=285. Influence of the gilds in preventing technical progress.=—Space is lacking for a description of all the evils that the gild system entailed on French industry in this period, and the reader is referred to the general discussion of the gilds in a previous chapter, with the assurance that all the evils there enumerated were well represented in France. We cannot leave the topic, however, without notice of the obstacles which the gilds put in the way of inventions and technical improvements. A coppersmith who devised a new helmet was set upon by the armorers; a hatter, who improved his wares by mixing silk with the wool, was attacked by all the other hatters; the inventor of sheet lead was opposed by the plumbers; a man who had made a success in print-cloths was forced to return to antiquated methods by the dyers. The gildsmen opposed not only new wares and methods, but also the use of machinery and production on a large scale. A Lyons silk-weaver could keep only four looms; a Lille serge-maker secured the right to have twenty looms, that he might carry on experiments looking to improvement of the manufacture, only by special privilege and against the vigorous protest of the city government. In spite of all opposition there was improvement, but the difficulties were so great that nine reformers must have failed where one succeeded. The history of the French gilds of this period is a history of wasted opportunities. =286. Narrow restrictions imposed on manufactures by the government.=—(2) Industries were tied down not only by the narrow regulations of the gilds but also by laws of the central government. Every government believed in this period that it was unwise to let manufacturers follow their own ideas in all respects, to stand or fall according to their success in pleasing the public. Even England had an extensive system, prescribing the standards for the products of certain manufactures. The English system, however, did comparatively little harm, if it accomplished little good, while there can be no question that a similar system in France was carried so far that it was a serious check to industrial development. This excessive growth of government regulation was most marked under Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV, to whom reference has already been made as a leader in the extension of the protective tariffs; and the system continued throughout the period. Taking the cloth manufacture for an illustration, Colbert fixed by law, for each kind of cloth, the length and breadth, the dimensions of the selvage, the number of threads in the warp, the quality of the raw materials, and the method of manufacture. His instructions for dyeing contained 317 articles, to which dyers must conform. To fix responsibility and force compliance all cloth had to bear the special marks of the weaver, dyer, and finisher, the seal of the gild, and sometimes another mark. These regulations grew constantly more complicated; an official said in 1787