br>
+Army and navy stores,
+<a href="#page299">299</a>.<br>
+Arras,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>.<br>
+Ashley, Lord,
+<a href="#page254">254</a>.<br>
+Assize of Bread and Beer,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>,
+<a href="#page228">228</a>.<br>
+Assize, rents of,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Bailiff,
+<a href="#page040">40</a>,
+<a href="#page141">141</a>.<br>
+Balk,
+<a href="#page035">35</a>.<br>
+Ball, John,
+<a href="#page112">112</a>.<br>
+Bank of England,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>.<br>
+Barbary Company,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br>
+Bardi,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>.<br>
+Berkhamstead Common,
+<a href="#page264">264</a>.<br>
+Beverly,
+<a href="#page071">71</a>.<br>
+Birmingham,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br>
+Black Death,
+<a href="#page099">99</a>.<br>
+Blackheath,
+<a href="#page115">115</a>.<br>
+Bolton,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br>
+Boon-works,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>.<br>
+Boston,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>.<br>
+Bridgewater Canal,
+<a href="#page216">216</a>.<br>
+Bristol,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>.<br>
+Britons,
+<a href="#page004">4</a>.<br>
+Bryan, Chief-Justice,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>.<br>
+Building Societies,
+<a href="#page306">306</a>.<br>
+Burgage Tenure,
+<a href="#page059">59</a>.<br>
+Burgesses,
+<a href="#page059">59</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Calais,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>.<br>
+Cambridge,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+Canterbury,
+<a href="#page011">11</a>,
+<a href="#page115">115</a>.<br>
+Canynges, William,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>.<br>
+Carding,
+<a href="#page205">205</a>,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>.<br>
+<i>Carta Mercatoria</i>,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>.<br>
+Cartwright, Edmund,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>.<br>
+Cavendish, John,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+Chaucer,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>.<br>
+Chester,
+<a href="#page070">70</a>.<br>
+Chevage,
+<a href="#page044">44</a>.<br>
+Children's Half-time Act,
+<a href="#page255">255</a>.<br>
+Children's labor,
+<a href="#page237">237</a>,
+<a href="#page246">246</a>.<br>
+Church, organization of the,
+<a href="#page011">11</a>.<br>
+Civil Service Supply Association,
+<a href="#page299">299</a>.<br>
+Climate,
+<a href="#page002">2</a>.<br>
+Clothiers,
+<a href="#page153">153</a>.<br>
+Coal,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br>
+Coal mines, labor in,
+<a href="#page257">257</a>.<br>
+Cobden, Richard,
+<a href="#page231">231</a>.<br>
+Cologne,
+<a href="#page080">80</a>.<br>
+Colonies,
+<a href="#page178">178</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br>
+Combination Acts,
+<a href="#page279">279</a>.<br>
+Combinations, legalization of,
+<a href="#page282">282</a>.<br>
+Commerce,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page134">134</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br>
+Common employment, doctrine of,
+<a href="#page261">261</a>.<br>
+Commons,
+<a href="#page037">37</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>.<br>
+Commons Preservation Society,
+<a href="#page264">264</a>.<br>
+Commutation of services,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>.<br>
+Competition,
+<a href="#page226">226</a>,
+<a href="#page233">233</a>,
+<a href="#page311">311</a>.<br>
+Coöperation in credit,
+<a href="#page306">306</a>.<br>
+Coöperation in distribution,
+<a href="#page295">295</a>.<br>
+Coöperation in farming,
+<a href="#page302">302</a>.<br>
+Coöperation in production,
+<a href="#page300">300</a>.<br>
+Coöperative congresses,
+<a href="#page305">305</a>.<br>
+Coöperative legislation,
+<a href="#page303">303</a>.<br>
+Copyholders,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>.<br>
+Corn Laws,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>,
+<a href="#page223">223</a>,
+<a href="#page230">230</a>.<br>
+Corpus Christi day,
+<a href="#page070">70</a>.<br>
+Cotters,
+<a href="#page040">40</a>.<br>
+Cotton gin,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+Cotton manufacture,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>.<br>
+County councils,
+<a href="#page243">243</a>.<br>
+Court of Assistants,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>.<br>
+Court rolls,
+<a href="#page046">46</a>.<br>
+Coventry,
+<a href="#page070">70</a>,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>.<br>
+Craft gilds,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>.<br>
+Crafts,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>.<br>
+Crafts, combination of,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>.<br>
+Crécy,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>.<br>
+Crompton, Samuel,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>.<br>
+Cromwell,
+<a href="#page179">179</a>.<br>
+<i>Cry of the Children</i>,
+<a href="#page251">251</a>.<br>
+Currency,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>.<br>
+Customary tenants,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Danes,
+<a href="#page012">12</a>.<br>
+Dartford,
+<a href="#page115">115</a>.<br>
+Davy, Sir Humphry,
+<a href="#page215">215</a>.<br>
+Dean,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>.<br>
+Decaying of towns,
+<a href="#page144">144</a>,
+<a href="#page154">154</a>.<br>
+Demesne farming, abandonment of,
+<a href="#page128">128</a>,
+<a href="#page141">141</a>.<br>
+Demesne lands,
+<a href="#page039">39</a>,
+<a href="#page104">104</a>,
+<a href="#page131">131</a>.<br>
+Dockers' strike,
+<a href="#page287">287</a>.<br>
+Domesday Book,
+<a href="#page018">18</a>,
+<a href="#page029">29</a>.<br>
+Domestic system,
+<a href="#page153">153</a>,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page220">220</a>.<br>
+Drapers,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>.<br>
+Droitwich,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Eastern trade,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>.<br>
+East India Company,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br>
+Employer's Liability Acts,
+<a href="#page260">260</a>.<br>
+Enclosure commissioners,
+<a href="#page218">218</a>,
+<a href="#page263">263</a>.<br>
+Enclosures,
+<a href="#page141">141</a>,
+<a href="#page216">216</a>.<br>
+Engrossers,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>.<br>
+Epping Forest,
+<a href="#page266">266</a>.<br>
+<i>Essay on Population</i>,
+<a href="#page232">232</a>.<br>
+Essex,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>.<br>
+Evesham,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Fabyan Society,
+<a href="#page311">311</a>.<br>
+Factory Acts,
+<a href="#page244">244</a>.<br>
+Factory and Workshop Consolidation Act,
+<a href="#page258">258</a>.<br>
+Factory system,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>.<br>
+Fairs,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>.<br>
+Farmers,
+<a href="#page129">129</a>,
+<a href="#page144">144</a>.<br>
+Federation of trade unions,
+<a href="#page289">289</a>.<br>
+Fens,
+<a href="#page184">184</a>.<br>
+Feudalism,
+<a href="#page020">20</a>.<br>
+Finance,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page193">193</a>.<br>
+Flanders,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>.<br>
+Flanders fleet,
+<a href="#page086">86</a>,
+<a href="#page167">167</a>.<br>
+Flanders trade,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br>
+Flemish artisans in England,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>,
+<a href="#page116">116</a>.<br>
+Flemish Hanse of London,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>.<br>
+Florence,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br>
+Forestallers,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>.<br>
+Foreign artisans in England,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>.<br>
+Foreign trade,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>,
+<a href="#page134">134</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>,
+<a href="#page230">230</a>.<br>
+Forty-shilling freeholders,
+<a href="#page241">241</a>.<br>
+Frank pledge,
+<a href="#page046">46</a>.<br>
+Fraternities,
+<a href="#page062">62</a>,
+<a href="#page071">71</a>.<br>
+Freeholders,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>,
+<a href="#page241">241</a>.<br>
+Free-tenants,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>.<br>
+Free trade in land,
+<a href="#page231">231</a>.<br>
+French Revolution,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>.<br>
+Fugitive villains,
+<a href="#page059">59</a>,
+<a href="#page130">130</a>.<br>
+Fulling mills,
+<a href="#page229">229</a>.<br>
+Furlong,
+<a href="#page034">34</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Gascony,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>.<br>
+Geography of England,
+<a href="#page001">1</a>.<br>
+Ghent,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>.<br>
+Gildhall,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>,
+<a href="#page092">92</a>.<br>
+Gild merchant,
+<a href="#page059">59</a>.<br>
+Gilds, craft,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>.<br>
+Gilds, non-industrial,
+<a href="#page071">71</a>.<br>
+Government policy toward gilds,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>,
+<a href="#page154">154</a>.<br>
+Greater Companies of London,
+<a href="#page153">153</a>.<br>
+Grocyn,
+<a href="#page136">136</a>.<br>
+Groningen,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br>
+Guienne,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>.<br>
+Guinea Company,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Hales, Robert,
+<a href="#page116">116</a>.<br>
+Hamburg,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>,
+<a href="#page230">230</a>.<br>
+Hamlet,
+<a href="#page031">31</a>.<br>
+Hand-loom weavers,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>,
+<a href="#page220">220</a>.<br>
+Hanseatic League,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>.<br>
+Hanse trade,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>,
+<a href="#page167">167</a>.<br>
+Hargreaves, James,
+<a href="#page207">207</a>.<br>
+Health and Morals Act,
+<a href="#page247">247</a>.<br>
+Heriot,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>.<br>
+Hospitallers,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>,
+<a href="#page116">116</a>.<br>
+Hostage,
+<a href="#page081">81</a>.<br>
+Houses of the Working Classes Act,
+<a href="#page271">271</a>.<br>
+Huguenots,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>.<br>
+Hull,
+<a href="#page160">160</a>.<br>
+Hundred Years' War,
+<a href="#page096">96</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Iceland,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br>
+Individualism,
+<a href="#page232">232</a>.<br>
+Industrial revolution,
+<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br>
+Insular situation of England,
+<a href="#page002">2</a>.<br>
+Insurance,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br>
+<i>Intercursus Magnus</i>,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br>
+Interest,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>.<br>
+Ireland, conquest of,
+<a href="#page024">24</a>.<br>
+Irish union,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>.<br>
+Iron,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br>
+Italian trade,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>,
+<a href="#page167">167</a>.<br>
+Italians in England,
+<a href="#page090">90</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Jack Straw,
+<a href="#page116">116</a>.<br>
+Jews,
+<a href="#page059">59</a>,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>.<br>
+John of Gaunt,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>.<br>
+Journeymen,
+<a href="#page066">66</a>,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>.<br>
+Journeymen gilds,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Kay,
+<a href="#page206">206</a>.<br>
+Kempe, John,
+<a href="#page094">94</a>.<br>
+Kent,
+<a href="#page009">9</a>,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>.<br>
+Kidderminster,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Laborers, Statutes of,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>.<br>
+Laissez-faire,
+<a href="#page224">224</a>,
+<a href="#page228">228</a>.<br>
+Land, reclamation of,
+<a href="#page006">6</a>.<br>
+Latimer, Hugh,
+<a href="#page145">145</a>.<br>
+Law merchant,
+<a href="#page078">78</a>.<br>
+Law of wages,
+<a href="#page226">226</a>.<br>
+Lawyers, hostility to,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>.<br>
+Lead,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page083">83</a>,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>.<br>
+Leather,
+<a href="#page083">83</a>,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>.<br>
+Leeds,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>.<br>
+Leet,
+<a href="#page046">46</a>.<br>
+Leicester,
+<a href="#page062">62</a>,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>.<br>
+Lesser Companies of London,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>.<br>
+Levant Company,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br>
+Leyr,
+<a href="#page044">44</a>.<br>
+Lister, Geoffrey,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+Livery Companies,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>.<br>
+Location of industries, change of,
+<a href="#page151">151</a>.<br>
+Lollards,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>.<br>
+London,
+<a href="#page149">149</a>.<br>
+Lord of manor,
+<a href="#page039">39</a>,
+<a href="#page103">103</a>,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>,
+<a href="#page143">143</a>.<br>
+Lubeck,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>.<br>
+Lynn,
+<a href="#page093">93</a>.<br>
+Lyons, Richard,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Macadam,
+<a href="#page215">215</a>.<br>
+<i>Magna Carta</i>,
+<a href="#page026">26</a>.<br>
+Malthus,
+<a href="#page232">232</a>.<br>
+Manchester,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page247">247</a>,
+<a href="#page284">284</a>.<br>
+Manor,
+<a href="#page031">31</a>.<br>
+Manor-courts,
+<a href="#page123">123</a>,
+<a href="#page141">141</a>.<br>
+Manor-house,
+<a href="#page031">31</a>,
+<a href="#page123">123</a>.<br>
+Manufacturing towns,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page238">238</a>.<br>
+Manumissions,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>,
+<a href="#page129">129</a>.<br>
+Markets,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>.<br>
+Market towns,
+<a href="#page075">75</a>.<br>
+Masters,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>.<br>
+Mechanical inventions,
+<a href="#page203">203</a>.<br>
+Mercers,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>,
+<a href="#page150">150</a>,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br>
+Merchant gilds,
+<a href="#page059">59</a>.<br>
+Merchants adventurers,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>.<br>
+Merchet,
+<a href="#page044">44</a>.<br>
+Methuen Treaty,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br>
+Mile End,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>.<br>
+Mill-hands,
+<a href="#page213">213</a>,
+<a href="#page221">221</a>.<br>
+Misteries,
+<a href="#page064">64</a>.<br>
+Monopolies,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>.<br>
+More, Sir Thomas,
+<a href="#page145">145</a>.<br>
+Morocco Company,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br>
+Morrowspeche,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>.<br>
+Mule spinning,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>.<br>
+Muscovy Company,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br>
+Mushold Heath,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+Mutiny Act,
+<a href="#page182">182</a>.<br>
+Mystery plays,
+<a href="#page070">70</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Napoleon,
+<a href="#page200">200</a>.<br>
+National debt,
+<a href="#page196">196</a>.<br>
+Native commerce,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>.<br>
+<i>Nativus</i>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>.<br>
+Navigation laws,
+<a href="#page169">169</a>,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page192">192</a>,
+<a href="#page229">229</a>.<br>
+Newcastle-on-Tyne,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>.<br>
+Non-industrial gilds,
+<a href="#page071">71</a>.<br>
+Norman Conquest,
+<a href="#page015">15</a>.<br>
+Norway,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>.<br>
+Norwich,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+Novgorod,
+<a href="#page163">163</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Open-fields,
+<a href="#page033">33</a>,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page217">217</a>.<br>
+Origin of the manor,
+<a href="#page055">55</a>.<br>
+Owen, Robert,
+<a href="#page248">248</a>,
+<a href="#page311">311</a>.<br>
+Oxford,
+<a href="#page102">102</a>,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Pageants,
+<a href="#page159">159</a>.<br>
+Parcels post,
+<a href="#page275">275</a>.<br>
+Parish councils,
+<a href="#page243">243</a>,
+<a href="#page269">269</a>.<br>
+Parliament, foundation of,
+<a href="#page026">26</a>.<br>
+Paternal government,
+<a href="#page173">173</a>.<br>
+Peasant proprietorship,
+<a href="#page270">270</a>.<br>
+Peasants' rebellion,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>.<br>
+Peel, Sir Robert (the elder),
+<a href="#page247">247</a>.<br>
+Peel, Sir Robert (the younger),
+<a href="#page230">230</a>.<br>
+Peruzzi,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>.<br>
+Pie Powder Courts,
+<a href="#page078">78</a>.<br>
+Pilgrimage of Grace,
+<a href="#page146">146</a>.<br>
+Plymouth Company,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br>
+Poitiers,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>.<br>
+Poll tax,
+<a href="#page113">113</a>.<br>
+Poor Priests,
+<a href="#page112">112</a>.<br>
+Portugal,
+<a href="#page083">83</a>,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br>
+Post-office Savings Bank,
+<a href="#page274">274</a>.<br>
+Power-loom,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>.<br>
+Prehistoric Britain,
+<a href="#page004">4</a>.<br>
+Private Enclosure Acts,
+<a href="#page217">217</a>.<br>
+Privy Council,
+<a href="#page138">138</a>.<br>
+Profit-sharing,
+<a href="#page307">307</a>.<br>
+Puritans,
+<a href="#page140">140</a>,
+<a href="#page178">178</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Railway Regulation Act,
+<a href="#page260">260</a>.<br>
+Reaper,
+<a href="#page049">49</a>.<br>
+Reeve,
+<a href="#page040">40</a>.<br>
+Reformation,
+<a href="#page138">138</a>.<br>
+Reform of Parliament,
+<a href="#page241">241</a>.<br>
+Regrators,
+<a href="#page068">68</a>.<br>
+Regulated Companies,
+<a href="#page174">174</a>.<br>
+Relief,
+<a href="#page021">21</a>,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>.<br>
+Religious gilds,
+<a href="#page071">71</a>,
+<a href="#page158">158</a>.<br>
+Rents of Assize,
+<a href="#page041">41</a>.<br>
+Reorganized Companies,
+<a href="#page187">187</a>.<br>
+Restoration,
+<a href="#page180">180</a>.<br>
+Revolution, Industrial,
+<a href="#page213">213</a>.<br>
+Revolution of 1688,
+<a href="#page181">181</a>.<br>
+Ricardo, David,
+<a href="#page226">226</a>.<br>
+Rochdale Pioneers,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>.<br>
+Rochdale plan,
+<a href="#page296">296</a>.<br>
+Romans in Britain,
+<a href="#page005">5</a>.<br>
+Roses, Wars of the,
+<a href="#page099">99</a>.<br>
+Russia Company,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br>
+<i>Rusticus</i>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+St. Albans,
+<a href="#page118">118</a>.<br>
+St. Edmund's Abbey,
+<a href="#page117">117</a>.<br>
+St. Helen of Beverly,
+<a href="#page071">71</a>.<br>
+St. Ives' Fair,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>.<br>
+Sale of Food and Drugs Act,
+<a href="#page273">273</a>.<br>
+Savoy Palace,
+<a href="#page116">116</a>.<br>
+Saxon invasion,
+<a href="#page008">8</a>.<br>
+Scattered strips,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>.<br>
+Scotland, contest with,
+<a href="#page024">24</a>.<br>
+Serfdom,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>,
+<a href="#page120">120</a>,
+<a href="#page124">124</a>.<br>
+Serfdom, decay of,
+<a href="#page129">129</a>.<br>
+<i>Servus</i>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>.<br>
+Sheep-raising,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>.<br>
+Sheffield,
+<a href="#page189">189</a>,
+<a href="#page284">284</a>.<br>
+Shop Hours Act,
+<a href="#page260">260</a>.<br>
+Shrewsbury,
+<a href="#page147">147</a>.<br>
+Skevin,
+<a href="#page063">63</a>.<br>
+Sliding scale,
+<a href="#page231">231</a>.<br>
+Small Dwellings Acquisition Act,
+<a href="#page272">272</a>.<br>
+Small holdings,
+<a href="#page269">269</a>.<br>
+Smith, Adam,
+<a href="#page224">224</a>.<br>
+Smithfield,
+<a href="#page121">121</a>.<br>
+Social Democratic Federation,
+<a href="#page311">311</a>.<br>
+Social gilds,
+<a href="#page071">71</a>,
+<a href="#page158">158</a>.<br>
+Socialism,
+<a href="#page310">310</a>.<br>
+Socialist League,
+<a href="#page311">311</a>.<br>
+Sources,
+<a href="#page054">54</a>.<br>
+Southampton,
+<a href="#page061">61</a>.<br>
+South Sea Bubble,
+<a href="#page195">195</a>.<br>
+Spain,
+<a href="#page082">82</a>,
+<a href="#page168">168</a>.<br>
+Spencer, Henry de,
+<a href="#page122">122</a>.<br>
+Spices,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>.<br>
+Spinning,
+<a href="#page205">205</a>.<br>
+Spinning-jenny,
+<a href="#page207">207</a>.<br>
+Stade,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.<br>
+Staple,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>.<br>
+Statute of Apprentices,
+<a href="#page156">156</a>,
+<a href="#page228">228</a>.<br>
+Statutes of Laborers,
+<a href="#page106">106</a>.<br>
+Steelyard,
+<a href="#page092">92</a>,
+<a href="#page167">167</a>.<br>
+Sterling,
+<a href="#page089">89</a>.<br>
+Steward,
+<a href="#page040">40</a>,
+<a href="#page046">46</a>.<br>
+Stourbridge Fair,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>.<br>
+Sturmys,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>.<br>
+Sudbury,
+<a href="#page116">116</a>.<br>
+Sweating,
+<a href="#page260">260</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Tallage,
+<a href="#page044">44</a>.<br>
+Taverner, John,
+<a href="#page162">162</a>.<br>
+Taxation,
+<a href="#page194">194</a>.<br>
+Telegraph, government,
+<a href="#page273">273</a>.<br>
+Telephone, government,
+<a href="#page273">273</a>.<br>
+Telford,
+<a href="#page215">215</a>.<br>
+Temple Bar,
+<a href="#page116">116</a>.<br>
+Ten-hour Act,
+<a href="#page256">256</a>.<br>
+Three-field system,
+<a href="#page036">36</a>.<br>
+Tin,
+<a href="#page003">3</a>,
+<a href="#page083">83</a>,
+<a href="#page088">88</a>,
+<a href="#page091">91</a>,
+<a href="#page093">93</a>.<br>
+Tolls,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>,
+<a href="#page078">78</a>,
+<a href="#page082">82</a>.<br>
+Town government,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>.<br>
+Towns,
+<a href="#page057">57</a>,
+<a href="#page079">79</a>,
+<a href="#page154">154</a>.<br>
+Trade combinations,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.<br>
+Trade routes,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>.<br>
+Trade unions,
+<a href="#page279">279</a>.<br>
+Trades councils,
+<a href="#page289">289</a>.<br>
+Transportation,
+<a href="#page214">214</a>.<br>
+Trusts,
+<a href="#page294">294</a>.<br>
+Turkey Company,
+<a href="#page166">166</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Ulster, Plantation of,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br>
+Usury,
+<a href="#page171">171</a>.<br>
+Utopia,
+<a href="#page145">145</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Venice,
+<a href="#page084">84</a>.<br>
+Venturers,
+<a href="#page164">164</a>.<br>
+Vill,
+<a href="#page031">31</a>.<br>
+Village community,
+<a href="#page054">54</a>.<br>
+Villages,
+<a href="#page031">31</a>,
+<a href="#page114">114</a>.<br>
+Villain,
+<a href="#page040">40</a>,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>,
+<a href="#page125">125</a>.<br>
+Villainage,
+<a href="#page130">130</a>.<br>
+<i>Villanus</i>,
+<a href="#page043">43</a>.<br>
+Virgate,
+<a href="#page038">38</a>.<br>
+Virginia Company,
+<a href="#page190">190</a>.<br>
+<i>Vision of Piers Plowman</i>,
+<a href="#page098">98</a>,
+<a href="#page111">111</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Wages in hand occupations,
+<a href="#page220">220</a>.<br>
+Wages, law of,
+<a href="#page226">226</a>.<br>
+Wales, conquest of,
+<a href="#page024">24</a>.<br>
+Walloons,
+<a href="#page185">185</a>.<br>
+Walworth, Sir William,
+<a href="#page121">121</a>.<br>
+Wardens,
+<a href="#page069">69</a>,
+<a href="#page161">161</a>.<br>
+Watt, James,
+<a href="#page212">212</a>.<br>
+Wat Tyler,
+<a href="#page116">116</a>,
+<a href="#page121">121</a>.<br>
+<i>Wealth of Nations</i>,
+<a href="#page225">225</a>.<br>
+Weavers,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>,
+<a href="#page152">152</a>,
+<a href="#page188">188</a>.<br>
+Weaving,
+<a href="#page205">205</a>.<br>
+Week-work,
+<a href="#page042">42</a>.<br>
+Whitney, Eli,
+<a href="#page211">211</a>.<br>
+Wholesale Coöperative Society,
+<a href="#page299">299</a>.<br>
+Wilburton,
+<a href="#page128">128</a>.<br>
+Wimbledon Common,
+<a href="#page264">264</a>.<br>
+Winchester Fair,
+<a href="#page076">76</a>.<br>
+Wolsey, Cardinal,
+<a href="#page145">145</a>.<br>
+Women's labor,
+<a href="#page237">237</a>.<br>
+Woodkirk,
+<a href="#page070">70</a>.<br>
+Wool,
+<a href="#page083">83</a>,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>,
+<a href="#page142">142</a>,
+<a href="#page205">205</a>,
+<a href="#page210">210</a>,
+<a href="#page216">216</a>.<br>
+Worcester,
+<a href="#page155">155</a>.<br>
+Wycliffe,
+<a href="#page097">97</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Yeomen,
+<a href="#page129">129</a>,
+<a href="#page221">221</a>,
+<a href="#page237">237</a>.<br>
+Yeomen gilds,
+<a href="#page148">148</a>.<br>
+York,
+<a href="#page065">65</a>,
+<a href="#page070">70</a>.<br>
+Young, Arthur,
+<a href="#page225">225</a>.<br>
+Ypres,
+<a href="#page087">87</a>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h5>Printed in the United States of America.</h5>
+
+
+
+<h3>A HISTORY OF GREECE</h3>
+<h5>For High Schools and Academies</h5>
+
+<h4>By GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD, Ph.D.</h4>
+<p class="center"><i>Instructor in the History of Greece and Rome in Harvard University</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">8vo. <span class="add2em">Half Leather.</span> <span class="add2em">$1.10</span></p>
+
+<p class="p0b">"Dr. Botsford's 'History of Greece' has the conspicuous merits which only
+a text-book can possess which is written by a master of the original sources.
+Indeed, the use of the text of Homer, Herodotus, the dramatists, and the
+other contemporary writers is very effective, and very suggestive as to the right
+method of teaching and study. The style is delightful. For simple, unpretentious
+narrative and elegant English the book is a model. In my judgment,
+the work is far superior to any other text-book for high school or academic
+use which has yet appeared. Its value is enriched by the illustrations, as also
+by the reference lists and the suggestive studies. It will greatly aid in the
+new movement to encourage modern scientific method in the teaching of history
+in the secondary schools of the country. It will be adopted by Stanford
+as the basis of entrance requirements in Grecian history."</p>
+
+<p class="p0t add2em">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Professor George Elliot Howard,</span> <i>Stanford University</i>, Cal.</p>
+
+<p class="p0b">"Dr. Botsford's ideal is a high one, and he has spared no pains to realize it.
+He has everywhere given a foremost place to the social, political, literary, and
+artistic sides of Greek civilization, and set them forth in adequate detail;
+while in the manifold wars amongst themselves and with the common foe he
+has been careful to give just enough to make the course of events clear and
+to put the causes and meaning of the conflicts in a proper light. He has told
+his tale in a straightforward simple style that must prove taking to the mind
+of the schoolboy; and he has from time to time worked in translations from
+passages of the ancient Greek authors, poets, historians, and orators alike.
+This gives one the feeling that we are listening to the Greeks telling their
+own story; we get the events and conditions from their point of view and can
+appreciate them so much more accurately. Further, the book is not only
+clear; the boy can not only read it without an uncomfortable sense that he is
+losing his way in a labyrinth, but he can read it with positive pleasure. It is
+a book, too, that will keep, and that one would like to keep; a great quality
+this in a school-book."</p>
+
+<p class="p0t add2em">
+&mdash;<span class="smcap">William A. Lamberton</span>, <i>University of Pennsylvania</i>.<br>
+(In the <i>Annals of the American Academy of Political
+and Social Science</i>.)</p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h3>EUROPEAN HISTORY</h3>
+<h5>An Outline of its Development</h5>
+
+<h4>By GEORGE BURTON ADAMS</h4>
+<p class="center"><i>Yale University, New Haven, Conn.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">8vo. <span class="add2em">Half Leather.</span> <span class="add2em">$1.40</span></p>
+
+<p class="p0b">"I think the Adams 'European History' is the best single-volume text-book
+in general European history by an American author. In style and illustration
+it is interesting; its well-chosen references contribute to develop the students'
+taste for historical reading; and its suggestive questions, etc., are most helpful
+to the teacher."</p>
+
+<p class="p0t add2em">&mdash;<span class="smcap">Professor W. H. Siebert,</span> <i>Ohio State University</i>, Columbus, Ohio.</p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h2>THE GROWTH OF THE FRENCH NATION</h2>
+
+<h4>By GEORGE BURTON ADAMS</h4>
+<p class="center"><i>Author of "European History," etc.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">12mo. <span class="add2em">Cloth.</span> <span class="add2em">$1.25</span></p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Adams has dealt in a fascinating way with the chief features of the
+Middle Age, and his book is rendered the more attractive by some excellent
+illustrations. He traces the history of France from the conquests by the
+Romans and Franks down to the presidency of M. Felix Faure, and has always
+something to say that is clear and to the point; Mr. Adams seems to us to
+have seized the salient features of the <i>growth</i> of the French nation, and to
+have fulfilled the promise of his title."&mdash;<i>Educational Review.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h2>A STUDENT'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES</h2>
+
+<h4>By EDWARD CHANNING</h4>
+<p class="center"><i>Professor of History, Harvard University</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">With Suggestions to Teachers by <span class="smcap">Anna Boynton Thompson</span>,
+<i>Thayer Academy, South Braintree, Mass.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">8vo. <span class="add2em">Half Leather.</span> <span class="add2em">$1.40</span></p>
+
+<p>"Your book has given us good satisfaction. It is the best school history I
+know of to give the student a clear conception of the origin and the development
+of our institutions. It presents to him lucidly and forcefully the questions
+which have been either the sectional or the party issues of the past; it
+portrays in a singularly felicitous manner our wonderful growth in population
+and resources."&mdash;<span class="smcap">M. B.
+Price, <i>Worcester Academy</i>, Worcester, Mass.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h3>A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES</h3>
+<h5>For School Use</h5>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>By EDWARD CHANNING</strong>, author of "A Student's History of the United
+States," etc. <span class="add2em">12mo.</span> <span class="add2em">Half leather.</span> <span class="add2em">90 cents</span></p>
+
+<p class="p0b">"It is an admirable presentation of the origin and growth of our nation.
+From cover to cover it is made intensely interesting, not only by striking illustrations
+and complete maps, but by the arrangement of the text and the facts
+presented in a clear, logical manner. The references to other text-books in
+history is a commendable feature. I fully agree with the author's statement
+in the preface as to the best method of studying the history of our country."</p>
+
+<p class="p0t add2em">&mdash;<span class="smcap">N. G. Kingsley</span>, <i>Principal of Doyle-Avenue Grammar School</i>,
+Providence, R. I.</p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h3>A HISTORY OF ENGLAND</h3>
+
+<h5>For High Schools and Academies</h5>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>By KATHARINE COMAN, Ph.B.</strong>, Wellesley College, and <strong>ELIZABETH
+KIMBALL KENDALL, M.A.</strong>, Wellesley College. $1.25</p>
+
+<p>"It is in my judgment by far the best history of England that has yet
+been published. The other books in the field are either too meagre or too
+advanced. This book is just what has long been needed, and ought to be
+largely introduced."&mdash;<span class="smcap">Professor Richard Hudson</span>, <i>University of Michigan</i>,
+Ann Arbor, Mich.</p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h2>TOPICS ON GREEK AND ROMAN HISTORY</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>By ARTHUR L. GOODRICH</strong>, Free Academy, Utica, N.Y. Intended for
+use in Secondary Schools. <span class="add2em">A new and revised edition.</span> <span class="add2em">Cloth.</span> <span class="add2em">12mo.</span>
+<span class="add2em">60 cents</span></p>
+
+<p>A full and systematic scheme for the study of Greek and Roman History by
+the topical method, adapted for use in accordance with the latest recommendations
+of the Committee and Conferences on the Study of History.</p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h2>THE GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN NATION</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>By HARRY PRATT JUDSON, LL.D.</strong>, Head Professor of Political Science
+in the University of Chicago. <span class="add2em">Cloth.</span> <span class="add2em">12mo.</span> <span class="add2em">$1.00</span></p>
+
+<p>The object of this work is to point out the cardinal facts in the growth of
+the American nation in such a way as to show clearly the orderly development
+of national life.</p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h2>AMERICAN HISTORY TOLD BY CONTEMPORARIES</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>Edited by ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Ph.D.</strong>, Professor of History in
+Harvard University. <span class="add2em">In 4 volumes.</span> <span class="add2em">Cloth.</span> <span class="add2em">12mo.</span> <span class="add2em">Each $2.00.</span></p>
+
+<ul class="none">
+<li>Vol. I.      Era of Colonization, 1493-1689. Ready.</li>
+<li>Vol. II.     Building of the Republic, 1689-1783. Ready.</li>
+<li>Vol. III.    National Expansion, 1783-1845. Ready.</li>
+<li>Vol. IV.     Welding of the Nation, 1845-1897. In preparation.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h3>SOURCE BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY</h3>
+<h5>For Schools and Readers</h5>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>Edited by ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Ph.D.</strong>, author of "American
+History told by Contemporaries." <span class="add2em">Cloth.</span> <span class="add2em">12mo.</span> <span class="add2em">60 cents</span></p>
+
+<p>"The book, as the author intends, is abundantly suggestive. But at the
+same time it is in its facts good history, and so skilfully and admirably arranged
+as to arouse in every young reader a desire for wider reading upon the interesting
+themes broached. To the teacher well up in history, it will be found a
+rich mine of thought."&mdash;<i>Chicago Inter-Ocean.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h3>SELECT CHARTERS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS</h3>
+<h5>Illustrative of American History, 1606-1775</h5>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>Edited by WILLIAM MacDONALD</strong>, Professor of History in Bowdoin College.
+<span class="add2em">Cloth.</span> <span class="add2em">8vo.</span> <span class="add2em"><i>$2.00</i></span></p>
+
+<p>"Professor MacDonald shows good judgment in his selections, and his book
+should materially assist the teaching of American history ... it will be a
+great convenience everywhere."&mdash;<i>The Nation.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h3>SELECT DOCUMENTS</h3>
+<h5>Illustrative of the History of the United States, 1776-1861</h5>
+
+<p class="center"><strong>Edited by WILLIAM MacDONALD</strong>, Editor of "Select Charters," etc.
+<span class="add2em">Cloth.</span> <span class="add2em">8vo.</span> <span class="add2em">$2.25</span></p>
+
+<p>"An exceptionally valuable book to students of American history, and, indeed,
+to all persons who care to discuss our present problems in their historical bearings....
+It is an invaluable book for every reference library."&mdash;<i>The Outlook.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+<h2>A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR BEGINNERS</h2>
+
+<p class="center">For use in Elementary Schools. <strong>By W. B. POWELL, A.M.</strong>, Superintendent
+of Public Schools, Washington, D.C. <span class="add2em">Cloth.</span> <span class="add2em">12mo.</span> <span class="add2em">65 cents</span></p>
+
+<hr class="small">
+
+
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+66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK</h4>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, An Introduction to the Industrial and Social
+History of England, by Edward Potts Cheyney
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England
+
+
+Author: Edward Potts Cheyney
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 1, 2007  [eBook #21660]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRIAL
+AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Peter Vachuska, Chuck Greif, Christine P. Travers, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 21660-h.htm or 21660-h.zip:
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+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/6/6/21660/21660-h.zip)
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all other
+      inconsistencies are as in the original. Author's spelling has
+      been maintained.
+
+      Bolded font has been represented encased between asterisks.
+
+      The following sentence has been changed,
+      from:
+      the spring crop was taken now IT its turn would enjoy a fallow year.
+      to:
+      the spring crop was taken now IN its turn would enjoy a fallow year.
+
+
+
+
+
+An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England
+
+
+[Illustration: New Sixteenth Century Manor House with Fields still
+Open, Gidea Hall, Essex. Nichols: _Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_.]
+
+
+AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND
+
+by
+
+EDWARD P. CHEYNEY
+
+Professor of European History in the University of Pennsylvania
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+The MacMillan Company
+London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
+1916
+All rights reserved
+Copyright, 1901,
+By The MacMillan Company.
+
+Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1901. Reprinted January,
+October, 1905; November, 1906; October, 1907; July, 1908; February,
+1909; January, 1910; April, December, 1910; January, August, December,
+1911; July, 1912; January, 1913; February, August, 1914; January,
+November, 1915; April, 1916.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+This text-book is intended for college and high-school classes. Most
+of the facts stated in it have become, through the researches and
+publications of recent years, such commonplace knowledge that a
+reference to authority in each case has not seemed necessary.
+Statements on more doubtful points, and such personal opinions as I
+have had occasion to express, although not supported by references,
+are based on a somewhat careful study of the sources. To each chapter
+is subjoined a bibliographical paragraph with the titles of the most
+important secondary authorities. These works will furnish a fuller
+account of the matters that have been treated in outline in this book,
+indicate the original sources, and give opportunity and suggestions
+for further study. An introductory chapter and a series of narrative
+paragraphs prefixed to other chapters are given with the object of
+correlating matters of economic and social history with other aspects
+of the life of the nation.
+
+My obligation and gratitude are due, as are those of all later
+students, to the group of scholars who have within our own time laid
+the foundations of the study of economic history, and whose names and
+books will be found referred to in the bibliographical paragraphs.
+
+                                        EDWARD P. CHEYNEY.
+
+  University of Pennsylvania,
+      January, 1901.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER I
+
+  Growth Of The Nation To The Middle Of The
+  Fourteenth Century                                         Page
+
+   1. The Geography of England................................. 1
+
+   2. Prehistoric Britain...................................... 4
+
+   3. Roman Britain............................................ 5
+
+   4. Early Saxon England...................................... 8
+
+   5. Danish and Late Saxon England........................... 12
+
+   6. The Period following the Norman Conquest................ 15
+
+   7. The Period of the Early Angevin Kings, 1154-1338........ 22
+
+
+  CHAPTER II
+
+  Rural Life and Organization
+
+   8. The Mediaeval Village.................................... 31
+
+   9. The Vill as an Agricultural System...................... 33
+
+  10. Classes of People on the Manor.......................... 39
+
+  11. The Manor Courts........................................ 45
+
+  12. The Manor as an Estate of a Lord........................ 49
+
+  13. Bibliography............................................ 52
+
+
+  CHAPTER III
+
+  Town Life And Organization
+
+  14. The Town Government..................................... 57
+
+  15. The Gild Merchant....................................... 59
+
+  16. The Craft Gilds......................................... 64
+
+  17. Non-industrial Gilds.................................... 71
+
+  18. Bibliography............................................ 73
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+
+  Mediaeval Trade And Commerce
+
+  19. Markets and Fairs....................................... 75
+
+  20. Trade Relations between Towns........................... 79
+
+  21. Foreign Trading Relations............................... 81
+
+  22. The Italian and Eastern Trade........................... 84
+
+  23. The Flanders Trade and the Staple....................... 87
+
+  24. The Hanse Trade......................................... 89
+
+  25. Foreigners settled in England........................... 90
+
+  26. Bibliography............................................ 94
+
+
+  CHAPTER V
+
+  The Black Death And The Peasants' Rebellion
+
+  _Economic Changes of the Later Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth
+  Centuries_
+
+  27. National Affairs from 1338 to 1461...................... 96
+
+  28. The Black Death and its Effects......................... 99
+
+  29. The Statutes of Laborers............................... 106
+
+  30. The Peasants' Rebellion of 1381........................ 111
+
+  31. Commutation of Services................................ 125
+
+  32. The Abandonment of Demesne Farming..................... 128
+
+  33. The Decay of Serfdom................................... 129
+
+  34. Changes in Town Life and Foreign Trade................. 133
+
+  35. Bibliography........................................... 134
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+
+  The Breaking Up Of The Mediaeval System
+
+  _Economic Changes of the Later Fifteenth and the Sixteenth
+  Centuries_
+
+  36. National Affairs from 1461 to 1603..................... 136
+
+  37. Enclosures............................................. 141
+
+  38. Internal Divisions in the Craft Gilds.................. 147
+
+  39. Change of Location of Industries....................... 151
+
+  40. The Influence of the Government on the Gilds........... 154
+
+  41. General Causes and Evidences of the Decay of the Gilds. 159
+
+  42. The Growth of Native Commerce.......................... 161
+
+  43. The Merchants Adventurers.............................. 164
+
+  44. Government Encouragement of Commerce................... 167
+
+  45. The Currency........................................... 169
+
+  46. Interest............................................... 171
+
+  47. Paternal Government.................................... 173
+
+  48. Bibliography........................................... 176
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII
+
+  The Expansion Of England
+
+  _Economic Changes of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth
+  Centuries_
+
+  49. National Affairs from 1603 to 1760..................... 177
+
+  50. The Extension of Agriculture........................... 183
+
+  51. The Domestic System of Manufactures.................... 185
+
+  52. Commerce under the Navigation Acts..................... 189
+
+  53. Finance................................................ 193
+
+  54. Bibliography........................................... 198
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII
+
+  The Period Of The Industrial Revolution
+
+  _Economic Changes of the Later Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth
+  Centuries_
+
+  55. National Affairs from 1760 to 1830..................... 199
+
+  56. The Great Mechanical Inventions........................ 203
+
+  57. The Factory System..................................... 212
+
+  58. Iron, Coal, and Transportation......................... 214
+
+  59. The Revival of Enclosures.............................. 216
+
+  60. Decay of Domestic Manufacture.......................... 220
+
+  61. The _Laissez-faire_ Theory............................. 224
+
+  62. Cessation of Government Regulation..................... 228
+
+  63. Individualism.......................................... 232
+
+  64. Social Conditions at the Beginning of the Nineteenth
+      Century................................................ 235
+
+  65. Bibliography........................................... 239
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX
+
+  The Extension Of Government Control
+
+  _Factory Laws, the Modification of Land Ownership, Sanitary
+  Regulations, and New Public Services_
+
+  66. National Affairs from 1830 to 1900..................... 240
+
+  67. The Beginning of Factory Legislation................... 244
+
+  68. Arguments for and against Factory Legislation.......... 249
+
+  69. Factory Legislation to 1847............................ 254
+
+  70. The Extension of Factory Legislation................... 256
+
+  71. Employers' Liability Acts.............................. 260
+
+  72. Preservation of Remaining Open Lands................... 262
+
+  73. Allotments............................................. 267
+
+  74. Small Holdings......................................... 269
+
+  75. Government Sanitary Control............................ 271
+
+  76. Industries Carried on by Government.................... 273
+
+  77. Bibliography........................................... 276
+
+
+  CHAPTER X
+
+  The Extension Of Voluntary Association
+
+  _Trade Unions, Trusts, and Cooeperation_
+
+  78. The Rise of Trade Unions............................... 277
+
+  79. Opposition of the Law and of Public Opinion. The
+      Combination Acts....................................... 279
+
+  80. Legalization and Popular Acceptance of Trade Unions.... 281
+
+  81. The Growth of Trade Unions............................. 288
+
+  82. Federation of Trade Unions............................. 289
+
+  83. Employers' Organizations............................... 293
+
+  84. Trusts and Trade Combinations.......................... 294
+
+  85. Cooeperation in Distribution............................ 295
+
+  86. Cooeperation in Production.............................. 300
+
+  87. Cooeperation in Farming................................. 302
+
+  88. Cooeperation in Credit.................................. 306
+
+  89. Profit Sharing......................................... 307
+
+  90. Socialism.............................................. 310
+
+  91. Bibliography........................................... 311
+
+
+
+
+An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of
+England
+
+
+
+
+INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+GROWTH OF THE NATION
+
+To The Middle Of The Fourteenth Century
+
+
+*1. The Geography of England.*--The British Isles lie northwest of the
+Continent of Europe. They are separated from it by the Channel and the
+North Sea, at the narrowest only twenty miles wide, and at the
+broadest not more than three hundred.
+
+The greatest length of England from north to south is three hundred
+and sixty-five miles, and its greatest breadth some two hundred and
+eighty miles. Its area, with Wales, is 58,320 square miles, being
+somewhat more than one-quarter the size of France or of Germany, just
+one-half the size of Italy, and somewhat larger than either
+Pennsylvania or New York.
+
+The backbone of the island is near the western coast, and consists of
+a body of hard granitic and volcanic rock rising into mountains of two
+or three thousand feet in height. These do not form one continuous
+chain but are in several detached groups. On the eastern flank of
+these mountains and underlying all the rest of the island is a series
+of stratified rocks. The harder portions of these strata still stand
+up as long ridges,--the "wolds," "wealds," "moors," and "downs" of the
+more eastern and south-eastern parts of England. The softer strata
+have been worn away into great broad valleys, furnishing the central
+and eastern plains or lowlands of the country.
+
+The rivers of the south and of the far north run for the most part by
+short and direct courses to the sea. The rivers of the midlands are
+much longer and larger. As a result of the gradual sinking of the
+island, in recent geological periods the sea has extended some
+distance up the course of these rivers, making an almost unbroken
+series of estuaries along the whole coast.
+
+The climate of England is milder and more equable than is indicated by
+the latitude, which is that of Labrador in the western hemisphere and
+of Prussia and central Russia on the Continent of Europe. This is due
+to the fact that the Gulf Stream flows around its southern and western
+shores, bringing warmth and a superabundance of moisture from the
+southern Atlantic.
+
+These physical characteristics have been of immense influence on the
+destinies of England. Her position was far on the outskirts of the
+world as it was known to ancient and mediaeval times, and England
+played a correspondingly inconspicuous part during those periods. In
+the habitable world as it has been known since the fifteenth century,
+on the other hand, that position is a distinctly central one, open
+alike to the eastern and the western hemisphere, to northern and
+southern lands.
+
+[Illustration: Physiographic Map of *England And Wales*. Engraved by
+Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
+
+Her situation of insularity and at the same time of proximity to the
+Continent laid her open to frequent invasion in early times, but after
+she secured a navy made her singularly safe from subjugation. It made
+the development of many of her institutions tardy, yet at the same
+time gave her the opportunity to borrow and assimilate what she would
+from the customs of foreign nations. Her separation by water from
+the Continent favored a distinct and continuous national life, while
+her nearness to it allowed her to participate in all the more
+important influences which affected the nations of central Europe.
+
+Within the mountainous or elevated regions a variety of mineral
+resources, especially iron, copper, lead, and tin, exist in great
+abundance, and have been worked from the earliest ages. Potter's clay
+and salt also exist, the former furnishing the basis of industry for
+an extensive section of the midlands. By far the most important
+mineral possession of England, however, is her coal. This exists in
+the greatest abundance and in a number of sections of the north and
+west of the country. Practically unknown in the Middle Ages, and only
+slightly utilized in early modern times, within the eighteenth and
+nineteenth centuries her coal supply has come to be the principal
+foundation of England's great manufacturing and commercial
+development.
+
+The lowlands, which make up far the larger part of the country, are
+covered with soil which furnishes rich farming areas, though in many
+places this soil is a heavy and impervious clay, expensive to drain
+and cultivate. The hard ridges are covered with thin soil only. Many
+of them therefore remained for a long time covered with forest, and
+they are devoted even yet to grazing or to occasional cultivation
+only.
+
+The abundance of harbors and rivers, navigable at least to the small
+vessels of the Middle Ages, has made a seafaring life natural to a
+large number of the people, and commercial intercourse comparatively
+easy with all parts of the country bordering on the coast or on these
+rivers.
+
+Thus, to sum up these geographical characteristics, the insular
+situation of England, her location on the earth's surface, and the
+variety of her material endowments gave her a tolerably well-balanced
+if somewhat backward economic position during the Middle Ages, and
+have enabled her since the fifteenth century to pass through a
+continuous and rapid development, until she has obtained within the
+nineteenth century, for the time at least, a distinct economic
+precedency among the nations of the world.
+
+
+*2. Prehistoric Britain.*--The materials from which to construct a
+knowledge of the history of mankind before the time of written records
+are few and unsatisfactory. They consist for the most part of the
+remains of dwelling-places, fortifications, and roadways; of weapons,
+implements, and ornaments lost or abandoned at the time; of burial
+places and their contents; and of such physical characteristics of
+later populations as have survived from an early period. Centuries of
+human habitation of Britain passed away, leaving only such scanty
+remains and the obscure and doubtful knowledge that can be drawn from
+them. Through this period, however, successive races seem to have
+invaded and settled the country, combining with their predecessors, or
+living alongside of them, or in some cases, perhaps, exterminating
+them.
+
+When contemporary written records begin, just before the beginning of
+the Christian era, one race, the Britons, was dominant, and into it
+had merged to all appearances all others. The Britons were a Celtic
+people related to the inhabitants of that part of the Continent of
+Europe which lies nearest to Britain. They were divided into a dozen
+or more separate tribes, each occupying a distinct part of the
+country. They lived partly by the pasturing of sheep and cattle,
+partly by a crude agriculture. They possessed most of the familiar
+grains and domestic animals, and could weave and dye cloth, make
+pottery, build boats, forge iron, and work other metals, including
+tin. They had, however, no cities, no manufactures beyond the most
+primitive, and but little foreign trade to connect them with the
+Continent. At the head of each tribe was a reigning chieftain of
+limited powers, surrounded by lesser chiefs. The tribes were in a
+state of incessant warfare one with the other.
+
+
+*3. Roman Britain.*--This condition of insular isolation and barbarism
+was brought to a close in the year 55 B.C. by the invasion of the
+Roman army. Julius Caesar, the Roman general who was engaged in the
+conquest and government of Gaul, or modern France, feared that the
+Britons might bring aid to certain newly subjected and still restless
+Gallic tribes. He therefore transported a body of troops across the
+Channel and fought two campaigns against the tribes in the southeast
+of Britain. His success in the second campaign was, however, not
+followed up, and he retired without leaving any permanent garrison in
+the country. The Britons were then left alone, so far as military
+invasion was concerned, for almost a century, though in the meantime
+trade with the adjacent parts of the Continent became more common, and
+Roman influence showed itself in the manners and customs of the
+people. In the year 44 A.D., just ninety years after Caesar's
+campaigns, the conquest of Britain was resumed by the Roman armies and
+completed within the next thirty years. Britain now became an integral
+part of the great, well-ordered, civilized, and wealthy Roman Empire.
+During the greater part of that long period, Britain enjoyed profound
+peace, internal and external trade were safe, and much of the culture
+and refinement of Italy and Gaul must have made their way even to this
+distant province. A part of the inhabitants adopted the Roman
+language, dress, customs, and manner of life. Discharged veterans from
+the Roman legions, wealthy civil officials and merchants, settled
+permanently in Britain. Several bodies of turbulent tribesmen who had
+been defeated on the German frontier were transported by the
+government into Britain. The population must, therefore, have become
+very mixed, containing representatives of most of the races which had
+been conquered by the Roman armies. A permanent military force was
+maintained in Britain with fortified stations along the eastern and
+southern coast, on the Welsh frontier, and along a series of walls or
+dikes running across the island from the Tyne to Solway Firth.
+Excellent roads were constructed through the length and breadth of the
+land for the use of this military body and to connect the scattered
+stations. Along these highways population spread and the remains of
+spacious villas still exist to attest the magnificence of the wealthy
+provincials. The roads served also as channels of trade by which goods
+could readily be carried from one part of the country to another.
+Foreign as well as internal trade became extensive, although exports
+were mostly of crude natural products, such as hides, skins, and furs,
+cattle and sheep, grain, pig-iron, lead and tin, hunting-dogs and
+slaves. The rapid development of towns and cities was a marked
+characteristic of Roman Britain. Fifty-nine towns or cities of various
+grades of self-government are named in the Roman survey, and many of
+these must have been populous, wealthy, and active, judging from the
+extensive ruins that remain, and the enormous number of Roman coins
+that have since been found. Christianity was adopted here as in other
+parts of the Roman Empire, though the extent of its influence is
+unknown.
+
+During the Roman occupation much waste land was reclaimed. Most of the
+great valley regions and many of the hillsides had been originally
+covered with dense forests, swamps spread along the rivers and
+extended far inland from the coast; so that almost the only parts
+capable of tillage were the high treeless plains, the hill tops, and
+certain favored stretches of open country. The reduction of these
+waste lands to human habitation has been an age-long task. It was
+begun in prehistoric times, it has been carried further by each
+successive race, and brought to final completion only within our own
+century. A share in this work and the great roads were the most
+permanent results of the Roman period of occupation and government.
+Throughout the fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era the
+Roman administration and society in Britain were evidently
+disintegrating. Several successive generals of the Roman troops
+stationed in Britain rose in revolt with their soldiers, declared
+their independence of Rome, or passed over to the Continent to enter
+into a struggle for the control of the whole Empire. In 383 and 407
+the military forces were suddenly depleted in this way and the
+provincial government disorganized, while the central government of
+the Empire was so weak that it was unable to reestablish a firm
+administration. During the same period barbarian invaders were making
+frequent inroads into Britain. The Picts and Scots from modern
+Scotland, Saxon pirates, and, later, ever increasing swarms of Angles,
+Jutes, and Frisians from across the North Sea ravaged and ultimately
+occupied parts of the borders and the coasts. The surviving records of
+this period of disintegration and reorganization are so few that we
+are left in all but total ignorance as to what actually occurred. For
+more than two hundred years we can only guess at the course of events,
+or infer it from its probable analogy to what we know was occurring in
+the other parts of the Empire, or from the conditions we find to have
+been in existence as knowledge of succeeding times becomes somewhat
+more full. It seems evident that the government of the province of
+Britain gradually went to pieces, and that that of the different
+cities or districts followed. Internal dissensions and the lack of
+military organization and training of the mass of the population
+probably added to the difficulty of resisting marauding bands of
+barbarian invaders. These invading bands became larger, and their
+inroads more frequent and extended, until finally they abandoned their
+home lands entirely and settled permanently in those districts in
+which they had broken the resistance of the Roman-British natives.
+Even while the Empire had been strong the heavy burden of taxation and
+the severe pressure of administrative regulations had caused a decline
+in wealth and population. Now disorder, incessant ravages of the
+barbarians, isolation from other lands, probably famine and
+pestilence, brought rapid decay to the prosperity and civilization of
+the country. Cities lost their trade, wealth, and population, and many
+of them ceased altogether for a time to exist. Britain was rapidly
+sinking again into a land of barbarism.
+
+
+*4. Early Saxon England.*--An increasing number of contemporary records
+give a somewhat clearer view of the condition of England toward the
+close of the sixth century. The old Roman organization and
+civilization had disappeared entirely, and a new race, with a new
+language, a different religion, another form of government, changed
+institutions and customs, had taken its place. A number of petty
+kingdoms had been formed during the fifth and early sixth centuries,
+each under a king or chieftain, as in the old Celtic times before the
+Roman invasion, but now of Teutonic or German race. The kings and
+their followers had come from the northwestern portions of Germany.
+How far they had destroyed the earlier inhabitants, how far they had
+simply combined with them or enslaved them, has been a matter of much
+debate, and one on which discordant opinions are held, even by recent
+students. It seems likely on the whole that the earlier races,
+weakened by defeat and by the disappearance of the Roman control, were
+gradually absorbed and merged into the body of their conquerors; so
+that the petty Angle and Saxon kings of the sixth and seventh
+centuries ruled over a mixed race, in which their own was the most
+influential, though not necessarily the largest element. The arrival
+from Rome in 597 of Augustine, the first Christian missionary to the
+now heathen inhabitants of Britain, will serve as a point to mark the
+completion of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of the country. By this time
+the new settlers had ceased to come in, and there were along the coast
+and inland some seven or eight different kingdoms. These were,
+however, so frequently divided and reunited that no fixed number
+remained long in existence. The Jutes had established the kingdom of
+Kent in the south-eastern extremity of the island; the South and the
+West Saxons were established on the southern coast and inland to the
+valley of the Thames; the East Saxons had a kingdom just north of the
+mouth of the Thames, and the Middle Saxons held London and the
+district around. The rest of the island to the north and inland
+exclusive of what was still unconquered was occupied by various
+branches of the Angle stock grouped into the kingdoms of East Anglia,
+Mercia, and Northumbria. During the seventh and eighth centuries there
+were constant wars of conquest among these kingdoms. Eventually, about
+800 A.D., the West Saxon monarchy made itself nominally supreme over
+all the others. Notwithstanding this political supremacy of the West
+Saxons, it was the Angles who were the most numerous and widely
+spread, and who gave their name, England, to the whole land.
+
+Agriculture was at this time almost the sole occupation of the people.
+The trade and commerce that had centred in the towns and flowed along
+the Roman roads and across the Channel had long since come to an end
+with the Roman civilization of which it was a part. In Saxon England
+cities scarcely existed except as fortified places of defence. The
+products of each rural district sufficed for its needs in food and in
+materials for clothing, so that internal trade was but slight.
+Manufactures were few, partly from lack of skill, partly from lack of
+demand or appreciation; but weaving, the construction of agricultural
+implements and weapons, ship-building, and the working of metals had
+survived from Roman times, or been brought over as part of the stock
+of knowledge of the invaders. Far the greater part of the population
+lived in villages, as they probably had done in Roman and in
+prehistoric times. The village with the surrounding farming lands,
+woods, and waste grounds made up what was known in later times as the
+"township."
+
+The form of government in the earlier separate kingdoms, as in the
+united monarchy after its consolidation, gave limited though
+constantly increasing powers to the king. A body of nobles known as
+the "witan" joined with the king in most of the actions of government.
+The greater part of the small group of government functions which were
+undertaken in these barbarous times were fulfilled by local gatherings
+of the principal men. A district formed from a greater or less number
+of townships, with a meeting for the settlement of disputes, the
+punishment of crimes, the witnessing of agreements, and other
+purposes, was known as a "hundred" or a "wapentake." A "shire" was a
+grouping of hundreds, with a similar gathering of its principal men
+for judicial, military, and fiscal purposes. Above the shire came the
+whole kingdom.
+
+The most important occurrences of the early Saxon period were the
+general adoption of Christianity and the organization of the church.
+Between A.D. 597 and 650 Christianity gained acceptance through the
+preaching and influence of missionaries, most of whom were sent from
+Rome, though some came from Christian Scotland and Ireland. The
+organization of the church followed closely. It was largely the work
+of Archbishop Theodore, and was practically complete before the close
+of the seventh century. By this organization England was divided into
+seventeen dioceses or church districts, religious affairs in each of
+these districts being under the supervision of a bishop. The bishop's
+church, called a "cathedral," was endowed by religious kings and
+nobles with extensive lands, so that the bishop was a wealthy landed
+proprietor, in addition to having control of the clergy of his
+diocese, and exercising a powerful influence over the consciences and
+actions of its lay population. The bishoprics were grouped into two
+"provinces," those of Canterbury and York, the bishops of these two
+dioceses having the higher title of archbishop, and having a certain
+sort of supervision over the other bishops of their province. Churches
+were gradually built in the villages, and each township usually became
+a parish with a regularly established priest. He was supported partly
+by the produce of the "glebe," or land belonging to the parish church,
+partly by tithe, a tax estimated at one-tenth of the income of each
+man's land, partly by the offerings of the people. The bishops, the
+parish priests, and others connected with the diocese, the cathedral,
+and the parish churches made up the ordinary or "secular" clergy.
+There were also many religious men and women who had taken vows to
+live under special "rules" in religious societies withdrawn from the
+ordinary life of the world, and were therefore known as "regular"
+clergy. These were the monks and nuns. In Anglo-Saxon England the
+regular clergy lived according to the rule of St. Benedict, and were
+gathered into groups, some smaller, some larger, but always
+established in one building, or group of buildings. These monasteries,
+like the bishoprics, were endowed with lands which were increased from
+time to time by pious gifts of kings, nobles, and other laymen.
+Ecclesiastical bodies thus came in time to hold a very considerable
+share of the land of the country. The wealth and cultivation of the
+clergy and the desire to adorn and render more attractive their
+buildings and religious services fostered trade with foreign
+countries. The intercourse kept up with the church on the Continent
+also did something to lessen the isolation of England from the rest of
+the world. To these broadening influences must be added the effect
+which the Councils made up of churchmen from all England exerted in
+fostering the tardy growth of the unity of the country.
+
+
+*5. Danish and Late Saxon England.*--At the end of the eighth century
+the Danes or Northmen, the barbarous and heathen inhabitants of the
+islands and coast-lands of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, began to make
+rapid forays into the districts of England which lay near enough to
+the coasts or rivers to be at their mercy. Soon they became bolder or
+more numerous and established fortified camps along the English
+rivers, from which they ravaged the surrounding country. Still later,
+in the tenth and eleventh centuries, under their own kings as leaders,
+they became conquerors and permanent settlers of much of the country,
+and even for a time put a Danish dynasty on the throne to govern
+English and Danes alike. A succession of kings of the West Saxon line
+had struggled with varying success to drive the Danes from the country
+or to limit that portion of it which was under their control; but as a
+matter of fact the northern, eastern, and central portions of England
+were for more than a century and a half almost entirely under Danish
+rule. The constant immigration from Scandinavia during this time added
+an important element to the population--an element which soon,
+however, became completely absorbed in the mixed stock of the English
+people.
