An introduction to the industrial and social history of England

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An Introduction to the Industrial and so

3 1924 002 737 926

An Introduction to the Industrial and
Social History of England

;-^hg?>y^o.

An Introduction

to the

Industrial and Social History
of England

BY

EDWARD P. CHEYNEY

PROFESSOR OF EUROPEAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY
OF PENNSYLVANIA

i

prop"=:rty of library

W\'J YOHK STATE SHdOOL

INDi^^Ti f;,L AHD LACOR RELATIONS

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Wcfa gorfe

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd.
I9OI

AU rights reserved

Copyright, 1901,
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Wortaooli \$xMS

J. S. Cuehiris (t Cu. - Berwick & Smith
Norwood Ma99. U-S.A.

PREFACE

This text-book is intended for college and high-school
classes. Most of the facts stated in it have become, through
the researches and publications of recent years, such com-
monplace knowledge that a reference to authority in each
case has not seemed necessary. Statements on more doubt-
ful points, and such personal opinions as I have had occasion
to express, although not supported by references, are based
on a somevvliat careful study of the sources. To each chap-
ter is subjoined a bibliographical paragraph with the titles of
the most important secondary authorities. These works will
furnish a fuller account of the matters that have been treated
in outline in this book, indicate the original sources, and give
opportunity and suggestions for further study. An introduc-
tory chapter and a series of narrative paragraphs prefixed
to other chapters are given with the object of correlating
matters of economic and social history with other aspects
of the life of the nation.

My obligation and gratitude are due, as are those of all
later students, to the group of scholars who have within our
own time laid the foundations of the study of economic
history, and whose names and books will be found referred
to in the bibliographical paragraphs.

EDWARD P. CHEYNEY.

University of Pennsylvania,
January, 1901.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Growth of the Nation to the Middle of the
Fourteenth Century

1. The Geography of England .

2. Prehistoric Britain

3. Roman Britain

4. Early Saxon England .

5. Danish and Late Saxon England

6. The Period following the Norman Conquest ,

7. The Period of the Early Angevin Kings, 11 54-1 338

4

5

8

12

15

CHAPTER H
Rural Life and Organization

8. The Medieval Village .

9. The Vill as an Agricultural System

10. Classes of People on the Manor .

11. The Manor Courts

12. The Manor as an Estate of a Lord

13. Bibliography ....

3>

33
39
45
49
52

CHAPl'ER III

Town Life and Organization

14. The Town Government 57

15. The Gild Merchant • 59

16. The Craft Gilds 64

17. Non-industrial Gilds . . . . . . . • 7'

18. Bibhography 73

vii

C 071 tents

CHAPTER IV

Medieval Trade and Commerce

19. Markets and P'airs

20. Trade Relations between Towns .

21. Foreign Trading Relations

22. The Italian and Eastern Trade

23. The Planders Trade and the Staple

24. The Hanse Trade ....

25. Foreigners settled in England

26. Bibliography ....

PAGE

75
79

87
89
90
94

CHAPTER V

The Black Death and the Peasants' Rebellion

Economic Changes of the Later Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth
Centuries

27. National Affairs from 1338 to I461

28. The Black Death and its Effects .

29. The Statutes of Laborers

30. The Peasants' Rebellion of 1381 .

31. Commutation of Services

32. The Abandonment of Demesne Farming
-^"^f. The Decay of Serfdom ....

34. Changes in Town Life and Foreign Trade

35. Bibliography . . . , .

CHAPTER VI

The Breaking vp oe the Medi.^val System

Econo7nic Changes of the Later Fifteenth and the Sixteenth
Centuries

36. National Affairs from 1 46 1 to 1 603

37. Enclosures .......

■}^%. Internal Divisions in the Craft Gihls

39. Change of Location of Industries ,

40. The Influence of the Government on the Gilds

41. General Causes and Evidences of the Decay of the Gilds

42. The Growth of Native Commerce .

43. The Merchants Adventurers .

44. Government Encouragement of Commerce

96

99
106
III
125

128
129

134

136

141

•47
15'
'54
159
161
164
167

Contents

IX

PAGE

45. The Currency . 169

46. Interest . . . . . . . . . ■ 171

47. Paternal Government . . , . . . . '173

48. Bibliography . . . . . . . , .176

CHAPTER VII

The Expansion of England

Economic Changes of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth
Centuries

49. National Affaifs from 1603 to 1760 . . . , .177

50. The Extension of Agriculture ...... 183

51. The Domestic System of Manufactures . .... 1S5

52. Commerce under the Navigation Acts . . . . .189

53. Finance .......... 193

54. Bibliography 198

CHAPTER VIII

The Period of the Industrial Revolution

Economic Changes of the Later Eighteenth and Early Ninetee}ith
Centuries

55. National Affairs from 176010 1830 ..... 199

56. The Great Mechanical Inventions ..... 203

57. The Factory System . . . . . . . .212

58. Iron, Coal, and Transportation . . . . . .214

59. The Revival of Enclosures ....... 216

60. Decay of Domestic Manufacture ...... 220

61. The I.aissez-faire'Y\i^oty ....... 224

62. Cessation of Government Regulation ..... 228

63. Individualism ......... 232

64. Social Conditions at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century 235

65. Bibliography ......... 239

CHAPTER IX

The Extension of Government Control

Factory Laws, the Modification of Land Ownership, Sanitary
Regulations, and Neiv Public Services

