From the economic point of view the essential feature of the wage-work system is that there is no business capital. Neither the raw material nor the finished industrial product is for its producer ever a means of profit. The character and extent of the production are still determined in every case by the owner of the soil, who produces the raw material; he also superintends the whole process of production. From the sowing of the seed until the moment the bread is consumed the product has never been capital, but always a mere article for use in course of preparation. No earnings of management and interest charges or middleman's profits attach to the finished product, but only wages for work done.

Under certain social conditions this is a thoroughly economic method of production. It secures the excellence of the product and the complete adjustment of supply to demand. But it forces the consumer to run the risk attaching to industrial production, as only those needs that can be foreseen can find suitable and prompt satisfaction, while a sudden need must always remain unsatisfied. The system has also many disadvantages for the wage-worker. Among these are the inconveniences and loss of time suffered in his itinerancy from place to place; also the irregularity of employment, which leads, now to the overwork, now to the complete idleness, of the workman.

In the Middle Ages wage-work greatly facilitated the emancipation of the artisan from serfdom and feudal obligations, as it required practically no capital to start an independent business. It is a mistake still common to look upon the class of gild handicraftsmen as a class of small capitalists. It was in essence rather an industrial laboring class, distinguished from the laborers of today by the fact that each worked not for a single employer but for a large number of consumers. The supplying of the material by the customer is common to almost all mediæval handicrafts; in many instances, indeed, it continued for centuries, even after the customer had ceased to produce the raw material himself and must buy it. The furnishing of the raw material by the master is a practice that takes slow root; at first it holds only for the poorer customers; but later for the wealthy as well. Thus arises handicraft; but alongside it wage-work maintains itself for a long time.

All the important characteristics of handicraft may be summed up in the single expression custom production. It is the method of sale that distinguishes this industrial system from all later ones. The handicraftsman always works for the consumer of his product, whether it be that the latter by placing separate orders affords the occasion for the work, or the two meet at the weekly or yearly mar

ket. As a rule the region of sale is local. The customer buys at first hand, the handicraftsman sells to the actual consumer. This assures a proper adjustment of supply and demand and introduces an ethical feature into the whole relationship; the producer in the presence of the consumer feels responsibility for his work.

With the rise of handicraft a wide cleft appears in the process of production. Hitherto the owner of the land has conducted the whole process; now there are two classes of economic activity, each of which embraces only a part of the process of production, one producing the raw material, the other the manufactured article. Handicraft endeavored to bring it about that an article should pass through all its stages of production in the same workshop. In this way needed capital is diminished and frequent additions to price avoided.

The direct relationship of the handicraftsman and the consumer of his products made it necessary that the business remain small. Whenever any one line of handicraft threatens to become too large, new handicrafts split off from it and appropriate part of the sphere of production. This is the mediæval division of labor, which continually creates new and independent trades.

Handicraft is a phenomenon peculiar to the town. Peoples which, like the Russians, have developed no real town life, know likewise no national handicraft. And this also explains why, with the formation of large centralized states and unified commercial territories, handicraft was doomed to decline.

5. Ordinances of the Gild Merchant of Southampton*

I. In the first place, there shall be elected from the Gild Merchant, and established, an alderman, a steward, a chaplain, four skevins, and an usher. And it is to be known that whosoever shall be alderman shall receive from each one entering into the Gild fourpence; the steward, twopence; the chaplain, twopence; and the usher, one penny. And the Gild shall meet twice a year: that is to say, on the Sunday next after St. John the Baptist's day, and on the Sunday next after St. Mary's day.

2. And when the Gild shall be sitting no one of the Gild is to bring in any stranger, except when required by the alderman or steward.

3. And when the Gild shall sit, the alderman is to have, each night, so long as the Gild sits, two gallons of wine and two candles,

*Adapted from University of Pennsylvania, Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, Vol. II, No. 1, English Towns and Gilds, 12-17 (about 1300).

and the steward the same; and the four skevins and the chaplain, each of them one gallon of wine and one candle, and the usher one gallon of wine.

4. And when the Gild shall sit, the lepers of La Madeleine shall have of the alms of the Gild, two sesters of ale, and the sick of God's House and of St. Julian shall have two sesters of ale. And the Friar's Minors shall have two sesters of ale and one sester of wine. And four sesters of ale shall be given to the poor wherever the Gild shall meet.

5. And when the Gild is sitting, no one who is of the Gild shall go outside of the town for any business, without the permission of the steward. And if any one does so, let him be fined two shillings, and pay them.

6. And when the Gild sits, and any gildsman is outside of the city so that he does not know when it will happen, he shall have a gallon of wine, if his servants come to get it.

9. And when a gildsman dies, his eldest son or his next heir shall have the seat of his father, or of his uncle, if his father was not a gildsman, and of no other one; and he shall give nothing for his seat. No husband can have a seat in the Gild by right of his wife, nor demand a seat by right of his wife's ancestors.

