Afterwards it became a weapon of oppression when the number of members was limited. The care with which the Companies provided for good work was equalled by the jealousy with which they regarded the admission of new members. They looked to the moral character of a workman as well as his mastery over the craft. They made him serve an apprenticeship varying from seven to ten years. They received the boy in a manner calculated to impress upon his mind the importance of the duties upon which he was entering. At the close of his time he was, with like solemnity, received as a member of the Company, and, therefore, a free man of the City. Next to looking after the young men, the Company looked after the tools. These were to be inspected regularly; they were to be “testified as good and honest.” The hours were fixed: no one was to work longer than from the beginning of the day till curfew, nor at night by candle-light. One Company, that of the weavers, forbade any work between Christmas and the Purification (Feb. 2). No one was to work on Sunday, or on festivals, or on the eve of a double feast, or on Saturday afternoons. The working men lost their Saturday half-holiday by the Reformation; it has taken them 300 years to get it back again. As for the ordinances which regulated the conduct of members toward each other, I may pass them over. They were wise; they did what was possible to prevent over-reaching, underselling, taking good servants from a brother member, selling to one member indebted to another member, and, in a word, creating and keeping alive the feeling of brotherhood. Provision was made for those who fell into poverty. As long as any member remained out of work no member was allowed to employ any non-member; and the wife and children of a member might work at the trade with the husband or the father. [Illustration: WILLIAM SMALLWOOD, MASTER OF THE PEWTERERS’ COMPANY From Welch’s _History of the Pewterers’ Company_.] In course of time, very speedily in fact, abuses crept in. The trades began to limit the number of members; the richer members seceded and formed other companies—the shoemakers left the cobblers, the tanners left the shoemakers; masters withheld their wages from the workmen; journeymen were not allowed to work on their own account; nor could they become masters; there were strikes among the men, especially in the building trade; the journeymen formed companies of their own which they used for the purpose of raising wages; in the year 1383 a proclamation forbade the combination of workmen. Among the combinations so suppressed were those of the “yomen” saddlers and the “yomen” tailors.