66. National Affairs from 1830 to 1900 ..... 240

67. The Beginning of Factory Legislation ..... 244

Contents

68. Arguments for and against Factory Legislation

69. Factory Legislation to 1S47 ■

70. The Extension of Factory Legislation

71. Employers' Liability Acts

72. Preservation of Remaining Open Lands

73. Allotments

74. Small Holdings

75. Government Sanitary Control

76. Industries Carried on by Government

77. Bibliography , , . .

FACE

249

256
260
262
267
269
271

273
276

78.

79-

81.
82.

S3-
84.
85.
86.
87.

90.
91.

CHAPTER X

The Extension of Voluntary Association

Trade Unions^ Trusts, and Cooperation

The Rise of Trade Unions ....... 277

Opposition of the Law and of Public Opinion. The Com-
bination Acts ......... 279

Legalization and Popular Acceptance of Trade Unions. . 2S1

The Growth of Trade Unions ...... 288

Federation of Trade Unions . ...... 289

Employers' Cirganizations ....... 293

Trusts and Trade Combinations ...... 294

Cooperation in Distribution ....... 295

Cooperation in Production ....... 300

Cooperation in Farming ....... 302

Cooperation in Credit ........ 306

Profit Sharing . 307

Socialism ...,,...,. 310
Bibliography , . • , „ , , , •311

An Introduction to the Industrial and
Social History of England

INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF
ENGLAND

CHAPTER I

GROWTH OF THE NATION
To THE Middle of the Fourteenth Century

1. The Geography of England. — The British Isles lie
northwest of the Continent of Europe. They are separated
from it by the Channel and the North Sea, at the narrowest
only twenty miles wide, and at the broadest not more than
three hundred.

The greatest length of England from north to south is
three hundred and si.\ty-five miles, and its greatest breadth
some two hundred and eighty miles. Its area, with Wales,
is 58,320 square miles, being somewhat more than one-
quarter the size of France or of Germany, just one-half
the size of Italy, and somewhat larger than either Penn-
sylvania or New York.

The backbone of the island is near the western coast, and
consists of a body of hard granitic and volcanic rock rising
into mountains of two or three thousand feet in height.
These do not form one continuous chain but are in sev-
eral detached groups. On the eastern flank of these
mountains and underlying all the rest of the island is a
series of stratified rocks. The harder portions of these
strata still stand up as long ridges, — the "wolds," "wealds,"
"moors," and "downs" of the more eastern and south-

B I

2 Industrial and Social History of England

eastern parts of England. The softer strata have been
worn away into great broad valleys, furnishing the central
and eastern plains or lowlands of the country.

The rivers of the south and of the far north run for the
most part by short and direct courses to the sea. The
rivers of the midlands are much longer and larger. As
a result of the gradual sinking of the island, in recent
geological periods the sea has extended some distance up
the course of these rivers, making an almost unbroken series
of estuaries along the whole coast.

The climate of England is milder and more equable than
is indicated by the latitude, which is that of Labrador in
the western hemisphere and of Prussia and central Russia
on the Continent of Europe. This is due to the fact that
the Gulf Stream flows around its southern and western
shores, bringing warmth and a superabundance of moisture
from the southern Atlantic.

These physical characteristics have been of immense
influence on the destinies of England. Her position was
far on the outskirts of the world as it was known to ancient
and medieval times, and England played a correspondingly
inconspicuous part during those periods. In the habitable
world as it has been known since the fifteenth century, on
the other hand, that position is a distinctly central one, open
alike to the eastern and the western hemisphere, to northern
and southern lands.

Her situation of insularity and at the same time of prox-
imity to the Continent laid her open to frequent invasion in
early times, but after she secured a navy made her singu-
larly safe from subjugation. It made the development of
many of her institutions tardy, yet at the same time gave
her the opportunity to borrow pnd assimilate what she
would from the customs of foreign nations. Her separa-

E N

Growth of tJie N'atioti 3

tion by water from the Continent favored a distinct and
continuous national life, while her nearness to it allowed
her to participate in all the more important influences
which affected the nations of central Europe.

Within the mountainous or elevated regions a variety of
mineral resources, especially iron, copper, lead, and tin,
exist in great abundance, and have been worked from the
earliest ages. Potter's clay and salt also exist, the former
furnishing the basis of industry for an extensive section of
the midlands. By far the most important mineral possession
of England, however, is her coal. This exists in the great-
est abundance and in a number of sections of the north and
west of the country. Practically unknown in the Middle
Ages, and only slightly utilized in early modern times, within
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries her coal supply has
come to be the principal foundation of England's great
manufacturing and commercial development.

The lowlands, which make up far the larger part of the
country, are covered with soil which furnishes rich farming
areas, though in many places this soil is a heavy and imper-
vious clay, expensive to drain and cultivate. The hard
ridges are covered with thin soil only. Many of them
therefore remained for a long time covered with forest,
and they are devoted even yet to grazing or to occasional
cultivation only.

The abundance of harbors and rivers, navigable at least
to the small vessels of the Middle Ages, has made a sea-
faring life natural to a large number of the people, and
commercial intercourse comparatively easy with all parts
of the country bordering on the coast or on these rivers.

Thus, to sum up these geographical characteristics, the
insular situation of England, her location on the earth's
surface, and the variety of her material endowments gave

4 Industrial and Social History of England

her a tolerably well-balanced if somewhat backward eco-
nomic position during the Middle Ages, and have enabled
her since the fifteenth century to pass through a continuous
and rapid development, until she has obtained within the
nineteenth century, for the time at least, a distinct economic
precedency among the nations of the world.

2. Prehistoric Britain. — The materials from which to
construct a knowledge of the history of mankind before the
time of written records are few and unsatisfactory. They
consist for the most part of the remains of dwelling-places,
fortifications, and roadways ; of weapons, implements, and
ornaments lost or abandoned at the time ; of burial places
and their contents ; and of such physical characteristics of
later populations as have survived from an early period.
Centuries of human habitation of Britain passed away, leav-
ing only such scanty remains and the obscure and doubtful
knowledge that can be drawn from them. Through this
period, however, successive races seem to have invaded and
settled the country, combining with their predecessors, or
living alongside of them, or in some cases, perhaps, exter-
minating them.

When contemporary written records begin, just before
the beginning of the Christian era, one race, the Britons,
was dominant, and into it had merged to all appearances all
others. The Britons were a Celtic people related to the
inhabitants of that part of the Continent of Europe which
lies nearest to Britain. They were divided into a dozen or
more separate tribes, each occupying a distinct part of the
country. They lived partly by the pasturing of sheep and
cattle, parUy by a crude agriculture. They possessed most
of the familiar grains and domestic animals, and could
weave and dye cloth, make pottery, build boats, forge iron,
and work other metals, including tin. They had, however,

Groivth of tlic Nation 5

no cities, no manufactures beyond the most primitive, and
but little foreign trade to connect them with the Continent.
At the head of each tribe was a reigning chieftain of limited
powers, surrounded by lesser chiefs. The tribes were in a
state of incessant warfare one with the other.

3. Roman Britain. — This condition of insular isolation
and barbarism was brought to a close in the year 55 B.C. by
the invasion of the Roman army. Julius C»sar, the Roman
general who was engaged in the conquest and government
of Gaul, or modern France, feared that the Britons might
bring aid to certain newly subjected and still restless Gallic
tribes. He therefore transported a body of troops across
the Channel and fought two campaigns against the tribes in
the southeast of Britain. His success in the second cam-
paign was, however, not followed up, and he retired without
leaving any permanent garrison in the country. The Britons
were then left alone, so far as military invasion was con-
cerned, for almost a century, though in the meantime trade
with the adjacent parts of the Continent became more com-
mon, and Roman influence showed itself in the manners and
customs of the people. In the year 44 a.d., just ninety
years after Caesar's campaigns, the conquest of Britain was
resumed by the Roman armies and completed within the
next thirty years. Britain now became an integral part of
the great, well-ordered, civilized, and wealthy Roman Em-
pire. During the greater part of that long period, Britain
enjoyed profound peace, internal and external trade were
safe, and much of the culture and refinement of Italy and
Gaul must have made their way even to this distant province.
A part of the inhabitants adopted the Roman language, dress,
customs, and manner of life. Discharged veterans from the
Roman legions, wealthy civil officials and merchants, settled
permanently in Britain. Several bodies of turbulent tribes-

6 Industrial and Social History of England

men who had been defeated on the German frontier were
transported by the government into Britain. The popula-
tion must, therefore, have become very mixed, containing
representatives of most of the races which had been con-
tjuered by the Roman armies. A permanent military force
was maintained in Britain with fortified stations along the
eastern and southern coast, on the Welsh frontier, and
along a series of walls or dikes running across the island
from the Tyne to Sohvay Firth. Excellent roads were con-
structed through the length and breadth of the land for
the use of this military body and to connect the scattered
stations. Along these highways population spread and the
remains of spacious villas still exist to attest the magnifi-
cence of the wealthy provincials. The roads served also as
channels of trade by which goods could readily be carried
from one part of the country to another. Foreign as well
as internal trade became extensive, although exports were
mostly of crude natural products, such as hides, skins, and
furs, cattle and sheep, grain, pig-iron, lead and tin, hunting-
dogs and slaves. The rapid development of towns and cities
was a marked characteristic of Roman Britain. Fifty-nine
towns or cities of various grades of self-government are
named in the Roman survey, and many of these must
have been populous, wealthy, and active, judging from the
extensive ruins that remain, and the enormous number of
Roman coins that have since been found. Christianity was
adopted here as in other parts of the Roman Empire, though
the extent of its influence is unknown.