+
+The marauding Danish invaders were early followed by fellow-countrymen
+who were tradesmen and merchants. The Scandinavian countries had
+developed an early and active trade with the other lands bordering on
+the Baltic and North seas, and England under Danish influence was
+drawn into the same lines of commerce. The Danes were also more
+inclined to town life than the English, so that advantageously
+situated villages now grew into trading towns, and the sites of some
+of the old Roman cities began again to be filled with a busy
+population. With trading came a greater development of handicrafts, so
+that the population of later Anglo-Saxon England had somewhat varied
+occupations and means of support, instead of being exclusively
+agricultural, as in earlier centuries.
+
+During these later centuries of the Saxon period, from 800 to 1066,
+the most conspicuous and most influential ruler was King Alfred. When
+he became king, in 871, the Danish invaders were so completely
+triumphant as to force him to flee with a few followers to the forest
+as a temporary refuge. He soon emerged, however, with the nucleus of
+an army and, during his reign, which continued till 901, defeated the
+Danes repeatedly, obtained their acceptance of Christianity, forced
+upon them a treaty which restricted their rule to the northeastern
+shires, and transmitted to his son a military and naval organization
+which enabled him to win back much even of this part of England. He
+introduced greater order, prosperity, and piety into the church, and
+partly by his own writing, partly by his patronage of  learned men,
+reawakened an interest in Anglo-Saxon literature and in learning which
+the ravages of the Danes and the demoralization of the country had
+gone far to destroy. Alfred, besides his actual work as king,
+impressed the recognition of his fine nature and strong character
+deeply on the men of his time and the memory of all subsequent times.
+
+The power of the kingship in the Anglo-Saxon system of government was
+strengthened by the life and work of such kings as Alfred and some of
+his successors. There were other causes also which were tending to
+make the central government more of a reality. A national taxation,
+the Danegeld, was introduced for the purpose of ransoming the country
+from the Danes; the grant of lands by the king brought many persons
+through the country into closer relations with him; the royal judicial
+powers tended to increase with the development of law and
+civilization; the work of government was carried on by better-trained
+officials.
+
+On the other hand, a custom grew up in the tenth and early eleventh
+century of placing whole groups of shires under the government of
+great earls or viceroys, whose subjection to the central government of
+the king was but scant. Church bodies and others who had received
+large grants of land from the king were also coming to exercise over
+their tenants judicial, fiscal, and probably even military powers,
+which would seem more properly to belong to government officials. The
+result was that although the central government as compared with the
+local government of shires and hundreds was growing more active, the
+king's power as compared with the personal power of the great nobles
+was becoming less strong. Violence was common, and there were but few
+signs of advancing prosperity or civilization, when an entirely new
+set of influences came into existence with the conquest by the duke of
+Normandy in the year 1066.
+
+
+*6. The Period following the Norman Conquest.*--Normandy was a province
+of France lying along the shore of the English Channel. Its line of
+dukes and at least a considerable proportion of its people were of the
+same Scandinavian or Norse race which made up such a large element in
+the population of England. They had, however, learned more of the arts
+of life and of government from the more successfully preserved
+civilization of the Continent. The relations between England and
+Normandy began to be somewhat close in the early part of the eleventh
+century; the fugitive king of England, Ethelred, having taken refuge
+there, and marrying the sister of the duke. Edward the Confessor,
+their son, who was subsequently restored to the English throne, was
+brought up in Normandy, used the French language, and was accompanied
+on his return by Norman followers. Nine years after the accession of
+Edward, in 1051, William, the duke of Normandy, visited England and is
+said to have obtained a promise that he should receive the crown on
+the death of Edward, who had no direct heir. Accordingly, in 1065,
+when Edward died and Harold, a great English earl, was chosen king,
+William immediately asserted his claim and made strenuous military
+preparations for enforcing it. He took an army across the Channel in
+1066, as Caesar had done more than a thousand years before, and at the
+battle of Hastings or Senlac defeated the English army, King Harold
+himself being killed in the engagement. William then pressed on toward
+London, preventing any gathering of new forces, and obtained his
+recognition as king. He was crowned on Christmas Day, 1066. During the
+next five years he put down a series of rebellions on the part of the
+native English, after which he and his descendants were acknowledged
+as sole kings of England.
+
+The Norman Conquest was not, however, a mere change of dynasty. It led
+to at least three other changes of the utmost importance. It added a
+new element to the population, it brought England into contact with
+the central and southern countries of the Continent, instead of merely
+with the northern as before, and it made the central government of the
+country vastly stronger. There is no satisfactory means of discovering
+how many Normans and others from across the Channel migrated into
+England with the Conqueror or in the wake of the Conquest, but there
+is no doubt that the number was large and their influence more than
+proportionate to their numbers. Within the lifetime of William, whose
+death occurred in 1087, of his two sons, William II and Henry I, and
+the nominal reign of Stephen extending to 1154, the whole body of the
+nobility, the bishops and abbots, and the government officials had
+come to be of Norman or other continental origin. Besides these the
+architects and artisans who built the castles and fortresses, and the
+cathedrals, abbeys, and parish churches, whose erection throughout the
+land was such a marked characteristic of the period, were immigrants
+from Normandy. Merchants from the Norman cities of Rouen and Caen came
+to settle in London and other English cities, and weavers from
+Flanders were settled in various towns and even rural districts. For a
+short time these newcomers remained a separate people, but before the
+twelfth century was over they had become for the most part
+indistinguishable from the great mass of the English people amongst
+whom they had come. They had nevertheless made that people stronger,
+more vigorous, more active-minded, and more varied in their
+occupations and interests.
+
+King William and his successors retained their continental  dominions
+and even extended them after their acquisition of the English kingdom,
+so that trade between the two sides of the Channel was more natural
+and easy than before. The strong government of the Norman kings gave
+protection and encouragement to this commerce, and by keeping down the
+violence of the nobles favored trade within the country. The English
+towns had been growing in number, size, and wealth in the years just
+before the Conquest. The contests of the years immediately following
+1066 led to a short period of decay, but very soon increasing trade
+and handicraft led to still greater progress. London, especially, now
+made good its position as one of the great cities of Europe, and that
+preeminence among English towns which it has never since lost. The
+fishing and seaport towns along the southern and eastern coast also,
+and even a number of inland towns, came to hold a much more
+influential place in the nation than they had possessed in the
+Anglo-Saxon period.
+
+The increased power of the monarchy arose partly from its military
+character as based upon a conquest of the country, partly from the
+personal character of William and his immediate successors, partly
+from the more effective machinery for administration of the affairs of
+government, which was either brought over from Normandy or developed
+in England. A body of trained, skilful government officials now
+existed, who were able to carry out the wishes of the king, collect
+his revenues, administer justice, gather armies, and in other ways
+make his rule effective to an extent unknown in the preceding period.
+The sheriffs, who had already existed as royal representatives in the
+shires in Anglo-Saxon times, now possessed far more extensive powers,
+and came up to Westminster to report and to present their financial
+accounts to the royal exchequer twice a year. Royal officials acting
+as judges not only settled an increasingly large number of cases that
+were brought before them at the king's court, but travelled through
+the country, trying suits and punishing criminals in the different
+shires. The king's income was vastly larger than that of the
+Anglo-Saxon monarchs had been. The old Danegeld was still collected
+from time to time, though under a different name, and the king's
+position as landlord of the men who had received the lands confiscated
+at the Conquest was utilized to obtain additional payments.
+
+Perhaps the greatest proof of the power and efficiency of the
+government in the Norman period was the compilation of the great body
+of statistics known as "Domesday Book." In 1085 King William sent
+commissioners to every part of England to collect a variety of
+information about the financial conditions on which estates were held,
+their value, and fitness for further taxation. The information
+obtained from this investigation was drawn up in order and written in
+two large manuscript volumes which still exist in the Public Record
+Office at London. It is a much more extensive body of information than
+was collected for any other country of Europe until many centuries
+afterward. Yet its statements, though detailed and exact and of great
+interest from many points of view, are disappointing to the student of
+history. They were obtained for the financial purposes of government,
+and cannot be made to give the clear picture of the life of the people
+and of the relations of different classes to one another which would
+be so welcome, and which is so easily obtained from the great variety
+of more private documents which came into existence a century and a
+half later.
+
+The church during this period was not relatively so conspicuous as
+during Saxon times, but the number of the clergy, both secular and
+regular, was very large, the bishops and abbots powerful, and the
+number of monasteries and nunneries increasing. The most important
+ecclesiastical change was the development of church courts. The
+bishops or their representatives began to hold courts for the trial of
+churchmen, the settlement of such suits as churchmen were parties to,
+and the decision of cases in certain fields of law. This gave the
+church a new influence, in addition to that which it held from its
+spiritual duties, from its position as landlord over such extensive
+tracts, and from the superior enlightenment and mental ability of its
+prominent officials, but it also gave greater occasion for conflict
+with the civil government and with private persons.
+
+After the death of Henry I in 1135 a miserable period of confusion and
+violence ensued. Civil war broke out between two claimants for the
+crown, Stephen the grandson, and Matilda the granddaughter, of William
+the Conqueror. The organization of government was allowed to fall into
+disorder, and but little effort was made to collect the royal revenue,
+to fulfil the newly acquired judicial duties, or to insist upon order
+being preserved in the country. The nobles took opposite sides in the
+contest for the crown, and made use of the weakness of government to
+act as if they were themselves sovereigns over their estates and the
+country adjacent to their castles with no ruler above them. Private
+warfare, oppression of less powerful men, seizure of property, went on
+unchecked. Every baron's castle became an independent establishment
+carried on in accordance only with the unbridled will of its lord, as
+if there were no law and no central authority to which he must bow.
+The will of the lord was often one of reckless violence, and there was
+more disorder and suffering in England than at any time since the
+ravages of the Danes.
+
+In Anglo-Saxon times, when a weak king appeared, the shire moots, or
+the rulers of groups of shires, exercised the authority which the
+central government had lost. In the twelfth century, when the power of
+the royal government was similarly diminished through the weakness of
+Stephen and the confusions of the civil war, it was a certain class of
+men, the great nobles, that fell heir to the lost strength of
+government. This was because of the development of feudalism during
+the intervening time. The greater landholders had come to exercise
+over those who held land from them certain powers which in modern
+times belong to the officers of government only. A landlord could call
+upon his tenants for military service to him, and for the contribution
+of money for his expenses; he held a court to decide suits between one
+tenant and another, and frequently to punish their crimes and
+misdemeanors; in case of the death of a tenant leaving a minor heir,
+his landlord became guardian and temporary holder of the land, and if
+there were no heirs, the land reverted to him, not to the national
+government. These relations which the great landholders held toward
+their tenants, the latter, who often themselves were landlords over
+whole townships or other great tracts of land with their population,
+held toward their tenants. Sometimes these subtenants granted land to
+others below them, and over these the last landlord also exercised
+feudal rights, and so on till the actual occupants and cultivators of
+the soil were reached. The great nobles had thus come to stand in a
+middle position. Above them was the king, below them these successive
+stages of tenants and subtenants. Their tenants owed to them the same
+financial and political services and duties as they owed to the king.
+From the time of the Norman Conquest, all land in England was looked
+upon as being held from the king directly by a comparatively few, and
+indirectly through them by all others who held land at all. Moreover,
+from a time at least soon after the Norman Conquest, the services and
+payments above mentioned came to be recognized as due from all tenants
+to their lords, and were gradually systematized and defined. Each
+person or ecclesiastical body that held land from the king owed him
+the military service of a certain number of knights or armed horse
+soldiers. The period for which this service was owed was generally
+estimated as forty days once a year. Subtenants similarly owed
+military service to their landlords, though in the lesser grades this
+was almost invariably commuted for money. "Wardship and marriage" was
+the expression applied to the right of the lord to the guardianship of
+the estate of a minor heir of his tenant, and to the choice of a
+husband or wife for the heir when he came of proper age. This right
+also was early turned into the form of a money consideration. There
+were a number of money payments pure and simple. "Relief" was a
+payment to the landlord, usually of a year's income of the estate,
+made by an heir on obtaining his inheritance. There were three
+generally acknowledged "aids" or payments of a set sum in proportion
+to the amount of land held. These were on the occasion of the
+knighting of the lord's son, of the marriage of his daughter, and for
+his ransom in case he was captured in war. Land could be confiscated
+if the tenant violated his duties to his landlord, and it "escheated"
+to the lord in case of failure of heirs. Every tenant was bound to
+attend his landlord to help form a court for judicial work, and to
+submit to the judgment of a court of his fellow-tenants for his own
+affairs.
+
+In addition to the relations of landlord and tenant and to the power
+of jurisdiction, taxation, and military service which landlords
+exercised over their tenants, there was considered to be a close
+personal relationship between them. Every tenant on obtaining his land
+went through a ceremony known as "homage," by which he promised
+faithfulness and service to his lord, vowing on his knees to be his
+man. The lord in return promised faithfulness, protection, and justice
+to his tenant. It was this combination of landholding, political
+rights, and sworn personal fidelity that made up feudalism. It existed
+in this sense in England from the later Saxon period till late in the
+Middle Ages, and even in some of its characteristics to quite modern
+times. The conquest by William of Normandy through the wholesale
+confiscation and regrant of lands, and through his military
+arrangements, brought about an almost sudden development and spread of
+feudalism in England, and it was rapidly systematized and completed in
+the reigns of his two sons. By its very nature feudalism gives great
+powers to the higher ranks of the nobility, the great landholders.
+Under the early Norman kings, however, their strength was kept in
+tolerably complete check. The anarchy of the reign of Stephen was an
+indication of the natural tendencies of feudalism without a vigorous
+king. This time of confusion when, as the contemporary chronicle says,
+"every man did that which was good in his own eyes," was brought to an
+end by the accession to the throne of Henry II, a man whose personal
+abilities and previous training enabled him to bring the royal
+authority to greater strength than ever, and to put an end to the
+oppressions of the turbulent nobles.
+
+
+*7. The Period of the Early Angevin Kings, 1154-1338.*--The two
+centuries which now followed saw either the completion or the
+initiation of most of the characteristics of the English race with
+which we are familiar in historic times. The race, the language, the
+law, and the political organization have remained fundamentally the
+same as they became during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. No
+considerable new addition was made to the population, and the elements
+which it already contained became so thoroughly fused that it has
+always since been practically a homogeneous body. The Latin language
+remained through this whole period and till long afterward the
+principal language of records, documents, and the affairs of the
+church. French continued to be the language of the daily intercourse
+of the upper classes, of the pleadings in the law courts, and of
+certain documents and records. But English was taking its modern form,
+asserting itself as the real national language, and by the close of
+this period had come into general use for the vast majority of
+purposes. Within the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Universities
+of Oxford and Cambridge grew up, and within the fourteenth took their
+later shape of self-governing groups of colleges. Successive orders of
+religious men and women were formed under rules intended to overcome
+the defects which had appeared in the early Benedictine rule. The
+organized church became more and more powerful, and disputes
+constantly arose as to the limits between its power and that of the
+ordinary government. The question was complicated from the fact that
+the English Church was but one branch of the general church of Western
+Christendom, whose centre and principal authority was vested in the
+Pope at Rome. One of the most serious of these conflicts was between
+King Henry II and Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, principally on the
+question of how far clergymen should be subject to the same laws as
+laymen. The personal dispute ended in the murder of the archbishop, in
+1170, but the controversy itself got no farther than a compromise. A
+contest broke out between King John and the Pope in 1205 as to the
+right of the king to dictate the selection of a new archbishop of
+Canterbury. By 1213 the various forms of influence which the church
+could bring to bear were successful in forcing the king to give way.
+He therefore made humble apologies and accepted the nominee of the
+Pope for the office. Later in the thirteenth century there was much
+popular opposition to papal taxation of England.
+
+In the reign of Henry II, the conquest of Ireland was begun. In 1283
+Edward I, great-grandson of Henry, completed the conquest of Wales,
+which had remained incompletely conquered from Roman times onward. In
+1292 Edward began that interference in the affairs of Scotland which
+led on to long wars and a nominal conquest. For a while therefore it
+seemed that England was about to create a single monarchy out of the
+whole of the British Islands. Moreover, Henry II was already count of
+Anjou and Maine by inheritance from his father when he became duke of
+Normandy and king of England by inheritance from his mother. He also
+obtained control of almost all the remainder of the western and
+southern provinces of France by his marriage with Eleanor of
+Aquitaine. It seemed, therefore, that England might become the centre
+of a considerable empire composed partly of districts on the
+Continent, partly of the British Islands. As a matter of fact, Wales
+long remained separated from England in organization and feeling,
+little progress was made with the real conquest of Ireland till in the
+sixteenth century, and the absorption of Scotland failed entirely.
+King John, in 1204, lost most of the possessions of the English kings
+south of the Channel and they were not regained within this period.
+The unification of the English government and people really occurred
+during this period, but it was only within the boundaries which were
+then as now known as England.
+
+Henry II was a vigorous, clear-headed, far-sighted ruler. He not only
+put down the rebellious barons with a strong hand, and restored the
+old royal institutions, as already stated, but added new powers of
+great importance, especially in the organization of the courts of
+justice. He changed the occasional visits of royal officials to
+different parts of the country to regular periodical circuits, the
+kingdom being divided into districts in each of which a group of
+judges held court at least once in each year. In 1166, by the Assize
+of Clarendon, he made provision for a sworn body of men in each
+neighborhood to bring accusations against criminals, thus making the
+beginning of the grand jury system. He also provided that a group of
+men should be put upon their oath to give a decision in a dispute
+about the possession of land, if either one of the claimants asked for
+it, thus introducing the first form of the trial by jury. The
+decisions of the judges within this period came to be so consistent
+and so well recorded as to make the foundation of the Common Law the
+basis of modern law in all English-speaking countries.
+
+Henry's successor was his son Richard I, whose government was quite
+unimportant except for the romantic personal adventures of the king
+when on a crusade, and in his continental dominions. Henry's second
+son John reigned from 1199 to 1216. Although of good natural
+abilities, he was extraordinarily indolent, mean, treacherous, and
+obstinate. By his inactivity during a long quarrel with the king of
+France he lost all his provinces on the Continent, except those in the
+far south. His contest with the Pope had ended in failure and
+humiliation. He had angered the barons by arbitrary taxation and by
+many individual acts of outrage or oppression. Finally he had
+alienated the affections of the mass of the population by introducing
+foreign mercenaries to support his tyranny and permitting to them
+unbridled excess and violence. As a result of this widespread
+unpopularity, a rebellion was organized, including almost the whole of
+the baronage of England, guided by the counsels of Stephen Langton,
+archbishop of Canterbury, and supported by the citizens of London. The
+indefiniteness of feudal relations was a constant temptation to kings
+and other lords to carry their exactions and demands upon their
+tenants to an unreasonable and oppressive length. Henry I, on his
+accession in 1100, in order to gain popularity, had voluntarily
+granted a charter reciting a number of these forms of oppression and
+promising to put an end to them. The rebellious barons now took this
+old charter as a basis, added to it many points which had become
+questions of dispute during the century since it had been granted, and
+others which were of special interest to townsmen and the middle and
+even lower classes. They then demanded the king's promise to issue a
+charter containing these points. John resisted for a while, but at
+last gave way and signed the document which has since been known as
+the "Great Charter," or Magna Carta. This has always been considered
+as, in a certain sense, the guarantee of English liberties and the
+foundation of the settled constitution of the kingdom. The fact that
+it was forced from a reluctant king by those who spoke for the whole
+nation, that it placed definite limitations on his power, and that it
+was confirmed again and again by later kings, has done more to give it
+this position than its temporary and in many cases insignificant
+provisions, accompanied only by a comparatively few statements of
+general principles.
+
+The beginnings of the construction of the English parliamentary
+constitution fall within the next reign, that of John's son, Henry
+III, 1216-1272. He was a child at his accession, and when he became a
+man proved to have but few qualities which would enable him to
+exercise a real control over the course of events. Conflicts were
+constant between the king and confederations of the barons, for the
+greater part of the time under the leadership of Simon de Montfort,
+earl of Leicester. The special points of difference were the king's
+preference for foreign adventurers in his distribution of offices, his
+unrestrained munificence to them, their insolence and oppression
+relying on the king's support, the financial demands which were
+constantly being made, and the king's encouragement of the high claims
+and pecuniary exactions of the Pope. At first these conflicts took the
+form of disputes in the Great Council, but ultimately they led to
+another outbreak of civil war. The Great Council of the kingdom was a
+gathering of the nobles, bishops, and abbots summoned by the king from
+time to time for advice and participation in the more important work
+of government. It had always existed in one form or another, extending
+back continuously to the "witenagemot" of the Anglo-Saxons. During the
+reign of Henry the name "Parliament" was coming to be more regularly
+applied to it, its meetings were more frequent and its self-assertion
+more vigorous. But most important of all, a new class of members was
+added to it. In 1265, in addition to the nobles and great prelates,
+the sheriffs were ordered to see that two knights were selected from
+each of their shires, and two citizens from each of a long list of the
+larger towns, to attend and take part in the discussions of
+Parliament. This plan was not continued regularly at first, but
+Henry's successor, Edward I, who reigned from 1272 to 1307, adopted it
+deliberately, and from 1295 forward the "Commons," as they came to be
+called, were always included in Parliament. Within the next century a
+custom arose according to which the representatives of the shires and
+the towns sat in a separate body from the nobles and churchmen, so
+that Parliament took on its modern form of two houses, the House of
+Lords and the House of Commons.
+
+Until this time and long afterward the personal character and
+abilities of the king were far the most important single factor in the
+growth of the nation. Edward I was one of the greatest of English
+kings, ranking with Alfred, William the Conqueror, and Henry II. His
+conquests of Wales and of Scotland have already been mentioned, and
+these with the preparation they involved and a war with France into
+which he was drawn necessarily occupied the greater part of his time
+and energy. But he found the time to introduce good order and control
+into the government in all its branches; to make a great investigation
+into the judicial and administrative system, the results of which,
+commonly known as the "Hundred Rolls," are comparable to Domesday Book
+in extent and character; to develop the organization of Parliament,
+and above all to enact through it a series of great reforming
+statutes. The most important of these were the First and Second
+Statutes of Westminster, in 1275 and 1285, which made provisions for
+good order in the country, for the protection of merchants, and for
+other objects; the Statute of Mortmain, passed in 1279, which put a
+partial stop to injurious gifts of land to the church, and the Statute
+_Quia Emptores_, passed in 1290, which was intended to prevent the
+excessive multiplication of subtenants. This was done by providing
+that whenever in the future any landholder should dispose of a piece
+of land it should be held from the same lord the grantor had held it
+from, not from the grantor himself. He also gave more liberal charters
+to the towns, privileges to foreign merchants, and constant
+encouragement to trade. The king's firm hand and prudent judgment were
+felt in a wide circle of regulations applying to taxes, markets and
+fairs, the purchase of royal supplies, the currency, the
+administration of local justice, and many other fields. Yet after all
+it was the organization of Parliament that was the most important work
+of Edward's reign. This completed the unification of the country. The
+English people were now one race, under one law, with one Parliament
+representing all parts of the country. It was possible now for the
+whole nation to act as a unit, and for laws to be passed which would
+apply to the whole country and draw its different sections continually
+more closely together. National growth was now possible in a sense in
+which it had not been before.
+
+The reign of Edward II, like his own character, was insignificant
+compared with that of his father. He was deposed in 1327, and his son,
+Edward III, came to the throne as a boy of fourteen years. The first
+years of his reign were also relatively unimportant. By the time he
+reached his majority, however, other events were imminent which for
+the next century or more gave a new direction to the principal
+interests and energies of England. A description of these events will
+be given in a later chapter.
+
+For the greater part of the long period which has now been sketched in
+outline it is almost solely the political and ecclesiastical events
+and certain personal experiences which have left their records in
+history. We can obtain but vague outlines of the actual life of the
+people. An important Anglo-Saxon document describes the organization
+of a great landed estate, and from Domesday Book and other early
+Norman records may be drawn certain inferences as to the degree of
+freedom of the masses of the people and certain facts as to
+agriculture and trade. From the increasing body of public records in
+the twelfth century can be gathered detached pieces of information as
+to actual social and economic conditions, but the knowledge that can
+be obtained is even yet slight and uncertain. With the thirteenth
+century, however, all this is changed. During the latter part of the
+period just described, that is to say the reigns of Henry III and the
+three Edwards, we have almost as full knowledge of economic as of
+political conditions, of the life of the mass of the people as of that
+of courtiers and ecclesiastics. From a time for which 1250 may be
+taken as an approximate date, written documents began to be so
+numerous, so varied, and so full of information as to the affairs of
+private life, that it becomes possible to obtain a comparatively full
+and clear knowledge of the methods of agriculture, handicraft, and
+commerce, of the classes of society, the prevailing customs and ideas,
+and in general of the mode of life and social organization of the mass
+of the people, this being the principal subject of economic and social
+history. The next three chapters will therefore be devoted
+respectively to a description of rural life, of town life, and of
+trading relations, as they were during the century from 1250 to 1350,
+while the succeeding chapters will trace the main lines of economic
+and social change during succeeding periods down to the present time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+RURAL LIFE AND ORGANIZATION
+
+
+*8. The Mediaeval Village.*--In the Middle Ages in the greater part of
+England all country life was village life. The farmhouses were not
+isolated or separated from one another by surrounding fields, as they
+are so generally in modern times, but were gathered into villages.
+Each village was surrounded by arable lands, meadows, pastures, and
+woods which spread away till they reached the confines of the similar
+fields of the next adjacent village. Such an agricultural village with
+its population and its surrounding lands is usually spoken of as a
+"vill." The word "manor" is also applied to it, though this word is
+also used in other senses, and has differed in meaning at different
+periods. The word "hamlet" means a smaller group of houses separated
+from but forming in some respects a part of a vill or manor.
+
+The village consisted of a group of houses ranging in number from ten
+or twelve to as many as fifty or perhaps even more, grouped around
+what in later times would be called a "village green," or along two or
+three intersecting lanes. The houses were small, thatch-roofed, and
+one-roomed, and doubtless very miserable. Such buildings as existed
+for the protection of cattle or the preservation of crops were closely
+connected with the dwelling portions of the houses. In many cases they
+were under the same roof. Each vill possessed its church, which was
+generally, though by no means always, close to the houses of the
+village. There was usually a manor house, which varied in size from
+an actual castle to a building of a character scarcely distinguishable
+from the primitive houses of the villagers. This might be occupied
+regularly or occasionally by the lord of the manor, but might
+otherwise be inhabited by the steward or by a tenant, or perhaps only
+serve as the gathering place of the manor courts.
+
+Connected with the manor house was an enclosure or courtyard commonly
+surrounded by buildings for general farm purposes and for cooking or
+brewing. A garden orchard was often attached.
+
+[Illustration: Thirteenth Century Manor House, Millichope, Shropshire.
+(Wright, _History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments_.)]
+
+The location of the vill was almost invariably such that a stream with
+its border meadows passed through or along its confines, the mill
+being often the only building that lay detached from the village
+group. A greater or less extent of woodland is also constantly
+mentioned.
+
+The vill was thus made up of the group of houses of the villagers
+including the parish church and the manor house, all surrounded by a
+wide tract of arable land, meadow, pasture, and woods. Where the lands
+were extensive there might perhaps be a small group of houses forming
+a separate hamlet at some distance from the village, and occasionally
+a detached mill, grange, or other building. Its characteristic
+appearance, however, must have been that of a close group of buildings
+surrounded by an extensive tract of open land.
+
+[Illustration: Thirteenth Century Manor House, Boothby Pagnell,
+Lincolnshire. (Turner, _Domestic Architecture in England_.)]
+
+
+*9. The Vill as an Agricultural System.*--The support of the vill was in
+its agriculture. The plan by which the lands of the whole group of
+cultivators lay together in a large tract surrounding the village is
+spoken of as the "open field" system. The arable portions of this were
+ploughed in pieces equalling approximately acres, half-acres, or
+quarter-acres.
+
+[Illustration: Village with Open Fields, Noertershausen, near Coblentz.
+Germany. (From a photograph taken in 1894.)]
+
+The mediaeval English acre was a long narrow strip forty rods in length
+and four rods in width, a half-acre or quarter-acre being of the same
+length, but of two rods or one rod in width. The rod was of different
+lengths in different parts of the country, depending on local custom,
+but the most common length was that prescribed by statute, that is to
+say, sixteen and a half feet. The length of the acre, forty rods, has
+given rise to one of the familiar units of length, the furlong, that
+is, a "furrow-long," or the length of a furrow. A rood is a piece of
+land one rod wide and forty rods long, that is, the fourth of an acre.
+A series of such strips were ploughed up successively, being separated
+from each other either by leaving the width of a furrow or two
+unploughed, or by marking the division with stones, or perhaps by
+simply throwing the first furrow of the next strip in the opposite
+direction when it was ploughed. When an unploughed border was left
+covered with grass or stones, it was called a "balk." A number of such
+acres or fractions of acres with their slight dividing ridges thus lay
+alongside of one another in a group, the number being defined by the
+configuration of the ground, by a traditional division among a given
+number of tenants, or by some other cause. Other groups of strips lay
+at right angles or inclined to these, so that the whole arable land of
+the village when ploughed or under cultivation had, like many French,
+German, or Swiss landscapes at the present time, something of the
+appearance of a great irregular checker-board or patchwork quilt, each
+large square being divided in one direction by parallel lines.
+Usually the cultivated open fields belonging to a village were divided
+into three or more large tracts or fields and these were cultivated
+according to some established rotation of crops. The most common of
+these was the three-field system, by which in any one year all the
+strips in one tract or field would be planted with wheat, rye, or some
+other crop which is planted in the fall and harvested the next summer;
+a second great field would be planted with oats, barley, peas, or some
+such crop as is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall; the
+third field would be fallow, recuperating its fertility. The next year
+all the acres in the field which had lain fallow the year before might
+be planted with a fall crop, the wheat field of the previous year
+being planted with a spring crop, and the oats field in its turn now
+lying uncultivated for a year. The third year a further exchange would
+be made by which a fall crop would succeed the fallow of that year and
+the spring crop of the previous year, a spring crop would succeed the
+last year's fall crop and the field from which the spring crop was
+taken now in its turn would enjoy a fallow year. In the fourth year
+the rotation would begin over again.
+
+[Illustration: Village with Open Fields, Udenhausen, near Coblentz,
+Germany. (From a photograph taken in 1894.)]
+
+Agriculture was extremely crude. But eight or nine bushels of wheat or
+rye were expected from an acre, where now in England the average is
+thirty. The plough regularly required eight draught animals, usually
+oxen, in breaking up the ground, though lighter ploughs were used in
+subsequent cultivation. The breed of all farm animals was small, carts
+were few and cumbrous, the harvesting of grain was done with a sickle,
+and the mowing of grass with a short, straight scythe. The distance of
+the outlying parts of the fields from the farm buildings of the
+village added its share to the laboriousness of agricultural life.
+
+[Illustration: Modern Ploughing with Six Oxen in Sussex. (Hudson, W.
+H.: _Nature in Downland_. Published by Longmans, Green & Co.)]
+
+[Illustration: Open Fields of Hayford Bridge, Oxfordshire, 1607.
+(Facsimile map published by the University of Oxford.)]
+
+The variety of food crops raised was small. Potatoes were of course
+unknown, and other root crops and fresh vegetables apparently were
+little cultivated. Wheat and rye of several varieties were raised as
+bread-stuff, barley and some other grains for the brewing of beer.
+Field peas and beans were raised, sometimes for food, but generally as
+forage for cattle. The main supply of winter forage for the farm
+animals had, however, to be secured in the form of hay, and for this
+reliance was placed entirely on the natural meadows, as no clover or
+grasses which could be artificially raised on dry ground were yet
+known. Meadow land was constantly estimated at twice the value of
+arable ground or more. To obtain a sufficient support for the oxen,
+horses, and breeding animals through the winter required, therefore, a
+constant struggle. Owing to this difficulty animals that were to be
+used for food purposes were regularly killed in the fall and salted
+down. Much of the unhealthiness of medieval life is no doubt
+attributable to the use of salt meat as so large a part of what was at
+best a very monotonous diet.
+
+Summer pasture for the horses, cattle, sheep, and swine of the village
+was found partly on the arable land after the grain crops had been
+taken off, or while it was lying fallow. Since all the acres in any
+one great field were planted with the same crop, this would be taken
+off from the whole expanse at practically the same time, and the
+animals of the whole village might then wander over it, feeding on the
+stubble, the grass of the balks, and such other growth as sprung up
+before the next ploughing, or before freezing weather. Pasturage was
+also found on the meadows after the hay had been cut. But the largest
+amount of all was on the "common pasture," the uncultivated land and
+woods which in the thirteenth century was still sufficiently
+abundant in most parts of England to be found in considerable extent
+on almost every manor. Pasturage in all these forms was for the most
+part common for all the animals of the vill, which were sent out under
+the care of shepherds or other guardians. There were, however,
+sometimes enclosed pieces of pasture land in the possession of the
+lord of the manor or of individual villagers.
+
+The land of the vill was held and cultivated according to a system of
+scattered acres. That is to say, the land held by any one man was not
+all in one place, but scattered through various parts of the open
+fields of the vill. He would have an acre or two, or perhaps only a
+part of an acre, in one place, another strip not adjacent to it, but
+somewhere else in the fields, still another somewhere else, and so on
+for his whole holding, while the neighbor whose house was next to his
+in the village would have pieces of land similarly scattered through
+the fields, and in many cases probably have them adjacent to his. The
+result was that the various acres or other parts of any one man's
+holding were mingled apparently inextricably with those of other men,
+customary familiarity only distinguishing which pieces belonged to
+each villager.
+
+In some manors there was total irregularity as to the number of acres
+in the occupation of any one man; in others there was a striking
+regularity. The typical holding, the group of scattered acres
+cultivated by one man or held by some two or three in common, was
+known as a "virgate," or by some equivalent term, and although of no
+universal equality, was more frequently of thirty acres than of any
+other number. Usually one finds on a given manor that ten or fifteen
+of the villagers have each a virgate of a given number of acres,
+several more have each a half virgate or a quarter. Occasionally, on
+the other hand, each of them has a different number of acres. In
+almost all cases, however, the agricultural holdings of the villagers
+were relatively small. For instance, on a certain manor in Norfolk
+there were thirty-six holdings, twenty of them below ten acres, eight
+between ten and twenty, six between twenty and thirty, and two between
+thirty and forty. On another, in Essex, there were nine holdings of
+five acres each, two of six, twelve of ten, three of twelve, one of
+eighteen, four of twenty, one of forty, and one of fifty. Sometimes
+larger holdings in the hands of individual tenants are to be found,
+rising to one hundred acres or more. Still these were quite
+exceptional and the mass of the villagers had very small groups of
+acres in their possession.
+
+It is to be noted next that a large proportion of the cultivated
+strips were not held in virgates or otherwise by the villagers at all,
+but were in the direct possession and cultivation of the lord of the
+manor. This land held directly by the lord of the manor and cultivated
+for him was called the "demesne," and frequently included one-half or
+even a larger proportion of all the land of the vill. Much of the
+meadow and pasture land, and frequently all of the woods, was included
+in the demesne. Some of the demesne land was detached from the land of
+the villagers, enclosed and separately cultivated or pastured; but for
+the most part it lay scattered through the same open fields and was
+cultivated by the same methods and according to the same rotation as
+the land of the small tenants of the vill, though it was kept under
+separate management.
+
+
+*10. Classes of People on the Manor.*--Every manor was in the hands of a
+lord. He might be a knight, esquire, or mere freeman, but in the great
+majority of cases the lord of the manor was a nobleman, a bishop,
+abbot, or other ecclesiastical official, or the king. But whether the
+manor was the whole estate of a man of the lesser gentry, or merely
+one part of the possessions of a great baron, an ecclesiastical
+corporation, or the crown, the relation between its possessor as lord
+of the manor and the other inhabitants as his tenants was the same. In
+the former case he was usually resident upon the manor; in the latter
+the individual or corporate lord was represented by a steward or other
+official who made occasional visits, and frequently, on large manors,
+by a resident bailiff. There was also almost universally a reeve, who
+was chosen from among the tenants and who had to carry on the demesne
+farm in the interests of the lord.
+
+[Illustration: Seal, with Representation of a Manor House. (Turner,
+_Domestic Architecture in England_.)]
+
+The tenants of the manor, ranging from holders of considerable amounts
+of land, perhaps as much as a hundred acres, through various
+gradations down to mere cotters, who held no more than a cottage with
+perhaps a half-acre or a rood of land, or even with no land at all,
+are usually grouped in the "extents" or contemporary descriptions of
+the manors and their inhabitants into several distinct classes. Some
+are described as free tenants, or tenants holding freely. Others, and
+usually the largest class, are called villains, or customary tenants.
+Some, holding only a half or a quarter virgate, are spoken of as half
+or quarter villains. Again, a numerous class are described by some
+name indicating that they hold only a dwelling-house, or at least that
+their holding of land is but slight. These are generally spoken of as
+cotters.
+
+All these tenants hold land from the lord of the manor and make
+payments and perform services in return for their land. The free
+tenants most commonly make payments in money only. At special periods
+in the year they give a certain number of shillings or pence to the
+lord. Occasionally they are required to make some payment in kind, a
+cock or a hen, some eggs, or other articles of consumption. These
+money payments and payments of articles of money value are called
+"rents of assize," or established rents. Not unusually, however, the
+free tenant has to furnish _precariae_ or "boon-works" to the lord.
+That is, he must, either in his own person or through a man hired for
+the purpose, furnish one or more days' labor at the specially busy
+seasons of the year, at fall and spring ploughing, at mowing or
+harvest time. Free tenants were also frequently bound to pay relief
+and heriot. Relief was a sum of money paid to the lord by an heir on
+obtaining land by inheritance. Custom very generally established the
+amount to be paid as the equivalent of one year's ordinary payments.
+Heriot was a payment made in kind or in money from the property left
+by a deceased tenant, and very generally consisted by custom of the
+best animal which had been in the possession of the man, or its
+equivalent in value. On many manors heriot was not paid by free
+tenants, but only by those of lower rank.
+
+The services and payments of the villains or customary tenants were of
+various descriptions. They had usually to make some money payments at
+regular periods of the year, like the free tenants, and, even more
+frequently than they, some regular payments in kind. But the fine paid
+on the inheritance of their land was less definitely restricted in
+amount, and heriot was more universally and more regularly collected.
+The greater part of their liability to the lord of the manor was,
+however, in the form of personal, corporal service. Almost universally
+the villain was required to work for a certain number of days in each
+week on the demesne of the lord. This "week-work" was most frequently
+for three days a week, sometimes for two, sometimes for four;
+sometimes for one number of days in the week during a part of the
+year, for another number during the remainder. In addition to this
+were usually the _precariae_ or boon-works already referred to.
+Sometimes as part of, sometimes in addition to, the week-work and the
+boon-work, the villain was required to plough so many acres in the
+fall and spring; to mow, toss, and carry in the hay from so many
+acres; to haul and scatter so many loads of manure; carry grain to the
+barn or the market, build hedges, dig ditches, gather brush, weed
+grain, break clods, drive sheep or swine, or any other of the forms of
+agricultural labor as local custom on each manor had established his
+burdens. Combining the week-work, the regular boon-works, and the
+extra specified services, it will be seen that the labor required from
+the customary tenant was burdensome in the extreme. Taken on the
+average, much more than half of the ordinary villain's time must have
+been given in services to the lord of the manor.
+
+The cotters made similar payments and performed similar labors, though
+less in amount. A widespread custom required them to work for the lord
+one day a week throughout the year, with certain regular payments, and
+certain additional special services.
+
+Besides the possession of their land and rights of common pasture,
+however, there were some other compensations and alleviations of the
+burdens of the villains and cotters. At the boon-works and other
+special services performed by the tenants, it was a matter of custom
+that the lord of the manor provide food for one or two meals a day,
+and custom frequently defined the kind, amount, and value of the food
+for each separate meal; as where it is said in a statement of
+services: "It is to be known that all the above customary tenants
+ought to reap one day in autumn at one boon-work of wheat, and they
+shall have among them six bushels of wheat for their bread, baked in
+the manor, and broth and meat, that is to say, two men have one
+portion of beef and cheese, and beer for drinking. And the aforesaid
+customary tenants ought to work in autumn at two boon-works of oats.
+And they shall have six bushels of rye for their bread as described
+above, broth as before, and herrings, viz. six herrings for each man,
+and cheese as before, and water for drinking."
+
+Thus the payments and services of the free tenants were principally of
+money, and apparently not burdensome; those of the villains were
+largely in corporal service and extremely heavy; while those of the
+cotters were smaller, in correspondence with their smaller holdings of
+land and in accordance with the necessity that they have their time in
+order to make their living by earning wages.
+
+The villains and cotters were in bondage to the lord of the manor.
+This was a matter of legal status quite independent of the amount of
+land which the tenant held or of the services which he performed,
+though, generally speaking, the great body of the smaller tenants and
+of the laborers were of servile condition. In general usage the words
+_villanus_, _nativus_, _servus_, _custumarius_, and _rusticus_ are
+synonymous, and the cotters belonged legally to the same servile
+class.
+
+The distinction between free tenants and villains, using this word, as
+is customary, to include all those who were legally in servitude, was
+not a very clearly marked one. Their economic position was often so
+similar that the classes shaded into one another. But the villain was,
+as has been seen, usually burdened with much heavier services. He was
+subject to special payments, such as "merchet," a payment made to the
+lord of the manor when a woman of villain rank was married, and
+"leyr," a payment made by women for breach of chastity. He could be
+"tallaged" or taxed to any extent the lord saw fit. He was bound to
+the soil. He could not leave the manor to seek for better conditions
+of life elsewhere. If he ran away, his lord could obtain an order from
+a court and have him brought back. When permission was obtained to
+remain away from the manor as an inhabitant of another vill or of a
+town, it was only upon payment of a periodical sum, frequently known
+as "chevage" or head money. He could not sell his cattle without
+paying the lord for permission. He had practically no standing in the
+courts of the country. In any suit against his lord the proof of his
+condition of villainage was sufficient to put him out of court, and
+his only recourse was the local court of the manor, where the lord
+himself or his representative presided. Finally, in the eyes of the
+law, the villain had no property of his own, all his possessions
+being, in the last resort, the property of his lord. This legal
+theory, however, apparently had but little application to real life;
+for in the ordinary course of events the customary tenant, if only by
+custom, not by law, yet held and bequeathed to his descendants his
+land and his chattels quite as if they were his own.
+
+Serfdom, as it existed in England in the thirteenth century, can
+hardly be defined in strict legal terms. It can be described most
+correctly as a condition in which the villain tenant of the manor was
+bound to the locality and to his services and payments there by a
+legal bond, instead of merely by an economic bond, as was the case
+with the small free tenant.
+
+There were commonly a few persons in the vill who were not in the
+general body of cultivators of the land and were not therefore in the
+classes so far described. Since the vill was generally a parish also,
+the village contained the parish priest, who, though he might usually
+hold some acres in the open fields, and might belong to the peasant
+class, was of course somewhat set apart from the villagers by his
+education and his ordination. The mill was a valued possession of the
+lord of the manor, for by an almost universal custom the tenants were
+bound to have their grain ground there, and this monopoly enabled the
+miller to pay a substantial rent to the lord while keeping enough
+profit for himself to become proverbially well-to-do.
+
+There was often a blacksmith, whom we find sometimes exempted from
+other services on condition of keeping the demesne ploughs and other
+iron implements in order. A chance weaver or other craftsman is
+sometimes found, and when the vill was near sea or river or forest
+some who made their living by industries dependent on the locality. In
+the main, however, the whole life of the vill gathered around the
+arable, meadow, and pasture land, and the social position of the
+tenants, except for the cross division of serfdom, depended upon the
+respective amounts of land which they held.
+
+
+*11. The Manor Courts.*--The manor was the sphere of operations of a
+manor court. On every manor the tenants gathered at frequent periods
+for a great amount of petty judicial and regulative work. The most
+usual period for the meeting of the manor court was once every three
+weeks, though in some manors no trace of a meeting is found more
+frequently than three times, or even twice, a year. In these  cases,
+however, it is quite probable that less formal meetings occurred of
+which no regular record was kept. Different kinds of gatherings of the
+tenants are usually distinguished according to the authority under
+which they were held, or the class of tenants of which they were made
+up. If the court was held by the lord simply because of his feudal
+rights as a landholder, and was busied only with matters of the
+inheritance, transfer, or grant of lands, the fining of tenants for
+the breach of manorial custom, or failure to perform their duties to
+the lord of the manor, the election of tenants to petty offices on the
+manor, and such matters, it was described in legal language as a court
+baron. If a court so occupied was made up of villain tenants only, it
+was called a customary court. If, on the other hand, the court also
+punished general offences, petty crimes, breaches of contract,
+breaches of the assize, that is to say, the established standard of
+amount, price, or quality of bread or beer, the lord of the manor
+drawing his authority to hold such a court either actually or
+supposedly from a grant from the king, such a court was called a court
+leet. With the court leet was usually connected the so-called view of
+frank pledge. Frank pledge was an ancient system, according to which
+all men were obliged to be enrolled in groups, so that if any one
+committed an offence, the other members of the group would be obliged
+to produce him for trial. View of frank pledge was the right to punish
+by fine any who failed to so enroll themselves. In the court baron and
+the customary court it was said by lawyers that the body of attendants
+were the judges, and the steward, representing the lord of the manor,
+only a presiding official; while in the court leet the steward was the
+actual judge of the tenants. In practice, however, it is probable that
+not much was made of these distinctions, and that the periodic
+gatherings were made to do duty for all business of any kind that
+needed attention, while the procedure was that which had become
+customary on that special manor, irrespective of the particular form
+of authority for the court.
+
+[Illustration: Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Sutton
+Courtenay, Berkshire. (_Domestic Architecture in the Fourteenth
+Century._)]
+
+The manor court was presided over by a steward or other officer
+representing the lord of the manor. Apparently all adult male tenants
+were expected to be present, and any inhabitant was liable to be
+summoned. A court was usually held in each manor, but sometimes a lord
+of several neighboring manors would hold the court for all of these
+in some one place. As most manors belonged to lords who had many
+manors in their possession, the steward or other official commonly
+proceeded from one manor or group of manors to another, holding the
+courts in each. Before the close of the thirteenth century the records
+of the manor courts, or at least of the more important of them, began
+to be kept with very great regularity and fulness, and it is to the
+mass of these manor court rolls which still remain that we owe most of
+our detailed knowledge of the condition of the body of the people in
+the later Middle Ages. The variety and the amount of business
+transacted at the court were alike considerable. When a tenant had
+died it was in the meeting of the manor court that his successor
+obtained a regrant of the land. The required relief was there
+assessed, and the heriot from the property of the deceased recorded.
+New grants of land were made, and transfers, leases, and abandonments
+by one tenant and assignments to another announced. For each of these
+processes of land transfer a fine was collected for the lord of the
+manor. Such entries as the following are constantly found: "John of
+Durham has come into court and taken one bond-land which Richard Avras
+formerly held but gave up because of his poverty; to have and hold for
+his lifetime, paying and doing the accustomed services as Richard paid
+and did them. He gives for entrance 6_s._ 8_d._;" "Agnes Mabeley is
+given possession of a quarter virgate of land which her mother held,
+and gives the lord 33_s._ 4_d._ for entrance."
+
+Disputes as to the right of possession of land and questions of dowry
+and inheritance were decided, a jury being granted in many cases by
+the lord at the petition of a claimant and on payment of a fee.
+Another class of cases consisted in the imposition of fines or
+amerciaments for the violation of the customs of the manor, of the
+rules of the lord, or of the requirements of the culprit's tenure;
+such as a villain marrying without leave, failure to perform
+boon-works or bad performance of work, failure to place the tenant's
+sheep in the lord's fold, cutting of wood or brush, making unlawful
+paths across the fields, the meadows, or the common, encroachment in
+ploughing upon other men's land or upon the common, or failure to send
+grain to the lord's mill for grinding. Sometimes the offence was of a
+more general nature, such as breach of assize, breach of contract,
+slander, assault, or injury to property. Still another part of the
+work of the court was the election of petty manorial officers; a
+reeve, a reaper, ale-tasters, and perhaps others. The duty of filling
+such offices when elected by the tenants and approved by the lord or
+his steward was, as has been said, one of the burdens of villainage.
+However, when a villain was fulfilling the office of reeve, it was
+customary for him to be relieved of at least a part of the payments
+and services to which he would otherwise be subject. Finally the manor
+court meetings were employed for the adoption of general regulations
+as to the use of the commons and other joint interests, and for the
+announcement of the orders of the steward in the keeping of the peace.
+
+
+*12. The Manor as an Estate of a Lord.*--The manor was profitable to the
+lord in various ways. He received rents in money and kind. These
+included the rents of assize from free and villain land tenants, rent
+from the tenant of the mill, and frequently from other sources. Then
+came the profits derived from the cultivation of the demesne land. In
+this the lord of the manor was simply a large farmer, except that he
+had a supply of labor bound to remain at hand and to give service
+without wages almost up to his needs. Finally there were the profits
+of the manor courts. As has been seen, these consisted of a great
+variety of fees, fines, amerciaments, and collections made by the
+steward or other official. Such varied payments and profits combined
+to make up the total value of the manor to the landowner. Not only the
+slender income of the country squire or knight whose estate consisted
+of a single manor of some ten or twenty pounds yearly value, but the
+vast wealth of the great noble or of the rich monastery or powerful
+bishopric was principally made up of the sum of such payments from a
+considerable number of manors. An appreciable part of the income of
+the government even was derived from the manors still in the
+possession of the crown.
+
+The mediaeval manor was a little world in itself. The large number of
+scattered acres which made up the demesne farm cultivated in the
+interests of the lord of the manor, the small groups of scattered
+strips held by free holders or villain tenants who furnished most of
+the labor on the demesne farm, the little patches of ground held by
+mere laborers whose living was mainly gained by hired service on the
+land of the lord or of more prosperous tenants, the claims which all
+had to the use of the common pasture for their sheep and cattle and of
+the woods for their swine, all these together made up an agricultural
+system which secured a revenue for the lord, provided food and the raw
+material for primitive manufactures for the inhabitants of the vill,
+and furnished some small surplus which could be sold.
+
+[Illustration: Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Great
+Malvern, Worcestershire. (_Domestic Architecture in the Fourteenth
+Century._)]
+
+Life on the mediaeval manor was hard. The greater part of the
+population was subject to the burdens of serfdom, and all, both free
+and serf, shared in the arduousness of labor, coarseness and lack of
+variety of food, unsanitary surroundings, and liability to the rigor
+of winter and the attacks of pestilence. Yet the average condition of
+comfort of the mass of the rural inhabitants of England was probably
+as high as at any subsequent time. Food in proportion to wages was
+very cheap, and the almost universal possession of some land made it
+possible for the very poorest to avoid starvation. Moreover, the great
+extent to which custom governed all payments, services, and rights
+must have prevented much of the extreme depression which has
+occasionally existed in subsequent periods in which greater
+competition has distinguished more clearly the capable from the
+incompetent.
+
+From the social rather than from the economic point of view the life
+of the mediaeval manor was perhaps most clearly marked by this
+predominance of custom and by a second characteristic nearly related.
+This was the singularly close relationship in which all the
+inhabitants of the manor were bound to one another, and their
+correspondingly complete separation from the outside world. The common
+pasture, the intermingled strips of the holdings in the open fields,
+the necessary cooeperation in the performance of their daily labor on
+the demesne land, the close contiguity of their dwellings, their
+universal membership in the same parish church, their common
+attendance and action in the manor courts, all must have combined to
+make the vill an organization of singular unity. This self-centred
+life, economically, judicially, and ecclesiastically so nearly
+independent of other bodies, put obstacles in the way of change. It
+prohibited intercourse beyond the manor, and opposed the growth of a
+feeling of common national life. The manorial life lay at the base of
+the stability which marked the mediaeval period.
+
+
+*13. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+GENERAL WORKS
+
+
+Certain general works which refer to long periods of economic history
+will be mentioned here and not again referred to, excepting in special
+cases. It is to be understood that they contain valuable matter on the
+subject, not only of this, but of succeeding chapters. They should
+therefore be consulted in addition to the more specific works named
+under each chapter.
+
+Cunningham, William: _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, two
+volumes. The most extensive and valuable work that covers the whole
+field of English economic history.
+
+Ashley, W. J.: _English Economic History_, two volumes. The first
+volume is a full and careful analysis of mediaeval economic conditions,
+with detailed notes and references to the primary sources. The second
+volume is a work of original investigation, referring particularly to
+conditions in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but it does not
+give such a clear analysis of the conditions of its period as the
+first volume.
+
+Traill, H. D.: _Social England_, six volumes. A composite work
+including a great variety of subjects, but seldom having the most
+satisfactory account of any one of them.
+
+Rogers, J. E. T.: _History of Agriculture and Prices_; _Six Centuries
+of Work and Wages_; _Economic Interpretation of History_. Professor
+Rogers' work is very extensive and detailed, and his books were
+largely pioneer studies. His statistical and other facts are useful,
+but his general statements are not very valuable, and his conclusions
+are not convincing.
+
+Palgrave, R. H. I.: _Dictionary of Political Economy_. Many of the
+articles on subjects of economic history are the best and most recent
+studies on their respective subjects, and the bibliographies contained
+in them are especially valuable.
+
+Four single-volume text-books have been published on this general
+subject:--
+
+Cunningham, William, and McArthur, E. A.: _Outlines of English
+Industrial History_.
+
+Gibbins, H. de B.: _Industry in England_.
+
+Warner, George Townsend: _Landmarks in English Industrial History_.
+
+Price, L. L.: _A Short History of English Commerce and Industry_.
+
+
+SPECIAL WORKS
+
+Seebohm, Frederic: _The English Village Community_. Although written
+for another purpose,--to suggest a certain view of the origin of the
+medieval manor,--the first five chapters of this book furnish the
+clearest existing descriptive account of the fundamental facts of
+rural life in the thirteenth century. Its publication marked an era in
+the recognition of the main features of manorial organization. Green,
+for instance, the historian of the English people, seems to have had
+no clear conception of many of those characteristics of ordinary rural
+life which Mr. Seebohm has made familiar.
+
+Vinogradoff, Paul: _Villainage in England_.
+
+Pollock, Sir Frederick, and Maitland, F. W.: _History of English Law_,
+Vol. 1.
+
+These two works are of especial value for the organization of the
+manor courts and the legal condition of the population.
+
+
+SOURCES
+
+Much that can be explained only with great difficulty becomes clear to
+the student immediately when he reads the original documents. Concrete
+illustrations of general statements moreover make the work more
+interesting and real. It has therefore been found desirable by many
+teachers to bring their students into contact with at least a few
+typical illustrative documents. The sources for the subject generally
+are given in the works named above. An admirable bibliography has been
+recently published by
+
+Gross, Charles: _The Sources and Literature of English History from
+the Earliest Times to about 1485_. References to abundant material for
+the illustration or further investigation of the subject of this
+chapter will be found in the following pamphlet:--
+
+Davenport, Frances G.: _A Classified List of Printed Original
+Materials for English Manorial and Agrarian History_.
+
+Sources for the mediaeval period are almost all in Latin or French.
+Some of them, however, have been more accessible by being translated
+into English and reprinted in convenient form. A few of these are
+given in C. W. Colby: _Selections from the Sources of English
+History_, and G. C. Lee: _Source Book of English History_.
+
+In the _Series of Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources
+of European History_, published by the Department of History of the
+University of Pennsylvania, several numbers include documents in this
+field. Vol. III, No. 5, is devoted entirely to manorial documents.
+
+
+DISCUSSIONS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE MANOR
+
+The question of the origin of the mediaeval manorial organization,
+whether it is principally of native English or of Roman origin, or
+hewn from still other materials, although not treated in this
+text-book, has been the subject of much interest and discussion. One
+view of the case is the thesis of Seebohm's book, referred to above.
+Other books treating of it are the following:--
+
+Earle, John: _Land Charters and Saxonic Documents_, Introduction.
+
+Gomme, G. L.: _The Village Community_.
+
+Ashley, W. J.: A translation of Fustel de Coulanges, _Origin of
+Property in Land_, Introduction.
+
+Andrews, Charles M.: _The Old English Manor_, Introduction.
+
+Maitland, F. W.: _Domesday Book and Beyond_.
+
+Meitzen, August: _Siedelung und Agrarwesen_, Vol. II, Chap. 7.
+
+The writings of Kemble and of Sir Henry Maine belong rather to a past
+period of study and speculation, but their ideas still lie at the base
+of discussions on the subject.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+TOWN LIFE AND ORGANIZATION
+
+
+[Illustration: Town Wall of Southampton, Built in the Thirteenth
+Century. (Turner: _Domestic Architecture in England_.)]
+
+
+*14. The Town Government.*--In the middle of the thirteenth century
+there were some two hundred towns in England distinguishable by their
+size, form of government, and the occupations of their inhabitants,
+from the rural agricultural villages which have just been described.
+London probably had more than 25,000 inhabitants; York and Bristol may
+each have had as many as 10,000. The population of the others varied
+from as many as 6000 to less than 1000. Perhaps the most usual
+population of an English mediaeval town lay between 1500 and 4000. They
+were mostly walled, though such protection was hardly necessary, and
+the military element in English towns was therefore but slightly
+developed. Those towns which contained cathedrals, and were therefore
+the seats of bishoprics, were called cities. All other organized towns
+were known as boroughs, though this distinction in the use of the
+terms city and borough was by no means always preserved. The towns
+differed widely in their form of government; but all had charters from
+the king or from some nobleman, abbey, or bishopric on whose lands
+they had grown up. Such a charter usually declared the right of the
+town to preserve the ancient customs which had come to be recognized
+among its inhabitants, and granted to it certain privileges,
+exemptions, and rights of self-government. The most universal and
+important of these privileges were the following: the town paid the
+tolls and dues owed to the king or other lord by its inhabitants in a
+lump sum, collecting the amount from its own citizens as the latter or
+their own authorities saw fit; the town courts had jurisdiction over
+most suits and offences, relieving the townsmen from answering at
+hundred and county court suits which concerned matters within their
+own limits; the townsmen, where the king granted the charter, were
+exempt from the payment of tolls of various kinds throughout his
+dominions; they could pass ordinances and regulations controlling the
+trade of the town, the administration of its property, and its
+internal affairs generally, and could elect officials to carry out
+such regulations. These officials also corresponded and negotiated in
+the name of the town with the authorities of other towns and with the
+government. From the close of the thirteenth century all towns of
+any importance were represented in Parliament. These elements of
+independence were not all possessed by every town, and some had
+special privileges not enumerated in the above list. The first charter
+of a town was apt to be vague and inadequate, but from time to time a
+new charter was obtained giving additional privileges and defining the
+old rights more clearly. Nor had all those who dwelt within the town
+limits equal participation in its advantages. These were usually
+restricted to those who were known as citizens or burgesses; full
+citizenship depending primarily on the possession of a house and land
+within the town limits. In addition to the burgesses there were
+usually some inhabitants of the town--strangers, Jews, fugitive
+villains from the rural villages, or perhaps only poorer natives of
+the town--who did not share in these privileges. Those who did possess
+all civil rights of the townsmen were in many ways superior in
+condition to men in the country. In addition to the advantages of the
+municipal organization mentioned above, all burgesses were personally
+free, there was entire exemption from the vexatious petty payments of
+the rural manors, and burgage tenure was thee nearest to actual land
+ownership existent during the Middle Ages.
+
+[Illustration: Charter of Henry II to the Borough of Nottingham.
+(_Records of Borough of Nottingham_. Published by the Corporation.)]
+
+
+*15. The Gild Merchant.*--The town was most clearly marked off from the
+country by the occupations by which its people earned their living.
+These were, in the first place, trading; secondly, manufacturing or
+handicrafts. Agriculture of course existed also, since most townsmen
+possessed some lands lying outside of the enclosed portions of the
+town. On these they raised crops and pastured their cattle. Of these
+varied occupations, however, it was trade which gave character and,
+indeed, existence itself to the town. Foreign goods were brought to
+the towns from abroad for sale, the surplus products of rural manors
+found their way there for marketing; the products of one part of the
+country which were needed in other parts were sought for and purchased
+in the towns. Men also sold the products of their own labor, not only
+food products, such as bread, meat, and fish, but also objects of
+manufacture, as cloth, arms, leather, and goods made of wood, leather,
+or metal. For the protection and regulation of this trade the
+organization known as the gild merchant had grown up in each town.
+The gild merchant seems to have included all of the population of the
+town who habitually engaged in the business of selling, whether
+commodities of their own manufacture or those they had previously
+purchased. Membership in the gild was not exactly coincident with
+burgess-ship; persons who lived outside of the town were sometimes
+admitted into that organization, and, on the other hand, some
+inhabitants of the town were not included among its members.
+Nevertheless, since practically all of the townsmen made their living
+by trade in some form or another, the group of burgesses and the group
+of gild members could not have been very different. The authority of
+the gild merchant within its field of trade regulation seems to have
+been as complete as that of the town community as a whole in its field
+of judicial, financial, and administrative jurisdiction. The gild
+might therefore be defined as that form of organization of the
+inhabitants of the town which controlled its trade and industry. The
+principal reason for the existence of the gild was to preserve to its
+own members the monopoly of trade. No one not in the gild merchant of
+the town could buy or sell there except under conditions imposed by
+the gild. Foreigners coming from other countries or traders from other
+English towns were prohibited from buying or selling in any way that
+might interfere with the interests of the gildsmen. They must buy and
+sell at such times and in such places and only such articles as were
+provided for by the gild regulations. They must in all cases pay the
+town tolls, from which members of the gild were exempt. At
+Southampton, for instance, we find the following provisions: "And no
+one in the city of Southampton shall buy anything to sell again in the
+same city unless he is of the gild merchant or of the franchise."
+Similarly at Leicester, in 1260, it was ordained that no gildsman
+should form a partnership with a stranger, allowing him to join in the
+profits of the sale of wool or other merchandise.
+
+[Illustration: Hall of Merchants' Company of York. (Lambert: _Two
+Thousand Years of Gild Life_. Published by A. Brown & Sons, Hull.)]
+
+[Illustration: Interior of Hall of Merchants' Company of York.
+(Lambert: _Two Thousand Years of Gild Life_. Published by A. Brown &
+Sons, Hull.)]
+
+As against outsiders the gild merchant was a protective body, as
+regards its own members it was looked upon and constantly spoken of as
+a fraternity. Its members must all share in the common expenditures,
+they are called brethren of the society, their competition with one
+another is reduced to its lowest limits. For instance, we find the
+provision that "any one who is of the gild merchant may share in all
+merchandise which another gildsman shall buy."
+
+[Illustration: Earliest Merchant Gild Roll of the Borough of
+Leicester. (Bateson: _Records of the Borough of Leicester_. Published
+by C. J. Clay & Sons, Cambridge.)]
+
+The presiding officer was usually known as the alderman, while the
+names given to other officials, such as stewards, deans, bailiffs,
+chaplains, skevins, and ushers, and the duties they performed, varied
+greatly from time to time.
+
+Meetings were held at different periods, sometimes annually, in many
+cases more frequently. At these meetings new ordinances were passed,
+officers elected, and other business transacted. It was also a
+convivial occasion, a gild feast preceding or following the other
+labors of the meeting. In some gilds the meeting was regularly known
+as "the drinking." There were likewise frequent sittings of the
+officials of the fraternity, devoted to the decision of disputes
+between brethren, the admission of new members, the fining or
+expulsion of offenders against the gild ordinances, and other routine
+work. These meetings were known as "morrowspeches".
+
+The greater part of the activity of the gild merchant consisted in the
+holding of its meetings with their accompanying feasts, and in the
+enforcement of its regulations upon its members and upon outsiders. It
+fulfilled, however, many fraternal duties for its members. It is
+provided in one set of statutes that, "If a gildsman be imprisoned in
+England in time of peace, the alderman, with the steward and with one
+of the skevins, shall go, at the cost of the gild, to procure the
+deliverance of the one who is in prison." In another, "If any of the
+brethren shall fall into poverty or misery, all the brethren are to
+assist him by common consent out of the chattels of the house or
+fraternity, or of their proper own." The funeral rites, especially,
+were attended by the man's gild brethren. "And when a gildsman dies,
+all those who are of the gild and are in the city shall attend the
+service for the dead, and gildsmen shall bear the body and bring it to
+the place of burial." The gild merchant also sometimes  fulfilled
+various religious, philanthropic, and charitable duties, not only to
+its members, but to the public generally, and to the poor. The time of
+the fullest development of the gild merchant varied, of course, in
+different towns, but its widest expansion was probably in the early
+part of the period we are studying, that is, during the thirteenth
+century. Later it came to be in some towns indistinguishable from the
+municipal government in general, its members the same as the
+burgesses, its officers represented by the officers of the town. In
+some other towns the gild merchant gradually lost its control over
+trade, retaining only its fraternal, charitable, and religious
+features. In still other cases the expression gradually lost all
+definite significance and its meaning became a matter for antiquarian
+dispute.
+
+
+*16. The Craft Gilds.*--By the fourteenth century the gild merchant of
+the town was a much less conspicuous institution than it had
+previously been. Its decay was largely the result of the growth of a
+group of organizations in each town which were spoken of as crafts,
+fraternities, gilds, misteries, or often merely by the name of their
+occupation, as "the spurriers," "the dyers," "the fishmongers." These
+organizations are usually described in later writings as craft gilds.
+It is not to be understood that the gild merchant and the craft gilds
+never existed contemporaneously in any town. The former began earlier
+and decayed before the craft gilds reached their height, but there was
+a considerable period when it must have been a common thing for a man
+to be a member both of the gild merchant of the town and of the
+separate organization of his own trade. The later gilds seem to have
+grown up in response to the needs of handicraft much as the gild
+merchant had grown up to regulate trade, though trading occupations
+also were eventually drawn into the craft gild form of organization.
+The weavers seem to have been the earliest occupation to be organized
+into a craft gild; but later almost every form of industry which gave
+employment to a handful of craftsmen in any town had its separate
+fraternity. Since even nearly allied trades, such as the glovers,
+girdlers, pocket makers, skinners, white tawyers, and other workers in
+leather; or the fletchers, the makers of arrows, the bowyers, the
+makers of bows, and the stringers, the makers of bowstrings, were
+organized into separate bodies, the number of craft gilds in any one
+town was often very large. At London there were by 1350 at least as
+many as forty, at York, some time later, more than fifty.
+
+[Illustration: Old Townhall of Leicester, Formerly Hall of Corpus
+Christi Gild. (Drawing made in 1826.)]
+
+The craft gilds existed usually under the authority of the town
+government, though frequently they obtained authorization or even a
+charter from the crown. They were formed primarily to regulate and
+preserve the monopoly of their own occupations in their own town, just
+as the gild merchant existed to regulate the trade of the town in
+general. No one could carry on any trade without being subject to the
+organization which controlled that trade. Membership, however, was not
+intentionally restricted. Any man who was a capable workman and
+conformed to the rules of the craft was practically a member of the
+organization of that industry. It is a common requirement in the
+earliest gild statutes that every man who wishes to carry on that
+particular industry should have his ability testified to by some known
+members of the craft. But usually full membership and influence in the
+gild was reached as a matter of course by the artisans passing through
+the successive grades of apprentice, journeyman, and master. As an
+apprentice he was bound to a master for a number of years, living in
+his house and learning the trade in his shop. There was usually a
+signed contract entered into between the master and the parents of
+the apprentice, by which the former agreed to provide all necessary
+clothing, food, and lodging, and teach to the apprentice all he
+himself knew about his craft. The latter, on the other hand, was bound
+to keep secret his master's affairs, to obey all his commandments, and
+to behave himself properly in all things. After the expiration of the
+time agreed upon for his apprenticeship, which varied much in
+individual cases, but was apt to be about seven years, he became free
+of the trade as a journeyman, a full workman. The word "journeyman"
+may refer to the engagement being by the day, from the French word
+_journee_, or to the habit of making journeys from town to town in
+search of work, or it may be derived from some other origin. As a
+journeyman he served for wages in the employ of a master. In many
+cases he saved enough money for the small requirements of setting up
+an independent shop. Then as full master artisan or tradesman he might
+take part in all the meetings and general administration of the
+organized body of his craft, might hold office, and would himself
+probably have one or more journeymen in his employ and apprentices
+under his guardianship. As almost all industries were carried on in
+the dwelling-houses of the craftsmen, no establishments could be of
+very considerable size, and the difference of position between master,
+journeyman, and apprentice could not have been great. The craft gild
+was organized with its regular rules, its officers, and its meetings.
+The rules or ordinances of the fraternity were drawn up at some one
+time and added to or altered from time to time afterward. The approval
+of the city authorities was frequently sought for such new statutes as
+well as for the original ordinances, and in many towns appears to have
+been necessary. The rules provided for officers and their powers, the
+time and character of meetings, and for a considerable variety of
+functions. These varied of course in different trades and in different
+towns, but some characteristics were almost universal. Provisions were
+always either tacitly or formally included for the preservation of the
+monopoly of the crafts in the town. The hours of labor were regulated.
+Night work was very generally prohibited, apparently because of the
+difficulty of oversight at that time, as was work on Saturday
+afternoons, Sundays, and other holy days. Provisions were made for the
+inspection of goods by the officers of the gild, all workshops and
+goods for sale being constantly subject to their examination, if they
+should wish it. In those occupations that involved buying and selling
+the necessities of life, such as those of the fishmongers and the
+bakers, the officers of the fraternity, like the town authorities,
+were engaged in a continual struggle with "regrators," "forestallers,"
+and "engrossers," which were appellations as odious as they were
+common in the mediaeval town. Regrating meant buying to sell again at a
+higher price without having made any addition to the value of the
+goods; forestalling was going to the place of production to buy, or in
+any other way trying to outwit fellow-dealers by purchasing things
+before they came into the open market where all had the same
+opportunity; engrossing was buying up the whole supply, or so much of
+it as not to allow other dealers to get what they needed, the modern
+"cornering of the market." These practices, which were regarded as so
+objectionable in the eyes of mediaeval traders, were frequently nothing
+more than what would be considered commendable enterprise in a more
+competitive age. Another class of rules was for mutual assistance, for
+kindliness among members, and for the obedience and faithfulness of
+journeymen and apprentices. There were provisions for assistance to
+members of the craft when in need, or to their widows and orphans, for
+the visitation of those sick or in prison, for common attendance at
+the burial services of deceased members, and for other charitable and
+philanthropic objects. Thus the craft gild, like the gild merchant,
+combined close social relationship with a distinctly recognized and
+enforced regulation of the trade. This regulation provided for the
+protection of members of the organization from outside competition,
+and it also prevented any considerable amount of competition among
+members; it supported the interests of the full master members of the
+craft as against those in the journeyman stage, and enforced the
+custom of the trade in hours, materials, methods of manufacture, and
+often in prices.
+
+[Illustration: Table of Assize of Bread in Record Book of City of
+Hull. (Lambert: _Two Thousand Years of Gild Life_. Published by A.
+Brown & Sons, Hull.)]
+
+The officers were usually known as masters, wardens, or stewards.
+Their powers extended to the preservation of order among the master
+members of the craft at the meetings, and among the journeymen and
+apprentices of the craft at all times; to the supervision, either
+directly or through deputies, of the work of the members, seeing that
+it conformed to the rules and was not false in any way; to the
+settlement, if possible, of disputes among members of the craft; to
+the administration of its charitable work; and to the representation
+of the organized body of the craft before town or other authorities.
+
+Common religious observances were held by the craftsmen not only at
+the funerals of members, but on the day of the saint to which the gild
+was especially dedicated. Most fraternities kept up a shrine or chapel
+in some parish church. Fines for the breach of gild rules were often
+ordered to be paid in wax that the candles about the body of dead
+brethren and in the gild chapel should never be wanting. All the
+brethren of the gild, dressed in common suits of livery, walked in
+procession from their hall or meeting room to the church, performed
+their devotions and joined in the services in commemoration of the
+dead. Members of the craft frequently bequeathed property for the
+partial support of a chaplain and payment of other expenses connected
+with their "obits," or masses for the repose of their souls and those
+of their relatives.
+
+Closely connected with the religious observances was the convivial
+side of the gild's life. On the annual gild day, or more frequently,
+the members all gathered at their hall or some inn to a feast, which
+varied in luxuriousness according to the wealth of the fraternity,
+from bread, cheese, and ale to all the exuberance of which the Middle
+Ages were capable.
+
+Somewhat later, we find the craft gilds taking entire charge  of the
+series or cycles of "mystery plays," which were given in various
+towns. The words of the plays produced at York, Coventry, Chester, and
+Woodkirk have come down to us and are of extreme interest as embryonic
+forms of the drama and examples of purely vernacular language. It is
+quite certain that such groups of plays were given by the crafts in a
+number of other towns. They were generally given on Corpus Christi
+day, a feast which fell in the early summer time, when out-door
+pleasures were again enjoyable after the winter's confinement. A cycle
+consisted of a series of dialogues or short plays, each based upon
+some scene of biblical story, so arranged that the whole Bible
+narrative should be given consecutively from the Creation to the
+Second Advent. One of the crafts, starting early in the morning, would
+draw a pageant consisting of a platform on wheels, to a regularly
+appointed spot in a conspicuous part of the town, and on this
+platform, with some rude scenery, certain members of the gild or men
+employed by them would proceed to recite a dialogue in verse
+representative of some early part of the Bible story. After they had
+finished, their pageant would be dragged to another station, where
+they repeated their performance. In the meantime a second company had
+taken their former place, and recited a dialogue representative of a
+second scene. So the whole day would be occupied by the series of
+performances. The town and the craftsmen valued the celebration
+because it was an occasion for strangers visiting their city and thus
+increasing the volume of trade, as well as because it furnished an
+opportunity for the gratification of their social and dramatic
+instincts.
+
+It was not only at the periodical business meetings, or on the feast
+days, or in the preparation for the dramatic shows, that the gildsmen
+were thrown together. Usually all the members of one craft lived on
+the same street or in the same part of the town, and were therefore
+members of the same parish church and constantly brought under one
+another's observation in all the daily concerns of life. All things
+combined to make the craft a natural and necessary centre for the
+interest of each of its members.
+
+
+*17. Non-industrial Gilds.*--Besides the gilds merchant, which included
+persons of all industrial occupations, and the craft gilds, which were
+based upon separate organizations of each industry, there were gilds
+or fraternities in existence which had no industrial functions
+whatever. These are usually spoken of as "religious" or "social"
+gilds. It would perhaps be better to describe them simply as
+non-industrial gilds; for their religious and social functions they
+had in common, as has been seen, both with the gild merchant and the
+craft organizations. They only differed from these in not being based
+upon or interested in the monopoly or oversight of any kind of trade
+or handicraft. They differed also from the craft gilds in that all
+their members were on an equal basis, there being no such industrial
+grades as apprentice, journeyman, and master; and from both of the
+organizations already discussed in the fact that they existed in small
+towns and even in mere villages, as well as in industrial centres.
+
+In these associations the religious, social, and charitable elements
+were naturally more prominent than in those fraternities which were
+organized primarily for some kind of economic regulation. They were
+generally named after some saint. The ordinances usually provided for
+one or more solemn services in the year, frequently with a procession
+in livery, and sometimes with a considerable amount of pantomime or
+symbolic show. For instance, the gild of St. Helen at Beverly, in
+their procession to the church of the Friars Minors on the day of
+their patron saint, were preceded by an old man carrying a cross;
+after him a fair young man dressed as St. Helen; then another old man
+carrying a shovel, these being intended to typify the finding of the
+cross. Next came the sisters two and two, after them the brethren of
+the gild, and finally the officers. There were always provisions for
+solemnities at the funerals of members, for burial at the expense of
+the gild if the member who had died left no means for a suitable
+ceremony, and for prayers for deceased members. What might be called
+the insurance feature was also much more nearly universal than in the
+case of the industrial fraternities. Help was given in case of theft,
+fire, sickness, or almost any kind of loss which was not chargeable to
+the member's own misdoing. Finally it was very customary for such
+gilds to provide for the support of a certain number of dependents,
+aged men or women, cripples, or lepers, for charity's sake; and
+occasionally educational facilities were also provided by them from
+their regular income or from bequests made for the purpose. The
+social-religious gilds were extremely numerous, and seem frequently to
+have existed within the limits of a craft, including some of its
+members and not others, or within a certain parish, including some of
+the parishioners, but not all.
+
+Thus if there were men in the mediaeval town who were not members of
+some trading or craft body, they would in all probability be members
+of some society based merely on religious or social feeling. The whole
+tendency of mediaeval society was toward organization, combination,
+close union with one's fellows. It might be said that all town life
+involved membership in some organization, and usually in that one into
+which a man was drawn by the occupation in which he made his living.
+These gilds or the town government itself controlled even the affairs
+of private economic life in the city, just as the customary
+agriculture of the country prevented much freedom of action there.
+Methods of trading, or manufacture, the kind and amount of material to
+be used, hours of labor, conditions of employment, even prices of
+work, were regulated by the gild ordinances. The individual gildsman
+had as little opportunity to emancipate himself from the controlling
+force of the association as the individual tenant on the rural manor
+had to free himself from the customary agriculture and the customary
+services. Whether we study rural or urban society, whether we look at
+the purely economic or at the broader social side of existence, life
+in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was corporate rather than
+individual.
+
+
+*18. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Gross, Charles: _The Gild Merchant_, two volumes. The first volume
+consists of a full account and discussion of the character and
+functions of the gild merchant, with a number of appendices on cognate
+subjects. The second volume contains the documents on which the first
+is based.
+
+Seligman, E. R. A.: _Two Chapters on Mediaeval Gilds_.
+
+Brentano, L.: _The History and Development of English Gilds_. An essay
+prefixed to a volume of ordinances of English Gilds, edited by T.
+Smith. Brentano's essay is only referred to because of the paucity of
+works on the subject, as it is fanciful and unsatisfactory. No
+thorough and scholarly description of the craft gilds exists. On the
+other hand, a considerable body of original materials is easily
+accessible in English, as in the following works:--
+
+Riley: _Memorials of London and London Life_.
+
+Smith, Toulmin: _English Gilds_.
+
+Various documents illustrative of town and gild history will also be
+found in Vol. II, No. 1, of the _Translations and Reprints_,
+published by the Department of History of the University of
+Pennsylvania.
+
+Better descriptions exist for the position of the gilds in special
+towns than for their general character, especially in London by
+Herbert, in Hull by Lambert, in Shrewsbury by Hibbert, and in Coventry
+by Miss Harris.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MEDIAEVAL TRADE AND COMMERCE
+
+
+*19. Markets and Fairs.*--Within the towns, in addition to the ordinary
+trading described in the last chapter, much buying and selling was
+done at the weekly or semi-weekly markets. The existence of a market
+in a town was the result of a special grant from the king, sometimes
+to the burgesses themselves, sometimes to a neighboring nobleman or
+abbey. In the latter case the tolls paid by outsiders who bought or
+sold cattle or victuals in the market did not go to the town or gild
+authorities, but to the person who was said to "own" the market. Many
+places which differed in scarcely any other way from agricultural
+villages possessed markets, so that "market towns" became a
+descriptive term for small towns midway in size between the larger
+boroughs or cities and mere villages. The sales at markets were
+usually of the products of the surrounding country, especially of
+articles of food consumption, so that the fact of the existence of a
+market on one or more days of the week in a large town was of
+comparatively little importance from the point of view of more general
+trade.
+
+Far more important was the similar institution of periodical fairs.
+Fairs, like markets, existed only by grant from the king. They
+differed from markets, however, in being held only once a year or at
+most semi-annually or quarterly, in being invariably in the possession
+of private persons, never of town governments, and in the fact that
+during their continuance as a rule all buying and selling except at
+the fairs was suspended within a considerable circuit. Several hundred
+grants of fairs are recorded on the rolls of royal charters, most of
+them to abbeys, bishoprics, and noblemen; but comparatively few of
+them were of sufficient size or importance to play any considerable
+part in the trade and commerce of the country. Moreover, the
+development of the towns with their continuous trade tended to draw
+custom away from all the fairs except those which had obtained some
+especial importance and an international reputation. Of these,
+however, there was still a considerable number whose influence was
+very great. The best known were those of Winchester, of Stourbridge
+near Cambridge, of St. Ives belonging to the abbot of Ramsay, and of
+Boston. In early times fairs were frequently held in the churchyards,
+but this came to be looked upon as a scandal, and was prohibited by a
+law of 1285. The fairs were in many cases held just beyond the limits
+of a town in an open field or on a smooth hillside. Each year, some
+time before the opening day of the fair, this ground was formally
+occupied by the servants of the owner of the fair, wooden booths were
+erected or ground set apart for those who should put up their own
+tents or prefer to sell in the open. Then as merchants appeared from
+foreign or English towns they chose or were assigned places which they
+were bound to retain during the continuance of the fair. By the time
+of the opening of the fair those who expected to sell were arranged in
+long rows or groups, according to the places they came from, or the
+kind of goods in which they dealt. After the opening had been
+proclaimed no merchant of the nearby town could buy or sell, except
+within the borders of the fair. The town authorities resigned their
+functions into the hands of the officials whom the lord of the fair
+had placed in charge of it, and for the time for which the fair was
+held, usually from six to twelve days, everything within the enclosure
+of the fair, within the town, and in the surrounding neighborhood was
+under their control.
+
+[Illustration: Location of Some of the Principal Fairs in the
+Thirteenth Century.]
+
+Tolls were collected for the advantage of the lord of the fair from
+all goods as they were brought into or taken out from the bounds of
+the fair, or at the time of their sale; stallage was paid for the rent
+of booths, fees were charged for the use of space, and for using the
+lord's weights and scales. Good order was preserved and fair dealing
+enforced by the officials of the lord. To prevent offences and settle
+disputes arising in the midst of the busy trading the officials of the
+lord formed a court which sat continually and followed a summary
+procedure. This was known as a court of "pie-powder," that is _pied
+poudre_, or _dusty foot_, so called, no doubt, from its readiness to
+hear the suits of merchants and wayfarers, as they were, without
+formality or delay. At this court a great variety of cases came up,
+such as disputes as to debts, failure to perform contracts of sale or
+purchase, false measurements, theft, assault, defamation, and
+misdemeanors of all kinds. Sometimes the court decided offhand,
+sometimes compurgation was allowed immediately or on the next day,
+sometimes juries were formed and gave decisions. The law which the
+court of pie-powder administered was often referred to as the "law
+merchant," a somewhat less rigid system than the common law, and one
+whose rules were generally defined, in these courts and in the king's
+courts, by juries chosen from among the merchants themselves.
+
+At these fairs, even more than in the towns, merchants from a distance
+gathered to buy the products peculiar to the part of England where the
+fair was held, and to sell their own articles of importation or
+production. The large fairs furnished by far the best markets of the
+time. We find mention made in the records of one court of pie-powder
+of men from a dozen or twenty English towns, from Bordeaux, and from
+Rouen. The men who came from any one town, whether of England or the
+Continent, acted and were treated as common members of the gild
+merchant of that town, as forming a sort of community, and being to a
+certain extent responsible for one another. They did their buying and
+selling, it is true, separately, but if disputes arose, the whole
+group were held responsible for each member. For example, the
+following entry was made in the roll of the fair of St. Ives in the
+year 1275: "William of Fleetbridge and Anne his wife complain of
+Thomas Coventry of Leicester for unjustly withholding from them 55_s._
+2-1/2_d._ for a sack of wool.... Elias is ordered to attach the
+community of Leicester to answer ... and of the said community Allan
+Parker, Adam Nose and Robert Howell are attached by three bundles of
+ox-hides, three hundred bundles of sheep skins and six sacks of wool."
+
+
+*20. Trade Relations between Towns.*--The fairs were only temporary
+selling places. When the time for which the fair was held had expired
+the booths were removed, the merchants returned to their native cities
+or travelled away to some other fair, and the officials were
+withdrawn. The place was deserted until the next quarter or year. But
+in the towns, as has been already stated, more or less continuous
+trade went on; not only petty retail trade and that of the weekly or
+semi-weekly markets between townsmen or countrymen coming from the
+immediate vicinity, but a wholesale trade between the merchants of
+that town and those from other towns in England or on the Continent.
+
+It was of this trade above all that the gild merchant of  each town
+possessed the regulation. Merchants from another town were treated
+much the same, whether that town was English or foreign. In fact,
+"foreigner" or "alien," as used in the town records, of Bristol, for
+instance, may apply to citizens of London or Oxford just as well as to
+those of Paris or Cologne. Such "foreign" merchants could deal when
+they came to a town only with members of the gild, and only on the
+conditions required by the gild. Usually they could buy or sell only
+at wholesale, and tolls were collected from them upon their sales or
+purchases. They were prohibited from dealing in some kinds of articles
+altogether, and frequently the duration of their stay in the town was
+limited to a prescribed period. Under such circumstances the
+authorities of various towns entered into trade agreements with those
+of other towns providing for mutual concessions and advantages.
+Correspondence was also constantly going on between the officials of
+various towns for the settlement of individual points of dispute, for
+the return of fugitive apprentices, asking that justice might be done
+to aggrieved citizens, and on occasion threatening reprisal.
+Southampton had formal agreements with more than seventy towns or
+other trading bodies. During a period of twenty years the city
+authorities of London sent more than 300 letters on such matters to
+the officials of some 90 other towns in England and towns on the
+Continent. The merchants from any one town did not therefore trade or
+act entirely as separate individuals, but depended on the prestige of
+their town, or the support of the home authorities, or the privileges
+already agreed upon by treaty. The non-payment of a debt by a merchant
+of one town usually made any fellow-townsman liable to seizure where
+the debt was owed, until the debtor could be made to pay. In 1285, by
+a law of Edward I, this was prohibited as far as England was
+concerned, but a merchant from a French town might still have his
+person and property seized for a debt of which he may have had no
+previous knowledge. External trade was thus not so much individual,
+between some Englishmen and others; or international, between
+Englishmen and Frenchmen, Flemings, Spaniards, or Germans, as it was
+intermunicipal, as it has been well described. Citizens of various
+towns, London, Bristol, Venice, Ghent, Arras, or Lubeck, for instance,
+carried on their trade under the protection their city had obtained
+for them.
+
+
+*21. Foreign Trading Relations.*--The regulations and restrictions of
+fairs and town markets and gilds merchant must have tended largely to
+the discouragement of foreign trade. Indeed, the feeling of the body
+of English town merchants was one of strong dislike to foreigners and
+a desire to restrict their trade within the narrowest limits. In
+addition to the burdens and limitations placed upon all traders not of
+their own town, it was very common in the case of merchants from
+abroad to require that they should only remain within the town for the
+purpose of selling for forty days, and that they should board not at
+an inn but in the household of some town merchant, who could thus keep
+oversight of their movements, and who would be held responsible if his
+guest violated the law in any way. This was called the custom of
+"hostage."
+
+The king, on the other hand, and the classes most influential in the
+national government, the nobility and the churchmen, favored foreign
+trade. A series of privileges, guarantees, and concessions were
+consequently issued by the government to individual foreign merchants,
+to foreign towns, and even to foreigners generally, the object of
+which was to encourage their coming to England to trade. The most
+remarkable instance of this was the so-called _Carta Mercatoria_
+issued by Edward I in 1303. It was given according to its own terms,
+for the peace and security of merchants coming to England from
+Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Navarre, Lombardy, Tuscany,
+Provence, Catalonia, Aquitaine, Toulouse, Quercy, Flanders, Brabant,
+and all other foreign lands. It allowed such merchants to bring in and
+sell almost all kinds of goods, and freed them from the payment of
+many tolls and payments habitually exacted by the towns; it gave them
+permission to sell to strangers as well as to townsmen, and to retail
+as well as sell by wholesale. It freed them from the necessity of
+dwelling with native merchants, and of bringing their stay to a close
+within a restricted time. Town and market authorities were required by
+it to give prompt justice to foreigners according to the law merchant,
+and it was promised that a royal judge would be specially appointed to
+listen to appeals. It is quite evident that if this charter had been
+enforced some of the most familiar and valued customs of the merchants
+of the various English towns would have been abrogated. In consequence
+of vigorous protests and bitter resistance on the part of the townsmen
+its provisions were partly withdrawn, partly ignored, and the position
+of foreign merchants in England continued to depend on the tolerably
+consistent support of the crown. Even this was modified by the steady
+policy of hostility, limitation, and control on the part of the native
+merchants.
+
+With the exception of some intercourse between the northern towns and
+the Scandinavian countries, the foreign trade of England was carried
+on almost entirely by foreigners. English merchants, until after the
+fourteenth century, seem to have had neither the ability, the
+enterprise, nor the capital to go to continental cities in any numbers
+to sell the products of their own country or to buy goods which would
+be in demand when imported into England. Foreigners were more
+enterprising. From Flemish, French, German, Italian, and even Spanish
+cities merchants came over as traders. The product of England which
+was most in demand was wool. Certain parts of England were famous
+throughout all Europe for the quality and quantity of the wool raised
+there. The relative good order of England and its exemption from civil
+war made it possible to raise sheep more extensively than in countries
+where foraging parties from rival bodies of troops passed frequently
+to and fro. Many of the monasteries, especially in the north and west,
+had large outlying wastes of land which were regularly used for the
+raising of sheep. The product of these northern and western pastures
+as well as the surplus product of the demesnes and larger holdings of
+the ordinary manors was brought to the fairs and towns for sale and
+bought up readily by foreign merchants. Sheepskins, hides, and tanned
+leather were also exported, as were certain coarse woven fabrics. Tin
+and lead were well-known products, at that time almost peculiar to
+England, and in years of plentiful production, grain, salt meat, and
+dairy products were exported. England was far behind most of the
+Continent in industrial matters, so that there was much that could be
+brought into the country that would be in demand, both of the natural
+productions of foreign countries and of their manufactured articles.
+
+Trade relations existed between England and the Scandinavian
+countries, northern Germany, southern Germany, the Netherlands,
+northeastern, northwestern, and southern France, Spain and Portugal,
+and various parts of Italy. Of these lines of trade the most important
+were the trade with the Hanse cities of northern Germany, with the
+Flemish cities, and with those in Italy, especially Venice.
+
+
+*22. The Italian and Eastern Trade.*--The merchandise which Venice had
+to offer was of an especially varied nature. Her prosperity had begun
+with a coastwise trade along the shores of the Adriatic. Later,
+especially during the period of the Crusades, her training had been
+extended to the eastern Mediterranean, where she obtained trading
+concessions from the Greek Emperor and formed a half commercial, half
+political empire of her own among the island cities and coast
+districts of the Ionian Sea, along the Dardanelles and the Sea of
+Marmora, and finally in the Black Sea. From these regions she brought
+the productions peculiar to the eastern Mediterranean: wines, sugar,
+dried fruits and nuts, cotton, drugs, dyestuffs, and certain kinds of
+leather and other manufactured articles.
+
+[Illustration: Trade Routes between England and the Continent in the
+Fourteenth Century. Engraved by Bormay and Co., N.Y.]
+
+Eventually Venice became the special possessor of a still more distant
+trade, that of the far East. The products of Arabia and Persia, India
+and the East Indian Islands, and even of China, all through the Middle
+Ages, as in antiquity, made their way by long and difficult routes to
+the western countries of Europe. Silk and cotton, both raw and
+manufactured into fine goods, indigo and other dyestuffs, aromatic
+woods and gums, narcotics and other drugs, pearls, rubies, diamonds,
+sapphires, turquoises, and other precious stones, gold and silver, and
+above all the edible spices, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and
+allspice, could be obtained only in Asia. There were three principal
+routes by which these goods were brought into Europe: first, along the
+Red Sea and overland across Egypt; second, up the Persian Gulf to its
+head, and then either along the Euphrates to a certain point whence
+the caravan route turned westward to the Syrian coast, or along the
+Tigris to its upper waters, and then across to the Black Sea at
+Trebizond; third, by caravan routes across Asia, then across the
+Caspian Sea, and overland again, either to the Black Sea or through
+Russia to the Baltic. A large part of this trade was gathered up by
+the Italian cities, especially Venice, at its various outlets upon the
+Mediterranean or adjacent waters. She had for exportation therefore,
+in addition to her own manufactures, merchandise which had been
+gathered from all parts of the then known world. The Venetian laws
+regulated commerce with the greatest minuteness. All goods purchased
+by Venetian traders must as a rule be brought first to the city and
+unloaded and stored in the city warehouses. A certain amount of
+freedom of export by land or water was then allowed, but by far the
+greater proportion of the goods remained under the partial control of
+the government. When conditions were considered favorable, the Senate
+voted a certain number of government galleys for a given voyage. There
+were several objective points for these voyages, but one was regularly
+England and Flanders, and the group of vessels sent to those countries
+was known as the "Flanders Fleet." Such an expedition was usually
+ordered about once a year, and consisted of two to five galleys. These
+were put under the charge of an admiral and provided with sailing
+masters, crews of rowers, and armed men to protect them, all at the
+expense of the merchants who should send goods in the vessels.
+Stringent regulations were also imposed upon them by the government,
+defining the length of their stay and appointing a series of stopping
+places, usually as follows: Capo d'Istria, Corfu, Otranto, Syracuse,
+Messina, Naples, Majorca, certain Spanish ports, Lisbon; then across
+the Bay of Biscay to the south coast of England, where usually the
+fleet divided, part going to Sluys, Middleburg, or Antwerp, in the
+Netherlands; the remainder going to Southampton, Sandwich, London, or
+elsewhere in England. At one or other of the southern ports of
+England the fleet would reassemble on its return, the whole outward
+and return voyage usually taking about a year.
+
+The merchants who had come with the fleet thereupon proceeded to
+dispose of their goods in the southern towns and fairs of England and
+to buy wool or other goods which might be taken back to Venice or
+disposed of on the way. A somewhat similar trade was kept up with
+other Italian cities, especially with Genoa and Florence, though these
+lines of trade were more extensive in the fifteenth century than in
+the fourteenth.
+
+
+*23. The Flanders Trade and the Staple.*--A trade of greater bulk and
+greater importance, though it did not include articles from such a
+distance as that of Italy, was the trade with the Flemish cities. This
+was more closely connected with English wool production than was that
+with any other country. Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Courtrai, Arras, and a
+number of other cities in Flanders and the adjacent provinces of the
+Netherlands and France had become populous and rich, principally from
+their weaving industry. For their manufacture of fine fabrics they
+needed the English wool, and in turn their fine woven goods were in
+constant demand for the use of the wealthier classes in England.
+English skill was not yet sufficient to produce anything more than the
+crudest and roughest of textile fabrics. The fine cloths, linens,
+cambrics, cloth of gold and silver, tapestries and hangings, were the
+product of the looms of the Flemish cities. Other fine manufactured
+goods, such as armor and weapons, glass and furniture, and articles
+which had been brought in the way of trade to the Netherlands, were
+all exported thence and sold in England.
+
+The Flemish dealers who habitually engaged in the English trade were
+organized among themselves in a company or league known as the
+"Flemish Hanse of London." A considerable number of towns held such
+membership in the organization that their citizens could take part in
+the trade and share in the benefits and privileges of the society, and
+no citizen of these towns could trade in England without paying the
+dues and submitting himself to the rules of the Hanse. The export
+trade from England to the Netherlands was controlled from the English
+side by the system known as the "Staple." From early times it had been
+customary to gather English standard products in certain towns in
+England or abroad for sale. These towns were known as "staples" or
+"staple towns," and wool, woolfells, leather, tin, and lead, the goods
+most extensively exported, were known as "staple goods." Subsequently
+the government took control of the matter, and appointed a certain
+town in the Netherlands to which staple goods must be sent in the
+first place when they were exported from England. Later certain towns
+in England were appointed as staple towns, where all goods of the
+kinds mentioned above should be taken to be registered, weighed, and
+taxed before exportation. Just at the close of the period under
+discussion, in 1354, a careful organization was given to the system of
+staple towns in England, by which in each of the ten or twelve towns
+to which staple goods must be brought for exportation, a Mayor of the
+Staple and two Constables were elected by the "merchants of the
+staple," native and foreign. These officials had a number of duties,
+some of them more particularly in the interest of the king and
+treasury, others in the interest of the foreign merchants, still
+others merely for the preservation of good order and the enforcement
+of justice. The law merchant was made the basis of judgment, and every
+effort made to grant protection to foreigners and at the same time
+secure the financial interests of the government. But the policy of
+the government was by no means consistent. Both before and after this
+date, the whole system of staples was repeatedly abolished for a time
+and the whole trade in these articles thrown open. Again, the location
+of the staple towns was shifted from England to the continent and
+again back to England. Eventually, in 1363, the staple came to be
+established at Calais, and all "staplers," or exporters of staple
+goods from England, were forced to give bonds that their cargoes would
+be taken direct to Calais to be sold.
+
+
+*24. The Hanse Trade.*--The trade with Germany was at this time almost
+all with the group of citizens which made up the German Hanse or
+League. This was a union of a large number of towns of northern
+Germany, such as Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Dantzig, Brunswick, and
+perhaps sixty or eighty others. By a series of treaties and agreements
+among themselves, these towns had formed a close confederation which
+acted as a single whole in obtaining favorable trading concessions and
+privileges in various countries. There had been a considerable trade
+between the merchants of these towns and England from an early time.
+They brought the products of the Baltic lands, such as lumber, tar,
+salt, iron, silver, salted and smoked fish, furs, amber, certain
+coarse manufactures, and goods obtained by Hanseatic merchants through
+their more distant trade connections, such as fine woven goods, armor
+and other metal goods, and even spices and other Eastern goods,
+obtained from the great Russian fairs. The Hanse cities had entered
+into treaties with the English government, and possessed valuable
+concessions and privileges, and imported and exported quite
+extensively. The term "sterling," as applied to standard English
+money, is derived from the word "Easterling," which was used as
+synonymous with "German," "Hansard," "Dutch," and several other names
+descriptive of these traders.
+
+The trade with the cities of northwestern France was similar to that
+with the neighboring towns of Flanders. That with northwestern France
+consisted especially of salt, sail-cloth, and wine. The trade with
+Poitou, Gascony, and Guienne was more extensive, as was natural from
+their long political connection with England. The chief part of the
+export from southern France was wine, though a variety of other
+articles, including fruits and some manufactured articles, were sent
+to England. A trade of quite a varied character also existed between
+England and the various countries of the Spanish Peninsula, including
+Portugal. Foreign trade with all of these countries was destined to
+increase largely during the later fourteenth and the fifteenth
+century, but its foundations were well laid within the first half of
+the fourteenth. Vessels from all these countries appeared from time to
+time in the harbors of England, and their merchants traded under
+government patronage and support in many English towns and fairs.
+
+
+*25. Foreigners settled in England.*--The fact that almost all of the
+foreign trade of England was in the hands of aliens necessarily
+involved their presence in the country temporarily or permanently in
+considerable numbers. The closely related fact that the English were
+distinctly behind the people of the Continent in economic knowledge,
+skill, and wealth also led foreigners to seek England as a field for
+profitable exercise of their abilities in finance, in trade, and
+manufactures. The most conspicuous of these foreigners at the close of
+the thirteenth century and during the early part of the fourteenth
+were the Italian bankers. Florence was not only a great trading and
+manufacturing city, but a money centre, a capitalist city. The Bardi,
+Peruzzi, Alberti, Frescobaldi, and other banking companies received
+deposits from citizens of Florence and other Italian cities, and
+loaned the money, as well as their own capital, to governments, great
+nobles, and ecclesiastical corporations in other countries. When the
+Jews were expelled from England in 1290, there being no considerable
+amount of money among native Englishmen, the Italian bankers were the
+only source from which the government could secure ready money. When a
+tax had been authorized by Parliament, but the product of it could be
+obtained only after a year or more spent in its collection, the
+Florentines were at hand to offer the money at once, receiving
+security for repayment when the receipts from the tax should come in.
+Government monopolies like the Cornwall tin mines were leased to them
+for a lump sum; arrangements were made by which the bankers furnished
+a certain amount of money each day during a campaign or a royal
+progress. The immediate needs of an impecunious king were regularly
+satisfied with money borrowed to be repaid some months afterward. The
+equipment for all of the early expeditions of the Hundred Years' War
+was obtained with money borrowed from the Florentines. Payments abroad
+were also made by means of bills of exchange negotiated by the same
+money-lenders. Direct payment of interest was forbidden by law, but
+they seem to have been rewarded by valuable government concessions, by
+the profits on exchange, and no doubt by the indirect payment of
+interest, notwithstanding its illegality.
+
+The Italian bankers evidently loaned to others besides the king, for
+in 1327 the Knights Hospitallers in England repaid to the Society of
+the Bardi L848 5_d._, and to the Peruzzi L551 12_s._ 11_d._ They
+continued to loan freely to the king, till in 1348 he was indebted to
+one company alone to the extent of more than L50,000, a sum equal in
+modern value to about $3,000,000. The king now failed to repay what he
+had promised, and the banking companies fell into great straits.
+Defalcations having occurred in other countries also, some of them
+failed, and after the middle of the century they never held so
+conspicuous a place, though some Italians continued to act as bankers
+and financiers through the remainder of the fourteenth and fifteenth
+century. Many Italian merchants who were not bankers, especially
+Venetians and Genoese, were settled in England, but their occupation
+did not make them so conspicuous as the financiers of the same nation.
+
+[Illustration: The Steelyard in the Seventeenth Century. (Herbert:
+_History of London Livery Companies_.)]
+
+The German or Hanse merchants had a settlement of their own in London,
+known as the "Steelyard," "Gildhall of the Dutch," or the
+"Easterling's House." They had similar establishments on a smaller
+scale in Boston and Lynn, and perhaps in other towns. Their
+permission to own property and to live in their own house instead of
+in the houses of native merchants, as was the usual custom, was
+derived, like most privileges of foreigners, from the gift of the
+king. Little by little they had purchased property surrounding their
+original grants until they had a great group of buildings, including a
+meeting and dining hall, tower, kitchen, storage house, offices and
+other warehouses, and a considerable number of dwelling-houses, all
+enclosed by a wall and fences. It was located immediately on the
+Thames just above London Bridge so that their vessels unloaded at
+their own wharf. The merchants or their agents lived under strict
+rules, the gates being invariably closed at nine o'clock, and all
+discords among their own nation were punished by their own officers.
+Their trade was profitable to the king through payment of customs, and
+after the failure of the Italian bankers the merchants of the
+Steelyard made considerable loans to the English government either
+directly or acting for citizens at home. In 1343, when the king had
+been granted a tax of 40_s._ a sack on all wool exported, he
+immediately borrowed the value of it from Tiedemann van Limberg and
+Johann van Wolde, Easterlings. Similarly in 1346 the Easterlings
+loaned the king money for three years, holding his second crown as
+security. Like the Florentines, at one time they took the Cornwall tin
+mines at farm. They had many privileges not accorded generally to
+foreigners, but were exceedingly unpopular alike with the population
+and the authorities of the city of London. There were some other
+Germans domiciled in England, but nowhere else were they so
+conspicuous or influential as at the Steelyard.
+
+[Illustration: Ground Plan of the Steelyard in the Seventeenth
+Century. (Lappenberg. _Geschichte des Hansischen Stahlhofes_.)]
+
+The trade with Flanders brought Flemish merchants into England
+temporarily, but they do not seem to have formed any settlement or
+located permanently in any one place. Flemish artisans, on the other
+hand, had migrated to England from early times and were scattered here
+and there in several towns and villages. In the early part of the
+fourteenth century Edward III made it a matter of deliberate policy to
+encourage the immigration of Flemish weavers and other handicraftsmen,
+with the expectation that they would teach their art to the more
+backward native English. In 1332 he issued a charter of protection and
+privilege to a Fleming named John Kempe, a weaver of woollen cloth,
+offering the same privilege and protection to all other weavers,
+dyers, and fullers who should care to come to England to live. In 1337
+a similar charter was given to a body of weavers coming from Zealand
+to England. It is believed that a considerable number of immigrants
+from the Netherlands came in at this period, settled largely in the
+smaller towns and rural villages, and taking English apprentices
+brought about a great improvement in the character of English
+manufactures. Flemings are also met with in local records in various
+occupations, even in agriculture.
+
+There were other foreigners resident in England, especially Gascons
+from the south of France, and Spaniards; but the main elements of
+alien population in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were those
+which have just been described, Italians, Germans from the Hanse
+towns, and Flemings. These were mainly occupied as bankers, merchants,
+and handicraftsmen.
+
+
+*26. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Dr. Cunningham's _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_ is
+particularly full and valuable on this subject. He has given further
+details on one branch of it in his _Alien Immigrants in England_.
+
+Schanz, Georg: _Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende des Mittelalters_.
+This work refers to a later period than that included in this chapter,
+but the summaries which the author gives of earlier conditions are in
+many cases the best accounts that we have.
+
+Ashley, W. J.: _Early History of the Woolen Industry in England_.
+
+Pauli, R.: _Pictures from Old England_. Contains an interesting
+account of the Steelyard.
+
+Pirenne, Henri: _La Hanse flamande de Londres_.
+
+Von Ochenkowski, W.: _England's Wirthsschaftliche Entwickelung im
+Ausgange des Mittelalters_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE BLACK DEATH AND THE PEASANTS' REBELLION
+
+Economic Changes Of The Later Fourteenth And Early Fifteenth Centuries
+
+
+*27. National Affairs from 1338 to 1461.*--For the last century or more
+England had been standing with her back to the Continent. Deprived of
+most of their French possessions, engaged in the struggle to bring
+Wales, Scotland, and Ireland under the English crown, occupied with
+repeated conflicts with their barons or with the development of the
+internal organization of the country, John, Henry III, and the two
+Edwards had had less time and inclination to interest themselves in
+continental affairs than had Henry II and Richard. But after 1337 a
+new influence brought England for the next century into close
+connection with the rest of Europe. This was the "Hundred Years' War"
+between England and France. Several causes had for years combined to
+make this war unavoidable: the interference of France in the dispute
+with Scotland, the conflicts between the rising fishing and trading
+towns on the English and the French side of the Channel, the desire of
+the French king to drive the English kings from their remaining
+provinces in the south of France, and the reluctance of the English
+kings to accept their dependent position in France. Edward III
+commenced the war in 1338 with the invasion of France, and it was
+continued with comparatively short intervals of peace until 1452.
+During its progress the English won three of the most brilliant
+military victories in their history, at Crecy, Poitiers, and
+Agincourt, in 1346, 1356, and 1415. But most of the campaigns were
+characterized by brutality, destructive ravaging, and the reduction of
+cities by famine. The whole contest indeed often degenerated into
+desultory, objectless warfare. A permanent settlement was attempted at
+Bretigny in 1360. The English required the dismemberment of France by
+the surrender of almost one-third of the country and the payment by
+the French of a large ransom for their king, who had been captured by
+the English. In return King Edward withdrew any other claims he might
+have to territory, or the French crown. These terms were, however, so
+humiliating to the French that they did not adhere to them, the war
+soon broke out again, and finally terminated in the driving out of the
+English from all of France except the city of Calais, in the middle
+years of the next century.
+
+The many alliances, embassies, exchanges of visits, and other
+international intercourse which the prosecution of the Hundred Years'
+War involved brought England into a closer participation in the
+general life of Europe than ever before, and caused the ebb and flow
+of a tide of influences between England and the Continent which deeply
+affected economic, political, and religious life on both sides of the
+Channel.
+
+The Universities continued to flourish during almost the whole of this
+period. It was from Oxford as a centre, under the influence of John
+Wycliffe, a lecturer there, that a great revival and reforming
+movement in the church emanated. From about 1370 Wycliffe and others
+began to agitate for a more earnest religious life. They translated
+the Bible into English, wrote devotional and polemic tracts, preached
+throughout the country, spoke and wrote against the evils in the
+church at the time, then against its accepted form of organization,
+and finally against its official teachings. They thus became heretics.
+Thousands were influenced by their teachings, and a wave of religious
+revival and ecclesiastical rebellion spread over the country. The
+powers of the church and the civil government were ultimately brought
+to bear to crush out the "Lollards," as those who held heretical
+beliefs at that time were called. New and stringent laws were passed
+in 1401 and 1415, several persons were burned at the stake, and a
+large number forced to recant, or frightened into keeping their
+opinions secret. This religious movement gradually died out, and by
+the middle of the fifteenth century nothing more is heard of
+Lollardry.
+
+Wycliffe had been not only a religious innovator, but a writer of much
+excellent English. Contemporary with him or slightly later were a
+number of writers who used the native language and created permanent
+works of literature. _The Vision of Piers Plowman_ is the longest and
+best of a number of poems written by otherwise unknown men. Geoffrey
+Chaucer, one of England's greatest poets, wrote at first in French,
+then in English; his _Canterbury Tales_ showing a perfected English
+form, borrowed originally, like so much of what was best in England at
+the time, from Italy or France, but assimilated, improved, and
+reconstructed until it seemed a purely English production. During the
+reign of Edward III English became the official language of the courts
+and the usual language of conversation, even among the higher classes.
+
+Edward III lived until 1377. Through his long reign of half a century,
+during which he was entirely dependent on the grants of Parliament for
+the funds needed to carry on the war against France, this body
+obtained the powers, privileges, and organization which made it
+thereafter such an influential part of the government. His successor,
+Richard II, after a period of moderate government tried to rule with a
+high hand, but in 1399 was deposed through the influence of his
+cousin, Henry of Lancaster, who was crowned as Henry IV. Henry's title
+to the throne, according to hereditary principles, was defective, for
+the son of an older brother was living. He was, however, a mere child,
+and there was no considerable opposition to Henry's accession. Under
+the Lancastrian line, as Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI, who now
+reigned successively, are called, Parliament reached the highest
+position which it had yet attained, a position higher in fact than it
+held for several centuries afterward. Henry VI was a child at the
+death of his father in 1422. On coming to be a man he proved too mild
+in temper to control the great nobles who, by the chances of
+inheritance, had become almost as powerful as the great feudal barons
+of early Norman times. The descendants of the older branch of the
+royal family were now represented by a vigorous and capable man, the
+duke of York. An effort was therefore made about 1450 by one party of
+the nobles to depose Henry VI in favor of the duke of York. A number
+of other nobles took the side of the king, and civil war broke out.
+After a series of miserable contests known as the "Wars of the Roses"
+the former party was successful, at least temporarily, and the duke of
+York became king in 1461 as Edward IV.
+
+
+*28. The Black Death and its Effects.*--During the earlier mediaeval
+centuries the most marked characteristic of society was its stability.
+Institutions continued with but slight changes during a long period.
+With the middle of the fourteenth century changes become more
+prominent. Some of the most conspicuous of these gather around a
+series of attacks of epidemic disease during the latter half of the
+century.
+
+[Illustration: Distribution of Population According to the Poll-tax of
+1377. Engraved by Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
+
+From the autumn of 1348 to the spring of 1350 a wave of pestilence
+was spreading over England from the southwest northward and eastward,
+progressively attacking every part of the country. The disease was new
+to Europe. Its course in the individual case, like its progress
+through the community, was very rapid. The person attacked either died
+within two or three days or even less, or showed signs of recovery
+within the same period. The proportion of cases which resulted fatally
+was extremely large; the infectious character of the disease quite
+remarkable. It was, in fact, an extremely violent epidemic attack, the
+most violent in history, of the bubonic plague, with which we have
+unfortunately become again familiar within recent years.
+
+From much careful examination of several kinds of contemporary
+evidence it seems almost certain that as each locality was
+successively attacked in 1348 and 1349 something like a half of the
+population died. In other words, whereas in an ordinary year at that
+time perhaps one-twentieth of the people died, in the plague year
+one-half died. Such entries as the following are frequent in the
+contemporary records. At the abbey of Newenham, "in the time of this
+mortality or pestilence there died in this house twenty monks and
+three lay brothers, whose names are entered in other books. And
+Walter, the abbot, and two monks were left alive there after the
+sickness." At Leicester, "in the little parish of St. Leonard there
+died more than 380, in the parish of Holy Cross more than 400, in that
+of St. Margaret more than 700; and so in every parish great numbers."
+The close arrangement of houses in the villages, the crowding of
+dwellings along narrow streets in the towns, the promiscuous life in
+the monasteries and in the inns, the uncleanly habits of living
+universally prevalent, all helped to make possible this sweeping away
+of perhaps a majority of the population by an attack of epidemic
+disease. It had devastated several of the countries of Europe before
+appearing in England, having been introduced into Europe apparently
+along the great trade routes from the far East. Within a few months
+the attack in each successive district subsided, the disease in the
+southwestern counties of England having run its course between August,
+1348, and May, 1349, in and about London between November, 1348, and
+July, 1349, in the eastern counties in the summer of 1349, and in the
+more northern counties through the last months of that year or within
+the spring of 1350. Pestilence was frequent throughout the Middle
+Ages, but this attack was not only vastly more destructive and general
+than any which had preceded it, but the disease when once introduced
+became a frequent scourge in subsequent times, especially during the
+remainder of the fourteenth century. In 1361, 1368, and 1396 attacks
+are noticed as occurring more or less widely through the country, but
+none were so extensive as that which is usually spoken of as the
+"Black Death" of 1348-1349. The term "Black Death" was not used
+contemporaneously, nor until comparatively modern times. The
+occurrence of the pestilence, however, made an extremely strong
+impression on men's minds, and as "the great mortality," "the great
+pestilence," or "the great death," it appears widely in the records
+and the literature of the time.
+
+Such an extensive and sudden destruction of life could not take place
+without leaving its mark in many directions. Monasteries were
+depopulated, and the value of their property and the strictness of
+their discipline diminished. The need for priests led to the
+ordination of those who were less carefully prepared and selected. The
+number of students at Oxford and Cambridge was depleted; the building
+and adornment of many churches suspended. The war between England and
+France, though promptly renewed, involved greater difficulty in
+obtaining equipment, and ultimately required new devices to meet its
+expense. Many of the towns lost numbers and property that were never
+regained, and the distribution of population throughout England was
+appreciably changed.
+
+But the most evident and far-reaching results of the series of
+pestilences occurring through the last half of the fourteenth century
+were those connected with rural life and the arrangement of classes
+described in Chapter II.
+
+The lords of manors might seem at first thought to have reaped
+advantage from the unusually high death rate. The heriots collected on
+the death of tenants were more numerous; reliefs paid by their
+successors on obtaining the land were repeated far more frequently
+than usual; much land escheated to the lord on the extinction of the
+families of free tenants, or fell into his hands for redisposal on the
+failure of descendants of villains or cotters. But these were only
+temporary and casual results. In other ways the diminution of
+population was distinctly disadvantageous to the lords of manors. They
+obtained much lower rents for mills and other such monopolies, because
+there were fewer people to have their grain ground and the tenants of
+the mills could therefore not make as much profit. The rents of assize
+or regular periodical payments in money and in kind made by free and
+villain tenants were less in amount, since the tenants were fewer and
+much land was unoccupied. The profits of the manor courts were less,
+for there were not so many suitors to attend, to pay fees, and to be
+fined. The manor court rolls for these years give long lists of
+vacancies of holdings, often naming the days of the deaths of the
+tenants. Their successors are often children, and in many cases whole
+families were swept away and the land taken into the hands of the
+lord of the manor. Juries appointed at one meeting of the manor court
+are sometimes all dead by the time of the next meeting. There are
+constant complaints by the stewards that certain land "is of no value
+because the tenants are all dead;" in one place that a water-mill is
+worthless because "all the tenants who used it are dead," in another
+that the rents are L7 14_s._ less than in the previous year because
+fourteen holdings, consisting of 102 acres of land, are in the hands
+of the lord, in still another that the rents of assize which used to
+be L20 are now only L2 and the court fees have fallen from 40 to 5
+shillings "because the tenants there are dead." There was also less
+required service performed on the demesne lands, for many of the
+villain holdings from which it was owed were now vacant. Last, and
+most seriously of all, the lords of manors suffered as employers of
+labor. It had always been necessary to hire additional labor for the
+cultivation of the demesne farm and for the personal service of the
+manor, and through recent decades somewhat more had come to be hired
+because of a gradual increase of the practice of commutation of
+services. That is, villain tenants were allowed to pay the value of
+their required days' work in money instead of in actual service. The
+bailiff or reeve then hired men as they were wanted, so that quite an
+appreciable part of the work of the manor had come to be done by
+laborers hired for wages.
+
+After the Black Death the same demesne lands were to be cultivated,
+and in most cases the larger holdings remained or descended or were
+regranted to those who would expect to continue their cultivation.
+Thus the demand for laborers remained approximately as great as it had
+been before. The number of laborers, on the other hand, was vastly
+diminished. They were therefore eagerly sought for by employers.
+Naturally they took advantage of their position to demand higher
+wages, and in many cases combined to refuse to work at the old
+accustomed rates. A royal ordinance of 1349 states that, "because a
+great part of the people, especially of workmen and servants, have
+lately died in the pestilence, many, seeing the necessity of masters
+and great scarcity of servants, will not serve unless they may receive
+excessive wages." A contemporary chronicler says that "laborers were
+so elated and contentious that they did not pay any attention to the
+command of the king, and if anybody wanted to hire them he was bound
+to pay them what they asked, and so he had his choice either to lose
+his harvest and crops or give in to the proud and covetous desires of
+the workmen." Thus, because of this rise in wages, at the very time
+that many of the usual sources of income of the lords of manors were
+less remunerative, the expenses of carrying on their farming
+operations were largely increased. On closer examination, therefore,
+it becomes evident that the income of the lords of manors, whether
+individuals or corporations, was not increased, but considerably
+diminished, and that their position was less favorable than it had
+been before the pestilence.
+
+The freeholders of land below lords of manors were disadvantageously
+affected in as far as they had to hire laborers, but in other ways
+were in a more favorable position. The rent which they had to pay was
+often reduced. Land was everywhere to be had in plenty, and a threat
+to give up their holdings and go to where more favorable terms could
+be secured was generally effective in obtaining better terms where
+they were.
+
+The villain holders legally of course did not have this opportunity,
+but practically they secured many of its advantages. It is probable
+that many took up additional land, perhaps on an improved tenure.
+Their payments and their labor, whether done in the form of required
+"week-work," or, if this were commuted, done for hire, were much
+valued, and concessions made to them accordingly. They might, as they
+frequently did, take to flight, giving up their land and either
+obtaining a new grant somewhere else or becoming laborers without
+lands of their own.
+
+This last-named class, made up of those who depended entirely on
+agricultural labor on the land of others for their support, was a
+class which had been increasing in numbers, and which was the most
+distinctly favored by the demand for laborers and the rise of wages.
+They were the representatives of the old cotter class, recruited from
+those who either inherited no land or found it more advantageous to
+work for wages than to take up small holdings with their burdens.
+
+But the most important social result of the Black Death and the period
+of pestilence which followed it was the general shock it gave to the
+old settled life and established relations of men to one another. It
+introduced many immediate changes, and still more causes of ultimate
+change; but above all it altered the old stability, so that change in
+future would be easy.
+
+
+*29. The Statutes of Laborers.*--The change which showed itself most
+promptly, the rise in the prevailing rate of wages, was met by the
+strenuous opposition of the law. In the summer of 1349, while the
+pestilence was still raging in the north of England, the king, acting
+on the advice of his Council, issued a proclamation to all the
+sheriffs and the officials of the larger towns, declaring that the
+laborers were taking advantage of the needs of their lords to demand
+excessive wages, and prohibiting them from asking more than had been
+due and accustomed in the year before the outbreak of the pestilence
+or for the preceding five or six years. Every laborer when offered
+service at these wages must accept it; the lords of manors having the
+first right to the labor of those living on their manors, provided
+they did not insist on retaining an unreasonable number. If any
+laborers, men or women, bond or free, should refuse to accept such an
+offer of work, they were to be imprisoned till they should give bail
+to serve as required. Commissioners were then appointed by the king in
+each county to inquire into and punish violations of this ordinance.
+
+[Illustration: The Stocks at Shalford, near Guildford. Present State.
+(Jusserand: _English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century_.
+Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)]
+
+When Parliament next met, in February, 1351, the Commons sent a
+petition to the king stating that his ordinance had not been obeyed
+and that laborers were claiming double and treble what they had
+received in the years before the pestilence. In response to the
+petition what is usually called the "First Statute of Laborers" was
+enacted. It repeated the requirement that men must accept work when it
+was offered to them, established definite rates of wages for various
+classes of laborers, and required all such persons to swear twice a
+year before the stewards, bailiffs, or other officials that they would
+obey this law. If they refused to swear or disobeyed the law, they
+were to be put in the stocks for three days or more and then sent to
+the nearest jail till they should agree to serve as required. It was
+ordered that stocks should be built in each village for this purpose,
+and that the judges should visit each county twice a year to inquire
+into the enforcement of the law. In 1357 the law was reenacted, with
+some changes of the destination of the fines collected for its breach.
+In 1361 there was a further reenactment of the law with additional
+penalties. If laborers will not work unless they are given higher
+wages than those established by law, they can be taken and imprisoned
+by lords of manors for as much as fifteen days, and then be sent to
+the next jail to await the coming of the justices. If any one after
+accepting service leaves it, he is to be arrested and sued before the
+justices. If he cannot be found, he is to be outlawed and a writ sent
+to every sheriff in England ordering that he should be arrested, sent
+back, and imprisoned till he pays his fine and makes amends to the
+party injured; "and besides for the falsity he shall be burnt in the
+forehead with an iron made and formed to this letter F in token of
+Falsity, if the party aggrieved shall ask for it." This last
+provision, however, was probably intended as a threat rather than an
+actual punishment, for its application was suspended for some months,
+and even then it was to be inflicted only on the advice of the
+judges, and the iron was to remain in the custody of the sheriff. The
+statute was reenacted with slight variations thirteen times within the
+century after its original introduction; namely, in addition to the
+dates already mentioned, in 1362, 1368, 1378, 1388, 1402, 1406, 1414,
+1423, 1427, 1429, and 1444.
+
+[Illustration: Laborers Reaping. From a Fourteenth Century Manuscript.
+(Jusserand: _English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century_.
+Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)]
+
+The necessity for these repeated reissues of the statutes of laborers
+indicates that the general rise of wages was not prevented. Forty
+years after the pestilence the law of 1388 is said to be passed,
+"because that servants and laborers are not, nor by a long time have
+been willing to serve and labor without outrageous and excessive
+hire." Direct testimony also indicates that the prevailing rate of
+wages was much higher, probably half as much again, as it  had been
+before the pestilence. Nevertheless, the enforcement of the law in
+individual cases must have been a very great hardship. The fines which
+were collected from breakers of the law were of sufficient amount to
+be estimated at one time as part payment of a tax, at another as a
+valuable source of income to the lords of manors. Their enforcement
+was intrusted at different times to the local justices of the peace,
+the royal judges on circuit, and special commissioners.
+
+The inducement to the passage of the laws prohibiting a rise in wages
+was no doubt partly the self-interest of the employing classes who
+were alone represented in Parliament, but partly also the feeling that
+the laboring class were taking advantage of an abnormal condition of
+affairs to change the well established customary rates of remuneration
+of labor. The most significant fact indicated by the laws, however,
+was the existence of a distinct class of laborers. In earlier times
+when almost all rural dwellers held some land this can hardly have
+been the case; it is quite evident that there was now an increasing
+class who made their living simply by working for wages. Another fact
+frequently referred to in the laws is the frequent passage of laborers
+from one district to another; it is evident that the population was
+becoming somewhat less stationary. Therefore while the years following
+the great pestilence were a period of difficulty for the lords of
+manors and the employing classes, for the lower classes the same
+period was one of increasing opportunity and a breaking down of old
+restrictions. Whether or not the statutes had any real effect in
+keeping the rate of wages lower than it would have otherwise become is
+hard to determine, but there is no doubt that the efforts to enforce
+the law and the frequent punishment of individuals for its violation
+embittered the minds of the laborers and helped to throw them into
+opposition to the government and to the upper classes generally. The
+statutes of laborers thus became one of the principal causes of the
+growth of that hostility which culminated in the Peasants' Rebellion.
+
+
+*30. The Peasants' Rebellion of 1381.*--From the scanty contemporary
+records still remaining we can obtain glimpses of a widespread
+restlessness among the masses of the English people during the latter
+half of the fourteenth century. According to a petition submitted to
+Parliament in 1377 the villains were refusing to pay their customary
+services to their lords and to acknowledge the requirements of their
+serfdom. They were also gathering together in great bodies to resist
+the efforts of the lords to collect from them their dues and to force
+them to submit to the decisions of the manor courts. The ready
+reception given to the religious revival preached by the Lollards
+throughout the country indicates an attitude of independence and of
+self-assertion on the part of the people of which there had been no
+sign during earlier times. The writer who represents most nearly
+popular feeling, the author of the _Vision of Piers Plowman_, reflects
+a certain restless and questioning mysticism which has no particular
+plan of reform to propose, but is nevertheless thoroughly dissatisfied
+with the world as it is. Lastly, a series of vague appeals to revolt,
+written in the vernacular, partly in prose, partly in doggerel rhyme,
+have been preserved and seem to testify to a deliberate propaganda of
+lawlessness. Some of the general causes of this rising tide of
+discontent are quite apparent. The efforts to enforce the statutes of
+laborers, as has been said, kept continual friction between the
+employing and the employed class. Parliament, which kept petitioning
+for reenactments of these laws, the magistrates and special
+commissioners who enforced them, and the landowners who appealed to
+them for relief, were alike engaged in creating class antagonism and
+multiplying individual grievances. Secondly, the very improvement in
+the economic position of the lower classes, which was undoubtedly in
+progress, made them doubly impatient of the many burdens which still
+pressed upon them. Another cause for the prevalent unrest may have
+lain in the character of much of the teaching of the time. Undisguised
+communism was preached by a wandering priest, John Ball, and the
+injustice of the claims of the property-holding classes was a very
+natural inference from much of the teachings of Wycliffe and his "poor
+priests." Again, the corruption of the court, the incapacity of the
+ministers, and the failure of the war in France were all reasons for
+popular anger, if the masses of the people can be supposed to have had
+any knowledge of such distant matters.
+
+[Illustration: Adam and Eve. From a Fourteenth Century Manuscript.
+(Jusserand: _English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century_.
+Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)]
+
+But the most definite and widespread cause of discontent was probably
+the introduction of a new form of taxation, the general poll tax.
+Until this time taxes had either been direct taxes laid upon land and
+personal property, or indirect taxes laid upon various objects of
+export and import. In 1377, however, Parliament agreed to the
+imposition of a tax of four pence a head on all laymen, and
+Convocation soon afterward taxed all the clergy, regular and secular,
+the same amount. Notwithstanding this grant and increased taxes of the
+old forms, the government still needed more money for the expenses of
+the war with France, and in April, 1379, a graduated poll tax was laid
+on all persons above sixteen years of age. This was regulated
+according to the rank of the payer from mere laborers, who were to pay
+four pence, up to earls, who must pay L4. But this only produced some
+L20,000, while more than L100,000 were needed; therefore in November
+of 1380 a third poll tax was laid in the following manner. The tax was
+to be collected at the rate of three groats or one shilling for each
+person over fifteen years of age. But although the total amount
+payable from any town or manor was to be as many shillings as there
+were inhabitants over fourteen years of age, it was to be assessed in
+each manor upon individuals in proportion to their means, the more
+well-to-do paying more, the poorer paying less; but with the limits
+that no one should have to pay more than L1 for himself and his wife,
+and no one less than four pence for himself and his wife.
+
+The poll tax was extremely unpopular. In the first place, it was a new
+tax, and to all appearances an additional weight given to the burden
+of contributing to the never ending expenses of the government of
+which the people were already weary. Moreover, it fell upon everybody,
+even upon those who from their lack of property had probably never
+before paid any tax. The inhabitants of every cottage were made to
+realize, by the payment of what amounted to two or three days' wages,
+that they had public and political as well as private and economic
+burdens. Lastly, the method of assessing the tax gave scope for much
+unfairness and favoritism.
+
+In addition to this general unpopularity of the poll tax there was a
+special reason for opposition in the circumstances of that imposed in
+1380. As the returns began to come in they were extremely
+disappointing to the government. Therefore in March, 1381, the king,
+suspecting negligence on the part of the collectors, appointed groups
+of commissioners for a number of different districts who were directed
+to go from place to place investigating the former collection and
+enforcing payment from any who had evaded it before. This no doubt
+seemed to many of the ignorant people the imposition of a second tax.
+The first rumors of disorder came in May from some of the villages of
+Essex, where the tax-collectors and the commissioners who followed
+them were driven away violently by the people. Finally, during the
+second week in June, rioting began in several parts of England almost
+simultaneously. In Essex those who had refused to pay the poll tax and
+driven out the collectors now went from village to village persuading
+or compelling the people to join them. In Kent the villagers seized
+pilgrims on their way to Canterbury and forced them to take an oath to
+resist any tax except the old taxes, to be faithful to "King Richard
+and the Commons," to join their party when summoned, and never to
+allow John of Gaunt to become king. A riot broke out at Dartford in
+Kent, then Canterbury was overrun and the sheriff was forced to give
+up the tax rolls to be destroyed. They proceeded to break into
+Maidstone jail and release the prisoners there, and subsequently
+entered Rochester. These Kentish insurgents then set out toward
+London, wishing no doubt to obtain access to the young king, who was
+known to be there, but also directed by an instinctive desire to
+strike at the capital of the kingdom. By Wednesday, the 12th of June,
+they had formed a rendezvous at Blackheath some five miles below the
+city. Some of the Essex men had crossed the river and joined them,
+others had also taken their way toward London, marching along the
+northern side of the Thames. At the same time, or by the next day,
+another band was approaching London from Hertfordshire on the north.
+The body of insurgents gathered at Blackheath, who were stated by
+contemporary chroniclers, no doubt with the usual exaggeration, to
+have numbered 60,000, succeeded in communicating with King Richard, a
+boy of fourteen years, who was residing at the Tower of London with
+his mother and principal ministers and several great nobles, asking
+him to come to meet them. On the next day, Corpus Christi day, June
+12th, he was rowed with a group of nobles to the other bank of the
+river, where the insurgents were crowding to the water side. The
+confusion and danger were so great that the king did not land, and the
+conference amounted to nothing. During the same day, however, the
+rebels pressed on to the city, and a part of the populace of London
+having left the drawbridge open for them, they made their way in. The
+evening of the same day the men from Essex entered through one of the
+city gates which had also been opened for them by connivance from
+within. There had already been much destruction of property and of
+life. As the rebels passed along the roads, the villagers joined them
+and many of the lower classes of the town population as well. In
+several cases they burned the houses of the gentry and of the great
+ecclesiastics, destroyed tax and court rolls and other documents, and
+put to death persons connected with the law. When they had made their
+way into London they burned and pillaged the Savoy palace, the city
+house of the duke of Lancaster, and the houses of the Knights
+Hospitallers at Clerkenwell and at Temple Bar. By this time leaders
+had arisen among the rebels. Wat Tyler, John Ball, and Jack Straw were
+successful in keeping their followers from stealing and in giving some
+semblance of a regular plan to their proceedings. On the morning of
+Friday, the 14th, the king left the Tower, and while he was absent the
+rebels made their way in, ransacked the rooms, seized and carried out
+to Tower Hill Simon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, who was Lord
+Chancellor, Robert Hales, Grand Master of the Hospitallers, who was
+then Lord Treasurer, and some lower officials. These were all put
+through the hasty forms of an irregular trial and then beheaded. There
+were also many murders throughout the city. Foreigners especially were
+put to death, probably by Londoners themselves or by the rural
+insurgents at their instigation. A considerable number of Flemings
+were assassinated, some being drawn from one of the churches where
+they had taken refuge. The German merchants of the Steelyard were
+attacked and driven through the streets, but took refuge in their
+well-defended buildings.
+
+During the same three days, insurrection had broken out in several
+other parts of England. Disorders are mentioned in Kent, Essex,
+Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon,
+Hampshire, Sussex, Somerset, Leicester, Lincoln, York, Bedford,
+Northampton, Surrey, and Wiltshire. There are also indications of
+risings in nine other counties. In Suffolk the leadership was taken by
+a man named John Wrawe, a priest like John Ball. On June 12th, the
+same day that the rendezvous was held on Blackheath, a great body of
+peasants under Wrawe attacked and pillaged a manor house belonging to
+Richard Lyons, an unpopular minister of the last days of Edward III.
+The next day they looted a parish church where were stored the
+valuables of Sir John Cavendish, Chief Justice of the Court of King's
+Bench and Chancellor of the town of Cambridge. On the 14th they
+occupied Bury, where they sacked the houses of unpopular men and
+finally captured and put to death Cavendish himself, John of
+Cambridge, prior of the St. Edmund's Abbey, and John of Lakenheath, an
+officer of the king. The rioters also forced the monks of the abbey to
+hand over to them all the documents giving to the monastery power over
+the townsmen. There were also a large number of detached attacks on
+persons and on manor houses, where manor court rolls and other
+documents were destroyed and property carried off. There was more
+theft here than in London; but much of the plundering was primarily
+intended to settle old disputes rather than for its own sake. In
+Norfolk the insurrection broke out a day or two later than in Suffolk,
+and is notable as having among its patrons a considerable number of
+the lesser gentry and other well-to-do persons. The principal leader,
+however, was a certain Geoffrey Lister. This man had issued a
+proclamation calling in all the people to meet on the 17th of June on
+Mushold Heath, just outside the city of Norwich. A great multitude
+gathered, and they summoned Sir Robert Salle, who was in the military
+service of the king, but was living at Norwich, and who had risen from
+peasant rank to knighthood, to come out for a conference. When he
+declined their request to become their leader they assassinated him,
+and subsequently made their way into the city, of which they kept
+control for several days. Throughout Norfolk and Cambridgeshire we
+hear of the same murders of men who had obtained the hatred of the
+lower classes in general, or that of individuals who were temporarily
+influential with the insurgents. There were also numerous instances of
+the destruction of court rolls found at the manor houses of lay lords
+of manors or obtained from the muniment rooms of the monasteries. It
+seems almost certain that there was some agreement beforehand among
+the leaders of the revolt in the eastern districts of England, and
+probably also with the leaders in Essex and Kent.
+
+Another locality where we have full knowledge of the occurrences
+during the rebellion is the town and monastery of St. Albans, just
+north of London. The rising here was either instigated by, or, at
+least, drew its encouragement from, the leaders who gathered at
+London. The townsmen and villains from surrounding manors invaded the
+great abbey, opened the prison, demanded and obtained all the charters
+bearing on existing disputes, and reclaimed a number of millstones
+which were kept by the abbey as a testimony to the monopoly of all
+grinding by the abbey mill. In many other places disorders were in
+progress. For a few days in the middle of June a considerable part of
+England was at the mercy of the revolted peasants and artisans, under
+the leadership partly of men who had arisen among their own class,
+partly of certain persons of higher position who had sufficient reason
+for throwing in their lot with them.
+
+[Illustration: Extension of the Peasant's Insurrection of 1381.
+Engraved by Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
+
+The culmination of the revolt was at the time of the execution of the
+great ministers of government on Tower Hill on the morning of the
+14th. At that very time the young king had met a body of the rebels,
+mostly made up of men from Essex and Hertfordshire at Mile End, just
+outside of one of the gates of London. In a discussion in which they
+stated their grievances, the king apparently in good faith, but as it
+afterward proved in bad, promised to give them what they demanded,
+begged them to disperse and go to their homes, only leaving
+representatives from each village to take back the charters of
+emancipation which he proceeded to have prepared and issued to them.
+There had been no intentional antagonism to the king himself, and a
+great part of the insurgents took him at his word and scattered to
+their homes. The charters which they took with them were of the
+following form:--
+
+"Richard, by the grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of
+Ireland, to all his bailiffs and faithful ones, to whom these present
+letters shall come, greeting. Know that of our special grace, we have
+manumitted all of our lieges and each of our subjects and others of
+the County of Hertford; and them and each of them have made free from
+all bondage, and by these presents make them quit. And moreover we
+pardon our same lieges and subjects for all kinds of felonies,
+treasons, transgressions, and extortions, however done or perpetrated
+by them or any of them, and also outlawry, if any shall have been
+promulgated on this account against them or any of them; and our most
+complete peace to them and each of them we concede in these matters.
+In testimony of which things we have caused these our letters to be
+made patent. Witness, myself, at London, on the fifteenth day of June,
+in the fourth year of our reign."
+
+The most prominent leaders remained behind, and a large body of
+rioters spent the rest of Friday and the following night in London.
+The king, after the interview at Mile End, had returned to the Tower,
+then to the Queen's Wardrobe, a little palace at the other side of
+London, where he spent the night with his mother. In the morning he
+mounted his horse, and with a small group of attendants rode toward
+the Tower. As he passed through the open square of Smithfield he met
+Wat Tyler, also on horseback, accompanied by the great body of rebels.
+Tyler rode forward to confer with the king, but an altercation having
+broken out between him and some of the king's attendants, the mayor of
+London, Sir William Walworth, suddenly dashed forward, struck him from
+his horse with the blow of a sword, and while on the ground he was
+stabbed to death by the other attendants of the king. There was a
+moment of extreme danger of an attack by the leaderless rebels on the
+king and his companions, but the ready promises of the king, his
+natural gifts of pretence, and the strange attachment which the
+peasants showed to him through all the troubles, tided over a little
+time until they had been led outside of the city gates, and the armed
+forces which many gentlemen had in their houses in the city had at
+last been gathered together and brought to where they had the
+disorganized body of rebels at their mercy. These were then disarmed,
+bidden to go to their homes, and a proclamation issued that if any
+stranger remained in London over Sunday he would pay for it with his
+life.
+
+The downfall of Tyler and the dispersion of the insurgents at London
+turned the tide of the whole revolt. In the various districts where
+disorders were in progress the news of that failure came as a blow to
+all their own hopes of success. The revolt had been already
+disintegrating rather than gaining in strength and unity; and now its
+leaders lost heart, and local bodies of gentry proportionately took
+courage to suppress revolt in their own localities. The most
+conspicuous and influential of such efforts was that of Henry de
+Spencer, bishop of Norwich. This warlike prelate was in Rutlandshire
+when the news of the revolt came. He hastened toward Norwich; on his
+way met an embassy from the rioters to the king; seized and beheaded
+two of its peasant members, and still pushing on met the great body of
+the rebels near Walsham, where after a short conflict and some
+parleying the latter were dispersed, and their leaders captured and
+hung without any ceremony other than the last rites of religion. As a
+matter of fact the rising had no cohesion sufficient to withstand
+attack from any constituted authority or from representatives of the
+dominant classes.
+
+The king's government acted promptly. On the 17th of June, two days
+after the death of Tyler, a proclamation was issued forbidding
+unauthorized gatherings of people; on the 23d a second, requiring all
+tenants, villains, and freemen alike to perform their usual services
+to their lords; and on the 2d of July a third, withdrawing the
+charters of pardon and manumission which had been granted on the 15th
+of June. Special sessions of the courts were organized in the
+rebellious districts, and the leaders of the revolt were searched out
+and executed by hanging or decapitation.
+
+On the 3d of November Parliament met. The king's treasurer explained
+that he had issued the charters under constraint, and recognizing
+their illegality, with the expectation of withdrawing them as soon as
+possible, which he had done. The suggestion of the king that the
+villains should be regularly enfranchised by a statute was declined in
+vigorous terms by Parliament. Laws were passed relieving all those who
+had made grants under compulsion from carrying them out, enabling
+those whose charters had been destroyed to obtain new ones under the
+great seal, granting exemption from prosecution to all who had
+exercised illegal violence in putting down the late insurrection, and
+finally granting a general pardon, though with many exceptions, to the
+late insurgents.
+
+Thus the rising of June, 1381, had become a matter of the past by the
+close of the year. The general conditions which brought about a
+popular uprising have already been discussed. The specific objects
+which the rioters had in view in each part of the country are a much
+more obscure and complicated question.
+
+There is no reason to believe that there was any general political
+object, other than opposition to the new and burdensome taxation, and
+disgust with the existing ministry. Nor was there any religious object
+in view. No doubt a large part of the disorder had no general purpose
+whatever, but consisted in an attempt, at a period of confusion and
+relaxation of the law, to settle by violence purely local or personal
+disputes and grievances.
+
+Apart from these considerations the objects of the rioters were of an
+economic nature. There was a general effort to destroy the rolls of
+the manor courts. These rolls, kept either in manor houses, or in the
+castles of great lords, or in the monasteries, were the record of the
+burdens and payments and disabilities of the villagers. Previous
+payments of heriot, relief, merchet, and fines, acknowledgments of
+serfdom, the obtaining of their land on burdensome conditions, were
+all recorded on the rolls and could be produced to prove the custom of
+the manor to the disadvantage of the tenant. It is true that these
+same rolls showed who held each piece of ground and defined the
+succession to it, and that they were long afterward to be recognized
+in the national courts as giving to the customary holder the right of
+retaining and of inheriting the land, so that it might seem an injury
+to themselves to destroy the manor court records. But in that period
+when tenants were in such demand their hold on their land had been in
+no danger of being disturbed. If these records were destroyed, the
+villains might well expect that they could claim to be practically
+owners of the houses and little groups of acres which they and their
+ancestors had held from time immemorial; and this without the
+necessity for payments and reservations to which the rolls testified.
+
+Again, lawyers and all connected with the law were the objects of
+special hostility on the part of insurgents. This must have been
+largely from the same general cause as that just mentioned. It was
+lawyers who acted as stewards for the great lords, it was through
+lawyers that the legal claims of lords of manors were enforced in the
+king's courts. It was also the judges and lawyers who put in force the
+statutes of laborers, and who so generally acted as collectors of the
+poll tax.
+
+More satisfactory relations with their lords were demanded by
+insurgents who were freeholders, as well as by those who were
+villains. Protests are recorded against the tolls on sales and
+purchases, and against attendance at the manorial courts, and a
+maximum limit to the rent of land is asked for. Finally, the removal
+of the burdens of serfdom was evidently one of the general objects of
+the rebels, though much of the initiative of the revolt was taken by
+men from Kent, where serfdom did not exist. The servitude of the
+peasantry is the burden of the sermon of John Ball at Blackheath, its
+abolition was demanded in several places by the insurgents, and the
+charters of emancipation as given by the king professed to make them
+"free from all bondage."
+
+These objects were in few if any cases obtained. It is extremely
+difficult to trace any direct results from the rising other than
+those involved in its failure, the punishment of the leaders, and the
+effort to restore everything to its former condition. There was indeed
+a conservative reaction in several directions. The authorities of
+London forbade the admission of any former villain to citizenship, and
+the Commons in Parliament petitioned the king to reduce the rights of
+villains still further. On the whole, the revolt is rather an
+illustration of the general fact that great national crises have left
+but a slight impress on society, while the important changes have
+taken place slowly and by an almost imperceptible development. The
+results of the rising are rather to be looked for in giving increased
+rapidity and definite direction to changes already in progress, than
+in starting any new movement or in obtaining the results which the
+insurgents may have wished.
+
+
+*31. Commutation of Services.*--One of these changes, already in
+progress long before the outbreak of the revolt, has already been
+referred to. A silent transformation was going on inside of the
+manorial life in the form of a gradual substitution of money payments
+by the villain tenants for the old labor for two, three, or four days
+a week, and at special times during the year. This was often described
+as "selling to the tenants their services." They "bought" their
+exemption from furnishing actual work by paying the value of it in
+money to the official representing the lord of the manor.
+
+This was a mutually advantageous arrangement. The villain's time would
+be worth more to himself than to his lord; for if he had sufficient
+land in his possession he could occupy himself profitably on it, or if
+he had not so much land he could choose his time for hiring himself
+out to the best advantage. The lord, on the other hand, obtained money
+which could be spent in paying men whose services would be more
+willing and interested, and who could be engaged at more available
+times. It is not, therefore, a matter of surprise that the practice of
+allowing tenants to pay for their services arose early. Commutation is
+noticeable as early as the thirteenth century and not very unusual in
+the first half of the fourteenth. After the pestilence, however, there
+was a very rapid substitution of money payments for labor payments.
+The process continued through the remainder of the fourteenth century
+and the early fifteenth, and by the middle of that century the
+enforcement of regular labor services had become almost unknown. The
+boon-works continued to be claimed after the week-work had
+disappeared, since labor was not so easy to obtain at the specially
+busy seasons of the year, and the required few days' services at
+ploughing or mowing or harvesting were correspondingly valuable. But
+even these were extremely unusual after the middle of the fifteenth
+century.
+
+This change was dependent on at least two conditions, an increased
+amount of money in circulation and an increased number of free
+laborers available for hire. These conditions were being more and more
+completely fulfilled. Trade at fairs and markets and in the towns was
+increasing through the whole fourteenth century. The increase of
+weaving and other handicrafts produced more wealth and trade. Money
+coming from abroad and from the royal mints made its way into
+circulation and came into the hands of the villain tenants, through
+the sale of surplus products or as payment for their labor. The sudden
+destruction of one-half of the population by the Black Death while the
+amount of money in the country remained the same, doubled the
+circulation _per capita_. Tenants were thus able to offer regular
+money payments to their lords in lieu of their personal services.
+
+During the same period the number of free laborers who could be hired
+to perform the necessary work on the demesne was increasing. Even
+before the pestilence there were men and women on every manor who held
+little or no land and who could be secured by the lord for voluntary
+labor if the compulsory labor of the villains was given up. Some of
+these laborers were fugitive villains who had fled from one manor to
+another to secure freedom, and this class became much more numerous
+under the circumstance of disorganization after the Black Death. Thus
+the second condition requisite for the extensive commutation was
+present also.
+
+It might be supposed that after the pestilence, when wages were high
+and labor was so hard to procure, lords of manors would be unwilling
+to allow further commutation, and would even try to insist on the
+performance of actual labor in cases where commutation had been
+previously allowed. Indeed, it has been very generally stated that
+there was such a reaction. The contrary, however, was the case.
+Commutation was never more rapid than in the generation immediately
+after the first attack of the pestilence. The laborers seem to have
+been in so favorable a position, that the dread of their flight was a
+controlling inducement to the lords to allow the commutation of their
+services if they desired it. The interest of the lords in their labor
+services was also, as will be seen, becoming less.
+
+When a villain's labor services had been commuted into money, his
+position must have risen appreciably. One of the main characteristics
+of his position as a villain tenant had been the uncertainty of his
+services, the fact that during the days in which he must work for his
+lord he could be put to any kind of labor, and that the number of days
+he must serve was itself only restricted by the custom of the manor
+His services once commuted into a definite sum of money, all
+uncertainty ceased. Moreover, his money payments to the lord, although
+rising from an entirely different source, were almost indistinguishable
+from the money rents paid by the freeholder. Therefore, serf though he
+might still be in legal status, his position was much more like that
+of a freeman.
+
+
+*32. The Abandonment of Demesne Farming.*--A still more important change
+than the commutation of services was in progress during the fourteenth
+and fifteenth centuries. This was the gradual withdrawal of the lords
+of manors from the cultivation of the demesne farms. From very early
+times it had been customary for lords of manors to grant out small
+portions of the demesne, or of previously uncultivated land, to
+tenants at a money rent. The great demesne farm, however, had been
+still kept up as the centre of the agricultural system of the vill.
+But now even this was on many manors rented out to a tenant or group
+of tenants. The earliest known instances are just at the beginning of
+the fourteenth century, but the labor troubles of the latter half of
+the century made the process more usual, and within the next hundred
+years the demesne lands seem to have been practically all rented out
+to tenants. In other words, whereas, during the earlier Middle Ages
+lords of manors had usually carried on the cultivation of the demesne
+lands themselves, under the administration of their bailiffs and with
+the labor of the villains, making their profit by obtaining a food
+supply for their own households or by selling the surplus products,
+now they gave up their cultivation and rented them out to some one
+else, making their profit by receiving a money payment as rent. They
+became therefore landlords of the modern type. A typical instance of
+this change is where the demesne land of the manor of Wilburton in
+Cambridgeshire, consisting of 246 acres of arable land and 42 acres
+of meadow, was rented in 1426 to one of the villain tenants of the
+manor for a sum of L8 a year. The person who took the land was usually
+either a free or a villain tenant of the same or a neighboring manor.
+The land was let only for a certain number of years, but afterward was
+usually relet either to the same or to another tenant. The word
+_farmer_ originally meant one of these tenants who took the demesne or
+some other piece of land, paying for it a "farm" or _firma_, that is,
+a settled established sum, in place of the various forms of profit
+that might have been secured from it by the lord of the manor. The
+free and villain holdings which came into the hands of the lord by
+failure of heirs in those times of frequent extinction of families
+were also granted out very generally at a money rent, so that a large
+number of the cultivators of the soil came to be tenants at a money
+rent, that is, lease-holders or "farmers." These free renting farmers,
+along with the smaller freeholders, made up the "yeomen" of England.
+
+
+*33. The Decay of Serfdom.*--It is in the changes discussed in the last
+two paragraphs that is to be found the key to the disappearance of
+serfdom in England. Men had been freed from villainage in individual
+cases by various means. Manumission of serfs had occurred from time to
+time through all the mediaeval centuries. It was customary in such
+cases either to give a formal charter granting freedom to the man
+himself and to his descendants, or to have entered on the manor court
+roll the fact of his obtaining his enfranchisement. Occasionally men
+were manumitted in order that they might be ordained as clergymen. In
+the period following the pestilences of the fourteenth century the
+difficulty in recruiting the ranks of the priesthood made the practice
+more frequent The charters of manumission issued by the king to the
+insurgents of 1381 would have granted freedom on a large scale had
+they not been disowned and subsequently withdrawn. Still other
+villains had obtained freedom by flight from the manors where they had
+been born. When a villain who had fled was discovered he could be
+reclaimed by the lord of the manor by obtaining a writ from the court,
+but many obstacles might be placed in the way of obtaining this writ,
+and it must always have involved so much difficulty as to make it
+doubtful whether it was worth while. So long as a villain was anywhere
+else than on the manor to which he belonged, he was practically a free
+man, but few of the disabilities of villainage existing except as
+between him and his own lord. Therefore, if a villain was willing to
+sacrifice his little holding and make the necessary break with his
+usual surroundings, he might frequently escape into a veritable
+freedom.
+
+The attitude of the common law was favorable to liberty as against
+servitude, and in cases of doubt the decisions of the royal courts
+were almost invariably favorable to the freedom of the villain.
+
+But all these possibilities of liberty were only for individual cases.
+Villainage as an institution continued to exist and to characterize
+the position of the mass of the peasantry. The number of freemen
+through the country was larger, but the serfdom of the great majority
+can scarcely have been much influenced by these individual cases. The
+commutation of services, however, and still more the abandonment of
+demesne farming by the lords of manors, were general causes conducive
+to freedom. The former custom indicated that the lords valued the
+money that could be paid by the villains more than they did their
+compulsory services. That is, villains whose services were paid for in
+money were practically renters of land from the lords, no  longer
+serfs on the land of the lords. The lord of the manor could still of
+course enforce his claim to the various payments and restrictions
+arising from the villainage of his tenants, but their position as
+payers of money was much less servile than as performers of forced
+labor. The willingness of the lords to accept money instead of service
+showed as before stated that there were other persons who could be
+hired to do the work. The villains were valued more as tenants now
+that there were others to serve as laborers. The occupants of
+customary holdings were a higher class and a class more worth the
+lord's consideration and favor than the mere laborers. The villains
+were thus raised into partial freedom by having a free class still
+below them.
+
+[Illustration: An Old Street in Worcester. (Britton: _Picturesque
+Antiquities of English Cities_.)]
+
+The effect of the relinquishment of the old demesne farms by the lords
+of the manors was still more influential in destroying serfdom. The
+lords had valued serfdom above all because it furnished an adequate
+and absolutely certain supply of labor. The villains had to stay on
+the manor and provide the labor necessary for the cultivation of the
+demesne. But if the demesne was rented out to a farmer or divided
+among several holders, the interest of the lord in the labor supply on
+the manor was very much diminished. Even if he agreed in his lease of
+the demesne to the new farmer that the villains should perform their
+customary services in as far as these had not been commuted, yet the
+farmer could not enforce this of himself, and the lord of the manor
+was probably languid or careless or dilatory in doing so. The other
+payments and burdens of serfdom were not so lucrative, and as the
+ranks of the old villain class were depleted by the extinction of
+families, and fewer inhabitants were bound to attend the manor courts,
+they became less so. It became, therefore, gradually more common, then
+quite universal, for the lords of manors to cease to enforce the
+requirements of serfdom. A legal relation of which neither party is
+reminded is apt to become obsolete; and that is what practically
+happened to serfdom in England. It is true that many persons were
+still legally serfs, and occasionally the fact of their serfdom was
+asserted in the courts or inferred by granting them manumission. These
+occasional enfranchisements continued down into the second half of the
+sixteenth century, and the claim that a certain man was a villain was
+pleaded in the courts as late as 1618. But long before this time
+serfdom had ceased to have much practical importance. It may be said
+that by the middle of the fifteenth century the mass of the English
+rural population were free men and no longer serfs. With their labor
+services commuted to money and the other conditions of their
+villainage no longer enforced, they became an indistinguishable part
+either of the yeomanry or of the body of agricultural laborers.
+
+[Illustration: Town Houses in the Fifteenth Century. (Wright, T.:
+_History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments_.)]
+
+
+*34. Changes in Town Life and Foreign Trade.*--The changes discussed in
+the last three sections apply in the main to rural life. The economic
+and social history of the towns during the same period, except in as
+far as it was part of the general national experience, consisted in a
+still more complete adoption of those characteristics which  have
+already been described in Chapter III. Their wealth and prosperity
+became greater, they were still more independent of the rural
+districts and of the central government, the intermunicipal character
+of their dealings, the closeness of connection between their
+industrial interests and their government, the completeness with which
+all occupations were organized under the "gild system," were all of
+them still more marked in 1450 than they had been in 1350. It is true
+that far-reaching changes were beginning, but they were only
+beginning, and did not reach an important development until a time
+later than that included in this chapter. The same thing is true in
+the field of foreign trade. The latter part of the fourteenth and the
+early fifteenth century saw a considerable increase and development of
+the trade of England, but it was still on the same lines and carried
+on by the same methods as before. The great proportion of it was in
+the hands of foreigners, and there was the same inconsistency in the
+policy of the central government on the occasions when it did
+intervene or take any action on the subject. The important changes in
+trade and in town life which have their beginning in this period will
+be discussed in connection with those of the next period in Chapter
+VI.
+
+
+*35. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Jessop, Augustus: _The Coming of the Friars and other Essays_. Two
+interesting essays in this volume are on _The Black Death in East
+Anglia_.
+
+Gasquet, F. A.: _The Great Pestilence of 1349_.
+
+Creighton, C.: _History of Epidemics in Britain_, two volumes. This
+gives especial attention to the nature of the disease.
+
+Trevelyan, G. M.: _England in the Age of Wycliffe_. This book,
+published in 1899, gives by far the fullest account of the Peasant
+Rising which has so far appeared in English.
+
+Petit-Dutaillis, C., et Reville, A.: _Le Soulevement des Travailleurs
+d'Angleterre en 1381_. The best account of the Rebellion.
+
+Powell, Edgar: _The Peasant Rising in East Anglia in 1381_. Especially
+valuable for its accounts of the poll tax.
+
+Powell, Edgar, and Trevelyan, G. M.: _Documents Illustrating the
+Peasants' Rising and the Lollards_.
+
+Page, Thomas Walker: _The End of Villainage in England_. This
+monograph, published in 1900, is particularly valuable for the new
+facts which it gives concerning the rural changes of the fourteenth
+century.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE BREAKING UP OF THE MEDIAEVAL SYSTEM
+
+Economic Changes Of The Later Fifteenth And The Sixteenth Centuries
+
+
+*36. National Affairs from 1461 to 1603.*--The close of the fifteenth
+and the opening of the sixteenth century has been by universal consent
+settled upon as the passage from one era to another, from the Middle
+Ages to modern times. This period of transition was marked in England
+by at least three great movements: a new type of intellectual life, a
+new ideal of government, and the Reformation. The greatest changes in
+English literature and intellectual interests are traceable to foreign
+influence. In the fifteenth century the paramount foreign influence
+was that of Italy. From the middle of the fifteenth century an
+increasing number of young Englishmen went to Italy to study, and
+brought back with them an interest in the study of Greek and of other
+subjects to which this led. Somewhat later the social intercourse of
+Englishmen with Italy exercised a corresponding influence on more
+courtly literature. In 1491 the teaching of Greek was begun at Oxford
+by Grocyn, and after this time the passion for classical learning
+became deep, widespread, and enthusiastic. But not only were the
+subjects of intellectual interest different, but the attitude of mind
+in the study of these subjects was much more critical than it had been
+in the Middle Ages. The discoveries of new routes to the far East and
+of America, as well as the new speculations in natural science which
+came at this time, reacted on the minds of men and broadened their
+whole mental outlook. The production of works of pure literature had
+suffered a decline after the time of Wycliffe and Chaucer, from which
+there was no considerable revival till the early part of the sixteenth
+century. Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_, written in Latin in 1514, was a
+philosophical work thrown into the form of a literary dialogue and
+description of an imaginary commonwealth. But writing became
+constantly more abundant and more varied through the reigns of Henry
+VIII, 1509-1547, Edward VI, 1547-1553, and Mary, 1553-1558, until it
+finally blossomed out into the splendid Elizabethan literature, just
+at the close of our period.
+
+A stronger royal government had begun with Edward IV. The conclusion
+of the war with France made the king's need for money less, and at the
+same time new sources of income appeared. Edward, therefore, from
+1461, neglected to call Parliament annually, as had been usual, and
+frequently allowed three or more years to go by without any
+consultation with it. He also exercised very freely what was called
+the dispensing power, that is, the power to suspend the law in certain
+cases, and in other ways asserted the royal prerogative as no previous
+king had done for two hundred years. But the true founder of the
+almost absolute monarchy of this period was Henry VII, who reigned
+from 1485 to 1509. He was not the nearest heir to the throne, but
+acted as the representative of the Lancastrian line, and by his
+marriage with the lady who represented the claim of the York family
+joined the two contending factions. He was the first of the Tudor
+line, his successors being his son, Henry VIII, and the three children
+of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. Henry VII was an able,
+shrewd, far-sighted, and masterful man. During his reign he put an
+end to the disorders of the nobility; made Parliament relatively
+insignificant by calling it even less frequently than Edward IV had
+done, and by initiating its legislation when it did meet. He also
+increased and regulated the income of the crown, and rendered its
+expenditures subject to control. He was able to keep ambassadors
+regularly abroad, for the first time, and in many other ways to
+support a more expensive administration, though often by unpopular and
+illegal means of extortion from the people. He formed foreign
+political and commercial treaties in all directions, and encouraged
+the voyages of the Cabots to America. He brought a great deal of
+business constantly before the Royal Council, but chose its members
+for their ability rather than for their high rank. In these various
+ways he created a strong personal government, which left but little
+room for Parliament or people to do anything except carry out his
+will. In these respects Henry's immediate successors and their
+ministers followed the same policy. In fact, the Reformation in the
+reign of Henry VIII, and new internal and foreign difficulties in the
+reign of Elizabeth, brought the royal power into a still higher and
+more independent position.
+
+The need for a general reformation of the church had long been
+recognized. More than one effort had been made by the ecclesiastical
+authorities to insist on higher intellectual and moral standards for
+the clergy and to rid the church of various evil customs and abuses.
+Again, there had been repeated efforts to clothe the king, who was at
+the head of all civil government, with extensive control and oversight
+of church affairs also. Men holding different views on questions of
+church government and religious belief from those held by the general
+Christian church in the Middle Ages, had written and taught and found
+many to agree with them. Thus efforts to bring about changes in the
+established church had not been wanting, but they had produced no
+permanent result. In the early years of the sixteenth century,
+however, several causes combined to bring about a movement of this
+nature extending over a number of years and profoundly affecting all
+subsequent history. This is known as the Reformation. The first steps
+of the Reformation in England were taken as the result of a dispute
+between King Henry VIII and the Pope. In the first place, several laws
+were passed through Parliament, beginning with the year 1529,
+abolishing a number of petty evils and abusive practices in the church
+courts. The Pope's income from England was then cut off, and his
+jurisdiction and all other forms of authority in England brought to an
+end. Finally, the supremacy of the king over the church and clergy and
+over all ecclesiastical affairs was declared and enforced. By the year
+1535 the ancient connection between the church in England and the Pope
+was severed. Thus in England, as in many continental countries at
+about the same time, a national church arose independent of Rome.
+Next, changes began to be made in the doctrine and practices of the
+church. The organization under bishops was retained, though they were
+now appointed by the king. Pilgrimages and the worship of saints were
+forbidden, the Bible translated into English, and other changes
+gradually introduced. The monastic life came under the condemnation of
+the reformers. The monasteries were therefore dissolved and their
+property confiscated and sold, between the years 1536 and 1542. In the
+reign of Edward VI, 1547-1553, the Reformation was carried much
+further. An English prayerbook was issued which was to be used in all
+religious worship, the adornments of the churches were removed, the
+services made more simple, and doctrines introduced which assimilated
+the church of England to the contemporary Protestant churches on the
+Continent.
+
+Queen Mary, who had been brought up in the Roman faith, tried to make
+England again a Roman Catholic country, and in the later years of her
+reign encouraged severe persecutions, causing many to be burned at the
+stake, in the hope of thus crushing out heresy. After her death,
+however, in 1558, Queen Elizabeth adopted a more moderate position,
+and the church of England was established by law in much the form it
+had possessed at the death of Henry VIII.
+
+In the meantime, however, there had been growing up a far more
+spontaneous religious movement than the official Reformation which has
+just been described. Many thousands of persons had become deeply
+interested in religion and enthusiastic in their faith, and had come
+to hold different views on church government, doctrines, and practices
+from those approved of either by the Roman Catholic church or by the
+government of England. Those who held such views were known as
+Puritans, and throughout the reign of Elizabeth were increasing in
+numbers and making strenuous though unsuccessful efforts to introduce
+changes in the established church.
+
+The reign of Elizabeth was marked not only by the continuance of royal
+despotism, by brilliant literary production, and by the struggle of
+the established church against the Catholics on the one side and the
+Puritans on the other, but by difficult and dangerous foreign
+relations.
+
+More than once invasion by the continental powers was imminent.
+Elizabeth was threatened with deposition by the English adherents of
+Mary, Queen of Scots, supported by France and Spain. The English
+government pursued a policy of interference in the internal conflicts
+of other countries that brought it frequently to the verge of war with
+their governments and sometimes beyond. Hostility bordering on open
+warfare was therefore the most frequent condition of English foreign
+relations. Especially was this true of the relations with Spain. The
+most serious contest with that country was the war which culminated in
+the battle of the Armada in 1588. Spain had organized an immense fleet
+which was intended to go to the Netherlands and convoy an army to be
+taken thence for the invasion of England. While passing through the
+English Channel, a storm broke upon them, they were attacked and
+harried by the English and later by the Dutch, and the whole fleet was
+eventually scattered and destroyed. The danger of invasion was greatly
+reduced after this time and until the end of Elizabeth's reign in
+1603.
+
+
+*37. Enclosures.*--The century and a half which extends from the middle
+years of the fifteenth century to the close of the sixteenth was, as
+has been shown, a period remarkable for the extent and variety of its
+changes in almost every aspect of society. In the political,
+intellectual, and religious world the sixteenth century seemed far
+removed from the fifteenth. It is not therefore a matter of surprise
+that economic changes were numerous and fundamental, and that social
+organization in town and country alike was completely transformed.
+
+During the period last discussed, the fourteenth and the early
+fifteenth century, the manorial system had changed very considerably
+from its mediaeval form. The demesne lands had been quite generally
+leased to renting farmers, and a new class of tenants was consequently
+becoming numerous; serfdom had fallen into decay; the old manorial
+officers, the steward, the bailiff, and the reeve had fallen into
+unimportance; the manor courts were not so active, so regular, or so
+numerously attended. These changes were gradual and were still
+uncompleted at the middle of the fifteenth century; but there was
+already showing itself a new series of changes, affecting still other
+parts of manorial life, which became steadily more extensive during
+the remainder of the fifteenth and through much of the sixteenth
+century. These changes are usually grouped under the name
+"enclosures."
+
+The enclosure of land previously open was closely connected with the
+increase of sheep-raising. The older form of agriculture,
+grain-raising, labored under many difficulties. The price of labor was
+high, there had been no improvement in the old crude methods of
+culture, nor, in the open fields and under the customary rules, was
+there opportunity to introduce any. On the other hand, the inducements
+to sheep-raising were numerous. There was a steady demand at good
+prices for wool, both for export, as of old, and for the manufactures
+within England, which were now increasing. Sheep-raising required
+fewer hands and therefore high wages were less an obstacle, and it
+gave opportunity for the investment of capital and for comparative
+freedom from the restrictions of local custom. Therefore, instead of
+raising sheep simply as a part of ordinary farming, lords of manors,
+freeholders, farming tenants, and even customary tenants began here
+and there to raise sheep for wool as their principal or sole
+production. Instances are mentioned of five thousand, ten thousand,
+twenty thousand, and even twenty-four thousand sheep in the possession
+of a single person. This custom spread more and more widely, and so
+attracted the attention of observers as to be frequently mentioned in
+the laws and literature of the time.
+
+[Illustration: Partially enclosed Fields of Cuxham, Oxfordshire, 1767.
+(Facsimile map, published by the University of Oxford.)]
+
+But sheep could not be raised to any considerable extent on land
+divided according to the old open field system. In a vill whose fields
+all lay open, sheep must either be fed with those of other men on
+the common pasture, or must be kept in small groups by shepherds
+within the confines of the various acres or other small strips of the
+sheep-raiser's holding. No large number could of course be kept in
+this way, so the first thing to be done by the sheep-raiser was to get
+enough strips together in one place to make it worth while to put a
+hedge or other fence around them, or else to separate off in the same
+way a part or the whole of the open pastures or meadows. This was the
+process known as enclosing. Separate enclosed fields, which had
+existed only occasionally in mediaeval farming, became numerous in this
+time, as they have become practically universal in modern farming in
+English-speaking countries.
+
+But it was ordinarily impracticable to obtain groups of adjacent acres
+or sufficiently extensive rights on the common pasture for enclosing
+without getting rid of some of the other tenants. In this way
+enclosing led to evictions. Either the lord of the manor or some one
+or more of the tenants enclosed the lands which they had formerly held
+and also those which were formerly occupied by some other holders, who
+were evicted from their land for this purpose.
+
+Some of the tenants must have been protected in their holdings by the
+law. As early as 1468 Chief Justice Bryan had declared that "tenant by
+the custom is as well inheritor to have his land according to the
+custom as he which hath a freehold at the common law." Again, in 1484,
+another chief justice declared that a tenant by custom who continued
+to pay his service could not be ejected by the lord of the manor. Such
+tenants came to be known as copyholders, because the proof of their
+customary tenure was found in the manor court rolls, from which a copy
+was taken to serve as a title. Subsequently copyhold became one of
+the most generally recognized forms of land tenure in England, and
+gave practically as secure title as did a freehold. At this time,
+however, notwithstanding the statements just given, the law was
+probably not very definite or not very well understood, and customary
+tenants may have had but little practical protection of the law
+against eviction. Moreover, the great body of the small tenants were
+probably no longer genuine customary tenants. The great proportion of
+small farms had probably not been inherited by a long line of tenants,
+but had repeatedly gone back into the hands of the lords of the manors
+and been subsequently rented out again, with or without a lease, to
+farmers or rent-paying tenants. These were in most cases probably the
+tenants who were now evicted to make room for the new enclosed sheep
+farms.
+
+By these enclosures and evictions in some cases the open lands of
+whole vills were enclosed, the old agriculture came to an end, and as
+the enclosers were often non-residents, the whole farming population
+disappeared from the village. Since sheep-raising required such a
+small number of laborers, the farm laborers also had to leave to seek
+work elsewhere, and the whole village, therefore, was deserted, the
+houses fell into ruin, and the township lost its population entirely.
+This was commonly spoken of at the time as "the decaying of towns,"
+and those who were responsible for it were denounced as enemies of
+their country. In most cases, however, the enclosures and depopulation
+were only partial. A number of causes combined to carry this movement
+forward. England was not yet a wealthy country, but such capital as
+existed, especially in the towns, was utilized and made remunerative
+by investment in the newly enclosed farms and in carrying on the
+expenses of enclosure. The dissolution of the monasteries between 1536
+and 1542 brought the lands which they had formerly held into the
+possession of a class of men who were anxious to make them as
+remunerative as possible, and who had no feeling against enclosures.
+
+Nevertheless, the changes were much disapproved. Sir Thomas More
+condemns them in the _Utopia_, as do many other writers of the same
+period and of the reign of Elizabeth. The landlords, the enclosers,
+the city merchants who took up country lands, were preached against
+and inveighed against by such preachers as Latimer, Lever, and Becon,
+and in a dozen or more pamphlets still extant. The government also put
+itself into opposition to the changes which were in progress. It was
+believed that there was danger of a reduction of the population and
+thus of a lack of soldiers; it was feared that not enough grain would
+be raised to provide food for the people; the dangerous masses of
+wandering beggars were partly at least recruited from the evicted
+tenants; there was a great deal of discontent in the country due to
+the high rents, lack of occupation, and general dislike of change. A
+series of laws were therefore carried through Parliament and other
+measures taken, the object of which was to put a stop to the increase
+of sheep-farming and its results. In 1488 a statute was enacted
+prohibiting the turning of tillage land into pasture. In 1514 a new
+law was passed reenacting this and requiring the repair by their
+owners of any houses which had fallen into decay because of the
+substitution of pasture for tillage, and their reoccupation with
+tenants. In 1517 a commission of investigation into enclosures was
+appointed by the government. In 1518 the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal
+Wolsey, issued a proclamation requiring all those who had enclosed
+lands since 1509 to throw them open again, or else give proof that
+their enclosure was for the public advantage. In 1534 the earlier
+laws were reenacted and a further provision made that no person
+holding rented lands should keep more than twenty-four hundred sheep.
+In 1548 a new commission on enclosures was appointed which made
+extensive investigations, instituted prosecutions, and recommended new
+legislation. A law for more careful enforcement was passed in 1552,
+and the old laws were reenacted in 1554 and 1562. This last law was
+repealed in 1593, but in 1598 others were enacted and later extended.
+In 1624, however, all the laws on the subject were repealed. As a
+matter of fact, the laws seem to have been generally ineffective. The
+nobility and gentry were in the main in favor of the enclosures, as
+they increased their rents even when they were not themselves the
+enclosers; and it was through these classes that legislation had to be
+enforced at this time if it was to be effective.
+
+[Illustration: Sixteenth Century Manor House and Village, Maddingley,
+Cambridgeshire. Nichols: _Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_.]
+
+Besides the official opposition of the government, there were
+occasional instances of rioting or violent destruction of hedges and
+other enclosures by the people who felt themselves aggrieved by them.
+Three times these riots rose to the height of an insurrection. In 1536
+the so-called "Pilgrimage of Grace" was a rising of the people partly
+in opposition to the introduction of the Reformation, partly in
+opposition to enclosures. In 1549 a series of risings occurred, the
+most serious of which was the "camp" under Kett in Norfolk, and in
+1552 again there was an insurrection in Buckinghamshire. These risings
+were harshly repressed by the government. The rural changes,
+therefore, progressed steadily, notwithstanding the opposition of the
+law, of certain forms of public opinion, and of the violence of mobs.
+Probably enclosures more or less complete were made during this period
+in as many as half the manors of England. They were at their height in
+the early years of the sixteenth century, during its latter half
+they were not so numerous, and by its close the enclosing movement had
+about run its course, at least for the time.
+
+
+*38. Internal Divisions in the Craft Gilds.*--Changes in town life
+occurred during this period corresponding quite closely to the
+enclosures and their results in the country. These consisted in the
+decay of the gilds, the dispersion of certain town industries through
+the rural districts, and the loss of prosperity of many of the old
+towns. In the earlier craft gilds each man had normally been
+successively an apprentice, a journeyman, and a full master craftsman,
+with a little establishment of his own and full participation in the
+administration of the fraternity. There was coming now to be a class
+of artisans who remained permanently employed and never attained to
+the position of master craftsmen. This was sometimes the result of a
+deliberate process of exclusion on the part of those who were already
+masters. In 1480, for instance, a new set of ordinances given to the
+Mercers' Gild of Shrewsbury declares that the fines assessed on
+apprentices at their entry to be masters had been excessive and should
+be reduced. Similarly, the Oxford Town Council in 1531 restricts the
+payment required from any person who should come to be a full brother
+of any craft in that town to twenty shillings, a sum which would equal
+perhaps fifty dollars in modern value. In the same year Parliament
+forbade the collection of more than two shillings and sixpence from
+any apprentice at the time of his apprenticeship, and of more than
+three shillings and fourpence when he enters the trade fully at the
+expiration of his time. This indicates that the fines previously
+charged must have been almost prohibitive. In some trades the masters
+required apprentices at the time of indenture to take an oath that
+they would not set up independent establishments when they had
+fulfilled the years of their apprenticeship, a custom which was
+forbidden by Parliament in 1536. In other cases it was no doubt the
+lack of sufficient capital and enterprise which kept a large number of
+artisans from ever rising above the class of journeymen.
+
+Under these circumstances the journeymen evidently ceased to feel that
+they enjoyed any benefits from the organized crafts, for they began to
+form among themselves what are generally described as "yeomen gilds"
+or "journeymen gilds." At first the masters opposed such bodies and
+the city officials supported the old companies by prohibiting the
+journeymen from holding assemblies, wearing a special livery, or
+otherwise acting as separate bodies. Ultimately, however, they seem to
+have made good their position, and existed in a number of different
+crafts in more or less subordination to the organizations of the
+masters. The first mention of such bodies is soon after the Peasants'
+Rebellion, but in most cases the earliest rise of a journeyman gild in
+any industry was in the latter part of the fifteenth or in the
+sixteenth century. They were organizations quite similar to the older
+bodies from which they were a split, except that they had of course no
+general control over the industry. They had, however, meetings,
+officers, feasts, and charitable funds. In addition to these functions
+there is reason to believe that they made use of their organization to
+influence the rate of wages and to coerce other journeymen. Their
+relations to the masters' companies were frequently defined by regular
+written agreements between the two parties. Journeymen gilds existed
+among the saddlers, cordwainers, tailors, blacksmiths, carpenters,
+drapers, ironmongers, founders, fishmongers, cloth-workers, and
+armorers in London, among the weavers in Coventry, the tailors in
+Exeter and in Bristol, the shoemakers in Oxford, and no doubt in some
+other trades in these and other towns.
+
+Among the masters also changes were taking place in the same
+direction. Instead of all master artisans or tradesmen in any one
+industry holding an equal position and taking an equal part in the
+administration of affairs of the craft, there came, at least in some
+of the larger companies, to be quite distinct groups usually described
+as those "of the livery" and those "not of the livery." The expression
+no doubt arose from the former class being the more well-to-do and
+active masters who had sufficient means to purchase the suits of
+livery worn on state occasions, and who in other ways were the leading
+and controlling members of the organization. This came, before the
+close of the fifteenth century, in many crafts to be a recognized
+distinction of class or station in the company. A statement of the
+members in one of the London fraternities made in 1493 gives a good
+instance of this distinction of classes, as well as of the subordinate
+body last described. There were said to be at that date in the
+Drapers' Company of the craft of drapers in the clothing, including
+the masters and four wardens, one hundred and fourteen, of the
+brotherhood out of the clothing one hundred and fifteen, of the
+bachelors' company sixty. It was from this prominence of the liveried
+gildsmen, that the term "Livery Companies" came to be applied to the
+greater London gilds. It was the wealthy merchants and the craftsmen
+of the livery of the various fraternities who rode in procession to
+welcome kings or ambassadors at their entrance into the city, to add
+lustre to royal wedding ceremonies, or give dignity to other state
+occasions. In 1483 four hundred and six members of livery companies
+riding in mulberry colored coats attended the coronation procession of
+Richard III. The mayors and sheriffs and aldermen of London were
+almost always livery men in one or another of the companies. A
+substantial fee had usually to be paid when a member was chosen into
+the livery, which again indicates that they were the wealthier
+members. Those of the livery controlled the policy of the gild to the
+exclusion of the less conspicuous members, even though these were also
+independent masters with journeymen and apprentices of their own.
+
+But the practical administration of the affairs of the wealthier
+companies came in many cases to be in the hands of a still smaller
+group of members. This group was often known as the "Court of
+Assistants," and consisted of some twelve, twenty, or more members who
+possessed higher rights than the others, and, with the wardens or
+other officials, decided disputes, negotiated with the government or
+other authorities, disposed of the funds, and in other ways governed
+the organized craft or trade. At a general meeting of the members of
+the Mercers of London, for instance, on July 23, 1463, the following
+resolution was passed: "It is accorded that for the holding of many
+courts and congregations of the fellowship, it is odious and grievous
+to the body of the fellowship and specially for matters of no great
+effect, that hereafter yearly shall be chosen and associated to the
+wardens for the time being twelve other sufficient persons to be
+assistants to the said wardens, and all matters by them finished to be
+holden firm and stable, and the fellowship to abide by them." Sixteen
+years later these assistants with the wardens were given the right to
+elect their successors.
+
+Thus before the close of the sixteenth century the craft and trading
+organizations had gone through a very considerable internal change. In
+the fourteenth century they had been bodies of masters of
+approximately equal position, in which the journeymen participated in
+some of the elements of membership, and would for the most part in due
+time become masters and full members. Now the journeymen had become
+for the most part a separate class, without prospect of mastership.
+Among the masters themselves a distinct division between the more and
+the less wealthy had taken place, and an aristocratic form of
+government had grown up which put the practical control of each of the
+companies in the hands of a comparatively small, self-perpetuating
+ruling body. These developments were all more marked, possibly some of
+them were only true, in the case of the London companies. London,
+also, so far as known, is the only English town in which the companies
+were divided into two classes, the twelve "Greater Companies," and the
+fifty or more "Lesser Companies"; the former having practical control
+of the government of the city, the latter having no such influence.
+
+
+*39. Change of Location of Industries.*--The changes described above
+were, as has been said, the result of development from within the
+craft and trading organizations themselves, resulting probably in the
+main from increasing wealth. There were other contemporary changes in
+these companies which were rather the result of external influences.
+One of these external factors was the old difficulty which arose from
+artisans and traders who were not members of the organized companies.
+There had always been men who had carried on work surreptitiously
+outside of the limits of the authorized organizations of their
+respective industries. They had done this from inability or
+unwillingness to conform to the requirements of gild membership, or
+from a desire to obtain more employment by underbidding in price, or
+additional profit by using unapproved materials or methods. Most of
+the bodies of ordinances mention such workmen and traders, men who
+have not gone through a regular apprenticeship, "foreigners" who have
+come in from some other locality and are not freemen of the city where
+they wish to work, irresponsible men who will not conform to the
+established rules of the trade. This class of persons was becoming
+more numerous through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
+notwithstanding the efforts of the gilds, supported by municipal and
+national authority. The prohibition of any workers setting up business
+in a town unless they had previously obtained the approval of the
+officials of their trade was more and more vigorous in the later
+ordinances; the fines imposed upon masters who engaged journeymen who
+had not paid the dues, newcomers into the town, were higher. The
+complaints of the intrusion of outsiders were more loud and frequent.
+There was evidently more unsupervised, unregulated labor.
