LIVERYMEN OF LONDON
And also—the good folks of the trade have agreed that no one shall be so daring as to work at night upon articles of pewter; seeing that they have regard among themselves to the fact that the sight is not so profitable by night, or so certain as by day—to the profit that is, of the community. And also—that if any one of the said trade shall be found in default in any of the points aforesaid, he shall pay forty pence for the first default; for the second, half a mark; and on the third default, let it be done with him at the discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen; and of these payments let there be given one-half to the Chamber, to maintain the points aforesaid, and the other half to the Wardens of the said trade, for their trouble and their expenses. And that no one of the trade, great or small, shall take away the journeyman of another man, against the assent and the will of his first master, before he shall have fully served his term, according to the covenant made between them, and before the said journeyman shall have made amends to his master for the offences and misprisions committed against him, if he has in any way so offended or misprised, at the discretion of the Wardens of their trade; and whosoever shall do to the contrary of this ordinance, let such person have his punishment at the discretion of the Mayor and Aldermen.
Also—that no one of the said trade shall be so daring as to receive any one to work at the same trade, if he have not been an apprentice or if he be not a good workman and one who can have the testimony of his master, or of good folks of good condition; and can show that well and lawfully he has served his trade for the time assigned among them. There were chosen and sworn to oversee the Articles aforesaid—Stephen Lestraunge and John Syward, peautrers.
On Thursday next after the feast of Allhallows (1st November) in the 23rd year of the reign of King Edward the Third, etc., it was witnessed before Walter Turk, Mayor, and the Aldermen, that Stephen Lestraunge was dead, and that John Syward could not work; wherefore the reputable men of that trade chose Nicholas de Ludgate and Ernald Schipwaysshe, pewterer, who were sworn to keep the Articles aforesaid.” (Riley’s Memorials, p. 241.)
These are the main points. No one can complain that they are drawn up in the interests of the masters only. It is, however, to be remarked that the regulation of wages, hours, and prices is not attempted. The omission was doubtless designed as leaving such points fluctuating from day to day by arrangement between masters and men.
In the chapter on City Factions it is shown that, a hundred years before the date of their ordinances (1348), Thomas FitzThomas, the Mayor, had allowed the trades to draw up statutes for themselves, and had given them Charters which the following Mayors disallowed. These statutes, we are told in contemporary authority, had caused “intolerable loss” to merchants frequenting London. It is reasonable to conclude that they were drawn up by, and in the interests of, the craftsmen, and not by those who were able to take a wider view of trade than protection and high wages.
I have drawn up a list of the trades whose ordinances, as given by Riley, were submitted to the Mayor and Aldermen in the fourteenth century, with the dates of the regulations so drafted, and the subsequent date of the corporation as claimed by the present companies.
This document, like others in Riley’s Memorials, is most interesting as marking a definite stage. The trades have now learned, after a great deal of quarrelling, vague jealousies and suspicions, to formulate what they call the “points” of their craft. That their careful and judicious regulations, such as those I have quoted, were drawn up by the leading men of the craft, the masters and employers, cannot be doubted. They are not the work of ignorant men: they bear the impress of shrewd and experienced employers, whose conclusions and recommendations were drawn up for them by clerks skilled in the arrangement.