During the Roman occupation much waste land was re-
claimed. Most of the great valley regions and many of the
hillsides had been originally covered with dense forests,
swamps spread along the rivers and extended far inland from
the coast ; so that almost the only parts capable of tillage

Groivtli of the Nation J

were the high treeless plains, the hill tops, and certain
favored stretches of open country. The reduction of these
waste lands to human habitation has been an age-long task.
It was begun in prehistoric times, it has been carried further
by each successive race, and brought to final completion
only within our own century. A share in this work and the
great roads were the most permanent results of the Roman
period of occupation and government. Throughout the
fourth and fifth centuries of the Christian era the Roman
administration and society in Britain were evidently disin-
tegrating. Several suc/:essive generals of the Roman troops
stationed in Britain rose in revolt with their soldiers, declared
their independence of Rome, or passed over to the Continent
to enter into a struggle for the control of the whole Empire.
In t,8t, and 407 the military forces were suddenly depleted
in this way and the provincial government disorganized, while
the central government of the Empire was so weak that it was
unable to reiistablish a firm administration. During the same
period barbarian invaders were making frequent inroads
into Britain. The Picts and Scots from modern Scotland,
Saxon pirates, and, later, ever increasing swarms of Angles,
Jutes, and Frisians from across the North Sea ravaged and
ultimately occupied parts of the borders and the coasts.
The survi\ing records of this period of disintegration and
reorganization are so few that we are left in all but total
ignorance as to what actually occurred. For more than two
hundred years we can only guess at the course of events,
or infer it from its probable analogy to what we know
was occurring in the other parts of the Empire, or from the
conditions we find to have been in existence as knowledge
of succeeding times becomes somewhat more full. It seems
evident that the government of the province of Britain grad-
ually went to pieces, and that that of the different cities or

S Industrial and Social History of England

districts followed. Internal dissensions and the lack of mili-
tary organization and training of the mass of the population
probably added to the difficulty of resisting marauding bands
of barbarian invaders. These invading bands became larger,
and their inroads more frequent and extended, until finally
they abandoned their home lands entirely and settled per-
manently in those districts in which they had broken the
resistance of the Roman-British natives. Even while the
Empire had been strong the heavy burden of taxation and
the severe pressure of administrative regulations had caused
a decline in wealth and population. Now disorder, incessant
ravages of the barbarians, isolation from other lands, prob-
ably famine and pestilence, brought rapid decay to the pros-
perity and civilization of the country. Cities lost their trade,
wealth, and population, and many of them ceased altogether
for a time to exist. Britain was rapidly sinking again into a
land of barbarism.

4. Early Saxon England. — An increasing number of
contemporary records give a soinewhat clearer \-iew of the
condition of England toward the close of the sixth century.
The old Roman organization and civilization had disap-
peared entirely, and a new race, with a new language, a
different religion, another form of government, changed in-
stitutions and customs, had taken its place. .\ number of
petty kingdoms had been formed during the fifth and early
sixth centuries, each under a king or chieftain, as in the
old Celtic times before the Roman invasion, but now of
Teutonic or German race. The kings and their followers
had come from the northwestern portions of Germanv.
How far they had destroyed the earlier inhabitants, how far
they had simply combined with them or enslaved them, has
been a matter of much debate, and one c:\ which discordant
opinions are held, even by recent student.;. It seems likely

Growth of tlw Nation 9

on the whole that the earlier races, weakened by tlefeat and
by the disappearance of the Roman control, were gradually
absorbed and merged into the body of their conquerors ;
so that the petty Angle and Saxon kings of the sixth and
seventh centuries ruled over a mixed race, in which their
own was the most influential, though not necessarily the
largest element. The arrival from Rome in 597 of Augus-
tine, the first Christian missionary to the now heathen inhab-
itants of Britain, will serve as a point to mark the completion
of tlie Anglo-Saxon conquest of the country. By this time
the new settlers had ceased to come in, and there were
along the coast and inland some seven or eight different
kingdoms. These were, however, so frequently divided and
reunited that no fixed number remained long in existence.
The Jutes had established the kingdom of Kent in the south-
eastern extremity of the island ; the South and the West
Saxons were established on the southern coast and inland
to the valley of the Thames ; the East Saxons had a kingdom
just north of the mouth of the Thames, and the Middle
Saxons held London and the district around. The rest of
the island to the north and inland exclusive of what was
still unconquered was occupied by various branches of the
Angle stock grouped into the kingdoms of East Anglia,
Mercia, and Northumbria. During the seventh and eighth
. centuries there were constant wars of conquest among these
kingdoms. Eventually, about 800 a.d., the West Saxon
monarchy made itself nominally supreme over all the others.
Notwithstanding this political supremacy of the West Saxons,
it was the Angles who were the most numerous and widely
spread, and who gave their name, England, to the whole
land.