+
+But the increase in the number of these unorganized laborers, these
+craftsmen and traders not under the control of the gilds, was most
+marked in the rural districts, that is to say, in market towns and in
+villages entirely outside of the old manufacturing and trading
+centres. Even in the fourteenth century there were a number of
+weavers, and probably of other craftsmen, who worked in the villages
+in the vicinity of the larger towns, such as London, Norwich, and
+York, and took their products to be sold on fair or market days in
+these towns. But toward the end of the fifteenth century this rural
+labor received a new kind of encouragement and a corresponding
+extension far beyond anything before existing. The English
+cloth-making industry at this period was increasing rapidly. Whereas
+during the earlier periods, as we have seen, wool was the greatest of
+English exports, now it was coming to be manufactured within the
+country. In connection with this manufacture a new kind of industrial
+organization began to show itself which, when it was completed,
+became known as the "domestic system." A class of merchants or
+manufacturers arose who are spoken of as "clothiers," or "merchant
+clothiers," who bought the wool or other raw material, and gave it out
+to carders or combers, spinners, weavers, fullers, and other
+craftsmen, paying them for their respective parts in the process of
+manufacture, and themselves disposing of the product at home or for
+export. The clothiers were in this way a new class of employers,
+putting the master weavers or other craftsmen to work for wages. The
+latter still had their journeymen and apprentices, but the initiative
+in their industry was taken by the merchants, who provided the raw
+material and much of the money capital, and took charge of the sale of
+the completed goods. The craftsmen who were employed in this form of
+industry did not usually dwell in the old populous and wealthy towns.
+It is probable that the restrictions of the gild ordinances were
+disadvantageous both to the clothiers and to the small master
+craftsmen, and that the latter, as well as journeymen who had no
+chance to obtain an independent position, now that the town craft
+organizations were under the control of the more wealthy members, were
+very ready to migrate to rural villages. Thus, in as far as the
+weaving industry was growing up under the management of the employing
+clothiers, it was slipping out from under the control of the town
+gilds by its location in the country. The same thing occurred in other
+cases, even without the intermediation of a new employing class. We
+hear of mattress makers, of rope makers, of tile makers, and other
+artisans establishing themselves in the country villages outside of
+the towns, where, as a law of 1495 says, "the wardens have no power or
+authority to make search." In certain parts of England, in the
+southwest, the west, and the northwest, independent weavers now set up
+for themselves in rural districts as those of the eastern counties
+had long done, buying their own raw materials, bringing their
+manufactures to completion, and then taking them to the neighboring
+towns and markets to sell, or hawking them through the rural
+districts.
+
+These changes, along with others occurring simultaneously, led to a
+considerable diminution of the prosperity of many of the large towns.
+They were not able to pay their usual share of taxation, the
+population of some of them declined, whole streets or quarters, when
+destroyed by fire or other catastrophe, were left unbuilt and in
+ruins. Many of the largest and oldest towns of England are mentioned
+in the statutes of the reign of Henry VIII as being more or less
+depleted in population. The laws and literature of the time are
+ringing with complaints of the "decay of the towns," where the
+reference is to cities, as well as where it is to rural villages.
+Certain new towns, it is true, were rising into greater importance,
+and certain rural districts were becoming populous with this body of
+artisans whose living was made partly by their handicraft, partly by
+small farming. Nevertheless the old city craft organizations were
+permanently weakened and impoverished by thus losing control of such a
+large proportion of their various industries. The occupations which
+were carried on in the country were pursued without supervision by the
+gilds. They retained control only of that part of industry which was
+still carried on in the towns.
+
+
+*40. The Influence of the Government on the Gilds.*--Internal divisions
+and external changes in the distribution of industry were therefore
+alike tending to weaken the gild organization. It had to suffer also
+from the hostility or intrusion of the national government. Much of
+the policy of the government tended, it is true, as in the case of the
+enclosures, to check the changes in progress, and thus to protect the
+gild system. It has been seen that laws were passed to prohibit the
+exclusion of apprentices and journeymen from full membership in the
+crafts. As early as 1464 a law was passed to regulate the growing
+system of employment of craftsmen by clothiers. This was carried
+further in a law of 1511, and further still in 1551 and 1555. The
+manufacture of rope in the country parts of Dorsetshire was prohibited
+and restricted to the town of Bridport in 1529; the cloth manufacture
+which was growing up through the "hamlets, thorps, and villages" in
+Worcestershire was forbidden in 1553 to be carried on except in the
+five old towns of Worcester, Evesham, Droitwich, Kidderminster, and
+Bromsgrove; in 1543 it was enacted that coverlets were not to be
+manufactured in Yorkshire outside of the city of York, and there was
+still further legislation in the same direction. Numerous acts were
+also passed for the purpose of restoring the populousness of the
+towns. There is, however, little reason to believe that these laws had
+much more effect in preventing the narrowing of the control of the
+gilds and the scattering of industries from the towns to the country
+than the various laws against enclosures had, and the latter object
+was practically surrendered by the numerous exceptions to it in laws
+passed in 1557, 1558, and 1575. All the laws favoring the older towns
+were finally repealed in 1623.
+
+Another class of laws may seem to have favored the craft
+organizations. These were the laws regulating the carrying on of
+various industries, in some of which the enforcement of the laws was
+intrusted to the gild authorities. The statute book during the
+sixteenth century is filled with laws "for the true making of pins,"
+"for the making of friezes and cottons in Wales," "for the true
+currying of leather," "for the making of iron gads," "for setting
+prices on wines," for the regulation of the coopers, the tanners, the
+makers of woollen cloth, the dyers, the tallow chandlers, the saddlers
+and girdlers, and dozens of other occupations. But although in many of
+these laws the wardens of the appropriate crafts are given authority
+to carry out the requirements of the statute, either of themselves or
+along with the town officials or the justices of the peace; yet, after
+all, it is the rules established by government that they are to carry
+out, not their own rules, and in many of the statutes the craft
+authorities are entirely ignored. This is especially true of the
+"Statute of Apprentices," passed in the fifth year of the reign of
+Queen Elizabeth, 1563. This great industrial code, which remained on
+the statute book for two hundred and fifty years, being repealed only
+in 1813, was primarily a reenactment of the statutes of laborers,
+which had been continued from time to time ever since their
+introduction in 1349. It made labor compulsory and imposed on the
+justices of the peace the duty of meeting in each locality once a year
+to establish wages for each kind of industry. It required a seven
+years' apprenticeship for every person who should engage in any trade;
+established a working day of twelve hours in summer and during
+daylight in winter; and enacted that all engagements, except those for
+piece work, should be by the year, with six months' notice of a close
+of the contract by either employer or employee. By this statute all
+the relations between master and journeyman and the rules of
+apprenticeship were regulated by the government instead of by the
+individual craft gilds. It is evident that the old trade organizations
+were being superseded in much of their work by the national
+government. Freedom of action was also restricted by the same power in
+other respects also. As early as 1436 a law had been passed,
+declaring that the ordinances made by the gilds were in many cases
+unreasonable and injurious, requiring them to submit their existing
+ordinances to the justices at Westminster, and prohibiting them from
+issuing any new ones until they had received the approval of these
+officials. There is no indication of the enforcement of this law. In
+1504, however, it was reenacted with the modification that approval
+might be sought from the justices on circuit. In 1530 the same
+requirement was again included in the law already referred to
+prohibiting excessive entrance fees. As the independent legislation of
+the gilds for their industries was already much restricted by the town
+governments, their remaining power to make rules for themselves must
+now have been very slight. Their power of jurisdiction was likewise
+limited by a law passed in 1504, prohibiting the companies from making
+any rule forbidding their members to appeal to the ordinary national
+courts in trade disputes.
+
+[Illustration: Residence of Chantry Priests of Altar of St. Nicholas,
+near Lincoln Cathedral. (_Domestic Architecture in the Fourteenth
+Century._)]
+
+But the heaviest blow to the gilds on the part of the government came
+in 1547, as a result of the Reformation. Both the organizations formed
+for the control of the various industries, the craft gilds, and those
+which have been described in Chapter III as non-industrial, social, or
+religious gilds, had property in their possession which had been
+bequeathed or given to them by members on condition that the gild
+would always support or help to support a priest, should see that mass
+was celebrated for the soul of the donor and his family, should keep a
+light always burning before a certain shrine, or for other religious
+objects. These objects were generally looked upon as superstitious by
+the reformers who became influential under Edward VI, and in the first
+year of his reign a statute was passed which confiscated to the crown,
+to be used for educational or other purposes, all the properly of
+every kind of the purely religious and social gilds, and that part of
+the property of the craft gilds which was employed by them for
+religious purposes. One of the oldest forms of voluntary organization
+in England therefore came to an end altogether, and one of the
+strongest bonds which had held the members of the craft gilds together
+as social bodies was removed. After this time the companies had no
+religious functions, and were besides deprived of a considerable
+proportion of their wealth. This blow fell, moreover, just at a time
+when all the economic influences were tending toward their weakening
+or actual disintegration.
+
+[Illustration: Monastery turned into a Farmhouse, Dartford Priory,
+Kent. Nichols: _Progresses of Queen Elizabeth_.]
+
+The trade and craft companies of London, like those of other towns,
+were called upon at first to pay over to the government annually the
+amount which they had before used for religious purposes. Three years
+after the confiscation they were required to pay a lump sum
+representing the capitalized value of this amount, estimated for the
+London companies at L20,000. In order to do so they were of course
+forced to sell or mortgage much of their land. That which they
+succeeded in retaining, however, or bought subsequently was relieved
+of all government charges, and being situated for the most part in the
+heart of London, ultimately became extremely valuable and is still in
+their possession. So far have the London companies, however, departed
+from their original purpose that their members have long ceased to
+have any connection with the occupations from which the bodies take
+their names.
+
+
+*41. General Causes and Evidences of the Decay of the Gilds.*--An
+analogous narrowing of the interests of the crafts occurred in the
+form of a cessation of the mystery plays. Dramatic shows continued to
+be brought out yearly by the crafts in many towns well into the
+sixteenth century. It is to be noticed, however, that this was no
+longer done spontaneously. The town governments insisted that the
+pageants should be provided as of old, and on the approach of Corpus
+Christi day, or whatever festival was so celebrated in the particular
+town, instructions were given for their production, pecuniary help
+being sometimes provided to assist the companies in their expense. The
+profit which came to the town from the influx of visitors to see the
+pageants was a great inducement to the town government to  insist on
+their continuance. On the other hand, the competition of dramas played
+by professional actors tended no doubt to hasten the effect of the
+impoverishment and loss of vitality of the gilds. In the last half of
+the sixteenth century the mystery plays seem to have come finally to
+an end.
+
+Thus the gilds lost the unity of their membership, were weakened by
+the growth of industry outside of their sphere of control, superseded
+by the government in many of their economic functions, deprived of
+their administrative, legislative, and jurisdictional freedom, robbed
+of their religious duties and of the property which had enabled them
+to fulfil them, and no longer possessed even the bond of their
+dramatic interests. So the fraternities which had embodied so much of
+the life of the people of the towns during the thirteenth, fourteenth,
+and fifteenth centuries now came to include within their organization
+fewer and fewer persons and to affect a smaller and smaller part of
+their interests. Although the companies continued to exist into later
+times, yet long before the close of the period included in this
+chapter they had become relatively inconspicuous and insignificant.
+
+One striking evidence of their diminished strength, and apparently a
+last effort to keep the gild organization in existence, is the curious
+combination or consolidation of the companies under the influence of
+the city governments. Numerous instances of the combination of several
+trades are to be found in the records of every town, as for instance
+the "company of goldsmiths and smiths and others their brethren," at
+Hull in 1598, which consisted of goldsmiths, smiths, pewterers,
+plumbers and glaziers, painters, cutlers, musicians, stationers and
+bookbinders, and basket-makers. A more striking instance is to be
+found in Ipswich in 1576, where the various occupations were all drawn
+up into four companies, as follows: (1) The Mercers; including the
+mariners, shipwrights, bookbinders, printers, fishmongers,
+sword-setters, cooks, fletchers, arrowhead-makers, physicians,
+hatters, cappers, mercers, merchants, and several others. (2) The
+Drapers; including the joiners, carpenters, innholders, freemasons,
+bricklayers, tilers, carriers, casket-makers, surgeons, clothiers, and
+some others. (3) The Tailors; including the cutlers, smiths, barbers,
+chandlers, pewterers, minstrels, peddlers, plumbers, pinners, millers,
+millwrights, coopers, shearmen, glaziers, turners, tinkers, tailors,
+and others. (4) The Shoemakers; including the curriers, collar-makers,
+saddlers, pointers, cobblers, skinners, tanners, butchers, carters,
+and laborers. Each of these four companies was to have an alderman and
+two wardens, and all outsiders who came to the town and wished to set
+up trade were to be placed by the town officials in one or the other
+of the four companies. The basis of union in some of these
+combinations was evidently the similarity of their occupations, as the
+various workers in leather among the "Shoemakers." In other cases
+there is no such similarity, and the only foundation that can be
+surmised for the particular grouping is the contiguity of the streets
+where the greatest number of particular artisans lived, or their
+proportionate wealth. Later, this process reached its culmination in
+such a case as that of Preston in 1628, where all the tradesmen of the
+town were organized as one company or fraternity called "The Wardens
+and Company of Drapers, Mercers, Grocers, Salters, Ironmongers, and
+Haberdashers." The craft and trading gilds in their mediaeval character
+had evidently come to an end.
+
+
+*42. The Growth of Native Commerce.*--The most distinctive
+characteristic of English foreign trade down to the middle of the
+fifteenth century consisted in the fact that it had been entirely in
+the hands of foreigners. The period under discussion saw it
+transferred with quite as great completeness to the hands of
+Englishmen. Even before 1450 trading vessels had occasionally been
+sent out from the English seaport towns on more or less extensive
+voyages, carrying out English goods, and bringing back those of other
+countries or of other parts of England. These vessels sometimes
+belonged to the town governments, sometimes to individual merchants.
+This kind of enterprise became more and more common. Individual
+merchants grew famous for the number and size of their ships and the
+extent of their trade; as for instance, William Canynges of Bristol,
+who in 1461 had ten vessels at sea, or Sturmys of the same town, who
+at about the same time sent the first English vessel to trade with the
+eastern Mediterranean, or John Taverner of Hull, who built in 1449 a
+new type of vessel modelled on the carracks of Genoa and the galleys
+of Venice. In the middle of the fourteenth century the longest list of
+merchants of any substance that could be drawn up contained only 169
+names. At the beginning of the sixteenth century there were at least
+3000 merchants engaged in foreign trade, and in 1601 there were about
+3500 trading to the Netherlands alone. These merchants exported the
+old articles of English production and to a still greater extent
+textile goods, the manufacture of which was growing so rapidly in
+England. The export of wool came to an end during the reign of Queen
+Elizabeth, but the export of woven cloth was more than enough to take
+its place. There was not so much cloth now imported, but a much
+greater variety and quantity of food-stuffs and wines, of articles of
+fine manufacture, and of the special products of the countries to
+which English trade extended.
+
+The entrance of English vessels into ports of towns or  countries
+whose own vessels had been accustomed to the control of the trade with
+England, or where the old commercial towns of the Hanseatic League, of
+Flanders, or of Italy had valuable trading concessions, was not
+obtained without difficulty, and there was a constant succession of
+conflicts more or less violent, and of disputes between English and
+foreign sailors and merchants. The progress of English commerce was,
+however, facilitated by the decay in the prosperity of many of these
+older trading towns. The growth of strong governments in Denmark,
+Sweden, Norway, Poland, and Russia resulted in a withdrawal of
+privileges which the Hanseatic League had long possessed, and internal
+dissensions made the League very much weaker in the later fifteenth
+century than it had been during the century and a half before. The
+most important single occurrence showing this tendency was the capture
+of Novgorod by the Russian Czar and his expulsion of the merchants of
+the Hanse from their settlement in that commercial centre. In the same
+way most of the towns along the south coast of the Baltic came under
+the control of the kingdom of Poland.
+
+A similar change came about in Flanders, where the semi-independent
+towns came under the control of the dukes of Burgundy. These
+sovereigns had political interests too extensive to be subordinated to
+the trade interests of individual towns in their dominions. Thus it
+was that Bruges now lost much of its prosperity, while Antwerp became
+one of the greatest commercial cities of Europe. Trading rights could
+now be obtained from centralized governments, and were not dependent
+on the interest or the antagonism of local merchants.
+
+In Italy other influences were leading to much the same results. The
+advance of Turkish conquests was gradually increasing the
+difficulties of the Eastern trade, and the discovery of the route
+around the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 finally diverted that branch of
+commerce into new lines. English merchants gained access to some of
+this new Eastern trade through their connection with Portugal, a
+country advantageously situated to inherit the former trade of Italy
+and southern Germany. English commerce also profited by the
+predominance which Florence obtained over Pisa, Genoa, and other
+trading towns. Thus conditions on the Continent were strikingly
+favorable to the growing commercial enterprise of England.
+
+
+*43. The Merchants Adventurers.*--English merchants who exported and
+imported goods in their own vessels were, with the exception of the
+staplers or exporters of wool and other staple articles, usually
+spoken of as "adventurers," "venturers," or "merchants adventurers."
+This term is used in three different senses. Sometimes it simply means
+merchants who entered upon adventure or risk by sending their goods
+outside of the country to new or unrecognized markets, as the
+"adventurers to Iceland," "adventurers to Spain." Again, it is applied
+to groups of merchants in various towns who were organized for mutual
+protection or other advantage, as the "fishmongers adventurers" who
+brought their complaints before the Royal Council in 1542, "The
+Master, Wardens, and Commonalty of Merchant Venturers, of Bristol,"
+existing apparently in the fourteenth century, fully organized by
+1467, and incorporated in 1552, "The Society of Merchants Adventurers
+of Newcastle upon Tyne," or the similar bodies at York and Exeter.
+
+But by far the most frequent use of the term is that by which it was
+applied to those merchants who traded to the Netherlands and adjacent
+countries, especially as exporters of cloth, and who came within this
+period to be recognized and incorporated as the "Merchants
+Adventurers" in a special sense, with headquarters abroad, a coat of
+arms of their own, extensive privileges, great wealth, influence, and
+prominence. These English merchants, trading to the Netherlands in
+other articles than those controlled by the Staplers, apparently
+received privileges of trade from the duke of Brabant as early as the
+thirteenth century, and the right of settling their own disputes
+before their own "consul" in the fourteenth. But their commercial
+enterprises must have been quite insignificant, and it was only during
+the fifteenth century that they became numerous and their trade in
+English cloth extensive. Just at the beginning of this century, in
+1407, the king of England gave a general charter to all merchants
+trading beyond seas to assemble in definite places and choose for
+themselves consuls or governors to arrange for their common trade
+advantage. After this time, certainly by the middle of the century,
+the regular series of governors of the English merchants in the
+Netherlands was established, one of the earliest being William Caxton,
+afterward the founder of printing in England. On the basis of these
+concessions and of the privileges and charters granted by the home
+government the "Merchants Adventurers" gradually became a distinct
+organization, with a definite membership which was obtained by payment
+of a sum which gradually rose from 6_s._ 8_d._ to L20, until it was
+reduced by a law of Parliament in 1497 to L6 13_s._ 4_d._ They had
+local branches in England and on the Continent. In 1498 they were
+granted a coat of arms by Henry VII, and in 1503 by royal charter a
+distinct form of government under a governor and twenty-four
+assistants. In 1564 they were incorporated by a royal charter by the
+title of "The Merchants Adventurers of England." Long before that time
+they had become by far the largest and most influential  company of
+English exporting merchants. It is said that the Merchants Adventurers
+furnished ten out of the sixteen London ships sent to join the fleet
+against the Armada.
+
+Most of their members were London mercers, though there were also in
+the society members of other London companies, and traders whose homes
+were in other English towns than London. The meetings of the company
+in London were held for a long while in the Mercers' hall, and their
+records were kept in the same minute book as those of the Mercers
+until 1526. On the Continent their principal office, hall, or
+gathering place, the residence of their Governor and location of the
+"Court,", or central government of the company, was at different times
+at Antwerp, Bruges, Calais, Hamburg, Stade, Groningen and Middleburg;
+for the longest time probably at the first of these places. The larger
+part of the foreign trade of England during the fifteenth and most of
+the sixteenth century was carried on and extended as well as
+controlled and regulated by this great commercial company.
+
+[Illustration: Hall of the Merchants Adventurers at Bruges. (Blade:
+_Life of Caxton_. Published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co.)]
+
+During the latter half of the sixteenth century, however, other
+companies of merchants were formed to trade with various countries,
+most of them receiving a government charter and patronage. Of these
+the Russia or Muscovy Company obtained recognition from the government
+in 1554, and in 1557, when an ambassador from that country came to
+London, a hundred and fifty merchants trading to Russia received him
+in state. In 1581 the Levant or Turkey Company was formed, and its
+members carried their merchandise as far as the Persian Gulf. In 1585
+the Barbary or Morocco Company was formed, but seems to have failed.
+In 1588, however, a Guinea Company began trading, and in 1600 the
+greatest of all, the East India Company, was chartered. The
+expeditions sent out by the Bristol merchants and then by the king
+under the Cabots, those other voyages so full of romance in search of
+a northwest or a northeast passage to the Orient, and the no less
+adventurous efforts to gain entrance to the Spanish possessions in the
+west, were a part of the same effort of commercial companies or
+interests to carry their trading into new lands.
+
+
+*44. Government Encouragement of Commerce.*--Before the accession of
+Henry VII it is almost impossible to discover any deliberate or
+continuous policy of the government in commercial matters. From this
+time forward, however, through the whole period of the Tudor monarchs
+a tolerably consistent plan was followed of favoring English merchants
+and placing burdens and restrictions upon foreign traders. The
+merchants from the Hanse towns, with their dwellings, warehouses, and
+offices at the Steelyard in London, were subjected to a narrower
+interpretation of the privileges which they possessed by old and
+frequently renewed grants. In 1493 English customs officers began to
+intrude upon their property; in 1504 especially heavy penalties were
+threatened if they should send any cloth to the Netherlands during the
+war between the king and the duke of Burgundy. During the reign of
+Henry VIII the position of the Hansards was on the whole easier, but
+in 1551 their special privileges were taken away, and they were put in
+the same position as all other foreigners. There was a partial regrant
+of advantageous conditions in the early part of the reign of
+Elizabeth, but finally, in 1578, they lost their privileges forever.
+As a matter of fact, German traders now came more and more rarely to
+England, and their settlement above London Bridge was practically
+deserted.
+
+The fleet from Venice also came less and less frequently. Under Henry
+VIII for a period of nine years no fleet came to English ports; then
+after an expedition had been sent out from Venice in 1517, and again
+in 1521, another nine years passed by. The fleet came again in 1531,
+1532, and 1533, and even afterward from time to time occasional
+private Venetian vessels came, till a group of them suffered shipwreck
+on the southern coast in 1587, after which the Venetian flag
+disappeared entirely from those waters.
+
+In the meantime a series of favorable commercial treaties were made in
+various directions by Henry VII and his successors. In 1490 he made a
+treaty with the king of Denmark by which English merchants obtained
+liberty to trade in that country, in Norway, and in Iceland. Within
+the same year a similar treaty was made with Florence, by which the
+English merchants obtained a monopoly of the sale of wool in the
+Florentine dominions, and the right to have an organization of their
+own there, which should settle trade disputes among themselves, or
+share in the settlement of their disputes with foreigners. In 1496 the
+old trading relations with the Netherlands were reestablished on a
+firmer basis than ever by the treaty which has come in later times to
+be known as the _Intercursus Magnus_. In the same year commercial
+advantages were obtained from France, and in 1499 from Spain. Few
+opportunities were missed by the government during this period to try
+to secure favorable conditions for the growing English trade. Closely
+connected as commercial policy necessarily was with political
+questions, the former was always a matter of interest to the
+government, and in all the ups and downs of the relations of England
+with the Continental countries during the sixteenth century the
+foothold gained by English merchants was always preserved or regained
+after a temporary loss.
+
+The closely related question of English ship-building was  also a
+matter of government encouragement. In 1485 a law was passed declaring
+that wines of the duchies of Guienne and Gascony should be imported
+only in vessels which were English property and manned for the most
+part by Englishmen. In 1489 woad, a dyestuff from southern France, was
+included, and it was ordered that merchandise to be exported from
+England or imported into England should never be shipped in foreign
+vessels if sufficient English vessels were in the harbor at the time.
+Although this policy was abandoned during the short reign of Edward VI
+it was renewed and made permanent under Elizabeth. By indirect means
+also, as by the encouragement of fisheries, English seafaring was
+increased.
+
+As a result of these various forms of commercial influence, the
+enterprise of individual English merchants, the formation of trading
+companies, the assistance given by the government through commercial
+treaties and favoring statutes, English commerce became vastly greater
+than it had ever been before, reaching to Scandinavia and Russia, to
+Germany and the Netherlands, to France and Spain, to Italy and the
+eastern Mediterranean, and even occasionally to America. Moreover, it
+had come almost entirely into the hands of Englishmen; and the goods
+exported and imported were carried for the most part in ships of
+English build and ownership, manned by English sailors.
+
+
+*45. The Currency.*--The changes just described were closely connected
+with contemporary changes in the gold and silver currency. Shillings
+were coined for the first time in the reign of Henry VII, a pound
+weight of standard silver being coined into 37 shillings and 6 pence.
+In 1527 Henry VIII had the same amount of metal coined into 40
+shillings, and later in the year, into 45 shillings. In 1543 coin
+silver was changed from the old standard of 11 ounces 2 pennyweights
+of pure silver to 18 pennyweights of alloy, so as to consist of 10
+ounces of silver to 2 ounces of alloy; and this was coined into 48
+shillings. In 1545 the coin metal was made one-half silver, one-half
+alloy; in 1546, one-third silver, two-thirds alloy; and in 1550,
+one-fourth silver, three-fourths alloy. The gold coinage was
+correspondingly though not so excessively debased. The lowest point of
+debasement for both silver and gold was reached in 1551. In 1560 Queen
+Elizabeth began the work of restoring the currency to something like
+its old standard. The debased money was brought to the mints, where
+the government paid the value of the pure silver in it. Money of a
+high standard and permanently established weight was then issued in
+its place. Much of the confusion and distress prevalent during the
+reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI was doubtless due to this selfish
+and unwise monetary policy.
+
+At about the same time a new influence on the national currency came
+into existence. Strenuous but not very successful efforts had long
+been made to draw bullion into England and prevent English money from
+being taken out. Now some of the silver and gold which was being
+extorted from the natives and extracted from the mines of Mexico and
+Peru by the Spaniards began to make its way into England, as into
+other countries of Europe. These American sources of supply became
+productive by about 1525, but very little of this came into general
+European circulation or reached England till the middle of the
+century. After about 1560, however, through trade, and sometimes by
+even more direct routes, the amount of gold and silver money in
+circulation in England increased enormously. No reliable statistics
+exist, but there can be little doubt that the amount of money in
+England, as in Europe at large, was doubled, trebled, quadrupled, or
+perhaps increased still more largely within the next one hundred
+years.
+
+This increase of money produced many effects. One of the most
+important was its effect on prices. These had begun to rise in the
+early part of the century, principally as a result of the debasement
+of the coinage. In the latter part of the century the rise was much
+greater, due now, no doubt, to the influx of new money. Most
+commodities cost quite four times as much at the end of the sixteenth
+century as they did at its beginning.
+
+Another effect of the increased amount of currency appeared in the
+greater ease with which the use of money capital was obtained. Saving
+up and borrowing were both more practicable. More capital was now in
+existence and more persons could obtain the use of it. As a result,
+manufacturing, trade, and even agriculture could now be conducted on a
+more extensive scale, changes could be introduced, and production was
+apt to be profitable, as prices were increasing and returns would be
+greater even than those calculated upon.
+
+
+*46. Interest.*--Any extensive and varied use of capital is closely
+connected with the payment of interest. In accord with a strict
+interpretation of certain passages in both the Old and the New
+Testament, the Middle Ages regarded the payment of interest for the
+use of money as wicked. Interest was the same as usury and was
+illegal. As a matter of fact, most regular occupations in the Middle
+Ages required very little capital, and this was usually owned by the
+agriculturists, handicraftsmen, or merchants themselves; so that
+borrowing was only necessary for personal expenses or in occasional
+exigencies. With the enclosures, sheep farming, consolidation of
+farms, and other changes in agriculture, with the beginning of
+manufacturing under the control of capitalist manufacturers, with the
+more extensive foreign trading and ship owning, and above all with the
+increase in the actual amount of money in existence, these
+circumstances were changed. It seemed natural that money which one
+person had in his possession, but for which he had no immediate use,
+should be loaned to another who could use it for his own enterprises.
+These enterprises might be useful to the community, advantageous to
+himself, and yet profitable enough to allow him to pay interest for
+the use of the money to the capitalist who loaned it to him. As a
+matter of fact much money was loaned and, legally or illegally,
+interest or usury was paid for it. Moreover, a change had been going
+on in legal opinion parallel to these economic changes, and in 1545 a
+law was passed practically legalizing interest if it was not at a
+higher rate than ten per cent. This was, however, strongly opposed by
+the religious opinion of the time, especially among men of Puritan
+tendencies. They seemed, indeed, to be partially justified by the fact
+that the control of capital was used by the rich men of the time in
+such a way as to cause great hardship. In 1552, therefore, the law of
+1545 was repealed, and interest, except in the few forms in which it
+had always been allowed, was again prohibited. But the tide soon
+turned, and in 1571 interest up to ten per cent was again made lawful.
+From that time forward the term usury was restricted to excessive
+interest, and this alone was prohibited. Yet the practice of receiving
+interest for the loan of money was still generally condemned by
+writers on morals till quite the end of this period; though lawyers,
+merchants, and popular opinion no longer disapproved of it if the rate
+was moderate.
+
+
+*47. Paternal Government.*--In many of the changes which have been
+described in this chapter, the share which government took was one of
+the most important influences. In some cases, as in the laws against
+enclosures, against the migration of industry from the towns to the
+rural districts, and against usury, the policy of King and Parliament
+was not successful in resisting the strong economic forces which were
+at work. In others, however, as in the oversight of industry, in the
+confiscation of the property of the gilds devoted to religious uses,
+in the settlement of the relations between employers and employees, in
+the control of foreign commerce, the policy of the government really
+decided what direction changes should take.
+
+As has been seen in this chapter, after the accession of Henry VII
+there was a constant extension of the sphere of government till it
+came to pass laws upon and provide for and regulate almost all the
+economic interests of the nation. This was a result, in the first
+place, of the breaking down of those social institutions which had
+been most permanent and stable in earlier periods. The manor system in
+the country, landlord farming, the manor courts, labor dues, serfdom,
+were passing rapidly away; the old type of gilds, city regulations,
+trading at fairs, were no longer so general; it was no longer
+foreigners who brought foreign goods to England to be sold, or bought
+English goods for exportation. When these old Customs were changing or
+passing away, the national government naturally took charge to prevent
+the threatened confusion of the process of disintegration. Secondly,
+the government itself, from the latter part of the fifteenth century
+onward, became abler and more vigorous, as has been pointed out in the
+first paragraph of this chapter. The Privy Council of the king
+exercised larger functions, and extended its jurisdiction  into new
+fields. Under these circumstances, when the functions of the central
+government were being so widely extended, it was altogether natural
+that they should come to include the control of all forms of
+industrial life, including agriculture, manufacturing, commerce,
+internal trade, labor, and other social and economic relations.
+Thirdly, the control of economic and social matters by the government
+was in accordance with contemporary opinions and feelings. An
+enlightened absolutism seems to have commended itself to the most
+thoughtful men of that time. A paternalism which regulated a very wide
+circle of interests was unhesitatingly accepted and approved. As a
+result of the decay of mediaeval conditions, the strengthening of
+national government, and the prevailing view of the proper functions
+of government, almost all economic conditions were regulated by the
+government to a degree quite unknown before. In the early part of the
+period this regulation was more minute, more intrusive, more evidently
+directed to the immediate advantage of government; but by the close of
+Elizabeth's reign a systematic regulation was established, which,
+while not controlling every detail of industrial life, yet laid down
+the general lines along which most of industrial life must run. Some
+parts of this regulation have already been analyzed. Perhaps the best
+instance and one of the most important parts of it is the Statute of
+Apprentices of 1563, already described in paragraph 40. In the same
+year, 1563, a statute was passed full of minute regulations for the
+fishing and fish-dealing trades. Foreign commerce was carried on by
+regulated companies; that is, companies having charters from the
+government, giving them a monopoly of the trade with certain
+countries, and laying down at least a part of the rules under which
+that trade should be carried on. The importation of most kinds of
+finished goods and the exportation of raw materials were prohibited.
+New industries were encouraged by patents or other government
+concessions. Many laws were passed, of which that of 1571, to
+encourage the industry of making caps, is a type. This law laid down
+the requirement that every person of six years old and upward should
+wear on every Sunday and holy day a woollen cap made in England.
+
+The conformity to standard of manufactures was enforced either by the
+officers of companies which were established under the authority of
+the government or by government officials or patentees, and many of
+the methods and standards of manufacture were themselves defined by
+statutes or proclamation. In agriculture, while the policy was less
+consistent, government regulation was widely applied. There were laws,
+as has been noted, forbidding the possession of more than two thousand
+sheep by any one landholder and of more than two farms by any one
+tenant; laws requiring the keeping of one cow and one calf for every
+sixty sheep, and the raising a quarter of an acre of flax or hemp for
+every sixty acres devoted to other crops. The most characteristic laws
+for the regulation of agriculture, however, were those controlling the
+export of grain. In order to prevent an excessive price, grain-raisers
+were not allowed to export wheat or other grain when it was scarce in
+England. When it was cheap and plenty, they were permitted to do so,
+the conditions under which it was to be allowed or forbidden being
+decided, according to a law of 1571, by the justices of the peace of
+each locality, with the restriction that none should be exported when
+the prevailing price was more than 1_s._ 3_d._ a bushel, a limit which
+was raised to 2_s._ 6_d._ in 1592.
+
+Thus, instead of industrial life being controlled and regulated by
+town governments, merchant and craft gilds, lords of fairs, village
+communities, lords of manors and their stewards, or other local
+bodies, it was now regulated in its main features by the all-powerful
+national government.
+
+
+*48. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Professor Ashley's second volume is of especial value for this period.
+
+Green, Mrs. J. R.: _Town Life in England in the Fifteenth Century_,
+two volumes.
+
+Cheyney, E. P.: _Social Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century,
+Part I, Rural Changes_.
+
+A discussion of the legal character of villain tenure in the sixteenth
+century will be found in articles by Mr. I. S. Leadam, in _The English
+Historical Review_, for October, 1893, and in the _Transactions of the
+English Royal Historical Society_ for 1892, 1893, and 1894; and by
+Professor Ashley in the _English Historical Review_ for April, 1893,
+and _Annals of the American Academy of Political Science_ for January,
+1891. (Reprinted in _English Economic History_, Vol. II, Chap. 4.)
+
+Bourne, H. R. F.: _English Merchants_.
+
+Froude, J. A.: _History of England_. Many scattered passages of great
+interest refer to the economic and social changes of this period, but
+they are frequently exaggerated, and in some cases incorrect. Almost
+the same remark applies to Professor Rogers' _Six Centuries of Work
+and Wages_ and _Industrial and Commercial History of England_.
+
+Busch, Wilhelm: _A History of England under the Tudors_. For the
+economic policy of Henry VII.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND
+
+Economic Changes Of The Seventeenth And Early Eighteenth Centuries
+
+
+*49. National Affairs from 1603 to 1760.*--The last three rulers of the
+Tudor family had died childless. James, king of Scotland, their
+cousin, therefore inherited the throne and became the first English
+king of the Stuart family. James reigned from 1603 to 1625. Many of
+the political and religious problems which had been created by the
+policy of the Tudor sovereigns had now to come up for solution.
+Parliament had long been restive under the almost autocratic
+government of Queen Elizabeth, but the danger of foreign invasion and
+internal rebellion, long-established habit, Elizabeth's personal
+popularity, her age, her sex, and her occasional yielding, all
+combined to prevent any very outspoken opposition. Under King James
+all these things were changed. Yet he had even higher ideas of his
+personal rights, powers, and duties as king than any of his
+predecessors. Therefore during the whole of the reign dispute and ill
+feeling existed between the king, his ministers, and many of the
+judges and other officials, on the one hand, and the majority of the
+House of Commons and among the middle and upper classes of the
+country, on the other. James would willingly have avoided calling
+Parliament altogether and would have carried on the government
+according to his own judgment and that of the ministers he selected,
+but it was absolutely necessary to assemble it for the passing of
+certain laws, and above all for the authorization of taxes to obtain
+the means to carry on the government. The fall in the value of gold
+and silver and the consequent rise of prices, and other economic
+changes, had reduced the income of the government just at a time when
+its necessary expenses were increasing, and when a spendthrift king
+was making profuse additional outlays. Finances were therefore a
+constant difficulty during his reign, as in fact they remained during
+the whole of the seventeenth century.
+
+In religion James wished to maintain the middle course of the
+established church as it had been under Elizabeth. He was even less
+inclined to harsh treatment of the Roman Catholics. On the other hand,
+the tide of Puritan feeling appealing for greater strictness and
+earnestness in the church and a more democratic form of church
+government was rising higher and higher, and with this a desire to
+expel the Roman Catholics altogether. The House of Commons represented
+this strong Protestant feeling, so that still another cause of
+conflict existed between King and Parliament. Similarly, in foreign
+affairs and on many other questions James was at cross purposes with
+the main body of the English nation.
+
+This reign was the period of foundation of England's great colonial
+empire. The effort to establish settlements on the North American
+coast were at last successful in Virginia and New England, and soon
+after in the West Indies. Still other districts were being settled by
+other European nations, ultimately to be absorbed by England. On the
+other side of the world the East India Company began its progress
+toward the subjugation of India. Nearer home, a new policy was carried
+out in Ireland, by which large numbers of English and Scotch
+immigrants were induced to settle in Ulster, the northernmost
+province. Thus that process was begun by which men of English race and
+language, living under English institutions and customs, have
+established centres of population, wealth, and influence in so many
+parts of the world.
+
+Charles I came to the throne in 1625. Most of the characteristics of
+the period of James continued until the quarrels between King and
+Parliament became so bitter that in 1642 civil war broke out. The
+result of four years of fighting was the defeat and capture of the
+king. After fruitless attempts at a satisfactory settlement Charles
+was brought to trial by Parliament in 1649, declared guilty of
+treason, and executed.
+
+A republican form of government was now established, known as the
+"Commonwealth," and kingship and the House of Lords were abolished.
+The army, however, had come to have a will of its own, and quarrels
+between its officers and the majority of Parliament were frequent.
+Both Parliament and army had become unpopular, taxation was heavy, and
+religious disputes troublesome. The majority in Parliament had carried
+the national church so far in the direction of Puritanism that its
+excesses had brought about a strong reactionary feeling. Parliament
+had already sat for more than ten years, hence called the "Long
+Parliament," and had become corrupt and despotic. Under these
+circumstances, one modification after another was made in the form of
+government until in 1653 Oliver Cromwell, the commander of the army
+and long the most influential man in Parliament, dissolved that body
+by military force and was made Lord Protector, with powers not very
+different from those of a king. There was now a period of good order
+and great military and naval success for England; Scotland and
+Ireland, both of which had declared against the Commonwealth, were
+reduced to obedience, and successful foreign wars were waged. But at
+home the government did not succeed in obtaining either popularity or
+general acceptance. Parliament after Parliament was called, but could
+not agree with the Protector. In 1657 Cromwell was given still higher
+powers, but in 1658 he died. His son, Richard Cromwell, was installed
+as Protector. The republican government had, however, been gradually
+drifting back toward the old royal form and spirit, so when the new
+Lord Protector proved to be unequal to the position, when the army
+became rebellious again, and the country threatened to fall into
+anarchy, Monk, an influential general, brought about the reassembling
+of the Long Parliament, and this body recalled the son of Charles I to
+take his hereditary seat as king.
+
+This event occurred in 1660, and is known as the Restoration. Charles
+II reigned for twenty-five years. His reign was in one of its aspects
+a time of reaction in manners and morals against the over-strictness
+of the former Puritan control. In government, notwithstanding the
+independent position of the king, it was the period when some of the
+most important modern institutions came into existence. Permanent
+political parties were formed then for the first time. It was then
+that the custom arose by which the ministers of the government are
+expected to resign when there proves to be a majority in Parliament
+against them. It was then that a "cabinet," or group of ministers
+acting together and responsible for the policy of the king, was first
+formed. The old form of the established church came again into power,
+and harsh laws were enacted against Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers,
+and members of the other sects which had grown up during the earlier
+part of the century.
+
+It was to escape these oppressive laws that many emigrated to the
+colonies in America and established new settlements. Not only was the
+stream of emigration kept up by religious persecutions, but the
+prosperity and abundant opportunity for advancement furnished by the
+colonies attracted great numbers. The government of the Stuart kings,
+as well as that of the Commonwealth, constantly encouraged distant
+settlements for the sake of commerce, shipping, the export of English
+manufactured goods, and the import of raw materials. The expansion of
+the country through its colonial settlements therefore still
+continued.
+
+The great literature which reached its climax in the reign of
+Elizabeth continued in equal variety and abundance throughout the
+reigns of James and Charles. The greater plays of Shakespeare were
+written after the accession of James. Milton belonged to the
+Commonwealth period, and Bunyan, the famous author of _Pilgrim's
+Progress_, was one of those non-conformists in religion who were
+imprisoned under Charles II. With this reign, however, quite a new
+literary type arose, whose most conspicuous representative was Dryden.
+
+In 1685 James II succeeded his brother. Instead of carrying on the
+government in a spirit of concession to national feeling, he adopted
+such an unpopular policy that in 1688 he was forced to flee from
+England, and his son-in-law and daughter, William and Mary, were
+elected to the throne. On their accession Parliament passed and the
+king and queen accepted a "Bill of Rights." This declared the
+illegality of a number of actions which recent sovereigns had claimed
+the right to do, and guaranteed to Englishmen a number of important
+individual rights, which have since been included in many other
+documents, especially in the constitutions of several of the American
+states and the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United
+States. The Bill of Rights is often grouped with the Great Charter,
+and these two documents, along with several of the Acts of the
+Parliaments of Charles I accepted by the king, make the principal
+written elements of the English constitution. The form and powers
+attained by the English government have been, however, rather the
+result of slight changes from time to time, often without intention of
+influencing the constitution, than of any deliberate action. Important
+examples of this are certain customs of legislation which grew up
+under William and Mary. The Mutiny Act, by which the army is kept up,
+was only passed for one year at a time. The grant of taxes was also
+only made annually. Parliament must therefore be called every year in
+order to obtain money to carry on the work of government, and in order
+to keep up the military organization.
+
+As a result of the Revolution of 1688, as the deposition of James II.
+and the appointment of William and Mary are called, and of the changes
+which succeeded it, Parliament gradually became the most powerful part
+of government, and the House of Commons the strongest part of
+Parliament. The king's ministers came more and more to carry out the
+will of Parliament rather than that of the king. Somewhat later the
+custom grew up by which one of the ministers by presiding over the
+whole Cabinet, nominating its members to the king, representing it in
+interviews with the king, and in other ways giving unity to its
+action, created the position of prime minister. Thus the modern
+Parliamentary organization of the government was practically complete
+before the middle of the eighteenth century. William and Mary died
+childless, and Anne, Mary's sister, succeeded, and reigned till 1714.
+She also left no heir. In the meantime arrangements had been made to
+set aside the descendants of James II, who were Roman Catholics, and
+to give the succession to a distant line of Protestant descendants of
+James I. In this way George I, Elector of Hanover, of the house of
+Brunswick, became king, reigned till 1727, and was succeeded by George
+II, who reigned till 1760. The sovereigns of England have been of this
+family ever since.
+
+The years following the Revolution of 1688 were a time of almost
+constant warfare on the Continent, in the colonies, and at sea. In
+many of these wars the real interests of England were but slightly
+concerned. In others her colonial and native dependencies were so
+deeply affected as to make them veritable national wars. Just at the
+close of the period, in 1763, the war known in Europe as the Seven
+Years' War and in America as the French and Indian War was brought to
+an end by the peace of Paris. This peace drew the outlines of the
+widespread empire of Great Britain, for it handed over to her Canada,
+the last of the French possessions in America, and guaranteed her the
+ultimate predominance in India.
+
+
+*50. The Extension of Agriculture.*--During the seventeenth and the
+first half of the eighteenth century there are no such fundamental
+changes in social organization to chronicle as during the preceding
+century and a half. During the first hundred years of the period the
+whole energy of the nation seems to have been thrown into political
+and religious contests. Later there was development and increase of
+production, but they were in the main an extension or expansion of the
+familiar forms, not such a change of form as would cause any
+alteration in the position of the mass of the people.
+
+The practice of enclosing open land had almost ceased before the death
+of Elizabeth. There was some enclosing under James I, but it seems to
+have been quite exceptional. In the main, those common pastures and
+open fields which had not been enclosed by the beginning of this
+period, probably one-half of all England, remained unenclosed till the
+recommencement of the process long afterward. Sheep farming gradually
+ceased to be so exclusively practised, and mixed agriculture became
+general, though few if any of those fields which had been surrounded
+with hedges, and come into the possession of individual farmers, were
+thrown open or distributed again into scattered holdings. Much new
+land came into cultivation or into use for pasture through the
+draining of marshes and fens, and the clearing of forests. This work
+had been begun for the extensive swampy tracts in the east of England
+in the latter years of Elizabeth's reign by private purchasers,
+assisted by an act of Parliament passed in 1601, intended to remove
+legal difficulties. It proceeded slowly, partly because of the expense
+and difficulty of putting up lasting embarkments, and partly because
+of the opposition of the fenmen, or dwellers in the marshy districts,
+whose livelihood was obtained by catching the fish and water fowl that
+the improvements would drive away. With the seventeenth and early
+eighteenth centuries, however, largely through the skill of Dutch
+engineers and laborers, many thousands of acres of fertile land were
+reclaimed and devoted to grazing, and even grain raising. Great
+stretches of old forest and waste land covered with rough underbrush
+were also reduced to cultivation.
+
+There was much writing on agricultural subjects, and methods of
+farming were undoubtedly improved, especially in the eighteenth
+century. Turnips, which could be grown during the remainder of the
+season after a grain crop had been harvested, and which would provide
+fresh food for the cattle during the winter, were introduced from the
+Continent and cultivated to some extent, as were clover and some
+improved grasses. But these improvements progressed but slowly, and
+farming on the whole was carried on along very much the same old lines
+till quite the middle of the eighteenth century. The raising of grain
+was encouraged by a system of government bounties, as already stated
+in another connection. From 1689 onward a bounty was given on all
+grain exported, when the prevailing price was less than six shillings
+a bushel. The result was that England exported wheat in all but famine
+years, that there was a steady encouragement even if without much
+result to improve methods of agriculture, and that landlords were able
+to increase their rents. In the main, English agriculture and the
+organization of the agricultural classes of the population did not
+differ very much at the end of this period from that at the beginning
+except in the one point of quantity, the amount of produce and the
+number of the population being both largely increased.
+
+
+*51. The Domestic System of Manufactures.*--Much greater skill in
+manufacturing was acquired, principally, as in earlier periods,
+through the immigration of foreign artisans. In Queen Elizabeth's time
+a great number of such men with their families, who had been driven
+from the Netherlands by the persecutions of the duke of Alva, came to
+England for refuge. In Sandwich in 1561 some twenty families of
+Flemings settled and began their manufactures of various kinds of
+cloth; in 1565 some thirty Dutch and Walloon families settled in
+Norwich as weavers, in Maidstone a body of similar artisans who were
+thread-makers settled in 1567; in 1570 a similar group carrying on
+various forms of manufacture settled at Colchester; and still others
+settled in some five or six other towns. After 1580 a wave of French
+Huguenots, principally silk-weavers, fled from their native  country
+and were allowed to settle in London, Canterbury, and Coventry. The
+renewed persecutions of the Huguenots, culminating in the revocation
+of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, sent many thousands more into exile,
+large numbers of silk and linen weavers and manufacturers of paper,
+clocks, glass, and metal goods coming from Normandy and Brittany into
+England, and settling not only in London and its suburbs, but in many
+other towns of England. These foreigners, unpopular as they often were
+among the populace, and supported in their opportunities of carrying
+on their industry only by royal authority, really taught new and
+higher industries to the native population and eventually were
+absorbed into it as a more gifted and trained component.
+
+There were also some inventions of new processes or devices for
+manufacture. The "stocking frame," or machine knitting, was invented
+in the time of Queen Elizabeth, but did not get into actual use until
+the next century. It then became for the future an extensive industry,
+especially in London and Nottingham and their vicinity. The weaving of
+cotton goods was introduced and spread especially in the northwest, in
+the neighborhood of Manchester and Bolton. A machine for preparing
+silk thread was invented in 1719. The printing of imported white
+cotton goods, as calicoes and lawns, was begun, but prohibited by
+Parliament in the interest of woven goods manufacturers, though the
+printing of linens was still allowed. Stoneware was also improved.
+These and other new industries introduced by foreigners or developed
+by English inventors or enterprising artisans added to the variety and
+total amount of English manufacture. The old established industries,
+like the old coarser woollen goods and linen manufacture, increased
+but slowly in amount and went through no great changes of method.
+
+[Illustration: Hand-loom Weaving. (Hogarth: _The Industrious and the
+Lazy Apprentice_.)]
+
+These industries old and new were in some cases regulated and
+supervised as to the quality of ware and methods of manufacture, by
+the remaining gilds or companies, with the authority which they
+possessed from the national government. Indeed, there were within the
+later sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries some new companies
+organized or old ones renewed especially for this oversight, and to
+guard the monopoly of their members over certain industries in certain
+towns. In other cases rules were established for the carrying on of a
+certain industry, and a patent or monopoly was then granted by the
+king by which the person or company was given the sole right to carry
+on a certain industry according to those rules, or to enforce the
+rules when it was carried on by other people. In still other
+industries a government official had the oversight and control of
+quality and method of manufacture. Much production, however,
+especially such as went on in the country, was not supervised at all.
+
+[Illustration: Old Cloth-hall at Halifax.]
+
+Far the greater part of manufacturing industry in this period was
+organized according to the "domestic system," the beginnings of which
+have been already noticed within the previous period. That is to say,
+manufacturing was carried on in their own houses by small masters with
+a journeyman and apprentice or two. Much of it was done in the country
+villages or suburbs of the larger towns, and such handicraft was very
+generally connected with a certain amount of cultivation of the soil.
+A small master weaver or nail manufacturer, or soap boiler or potter,
+would also have a little farm and divide his time between the two
+occupations. The implements of manufacture almost always belonged to
+the small master himself, though in the stocking manufacture and the
+silk manufacture they were often owned by employing capitalists and
+rented out to the small manufacturers, or even to journeymen. In some
+cases the raw material--wool, linen, metal, or whatever it might
+be--was purchased by the small manufacturer, and the goods were either
+manufactured for special customers or taken when completed to a
+neighboring town on market days, there to be sold to a local dealer,
+or to a merchant who would transport it to another part of the country
+or export it to other countries. In other cases the raw material,
+especially in the case of cotton, was the property of a town merchant
+or capitalist, who distributed it to the small domestic manufacturers
+in their houses in the villages, paying them for the processes of
+production, and himself collecting the completed product and disposing
+of it by sale or export. This domestic manufacture was especially
+common in the southwest, centre, and northwest of England, and
+manufacturing towns like Birmingham, Halifax, Sheffield, Leeds,
+Bolton, and Manchester were growing up as centres around which it
+gathered. Little or no organization existed among such small
+manufacturers, though their apprentices were of course supposed to be
+taken and their journeymen hired according to the provisions of the
+Statute of Apprentices, and their products were sometimes subjected to
+some governmental or other supervision.
+
+Thus in manufacturing and artisan life as in agricultural the period
+was marked by an extension and increase of the amount of industry, on
+the same general lines as had been reached by 1600, rather than by any
+considerable changes.
+
+
+*52. Commerce under the Navigation Acts.*--The same thing is true of
+commerce, although its vast extension was almost in the nature of a
+revolution. As far back as the reign of Elizabeth most of the imports
+into England were brought in English vessels by English importers, and
+the goods which were exported were sent out by English exporters. The
+goods which were manufactured in scattered villages or town suburbs by
+the domestic manufacturers were gathered by these merchants and sent
+abroad in ever increasing amounts. The total value of English exports
+in 1600 was about 10 million dollars, at the close of the century it
+was some 34 millions, and in 1750 about 63 millions. This trade was
+carried on largely by merchants who were members of those chartered
+trading companies which have been mentioned as existing already in the
+sixteenth century. Some of these were "regulated companies"; that is,
+they had certain requirements laid down in their charters and power to
+adopt further rules and regulations, to which their members must
+conform. Others had similar chartered rights, but all their members
+invested funds in a common capital and traded as a joint stock
+company. In both kinds of cases each company possessed a monopoly of
+some certain field of trade, and was constantly engaged in the
+exclusion of interlopers from its trade. Of these companies the
+Merchants Adventurers, the oldest and one of the wealthiest,
+controlled the export of manufactured cloth to the Netherlands and
+northwestern Germany and remained prominent and active into the
+eighteenth century. The Levant, the Eastland, the Muscovy, and the
+Guinea or Royal African, and, greatest of all, the East India Company,
+continued to exist under various forms, and carried on their distant
+commerce through the whole of this period. With some of the nearer
+parts of Europe--France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy--there was much
+trading by private merchants not organized as companies or only
+organized among themselves. The "Methuen treaty," negotiated with
+Portugal in 1703, gave free entry of English manufactured goods into
+that country in return for a decreased import duty on Portuguese wines
+brought into England.
+
+[Illustration: Principal English Trade Routes About 1700.]
+
+The foreign lands with which these companies traded furnished at the
+beginning of this period the only places to which goods could be
+exported and from which goods could be brought; but very soon that
+series of settlements of English colonists was begun, one of the
+principal inducements for which was that they would furnish an outlet
+for English goods. The "Plantation of Ulster," or introduction of
+English and Scotch settlers into the north of Ireland between 1610 and
+1620, was the beginning of a long process of immigration into that
+country. But far the most important plantations as an outlet for trade
+as in every respect were those made on the coast of North America and
+in the West Indies. The Virginia and the Plymouth Companies played a
+part in the early settlement of these colonies, but they were soon
+superseded by the crown, single proprietaries, or the settlers
+themselves. Virginia, New England, Maryland, the Carolinas, and
+ultimately New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia on the mainland; the
+islands of Bermudas, Barbadoes, and Jamaica, and ultimately Canada,
+came to be populous colonies inhabited by Englishmen and demanding an
+ever increasing supply of English manufactured goods. These colonies
+were controlled by the English government largely for their commercial
+and other forms of economic value. The production of goods needed in
+England but not produced there, such as sugar, tobacco, tar, and
+lumber, was encouraged, but the manufacture of such goods as could be
+exported from England was prohibited. The purchase of slaves in Africa
+and their exportation to the West Indies was encouraged, partly
+because they were paid for in Africa by English manufactured goods,
+partly because their use in the colonies made the supply of sugar and
+some other products plentiful and cheap.
+
+Closely connected with commerce and colonies as a means of disposing
+of England's manufactured goods and of obtaining those things which
+were needed from abroad was commerce for its own sake, for the profits
+which it brought to those engaged in it, and for the indirect value to
+the nation of having a large mercantile navy.
+
+The most important provision for this end was the passage of the
+"Navigation Acts." We have seen that as early as 1485 certain kinds of
+goods could be imported only in English vessels. But in 1651 a law was
+passed, and in 1660 under a more regular government reenacted in still
+more vigorous form, which carried this policy to its fullest extent.
+By these laws all importation of goods into England from any ports of
+Asia, Africa, or America was forbidden, except in vessels belonging to
+English owners, built in England and manned by English seamen; and
+there was the same requirement for goods exported from England to
+those countries. From European ports goods could be brought to England
+only in English vessels or in vessels the property of merchants of the
+country in which the port lay; and similarly for export. These acts
+were directed especially against the Dutch merchants, who were fast
+getting control of the carrying trade. The result of the policy of the
+Navigation Acts was to secure to English merchants and to English
+shipbuilders a monopoly of all the trade with the East Indies and
+Africa and with the American colonies, and to prevent the Dutch from
+competing with English merchants for the greater part of the trade
+with the Continent of Europe.
+
+The characteristics of English commerce in this period, therefore,
+were much the same as in the last. It was, however, still more
+completely controlled by English merchants and was vastly extended in
+amount. Moreover, this extension bid fair to be permanent, as it was
+largely brought about by the growth of populous English colonies in
+Ireland and America, and by the acquisition of great spheres of
+influence in India.
+
+
+*53. Finance.*--The most characteristic changes of the period now being
+studied were in a field to which attention has been but slightly
+called before; that is, in finance. Capital had not existed in any
+large amounts in mediaeval England, and even in the later centuries
+there had not been any considerable class of men whose principal
+interest was in the investment of saved-up capital which they had in
+their hands. Agriculture, manufacturing, and even commerce were
+carried on with very small capital and usually with such capital as
+each farmer, artisan, or merchant might have of his own; no use of
+credit to obtain money from individual men or from banks for
+industrial purposes being ordinarily possible. Questions connected
+with money, capital, borrowing, and other points of finance came into
+somewhat greater prominence with the sixteenth century, but they now
+attained an altogether new and more important notice.
+
+Taxation, which had been looked upon as abnormal and occasional during
+earlier times, and only justifiable when some special need for large
+expenditure by the government arose, such as war, a royal marriage, or
+the entertainment of some foreign visitor, now, after long conflicts
+between King and Parliament, which are of still greater constitutional
+than financial importance, came to be looked upon as a regular normal
+custom. In 1660, at the Restoration, a whole system of excise duties,
+taxes on imports and exports, and a hearth tax were established as a
+permanency for paying the expenses of government, besides special
+taxes of various kinds for special demands.
+
+Borrowing, by merchants and others for ordinary purposes of business,
+became much more usual. During most of the seventeenth century the
+goldsmiths were the only bankers. On account of the strong vaults of
+these merchants, their habitual possession of valuable material and
+articles, and perhaps of their reputation for probity, persons who had
+money beyond their immediate needs deposited it with the goldsmiths,
+receiving from them usually six per cent. The goldsmiths then loaned
+it to merchants or to the government, obtaining for it interest at the
+rate of eight per cent or more. This system gradually became better
+established and the high rates decreased. Payments came to be made by
+check, and promissory notes were regularly discounted by the
+goldsmiths.
+
+The greatest extension in the use of credit, however, came from the
+establishment of the Bank of England. In 1691 the original proposition
+for the Bank was made to the government by William Patterson. In 1694
+a charter for the Bank was finally carried through Parliament by the
+efforts of the ministry. The Bank consisted of a group of subscribers
+who agreed to loan to the government L1,200,000, the government to pay
+them an annual interest of eight and one-half per cent, or L100,000 in
+cash, guaranteed by the product of a certain tax. The subscribers were
+at the same time incorporated and authorized to carry on a general
+business of receiving deposits and lending out money at interest. The
+capital which was to be loaned to the government was subscribed
+principally by London merchants, and the Bank began its career in the
+old Grocers' Hall. The regular income of L100,000 a year gave it a
+nucleus of strength, and enabled it to discount notes even beyond its
+actual deposits and to issue its own notes or paper money. Thus money
+could be borrowed to serve as capital for all kinds of enterprises,
+and there was an inducement also for persons to save money and thus
+create capital, since it could always bring them in a return by
+lending it to the Bank even if they were not in a position to put it
+to use themselves. Along with the normal effect of such financial
+inventions in developing all forms of trade and industry, there arose
+a remarkable series of projects and schemes of the wildest and most
+unstable character, and the early eighteenth century saw many losses
+and constant fluctuations in the realm of finance. The most famous
+instance of this was the "South Sea Bubble," a speculative scheme by
+which a regulated company, the South Sea Company, was chartered in
+1719 to carry on the slave-trade to the West Indies and whale-fishing,
+and incidentally to loan money to the government. Its shares rose to
+many fold their par value and fell to almost nothing again within a
+few months, and the government and vast numbers of investors and
+speculators were involved in its failure.
+
+The same period saw the creation of the permanent national debt. In
+earlier times kings and ministers had constantly borrowed money from
+foreign or native lenders, but it was always provided and anticipated
+that it would be repaid at a certain period, with the interest. With
+the later years of the seventeenth century, however, it became
+customary for the government to borrow money without any definite
+contract or expectation as to when it should be paid back, only making
+an agreement to pay a certain rate of interest upon it. This was
+satisfactory to all parties. The government obtained a large sum at
+the time, with the necessity of only paying a small sum every year for
+interest; investors obtained a remunerative use for their money, and
+if they should need the principal, some one else was always ready to
+pay its value to them for the sake of receiving the interest. The
+largest single element of the national debt in its early period was
+the loan of L1,200,000 which served as the basis for the Bank; but
+after that time, as for a short time before, sums were borrowed from
+time to time which were not repaid, but became a permanent part of the
+debt: the total rising to more than L75,000,000 by the middle of the
+century. Incidentally, this, like the deposits at the goldsmiths and
+the Bank, became an opportunity for the investment of savings and an
+inducement to create more capital.
