A Brief History of Printing. Part II: The Economic History of Printing

by Frederick W. Hamilton

The apprentices, as now, were the boys and young men learning the industry under an apprenticeship agreement. The age of apprentices varied considerably. They were not often received under seventeen or above twenty-four. Perhaps the majority of them were received at the age of nineteen or twenty.

The printer’s apprentice was probably a little older as a rule than the apprentice in other industries because he had to have a much more extensive previous education. It was not only necessary that he should be well versed in his own language and in the essentials of ordinary education, but it was necessary that he should also be able to read and write both Latin and Greek. While it is true that after a few years many books were printed in the native tongue of the printers, it must not be forgotten that the printing of this period was almost entirely book printing and to a very great extent the printing of books of what we should call today religion and serious literature. Latin was the universal language of the Catholic Church as it is today. It was also the language of learned men everywhere. No scholar thought of writing a serious work in English, French, or German. He might translate one into the vernacular or he might, especially after the beginning of the religious controversies, write a controversial book in his native language, but for the most part serious writing was done in Latin. There was a considerable amount of printing of Greek classics in the original, although there was not much use of Greek for original composition. Under these circumstances it is clear that the knowledge of these tongues was very important. The enforcement, however, of the strict requirements of this period was a cause of many disputes in the industry. The employers then as now were ready to hire cheap help for cheap jobs, and they were given to taking on apprentices far beyond the requirements of recruiting the industry because they could get a good deal of work out of them which otherwise must be given to higher priced men. In many cases they were willing to take on apprentices who did not understand Greek or even Latin. The result was injury to the industry itself and to the interests of the workmen, as is always the case when employers take on improperly trained apprentices who are incapable of development into the highest efficiency. We shall meet these half-trained apprentices a little later.

Further requirements were that the apprentice should be of good life and manners and that he should be a Catholic and a native of France and unmarried.

An apprenticeship agreement was a formal contract. Originally this was a verbal contract only, a sort of “gentlemen’s agreement.” After the reorganization of 1618 it was a written contract drawn up by a notary. The period of apprenticeship varied somewhat, especially before 1618. In general, however, it was four years. The condition of the contract was that the apprentice should pay a specified sum to the master for the privilege of learning the trade and that he should agree to serve his master with care and diligence for a period of four years and not neglect his master’s interests nor spoil his master’s goods. In return the master was bound to teach him the trade of printing so that at the end of his time he would be qualified as a journeyman. In addition the master was bound to furnish the apprentice lodging, food, clothing in specified quantity, and sometimes a very small amount of money.

The apprentice lived in the master’s house and ate either at the master’s table or at the table set for the journeymen, who also received their food from the master. If the apprentice absented himself for any reason from his work his absence must be atoned for by double time added to the period of apprenticeship. If his absences were repeated he was liable to be discharged. In this case the master was held to be the sufferer, the contract of apprenticeship was cancelled, and the entire amount paid in by the apprentice as a premium was forfeited to the master. It frequently happened that apprentices desired to be relieved of their contracts before the expiration of their time. Sometimes it happened that they changed their minds about becoming printers, more often, probably, they sought short cuts into the industry. It has always been the misfortune of printing that a very imperfect knowledge of it has a comparatively higher market value than an equally imperfect knowledge of other industries, while the period of apprenticeship required for full learning of the trade is long and wearisome. The apprentices were often tempted by offers of occupation as laborers or even as journeymen in some of the poorer shops which were willing to evade regulations. The habit of canceling indentures before their expiration for a money consideration thus grew up to the serious detriment of the industry.

The printers made profit by taking the premium from the apprentice and then selling him his freedom before his indenture had expired. The injury to the industry and to the well-trained workman of this competition of half-trained, incompetent workmen is perfectly clear.

The masters, of course, complained that the apprentices were idle, wasteful, and unteachable, and probably some of them were. Boys and young men were good, bad, and indifferent in the Middle Ages just as they are now. The apprentices complained on the other hand that they were overworked, underfed, and personally abused in many instances. Doubtless these complaints were often well founded because grownup men were good, bad, and indifferent in the Middle Ages very much as they are now.

At best the work of the apprentice was very hard. Living as he did in the master’s house and working in the shop as a beginner, he was a cross between a domestic servant, an errand boy, and a learner in the industry. The master’s wife might call upon him to wash the kitchen floor. The foreman might send him out with a package of proofs. The workmen might send him out for a bottle of wine or a pot of beer, or he might be set to work on one of the legitimate tasks of his apprenticeship only to be called away at almost any time by some such personal demand as those just indicated. His hours, like those of everybody else in the trade, were very long. He was expected to keep the shop clean and in order, to clean the type and the presses, to mix ink, to dampen paper, and if he were strong and well grown he might even be put to working on the press. These and a thousand other things, many of them unknown to modern shops, were required of him besides the work at the case and elsewhere which gave him his real knowledge of the trade.

The question of the number of apprentices was a burning one. Previous to 1618 it was one of the great causes of strikes and labor disputes. The masters at that time desired to increase the number of apprentices indefinitely, to which the journeymen objected on account of the injury to their interests by having too many workmen, especially cheap ones. The journeymen succeeded in securing a royal edict which limited the number of apprentices to be employed in any establishment to two for each press, one on composition and the other on presswork. The shop conditions which have been already described show that this taking of the press as a unit was fairly equitable. In the absence of machine work both composition and presswork were slow, and had a more nearly equal rate of speed than now. After 1618 the masters attempted to enforce the limitation of apprentices as against each other. They feared the competition of the man who succeeded in getting into his shop a supply of cheap help which enabled him to cut prices, consequently the journeymen no longer appear as parties to this dispute.

During the whole period there were complaints that the apprenticeship regulations were not enforced and that some of the masters insisted upon taking more than the proper number of apprentices and taking them with less than the proper qualifications. This seems to have been a very real difficulty and one which was never entirely overcome. The temptation to obtain cheap labor, regardless of the welfare of either the apprentice or the industry, was too great, and many printers found it impossible to resist it, especially as during the latter part of this period the conditions in the industry became very bad and it was almost impossible to make any money at it.