12. Such were the political and moral doctrines which were operative in the middle ages: a very little consideration will serve to show that they formed the framework on which the whole industrial or commercial life was formed. Partly through the operation of the royal power, partly through the decisions of ecclesiastical authorities, but more generally through the influence of a Christian public opinion which had been gradually created, the whole industrial organism took its shape, and the acknowledged economic principles were framed.

The exorbitant profits of the importers of foreign goods were due to a lack of effective competition, and the policy of English kings was in favour of bringing foreign merchants to our shores: the privileges they possessed were in some cases local, like those of the Hanse League in London, but others were general throughout the country. The naming of staple towns where English merchants might take their goods was another movement in a similar direction: the trade of the whole country prospered if it was fairly carried on, and by bringing it all into one channel it was possible to create a market where there should be a steady demand for English goods, because there was a constant supply of them there. The encouragement of regular and constant intercourse between different lands was the way to bring about a healthy trade in each other's commodities.

The whole idea of reasonable prices in other departments is most clearly seen in the assize of bread which was fixed by statute for the whole of England before the end of the thirteenth century. Corn was a commodity, the price of which necessarily varied with the seasons, and there was a sliding scale of prices of corn, and a

corresponding scale of the weight of each kind of loaf: the price of bread did not alter, but the weight of the loaf varied as corn got cheaper or dearer. Allowance was made for the trouble of the baker, and for the cost of the materials, such as fuel and salt, required in carrying on his work.

Again, when we pass from the general legislation of the country to consider the life in each town we see the same tone of thought. Very many of the craft gilds were started by the civic authorities in London at least, as a kind of machinery for securing good work at reasonable prices. The good men of the trade made up their minds as to what was fair between the workman and the public, and were armed with authority to see that this fair standard of work and of pay was adhered to. In the constitution and regulation of these gilds we find the Christian conception of work embodied as truly as in the monastic rule. The gilds too had their religious rites, when the brethren joined in common worship, and common remembrance of departed brethren: the gilds insisted that work should be done, not solely for the sake of private gain, but that members should work together for the honour of their trade: and each citizen took his place among his neighbours, not merely in accordance with his own wealth, but in accordance with the position he held as a member-and a more or less prominent member-of a great or of a humble craft. The rules by which each gild controlled its members, bear witness to their care for good work, and for steady and orderly life. In only one of the old gilds has anything survived of the spirit that made them a great power for good in city life long ago: but the brotherhoods of less skilled workers had undoubtedly much of that high

morality which has been embodied in Masonic symbols and lore.

13. We are so much in the habit of condemning all such regulations, and of criticising the exclusive privileges of certain trades and the narrow rules of craft gilds as restraints on industry and commerce, that there may be some difficulty in accepting the view which treats such ordinances as supports and helps to their full development. Yet this is but one example of the relativity of industrial institutions and economic principles; for in arguing that they were good and useful once, we are not claiming that they were good and useful for all time, nor asserting that they could be adapted so as to do good work in each succeeding century. But surely there is room for a protest against writers who notice that they were a grievance in the eighteenth century, and leap to the conclusion that they could never have been anything else. How can we account for their growth, or for their attaining a power which they subsequently abused, unless there was some useful function they performed?

If we contrast the honoured place which handicrafts held in medieval as compared with Roman towns, we cannot fail to notice the far healthier condition of the industrial classes in the later civilisation, and the advantages to society at large from the provision made for the poor, and from the thoughtful supervision over workers that was exercised in the interests of the public. The system too was capable of considerable expansion: the division of employments went on as trade increased, and with the division of employments, there arose gilds of a more specialised character. It is not so very long since the surgeons and barbers were separated from their ill

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assorted fellowship.

Long after the first outcries were raised against the practices of gilds by the Londoners, new craft gilds or companies were formed, because experience proved that whatever the disadvantages might be, an association of the sort gave the best guarantee for the training of workmen, who had the special skill needed in that branch of industry, and the best attainable security for the quality of the goods procured. More craft gilds were established in Preston during the seventeenth, than any other century, and the same remedy was applied to the abuses of the Kidderminster carpet trade in 1670 as had served for the London potters in 1316.

The fact is that in a state of civilisation where industrial success mainly depends on the skill-perhaps the hereditary skill—and diligence of the workman, the conditions which render it prosperous must necessarily be quite different from those that are beneficial to-day. We do not now find it necessary to import skilled workmen from Flanders, as Edward III. was forced to do when he wished to develop the manufacture of fine cloth: nor is the migration of skilled workmen to other lands a great political danger as it seemed last century. Machinery has done much to place all races of producers on a level, and the best machinery carries the day against even hereditary skill, like that of the Indian weavers. It is by the command of capital, by extending his business and producing on a large scale with the best machinery, that a manufacturer hopes to rival his competitors to-day. But while foreign commerce was very limited, and most of our manufactures were intended for the home market (as was the case in the fourteenth century), there was no possibility of sudden and indefinite expansion: the craftsman was glad to turn over his stock in trade, and

might at length prosper so as to employ another servant, but he would never see an opening where he could drive a new trade if only he had more capital to work with. He might at times be glad of an advance on account of partially completed work so as to buy materials or pay his servants, and even enter on a temporary partnership, but he would never think of borrowing so as to conduct his business on a larger scale. In such a state of society, the regulations which favoured the development and maintenance of skilled workmen in each branch of trade were a true support to industry, while the restrictions did not press on the development of business, since it was already limited by the circumstances of the time.

It is equally clear that the usury laws were no hardship to the craftsman: he would not have borrowed money whatever the terms might have been, because he could not really find a use for additional capital in his business. He was not a baron who had to fit out a small army for one of the king's campaigns, nor an abbot who wanted to perpetuate his name by rebuilding the chancel of his church; nor an unhappy bishop who had to transmit some clerical payments to Rome. Money was needed for these purposes, but not for developing our native industries.

More frequent communication with other countries was the great need of England in the fourteenth century if she was to become a great manufacturer, or even if she was to dispose of her raw produce to advantage; and the usury laws put comparatively little restriction on the employment of money in this direction. Loans or borrowing meant a partnership with a merchant in a particular undertaking: the lender really took the risk, and was for that time, and to that extent a merchant: