The masters, of course, complained that the apprentices were idle, wasteful, and unteachable, and probably some of them were. Boys and young men were good, bad, and indifferent in the Middle Ages just as they are now. The apprentices complained on the other hand that they were overworked, underfed, and personally abused in many instances. Doubtless these complaints were often well founded because grownup men were good, bad, and indifferent in the Middle Ages very much as they are now. At best the work of the apprentice was very hard. Living as he did in the master’s house and working in the shop as a beginner, he was a cross between a domestic servant, an errand boy, and a learner in the industry. The master’s wife might call upon him to wash the kitchen floor. The foreman might send him out with a package of proofs. The workmen might send him out for a bottle of wine or a pot of beer, or he might be set to work on one of the legitimate tasks of his apprenticeship only to be called away at almost any time by some such personal demand as those just indicated. His hours, like those of everybody else in the trade, were very long. He was expected to keep the shop clean and in order, to clean the type and the presses, to mix ink, to dampen paper, and if he were strong and well grown he might even be put to working on the press. These and a thousand other things, many of them unknown to modern shops, were required of him besides the work at the case and elsewhere which gave him his real knowledge of the trade. The question of the number of apprentices was a burning one. Previous to 1618 it was one of the great causes of strikes and labor disputes. The masters at that time desired to increase the number of apprentices indefinitely, to which the journeymen objected on account of the injury to their interests by having too many workmen, especially cheap ones. The journeymen succeeded in securing a royal edict which limited the number of apprentices to be employed in any establishment to two for each press, one on composition and the other on presswork. The shop conditions which have been already described show that this taking of the press as a unit was fairly equitable. In the absence of machine work both composition and presswork were slow, and had a more nearly equal rate of speed than now. After 1618 the masters attempted to enforce the limitation of apprentices as against each other. They feared the competition of the man who succeeded in getting into his shop a supply of cheap help which enabled him to cut prices, consequently the journeymen no longer appear as parties to this dispute.