The work of the Middle Ages was hand-work carried on by a small group of workmen living in the household of the master; in other words it was what we call today household industry. Very often there was no one engaged in the work except the master and his family. Sometimes he had an apprentice or two. Master workmen usually employed as many apprentices as they could use. The apprentices paid for the privilege of learning the trade. As we shall see presently, the knowledge of a trade and admission to the ranks of the master workmen was a privilege very well worth paying for. The apprenticeship indenture or agreement was a contract covering a certain number of years, usually seven. During this period the apprentice was obliged to work for the master to the best of his ability, to be careful of the master’s goods, and to be subject in every way to his personal control, a control which extended to the infliction of corporal punishment if the apprentice were idle or disobedient. The master was bound to teach the apprentice his trade so that if the apprentice used due diligence he might at the end of his agreement qualify as a journeyman. He was obliged to furnish him board and lodging in his own (the master’s) home, to keep him decently clothed and, especially toward the end of the period, to give him a small wage for pocket money. We shall look a little closer at this matter of apprenticeship in a later chapter. The masters themselves were organized into guilds. These guilds were a combination of what we now know as trade unions and employers’ associations. Everybody connected with the trade in a regular and legal manner belonged to the guild. In some cases the master workman became so prosperous that he employed a considerable number of other master workmen and devoted his time to superintendence, but whether he were in this way an ancestor of a modern captain of industry or were at the other end of the scale, an apprentice just under indenture, he was recognized as part and parcel of the trade guild. If he were not free of the guild he was not permitted to work at the industry excepting as an employee. As we shall see, there grew up in this way an intermediate class of hired workmen who were neither apprentices nor masters. The guilds acted very honestly and conscientiously in the interests of both the public and the trade. While they monopolized the industry, restricted the number of persons engaged in it, and permitted no outside competition, they guaranteed the quality of workmanship and product. A guild member putting inferior goods upon the market or in any way detracting from the workmanlike standards of the guild was liable to severe penalties, and as a rule these penalties were conscientiously inflicted.[1] Footnote 1: A more detailed account of the guilds will be found in Chapter V.