Some of the principles implied in the organization we may agree with M. Lespinasse[14] are “relatively true,” such as the protection of infant industry, guarantee of work and property, examinations and probations to make certain the skill of the candidates; prohibition of combination of several professions to prevent the abusive use of them; supervision of manufacture to assure the soundness of the product; an industrial jurisdiction from apprenticeship to mastery, lack of division in a craft such as to train in time a fully equipped workman and a future master; suppression of any parasitic intermediary between producer and consumer; work in common and in the public eyes, and solidarity of the industrial family. On the other hand, there are shadows in the picture, and among them we may distinguish—the immoderate extension of term of apprenticeship, difficulties set in the way of becoming a master; arbitrary fiscal measures and dues; meticulous regulation and too frequent cessation from work; a routine transmission of methods of manufacture; maintenance of a fixed price, and prohibitions of combinations such as would encourage inventions and stimulate a wider economic unit. We have studied a particularly agreeable phase of gild growth. Far off still is the bad opposition between employee and employed, though the pessimist may see the seeds of the present in this past. Though one hesitates to call with M. Fagniez the spirit of the gilds “fundamentally Christian,” he is glad to recognize such alertness of intelligence, such elaborate industrial devices and purposes, such thoughtful humanitarian interests, so complex a system of checks and balances in our supposedly naïve mediaeval precursors. FOOTNOTES [1] Throughout this paper I shall translate the French word métier by the more usual word _gild_ when it refers to the organization and not the craft. [2] Fagniez: Documents rélatifs à l’Histoire de l’Industrie, etc. Intro. [3] Levasseur: _Hist. des classes ouv._ p. 251. [4] For a list of these gilds with their ancient French names and their modern English equivalents, see _Appendix_. [5] Fagniez: Études sur l’industrie à Paris, p. 67. [6] Réglemens sur les arts et les mét. ed. Depping, p. 366. [7] “Coutumes de Beauvaisis.” Beaumanoir, éd. Beugnot; p. 429. [8] It has been estimated that four _sous_ of Paris of this period are equivalent to one franc at present. [9] Comm. d’Amiens, Doc. inédits, p. 387, p. 370. [10] Lev.: Hist. des classes ouv., vol. I, page 116. [11] Ordonnances touchant les mét., 1312. Art. 5. [12] Fagniez: “Études sur l’industrie,” p. 290. Text in _Doc. rélatifs_, No. 19. [13] M. Lespinasse quotes the text of a decree against _confrérie_ from a Council at Rouen, 1189. [14] _Liv. des Mét._ Avant Propos par M. Lespinasse, p. xiv. APPENDIX. Archiers = bow-makers. Barilliers = case-makers. Batéeurs d’or = gold-beaters. Batéeurs d’éstain = pewter-beaters.