Agriculture was at this time almost the sole occupation
of the people. The trade and commerce that had centred

lo Industrial and Social History of England

in the towns and flowed along the Roman roads and across
the Channel had long since come to an end with the Roman
civihzation of which it was a part. In Saxon England
cities scarcely existed except as fortified places of defence.
The products of each rural district sufficed for its needs in
food and in materials for clothing, so that internal trade was
but slight. Manufactures were few, partly from lack of skill,
partly from lack of demand or appreciation ; but weaving,
the construction of agricultural implements and weapons,
ship-building, and the working of metals had survived from
Roman times, or been brought over as part of the stock
of knowledge of the invaders. Far the greater part of
the population lived in villages, as they probably had done
in Roman and in prehistoric times. The village with the
surrounding farming lands, woods, and waste grounds made
up what was known in later times as the " township."

The form of government in the earlier separate kingdoms,
as in the united monarchy after its consolidation, gave limited
though constantly increasing powers to the king. A body
of nobles known as the " witan " joined with the king in
most of the actions of government. The greater part of the
small group of government functions which were undertaken
in these barbarous times were fulfilled by local gatherings
of the principal men. A district formed from a greater or
less number of townships, with a meeting for the settlement
of disputes, the punishment of crimes, the witnessing of
agreements, and other purposes, was known as a "hundred"
or a "wapentake." A "shire " was a grouping of hundreds,
with a similar gathering of its principal men for judicial,
military, and fiscal purposes. Above the shire came the
whole kingdom.

The most important occurrences of the early Saxon period
were the general adoption of Christianity and the organiza-

Growth of the Nation 1 1

tion of the church. Between a.d. 597 and 650 Christianity
gained acceptance through the preaching and influence of
missionaries, most of whom were sent from Rome, though
some came from Christian Scotland and Ireland. The organi-
zation of the church followed closely. It was largely the
work of Archbishop Theodore, and was practically com-
plete before the close of the seventh century. By this organi-
zation England was divided into seventeen dioceses or church
districts, religious affairs in each of these districts being under
the supervision of a bishop. The bishop's church, called a
" cathedral," was endowed by religious kings and nobles with
extensive lands, so that the bishop was a wealthy landed pro-
prietor, in addition to having control of the clergy of his
diocese, and exercising a powerful influence over the con-
sciences and actions of its lay population. The bishoprics
were grouped into two " provinces," those of Canterbury and
York, the bishops of these two dioceses having the higher
title of archbishop, and having a certain sort of supervision
over the other bishops of their province. Churches were
gradually built in the villages, and each township usually
became a parish with a regularly established priest. He was
supported partly by the produce of the "glebe," or land
belonging to the parish church, partly by tithe, a tax esti-
mated at one-tenth of the income of each man's land,
partly by the offerings of the people. The bishops, the
parish priests, and others connected with the diocese, the
cathedral, and the parish churches made up the ordinary
or "secular " clergy. There were also many religious men
and women who had taken vows to live under special
"rules" in religious societies withdrawn from the ordinary
life of the world, and were therefore known as "regular"
clergy. These were the monks and nuns. In Anglo-Saxon
England the regular clergy lived according to the rule of St.

1 2 Industrial ami Social History of England

Benedict, and were gathered into groups, some smaller, some
larger, but always established in one building, or group of
buildings. These monasteries, like the bishoprics, were en-
dowed with lands which were increased from time to time by
pious gifts of kings, nobles, and other laymen. Ecclesiastical
bodies thus came in time to hold a very considerable share
of the land of the country. The wealth and cultivation
of the clergy and the desire to adorn and render more
attractive their buildings and religious services fostered
trade with foreign countries. The intercourse kept up
with the church on the Continent also did something to
lessen the isolation of England from the rest of the world.
To these broadening influences must be added the effect
which the Councils made up of churchmen from all England
exerted in fostering the tardy growth of the unity of the
country.

5. Danish and Late Saxon England. — At the end of the
eighth century the Danes or Northmen, the barbarous and
heathen inhabitants of the islands and coast-lands of Den-
mark, Norway, and Sweden, began to make rapid forays into
the districts of England which lay near enough to the coasts
or rivers to be at their mercy. Soon they became bolder
or more numerous and established fortified camps along the
English rivers, from which they ravaged the surrounding
country. Still later, in the tenth and eleventh centuries,
under their own kings as leaders, they became conquerors
and permanent settlers of much of the country, and even
for a time put a Danish dynasty on the throne to govern
English and Danes alike. A succession of kings of the
West Saxon line had struggled with varying success to drive
the Danes from the country or to limit that portion of it
which was under their control ; but as a matter of fret the
northern, eastern, and central portions of England were for

Growth of the Nation 1 3

more than a century and a half ahnost entirely under Danish
rule. The constant immigration from Scandinavia during
this time added an important element to the population —
an element which soon, however, became completely ab-
sorbed in the mixed stock of the English people.

