An apprenticeship agreement was a formal contract. Originally this was a verbal contract only, a sort of “gentlemen’s agreement.” After the reorganization of 1618 it was a written contract drawn up by a notary. The period of apprenticeship varied somewhat, especially before 1618. In general, however, it was four years. The condition of the contract was that the apprentice should pay a specified sum to the master for the privilege of learning the trade and that he should agree to serve his master with care and diligence for a period of four years and not neglect his master’s interests nor spoil his master’s goods. In return the master was bound to teach him the trade of printing so that at the end of his time he would be qualified as a journeyman. In addition the master was bound to furnish the apprentice lodging, food, clothing in specified quantity, and sometimes a very small amount of money. The apprentice lived in the master’s house and ate either at the master’s table or at the table set for the journeymen, who also received their food from the master. If the apprentice absented himself for any reason from his work his absence must be atoned for by double time added to the period of apprenticeship. If his absences were repeated he was liable to be discharged. In this case the master was held to be the sufferer, the contract of apprenticeship was cancelled, and the entire amount paid in by the apprentice as a premium was forfeited to the master. It frequently happened that apprentices desired to be relieved of their contracts before the expiration of their time. Sometimes it happened that they changed their minds about becoming printers, more often, probably, they sought short cuts into the industry. It has always been the misfortune of printing that a very imperfect knowledge of it has a comparatively higher market value than an equally imperfect knowledge of other industries, while the period of apprenticeship required for full learning of the trade is long and wearisome. The apprentices were often tempted by offers of occupation as laborers or even as journeymen in some of the poorer shops which were willing to evade regulations. The habit of canceling indentures before their expiration for a money consideration thus grew up to the serious detriment of the industry. The printers made profit by taking the premium from the apprentice and then selling him his freedom before his indenture had expired. The injury to the industry and to the well-trained workman of this competition of half-trained, incompetent workmen is perfectly clear.