IO. And no one has the right or power to sell or give his seat in the Gild to any man.

19. And no one in the city of Southampton shall buy anything to sell again in the same city, unless he is of the Gild Merchant or of the franchise. And if anyone shall do so and is convicted of it, all which he has so bought shall be forfeited to the king.

20. And no one shall buy honey, fat, salt herrings, or any kind of oil, or millstones, or fresh hides, or any kind of fresh skins, unless he is a gildsman; nor keep a tavern for wine, nor sell cloth at retail, except in market or fair days; nor keep grain in his granary beyond five quarters, to sell at retail, if he is not a gildsman; and whoever shall do this and be convicted shall forfeit all to the king.

21. No one of the Gild ought to be partner or joint dealer in any of the kinds of merchandise before mentioned with anyone who is not of the Gild, by any manner of coverture, or art, or contrivance, or collusion, or in any other manner.

23. And no private man nor stranger shall bargain for or buy any kind of merchandise coming into the city before a burgess of the Gild Merchant, so long as the gildsman is present and wishes to bargain for and buy this merchandise.

24. And anyone who is of the Gild Merchant shall share in al merchandise which another gildsman shall buy or any other person.

whoever he is, if he comes and demands part and is there where the merchandise is bought, and also if he gives satisfaction to the seller and gives security for his part.

63. No one shall go out to meet a ship bringing wine or other merchandise coming to the town, in order to buy anything, before the ship be arrived and come to anchor for unloading; and if any one does so and is convicted, the merchandise which he shall have bought shall be forfeited to the king.

6. Ordinances of the White-Tawyers"

In honour of God, of Our Lady, and of All Saints, and for the nurture of tranquillity and peace among the good folks the Megucers, called white-tawyers, the folks of the same trade have, by assent of Richard Lacer, Mayor, and of the Aldermen, ordained the points under-written.

In the first place, they have ordained that they will find a wax candle, to burn before Our Lady in the Church of Allhallows, near London wall.

And if any one of the said trade shall depart this life, and have not wherewithal to be buried, he shall be buried at the expense of their common box. And when any one of the said trade shall die, all those of the said trade shall go to the vigil, and make offering on the morrow.

Also, that no one of the said trade shall induce the servant of another to work with him in the said trade, until he has made a proper fine with his first master, at the discretion of the said overseers, or of four reputable men of the said trade. And if anyone shall do to the contrary thereof, or receive the serving workman of another to work with him during his term, without leave of the trade, he is to incur the said penalty. Also, that no one shall take for working in the said trade more than they were wont heretofore.

7. Preamble to the Ordinances of the Gild of the Tailors, Exeter

To the worship of God and of our Lady Saint Mary, and of St. John the Baptist, and of all Saints: These be the Ordinances made. and established of the fraternity of craft of tailors, of the city of Exeter, by assent and consent of the fraternity of the craft aforesaid gathered there together, for evermore to endure.

Adapted from University of Pennsylvania, ibid., 23-25 (Fourteenth Century).

"Adapted from University of Pennsylvania, ibid., 26 (1466).

C. MEDIEVAL COMMERCE

8. A Definition of Commerce

BY J. DORSEY FORREST

Attempts to study the development of commerce have usually been unsatisfactory because they have failed to distinguish between real commercial activity and the mere external mechanism of ships and roads and travelers. The real history of commerce which will some time be written will give some account of the production which has fed commerce, as well as a description of the routes, and of some actual exchanges which indicate that commerce had actually been going on. Such phenomena of the mechanism of trade are worthy of note, but only as guiding the student to a deeper study of the dynamical phenomena of which these are but surface indications. Real commerce represents a differentiation of function by which the diverse parts of society come into complex and organic relations with one another.

9.

The Attitude of the Medieval Church toward Commerces

BY WILLIAM J. ASHLEY

The teaching of the Gospel as to worldly goods had been unmistakable. It had repeatedly warned men against the pursuit of wealth, which would alienate them from the service of God and choke the good seed. It had in one striking instance associated spiritual perfection with the selling of all that a man had that he might give it to the poor. It had declared the poor and hungry blessed, and had prophesied woes to the rich. Instead of anxious thought for the food and raiment of the morrow, it had taught trust in God; instead of selfish appropriation of whatever a man could obtain, a charity which gave freely to all who asked. And in the members of the earliest Christian Church it presented an example of men who gave up their individual possessions, and had all things. in common.

We cannot wonder that, with such lessons before them, a salutary reaction from the self-seeking of the pagan world should have led the early Christian Fathers totally to condemn the pursuit of gain. It took them further-to the denial to the individual of the

'Adapted from The Development of Western Civilization, 194. Copyright by the University of Chicago (1906).

Adapted from An Introduction to English Economic History and Theory, I, 126-132 (1894).