The marauding Danish invaders were early followed by
fellow-countrymen who were tradesmen and merchants.
The Scandinavian countries had developed an early and
active trade with the other lands bordering on the Baltic
and North seas, and England under Danish influence was
drawn into the same lines of commerce. The Danes were
also more inclined to town life than the English, so that
advantageously situated villages now grew into trading towns,
and the sites of some of the old Roman cities began again
to be filled with a busy population. With trading came a
greater development of handicrafts, so that the population
of later Anglo-Saxon England had somewhat varied occu-
pations and means of support, instead of being exclusively
agricultural, as in earlier centuries.

During these later centuries of the Saxon period, from
800 to 1066, the most conspicuous and most influential
ruler was King Alfred. When he became king, in 871, the
Danish invaders were so completely triumphant as to force
him to flee with a few followers to the forest as a tempo-
rary refuge. He soon emerged, however, with the nucleus
of an army and, during his reign, which continued till 901,
defeated the Danes repeatedly, obtained their acceptance
of Christianity, forced upon them a treaty which restricted
tlieir rule to the northeastern shires, and transmitted to his
son a military and naval organization which enabled him to
win back much even of this part of England. He intro-
duced greater order, prosperity, and piety into the church,
and partly by his own writing, partly by his patronage of

14 Industrial and Social History of England

learned men, reawakened an interest in Anglo-Saxon litera-
ture and in learning which the ravages of the Danes and
the demoralization of the country had gone far to destroy.
Alfred, besides his actual work as king, impressed the recog-
nition of his fine nature and strong character deeply on the
men of his time and the memory of all subsequent times.

The power of the kingship in the Anglo-Saxon system of
government was strengthened by the life and work of such
kings as Alfred and some of his successors. There were
other causes also which were tending to make the central
government more of a reality. A national taxation, the
Danegeld, w'as introduced for the purpose of ransoming the
country from the Danes ; the grant of lands by the king
brought many persons through the country into closer rela-
tions with him ; the royal judicial powers tended to increase
with the development of law and civilization ; the work of
government was carried on by better-trained officials.

On the other hand, a custom grew up in the tenth and
early eleventh century of placing whole groups of shires
under the government of great earls or viceroys, whose
subjection to the central government of the king was but
scant. Church bodies and others who had received large
grants of land from the king were also coming to exercise
over their tenants judicial, fiscal, and probably even military
powers, which would seem more properly to belong to gov-
ernment officials. The result was that although the central
government as compared with the local government of shires
and hundreds was growing more active, the king's power as
compared with the personal power of the great nobles was
becoming less strong. Violence was common, and there were
but few signs of advancing prosperity or civilization, when an
entirely new set of influences came into existence with the
conquest by the duke of Normandy in the year 1066.

Gmvth of the Nation 1 5

6. The Period following the Norman Conquest. — Nor-
mandy was a province of France lying along tlie shore of
tlie English Channel. Its line of dukes and at least a
considerable proportion of its people were of the same
Scandinavian or Norse race which made up such a large
element in the population of England. They had, how-
ever, learned more of tlie arts of life and of government
from the more successfully preserved civilization of the
Continent. The relations between England and Nor-
mandy began to be somewhat close in the early part of the
eleventh century; the fugitive king of England, Ethelred,
having taken refuge there, and marrying the sister of
the duke. Edward the Confessor, their son, who was subse-
quently restored to the English throne, was brought up in
Normandy, used the French language, and was accom-
panied on his return by Norman followers. Nine years
after the accession of Edward, in 1051, William, the duke
of Normandy, visited England and is said to have obtained
a promise that he should receive the crown on the death
of Edward, who had no direct heir. Accordingly, in 1065,
when Edward died and Harold, a great English earl, was
chosen king, William immediately asserted his claim and
made strenuous military preparations for enforcing it. Fie
took an army across the Channel in 1066, as Caesar had
done more than a thousand years before, and at the battle
of Hastings or Senlac defeated the English army, King
Harold himself being killed in the engagement. William
then pressed on toward London, preventing any gathering
of new forces, and obtained his recognition as king. He
was crowned on Christmas Day, 1066. During the next
five years he put down a series of rebellions on the part
of the native English, after which he and his descendants
were acknowledged as sole kings of England.

