Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
There were craft guilds in the towns, at least 65 in London. In fact,
every London trade of twenty men had its own guild. The guild secured
good work for its members and the members maintained the reputation of
the work standards of the guild. Bad work was punished and night work
prohibited as leading to bad work. The guild exercised moral control
over its members and provided sickness and death benefits for them.
There was much overlapping in the two forms of association: the craft
guild and the religious fraternity. Apprentices were taken in to assure
an adequate supply of competent workers for the future. The standard
indenture of an apprentice bound him to live in his master's house;
serve him diligently; obey reasonable commands; keep his master's
secrets; protect him from injury; abstain from dice, cards and haunting
of taverns; not marry; commit no fornication, and not absent himself
without permission. In return the master undertook to provide the boy or
girl with bed, board, and lodging and to instruct him or her in the
trade, craft, or mystery. When these apprentices had enough training
they were made journeymen with a higher rate of pay. Journeymen traveled
to see the work of their craft in other towns. Those journeymen rising
to master had the highest pay rate.
Occupations free of guild restrictions included horse dealers,
marbelers, bookbinders, jewelers, organ makers, feathermongers, pie
makers, basket makers, mirrorers, quilters, and parchment makers.
Non-citizens of London could not be prevented from selling leather,
metalwares, hay, meat, fruit, vegetables, butter, cheese, poultry, and
fish from their boats, though they had to sell in the morning and sell
all their goods before the market closed.
In the towns, many married women had independent businesses and wives
also played an active part in the businesses of their husbands. Wives of
well-to-do London merchants embroidered, sewed jewelry onto clothes, and
made silk garments. Widows often continued in their husband's
businesses, such as managing a large import-export trade, tailoring,
brewing, and metal shop. Socially lower women often ran their own
breweries, bakeries, and taverns. It was possible for wives to be free
burgesses in their own right in some towns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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