+
+Fire insurance and life insurance both seem to have had their origin
+in the later decades of the seventeenth century.
+
+Thus in the realm of finance there was much more of novelty, of
+actually new development, during this period than in agriculture,
+manufacturing, or commerce. Yet all these forms of economic life and
+of the social organization which corresponded to them were alike in
+one respect, that they were quite minutely regulated by the national
+government. The fabric of paternal government which we saw rising in
+the time of the Tudor sovereigns remained almost intact through the
+whole of this period. The regulation of the conditions of labor, of
+trade, of importation and exportation, of finance, of agriculture, of
+manufacture, in more or less detail, was part of the regular work of
+legislation or administrative action. Either in order to reach certain
+ulterior ends, such as government power, a large navy, or a large body
+of money within the country, or simply as a part of what were looked
+upon at the time as the natural functions of government, laws were
+constantly being passed, charters formulated, treaties entered into,
+and other action taken by government, intended to encourage one kind
+of industry and discourage another, to determine rates of wages and
+hours of labor, prescribe rules for agriculture, or individual trades
+or forms of business, to support some kind of industry which was
+threatened with decay, to restrict certain actions which were thought
+to be disadvantageous, to regulate the whole economic life of the
+nation.
+
+It is true that much of this regulation was on the books rather than
+in actual existence. It would have required a much more extensive and
+efficient civil service, national and local, than England then
+possessed to enforce all or any considerable part of the provisions
+that were made by act of Parliament or ordered by the King and
+Council. Again, new industries were generally declared to be free from
+much of the more minute regulation, so that enterprise where it arose
+was not so apt to be checked, as conservatism where it already existed
+was apt to be perpetuated. Such regulation and control, moreover, were
+quite in accord with the feeling and with the economic and political
+theories of the time, so there was but little sense of  interference
+or tyranny felt by the governed. A regulated industrial organization
+slowly expanding on well-established lines was as characteristic of
+the theory as it was of the practice of the period.
+
+
+*54. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Gardiner, S. R.: _The History of England, 1603-1642_, ten volumes.
+
+Many scattered passages in this work and in its continuations, like
+those in Froude's history, referred to in the last chapter, apply to
+the economic and social history of the period, and they are always
+judicious and valuable.
+
+Hewins, W. A. S.: _English Trade and Finance, chiefly in the
+Seventeenth Century_.
+
+For this period Cunningham, Rogers, and Palgrave, in the books already
+referred to, are almost the only secondary authorities, except such as
+go into great detail on individual points. Cunningham's second volume,
+which includes this period, is extremely full and satisfactory.
+
+Macpherson, D.: _Annals of Commerce_ is, however, a book of somewhat
+broader interest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE PERIOD OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
+
+Economic Changes Of The Later Eighteenth And Early Nineteenth
+Centuries
+
+
+*55. National Affairs from 1760 to 1830.*--The seventy years lying
+between these two dates were covered by the long reign of George III
+and that of his successor George IV. In the political world this
+period had by no means the importance that it possessed in the field
+of economic development. Parliament had already obtained its permanent
+form and powers, and when George III tried to "be a king," as his
+mother urged him, the effort to restore personal government was an
+utter failure. Between 1775 and 1783 occurred the American Revolution,
+by which thirteen of England's most valued colonies were lost to her
+and began their progress toward a greater destiny. The breach between
+the American colonies and the mother country was brought about largely
+by the obstinacy of the king and his ministers in adopting an
+arbitrary and unpopular policy. Other political causes no doubt
+contributed to the result. Yet the greater part of the alienation of
+feeling which underlay the Revolution was due not to political causes,
+but to the economic policy already described, by which American
+commerce and industry were bent to the interests of England.
+
+In the American war France joined the rebellious colonies against
+England, and obtained advantageous terms at the peace. Within ten
+years the two countries had again entered upon a war, this time of
+vastly greater extent, and continuing almost unbroken for more than
+twenty years. This was a result of the outbreak of the French
+Revolution. In 1789 the Estates General of France, a body
+corresponding in its earlier history to the English Parliament, was
+called for the first time for almost two hundred years. This assembly
+and its successors undertook to reorganize French government and
+society. In the course of this radical process principles were
+enunciated proclaiming the absolute liberty and equality of men,
+demanding the participation of all in government, the abolition of
+aristocratic privileges, and finally of royalty itself. In following
+out these ideas, so different from those generally accepted in Europe,
+France was brought into conflict with all the other European states,
+including Great Britain. War broke out in 1793. Fighting took place on
+sea and land and in various parts of the world. France in her new
+enthusiasm developed a strength, vigor, and capacity which enabled her
+to make head against the alliances of almost all the other countries
+of Europe, and even to gain victories and increase her territory at
+their expense. No peace seemed practicable. In her successive internal
+changes of government one of the generals of the army, Napoleon
+Bonaparte, obtained a more and more influential position, until in
+1804 he took the title of Emperor. The wars of the French Revolution
+therefore were merged in the wars of Napoleon. Alliance after alliance
+was made against Napoleon, England commonly taking the initiative in
+the formation of them and paying large monthly subsidies to some of
+the continental governments to enable them to support their armies.
+The English navy won several brilliant victories, especially under
+Nelson, although her land forces played a comparatively small part
+until the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
+
+The naval supremacy thus obtained made the war a matter of pecuniary
+profit to the English nation, notwithstanding its enormous expense;
+for it gave to her vessels almost a complete monopoly of the commerce
+and the carrying trade of the world, and to her manufactures extended
+markets which would otherwise have been closed to her or shared with
+other nations. The cutting off of continental and other sources of
+supply of grain and the opening of new markets greatly increased the
+demand for English grain and enhanced the price paid for it. This
+caused higher rents and further enclosure of open land. Thus the war
+which had been entered upon reluctantly and with much opposition in
+1793, became popular, partly because of the feeling of the English
+people that it had become a life and death struggle with France, but
+largely also because English industries were flourishing under it. The
+wars came to an end with the downfall of Napoleon in 1815, and an
+unwonted period of peace for England set in and lasted for almost
+forty years.
+
+The French Revolution produced another effect in England. It awakened
+a certain amount of admiration for its principles of complete liberty
+and equality and a desire to apply them to English aristocratic
+society and government. In 1790 societies began to be formed, meetings
+held, and pamphlets issued by men who sympathized with the popular
+movements in France. Indeed, some of these reformers were suspected of
+wishing to introduce a republic in England. After the outbreak of the
+war the ministry determined to put down this agitation, and between
+1793 and 1795 all public manifestation of sympathy with such
+principles was crushed out, although at the cost of considerable
+interference with what had been understood to be established personal
+rights. Much discontent continued through the whole period of the
+war, especially among the lower classes, though it did not take the
+form of organized political agitation. It was a period, as will be
+seen, of violent economic and social changes, which, although they
+enriched England as a whole and made it possible for her to support
+the unprecedented expenses of the long war, were very hard upon the
+working classes, who were used to the old ways.
+
+After the peace of 1815, however, political agitation began again. The
+Whig party seemed inclined to resume the effort to carry certain
+moderate reforms which had been postponed on account of the war, and
+down below this movement there was a more radical agitation for
+universal suffrage and for a more democratic type of government
+generally. On the other hand, the Tory government, which had been in
+power during almost the whole war period, was determined to oppose
+everything in the nature of reform or change, on the ground that the
+outrages accompanying the French Revolution arose from just such
+efforts to make reforming alterations in the government. The radical
+agitation was supported by the discontented masses of the people who
+were suffering under heavy taxes, high prices, irregular employment,
+and many other evils which they felt to be due to their exclusion from
+any share in the government. The years intervening between 1815 and
+1830 were therefore a period of constant bitterness and contention
+between the higher and the lower classes. Mass meetings which were
+called by the popular leaders were dissolved by the government,
+radical writers were prosecuted by the government for libel, the
+habeas corpus act was suspended repeatedly, and threatened rioting was
+met with severe measures. The actions of the ministers, while upheld
+by the higher classes, were bitterly attacked by others as being
+unconstitutional and tyrannical.
+
+In 1800 the union of the group of British Islands under one government
+was completed, at least in form. Scotland had come under the same
+crown as England in 1603, and the two Parliaments had been united in
+1707, the title Great Britain having been adopted for the combined
+nations. The king of England had held the title of Lord of Ireland
+from the time of the first conquest, and of King of Ireland since the
+adoption of the title by Henry VIII. The union which now took place
+consisted in the abolition of the separate Irish Parliament and the
+election of Irish members to the combined or "Imperial" Parliament of
+the three kingdoms sitting at Westminster. The official title of the
+united countries has since been "The United Kingdom of Great Britain
+and Ireland."
+
+
+*56. The Great Mechanical Inventions.*--As the eighteenth century
+progressed one form of economic growth seems to have been pressing on
+the general economic organization. This was the constant expansion of
+commerce, the steadily increasing demand for English manufactured
+goods for export.
+
+[Illustration: Distribution of Population According to the Hearth-tax
+of 1750. Engraved by Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
+
+The great quantities of goods which were every year sent abroad in
+English ships to the colonies, to Ireland, to the Continent, to Asia
+and Africa, as well as those used at home, continued to be
+manufactured in most cases by methods, with instruments, under an
+organization of labor the same as that which had been in existence for
+centuries. The cotton and woollen goods which were sold in the West
+Indies and America were still carded, spun, and woven in the scattered
+cottages of domestic weavers and weaver-farmers in the rural districts
+of the west and north of England, by the hand cards, the
+spinning-wheel, the cumbrous, old-fashioned loom. The pieces of goods
+were slowly gathered from the hamlets to the towns, from the towns
+to the seaports, over the poorest of roads, and by the most primitive
+of conveyances. And these antiquated methods of manufacture and
+transportation were all the more at variance with the needs and
+possibilities of the time because there had been, as already pointed
+out, a steady accumulation of capital, and much of it was not
+remuneratively employed. The time had certainly come for some
+improvement in the methods of manufacture.
+
+A closer examination into the process of production in England's
+principal industry, cloth-making, shows that this pressure on old
+methods was already felt. The raw material for such uses, as it comes
+from the back of the sheep, the boll of the cotton plant, or the
+crushed stems of the flax, is a tangled mass of fibre. The first
+necessary step is to straighten out the threads of this fibre, which
+is done in the case of wool by combing, in the others by carding, both
+being done at that time by hand implements. The next step is spinning,
+that is drawing out the fibres, which have been made parallel by
+carding, into a slender cord, and at the same time twisting this
+sufficiently to cause the individual fibres to take hold one of
+another and thus make a thread of some strength. This was sometimes
+done on the old high wheel, which was whirled around by hand and then
+allowed to come to rest while another section of the cotton, wool, or
+flax was drawn from the carded mass by hand, then whirled again,
+twisting this thread and winding it up on the spindle, and so on. Or
+it was done by the low wheel, which was kept whirling continuously by
+the use of a treadle worked by the foot, while the material was being
+drawn out all the time by the two hands, and twisted and wound
+continuously by the horseshoe-shaped device known as the "flyer." When
+the thread had been spun it was placed upon the loom; strong, firmly
+spun material being necessary for the "warp" of upright threads,
+softer and less tightly spun material for the "woof" or "weft," which
+was wrapped on the shuttle and thrown horizontally by hand between the
+two diverging lines of warp threads. After weaving, the fabric was
+subjected to a number of processes of finishing, fulling, shearing,
+dyeing, if that had not been done earlier, and others, according to
+the nature of the cloth or the kind of surface desired.
+
+In these successive stages of manufacture it was the spinning that was
+apt to interpose the greatest obstacle, as it took the most time. From
+time immemorial spinning had been done, as explained, on some form of
+the spinning-wheel, and by women. One weaver continuously at work
+could easily use up the product of five or six spinners. In the
+domestic industry the weaving was of course carried on in the
+dwelling-house by the father of the family with the grown sons or
+journeymen, while the spinning was done for the most part by the women
+and younger children of the family. As it could hardly be expected
+that there would always be as large a proportion as six of the latter
+class to one of the former, outside help must be obtained and much
+delay often submitted to. Many a small master who had agreed to weave
+up the raw material sent him by the master clothier within a given
+time, or a cloth weaver who had planned to complete a piece by next
+market day, was obliged to leave his loom and search through the
+neighborhood for some disengaged laborer's wife or other person who
+would spin the weft for which he was waiting. One of the very few
+inventions of the early part of the century intensified this
+difficulty. Kay's drop box and flying shuttle, invented in 1738, made
+it possible for a man to sit still and by pulling two cords
+alternately throw the shuttle to and fro. One man could therefore
+weave broadcloth instead of its requiring two as before, and
+consequently weaving was more rapid, while no corresponding change had
+been introduced into the process of spinning.
+
+[Illustration: Spinning-Jenny. (Byrn, _Invention in the Nineteenth
+Century_. Published by the Scientific American Company.)]
+
+Indeed, this particular difficulty was so clearly recognized that the
+Royal Society offered a prize for the invention of a machine that
+would spin several threads at the same time.
+
+[Illustration: Arkwright's First Spinning-machine. (Ure: _History of
+the Cotton Manufacture_.)]
+
+No one claimed this reward, but the spirit of invention was
+nevertheless awake, and experiments in more than one mechanical device
+were being made about the middle of the century. The first to be
+brought to actual completion was Hargreaves' spinning-jenny, invented
+in 1764. According to the traditional story James Hargreaves, a small
+master weaver living near Blackburn, on coming suddenly into the house
+caused his wife, who was spinning with the old high wheel, to spring
+up with a start and overset the wheel, which still continued whirling,
+but horizontally, and with its spindle in a vertical position. He was
+at once struck with the idea of using one wheel to cause a number of
+spindles to revolve by means of a continuous band, and by the device
+of substituting for the human hand a pair of bars which could be
+successively separated and closed, and which could be brought closer
+to or removed from the spindles on wheels, to spin several threads at
+the same time. On the basis of this idea and with the help of a
+neighboring mechanic he constructed a machine by which a man could
+spin eight threads at the same time. In honor of his wife he named it
+the "Spinning-jenny." The secret of this device soon came out and
+jennies spinning twenty or thirty or more threads at a time came into
+use here and there through the old spinning districts. At the same
+time a much more effective method was being brought to perfection by
+Richard Arkwright, who followed out some old experiments of Wyatt of
+Northampton. According to this plan the carded material was carried
+through successive pairs of rollers, each pair running more rapidly
+than the previous pair, thus stretching it out, while it was spun
+after leaving the last pair by flyers adapted from the old low or
+treadle spinning-wheel. Arkwright's first patent was taken out in
+1769, and from that time forward he invented, patented, and
+manufactured a series of machines which made possible the spinning of
+a number of threads at the same time very much more rapidly than even
+the spinning-jenny. Great numbers of Arkwright's spinning-machines
+were manufactured and sold by him and his partners. He made others for
+use in cotton mills carried on by himself with various partners in
+different parts of the country. His patent was eventually set aside as
+having been unfairly obtained, and the machines were soon generally
+manufactured and used. Improvements followed. An ingenious weaver
+named Samuel Crompton, perceiving that the roller spinning was more
+rapid but that the jennies would spin the finer thread, combined the
+two devices into one machine, known from its hybrid origin as the
+"mule." This was invented in 1779, and as it was not patented it soon
+came into general use. These inventions in spinning reacted on the
+earlier processes and led to a rapid development of carding and
+combing machines. A carding cylinder had been invented by Paul as far
+back as 1748, and now came into general use, while several
+wool-combing machines were invented in 1792 and 1793.
+
+[Illustration: Sir Richard Arkwright. (Portrait by Wright.)]
+
+So far all these inventions had been in the earlier textile processes.
+Use for the spun thread was found in giving fuller employment to the
+old hand looms, in the stocking manufacture, and for export; but no
+corresponding improvement had taken place in weaving. From 1784 onward
+a clergyman from the south of England, Dr. Edward Cartwright, was
+gradually bringing to perfection a power loom which by the beginning
+of the nineteenth century began to come into general use. The value
+put upon Cartwright's invention may be judged from the fact that
+Parliament voted him a gift of L10,000 in 1809. Arkwright had already
+won a large fortune by his invention, and in 1786 was knighted in
+recognition of his services to the national industry.
+
+[Illustration: Rev. Edmund Cartwright. (Portrait by Robert Fulton.)]
+
+While Cartwright was experimenting on the power loom, an invention was
+made far from England which was in reality an essential part of the
+improvement in the manufacture of cotton goods. This was the American
+cotton gin, for the removal of the seeds from the fibre of the boll,
+invented by Eli Whitney in 1792. Cotton had been introduced into the
+Southern states during the Revolutionary war. Its cultivation and
+export now became profitable, and a source of supply became available
+at the very time that the inventions for its manufacture were being
+perfected.
+
+Spinning-jennies could be used in the household of the weaver; but the
+later spinning-machines were so large and cumbrous that they could not
+be used in a dwelling-house, and required so much power and rapidity
+of motion that human strength was scarcely available. Horse power was
+used to some extent, but water power was soon applied and special
+buildings came to be put up along streams where water power was
+available. The next stage was the application of steam power. Although
+the possibility of using steam for the production of force had long
+been familiar, and indeed used to some extent in the pumping out of
+mines, it did not become available for general uses until the
+improvements of James Watt, patented in 1769 and succeeding years. In
+partnership with a man named Boulton, Watt began the manufacture of
+steam-engines in 1781. In 1785 the first steam-engine was used for
+power in a cotton mill. After that time the use of steam became more
+and more general and by the end of the century steam power was
+evidently superseding water power.
+
+
+*57. The Factory System.*--But other things were needed to make this new
+machinery available. It was much too expensive for the old cottage
+weavers to buy and use. Capital had, therefore, to be brought into
+manufacturing which had been previously used in trade or other
+employments. Capital was in reality abundant relatively to existing
+opportunities for investment, and the early machine spinners and
+weavers drew into partnership moneyed men from the towns who had
+previously no connection with manufacturing. Again, the new industry
+required bodies of laborers working regular hours under the control of
+their employers and in the buildings where the machines were placed
+and the power provided. Such groups of laborers or "mill hands"
+were gradually collected where the new kind of manufacturing was going
+on. Thus factories, in the modern sense, came into existence--a new
+phenomenon in the world.
+
+[Illustration: Mule-spinning in 1835.]
+
+[Illustration: Power-loom Weaving in 1835. (Baines: _History of Cotton
+Manufacture_.)]
+
+These changes in manufacturing and in the organization of labor came
+about earliest in the manufacture of cotton goods, but the new
+machinery and its resulting changes were soon introduced into the
+woollen manufacture, then other textile lines, and ultimately into
+still other branches of manufacturing, such as the production of
+metal, wooden, and leather goods, and, indeed, into nearly all forms
+of production. Manufacturing since the last decades of the eighteenth
+century is therefore usually described as being done by the "factory
+system," as contrasted with the domestic system and the gild system of
+earlier times.
+
+The introduction of the factory system involved many changes: the
+adoption of machinery and artificial power, the use of a vastly
+greater amount of capital, and the collection of scattered laborers
+into great strictly regulated establishments. It was, comparatively
+speaking, sudden, all its main features having been developed within
+the period between 1760 and 1800; and it resulted in the raising of
+many new and difficult social problems. For these reasons the term
+"Industrial Revolution," so generally applied to it, is not an
+exaggerated nor an unsuitable term. Almost all other forms of economic
+occupation have subsequently taken on the main characteristics of the
+factory system, in utilizing improved machinery, in the extensive
+scale on which they are administered, in the use of large capital, and
+in the organization of employees in large bodies. The industrial
+revolution may therefore be regarded as the chief characteristic
+distinguishing this period and the times since from all earlier ages.
+
+[Illustration: A Canal and Factory Town in 1827.]
+
+
+*58. Iron, Coal, and Transportation.*--A vast increase in the production
+of iron and coal was going on concurrently with the rise of the
+factory system. The smelting of iron ore was one of the oldest
+industries of England, but it was a declining rather than an advancing
+industry. This was due to the exhaustion of the woods and forests that
+provided fuel, or to their retention for the future needs of
+ship-building and for pleasure parks. In 1760, however, Mr. Roebuck
+introduced at the Carron iron-works a new kind of blast furnace by
+which iron ore could be smelted with coal as fuel. In 1790 the
+steam-engine was introduced to cause the blast. Production had already
+begun to advance before the latter date, and it now increased by
+thousands of tons a year till far into the present century.
+Improvements were introduced in puddling, rolling, and other processes
+of the manufacture of iron at about the same time. The production of
+coal increased more than proportionately. New devices in mining were
+introduced, such as steam pumps, the custom of supporting the roofs
+of the veins with timber instead of pillars of coal, and Sir Humphry
+Davy's safety lamp of 1815. The smelting of iron and the use of the
+steam-engine made such a demand for coal that capital was applied in
+large quantities to its production, and more than ten million tons a
+year were mined before the century closed.
+
+[Illustration: "The Rocket" Locomotive, 1825. (Smiles: _Life of George
+Stephenson_.)]
+
+Some slight improvements in roads and canals had been made and others
+projected during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries; but
+in the last quarter of the century the work of Telford, Macadam, and
+other engineers, and of the private turnpike companies or public
+authorities who engaged them, covered England with good roads. The
+first canal was that from Worsley to Manchester, built by Brindley
+for the duke of Bridgewater in 1761. Within a few years a system of
+canals had been constructed which gave ready transportation for goods
+through all parts of the country. The continuance of this development
+of transportation and its fundamental modification by the introduction
+of railways and steamboats has been one of the most striking
+characteristics of the nineteenth century.
+
+
+*59. The Revival of Enclosures.*--The changes which the latter half of
+the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth brought
+were as profound in the occupation and use of the land as they were in
+the production and transportation of manufactured goods. An
+agricultural revolution was in progress as truly as was the
+industrial.
+
+The improvements in the methods of farming already referred to as
+showing themselves earlier in the century became much more extensive.
+The raising of turnips and other root crops spread from experimental
+to ordinary farms so that a fallow year with no crop at all in the
+ground came to be almost unknown. Clover and artificial grasses for
+hay came to be raised generally, so that the supply of forage for the
+winter was abundant. New breeds of sheep and cattle were obtained by
+careful crossing and plentiful feeding, so that the average size was
+almost doubled, while the meat, and in some cases the wool, was
+improved in quality in even greater proportion. The names of such men
+as Jethro Tull, who introduced the "drill husbandry," Bakewell, the
+great improver of the breeds of cattle, and Arthur Young, the greatest
+agricultural observer and writer of the century, have become almost as
+familiar as those of Crompton, Arkwright, Watt, and other pioneers of
+the factory system. The general improvement in agricultural methods
+was due, not so much to new discoveries or inventions, as it was to
+the large amount of capital which was introduced into their practice.
+Expensive schemes of draining, marling, and other forms of fertilizing
+were carried out, long and careful investigations were entered upon,
+and managers of large farms were trained in special processes by
+landlords and farmers who had the command of large sums of money; and
+with the high prices prevalent they were abundantly remunerated for
+the outlay. Great numbers of "gentlemen farmers," such as Lord
+Townshend, the duke of Bedford, and George III himself, who wrote
+articles for the agricultural papers signed "Farmer George," were
+leaders in this agricultural progress. In 1793 a government Board of
+Agriculture was established, and through the whole latter part of the
+century numerous societies for the encouragement of scientific tillage
+and breeding were organized.
+
+In the early years of the eighteenth century there had been signs of a
+revival of the old process of enclosures, which had been suspended for
+more than a hundred years. This was brought about by private acts of
+Parliament. An act would be passed by Parliament giving legal
+authority to the inhabitants of some parish to throw together the
+scattered strips, and to redivide these and the common meadows and
+pastures in such a way that each person with any claim on the land
+should receive a proportionate share, and should have it separated
+from all others and entirely in his own control. It was the usual
+procedure for the lord of the manor, the rector of the parish, and
+other large landholders and persons of influence to agree on the
+general conditions of enclosure and draw up a bill appointing
+commissioners, and providing for survey, compensation, redistribution,
+and other requirements. They then submitted this bill to Parliament,
+where, unless there was some special reason to the contrary, it was
+passed. Its provisions were then carried out, and although legal and
+parliamentary fees and the expenses of survey and enclosure were
+large, yet as a result each inhabitant who had been able to make out a
+legal claim to any of the land of the parish received either some
+money compensation or a stretch of enclosed land. Such private
+enclosure acts increased slowly in number till about the middle of the
+century, when the increase became much more rapid.
+
+The number of enclosure acts passed by Parliament and the approximate
+extent of land enclosed under their provisions were as follows:--
+
+  1700-1759     244 Enclosure Bills       337,877 Acres
+  1760-1769     385     "      "          704,550   "
+  1770-1779     660     "      "        1,207,800   "
+  1780-1789     246     "      "          450,180   "
+  1790-1799     469     "      "          858,270   "
+  1800-1809     847     "      "        1,550,010   "
+  1810-1819     853     "      "        1,560,990   "
+  1820-1829     205     "      "          375,150   "
+  1830-1839     136     "      "          248,880   "
+  1840-1849      66     "      "          394,747   "
+
+In 1756, 1758, and 1773 general acts were passed encouraging the
+enclosure for common use of open pastures and arable fields, but not
+enclosing or dividing them permanently, and not providing for any
+separate ownership.
+
+In 1801 an act was passed to make simpler and easier the passage of
+private bills for enclosure; and in 1836 another to make possible,
+with the consent of two-thirds of the persons interested, the
+enclosing of certain kinds of common fields even without appealing to
+Parliament in each particular case. Finally, in 1845, the general
+Enclosure Act of that year carried the policy of 1836 further and
+appointed a body of Enclosure Commissioners, to determine on the
+expediency of any proposed enclosure and to attend to carrying it out
+if approved. Six years afterward, however, an amendment was passed
+making it necessary that even after an enclosure had been approved by
+the Commissioners it should go to Parliament for final decision.
+
+By measures such as these the greater part of the lands which had
+remained unenclosed to modern times were transformed into enclosed
+fields for separate cultivation or pasture. This process of enclosure
+was intended to make possible, and no doubt did bring about, much
+improved agriculture. It exerted incidentally a profound effect on the
+rural population. Many persons had habitually used the common pastures
+and open fields for pasture purposes, when they had in reality no
+legal claim whatever to such use. A poor man whose cow, donkey, or
+flock of geese had picked up a precarious livelihood on land of
+undistinguished ownership now found the land all enclosed and his
+immemorial privileges withdrawn without compensation. Naturally there
+was much dissatisfaction. A popular piece of doggerel declared that:--
+
+  "The law locks up the man or woman
+  Who steals the goose from off the common;
+  But leaves the greater villain loose
+  Who steals the common from the goose."
+
+Again, a small holder was frequently given compensation in the form of
+money instead of allotting to him a piece of land which was considered
+by the commissioners too small for effective use. The money was soon
+spent, whereas his former claim on the land had lasted because it
+could not readily be alienated.
+
+A more important effect, however, was the introduction on these
+enclosed lands of a kind of agriculture which the small landholder was
+ill fitted to follow. Improved cultivation, a careful rotation of
+crops, better fertilizers, drainage, farm stock, and labor were the
+characteristics of the new farming, and these were ordinarily
+practicable only to the man who had some capital, knowledge, and
+enterprise. Therefore, coincidently with the enclosures began a
+process by which the smaller tenants began to give up their holdings
+to men who could pay more rent for them by consolidating them into
+larger farms. The freeholders also who owned small farms from time to
+time sold them to neighboring landowners when difficulties forced them
+or high prices furnished inducements.
+
+
+*60. Decay of Domestic Manufacture.*--This process would have been a
+much slower one but for the contemporaneous changes that were going on
+in manufacturing. As has been seen, many small farmers in the rural
+districts made part of their livelihood by weaving or other domestic
+manufacture, or, as more properly described, the domestic
+manufacturers frequently eked out their resources by carrying on some
+farming. But the invention of machinery for spinning not only created
+a new industry, but destroyed the old. Cotton thread could be produced
+vastly more cheaply by machinery. In 1786 a certain quantity of a
+certain grade of spun yarn was worth 38 shillings; ten years later, in
+1796, it was worth only 19 shillings; in 1806 it was worth but 7
+shillings 2 pence, and so on down till, in 1832, it was worth but 3
+shillings. Part of this reduction in price was due to the decrease in
+the cost of raw cotton, but far the most of it to the cheapening of
+spinning.
+
+It was the same a few years later with weaving. Hand-loom weavers in
+Bolton, who received 25 shillings a week as wages in 1800, received
+only 19 shillings and 6 pence in 1810, 9 shillings in 1820, and 5
+shillings 6 pence in 1830. Hand work in other lines of manufacture
+showed the same results. Against such reductions in wages resistance
+was hopeless. Hand work evidently could not compete with machine work.
+No amount of skill or industry or determination could enable the hand
+workers to make their living in the same way as of old. As a matter of
+fact, a long, sad, desperate struggle was kept up by a whole
+generation of hand laborers, especially by the hand-loom weavers, but
+the result was inevitable.
+
+The rural domestic manufacturers were, as a matter of fact, devoting
+themselves to two inferior forms of industry. As far as they were
+handicraftsmen, they were competing with a vastly cheaper and better
+form of manufacture; as far as they were farmers, they were doing the
+same thing with regard to agriculture. Under these circumstances some
+of them gave up their holdings of land and drifted away to the towns
+to keep up the struggle a little longer as hand-loom weavers, and then
+to become laborers in the factories; others gave up their looms and
+devoted themselves entirely to farming for a while, but eventually
+sold their holdings or gave up their leases, and dropped into the
+class of agricultural laborers. The result was the same in either
+case. The small farms were consolidated, the class of yeomanry or
+small farmers died out, and household manufacture gave place to that
+of the factory. Before the end of the century the average size of
+English farms was computed at three hundred acres, and soon afterward
+domestic spinning and weaving were almost unknown.
+
+There was considerable shifting of population. Certain parts of the
+country which had been quite thickly populated with small farmers or
+domestic manufacturers now lost the greater part of their occupants by
+migration to the newer manufacturing districts or to America. As in
+the sixteenth century, some villages disappeared entirely. Goldsmith
+in the _Deserted Village_ described changes that really occurred,
+however opposed to the facts may have been his description of the
+earlier idyllic life whose destruction he deplored.
+
+The existence of unenclosed commons and common fields had been
+accompanied by very poor farming, very thriftless and shiftless
+habits. The improvement of agriculture, the application of capital to
+that occupation, the disappearance of the domestic system of industry,
+and other changes made the enclosure of common land and the
+accompanying changes inevitable. None the less it was a relatively
+sudden and complete interference with the established character of
+rural life, and not only was the process accompanied with much
+suffering, but the form which took its place was marked by some
+serious disadvantages. This form was brought about through the rapid
+culmination of old familiar tendencies. The classes connected with the
+land came to be quite clearly distinguished into three groups: the
+landlords, the tenant farmers, and the farm laborers. The landlord
+class was a comparatively small body of nobility and gentry, a few
+thousand persons, who owned by far the greater portion of the land of
+the country. Their estates were for the most part divided up into
+farms, to the keeping of which in productive condition they
+contributed the greater part of the expense, to the administration of
+which trained stewards applied themselves, and in the improvement of
+which their owners often took a keen and enlightened interest. They
+received high rents, possessed unlimited local influence, and were the
+favored governing class of the country. The class of farmers were men
+of some capital, and frequently of intelligence and enterprise, though
+rarely of education, who held on lease from the landlords farms of
+some one, two, or three or more hundred acres, paying relatively large
+rents, and yet by the excellence of their farming making for
+themselves a liberal income. The farm laborers were the residuum of
+the changes which have been traced in the history of landholding; a
+large class living for the most part miserably in cottages grouped in
+villages, holding no land, and receiving day wages for working on the
+farms just described.
+
+Notwithstanding the improvements in agriculture and the increase in
+the extent of cultivated land, England ceased within the eighteenth
+century to be a self-supporting country in food products. The form
+which the "corn laws" had taken in 1689 had been as follows: the
+raising of wheat was encouraged by prohibiting its importation and
+paying a bounty of about eightpence a bushel for its exportation so
+long as the prevailing price was less than six shillings a bushel.
+When it was between six shillings and six shillings eightpence a
+bushel its importation was forbidden, but there was no bounty paid for
+exportation. Between the last price and ten shillings a bushel it
+could be imported by paying a duty of a shilling a bushel. Above the
+last price it could be imported free. Nevertheless, during the latter
+half of the eighteenth century it became evident that there was no
+longer a sufficient amount of wheat raised for the needs of the
+English people. Between 1770 and 1790 exports and imports about
+balanced one another, but after the latter year the imports always
+exceeded the exports.
+
+This was of course due to the great increase of population and to its
+employment in the field of manufactures. The population in England in
+1700 was about five millions, in 1750 about six millions and a half,
+in 1800 about nine millions, and in 1850 about eighteen millions. That
+is to say, its progress was slow during the first half of the
+eighteenth century, more rapid during the latter half, and vastly more
+rapid during the nineteenth century.
+
+
+*61. The Laissez-faire Theory.*--A scarcely less complete change than
+that which had occurred in manufactures, in agriculture, and in social
+life as based upon these, was that which was in progress at the same
+time in the realm of ideas, especially as applied to questions of
+economic and social life. The complete acceptance of the view that it
+was a natural and desirable part of the work of government to regulate
+the economic life of the people had persisted well past the middle of
+the eighteenth century. But very different tendencies of thought arose
+in the latter part of the century. One of these was the prevailing
+desire for greater liberty. The word liberty was defined differently
+by different men, but for all alike it meant a resistance to
+oppression, a revulsion against interference with personal freedom of
+action, a disinclination to be controlled any more than absolutely
+necessary, a belief that men had a right to be left free to do as they
+chose, so far as such freedom was practicable.
+
+As applied to economic interests this liberty meant freedom for each
+person to make his living in the way he might see fit, and without any
+external restriction. Adam Smith says: "The patrimony of a poor man
+lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands; and to hinder him
+from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks
+proper, without injury to his neighbor, is a plain violation of this
+most sacred property. It is a manifest encroachment upon the just
+liberty both of the workman and of those who might be disposed to
+employ him. As it hinders the one from working at what he thinks
+proper, so it hinders the other from employing whom they think
+proper." Government regulation, therefore, in as far as it restricted
+men's freedom of action in working, employing, buying, selling, etc.,
+was an interference with their natural liberty.
+
+A second influence in the same direction was the prevalent belief that
+most of the evils that existed in society were due to the mistakes of
+civilization, that if men could get back to a "state of nature" and
+start again, things might be much better. It was felt that there was
+too much artificiality, too much interference with natural
+development. Arthur Young condemned the prevailing policy of
+government, "because it consists of prohibiting the natural course of
+things. All restrictive forcible measures in domestic policy are bad."
+Regulation was unwise because it forced men's actions into artificial
+lines when it would have been much better to let them follow natural
+lines. Therefore it was felt not only that men had a right to carry on
+their economic affairs as they chose, but that it was wise to allow
+them to do so, because interference or regulation had been tried and
+found wanting. It had produced evil rather than good.
+
+A third and by far the most important intellectual influence which
+tended toward the destruction of the system of regulation was the
+development of a consistent body of economic teaching, which claimed
+to have discovered natural laws showing the futility and injuriousness
+of any such attempts. Adam Smith's _Wealth of Nations_ was published
+in 1776, the year of the invention of Crompton's mule, and in the
+decade when enclosures were more rapid than at any other time, except
+in the middle years of the Napoleonic wars. This was, therefore, one
+of the earliest, as it was far the most influential, of a series of
+books which represent the changes in ideas correlative to the changes
+in actual life already described. It has been described as having for
+its main object "to demonstrate that the most effectual plan for
+advancing a people to greatness is to maintain that order of things
+which nature has pointed out, by allowing every man, as long as he
+observes the rules of justice, to pursue his own interests in his own
+way, and to bring both his industry and his capital into the freest
+competition with those of his fellow-citizens." But the most distinct
+influence exercised by the writings of Adam Smith and his successors
+was not so much in pointing out that it was unjust or unwise to
+interfere with men's natural liberty in the pursuit of their
+interests, as in showing, as it was believed, that there were natural
+laws which made all interference incapable of reaching the ends it
+aimed at. A series of works were published in the latter years of the
+eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth century by Malthus,
+Ricardo, Macculloch, James Mill, and others, in which principles were
+enunciated and laws formulated which were believed to explain why all
+interference with free competition was useless or worse. Not only was
+the whole subject of economic relations clarified, much that had been
+regarded as wise brought into doubt, and much that had been only
+doubted shown to be absurd, but the attainment of many objects
+previously sought for was, apparently, shown to be impossible, and to
+lie outside of the realm of human control.
+
+It was pointed out, for instance, that because of the limited amount
+of capital in existence at any one time, "a demand for commodities is
+not a demand for labor;" and therefore a law like that which required
+burial in a woollen shroud did not give added occupation to the
+people, but only diverted them from one occupation to another. Ricardo
+developed a law of wages to the effect that they always tend to the
+amount "necessary to enable the laborer to subsist, and to perpetuate
+his race without either increase or diminution," and that any
+artificial raising or lowering of wages is impossible, or else causes
+an increase or diminution in their number which, through competition,
+soon brings back the old rate. Rent was also explained by Ricardo as
+arising from the differences of quality between different pieces of
+land, and as measured by the difference in the productivity of the
+land under consideration and that of the poorest land under
+cultivation at the time; and therefore being in its amount independent
+of direct human control. The Malthusian law of population showed that
+population tended to increase in a geometrical ratio, subsistence for
+the population, on the other hand, only in an arithmetical ratio, and
+that poverty was, therefore, the natural and inevitable result in old
+countries of a pressure of population on subsistence. The sanction of
+science was thus given alike to the desires of the lovers of freedom
+and to the regrets of those who deplored man's departure from the
+state of nature.
+
+All these intellectual tendencies and reasonings of the later
+eighteenth century, therefore, combined to discredit the minute
+regulation of economic society, which had been the traditional policy
+of the immediately preceding centuries. The movement of thought was
+definitely opposed to the continuance or extension of the supervision
+of the government over matters of labor, wages, hours, industry,
+commerce, agriculture, or other phenomena of production, distribution,
+exchange, or consumption. This set of opinions is known as the
+_laissez-faire_ theory of the functions of government, the view that
+the duties of government should be reduced to the smallest possible
+number, and that it should keep out of the economic sphere altogether.
+Adam Smith would have restricted the functions of government to three:
+to protect the nation from the attacks of other nations, to protect
+each person in the nation from the injustice or violence of other
+individuals, and to carry on certain educational or similar
+institutions which were of general utility, but not to any one's
+private interest. Many of his successors would have cut off the last
+duty altogether.
+
+
+*62. Cessation of Government Regulation*--These theoretical opinions
+came to be more and more widely held, more and more influential over
+the most thoughtful of English statesmen and other men of prominence,
+until within the first half of the nineteenth century it may be said
+that their acceptance was general and their influence dominant. They
+fell in with the actual tendencies of the times, and as a result of
+the natural breaking down of old conditions, the rise of new, and the
+general acceptance of this attitude of _laissez-faire_, a rapid and
+general decay of the system of government regulation took place.
+
+The old regulation had never been so complete in reality as it was on
+the statute book, and much of it had died out of itself. Some of the
+provisions of the Statute of Apprentices were persistently
+disregarded, and when appeals were made for its application to farm
+work in the latter part of the eighteenth century Parliament refused
+to enforce it, as they did in the case of discharged soldiers in 1726
+and of certain dyers in 1777. The assize of bread was very irregularly
+enforced, and that of other victuals had been given up altogether.
+Many commercial companies were growing up without regulation by
+government, and in the world of finance the hand of government was
+very light. The new manufactures and the new agriculture grew up to a
+large extent apart from government control or influence; while the
+forms to which the old regulation did apply were dying out. In the new
+factory industry practically the whole body of the employees were
+without the qualifications required by the Statute of Apprentices, as
+well as many of the hand-loom weavers who were drawn into the industry
+by the abundance and cheapness of machine-spun thread. In the early
+years of the nineteenth century a strenuous effort was made by the
+older weavers to have the law enforced against them. The whole matter
+was investigated by Parliament, but instead of enforcing the old law
+they modified it by acts passed in 1803 and 1809, so as to allow of
+greater liberty. The old prohibition of using fulling mills passed in
+1553 was also repealed in 1809. The Statute of Apprentices after being
+weakened piecemeal as just mentioned, and by a further amendment
+removing the wages clauses in 1813, and after being referred to by
+Lord Mansfield as "against the natural rights and contrary to the
+common law rights of the land," was finally removed from the statute
+book in 1814. Even the "Combination Acts," which had forbidden
+laborers to unite to settle wages and hours, were repealed in 1824.
+Similar changes took place in other fields than those of the relations
+between employers and employees. The leading characteristics of
+legislation on questions of commerce, manufactures, and agriculture
+during the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first half
+of the nineteenth consist in the fact that it almost wholly tended
+toward freedom from government control. The proportions in which the
+influence of the natural breaking down of an outgrown system, of the
+new conditions which were arising, and of pure theory were combined
+cannot of course be distinguished. All were present. Besides this
+there is always a large number of persons in the community who would
+be primarily benefited by a change, and who therefore take the
+initiative or exercise a special pressure in favor of it.
+
+The Navigation Acts began to go to pieces in 1796, when the old rule
+restricting importations from America, Asia, and Africa to British
+vessels was withdrawn in favor of the United States; in 1811 the same
+permission to send goods to England in other than British vessels was
+given to Brazil, and in 1822 to the Spanish-American countries. The
+whole subject was investigated by a Parliamentary Commission in 1820,
+at the request of the London Chamber of Commerce, and a policy of
+withdrawal from control determined upon. In 1823 a measure was passed
+by which the crown was empowered to form reciprocity treaties with any
+other country so far as shipping was concerned, and agreements were
+immediately entered into with Prussia, Denmark, Hamburg, Sweden, and
+within the next twenty years with most other important countries. The
+old laws of 1660 were repealed in 1826, and a freer system
+substituted, while in 1849 the Navigation Acts were abolished
+altogether. In the meantime the monopoly of the old regulated
+companies was being withdrawn, the India trade being thrown open in
+1813 and given up entirely by the Company in 1833. Gradually the
+commerce of England and of all the English colonies was opened equally
+to the vessels of all nations.
+
+A beginning of removal of the import and export duties, which had been
+laid for the purpose of encouraging or discouraging or otherwise
+influencing certain lines of production or trade, was made in a
+commercial treaty entered into by Pitt with France in 1786. The work
+was seriously taken up again in 1824 and 1825 by Mr. Huskisson, and in
+1842 by Sir Robert Peel. In 1845 the duty was removed from four
+hundred and thirty articles, partly raw materials, partly
+manufactures. But the most serious struggle in the movement for free
+trade was that for the repeal of the corn laws. A new law had been
+passed at the close of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, by which the
+importation of wheat was forbidden so long as the prevailing price was
+not above ten shillings a bushel. This was in pursuance of the old
+traditional policy of encouraging the production of grain in order
+that England might be at least partially self-supporting, and was
+further justified on the ground that the landowners paid the great
+bulk of the taxes, which they could not do if the price of grain were
+allowed to be brought down by foreign competition. Nevertheless an
+active propaganda for the abolition of this law was begun by the
+formation of the "Anti-Corn Law League," in 1839. Richard Cobden
+became the president and the most famous representative of this
+society, which carried on an active agitation for some years. The
+chief interest in the abolition of the law would necessarily be taken
+by the manufacturing employers, the wages of whose employees could
+thus be made lower and more constant, but there were abundant other
+arguments against the laws, and their abandonment was entirely in
+conformity with the spirit of the age. At the close of 1845,
+therefore, Peel proposed their repeal, the matter was brought up in
+Parliament in the early months of 1846, and a sliding scale was
+adopted by which a slight temporary protection should continue until
+1849, when any protective tariff on wheat was to cease altogether,
+though a nominal duty of about one and a half pence a bushel was still
+to be collected. This is known as the "adoption of free trade."
+
+It remains to be noted in this connection that "free trade in land"
+was an expression often used during the same period, and consisted in
+an effort marked by a long series of acts of Parliament and
+regulations of the courts to simplify the title to land, the processes
+of buying and selling it, and in other ways making its use and
+disposal as simple and uncontrolled by external regulation as was
+commerce or any form of industry.
+
+Thus the structure of regulation of industry, which had been built up
+in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or which had survived from
+the Middle Ages, was now torn down; the use of the powers of
+government to make men carry on their economic life in a certain way,
+to buy and sell, labor and hire, manufacture and cultivate, export and
+import, only in such ways as were thought to be best for the nation,
+seemed to be entirely abandoned. The _laissez-faire_ view of
+government was to all appearances becoming entirely dominant.
+
+
+*63. Individualism.*--But the prevailing tendencies of thought and the
+economic teaching of the period were not merely negative and opposed
+to government regulation; they contained a positive element also. If
+there was to be no external control, what incentive would actuate men
+in their industrial existence? What force would hold economic society
+together? The answer was a plain one. Enlightened self-interest was
+the incentive, universal free competition was the force. James
+Anderson, in his _Political Economy_, published in 1801, says,
+"Private interest is the great source of public good, which, though
+operating unseen, never ceases one moment to act with unabating power,
+if it be not perverted by the futile regulations of some short-sighted
+politician." Again, Malthus, in his _Essay on Population_, in 1817,
+says: "By making the passion of self-love beyond comparison stronger
+than the passion of benevolence, the more ignorant are led to pursue
+the general happiness, an end which they would have totally failed to
+attain if the moving principle of their conduct had been benevolence.
+Benevolence, indeed, as the great and constant source of action, would
+require the most perfect knowledge of causes and effects, and
+therefore can only be the attribute of the Deity. In a being so
+short-sighted as man it would lead to the grossest errors, and soon
+transform the fair and cultivated soil of human society into a dreary
+scene of want and confusion."
+
+In other words, a natural and sufficient economic force was always
+tending to act and to produce the best results, except in as far as it
+was interfered with by external regulation. If a man wishes to earn
+wages, to receive payment, he must observe what work another man wants
+done, or what goods another man desires, and offer to do that work or
+furnish those goods, so that the other man may be willing to
+remunerate him. In this way both obtain what they want, and if all
+others are similarly occupied all wants will be satisfied so far as
+practicable. But men must be entirely free to act as they think best,
+to choose what and when and how they will produce. The best results
+will be obtained where the greatest freedom exists, where men may
+compete with one another freed from all trammels, at liberty to pay or
+ask such wages, to demand or offer such prices, to accept or reject
+such goods, as they wish or can agree upon. If everybody else is
+equally free the man who offers the best to his neighbor will be
+preferred. Effort will thus be stimulated, self-reliance encouraged,
+production increased, improvement attained, and economy guaranteed.
+Nor should there be any special favor or encouragement given by
+government or by any other bodies to any special individuals or
+classes of persons or kinds of industry, for in this way capital and
+labor will be diverted from the direction which they would naturally
+take, and the self-reliance and energy of such favored persons
+diminished.
+
+Therefore complete individualism, universal freedom of competition,
+was the ideal of the age, as far as there is ever any universal ideal.
+There certainly was a general belief among the greater number of the
+intelligent and influential classes, that when each person was freely
+seeking his own best interest he was doing the best for himself and
+for all. Economic society was conceived of as a number of freely
+competing units held in equilibrium by the force of competition, much
+as the material universe is held together by the attraction of
+gravitation. Any hindrance to this freedom of the individual to
+compete freely with all others, any artificial support or
+encouragement that gives him an advantage over others, is against his
+own real interest and that of society.
+
+This ideal was necessarily as much opposed to voluntary combinations,
+and to restrictions imposed by custom or agreement, as it was to
+government regulation. Individualism is much more than a mere
+_laissez-faire_ policy of government. It believes that every man
+should remain and be allowed to remain free, unrestricted, undirected,
+unassisted, so that he may be in a position at any time to direct his
+labor, ability, capital, enterprise, in any direction that may seem to
+him most desirable, and may be induced to put forth his best efforts
+to attain success. The arguments on which it was based were drawn from
+the domain of men's natural right to economic as to other freedom;
+from experience, by which it was believed that all regulation had
+proved to be injurious; and from economic doctrine, which was believed
+to have discovered natural laws that proved the necessary result of
+interference to be evil, or at best futile.
+
+The changes of the time were favorable to this ideal. Men had never
+been so free from external control by government or any other power.
+The completion of the process of enclosure left every agriculturist at
+liberty to plant and raise what he chose, and when and how he chose.
+The reform of the poor law in 1834 abolished the act of settlement of
+1662, by which the authorities of each parish had the power to remove
+to the place from which they came any laborers who entered it, and so
+far as the law was concerned, farm laborers were now free to come and
+go where they chose to seek for work. In the new factories, systems of
+transportation, and other large establishments that were taking the
+places of small ones, employees were at liberty to leave their
+engagements at any time they chose, to go to another employer or
+another occupation; and the employer had the same liberty of
+discharging at a moment's notice. Manufacturers were at liberty to
+make anything they chose, and hire laborers in whatever proportion
+they chose. And just as early modern regulation had been given up, so
+the few fragments of mediaeval restrictive institutions that had
+survived the intervening centuries were now rapidly abandoned in the
+stress of competitive society. Later forms of restriction, such as
+trade unions and trusts, had not yet grown up. Actual conditions and
+the theoretical statement of what was desirable approximated to one
+another more nearly than they usually have in the world's history.
+
+
+*64. Social Conditions at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century.*--Yet
+somehow the results were disappointing. More and better manufactured
+goods were produced and foreign goods sold, and at vastly lower
+prices. The same result would probably have been true in agriculture
+had not the corn laws long prevented this consummation, and instead
+distributed the surplus to paupers and the holders of government bonds
+through the medium of taxes. There was no doubt of English wealth and
+progress. England held the primacy of the world in commerce, in
+manufactures, in agriculture. Her rapid increase in wealth had enabled
+her to bear the burden, not only of her own part in the Napoleonic
+wars, but of much of the expense of the armament of the continental
+countries. Population also was increasing more rapidly than ever
+before. She stood before the world as the most prominent and
+successful modern nation in all material respects. Yet a closer
+examination into her internal condition shows much that was deeply
+unsatisfactory. The period of transition from the domestic to the
+factory system of industry and from the older to the new farming
+conditions was one of almost unrelieved misery to great masses of
+those who were wedded to the old ways, who had neither the capital,
+the enterprise, nor the physical nor mental adaptability to attach
+themselves to the new. The hand-loom weavers kept up a hopeless
+struggle in the garrets and cellars of the factory towns, while their
+wages were sinking lower and lower till finally the whole generation
+died out. The small farmers who lost the support of spinning and other
+by-industries succumbed in the competition with the larger producers.
+The cottagers whose commons were lost to them by enclosures frequently
+failed to find a niche for themselves in their own part of the
+country, and became paupers or vagabonds. Many of the same sad
+incidents which marked the sixteenth century were characteristic of
+this period of analogous change, when ultimate improvement was being
+bought at the price of much immediate misery.
+
+[Illustration: Carding, Drawing, and Roving in 1835. (Baines: _History
+of Cotton Manufacture_.)]
+
+Even among those who were supposed to have reaped the advantages of
+the changes of the time many unpleasant phenomena appeared. The farm
+laborers were not worse, perhaps were better off on the average, in
+the matter of wages, than those of the previous generation, but they
+were more completely separated from the land than they had ever been
+before, more completely deprived of those wholesome influences which
+come from the use of even a small portion of land, and of the
+incitement to thrift that comes from the possibility of rising. Few
+classes of people have ever been more utterly without enjoyment or
+prospects than the modern English farm laborers. And one class, the
+yeomen, somewhat higher in position and certainly in opportunities,
+had disappeared entirely, recruited into the class of mere laborers.
+
+In the early factories, women and children were employed more
+extensively and more persistently than in earlier forms of industry.
+Their labor was in greater demand than that of men. In 1839, of 31,632
+employees in worsted mills, 18,416, or considerably more than half,
+were under eighteen years of age, and of the 13,216 adults, 10,192
+were women, leaving only 3024 adult men among more than 30,000
+laborers. In 1832, in a certain flax spinning mill near Leeds, where
+about 1200 employees were engaged, 829 were below eighteen, only 390
+above; and in the flax spinning industry generally, in 1835, only
+about one-third were adults, and only about one-third of these were
+men. In the still earlier years of the factory system the proportion
+of women and children was even greater, though reliable general
+statistics are not available. The cheaper wages, the easier control,
+and the smaller size of women and children, now that actual physical
+power was not required, made them more desirable to employers, and in
+many families the men clung to hand work while the women and children
+went into the factories.
+
+The early mills were small, hot, damp, dusty, and unhealthy. They were
+not more so perhaps than the cottages where domestic industry had been
+carried on; but now the hours were more regular, continuous, and
+prolonged in which men, women, and children were subjected to such
+labor. All had to conform alike to the regular hours, and these were
+in the early days excessive. Twelve, thirteen, and even fourteen hours
+a day were not unusual. Regular hours of work, when they are moderate
+in length, and a systematized life, when it is not all labor, are
+probably wholesome, physically and morally; but when the summons to
+cease from work and that to begin it again are separated by such a
+short interval, the factory bell or whistle represents mere tyranny.
+
+Wages were sometimes higher than under the old conditions, but they
+were even more irregular. Greater ups and downs occurred. Periods of
+very active production and of restriction of production alternated
+more decidedly than before, and introduced more irregularity into
+industry for both employers and employees. The town laborer engaged in
+a large establishment was, like the rural laborer on a large farm,
+completely separated from the land, from capital, from any active
+connection with the administration of industry, from any probable
+opportunity of rising out of the laboring class. His prospects were,
+therefore, as limited as his position was laborious and precarious.
+
+The rapid growth of the manufacturing towns, especially in the north,
+drawing the scattered population of other parts of the country into
+their narrow limits, caused a general breakdown in the old
+arrangements for providing water, drainage, and fresh air; and made
+rents high, and consequently living in crowded rooms necessary. The
+factory towns in the early part of the century were filthy, crowded,
+and demoralizing, compared alike with their earlier and their present
+condition.
+
+[Illustration: Cotton Factories in Manchester. (Baines: _History of
+Cotton Manufacture_.)]
+
+In the higher grades of economic society the advantages of the recent
+changes were more distinct, the disadvantages less so. The rise of
+capital and business enterprise into greater importance, and the
+extension of the field of competition, gave greater opportunity to
+employing farmers, merchants, and manufacturers, as well as to the
+capitalists pure and simple. But even for them the keenness of
+competition and the exigencies of providing for the varying
+conditions of distant markets made the struggle for success a harder
+one, and many failed in it.
+
+In many ways therefore it might seem that the great material advances
+which had been made, the removal of artificial restrictions, the
+increase of liberty of action, the extension of the field of
+competition, the more enlightened opinions on economic and social
+relations, had failed to increase human happiness appreciably; indeed,
+for a time had made the condition of the mass of the people worse
+instead of better.
+
+It will not, therefore, be unexpected if some other lines of economic
+and social development, especially those which have become more and
+more prominent during the later progress of the nineteenth century,
+prove to be quite different in direction from those that have been
+studied in this chapter.
+
+
+*65. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Toynbee, Arnold: _The Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century
+in England_.
+
+Lecky, W. E. H.: _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_, Vol.
+VI, Chap. 23.
+
+Baines, E.: _History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain_.
+
+Cooke-Taylor, R. W.: _The Modern Factory System_.
+
+Levi, L.: _History of British Commerce and of the Economic Progress of
+the British Nation_.
+
+Prothero, R. E.: _The Pioneers and Progress of English Farming_.
+
+Rogers, J. E. T.: _Industrial and Commercial History_.
+
+Smith, Adam: _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of
+Nations_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE EXTENSION OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL
+
+Factory Laws, The Modification Of Land Ownership, Sanitary
+Regulations, And New Public Services
+
+
+*66. National Affairs from 1830 to 1900.*--The English government in the
+year 1830 might be described as a complete aristocracy. The king had
+practically no powers apart from his ministers, and they were merely
+the representatives of the majority in Parliament. Parliament
+consisted of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The first of
+these Houses was made up for the most part of an hereditary
+aristocracy. The bishops and newly created peers, the only element
+which did not come in by inheritance, were appointed by the king and
+usually from the families of those who already possessed inherited
+titles. The House of Commons had originally been made up of two
+members from each county, and two from each important town. But the
+list of represented towns was still practically the same as it had
+been in the fifteenth century, while intervening economic and other
+changes had, as has been seen, made the most complete alteration in
+the distribution of population. Great manufacturing towns had grown up
+as a result of changes in commerce and of the industrial revolution,
+and these had no representation in Parliament separate from the
+counties in which they lay. On the other hand, towns once of
+respectable size had dwindled until they had only a few dozen
+inhabitants, and in some cases had reverted to open farming country;
+but these, or the landlords who owned the land on which they had been
+built, still retained their two representatives in Parliament. The
+county representatives were voted for by all "forty shilling
+freeholders," that is, landowners whose farms would rent for forty
+shillings a year. But the whole tendency of English landholding, as
+has been seen, had been to decrease the number of landowners in the
+country, so that the actual number of voters was only a very small
+proportion of the rural population.
+
+Such great irregularities of representation had thus grown up that the
+selection of more than a majority of the members of the House of
+Commons was in the hands of a very small number of men, many of them
+already members of the House of Lords, and all members of the
+aristocracy.
+
+Just as Parliament represented only the higher classes, so officers in
+the army and to a somewhat less extent the navy, the officials of the
+established church, the magistrates in the counties, the ambassadors
+abroad, and the cabinet ministers at home, the holders of influential
+positions in the Universities and endowed institutions generally, were
+as a regular thing members of the small class of the landed or
+mercantile aristocracy of England. Perhaps one hundred thousand out of
+the fourteen millions of the people of England were the veritable
+governing classes. They alone had any control of the national and
+local government, or of the most important political and social
+institutions.
+
+The "Reform of Parliament," which meant some degree of equalization of
+the representation of districts, an extension of the franchise, and
+the abolition of some of the irregularities in elections, had been
+proposed from time to time, but had awakened little interest until it
+was advocated by the Radicals under the influence of the French
+Revolution, along with some much more far-reaching propositions.
+Between the years 1820 and 1830, however, a moderate reform of
+Parliament had been advocated by the leaders of the Whig party. In
+1830 this party rather unexpectedly obtained a majority in Parliament,
+for the first time for a long while, and the ministry immediately
+introduced a reform bill. It proposed to take away the right of
+separate representation from fifty-six towns, and to reduce the number
+of representatives from two to one in thirty-one others; to transfer
+these representatives to the more populous towns and counties; to
+extend the franchise to a somewhat larger number and to equalize it;
+and finally to introduce lists of voters, to keep the polls open for
+only two days, and to correct a number of such minor abuses. There was
+a bitter contest in Parliament and in the country at large on the
+proposed change, and the measure was only carried after it had been
+rejected by one House of Commons, passed by a new House elected as a
+test of the question, then defeated by the House of Lords, and only
+passed by them when submitted a second time with the threat by the
+ministry of requiring the king to create enough new peers to pass it,
+if the existing members refused to do so. Its passage was finally
+secured in 1832. It was carried by pressure from below through all its
+stages. The king signed it reluctantly because it had been sent to him
+by Parliament, the House of Lords passed it under threats from the
+ministry, who based their power on the House of Commons. This body in
+turn had to be reconstructed by a new election before it would agree
+to it, and there is no doubt that the voters as well as Parliament
+itself were much influenced by the cry of "the Bill, the whole Bill,
+and nothing but the Bill," raised by mobs, associations, and meetings,
+consisting largely of the masses of the people who possessed no votes
+at all. In the last resort, therefore, it was a victory won by the
+masses, and, little as they profited by it immediately, it proved to
+be the turning point, the first step from aristocracy toward
+democracy.