1 6 In J list 11 at and Social History of England

Tlie Norman Conquest was nut, liowever, a mere change
of dynasty. It led to at least three other changes of the
utmost importance. It added a new element to the popu-
lation, it brought England into contact with the central
and southern countries of the Continent, instead of merely
with the northern as before, and it made the central
government of the country vastly stronger. There is no
satisfactory means of discovering how many Normans and
others from across the Channel migrated into England
with the Conqueror or in the wake of the Conquest, but
there is no doubt that the number was large and their
influence more than proportionate to their numbers.
Within the lifetime of William, whose death occurred in
10S7, of his two sons, ^^'illiam II and Henry I, and the
nominal reign of Stephen extending to 1154, the whole
body of the nobility, the bishops and abbots, and the
government officials had come to be of Norman or other
continental origin. Besides these the architects and arti-
sans who built the castles and fortresses, and the cathedrals,
abbeys, and parish churches, whose erection throughout the
land was such a marked characteristic of the period, were
immigrants from Normandy. Merchants from the Norman
cities of Rouen and Caen came to settle in London and
other English cities, and weavers from Flanders were settled
in various towns and even rural districts. For a short time
these newcomers remained a separate people, but before
the twelfth century was over they had become for the
most part indistinguishable from the great mass of the
English people amongst whom they had come. They had
nevertheless made that people stronger, more vigorous,
more active-minded, and more varied in their occupations
and interests.

King William and his successors retained their conti-

Grozvth of the Nation 17

nental dominions and even extended them after their acqui-
sition of the Enghsh kingdom, so that trade between the
two sides of the Channel was more natural and easy than
before. The strong government of the Norman kings gave
protection and encouragement to this commerce, and by
keeping down the violence of the nobles favored trade
within the country. The English towns had been growing
in number, size, and wealth in the years just before the
Conquest. The contests of the years immediately following
1066 led to a short period of decay, but very soon increas-
ing trade and handicraft led to still greater progress.
London, especially, now made good its position as one of
the great cities of Europe, and that preeminence among
English towns which it has never since lost. The fishing
and seaport towns along the southern and eastern coast
also, and even a number of inland towns, came to hold
a much more influential place in the nation than they had
possessed in the Anglo-Saxon period.

The increased power of the monarchy arose partly from
its military character as based upon a conquest of the
country, partly from the personal character of William and
his immediate successors, partly from the more effective
machinery for administration of the affairs of government,
which was either brought over from Normandy or devel-
oped in England. A body of trained, skilful government
officials now existed, who were able to carry out the wishes
of the king, collect his revenues, administer justice, gather
armies, and in other ways make his rule effective to an
extent unknown in the preceding period. The sheriffs, who
had already existed as royal representatives in the shires
in Anglo-Saxon times, now possessed far more extensive
powers, and came up to Westminster to report and to
present their financial accounts to the royal exchequer
c

1 8 Industrial mid Social History of England

twice a year. Royal officials acting as judges not only
settled an increasingly large number of cases that were
brought before them at the king's court, but travelled
through the country, trying suits and punishing criminals
in the different shires. The king's income was vastly larger
than that of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs had been. The
old Danegeld was still collected from time to time, though
under a different name, and the king's position as landlord
of the men who had received the lands confiscated at the
Conquest was utilized to obtain additional payments.

Perhaps the greatest proof of the ]50wer and efficiency of
the government in the Norman period was the compilation
of the great body of statistics known as " Domesday Book."
In 1085 King William sent commissioners to every part
of England to collect a variety of inf(.)rmation about the
financial conditions on which estates were held, their value,
and fitness for further taxation. The information obtained
from this investigation was drawn up in order and written
in two large manuscript volumes which still exist in the
Public Record Office at London. It is a much more exten-
sive body of information than was collected for any other
country of Europe until many centuries afterward. Yet
its statements, though detailed and exact and of great
interest from many points of view, are disappointing to
the student of history. They were obtained for the finan-
cial purpjoses of government, and cannot be made to give
the clear picture of the life of the people and of the rela-
tions of different classes to one another which woulil be
so welcome, and which is so easily obtained from the great
variety of more private documents which came into exist-
ence a century and a half later.

The church during this perioil was not relati\-elv so
conspicuous as during Sa.xon times, but the number of the

Groivth of the Nation 19

clergy, both secular and regular, was very large, the bishops
and abbots powerful, and the number of monasteries and
nunneries increasing. The most important ecclesiastical
change was the development of church courts. The bishops
or their representatives began to hold courts for the trial
of churchmen, the settlement of such suits as churchmen
were parties to, and the decision of cases in certain fields of
law. This gave the church a new influence, in addition to
that which it held from its spiritual duties, from its posi-
tion as landlord over such extensive tracts, and from the
superior enlightenment and mental ability of its prominent
officials, but it also gave greater occasion for conflict with
the civil government and with private persons.

After the death of Henry I in 1135 a miserable period
of confusion and violence ensued. Civil war broke out
between two claimants for the crown, Stephen the grandson,
and Matilda the granddaughter, of William the Conqueror.
The organization of government was allowed to fall into
disorder, and but little effort was made to collect the royal
revenue, to fulfil the newly acquired judicial duties, or to
insist upon order being preserved in the country. The
nobles took opposite sides in the contest for the crown,
and made use of the weakness of government to act as if
they were themselves sovereigns over their estates and the
country adjacent to their castles with no ruler above them.
Private warfare, oppression of less powerful men, seizure of
property, went on unchecked. Every baron's castle became
an independent establishment carried on in accordance only
with the unbridled will of its lord, as if there were no law
and no central authority to which he must bow. The will
of the lord was often one of reckless violence, and there
was more disorder and suffering in England than at any
time since the ravages of the Danes.