+
+In 1867 a second Reform Bill was passed, mainly on the lines of the
+first, but giving what amounted to almost universal suffrage to the
+inhabitants of the town constituencies, which included the great body
+of the workingmen. Finally, in 1884 and 1885, the third Reform Bill
+was passed which extended the right of voting to agricultural laborers
+as well, and did much toward equalizing the size of the districts
+represented by each member of the House of Commons. Other reforms have
+been adopted during the same period, and Parliament has thus come to
+represent the whole population instead of merely the aristocracy. But
+there have been even greater changes in local government. By laws
+passed in 1835 and 1882 the cities and boroughs have been given a form
+of government in which the power is in the hands of all the taxpayers.
+In 1888 an act was passed through Parliament forming County Councils,
+elected by universal suffrage and taking over many of the powers
+formerly exercised by the magistrates and large landholders. In 1894
+this was followed by a Parish Council Bill creating even more
+distinctly local bodies, by which the people in each locality, elected
+by universal suffrage, including that of women, may take charge of
+almost all their local concerns under the general legislation of
+Parliament.
+
+Corresponding to these changes in general and local government the
+power of the old ruling classes has been diminished in all directions,
+until it has become little more than that degree of prominence and
+natural leadership which the national sentiment or their economic and
+intellectual advantages give to them. It may be said that England, so
+far as its government goes, has come nearer to complete democracy than
+any other modern country.
+
+In the rapidity of movement, the activity, the energy, the variety of
+interests, the thousand lines of economic, political, intellectual,
+literary, artistic, philanthropic, or religious life which
+characterize the closing years of the nineteenth century, it seems
+impossible to choose a few facts to typify or describe the period, as
+is customary for earlier times.
+
+Little can be done except to point out the main lines of political
+movement, as has been done in this paragraph, or of economic and
+social development, as will be done in the remaining paragraphs of
+this and the next chapter. The great mass of recent occurrences and
+present conditions are as yet rather the human atmosphere in which we
+are living, the problem which we are engaged in solving, than a proper
+subject for historical description and analysis.
+
+[Illustration: Distribution of Population in England and Wales 1891.
+Engraved By Bormay & Co., N.Y.]
+
+
+*67. The Beginning of Factory Legislation.*--One of the greatest
+difficulties with which the early mill owners had to contend was the
+insufficient supply of labor for their factories. Since these had to
+be run by water power, they were placed along the rapid streams in the
+remote parts of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire,
+which were sparsely populated, and where such inhabitants as there
+were had a strong objection to working in factories. However abundant
+population might be in some other parts of England, in the northwest
+where the new manufacturing was growing up, and especially in the
+hilly rural districts, there were but few persons available to perform
+the work which must be done by human hands in connection with the mill
+machinery. There was, however, in existence a source of supply of
+laborers which could furnish almost unlimited numbers and at the
+lowest possible cost. The parish poorhouses or workhouses of the large
+cities were overcrowded with children. The authorities always had
+difficulty in finding occupation for them when they came to an age
+when they could earn their own living, and any plan of putting them to
+work would be received with welcome. This source of supply was early
+discovered and utilized by the manufacturers, and it soon became
+customary for them to take as apprentices large numbers of the
+poorhouse children. They signed indentures with the overseers of the
+poor by which they agreed to give board, clothing, and instruction for
+a certain number of years to the children who were thus bound to them.
+In return they put them to work in the factories. Children from seven
+years of age upward were engaged by hundreds from London and the other
+large cities, and set to work in the cotton spinning factories of the
+north. Since there were no other facilities for boarding them,
+"apprentice houses" were built for them in the vicinity of the
+factories, where they were placed under the care of superintendents or
+matrons. The conditions of life among these pauper children were, as
+might be expected, very hard. They were remotely situated, apart from
+the observation of the community, left to the burdens of unrelieved
+labor and the harshness of small masters or foremen. Their hours of
+labor were excessive. When the demands of trade were active they were
+often arranged in two shifts, each shift working twelve hours, one in
+the day and another in the night, so that it was a common saying in
+the north that "their beds never got cold," one set climbing into bed
+as the other got out. When there was no night work the day work was
+the longer. They were driven at their work and often abused. Their
+food was of the coarsest description, and they were frequently
+required to eat it while at their work, snatching a bite as they could
+while the machinery was still in motion. Much of the time which
+should have been devoted to rest was spent in cleaning the machinery,
+and there seems to have been absolutely no effort made to give them
+any education or opportunity for recreation.
+
+The sad life of these little waifs, overworked, underfed, neglected,
+abused, in the factories and barracks in the remote glens of Yorkshire
+and Lancashire, came eventually to the notice of the outside world.
+Correspondence describing their condition began to appear in the
+newspapers, a Manchester Board of Health made a presentment in 1796
+calling attention to the unsanitary conditions in the cotton factories
+where they worked, contagious fevers were reported to be especially
+frequent in the apprentice houses, and in 1802 Sir Robert Peel,
+himself an employer of nearly a thousand such children, brought the
+matter to the attention of Parliament. An immediate and universal
+desire was expressed to abolish the abuses of the system, and as a
+result the "Health and Morals Act to regulate the Labor of Sound
+Children in Cotton Factories" was passed in the same year. It
+prohibited the binding out for factory labor of children younger than
+nine years, restricted the hours of labor to twelve actual working
+hours a day, and forbade night labor. It required the walls of the
+factories to be properly whitewashed and the buildings to be
+sufficiently ventilated, insisted that the apprentices should be
+furnished with at least one new suit of clothes a year, and provided
+that they should attend religious service and be instructed in the
+fundamental English branches. This was the first of the "Factory
+Acts," for, although its application was so restricted, applying only
+to cotton factories, and for the most part only to bound children, the
+subsequent steps in the formation of the great code of factory
+legislation were for a long while simply a development of the same
+principle, that factory labor involved conditions which it was
+desirable for government to regulate.
+
+At the time of the passage of this law the introduction of steam power
+was already causing a transfer of the bulk of factory industry from
+the rural districts to which the need for water power had confined it
+to the towns where every other requisite for carrying on manufacturing
+was more easily obtainable. Here the children of families resident in
+the town could be obtained, and the practice of using apprentice
+children was largely given up. Many of the same evils, however,
+continued to exist here. The practice of beginning to work while
+extremely young, long hours, night work, unhealthy surroundings,
+proved to be as common among these children to whom the law did not
+apply as they had been among the apprentice children. These evils
+attracted the attention of several persons of philanthropic feeling.
+Robert Owen, especially, a successful manufacturer who had introduced
+many reforms in his own mills, collected a large body of evidence as
+to the excessive labor and early age of employees in the factories
+even where no apprentice labor was engaged. He tried to awaken an
+interest in the matter by the publication of a pamphlet on the
+injurious consequences of the factory system, and to influence various
+members of Parliament to favor the passage of a law intended to
+improve the condition of laboring children and young people. In 1815
+Sir Robert Peel again brought the matter up in Parliament. A committee
+was appointed to investigate the question, and a legislative agitation
+was thus begun which was destained to last for many years and to
+produce a series of laws which have gradually taken most of the
+conditions of employment in large establishments under the control of
+the government. In debates in Parliament, in testimony before
+government commissions of investigation, in petitions, pamphlets, and
+newspapers, the conditions of factory labor were described and
+discussed. Successive laws to modify these conditions were introduced
+into Parliament, debated at great length, amended, postponed,
+reintroduced, and in some cases passed, in others defeated.
+
+
+*68. Arguments for and against Factory Legislation.*--The need for
+regulation which was claimed to exist arose from the long hours of
+work which were customary, from the very early age at which many
+children were sent to be employed in the factories, and from various
+incidents of manufacturing which were considered injurious, or as
+involving unnecessary hardship. The actual working hours in the
+factories in the early part of the century were from twelve and a half
+to fourteen a day. That is to say, factories usually started work in
+the morning at 6 o'clock and continued till 12, when a period from a
+half-hour to an hour was allowed for dinner, then the work began again
+and continued till 7.30 or 8.30 in the evening. It was customary to
+eat breakfast after reaching the mill, but this was done while
+attending the machinery, there being no general stoppage for the
+purpose. Some mills ran even longer hours, opening at 5 A.M. and not
+closing till 9 P.M. In some exceptional cases the hours were only 12;
+from 6 to 12 and from 1 to 7. The inducements to long hours were very
+great. The profits were large, the demand for goods was constantly
+growing, the introduction of gas made it possible to light the
+factories, and the use of artificial power, either water or steam,
+seemed to make the labor much less severe than when the power had been
+provided by human muscles. Few or no holidays were regarded, except
+Sunday, so that work went on in an unending strain of protracted,
+exhausting labor, prolonged for much of the year far into the night.
+
+To these long hours all the hands alike conformed, the children
+commencing and stopping work at the same time as the grown men and
+women. Moreover, the children often began work while extremely young.
+There was a great deal of work in the factories which they could do
+just as well, in some cases even better, than adults. They were
+therefore commonly sent into the mills by their parents at about the
+age of eight years, frequently at seven or even six. As has been
+before stated, more than half of the employees in many factories were
+below eighteen years, and of these a considerable number were mere
+children. Thirdly, there were certain other evils of factory labor
+that attracted attention and were considered by the reformers to be
+remediable. Many accidents occurred because the moving machinery was
+unprotected, the temperature in the cotton mills had to be kept high,
+and ventilation and cleanliness were often entirely neglected. The
+habit of keeping the machinery in motion while meals were being eaten
+was a hardship, and in many ways the employees were practically at the
+mercy of the proprietors of the factories so long as there was no form
+of oversight or of united action to prevent harshness or unfairness.
+
+In the discussions in Parliament and outside there were of course many
+contradictory statements concerning the facts of the case, and much
+denial of general and special charges. The advocates of factory laws
+drew an extremely sombre picture of the evils of the factory system.
+The opponents of such legislation, on the other hand, declared that
+their statements were exaggerated or untrue, and that the condition of
+the factory laborer was not worse than that of other workingmen, or
+harder than that of the domestic worker and his family had been in
+earlier times.
+
+But apart from these recriminations and contradictions,  there were
+certain general arguments used in the debates which can be grouped
+into three classes on each side. For the regulating laws there was in
+the first place the purely sentimental argument, repulsion against the
+hard, unrelieved labor, the abuse, the lack of opportunity for
+enjoyment or recreation of the children of the factory districts; the
+feeling that in wealthy, humane, Christian England, it was unendurable
+that women and little children should work longer hours, be condemned
+to greater hardships, and more completely cut off from the enjoyments
+of life than were the slaves of tropical countries. This is the
+argument of Mrs. Browning's _Cry of the Children_:--
+
+  "Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
+    Ere the sorrow comes with years?
+  They are leaning their young heads against their mothers.
+    And that cannot stop their tears.
+  The young lambs are bleating in the meadows;
+    The young birds are chirping in the nest;
+  The young fawns are playing with the shadows;
+    The young flowers are blowing toward the west;
+  But the young, young children, O my brothers!
+    They are weeping bitterly.
+  They are weeping in the play-time of the others
+    In the country of the free.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  'For oh!' say the children, 'we are weary,
+    And we cannot run or leap:
+  If we cared for any meadows, it were merely
+    To drop down in them and sleep.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  They look up with their pale and sunken faces,
+    And their look is dread to see,
+  For they mind you of their angels in high places,
+    With eyes turned on Deity.
+  'How long,' they say, 'how long, O cruel nation,
+    Will you stand, to move the world on a child's heart
+  Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation
+    And tread onward to your throne amid the mart?'"
+
+Secondly, it was argued that the long hours for the children cut them
+off from all intellectual and moral training, that they were in no
+condition after such protracted labor to profit by any opportunities
+of education that should be supplied, that with the diminished
+influence of the home, and the demoralizing effects that were supposed
+to result from factory labor, ignorance and vice alike would continue
+to be its certain accompaniments, unless the age at which regular work
+was begun should be limited, and the number of hours of labor of young
+persons restricted. Thirdly, it was claimed that there was danger of
+the physical degeneracy of the factory population. Certain diseases,
+especially of the joints and limbs, were discovered to be very
+prevalent in the factory districts. Children who began work so early
+in life and were subjected to such long hours of labor did not grow so
+rapidly, nor reach their full stature, nor retain their vigor so late
+in life, as did the population outside of the factories. Therefore,
+for the very physical preservation of the race, it was declared to be
+necessary to regulate the conditions of factory labor.
+
+On the other hand, apart from denials as to the facts of the case,
+there were several distinct arguments used against the adoption of
+factory laws. In the first place, in the interests of the
+manufacturers, such laws were opposed as an unjust interference with
+their business, an unnecessary and burdensome obstacle to their
+success, and a threat of ruin to a class who by giving employment to
+so many laborers and furnishing so much of the material for commerce
+were of the greatest advantage to the country. Secondly, from a
+somewhat broader point of view, it was declared that if such laws were
+adopted England would no longer be able to compete with other
+countries and would lose her preeminence in manufactures. The factory
+system was being introduced into France, Belgium, the United States,
+and other countries, and in none of these was there any legal
+restriction on the hours of labor or the age of the employees. If
+English manufacturers were forced to reduce the length of the day in
+which production was carried on, they could not produce as cheaply as
+these other countries, and English exports would decrease. This would
+reduce the national prosperity and be especially hard on the working
+classes themselves, as many would necessarily be thrown out of work.
+Thirdly, as a matter of principle it was argued that the policy of
+government regulation had been tried and found wanting, that after
+centuries of existence it had been deliberately given up, and should
+not be reintroduced. Laws restricting hours would interfere with the
+freedom of labor, with the freedom of capital, with the freedom of
+contract. If the employer and the employee were both satisfied with
+the conditions of their labor, why should the government interfere?
+The reason also why such regulation had failed in the past and must
+again, if tried now, was evident. It was an effort to alter the action
+of the natural laws which controlled employment, wages, profits, and
+other economic matters, and was bad in theory, and would therefore
+necessarily be injurious in practice. These and some other less
+general arguments were used over and over again in the various forms
+of the discussion through almost half a century. The laws that were
+passed were carried because the majority in Parliament were either not
+convinced by these reasonings or else determined that, come what
+might, the evils and abuses connected with factory labor should be
+abolished. As a matter of fact, the factory laws were carried by the
+rank and file of the voting members of Parliament, not only against
+the protests of the manufacturers especially interested, but in spite
+of the warnings of those who spoke in the name of established
+teaching, and frequently against the opposition of the political
+leaders of both parties. The greatest number of those who voted for
+them were influenced principally by their sympathies and feelings, and
+yielded to the appeals of certain philanthropic advocates, the most
+devoted and influential of whom was Lord Ashley, afterward earl of
+Shaftesbury, who devoted many years to investigation and agitation on
+the subject both inside and out of Parliament.
+
+
+*69. Factory Legislation to 1847.*--The actual course of factory
+legislation was as follows. The bill originally introduced in 1815,
+after having been subjected to a series of discussions, amendments,
+and postponements, was passed in June, 1819, being the second "Factory
+Act." It applied only to cotton mills, and was in the main merely an
+extension of the act of 1802 to the protection of children who were
+not pauper apprentices. It forbade the employment of any child under
+nine years of age, and prohibited the employment of those between nine
+and sixteen more than twelve hours a day, or at night. In addition to
+the twelve hours of actual labor, at least a half-hour must be allowed
+for breakfast and an hour for dinner. Other minor acts amending or
+extending this were passed from time to time, till in 1833, after two
+successive commissions had made investigations and reports on the
+subject, an important law was passed. It applied practically to all
+textile mills, not merely to those for the spinning of cotton. The
+prohibition of employment of all below nine years was continued,
+children between nine and thirteen were to work only eight hours per
+day, and young persons between thirteen and eighteen only twelve
+hours, and none of these at night. Two whole and eight half holidays
+were required to be given within the year, and each child must have a
+surgeon's certificate of fitness for labor. There were also clauses
+for the education of the children and the cleanliness of the
+factories. But the most important clause of this statute was the
+provision of a corps of four inspectors with assistants who were sworn
+to their duties, salaried, and provided with extensive powers of
+making rules for the execution of the act, of enforcing it, and
+prosecuting for its violation. The earlier laws had not been
+efficiently carried out. Under this act numerous prosecutions and
+convictions took place, and factory regulation began to become a
+reality. The inspectors calculated during their first year of service
+that there were about 56,000 children between nine and thirteen, and
+about 108,000 young persons between thirteen and eighteen, in the
+factories under their supervision.
+
+The decade lying between 1840 and 1850 was one of specially great
+activity in social and economic agitation. Chartism, the abolition of
+the corn laws, the formation of trade unions, mining acts, and further
+extensions of the factory acts were all alike under discussion, and
+they all created the most intense antagonism between parties and
+classes. In 1844 the law commonly known as the "Children's Half-time
+Act" was passed. It contained a large number of general provisions for
+the fencing of dangerous machinery, for its stoppage while being
+cleaned, for the report of accidents to inspectors and district
+surgeons, for the public prosecution for damages of the factory owner
+when he should seem to be responsible for an accident, and for the
+enforcement of the act. Its most distinctive clause, however, was that
+which restricted the labor of children to a half-day, or the whole of
+alternate days, and required their attendance at school for the other
+half of their time. All women were placed by this act in the same
+category as young persons between thirteen and eighteen, so far as the
+restriction of hours of labor to twelve per day and the prohibition
+of night work extended.
+
+The next statute to be passed was an extension of this regulation,
+though it contained the provision which had long been the most
+bitterly contested of any during the whole factory law agitation. This
+was the "Ten-hour Act" of 1847. From an early period in the century
+there had been a strong agitation in favor of restricting by law the
+hours of young persons, and from somewhat later, of women, to ten
+hours per day, and this proposition had been repeatedly introduced and
+defeated in Parliament. It was now carried. By this time the more
+usual length of the working day even when unrestricted had been
+reduced to twelve hours, and in some trades to eleven. It was now made
+by law half-time for children, and ten hours for young persons and
+women, or as rearranged by another law passed three years afterward,
+ten and a half hours for five days of the week and a half-day on
+Saturday. The number of persons to whom the Ten-hour Act applied was
+estimated at something over 360,000. That is, including the children,
+at least three-fourths of all persons employed in textile industries
+had their hours and some other conditions of labor directly regulated
+by law. Moreover, the work of men employed in the same factories was
+so dependent on that of the women and the children, that many of these
+restrictions applied practically to them also.
+
+Further minor changes in hours and other details were made from time
+to time, but there was no later contest on the principle of factory
+legislation. The evil results which had been feared had not shown
+themselves, and many of its strongest opponents had either already, or
+did eventually, acknowledge the beneficial results of the laws.
+
+
+*70. The Extension of Factory Legislation.*--By the successive acts of
+1819, 1833, 1844, and 1847, a normal length of working day and
+regulated conditions generally had been established by government for
+the factories employing women and children. The next development was
+an extension of the regulation of hours and conditions of labor from
+factories proper to other allied fields. Already in 1842 a law had
+been passed regulating labor in mines. This act was passed in response
+to the needs shown by the report of a commission which had been
+appointed in 1840. They made a thorough investigation of the obscure
+conditions of labor underground, and reported a condition of affairs
+which was heart-sickening. Children began their life in the coal
+mines at five, six, or seven years of age. Girls and women worked
+like boys and men, they were less than half clothed, and worked
+alongside of men who were stark naked. There were from twelve to
+fourteen working hours in the twenty-four, and these were often at
+night. Little girls of six or eight years of age made ten to twelve
+trips a day up steep ladders to the surface, carrying half a hundred
+weight of coal in wooden buckets on their backs at each journey. Young
+women appeared before the commissioners, when summoned from their
+work, dressed merely in a pair of trousers, dripping wet from the
+water of the mine, and already weary with the labor of a day scarcely
+more than begun. A common form of labor consisted of drawing on hands
+and knees over the inequalities of a passageway not more than two feet
+or twenty-eight inches high a car or tub filled with three or four
+hundred weight of coal, attached by a chain and hook to a leather band
+around the waist. The mere recital of the testimony taken precluded
+all discussion as to the desirability of reform, and a law was
+immediately passed, almost without dissent, which prohibited for the
+future all work underground by females or by boys under thirteen years
+of age. Inspectors were appointed, and by subsequent acts a whole code
+of regulation of mines as regards age, hours, lighting, ventilation,
+safety, licensing of engineers, and in other respects has been
+created.
+
+[Illustration: Children's Labor in Coal Mines. _Report of Children's
+Employment Commission of 1842._]
+
+[Illustration: Women's Labor in Coal Mines. (_Report of Children's
+Employment Commission, 1842._)]
+
+In 1846 a bill was passed applying to calico printing works
+regulations similar to the factory laws proper. In 1860, 1861, and
+1863 similar laws were passed for bleaching and dyeing for lace works,
+and for bakeries. In 1864 another so-called factory act was passed
+applying to at least six other industries, none of which had any
+connection with textile factories. Three years later, in 1867, two
+acts for factories and workshops respectively took a large number of
+additional industries under their care; and finally, in 1878, the
+"Factory and Workshop Consolidation Act" repealed all the former
+special laws and substituted a veritable factory code containing a
+vast number of provisions for the regulation of industrial
+establishments. This law covered more than fifty printed pages of the
+statute book. Its principle provisions were as follows: The limit of
+prohibited labor was raised from nine to ten years, children in the
+terms of the statute being those between ten and fourteen, and "young
+persons" those between fourteen and eighteen years of age. For all
+such the day's work must begin either at six or seven, and close at
+the same hour respectively in the evening, two hours being allowed for
+meal-times. All Saturdays and eight other days in the year must be
+half-holidays, while the whole of Christmas Day and Good Friday, or
+two alternative days, must be allowed as holidays. Children could work
+for only one-half of each day or on the whole of alternate days, and
+must attend school on the days or parts of days on which they did not
+work. There were minute provisions governing sanitary conditions,
+safety from machinery and in dangerous occupations, meal-times,
+medical certificates of fitness for employment, and reports of
+accidents. Finally there were the necessary body of provisions for
+administration, enforcement, penalties, and exceptions.
+
+Since 1878 there have been a number of extensions of the principle of
+factory legislation, the most important of which are the following. In
+1891 and 1895, amending acts were passed bringing laundries and docks
+within the provisions of the law, making further rules against
+overcrowding and other unsanitary conditions, increasing the age of
+prohibited labor to eleven years, and making a beginning of the
+regulation of "outworkers" or those engaged by "sweaters." "Sweating"
+is manufacturing carried on by contractors or subcontractors on a
+small scale, who usually have the work done in their own homes or in
+single hired rooms by members of their families, or by poorly paid
+employees who by one chance or another are not in a free and
+independent relation to them. Many abuses exist in these "sweatshops."
+The law so far is scarcely more than tentative, but in these
+successive acts provisions have been made by which all manufacturers
+or contractors must keep lists of outworkers engaged by them, and
+submit these to the factory inspectors for supervision.
+
+In 1892 a "Shop-hours Act" was passed prohibiting the employment of
+any person under eighteen years of age more than seventy-four hours in
+any week in any retail or wholesale store, shop, eating-house, market,
+warehouse, or other similar establishment; and in 1893 the "Railway
+Regulation Act" gave power to the Board of Trade to require railway
+companies to provide reasonable and satisfactory schedules of hours
+for all their employees. In 1894 a bill for a compulsory eight-hour
+day for miners was introduced, but was withdrawn before being
+submitted to a vote. In 1899 a bill was passed requiring the provision
+of a sufficient number of seats for all female assistants in retail
+stores. In 1900 a government bill was presented to Parliament carrying
+legislation somewhat farther on the lines of the acts of 1891 and
+1893, but it did not reach its later stages before the adjournment.
+
+
+*71. Employers' Liability Acts.*--Closely allied to the problems
+involved in the factory laws is the question of the liability of
+employers to make compensation for personal injuries suffered by
+workmen in their service. With the increasing use of machinery and of
+steam power for manufacturing and transportation, and in the general
+absence of precaution, accidents to workmen became much more
+numerous. Statistics do not exist for earlier periods, but in 1899
+serious or petty accidents to the number of 70,760 were reported from
+such establishments. By Common Law, in the case of negligence on the
+part of the proprietor or servant of an establishment, damages for
+accident could be sued for and obtained by a workman, not guilty of
+contributory negligence, as by any other person, except in one case.
+If the accident was the result of the negligence of a fellow-employee,
+no compensation for injuries would be allowed by the courts; the
+theory being that in the implied contract between employer and
+employee, the latter agreed to accept the risks of the business, at
+least so far as these arose from the carelessness of his
+fellow-employees.
+
+In the large establishments of modern times, however, vast numbers of
+men were fellow-employees in the eyes of the law, and the doctrine of
+"common employment," as it was called, prevented the recovery of
+damages in so many cases as to attract widespread attention. From 1865
+forward this provision of the law was frequently complained of by
+leaders of the workingmen and others, and as constantly upheld by the
+courts.
+
+In 1876 a committee of the House of Commons on the relations of master
+and servant took evidence on this matter and recommended in its report
+that the common law be amended in this respect. Accordingly in 1880 an
+Employers' Liability Act was passed which abolished the doctrine of
+"common employment" as to much of its application, and made it
+possible for the employee to obtain compensation for accidental injury
+in the great majority of cases.
+
+In 1893 a bill was introduced in Parliament by the ministry of the
+time to abolish all deductions from the responsibility of employers,
+except that of contributory negligence on the part of workmen, but it
+was not passed. In 1897, however, the "Workmen's Compensation Act" was
+passed, changing the basis of the law entirely. By this Act it was
+provided that in case of accident to a workman causing death or
+incapacitating him for a period of more than two weeks, compensation
+in proportion to the wages he formerly earned should be paid by the
+employer as a matter of course, unless "serious and wilful misconduct"
+on the part of the workman could be shown to have existed. The
+liability of employers becomes, therefore, a matter of insurance of
+workmen against accidents arising out of their employment, imposed by
+the law upon employers. It is no longer damages for negligence, but a
+form of compulsory insurance. In other words, since 1897 a legal, if
+only an implied part of the contract between employer and employee in
+all forms of modern industry in which accidents are likely to occur is
+that the employer insures the employee against the dangers of his
+work.
+
+
+*72. Preservation of Remaining Open Lands.*--Turning from the field of
+manufacturing labor to that of agriculture and landholding it will be
+found that there has been some legislation for the protection of the
+agricultural laborer analogous to the factory laws. The Royal
+Commission of 1840-1844 on trades then unprotected by law included a
+report on the condition of rural child labor, but no law followed
+until 1873, when the "Agricultural Children's Act" was passed, but
+proved to be ineffective. The evils of "agricultural gangs," which
+were bodies of poor laborers, mostly children, engaged by a contractor
+and taken from place to place to be hired out to farmers, were
+reported on by a commission in 1862, and partly overcome by the
+"Agricultural Gangs Act" of 1867. There is, however, but little
+systematic government oversight of the farm-laboring class.
+
+Government regulation in the field of landholding has taken a somewhat
+different form. The movement of enclosing which had been in progress
+from the middle of the eighteenth century was brought to an end, and a
+reversal of tendency took place, by which the use and occupation of
+the land was more controlled by the government in the interest of the
+masses of the rural population. By the middle of the century the
+process of enclosing was practically complete. There had been some
+3954 private enclosure acts passed, and under their provisions or
+those of the Enclosure Commissioners more than seven million acres had
+been changed from mediaeval to modern condition. But now a reaction set
+in. Along with the open field farming lands it was perceived that open
+commons, village greens, gentlemen's parks, and the old national
+forest lands were being enclosed, and frequently for building or
+railroad, not for agricultural uses, to the serious detriment of the
+health and of the enjoyment of the people, and to the destruction of
+the beauty of the country. The dread of interference by the government
+with matters that might be left to private settlement was also passing
+away. In 1865 the House of Commons appointed a commission to
+investigate the question of open spaces near the city of London, and
+the next year on their recommendation passed a law by which the
+Enclosure Commissioners were empowered to make regulations for the use
+of all commons within fifteen miles of London as public parks, except
+so far as the legal rights of the lords of the manors in which the
+commons lay should prevent. A contest had already arisen between many
+of these lords of manors having the control of open commons, whose
+interest it was to enclose and sell them, and other persons having
+vague rights of pasturage and other use of them, whose interest it
+was to preserve them as open spaces. To aid the latter in their legal
+resistance to proposed enclosures, the "Commons Preservation Society"
+was formed in 1865. As a result a number of the contests were decided
+in the year 1866 in favor of those who opposed enclosures.
+
+The first case to attract attention was that of Wimbledon Common, just
+west of London. Earl Spencer, the lord of the manor of Wimbledon, had
+offered to give up his rights on the common to the inhabitants of the
+vicinity in return for a nominal rent and certain privileges; and had
+proposed that a third of the common should be sold, and the money
+obtained for it used to fence, drain, beautify, and keep up the
+remainder. The neighboring inhabitants, however, preferred the
+spacious common as it stood, and when a bill to carry out Lord
+Spencer's proposal had been introduced into Parliament, they contended
+that they had legal rights on the common which he could not disregard,
+and that they objected to its enclosure. The parliamentary committee
+practically decided in their favor, and the proposition was dropped.
+An important decision in a similar case was made by the courts in
+1870. Berkhamstead Common, an open stretch some three miles long and
+half a mile wide, lying near the town of Berkhamstead, twenty-five
+miles north of London, had been used for pasturing animals, cutting
+turf, digging gravel, gathering furze, and as a place of general
+recreation and enjoyment by the people of the two manors in which it
+lay, from time immemorial. In 1866 Lord Brownlow, the lord of these
+two manors, began making enclosures upon it, erecting two iron fences
+across it so as to enclose 434 acres and to separate the remainder
+into two entirely distinct parts. The legal advisers of Lord Brownlow
+declared that the inhabitants had no rights which would prevent him
+from enclosing parts of the common, although to satisfy them he
+offered to give to them the entire control over one part of it. The
+Commons Preservation Society, however, advised the inhabitants
+differently, and encouraged them to make a legal contest. One of their
+number, Augustus Smith, a wealthy and obstinate man, a member of
+Parliament, and a possessor of rights on the common both as a
+freeholder and a copyholder, was induced to take action in his own
+name and as a representative of other claimants of common rights. He
+engaged in London a force of one hundred and twenty laborers, sent
+them down at night by train, and before morning had broken down Lord
+Brownlow's two miles of iron fences, on which he had spent some L5000,
+and piled their sections neatly up on another part of the common. Two
+lawsuits followed: one by Lord Brownlow against Mr. Smith for
+trespass, the other a cross suit in the Chancery Court by Mr. Smith to
+ascertain the commoner's rights, and prevent the enclosure of the
+common. After a long trial the decision was given in Mr. Smith's
+favor, and not only was Berkhamstead Common thus preserved as an open
+space, but a precedent set for the future decision of other similar
+cases. Within the years between 1866 and 1874 dispute after dispute
+analogous to this arose, and decision after decision was given
+declaring the illegality of enclosures by a lord of a manor where
+there were claims of commoners which they still asserted and valued
+and which could be used as an obstacle to enclosure. Hampstead Heath,
+Ashdown Forest, Malvern Hills, Plumstead, Tooting, Wandsworth,
+Coulston, Dartford, and a great many other commons, village greens,
+roadside wastes, and other open spaces were saved from enclosure, and
+some places were partly opened up again, as a result either of
+lawsuits, of parliamentary action, or of voluntary agreements and
+purchase.
+
+Perhaps the most conspicuous instance was that of Epping Forest. This
+common consisted of an open tract about thirteen miles long and one
+mile wide, containing in 1870 about three thousand acres of open
+common land. Enclosure was being actively carried on by some nineteen
+lords of manors, and some three thousand acres had been enclosed by
+rather high-handed means within the preceding twenty years. Among the
+various landowners who claimed rights of common upon a part of the
+Forest was, however, the City of London, and in 1871 this body began
+suit against the various lords of manors under the claim that it
+possessed pasture rights, not only in the manor of Ilford, in which
+its property of two hundred acres was situated, but, since the
+district was a royal forest, over the whole of it. The City asked that
+the lords of manors should be prevented from enclosing any more of it,
+and required to throw open again what they had enclosed during the
+last twenty years. After a long and expensive legal battle and a
+concurrent investigation by a committee of Parliament, both extending
+over three years, a decision was given in favor of the City of London
+and other commoners, and the lords of manors were forced to give back
+about three thousand acres. The whole was made permanently into a
+public park. The old forest rights of the crown proved to be favorable
+to the commoners, and thus obtained at least one tardy justification
+to set against their long and dark record in the past.
+
+In 1871, in one of the cases which had been appealed, the Lord
+Chancellor laid down a principle indicating a reaction in the judicial
+attitude on the subject, when he declared that no enclosure should be
+made except when there was a manifest advantage in it; as contrasted
+with the policy of enclosing unless there was some strong reason
+against it, as had formerly been approved. In 1876 Parliament passed
+a law amending the acts of 1801 and 1845, and directing the Enclosure
+Commissioners to reverse their rule of action in the same direction.
+That is to say, they were not to approve any enclosure unless it could
+be shown to be to the manifest advantage of the neighborhood, as well
+as to the interest of the parties directly concerned. Finally, in
+1893, by the Commons Law Amendment Act, it was required that every
+proposed enclosure of any kind should first be advertised and
+opportunity given for objection, then submitted to the Board of
+Agriculture for its approval, and this approval should only be given
+when such an enclosure was for the general benefit of the public. No
+desire of a lord of a manor to enclose ground for his private park or
+game preserve, or to use it for building ground, would now be allowed
+to succeed. The interest of the community at large has been placed
+above the private advantage and even liberty of action of landholders.
+The authorities do not merely see that justice is done between lord
+and commoners on the manor, but that both alike shall be restrained
+from doing what is not to the public advantage. Indeed, Parliament
+went one step further, and by an order passed in 1893 set a precedent
+for taking a common entirely out of the hands of the lord of the
+manor, and putting it in the hands of a board to keep it for public
+uses. Thus not only had the enclosing movement diminished for lack of
+open farming land to enclose, but public opinion and law between 1864
+and 1893 interposed to preserve such remaining open land as had not
+been already divided. Whatever land remained that was not in
+individual ownership and occupancy was to be retained under control
+for the community at large.
+
+
+*73. Allotments.*--But this change of attitude was not merely negative.
+There were many instances of government interposition for the
+encouragement of agriculture and for the modification of the relations
+between landlord and tenant. In 1875, 1882, and 1900 the "Agricultural
+Holdings Acts" were passed, by which, when improvements are made by
+the tenant during the period in which he holds the land, compensation
+must be given by the landlord to the tenant when the latter retires.
+No agreement between the landlord and tenant by which the latter gives
+up this right is valid. This policy of controlling the conditions of
+landholding with the object of enforcing justice to the tenant has
+been carried to very great lengths in the Irish Land Bills and the
+Scotch Crofters' Acts, but the conditions that called for such
+legislation in those countries have not existed in England itself.
+There has been, however, much effort in England to bring at least some
+land again into the use of the masses of the rural population. In
+1819, as part of the administration of the poor law, Parliament passed
+an act facilitating the leasing out by the authorities of common land
+belonging to the parishes to the poor, in small "allotments," as they
+were called, by the cultivation of which they might partially support
+themselves. Allotments are small pieces of land, usually from an
+eighth of an acre to an acre in size, rented out for cultivation to
+poor or working-class families. In 1831 parish authorities were
+empowered to buy or enclose land up to as much as five acres for this
+purpose. Subsequently the formation of allotments began to be
+advocated, not only as part of the system of supporting paupers, but
+for its own sake, in order that rural laborers might have some land in
+their own occupation to work on during their spare times, as their
+forefathers had during earlier ages. To encourage this plan of giving
+the mass of the people again an interest in the land the "Allotments
+and Small Holdings Association" was formed in 1885. Laws which were
+passed in 1882 and 1887 made it the duty of the authorities of
+parishes, when there seemed to be a demand for allotments, to provide
+all the land that was needed for the purpose, giving them, if needed,
+and under certain restrictions, the right of compulsory purchase of
+any particular piece of land which they should feel to be desirable.
+This was to be divided up and rented out in allotments from one
+quarter of an acre to an acre in size. By laws passed in 1890 and 1894
+this plan of making it the bounden duty of the local government to
+provide sufficient allotments for the demand, and giving them power to
+purchase land even without the consent of its owners, was carried
+still further and put in the hands of the parish council. The growth
+in numbers of such allotments was very rapid and has not yet ceased.
+The approximate numbers at several periods are as follows:--
+
+  1873            246,398
+  1888            357,795
+  1890            455,005
+  1895            579,133
+
+In addition to those formed and granted out by the public local
+authorities, many large landowners, railroad companies, and others
+have made allotments to their tenants or employees. Large tracts of
+land subdivided into such small patches are now a common sight in
+England, simulating in appearance the old open fields of the Middle
+Ages and early modern times.
+
+
+*74. Small Holdings.*--Closely connected with the extension of
+allotments is the movement for the creation of "small holdings," or
+the reintroduction of small farming. One form of this is that by which
+the local authorities in 1892 were empowered to buy land for the
+purpose of renting it out in small holdings of not more than fifteen
+acres each to persons who would themselves cultivate it.
+
+A still further and much more important development in the same
+direction is the effort to introduce "peasant proprietorship," or the
+ownership of small amounts of farming land by persons who would
+otherwise necessarily be mere laborers on other men's land. There has
+been an old dispute as to the relative advantages of a system of large
+farms, rented by men who have some considerable capital, knowledge,
+and enterprise, as in England; and of a system of small farms, owned
+and worked by men who are mere peasants, as in France. The older
+economists generally advocated the former system as better in itself,
+and also pointed out that a policy of withdrawal by government from
+any regulation was tending to make it universal. Others have been more
+impressed with the good effects of the ownership of land on the mental
+and moral character of the population, and with the desirability of
+the existence of a series of steps by which a thrifty and ambitious
+workingman could rise to a higher position, even in the country. There
+has, therefore, since the middle of the century, been a widespread
+agitation in favor of the creation of smaller farms, of giving
+assistance in their purchase, and of thus introducing a more mixed
+system of rural land occupancy, and bringing back something of the
+earlier English yeoman farming.
+
+This movement obtained recognition by Parliament in the Small Holdings
+Act of 1892, already referred to. This law made it the duty of each
+county council, when there seemed to be any sufficient demand for
+small farms from one to fifty acres in size, to acquire in any way
+possible, though not by compulsory purchase, suitable land, to adapt
+it for farming purposes by fencing, making roads, and, if necessary,
+erecting suitable buildings; and then to dispose of it by sale, or, as
+a matter of exception, as before stated, on lease, to such parties as
+will themselves cultivate it. The terms of sale were to be
+advantageous to the purchaser. He must pay at least as much as a fifth
+of the price down, but one quarter of it might be left on perpetual
+ground-rent, and the remainder, slightly more than one-half, might be
+repaid in half-yearly instalments during any period less than fifty
+years. The county council was also given power to loan money to
+tenants of small holdings to buy from their landlords, where they
+could arrange terms of purchase but had not the necessary means.
+
+Through the intervention of government, therefore, the strict division
+of those connected with the land into landlords, tenant farmers, and
+farm laborers has been to a considerable extent altered, and it is
+generally possible for a laborer to obtain a small piece of land as an
+allotment, or, if more ambitious and able, a small farm, on
+comparatively easy terms. In landholding and agriculture, as in
+manufacturing and trade, government has thus stepped in to prevent
+what would have been the effect of mere free competition, and to bring
+about a distribution and use of the land which have seemed more
+desirable.
+
+
+*75. Government Sanitary Control.*--In the field of buying and selling
+the hand of government has been most felt in provisions for the health
+of the consumer of various articles. Laws against adulteration have
+been passed, and a code of supervision, registry, and enforcement
+constructed. Similarly in broader sanitary lines, by the "Housing of
+the Working Classes Act" of 1890, when it is brought to the attention
+of the local authorities that any street or district is in such a
+condition that its houses or alleys are unfit for human habitation,
+or that the narrowness, want of light or air, or bad drainage makes
+the district dangerous to the health of the inhabitants or their
+neighbors, and that these conditions cannot be readily remedied except
+by an entire rearrangement of the district, then it becomes the duty
+of the local authorities to take the matter in hand. They are bound to
+draw up and, on approval by the proper superior authorities, to carry
+out a plan for widening the streets and approaches to them, providing
+proper sanitary arrangements, tearing down the old houses, and
+building new ones in sufficient number and suitable character to
+provide dwelling accommodation for as many persons of the working
+class as were displaced by the changes. Private rights or claims are
+not allowed to stand in the way of any such public action in favor of
+the general health and well-being, as the local authorities are
+clothed by the law with the right of purchase of the land and
+buildings of the locality at a valuation, even against the wishes of
+the owners, though they must obtain parliamentary confirmation of such
+a compulsory purchase. Several acts have been passed to provide for
+the public acquisition or building of workingmen's dwellings. In 1899
+the "Small Dwellings Acquisition Act" gave power to any local
+authority to loan four-fifths of the cost of purchase of a small
+house, to be repaid by the borrower by instalments within thirty
+years.
+
+Laws for the stamping out of cattle disease have been passed on the
+same principle. In 1878, 1886, 1890, 1893, and 1896 successive acts
+were passed which have given to the Board of Agriculture the right to
+cause the slaughter of any cattle or swine which have become infected
+or been subjected to contagious diseases; Parliament has also set
+apart a sufficient sum of money and appointed a large corps of
+inspectors to carry out the law. Official analysts of fertilizers and
+food-stuffs for cattle have also since 1893 been regularly appointed
+by the government in each county. Adulteration has been taken under
+control by the "Sale of Food and Drugs Act" of 1875, with its later
+amendments and extensions, especially that of 1899.
+
+
+*76. Industries Carried on by Government.*--In addition to the
+regulation in these various respects of industries carried on by
+private persons, and intervention for the protection of the public
+health, the government has extended its functions very considerably by
+taking up certain new duties or services, which it carries out itself
+instead of leaving to private hands.
+
+The post-office is such an old and well-established branch of the
+government's activity as not in itself to be included among newly
+adopted functions, but its administration has been extended since the
+middle of the century over at least four new fields of duty: the
+telegraph, the telephone, the parcels post, and the post-office
+savings-bank.
+
+The telegraph system of England was built up in the main and in its
+early stages by private persons and companies. After more than
+twenty-five years of competitive development, however, there was
+widespread public dissatisfaction with the service. Messages were
+expensive and telegraphing inconvenient. Many towns with populations
+from three thousand to six thousand were without telegraphic
+facilities nearer than five or ten miles, while the offices of
+competing companies were numerous in busy centres. In 1870, therefore,
+all private telegraph companies were bought up by the government at an
+expense of L10,130,000. A strict telegraphic monopoly in the hands of
+the government was established, and the telegraph made an integral
+part of the post-office system.
+
+In 1878 the telephone began to compete with the telegraph,  and its
+relation to the government telegraphic monopoly became a matter of
+question. At first the government adopted the policy of collecting a
+ten per cent royalty on all messages, but allowed telephones to be
+established by private companies. In the meantime the various
+companies were being bought up successively by the National Telephone
+Company which was thus securing a virtual monopoly. In 1892 Parliament
+authorized the Postmaster General to spend L1,000,000, subsequently
+raised to L1,300,000, in the purchase of telephone lines, and
+prohibited any private construction of new lines. As a result, by 1897
+the government had bought up all the main or trunk telephone lines and
+wires, leaving to the National Telephone Company its monopoly of all
+telephone communication inside of the towns. This monopoly was
+supposed to be in its legal possession until 1904, when it was
+anticipated that the government would buy out its property at a
+valuation. In 1898, however, there was an inquiry by Parliament, and a
+new "Telegraph Act" was passed in 1899. The monopoly of the National
+Company was discredited and the government began to enter into
+competition with it within the towns, and to authorize local
+governments and private companies under certain circumstances to do
+the same. It was provided that every extension of an old company and
+every new company must obtain a government license and that on the
+expiring of this license the plant could be bought by the government.
+In the meantime the post-office authorities have power to restrict
+rates. An appropriation of L2,000,000 was put in the hands of the
+Postmaster General to extend the government telephone system. It seems
+quite certain that by 1925, at latest, all telephones will be in the
+hands of the government.
+
+The post-office savings-bank was established in 1861. Any sum from
+one shilling upward is accepted from any depositor until his deposits
+rise to L50 in any one year, or a total of L200 in all. It presents
+great attractions from its security and its convenience. The
+government through the post-office pays two and one-half per cent
+interest. In 1870 there was deposited in the post-office savings-banks
+approximately L14,000,000, in 1880 L31,000,000, and ten years later
+L62,000,000. In 1880 arrangements were made by which government bonds
+and annuities can be bought through the post-office. In 1890 some
+L4,600,000 was invested in government stock in this way.
+
+The parcels post was established in 1883. This branch of the
+post-office does a large part of the work that would otherwise be done
+by private express companies. It takes charge of packages up to eleven
+pounds in weight and under certain circumstances up to twenty-one
+pounds, presented at any branch post-office, and on prepayment of
+regular charges delivers them to their consignees.
+
+In these and other forms each year within recent times has seen some
+extension of the field of government control for the good of the
+community in general, or for the protection of some particular class
+in the community, and there is at the same time a constant increase in
+the number and variety of occupations that the government undertakes.
+Instead of withdrawing from the field of intervention in economic
+concerns, and restricting its activity to the narrowest possible
+limits, as was the tendency in the last period, the government is
+constantly taking more completely under its regulation great branches
+of industry, and even administering various lines of business that
+formerly were carried on by private hands.
+
+
+*77. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Jevons, Stanley: _The State in Relation to Labor_.
+
+"Alfred" (Samuel Kydd): _The History of the Factory Movement from the
+Year 1802 to the Enactment of the Ten Hours Bill in 1847_.
+
+Von Plener, E.: _A History of English Factory Legislation_.
+
+Cooke-Taylor, R. W.: _The Factory System and the Factory Acts_.
+
+Redgrave, Alexander: _The Factory Acts_.
+
+Shaftesbury, The Earl of: _Speeches on Labour Questions_.
+
+Birrell, Augustine: _Law of Employers' Liability_.
+
+Shaw-Lefevre, G.: _English Commons and Forests_.
+
+Far the best sources of information for the adoption of the factory
+laws, as for other nineteenth-century legislation, are the debates in
+Parliament and the various reports of Parliamentary Commissions, where
+access to them can be obtained. The early reports are enumerated in
+the bibliography in Cunningham's second volume. The later can be found
+in the appropriate articles in Palgrave's _Dictionary_. For recent
+legislation, the action of organizations, and social movements
+generally, the articles in _Hazell's Annual_, in its successive issues
+since 1885, are full, trustworthy, and valuable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE EXTENSION OF VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION
+
+Trade Unions, Trusts, And Cooeperation
+
+
+*78. The Rise of Trade Unions.*--One of the most manifest effects of the
+introduction of the factory system was the intensification of the
+distinction between employers and employees. When a large number of
+laborers were gathered together in one establishment, all in a similar
+position one to the other and with common interests as to wages, hours
+of labor, and other conditions of their work, the fact that they were
+one homogeneous class could hardly escape their recognition. Since
+these common interests were in so many respects opposed to those of
+their employers, the advantages of combination to obtain added
+strength in the settlement of disputed questions was equally evident.
+As the Statute of Apprentices was no longer in force, and freedom of
+contract had taken its place, a dispute between an employer and a
+single employee would result in the discharge of the latter. If the
+dispute was between the employer and his whole body of employees, each
+one of the latter would be in a vastly stronger position, and there
+would be something like equality in the two sides of the contest.
+
+Under the old gild conditions, when each man rose successively from
+apprentice to journeyman, and from journeyman to employer, when the
+relations between the employing master and his journeymen and
+apprentices were very close, and the advantages of the gild were
+participated in by all grades of the producing body, organizations of
+the employed against the employers could hardly exist. It has been
+seen that the growth of separate combinations was one of the
+indications of a breaking down of the gild system. Even in the later
+times, when establishments were still small and scattered, when the
+government required that engagements should be made for long periods,
+and that none should work in an industry except those who had been
+apprenticed to it, and when rates of wages and hours of labor were
+supposed to be settled by law, the opposition between the interests of
+employers and employees was not very strongly marked. The occasion or
+opportunity for union amongst the workmen in most trades still hardly
+existed. Unions had been formed, it is true, during the first half of
+the eighteenth century and spasmodically in still earlier times. These
+were, however, mostly in trades where the employers made up a wealthy
+merchant class and where the prospect of the ordinary workman ever
+reaching the position of an employer was slight.
+
+The changes of the Industrial Revolution, however, made a profound
+difference. With the growth of factories and the increase in the size
+of business establishments the employer and employee came to be
+farther apart, while at the same time the employees in any one
+establishment or trade were thrown more closely together. The hand of
+government was at about the same time entirely withdrawn from the
+control of wages, hours, length of engagements, and other conditions
+of labor. Any workman was at liberty to enter or leave any occupation
+under any circumstances that he chose, and an employer could similarly
+hire or discharge any laborer for any cause or at any time he saw fit.
+Under these circumstances of homogeneity of the interests of the
+laborers, of opposition of their interests to those of the employer,
+and of the absence of any external control, combinations among the
+workmen, or trade unions, naturally sprang up.
+
+
+*79. Opposition of the Law and of Public Opinion. The Combination
+Acts.*--Their growth, however, was slow and interrupted. The poverty,
+ignorance, and lack of training of the laborers interposed a serious
+obstacle to the formation of permanent unions; and a still more
+tangible difficulty lay in the opposition of the law and of public
+opinion. A trade union may be defined as a permanent organized
+society, the object of which is to obtain more favorable conditions of
+labor for its members. In order to retain its existence a certain
+amount of intelligence and self-control and a certain degree of
+regularity of contributions on the part of its members are necessary,
+and these powers were but slightly developed in the early years of
+this century. In order to obtain the objects of the union a "strike,"
+or concerted refusal to work except on certain conditions, is the
+natural means to be employed. But such action, or in fact the
+existence of a combination contemplating such action, was against the
+law. A series of statutes known as the "Combination Acts" had been
+passed from time to time since the sixteenth century, the object of
+which had been to prevent artisans, either employers or employees,
+from combining to change the rate of wages or other conditions of
+labor, which should be legally established by the government. The last
+of the combination acts were passed in 1799 and 1800, and were an
+undisguised exercise of the power of the employing class to use their
+membership in Parliament to legislate in their own interest. It
+provided that all agreements whatever between journeymen or other
+workmen for obtaining an advance in wages for themselves or for other
+workmen, or for decreasing the number of hours of labor, or for
+endeavoring to prevent any employer from engaging any one whom he
+might choose, or for persuading any other workmen not to work, or for
+refusing to work with any other men, should be illegal. Any justice of
+the peace was empowered to convict by summary process and sentence to
+two months' imprisonment any workmen who entered into such a
+combination.
+
+The ordinary and necessary action of trade unions was illegal by the
+Common Law also, under the doctrine that combined attempts to
+influence wages, hours, prices, or apprenticeship were conspiracies in
+restraint of trade, and that such conspiracies had been repeatedly
+declared to be illegal.
+
+In addition to their illegality, trade unions were extremely unpopular
+with the most influential classes of English society. The employers,
+against whose power they were organized, naturally antagonized them
+for fear they would raise wages and in other ways give the workmen the
+upper hand; they were opposed by the aristocratic feeling of the
+country, because they brought about an increase in the power of the
+lower classes; the clergy deprecated their growth as a manifestation
+of discontent, whereas contentment was the virtue then most regularly
+inculcated upon the lower classes; philanthropists, who had more faith
+in what should be done for than by the workingmen, distrusted their
+self-interested and vaguely directed efforts. Those who were
+interested in England's foreign trade feared that they would increase
+prices, and thus render England incapable of competing with other
+nations, and those who were influenced by the teachings of political
+economy opposed them as being harmful, or at best futile efforts to
+interfere with the free action of those natural forces which, in the
+long run, must govern all questions of labor and wages. If the
+average rate of wages at any particular time was merely the quotient
+obtained by dividing the number of laborers into the wages fund, an
+organized effort to change the rate of wages would necessarily be a
+failure, or could at most only result in driving some other laborers
+out of employment or reducing their wages. Finally, there was a
+widespread feeling that trade unions were unscrupulous bodies which
+overawed the great majority of their fellow-workmen, and then by their
+help tyrannized over the employers and threw trade into recurring
+conditions of confusion. That same great body of uninstructed public
+opinion, which, on the whole, favored the factory laws, was quite
+clearly opposed to trade unions. With the incompetency of their own
+class, the power of the law, and the force of public opinion opposed
+to their existence and actions, it is not a matter of wonder that the
+development of these working-class organizations was only very
+gradual.
+
+Nevertheless these obstacles were one by one removed, and the growth
+of trade unions became one of the most characteristic movements of
+modern industrial history.
+
+
+*80. Legalization and Popular Acceptance of Trade Unions.*--During the
+early years of the century combinations, more or less long lived,
+existed in many trades, sometimes secretly because of their
+illegality, sometimes openly, until it became of sufficient interest
+to some one to prosecute them or their officers, sometimes making the
+misleading claim of being benefit societies. Prosecutions under the
+combination laws were, however, frequent. In the first quarter of the
+century there were many hundred convictions of workmen or their
+delegates or officers. Yet these laws were clear instances of
+interference with the perfect freedom which ought theoretically to be
+allowed to each person to employ his labor or capital in the manner
+he might deem most advantageous. Their inconsistency with the general
+movement of abolition of restrictions then in progress could hardly
+escape observation. Thus the philosophic tendencies of the time
+combined with the aspirations of the leaders of the working classes to
+rouse an agitation in favor of the repeal of the combination laws. The
+matter was brought up in Parliament in 1822, and two successive
+committees were appointed to investigate the questions involved. As a
+result, a thoroughgoing repeal law was passed in 1824, but this in
+turn was almost immediately repealed, and another substituted for it
+in 1825, a great series of strikes having impressed the legislature
+with the belief that the former had gone too far. The law, as finally
+adopted, repealed all the combination acts which stood upon the
+statute book, and relieved from punishment men who met together for
+the sole purpose of agreeing on the rate of wages or the number of
+hours they would work, so long as this agreement referred to the wages
+or hours of those only who were present at the meeting. It declared,
+however, the illegality of any violence, threats, intimidation,
+molestation, or obstruction, used to induce any other workmen to
+strike or to join their association or take any other action in regard
+to hours or wages. Any attempt to bring pressure to bear upon an
+employer to make any change in his business was also forbidden, and
+the common law opposition was left unrepealed. The effect of the
+legislation of 1824 and 1825 was to enable trade unions to exist if
+their activity was restricted to an agreement upon their own wages or
+hours. Any effort, however, to establish wages and hours for other
+persons than those taking part in their meetings, or any strike on
+questions of piecework or number of apprentices or machinery or
+non-union workmen, was still illegal, both by this statute and by
+Common Law. The vague words, "molestation," "obstruction," and
+"intimidation," used in the law were also capable of being construed,
+as they actually were, in such a way as to prevent any considerable
+activity on the part of trade unions. Nevertheless a great stimulus
+was given to the formation of organizations among workingmen, and the
+period of their legal growth and development now began,
+notwithstanding the narrow field of activity allowed them by the law
+as it then stood. Combinations were continually formed for further
+objects, and prosecutions, either under the statute or under Common
+Law, were still very numerous. In 1859 a further change in the law was
+made, by which it became lawful to combine to demand a change of wages
+or hours, even if the action involved other persons than those taking
+part in the agreement, and to exercise peaceful persuasion upon others
+to join the strikers in their action. Within the bounds of the limited
+legal powers granted by the laws of 1825 and 1859, large numbers of
+trade unions were formed, much agitation carried on, strikes won and
+lost, pressure exerted upon Parliament, and the most active and
+capable of the working classes gradually brought to take an interest
+in the movement. This growth was unfortunately accompanied by much
+disorder. During times of industrial struggle non-strikers were
+beaten, employers were assaulted, property was destroyed, and in
+certain industrial communities confusion and outrage occurred every
+few years. The complicity of the trade unions as such in these
+disorders was constantly asserted and as constantly denied; but there
+seems little doubt that while by far the greatest amount of disorder
+was due to individual strikers or their sympathizers, and would have
+occurred, perhaps in even more intense form, if there had been no
+trade unions, yet there were cases where the organized unions were
+themselves responsible. The frequent recurrence of rioting and
+assault, the losses from industrial conflicts, and the agitation of
+the trade unionists for further legalization, all combined to bring
+the matter to attention, and four successive Parliamentary commissions
+of investigation, in addition to those of 1824 and 1825, were
+appointed in 1828, 1856, 1860, and 1867, respectively. The last of
+these was due to a series of prolonged strikes and accompanying
+outrages in Sheffield, Nottingham, and Manchester. The committee
+consisted of able and influential men. It made a full investigation
+and report, and finally recommended, somewhat to the public surprise,
+that further laws for the protection and at the same time for the
+regulation of trade unions be passed. As a result, two laws were
+passed in the year 1871, the Trade Union Act and the Criminal Law
+Amendment Act. By the first of these it was declared that trade unions
+were not to be declared illegal because they were "in restraint of
+trade," and that they might be registered as benefit societies, and
+thereby become quasi-corporations, to the extent of having their funds
+protected by law, and being able to hold property for the proper uses
+of their organization. At the same time the Liberal majority in
+Parliament, who had only passed this law under pressure, and were but
+half hearted in their approval of trade unions, by the second law of
+the same year, made still more clear and vigorous the prohibition of
+"molesting," "obstructing," "threatening," "persistently following,"
+"watching or besetting" any workmen who had not voluntarily joined the
+trade union. As these terms were still undefined, the law might be,
+and it was, still sufficiently elastic to allow magistrates or judges
+who disapproved of trade unionism to punish men for the most ordinary
+forms of persuasion or pressure used in industrial conflicts. An
+agitation was immediately begun for the repeal or modification of
+this later law. This was accomplished finally by the Trade Union Act
+of 1875, by which it was declared that no action committed by a group
+of workmen was punishable unless the same act was criminal if
+committed by a single individual. Peaceful persuasion of non-union
+workmen was expressly permitted, some of the elastic words of
+disapproval used in previous laws were omitted altogether, other
+offences especially likely to occur in such disputes were relegated to
+the ordinary criminal law, and a new act was passed, clearing up the
+whole question of the illegality of conspiracy in such a way as not to
+treat trade unions in any different way from other bodies, or to
+interfere with their existence or normal actions.
+
+Thus, by the four steps taken in 1825, 1859, 1871, and 1875, all trace
+of illegality has been taken away from trade unions and their ordinary
+actions. They have now the same legal right to exist, to hold
+property, and to carry out the objects of their organization that a
+banking or manufacturing company or a social or literary club has.
+
+The passing away of the popular disapproval of trade unions has been
+more gradual and indefinite, but not less real. The employers, after
+many hard-fought battles in their own trades, in the newspapers, and
+in Parliament, have come, in a great number of cases, to prefer that
+there should be a well-organized trade union in their industry rather
+than a chaotic body of restless and unorganized laborers. The
+aristocratic dread of lower-class organizations and activity has
+become less strong and less important, as political violence has
+ceased to threaten and as English society as a whole has become more
+democratic. The Reform Bill of 1867 was a voluntary concession by the
+higher and middle classes to the lower, showing that political dread
+of the working classes and their trade unions had  disappeared. The
+older type of clergymen of the established church, who had all the
+sympathies and prejudices of the aristocracy, has been largely
+superseded, since the days of Kingsley and Maurice, by men who have
+taken the deepest interest in working-class movements, and who teach
+struggle and effort rather than acceptance and contentment.
+
+The formation of trade unions, even while it has led to higher wages,
+shorter hours, and a more independent and self-assertive body of
+laborers, has made labor so much more efficient that, taken in
+connection with other elements of English economic activity, it has
+led to no resulting loss of her industrial supremacy. As to the
+economic arguments against trade unions, they have become less
+influential with the discrediting of much of the theoretical teaching
+on which they were based. In 1867 a book by W. T. Thornton, _On Labor,
+its Wrongful Claims and Rightful Dues_, successfully attacked the
+wages-fund theory, since which time the belief that the rate of wages
+was absolutely determined by the amount of that fund and the number of
+laborers has gradually been given up. The belief in the possibility of
+voluntary limitation of the effect of the so-called "natural laws" of
+the economic teachers of the early and middle parts of the century has
+grown stronger and spread more widely. Finally, the general popular
+feeling of dislike of trade unions has much diminished within the last
+twenty-five years, since their lawfulness has been acknowledged, and
+since their own policy has become more distinctly orderly and
+moderate.
+
+Much of this change in popular feeling toward trade unions was so
+gradual as not to be measurable, but some of its stages can be
+distinguished. Perhaps the first very noticeable step in the general
+acceptance of trade unions, other than their mere legalization, was
+the interest and approval given to the formation of boards of
+conciliation or arbitration from 1867 forward. These were bodies in
+which representatives elected by the employers and representatives
+elected by trade unions met on equal terms to discuss differences, the
+unions thus being acknowledged as the normal form of organization of
+the working classes. In 1885 the Royal Commission on the depression of
+trade spoke with favor cf trade unions. In 1889 the great London
+Dockers' strike called forth the sympathy and the moral and pecuniary
+support of representatives of classes which had probably never before
+shown any favor to such organizations. More than $200,000 was
+subscribed by the public, and every form of popular pressure was
+brought to bear on the employers. In fact, the Dock Laborers' Union
+was partly created and almost entirely supported by outside public
+influence. In the same year the London School Board and County Council
+both declared that all contractors doing their work must pay "fair
+wages," an expression which was afterward defined as being union
+wages. Before 1894 some one hundred and fifty town and county
+governments had adopted a rule that fair wages must be paid to all
+workmen employed directly or indirectly by them. In 1890 and 1893 and
+subsequently the government has made the same declaration in favor of
+the rate of wages established by the unions in each industry. In 1890
+the report of the House of Lords Committee on the sweating system
+recommends in certain cases "well-considered combinations among the
+laborers." Therefore public opinion, like the formal law of the
+country, has passed from its early opposition to the trade unions,
+through criticism and reluctant toleration, to an almost complete
+acceptance and even encouragement. Trade unions have become a part of
+the regularly established institutions of the country, and few persons
+probably would wish to see them go out of existence or be seriously
+weakened.
+
+
+*81. The Growth of Trade Unions.*--The actual growth of trade unionism
+has been irregular, interrupted, and has spread from many scattered
+centres. Hundreds of unions have been formed, lived for a time, and
+gone out of existence; others have survived from the very beginning of
+the century to the present; some have dwindled into insignificance and
+then revived in some special need. The workmen in some parts of the
+country and in certain trades were early and strongly organized, in
+others they have scarcely even yet become interested or made the
+effort to form unions. In the history of the trade-union movement as a
+whole there have been periods of active growth and multiplication and
+strengthening of organizations. Again, there have been times when
+trade unionism was distinctly losing ground, or when internal
+dissension seemed likely to deprive the whole movement of its vigor.
+There have been three periods when progress was particularly rapid,
+between 1830 and 1834, in 1873 and 1874, and from 1889 to the present
+time. But before the middle of the century trade unions existed in
+almost every important line of industry. By careful computation it is
+estimated that there were in Great Britain and Ireland in 1892 about
+1750 distinct unions or separate branches of unions, with some million
+and a half members. This would be about twenty per cent of the adult
+male working-class population, or an average of about one man who is a
+member of a trade union out of five who might be. But the great
+importance and influence of the trade unionists arises not from this
+comparatively small general proportion, but from the fact that the
+organizations are strongest in the most highly skilled and best-paid
+industries, and in the most thickly settled, highly developed parts of
+the country, and that they contain the picked and ablest men in each
+of the industries where they do exist. In some occupations, as cotton
+spinning in Lancashire, boiler making and iron ship building in the
+seaport towns, coal mining in Northumberland, glass making in the
+Midland counties, and others, practically every operative is a member
+of a trade union. Similarly in certain parts of the country much more
+than half of all workingmen are trade unionists. Their influence also
+is far more than in proportion to their numbers, since from their
+membership are chosen practically all workingmen representatives in
+Parliament and local governments and in administrative positions. The
+unions also furnish all the most influential leaders of opinion among
+the working classes.
+
+
+*82. Federation of Trade Unions.*--From the earliest days of trade-union
+organization there have been efforts to extend the unions beyond the
+boundaries of the single occupation or the single locality. The
+earliest form of union was a body made up of the workmen of some one
+industry in some one locality, as the gold beaters of London, or the
+cutlers of Sheffield, or the cotton spinners of Manchester. Three
+forms of extension or federation soon took place: first, the formation
+of national societies composed of men of the same trade through the
+whole country; secondly, the formation of "trades councils,"--bodies
+representing all the different trades in any one locality; and,
+thirdly, the formation of a great national organization of workingmen
+or trade unionists. The first of these forms of extension dates from
+the earliest years of the century, though such bodies had often only a
+transitory existence. The Manchester cotton spinners took the
+initiative in organizing a national body in that industry in 1829; in
+1831 a National Potters' Union is heard of, and others in the same
+decade. The largest and most permanent national bodies, however, such
+as the compositors, the flint-glass makers, miners, and  others were
+formed after 1840; the miners in 1844 numbering 70,000 voting members.
+Several of these national bodies were formed by an amalgamation of a
+number of different but more or less closely allied trades. The most
+conspicuous example of this was the Amalgamated Society of Engineers,
+the formation of which was completed in 1850, and which, beginning in
+that year with 5000 members, had more than doubled them in the next
+five years, doubled them again by 1860, and since then has kept up a
+steady increase in numbers and strength, having 67,928 members in
+1890. The increasing ease of travel and cheapness of postage, and the
+improved education and intelligence of the workingmen, made the
+formation of national societies more practicable, and since the middle
+of the century most of the important societies have become national
+bodies made up of local branches.
+
+The second form of extension, the trades council, dates from a
+somewhat later period. Such a body arose usually when some matter of
+common interest had happened in the labor world, and delegates from
+the various unions in each locality were called upon to organize and
+to subscribe funds, prepare a petition to Parliament, or take other
+common action. In this temporary form they had existed from a much
+earlier date. The first permanent local board, made up of
+representatives of the various local bodies, was that of Liverpool,
+formed in 1848 to protect trade unionists from prosecutions for
+illegal conspiracy. In 1857 a permanent body was formed in Sheffield,
+and in the years immediately following in Glasgow, London, Bristol,
+and other cities. They have since come into existence in most of the
+larger industrial towns, 120 local trades councils existing in 1892.
+Their influence has been variable and limited.
+
+The formation of a general body of organized workingmen of all
+industries and from all parts of the country is an old dream. Various
+such societies were early formed only to play a more or less
+conspicuous role for a few years and then drop out of existence. In
+1830 a "National Association for the Protection of Labor" was formed,
+in 1834 a "Grand National Consolidated Trades Union," in 1845 a
+"National Association of United Trades for the Protection of Labor,"
+and in 1874 a "Federation of Organized Trade Societies," each of which
+had a short popularity and influence, and then died.
+
+In the meantime, however, a more practicable if less ambitious plan of
+unification of interests had been discovered in the form of an "Annual
+Trade Union Congress." This institution grew out of the trades
+councils. In 1864 the Glasgow Trades Council called a meeting of
+delegates from all trade unions to take action on the state of the law
+of employment, and in 1867 the Sheffield Trades Council called a
+similar meeting to agree upon measures of opposition to lockouts. The
+next year, 1868, the Manchester Trades Council issued a call for "a
+Congress of the Representatives of Trades Councils, Federations of
+Trades, and Trade Societies in general." Its plan was based on the
+annual meetings of the Social Science Association, and it was
+contemplated that it should meet each year in a different city and sit
+for five or six days. This first general Congress was attended by 34
+delegates, who claimed to represent some 118,000 trade unionists. The
+next meeting, at Birmingham, in 1869, was attended by 48 delegates,
+representing 40 separate societies, with some 250,000 members. With
+the exception of the next year, 1870, the Congress has met annually
+since, the meetings taking place at Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield, and
+other cities, with an attendance varying between one and two hundred
+delegates, representing members ranging from a half-million to eight
+or nine hundred thousand. It elects each year a Parliamentary
+Committee consisting of ten members and a secretary, whose duty is to
+attend in London during the sittings of Parliament and exert what
+influence they can on legislation or appointments in the interests of
+the trade unionists whom they represent. In fact, most of the activity
+of the Congress was for a number of years represented by the
+Parliamentary Committee, the meetings themselves being devoted largely
+to commonplace discussions, points of conflict between the unions
+being intentionally ruled out. In recent years there have been some
+heated contests in the Congress on questions of general policy, but on
+the whole it and its Parliamentary Committee remain a somewhat loose
+and ineffective representation of the unity and solidarity of feeling
+of the great army of trade unionists. As a result, however, of the
+efforts of the unions in their various forms of organization there
+have always, since 1874, been a number of "labor members" of
+Parliament, usually officers of the great national trade unions, and
+many trade unionist members of local government bodies and school
+boards. Representative trade unionists have been appointed as
+government inspectors and other officials, and as members of
+government investigating commissions. Many changes in the law in which
+as workingmen the trade unionists are interested have been carried
+through Parliament or impressed upon the ministry through the
+influence of the organized bodies or their officers.
+
+The trade-union movement has therefore resulted in the formation of a
+powerful group of federated organizations, including far the most
+important and influential part of the working classes, acknowledged by
+the law, more or less fully approved by public opinion, and
+influential in national policy. It is to be noticed that while the
+legalization of trade unions was at first carried out under the claim
+and with the intention that the workingmen would thereby be relieved
+from restrictions and given a greater measure of freedom, yet the
+actual effect of the formation of trade unions has been a limitation
+of the field of free competition as truly as was the passage of the
+factory laws. The control of the government was withdrawn, but the men
+voluntarily limited their individual freedom of action by combining
+into organizations which bound them to act as groups, not as
+individuals. The basis of the trade unions is arrangement by the
+collective body of wages, hours, and other conditions of labor for all
+its members instead of leaving them to individual contract between the
+employer and the single employee. The workman who joins a trade union
+therefore divests himself to that extent of his individual freedom of
+action in order that he may, as he believes, obtain a higher good and
+a more substantial liberty through collective or associated action.
+Just in as far, therefore, as the trade-union movement has extended
+and been approved of by law and public opinion, just so far has the
+ideal of individualism been discredited and its sphere of
+applicability narrowed. Trade unions therefore represent the same
+reaction from complete individual freedom of industrial action as do
+factory laws and the other extensions of the economic functions of
+government discussed in the last chapter.
+
+
+*83. Employers' Organizations.*--From this point of view there has been
+a very close analogy between the actions of workingmen and certain
+recent action among manufacturers and other members of the employing
+classes. In the first place, employers' associations have been formed
+from time to time to take common action in resistance to trade unions
+or for common negotiations with them. As early as 1814 the master
+cutlers formed, notwithstanding the combination laws, the "Sheffield
+Mercantile and Manufacturing Union," for the purpose of keeping down
+piecework wages to their existing rate. In 1851 the "Central
+Association of Employers of Operative Engineers" was formed to resist
+the strong union of the "Amalgamated Engineers." They have also had
+their national bodies, such as the "Iron Trade Employers'
+Association," active in 1878, and their general federations, such as
+the "National Federation of Associated Employers of Labor," which was
+formed in 1873, and included prominent shipbuilders, textile
+manufacturers, engineers, iron manufacturers, and builders. Many of
+these organizations, especially the national or district organizations
+of the employers in single trades, exist for other and more general
+purposes, but incidentally the representatives of the masters'
+associations regularly arrange wages and other labor conditions with
+the representatives of the workingmen's associations. There is,
+therefore, in these cases no more competition among employers as to
+what wages they shall pay than among the workmen as to what wages they
+shall receive. In both cases it is a matter of arrangement between the
+two associations, each representing its own membership. The liberty
+both of the individual manufacturer and of the workman ceases in this
+respect when he joins his association.
+
+
+*84. Trusts and Trade Combinations.*--But the competition among the
+great producers, traders, transportation companies, and other
+industrial leaders has been diminished in recent times in other ways
+than in their relation to their employees. In manufacturing, mining,
+and many wholesale trades, employers' associations have held annual or
+more frequent meetings at which agreements have been made as to
+prices, amount of production, terms of sale, length of  credit, and
+other such matters. In some cases formal combinations have been made
+of all the operators in one trade, with provisions for enforcing trade
+agreements. In such a case all competition comes to an end in that
+particular trade, so far as the subjects of agreement extend. The
+culminating stage in this development has been the formation of
+"trusts," by which the stock of all or practically all the producers
+in some one line is thrown together, and a company formed with regular
+officers or a board of management controlling the whole trade. An
+instance of this is the National Telephone Company, already referred
+to. In all these fields unrestricted competition has been tried and
+found wanting, and has been given up by those most concerned, in favor
+of action which is collective or previously agreed upon. In the field
+of transportation, boards of railway presidents or other combinations
+have been formed, by which rates of fares and freight rates have been
+established, "pooling" or the proportionate distribution of freight
+traffic made, "car trusts" formed, and other non-competitive
+arrangements made. In banking, clearing-house agreements have been
+made, a common policy adopted in times of financial crisis, and
+through gatherings of bankers a common influence exerted on
+legislation and opinion. Thus in the higher as in the lower stages of
+industrial life, in the great business interests, as among workingmen,
+recent movements have all been away from a competitive organization of
+economic society, and in the direction of combination, consolidation,
+and union. Where competition still exists it is probably more intense
+than ever before, but its field of application is much smaller than it
+has been in the past. Government control and voluntary regulation have
+alike limited the field in which competition acts.
+
+
+*85. Cooeperation in Distribution.*--Another movement in the same
+direction is the spread of cooeperation in its various forms. Numerous
+cooeperative societies, with varying objects and methods, formed part
+of the seething agitation, experimentation, and discussion
+characteristic of the early years of the nineteenth century; but the
+cooeperative movement as a definite, continuous development dates from
+the organization of the "Rochdale Equitable Pioneers" in 1844. This
+society was composed of twenty-eight working weavers of that town, who
+saved up one pound each, and thus created a capital of twenty-eight
+pounds, which they invested in flour, oatmeal, butter, sugar, and some
+other groceries. They opened a store in the house of one of their
+number in Toad Lane, Rochdale, for the sale of these articles to their
+own members under a plan previously agreed to. The principal points of
+their scheme, afterward known as the "Rochdale Plan," were as follows:
+sale of goods at regular market prices, division of profits to members
+at quarterly intervals in proportion to purchases, subscription to
+capital in instalments by members, and payment of five per cent
+interest. There were also various provisions of minor importance, such
+as absolute purity and honesty of goods, insistance on cash payments,
+devoting a part of their earnings to educational or other
+self-improvement, settling all questions by equal vote. These
+arrangements sprang naturally from the fact that they proposed
+carrying on their store for their own benefit, alike as proprietors,
+shareholders, and consumers of their goods.
+
+The source of the profits they would have to divide among their
+members was the same as in the case of any ordinary store. The
+difference between the wholesale price, at which they would buy, and
+the retail market price, at which they would sell, would be the gross
+profits. From this would have to be paid, normally, rent for their
+store, wages for their salesmen, and interest on their capital. But
+after these were paid there should still remain a certain amount of
+net profit, and this it was which they proposed to divide among
+themselves as purchasers, instead of leaving it to be taken by an
+ordinary store proprietor. The capital they furnished themselves, and
+consequently paid themselves the interest. The first two items also
+amounted to nothing at first, though naturally they must be accounted
+for if their store rose to any success. As a matter of fact, their
+success was immediate and striking. They admitted new members freely,
+and at the end of the first year of their existence had increased in
+numbers to seventy-four with L187 capital. During the year they had
+done a business of L710, and distributed profits of L22. A table of
+the increase of this first successful cooeperative establishment at
+succeeding ten years' periods is as follows:--
+
+  ------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------
+        |           |           |          |
+  Date  |  Members  |  Capital  | Business | Profits
+        |           |           |          |
+  ------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------
+   1855 |   1,400   | L 11,032  | L 44,902 | L 3,109
+   1865 |   5,326   |   78,778  |  196,234 |  25,156
+   1875 |   8,415   |  225,682  |  305,657 |  48,212
+   1885 |  11,084   |  324,645  |  252,072 |  45,254
+   1898 |  12,719   | --------  |  292,335 | -------
+  ------+-----------+-----------+----------+----------
+
+They soon extended their business in variety as well as in total
+amount. In 1847 they added the sale of linen and woollen goods, in
+1850 of meat, in 1867 they began baking and selling bread to their
+customers. They opened eventually a dozen or more branch stores in
+Rochdale, the original Toad Lane house being superseded by a great
+distributing building or central store, with a library and reading
+room. They own much property in the town, and have spread their
+activity into many lines.
+
+The example of the Rochdale society was followed by many others,
+especially in the north of England and south of Scotland. A few years
+after its foundation two large and successful societies were started
+in Oldham, having between them by 1860 more than 3000 members, and
+doing a business of some L80,000 a year. In Liverpool, Manchester,
+Birmingham, and other cities similar societies grew up at the same
+period. In 1863 there were some 454 cooeperative societies of this kind
+in existence, 381 of them together having 108,000 members and doing an
+annual business of about L2,600,000. One hundred and seventeen of the
+total number of societies were in Lancashire and 96 in Yorkshire. Many
+of these eventually came to have a varied and extensive activity. The
+Leeds Cooeperative Society, for instance, had in 1892 a grist mill, 69
+grocery and provision stores, 20 dry goods and millinery shops, 9 boot
+and shoe shops, and 40 butcher shops. It had 12 coal depots, a
+furnishing store, a bakery, a tailoring establishment, a boot and shoe
+factory, a brush factory, and acted as a builder of houses and
+cottages. It had at that time 29,958 members. The work done by these
+cooeperative stores is known as "distributive cooeperation," or
+"cooeperation in distribution." It combines the seller and the buyer
+into one group. From one point of view the society is a store-keeping
+body, buying goods at wholesale and selling them at retail. From
+another point of view, exactly the same group of persons, the members
+of the society, are the customers of the store, the purchasers and
+consumers of the goods. Whenever any body of men form an association
+to carry on an establishment which sells them the goods they need,
+dividing the profits of the buying and selling among the members of
+the association, it is a society for distributive cooeperation.
+
+A variation from the Rochdale plan is that used in three or perhaps
+more societies organized in London between 1856 and 1875 by officials
+and employees of the government. These are the Civil Service Supply
+Association, the Civil Service Cooeperative Society, and the Army and
+Navy Stores. In these, instead of buying at wholesale and selling at
+retail rates, sharing the profits at the end of a given term, they
+sell as well as buy at wholesale rates, except for the slight increase
+necessary to pay the expenses of carrying on the store. In other
+words, the members obtain their goods for use at cheap rates instead
+of dividing up a business profit.
+
+But these and still other variations have had only a slight connection
+with the working-class cooeperative movement just described. A more
+direct development of it was the formation, in 1864, of the Wholesale
+Cooeperative Society, at Manchester, a body holding much the same
+relation to the cooeperative societies that each of them does to its
+individual members. The shareholders are the retail cooeperative
+societies, which supply the capital and control its actions. During
+its first year the Wholesale Society possessed a capital of L2456 and
+did a business of L51,858. In 1865 its capital was something over
+L7000 and business over L120,000. Ten years later, in 1875, its
+capital was L360,527 and yearly business L2,103,226. In 1889 its sales
+were L7,028,994. Its purchasing agents have been widely distributed in
+various parts of the world. In 1873 it purchased and began running a
+cracker factory, shortly afterward a boot and shoe factory, the next
+year a soap factory. Subsequently it has taken up a woollen goods
+factory, cocoa works, and the manufacture of ready-made clothing. It
+employs something over 5000 persons, has large branches in London,
+Newcastle, and Leicester, agencies and depots in various countries,
+and runs six steamships. It possesses also a banking department.
+Cooeperative stores, belonging to wholesale and retail distributive
+cooeperative societies, are thus a well-established and steadily, if
+somewhat slowly, extending element in modern industrial society.
+
+
+*86. Cooeperation in Production.*--But the greatest problems in the
+relations of modern industrial classes to one another are not
+connected with buying and selling, but with employment and wages. The
+competition between employer and employee is more intense than that
+between buyer and seller and has more influence on the constitution of
+society. This opposition of employer and employee is especially
+prominent in manufacturing, and the form of cooeperation which is based
+on a combination or union of these two classes is therefore commonly
+called "cooeperation in production," as distinguished from cooeperation
+in distribution. Societies have been formed on a cooeperative basis to
+produce one or another kind of goods from the earliest years of the
+century, but their real development dates from a period somewhat later
+than that of the cooeperative stores, that is, from about 1850. In this
+year there were in existence in England bodies of workmen who were
+carrying on, with more or less outside advice, assistance, or control,
+a cooeperative tailoring establishment, a bakery, a printing shop, two
+building establishments, a piano factory, a shoe factory, and several
+flour mills. These companies were all formed on the same general plan.
+The workmen were generally the members of the company. They paid
+themselves the prevailing rate of wages, then divided among themselves
+either equally or in proportion to their wages the net profits of the
+business, when there were any, having first reserved a sufficient
+amount to pay interest on capital. As a matter of fact, the capital
+and much of the direction was contributed from outside by persons
+philanthropically interested in the plans, but the ideal recognized
+and desired was that capital should be subscribed, interest received,
+and all administration carried on by the workmen-cooeperators
+themselves. In this way, in a cooeperative productive establishment,
+there would not be two classes, employer and employee. The same
+individuals would be acting in both capacities, either themselves or
+through their elected managers. All of these early companies failed or
+dissolved, sooner or later, but in the meantime others had been
+established. By 1862 some 113 productive societies had been formed,
+including 28 textile manufacturing companies, 8 boot and shoe
+factories, 7 societies of iron workers, 4 of brush makers, and
+organizations in various other trades. Among the most conspicuous of
+these were three which were much discussed during their period of
+prosperity. They were the Liverpool Working Tailors' Association,
+which lasted from 1850 to 1860, the Manchester Working Tailors'
+Association, which flourished from 1850 to 1872, and the Manchester
+Working Hatters' Association, 1851-1873. These companies had at
+different times from 6 to 30 members each. After the great strike of
+the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, in 1852, a series of iron
+workers' cooeperative associations were formed. In the next twenty
+years, between 1862 and 1882, some 163 productive societies were
+formed, and in 1892 there were 143 societies solely for cooeperative
+production in existence, with some 25,000 members. Cooeperative
+production has been distinctly less prosperous than cooeperative
+distribution. Most purely cooeperative productive societies have had a
+short and troubled existence, though their dissolution has in many
+cases been the result of contention rather than ordinary failure and
+has not always involved pecuniary loss. In addition to the usual
+difficulties of all business, insufficiency of capital, incompetency
+of buying and selling agents and of managers, dishonesty of trusted
+officials or of debtors, commercial panics, and other adversities to
+which cooeperative, quite as much as or even more than individual
+companies have been subject, there are peculiar dangers often fatal to
+their cooeperative principles. For instance, more than one such
+association, after going through a period of struggle and sacrifice,
+and emerging into a period of prosperity, has yielded to the
+temptation to hire additional employees just as any other employer
+might, at regular wages, without admitting them to any share in the
+profits, interest, or control of the business. Such a concern is
+little more than an ordinary joint-stock company with an unusually
+large number of shareholders. As a matter of fact, plain, clear-cut
+cooeperative production makes up but a small part of that which is
+currently reported and known as such. A fairer statement would be that
+there is a large element of cooeperation in a great many productive
+establishments. Nevertheless, productive societies more or less
+consistent to cooeperative principles exist in considerable numbers and
+have even shown a distinct increase of growth in recent years.
+
+
+*87. Cooeperation in Farming.*--Very much the same statements are true of
+another branch of cooeperative effort,--cooeperation in farming.
+Experiments were made very early, they have been numerous, mostly
+short-lived, and yet show a tendency to increase within the last
+decade. Sixty or more societies have engaged in cooeperative farming,
+but only half a dozen are now in existence. The practicability and
+desirability of the application of cooeperative ideals to agriculture
+is nevertheless a subject of constant discussion among those
+interested in cooeperation, and new schemes are being tried from time
+to time.
+
+The growth of cooeperation, like that of trade unions, has been
+dependent on successive modifications of the law; though it was rather
+its defects than its opposition that caused the difficulty in this
+case. When cooeperative organizations were first formed it was found
+that by the common law they could not legally deal as societies with
+non-members; that they could not hold land for investment, or for any
+other purpose than the transaction of their own business, or more than
+one acre even for this purpose; that they could not loan money to
+other societies; that the embezzlement or misuse of their funds by
+their officers was not punishable; and that each member was
+responsible for the debts of the whole society. Eight or ten statutes
+have been passed to cure the legal defects from which cooeperative
+associations suffered. The most important of these were the "Frugal
+Investment Clause" in the Friendly Societies Act of 1846, by which
+such associations were allowed to be formed and permitted to hold
+personal property for the purposes of a society for savings; the
+Industrial and Provident Societies Act, of 1852, by which cooeperative
+societies were definitely authorized and obtained the right to sue as
+if they were corporations; the Act of 1862, which repealed the former
+acts, gave them the right of incorporation, made each member liable
+for debt only to the extent of his own investment, and allowed them
+greater latitude for investments; the third Industrial and Provident
+Societies Act of 1876, which again repealed previous acts and
+established a veritable code for their regulation and extension; and
+the act of 1894, which amends the law in some further points in which
+it had proved defective. All the needs of the cooeperative movement, so
+far as they have been discovered and agreed upon by those interested
+in its propagation, have thus been provided for, so far as the law can
+do so.
+
+Cooeperation has always contained an element of philanthropy, or at
+least of enthusiastic belief on the part of those especially
+interested in it, that it was destined to be of great service to
+humanity, and to solve many of the problems of modern social
+organization. Advocates of cooeperation have not therefore been content
+simply to organize societies which would conduce to their own profit,
+but have kept up a constant propaganda for their extension. There was
+a period of about twenty years, from 1820 to 1840, before cooeperation
+was placed on a solid footing, when it was advocated and tried in
+numerous experiments as a part of the agitation begun by Robert Owen
+for the establishment of socialistic communities. Within this period a
+series of congresses of delegates of cooeperative associations was held
+in successive years from 1830 to 1846, and numerous periodicals were
+published for short periods. In 1850 a group of philanthropic and
+enthusiastic young men, including such able and prominent men as
+Thomas Hughes, Frederick D. Maurice, and others who have since been
+connected through long lives with cooeperative effort, formed
+themselves into a "Society for promoting Working Men's Associations,"
+which sent out lecturers, published tracts and a newspaper, loaned
+money, promoted legislation, and took other action for the
+encouragement of cooeperation. Its members were commonly known as the
+"Christian Socialists." They had but scant success, and in 1854
+dissolved the Association and founded instead a "Working Men's
+College" in London, which long remained a centre of cooeperative and
+reformatory agitation.
+
+So far, this effort to extend and regulate the movement came rather
+from outside sympathizers than from cooeperators themselves. With 1869,
+however, began a series of annual Cooeperative Congresses which, like
+the annual Trade Union Congresses, have sprung from the initiative of
+workingmen themselves and which are still continued. Papers are read,
+addresses made, experiences compared, and most important of all a
+Central Board and a Parliamentary Committee elected for the ensuing
+year. At the thirty-first annual Congress, held in Liverpool in 1899,
+there were 1205 delegates present, representing over a million members
+of cooeperative societies. Since 1887 a "Cooeperative Festival," or
+exhibition of the products of cooeperative workshops and factories, has
+been held each year in connection with the Congress. This exhibition
+is designed especially to encourage cooeperative production. At the
+first Congress, in 1869, a Cooeperative Union was formed which aims to
+include all the cooeperative societies of the country, and as a matter
+of fact does include about three-fourths of them. The Central
+Cooeperative Board represents this Union. It is divided into seven
+sections, each having charge of the affairs of one of the seven
+districts into which the country is divided for cooeperative work. The
+Board issues a journal, prints pamphlets, keeps up correspondence,
+holds public examinations on auditing, book-keeping, and the
+principles of cooeperation, and acts as a statistical, propagandist,
+and regulative body. There is also a "Cooeperative Guild" and a
+"Women's Cooeperative Guild," the latter with 262 branches and a
+membership of 12,537, in 1898.
+
+The total number of recognized cooeperative societies in existence at
+the beginning of the year 1900 has been estimated at 1640, with a
+combined membership of 1,640,078, capital of L19,759,039, and
+investments of L11,681,296. The sale of goods in the year 1898 was
+L65,460,871, and net profits had amounted to L7,165,753. During the
+year 1898, 181 new societies of various kinds were formed.
+
+
+*88. Cooeperation in Credit.*--In England building societies are not
+usually recognized as a form of cooeperation, but they are in reality
+cooeperative in the field of credit in the same way as the associations
+already discussed are in distribution, in production, or in
+agriculture. Building societies are defined in one of the statutes as
+bodies formed "for the purpose of raising by the subscription of the
+members a stock or fund for making advances to members out of the
+funds of the society." The general plan of one of these societies is
+as follows: A number of persons become members, each taking one or
+more shares. Each shareholder is required to pay into the treasury a
+certain sum each month. There is thus created each month a new capital
+sum which can be loaned to some member who may wish to borrow it and
+be able and willing to give security and to pay interest. The borrower
+will afterward have to pay not only his monthly dues, but the interest
+on his loan. The proportionate amount of the interest received is
+credited to each member, borrower and non-borrower alike, so that
+after a certain number of months, by the receipts from dues and
+interest, the borrower will have repaid his loan, whilst the members
+who have not borrowed will receive a corresponding sum in cash.
+Borrowers and lenders are thus the same group of persons, just as
+sellers and consumers are in distributive, and employers and employees
+in productive cooeperation. The members of such societies are enabled
+to obtain loans when otherwise they might not be able to; the
+periodical dues create a succession of small amounts to be loaned,
+when otherwise this class of persons could hardly save up a sufficient
+sum to be used as capital; and finally by paying the interest to
+their collective group, so that a proportionate part of it is returned
+to the borrower, and by the continuance of the payment of dues, the
+repayment of the loan is less of a burden than in ordinary loans
+obtained from a bank or a capitalist. Loans to their members have been
+usually restricted to money to be used for the building of a
+dwelling-house or store or the purchase of land; whence their name of
+"building societies." Their formation dates from 1815, their
+extension, from about 1834. The principal laws authorizing and
+regulating their operations were passed in 1836, 1874, and 1894. The
+total number of building societies in England to-day is estimated at
+about 3000, their membership at about 600,000 members with L52,000,000
+of funds. The history of these societies has been marked by a large
+number of failures, and they have lacked the moral elevation of the
+cooeperative movement in its other phases. The codifying act of 1894
+established a minute oversight and control over these societies on the
+part of the government authorities while at the same time it extended
+their powers and privileges.
+
+The one feature common to all forms of cooeperation is the union of
+previously competing economic classes. In a cooeperative store,
+competition between buyer and seller does not exist; and the same is
+true for borrower and lender in a building and loan association and
+for employer and employee in a cooeperative factory. Cooeperation is
+therefore in line with other recent movements in being a reaction from
+competition.
+
+
+*89. Profit Sharing.*--There is a device which has been introduced into
+many establishments which stands midway between simple competitive
+relations and full cooeperation. It diminishes, though it does not
+remove, the opposition between employer and employee. This is "*profit
+sharing.*" In the year 1865 Henry Briggs, Son and Co., operators of
+collieries in Yorkshire, after long and disastrous conflicts with the
+miners' trade unions, offered as a measure of conciliation to their
+employees that whenever the net profit of the business should be more
+than ten per cent on their investment, one-half of all such surplus
+profit should be divided among the workmen in proportion to the wages
+they had earned in the previous year. The expectation was that the
+increased interest and effort and devotion put into the work by the
+men would be such as to make the total earnings of the employers
+greater, notwithstanding their sacrifice to the men of the half of the
+profits above ten per cent. This anticipation was justified. After a
+short period of suspicion on the part of the men, and doubt on the
+part of the employers, both parties seemed to be converted to the
+advantages of profit sharing, a sanguine report of their experience
+was made by a member of the firm to the Social Science Association in
+1868, sums between one and six thousand pounds were divided yearly
+among the employees, while the percentage of profits to the owners
+rose to as much as eighteen per cent. This experiment split on the
+rock of dissension in 1875, but in the meantime others, either in
+imitation of their plan or independently, had introduced the same or
+other forms of profit sharing. Another colliery, two iron works, a
+textile factory, a millinery firm, a printing shop, and some others
+admitted their employees to a share in the profits within the years
+1865 and 1866. The same plan was then introduced into certain retail
+stores, and into a considerable variety of occupations, including
+several large farms where a share of all profits was offered to the
+laborers as a "bonus" in addition to their wages. The results were
+very various, ranging all the way from the most extraordinary success
+to complete and discouraging failure. Up to 1897 about 170
+establishments had introduced some form of profit sharing, 75 of which
+had subsequently given it up, or had gone out of business. In that
+year, however, the plan was still in practice in almost a hundred
+concerns, in some being almost twenty years old.
+
+A great many other employers, corporate or individual, provide
+laborers' dwellings at favorable rents, furnish meals at cost price,
+subsidize insurance funds, offer easy means of becoming shareholders
+in their firms, support reading rooms, music halls, and gymnasiums, or
+take other means of admitting their employees to advantages other than
+the simple receipt of competitive wages. But, after all, the entire
+control of capital and management in the case of firms which share
+profits with their employees remains in the hands of the employers, so
+that there is in these cases an enlightened fulfilment of the
+obligations of the employing class rather than a combination of two
+classes in one.
+
+With the exception of profit sharing, however, all the economic and
+social movements described in this chapter are as truly collective and
+as distinctly opposed to individualism, voluntary though they may be,
+as are the various forms of control exercised by government, described
+in the preceding chapter. In as far as men have combined in trade
+unions, in business trusts, in cooeperative organizations, they have
+chosen to seek their prosperity and advantage in united, collective
+action, rather than in unrestricted individual freedom. And in as far
+as such organizations have been legalized, regulated by government,
+and encouraged by public opinion, the confidence of the community at
+large has been shown to rest rather in associative than in competitive
+action. Therefore, whether we look at the rapidly extending sphere of
+government control and service, or at the spread of voluntary
+combinations which restrict individual liberty, it is evident that
+the tendencies of social development at the close of the nineteenth
+century are as strongly toward association and regulation as they were
+at its beginning toward individualism and freedom from all control.
+
+
+*90. Socialism.*--All of these changes are departures from the purely
+competitive ideal of society. Together they constitute a distinct
+movement toward a quite different ideal of society--that which is
+described as socialistic. Socialism in this sense means the adoption
+of measures directed to the general advantage, even though they
+diminish individual freedom and restrict enterprise. It is the
+tendency to consider the general good first, and to limit individual
+rights or introduce collective action wherever this will subserve the
+general good.
+
+Socialism thus understood, the process of limiting private action and
+introducing public control, has gone very far, as has been seen in
+this and the preceding chapter. How far it is destined to extend, to
+what fields of industry collective action is to be applied, and which
+fields are to be left to individual action can only be seen as time
+goes on. Many further changes in the same direction have been
+advocated in Parliament and other public bodies in recent years and
+failed of being agreed to by very small majorities only. It seems
+almost certain from the progress of opinion that further socialistic
+measures will be adopted within the near future. The views of those
+who approve this socialistic tendency and would extend it still
+further are well indicated in the following expressions used in the
+minority report of the Royal Commission on Labor of 1895. "The whole
+force of democratic statesmanship must, in our opinion, henceforth be
+directed to the substitution as fast as possible of public for
+capitalist enterprise, and where the substitution is not yet
+practicable, to the strict and detailed regulation of all industrial
+operations so as to secure to every worker the conditions of efficient
+citizenship."
+
+There is a somewhat different use of the word socialism, according to
+which it means the deliberate adoption of such an organization of
+society as will rid it of competition altogether. This is a complete
+social and philosophic ideal, involving the consistent reorganization
+of all society, and is very different from the mere socialistic
+tendency described above. In the early part of the century, Robert
+Owen developed a philosophy which led him to labor for the
+introduction of communities in which competition should be entirely
+superseded by joint action. He had many adherents then, and others
+since have held similar views. There has, indeed, been a series of
+more or less short-lived attempts to found societies or communities on
+this socialistic basis. Apart from these efforts, however, socialism
+in this sense belongs to the history of thought or philosophic
+speculation, not of actual economic and social development. Professed
+socialists, represented by the Fabyan Society, the Socialist League,
+the Social Democratic Federation, and other bodies, are engaged in the
+spread of socialistic doctrines and the encouragement of all movements
+of associative, anti-individualistic character rather than in efforts
+to introduce immediate practical socialism.
+
+
+*91. BIBLIOGRAPHY*
+
+Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: _The History of Trade Unionism_. This
+excellent history contains, as an Appendix, an extremely detailed
+bibliography on its own subject and others closely allied to it.
+
+Howell, George: _Conflicts of Labor and Capital_.
+
+Rousiers, P. de: _The Labour Question in Britain_.
+
+Holyoake, G. I.: _History of Cooeperation_, two volumes. This is the
+classical work on the subject, but its plan is so confused, its style
+so turgid, and its information so scattered, that, however amusing it
+may be, it is more interesting and valuable as a history of the period
+than as a clear account of the movement for which it is named. Mr.
+Holyoake has written two other books on the same subject: _A History
+of the Rochdale Pioneers_ and _The Cooeperative Movement of To-day_.
+
+Pizzamiglio, L.: _Distributing Cooeperative Societies_.
+
+Jones, Benjamin: _Cooeperative Production_.
+
+Gilman, N. P.: _Profit Sharing between Employer and Employee_; and _A
+Dividend to Labor_.
+
+Webb, Sidney and Beatrice: _Problems of Modern Industry_.
+
+Verhaegen, P.: _Socialistes Anglais_.
+
+A series of small modern volumes known as the Social Science Series,
+most of which deal with various phases of the subject of this chapter,
+is published by Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., London, and the list of
+its eighty or more numbers gives a characteristic view of recent
+writing on the subject, as well as further references.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Acres, 33.
+  Adventurers, 164.
+  Agincourt, 97.
+  Agricultural Children's Act, 262.
+  Agricultural Gangs Act, 262.
+  Agricultural Holdings Acts, 268.
+  Alderman, 63.
+  Ale-taster, 49.
+  Alfred, 13.
+  Alien immigrants, 90.
+  Allotments and Small Holdings Association, 269.
+  Amalgamated Society of Engineers, 290.
+  Angevin period, 22.
+  Anti-Corn Law League, 231.
+  Apprentice, 65.
+  Apprentice houses, 246.
+  Apprentices, Statute of, 156, 228.
+  Arkwright, Sir Richard, 209.
+  Armada, 141.
+  Army and navy stores, 299.
+  Arras, 81, 87.
+  Ashley, Lord, 254.
+  Assize of Bread and Beer, 68, 228.
+  Assize, rents of, 41, 49.
+
+
+  Bailiff, 40, 141.
+  Balk, 35.
+  Ball, John, 112.
+  Bank of England, 194.
+  Barbary Company, 166.
+  Bardi, 91.
+  Berkhamstead Common, 264.
+  Beverly, 71.
+  Birmingham, 189.
+  Black Death, 99.
+  Blackheath, 115.
+  Bolton, 189.
+  Boon-works, 41.
+  Boston, 76.
+  Bridgewater Canal, 216.
+  Bristol, 80, 148, 162.
+  Britons, 4.
+  Bryan, Chief-Justice, 143.
+  Building Societies, 306.
+  Burgage Tenure, 59.
+  Burgesses, 59.
+
+
+  Calais, 89, 97.
+  Cambridge, 117.
+  Canterbury, 11, 115.
+  Canynges, William, 162.
+  Carding, 205, 210.
+  _Carta Mercatoria_, 81.
+  Cartwright, Edmund, 210.
+  Cavendish, John, 117.
+  Chaucer, 98.
+  Chester, 70.
+  Chevage, 44.
+  Children's Half-time Act, 255.
+  Children's labor, 237, 246.
+  Church, organization of the, 11.
+  Civil Service Supply Association, 299.
+  Climate, 2.
+  Clothiers, 153.
+  Coal, 3, 214.
+  Coal mines, labor in, 257.
+  Cobden, Richard, 231.
+  Cologne, 80.
+  Colonies, 178, 190.
+  Combination Acts, 279.
+  Combinations, legalization of, 282.
+  Commerce, 81, 134, 161, 189.
+  Common employment, doctrine of, 261.
+  Commons, 37, 263.
+  Commons Preservation Society, 264.
+  Commutation of services, 125.
+  Competition, 226, 233, 311.
+  Cooeperation in credit, 306.
+  Cooeperation in distribution, 295.
+  Cooeperation in farming, 302.
+  Cooeperation in production, 300.
+  Cooeperative congresses, 305.
+  Cooeperative legislation, 303.
+  Copyholders, 143.
+  Corn Laws, 185, 223, 230.
+  Corpus Christi day, 70.
+  Cotters, 40.
+  Cotton gin, 211.
+  Cotton manufacture, 188, 203.
+  County councils, 243.
+  Court of Assistants, 150.
+  Court rolls, 46.
+  Coventry, 70, 148.
+  Craft gilds, 64, 147.
+  Crafts, 64, 147.
+  Crafts, combination of, 160.
+  Crecy, 97.
+  Crompton, Samuel, 210.
+  Cromwell, 179.
+  _Cry of the Children_, 251.
+  Currency, 169.
+  Customary tenants, 41, 143.
+
+
+  Danes, 12.
+  Dartford, 115.
+  Davy, Sir Humphry, 215.
+  Dean, 63.
+  Decaying of towns, 144, 154.
+  Demesne farming, abandonment of, 128, 141.
+  Demesne lands, 39, 104, 131.
+  Dockers' strike, 287.
+  Domesday Book, 18, 29.
+  Domestic system, 153, 185, 188, 220.
+  Drapers, 149, 161.
+  Droitwich, 155.
+
+
+  Eastern trade, 84, 164.
+  East India Company, 166, 190.
+  Employer's Liability Acts, 260.
+  Enclosure commissioners, 218, 263.
+  Enclosures, 141, 216.
+  Engrossers, 68.
+  Epping Forest, 266.
+  _Essay on Population_, 232.
+  Essex, 114.
+  Evesham, 155.
+
+
+  Fabyan Society, 311.
+  Factory Acts, 244.
+  Factory and Workshop Consolidation Act, 258.
+  Factory system, 212.
+  Fairs, 75.
+  Farmers, 129, 144.
+  Federation of trade unions, 289.
+  Fens, 184.
+  Feudalism, 20.
+  Finance, 169, 193.
+  Flanders, 163.
+  Flanders fleet, 86, 167.
+  Flanders trade, 87, 168.
+  Flemish artisans in England, 94, 116.
+  Flemish Hanse of London, 88.
+  Florence, 90, 168.
+  Forestallers, 68.
+  Foreign artisans in England, 94.
+  Foreign trade, 81, 134, 161, 189, 203, 230.
+  Forty-shilling freeholders, 241.
+  Frank pledge, 46.
+  Fraternities, 62, 71.
+  Freeholders, 41, 124, 241.
+  Free-tenants, 41.
+  Free trade in land, 231.
+  French Revolution, 200.
+  Fugitive villains, 59, 130.
+  Fulling mills, 229.
+  Furlong, 34.
+
+
+  Gascony, 90, 94, 169.
+  Geography of England, 1.
+  Ghent, 87.
+  Gildhall, 69, 92.
+  Gild merchant, 59.
+  Gilds, craft, 64.
+  Gilds, non-industrial, 71.
+  Government policy toward gilds, 65, 154.
+  Greater Companies of London, 153.
+  Grocyn, 136.
+  Groningen, 166.
+  Guienne, 90, 169.
+  Guinea Company, 166.
+
+
+  Hales, Robert, 116.
+  Hamburg, 89, 166, 230.
+  Hamlet, 31.
+  Hand-loom weavers, 188, 203, 220.
+  Hanseatic League, 89, 163.
+  Hanse trade, 89, 167.
+  Hargreaves, James, 207.
+  Health and Morals Act, 247.
+  Heriot, 41.
+  Hospitallers, 91, 116.
+  Hostage, 81.
+  Houses of the Working Classes Act, 271.
+  Huguenots, 185.
+  Hull, 160.
+  Hundred Years' War, 96.
+
+
+  Iceland, 168.
+  Individualism, 232.
+  Industrial revolution, 213.
+  Insular situation of England, 2.
+  Insurance, 196.
+  _Intercursus Magnus_, 168.
+  Interest, 171.
+  Ireland, conquest of, 24.
+  Irish union, 203.
+  Iron, 3, 214.
+  Italian trade, 84, 164, 167.
+  Italians in England, 90.
+
+
+  Jack Straw, 116.
+  Jews, 59, 91.
+  John of Gaunt, 114.
+  Journeymen, 66, 147.
+  Journeymen gilds, 148.
+
+
+  Kay, 206.
+  Kempe, John, 94.
+  Kent, 9, 114.
+  Kidderminster, 155.
+
+
+  Laborers, Statutes of, 106.
+  Laissez-faire, 224, 228.
+  Land, reclamation of, 6.
+  Latimer, Hugh, 145.
+  Law merchant, 78.
+  Law of wages, 226.
+  Lawyers, hostility to, 124.
+  Lead, 3, 83, 88.
+  Leather, 83, 88.
+  Leeds, 189.
+  Leet, 46.
+  Leicester, 62, 79.
+  Lesser Companies of London, 151.
+  Levant Company, 166.
+  Leyr, 44.
+  Lister, Geoffrey, 117.
+  Livery Companies, 149.
+  Location of industries, change of, 151.
+  Lollards, 98, 111.
+  London, 149.
+  Lord of manor, 39, 103, 125, 143.
+  Lubeck, 89.
+  Lynn, 93.
+  Lyons, Richard, 117.
+
+
+  Macadam, 215.
+  _Magna Carta_, 26.
+  Malthus, 232.
+  Manchester, 189, 247, 284.
+  Manor, 31.
+  Manor-courts, 123, 141.
+  Manor-house, 31, 123.
+  Manufacturing towns, 189, 238.
+  Manumissions, 120, 129.
+  Markets, 75.
+  Market towns, 75.
+  Masters, 65.
+  Mechanical inventions, 203.
+  Mercers, 147, 150, 166.
+  Merchant gilds, 59.
+  Merchants adventurers, 164.
+  Merchet, 44.
+  Methuen Treaty, 190.
+  Mile End, 120.
+  Mill-hands, 213, 221.
+  Misteries, 64.
+  Monopolies, 187.
+  More, Sir Thomas, 145.
+  Morocco Company, 166.
+  Morrowspeche, 63.
+  Mule spinning, 210.
+  Muscovy Company, 166.
+  Mushold Heath, 117.
+  Mutiny Act, 182.
+  Mystery plays, 70.
+
+
+  Napoleon, 200.
+  National debt, 196.
+  Native commerce, 161.
+  _Nativus_, 43.
+  Navigation laws, 169, 189, 192, 229.
+  Newcastle-on-Tyne, 164.
+  Non-industrial gilds, 71.
+  Norman Conquest, 15.
+  Norway, 163.
+  Norwich, 117.
+  Novgorod, 163.
+
+
+  Open-fields, 33, 142, 217.
+  Origin of the manor, 55.
+  Owen, Robert, 248, 311.
+  Oxford, 102, 147.
+
+
+  Pageants, 159.
+  Parcels post, 275.
+  Parish councils, 243, 269.
+  Parliament, foundation of, 26.
+  Paternal government, 173.
+  Peasant proprietorship, 270.
+  Peasants' rebellion, 111.
+  Peel, Sir Robert (the elder), 247.
+  Peel, Sir Robert (the younger), 230.
+  Peruzzi, 91.
+  Pie Powder Courts, 78.
+  Pilgrimage of Grace, 146.
+  Plymouth Company, 190.
+  Poitiers, 97.
+  Poll tax, 113.
+  Poor Priests, 112.
+  Portugal, 83, 190.
+  Post-office Savings Bank, 274.
+  Power-loom, 210.
+  Prehistoric Britain, 4.
+  Private Enclosure Acts, 217.
+  Privy Council, 138.
+  Profit-sharing, 307.
+  Puritans, 140, 178.
+
+
+  Railway Regulation Act, 260.
+  Reaper, 49.
+  Reeve, 40.
+  Reformation, 138.
+  Reform of Parliament, 241.
+  Regrators, 68.
+  Regulated Companies, 174.
+  Relief, 21, 41.
+  Religious gilds, 71, 158.
+  Rents of Assize, 41.
+  Reorganized Companies, 187.
+  Restoration, 180.
+  Revolution, Industrial, 213.
+  Revolution of 1688, 181.
+  Ricardo, David, 226.
+  Rochdale Pioneers, 296.
+  Rochdale plan, 296.
+  Romans in Britain, 5.
+  Roses, Wars of the, 99.
+  Russia Company, 166.
+  _Rusticus_, 43.
+
+
+  St. Albans, 118.
+  St. Edmund's Abbey, 117.
+  St. Helen of Beverly, 71.
+  St. Ives' Fair, 76, 79.
+  Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 273.
+  Savoy Palace, 116.
+  Saxon invasion, 8.
+  Scattered strips, 38.
+  Scotland, contest with, 24.
+  Serfdom, 43, 120, 124.
+  Serfdom, decay of, 129.
+  _Servus_, 43.
+  Sheep-raising, 142.
+  Sheffield, 189, 284.
+  Shop Hours Act, 260.
+  Shrewsbury, 147.
+  Skevin, 63.
+  Sliding scale, 231.
+  Small Dwellings Acquisition Act, 272.
+  Small holdings, 269.
+  Smith, Adam, 224.
+  Smithfield, 121.
+  Social Democratic Federation, 311.
+  Social gilds, 71, 158.
+  Socialism, 310.
+  Socialist League, 311.
+  Sources, 54.
+  Southampton, 61.
+  South Sea Bubble, 195.
+  Spain, 82, 168.
+  Spencer, Henry de, 122.
+  Spices, 84.
+  Spinning, 205.
+  Spinning-jenny, 207.
+  Stade, 166.
+  Staple, 87.
+  Statute of Apprentices, 156, 228.
+  Statutes of Laborers, 106.
+  Steelyard, 92, 167.
+  Sterling, 89.
+  Steward, 40, 46.
+  Stourbridge Fair, 76.
+  Sturmys, 162.
+  Sudbury, 116.
+  Sweating, 260.
+
+
+  Tallage, 44.
+  Taverner, John, 162.
+  Taxation, 194.
+  Telegraph, government, 273.
+  Telephone, government, 273.
+  Telford, 215.
+  Temple Bar, 116.
+  Ten-hour Act, 256.
+  Three-field system, 36.
+  Tin, 3, 83, 88, 91, 93.
+  Tolls, 57, 78, 82.
+  Town government, 57.
+  Towns, 57, 79, 154.
+  Trade combinations, 294.
+  Trade routes, 84.
+  Trade unions, 279.
+  Trades councils, 289.
+  Transportation, 214.
+  Trusts, 294.
+  Turkey Company, 166.
+
+
+  Ulster, Plantation of, 190.
+  Usury, 171.
+  Utopia, 145.
+
+
+  Venice, 84.
+  Venturers, 164.
+  Vill, 31.
+  Village community, 54.
+  Villages, 31, 114.
+  Villain, 40, 111, 125.
+  Villainage, 130.
+  _Villanus_, 43.
+  Virgate, 38.
+  Virginia Company, 190.
+  _Vision of Piers Plowman_, 98, 111.
+
+
+  Wages in hand occupations, 220.
+  Wages, law of, 226.
+  Wales, conquest of, 24.
+  Walloons, 185.
+  Walworth, Sir William, 121.
+  Wardens, 69, 161.
+  Watt, James, 212.
+  Wat Tyler, 116, 121.
+  _Wealth of Nations_, 225.
+  Weavers, 65, 152, 188.
+  Weaving, 205.
+  Week-work, 42.
+  Whitney, Eli, 211.
+  Wholesale Cooeperative Society, 299.
+  Wilburton, 128.
+  Wimbledon Common, 264.
+  Winchester Fair, 76.
+  Wolsey, Cardinal, 145.
+  Women's labor, 237.
+  Woodkirk, 70.
+  Wool, 83, 87, 142, 205, 210, 216.
+  Worcester, 155.
+  Wycliffe, 97.
+
+
+  Yeomen, 129, 221, 237.
+  Yeomen gilds, 148.
+  York, 65, 70.
+  Young, Arthur, 225.
+  Ypres, 87.
+
+
+Printed in the United States of America.
+
+
+
+     *     *     *     *     *
+
+
+
+A HISTORY OF GREECE
+
+For High Schools and Academies
+
+By *GEORGE WILLIS BOTSFORD*, Ph.D.
+
+_Instructor in the History of Greece and Rome in Harvard University_
+
+8vo. Half Leather. $1.10
+
+
+"Dr. Botsford's 'History of Greece' has the conspicuous merits which
+only a text-book can possess which is written by a master of the
+original sources. Indeed, the use of the text of Homer, Herodotus, the
+dramatists, and the other contemporary writers is very effective, and
+very suggestive as to the right method of teaching and study. The
+style is delightful. For simple, unpretentious narrative and elegant
+English the book is a model. In my judgment, the work is far superior
+to any other text-book for high school or academic use which has yet
+appeared. Its value is enriched by the illustrations, as also by the
+reference lists and the suggestive studies. It will greatly aid in the
+new movement to encourage modern scientific method in the teaching of
+history in the secondary schools of the country. It will be adopted by
+Stanford as the basis of entrance requirements in Grecian history."
+
+  --Professor George Elliot Howard, _Stanford University_, Cal.
+
+
+"Dr. Botsford's ideal is a high one, and he has spared no pains to
+realize it. He has everywhere given a foremost place to the social,
+political, literary, and artistic sides of Greek civilization, and set
+them forth in adequate detail; while in the manifold wars amongst
+themselves and with the common foe he has been careful to give just
+enough to make the course of events clear and to put the causes and
+meaning of the conflicts in a proper light. He has told his tale in a
+straightforward simple style that must prove taking to the mind of the
+schoolboy; and he has from time to time worked in translations from
+passages of the ancient Greek authors, poets, historians, and orators
+alike. This gives one the feeling that we are listening to the Greeks
+telling their own story; we get the events and conditions from their
+point of view and can appreciate them so much more accurately.
+Further, the book is not only clear; the boy can not only read it
+without an uncomfortable sense that he is losing his way in a
+labyrinth, but he can read it with positive pleasure. It is a book,
+too, that will keep, and that one would like to keep; a great quality
+this in a school-book."
+
+  --William A. Lamberton, _University of Pennsylvania_.
+  (In the _Annals of the American Academy of Political
+  and Social Science_.)
+
+
+
+
+EUROPEAN HISTORY
+
+An Outline of its Development
+
+By *GEORGE BURTON ADAMS*
+
+_Yale University, New Haven, Conn._
+
+8vo.      Half Leather.      $1.40
+
+
+"I think the Adams 'European History' is the best single-volume
+text-book in general European history by an American author. In style
+and illustration it is interesting; its well-chosen references
+contribute to develop the students' taste for historical reading; and
+its suggestive questions, etc., are most helpful to the teacher."
+
+  --Professor W. H. Siebert, _Ohio State University_, Columbus, Ohio.
+
+
+
+
+THE GROWTH OF THE FRENCH NATION
+
+By *GEORGE BURTON ADAMS*
+
+_Author of "European History," etc._
+
+12mo.      Cloth.      $1.25
+
+
+"Mr. Adams has dealt in a fascinating way with the chief features of
+the Middle Age, and his book is rendered the more attractive by some
+excellent illustrations. He traces the history of France from the
+conquests by the Romans and Franks down to the presidency of M. Felix
+Faure, and has always something to say that is clear and to the point;
+Mr. Adams seems to us to have seized the salient features of the
+_growth_ of the French nation, and to have fulfilled the promise of
+his title."--_Educational Review._
+
+
+
+
+A STUDENT'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+By *EDWARD CHANNING*
+
+_Professor of History, Harvard University_
+
+With Suggestions to Teachers by Anna Boynton Thompson, _Thayer
+Academy, South Braintree, Mass._
+
+8vo.      Half Leather.      $1.40
+
+
+"Your book has given us good satisfaction. It is the best school
+history I know of to give the student a clear conception of the origin
+and the development of our institutions. It presents to him lucidly
+and forcefully the questions which have been either the sectional or
+the party issues of the past; it portrays in a singularly felicitous
+manner our wonderful growth in population and resources."--M. B.
+Price, _Worcester Academy_, Worcester, Mass.
+
+
+
+
+A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
+
+For School Use
+
+
+By *EDWARD CHANNING*, author of "A Student's History of the United
+States," etc. 12mo. Half leather. 90 cents
+
+"It is an admirable presentation of the origin and growth of our
+nation. From cover to cover it is made intensely interesting, not only
+by striking illustrations and complete maps, but by the arrangement of
+the text and the facts presented in a clear, logical manner. The
+references to other text-books in history is a commendable feature. I
+fully agree with the author's statement in the preface as to the best
+method of studying the history of our country."
+
+  --N. G. Kingsley, _Principal of Doyle-Avenue Grammar School_,
+  Providence, R. I.
+
+
+
+
+A HISTORY OF ENGLAND
+
+For High Schools and Academies
+
+
+By *KATHARINE COMAN, Ph.B.*, Wellesley College, and *ELIZABETH KIMBALL
+KENDALL, M.A.*, Wellesley College. $1.25
+
+"It is in my judgment by far the best history of England that has yet
+been published. The other books in the field are either too meagre or
+too advanced. This book is just what has long been needed, and ought
+to be largely introduced."--Professor Richard Hudson, _University of
+Michigan_, Ann Arbor, Mich.
+
+
+
+
+TOPICS ON GREEK AND ROMAN HISTORY
+
+
+By *ARTHUR L. GOODRICH*, Free Academy, Utica, N.Y. Intended for use in
+Secondary Schools. A new and revised edition. Cloth. 12mo. 60 cents
+
+A full and systematic scheme for the study of Greek and Roman History
+by the topical method, adapted for use in accordance with the latest
+recommendations of the Committee and Conferences on the Study of
+History.
+
+
+
+
+THE GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN NATION
+
+
+By *HARRY PRATT JUDSON, LL.D.*, Head Professor of Political Science in
+the University of Chicago. Cloth. 12mo. $1.00
+
+The object of this work is to point out the cardinal facts in the
+growth of the American nation in such a way as to show clearly the
+orderly development of national life.
+
+
+
+
+AMERICAN HISTORY TOLD BY CONTEMPORARIES
+
+
+Edited by *ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Ph.D.*, Professor of History in Harvard
+University. In 4 volumes. Cloth. 12mo. Each $2.00.
+
+  Vol. I.      Era of Colonization, 1493-1689. Ready.
+  Vol. II.     Building of the Republic, 1689-1783. Ready.
+  Vol. III.    National Expansion, 1783-1845. Ready.
+  Vol. IV.     Welding of the Nation, 1845-1897. In preparation.
+
+
+
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+SOURCE BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY
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+For Schools and Readers
+
+
+Edited by *ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Ph.D.*, author of "American History
+told by Contemporaries." Cloth. 12mo. 60 cents
+
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+same time it is in its facts good history, and so skilfully and
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+
+Illustrative of American History, 1606-1775
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+Edited by *WILLIAM MacDONALD*, Professor of History in Bowdoin College.
+Cloth. 8vo. _$2.00_
+
+"Professor MacDonald shows good judgment in his selections, and his
+book should materially assist the teaching of American history ... it
+will be a great convenience everywhere."--_The Nation._
+
+
+
+
+SELECT DOCUMENTS
+
+Illustrative of the History of the United States, 1776-1861
+
+
+Edited by *WILLIAM MacDONALD*, Editor of "Select Charters," etc. Cloth.
+8vo. $2.25
+
+"An exceptionally valuable book to students of American history, and,
+indeed, to all persons who care to discuss our present problems in
+their historical bearings.... It is an invaluable book for every
+reference library."--_The Outlook._
+
+
+
+
+A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR BEGINNERS
+
+
+For use in Elementary Schools. By *W. B. POWELL, A.M.*, Superintendent
+of Public Schools, Washington, D.C. Cloth. 12mo. 65 cents
+
+
+
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
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+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INDUSTRIAL
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