20 Industrial and Social History of England

In Anglo-Saxon times, when a weak king appeared, tlie
shire moots, or the rulers of groups of shires, exercised
the authority which the central government had lost. In the
twelfth century, when the power of the royal government
was similarly diminished through the weakness of Stephen
and the confusions of the civil war, it was a certain class
of men, the great nobles, that fell heir to the lost strength
of government. This was because of the development of
feudalism during the intervening time. The greater land-
holders had come to exercise over those who held land
from them certain powers which in modern times belong
to the officers of government only. A landlord could call
upon his tenants for military service to him, and for the
contribution of money for his expenses ; he held a court to
decide suits between one tenant and another, and frequently
to punish their crimes and misdemeanors ; in case of the
death of a tenant leaving a minor heir, his landlord became
guardian and temporary holder of the land, and if there
were no heirs, the land reverted to him, not to the national
government. These relations which the great landholders
held toward their tenants, the latter, who often themselves
were landlords over whole townships or other great tracts
of land with their population, held toward their tenants.
Sometimes these subtenants granted land to others below
them, and over these the last landlord also exercised feudal
rights, and so on till the actual occupants and cultivators
of the soil were reached. The great nobles had thus
come to stand in a middle position. Above them was the
king, below them these successive stages of tenants and sub-
tenants. Their tenants owed to them the same financial
and political services and duties as they owed to the king.
From the time of the Norman Conquest, all land in Eng-
land was looked upon as being held from the king directly

Grozvili of the Nation 21

by a comparatively few, and indirectly through them by all
others who held land at all. Moreover, from a time at least
soon after the Norman Conquest, the services and payments
above mentioned came to be recognized as due from all
tenants to their lords, and were gradually systematized and
defmed. Each person or ecclesiastical body that held land
from the king owed him the military service of a certain
number of knights or armed horse soldiers. The period for
which this service was owed was generally estimated as forty
days once a year. Subtenants similarly owed military ser-
vice to their landlords, though in the lesser grades this was
almost invariably commuted for money. " Wardship and
marriage " was the expression applied to the right of the
lord to the guardianship of the estate of a minor heir of his
tenant, and to the choice of a husband or wife for the heir
when he came of proper age. This right also was early
turned into the form of a money consideration. There
were a number of money payments pure and simple. '' Re-
lief" was a payment to the landlord, usually of a year's
income of the estate, made by an heir on obtaining his
inheritance. There were three generally acknowledged
"aids" or payments of a set sum in proportion to the
amount of land held. These were on the occasion of the
knighting of the lord's son, of the marriage of his daugh-
ter, and for his ransom in case he was captured in war.
Land could be confiscated if the tenant violated his duties
to his landlord, and it " escheated " to the lord in case of
failure of heirs. Every tenant was bound to attend his land-
lord to help form a court for judicial work, and to submit
to the judgment of a court of his fellow-tenants for his
own affairs.

In addition to the relations of landlord and tenant and
to the power of jurisdiction, taxation, and military service

22 Industrial and Social History of England

which landlords exercised over their tenants, there was con-
sidered to be a close personal relationship between them.
Every tenant on obtaining his land went through a cere-
mony known as " homage," by which he promised faithful-
ness and service to his lord, vowing on his knees to be his
man. The lord in return promised faithfulness, protection,
and justice to his tenant. It was this combination of land-
holding, political rights, and sworn personal fidelity that
made up feudalism. It existed in this sense in England
from the later Saxon period till late in the Middle Ages,
and even in some of its characteristics to quite modern
times. The conquest by William of Normandy through the
wholesale confiscation and regrant of lands, and through his
military arrangements, brought about an almost sudden
development and spread of feudalism in England, and it
was rapidly systematized and completed in the reigns of his
two sons. By its very nature feudalism gives great powers
to the higher ranks of the nobility, the great landholders.
Under the early Norman kings, however, their strength
was kept in tolerably complete check. The anarchy of the
reign of Stephen was an indication of the natural tendencies
of feudalism without a vigorous king. This time of con-
fusion when, as the contemporary chronicle says, " every
man did that which was good in his own eyes," was brought
to an end by the accession to the throne of Henry II, a
man whose personal abilities and previous training enabled
him to bring the royal authority to greater strength than
ever, and to put an end to the oppressions of the turbulent
nobles.

7. The Period of the Early Angevin Kings, 1154-1338.
— The two centuries which now followed saw either the com-
pletion or the initiation of most of the characteristics of the
English race with which we are familiar in historic times.

Groivth of the Nation 23

The race, the language, the law, and the political organiza-
tion have remained fundamentally the same as they became
during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. No consid-
erable new addition was made to the population, and the ele-
ments which it already contained became so thoroughly fused
that it has always since been practically a homogeneous body.
The Latin language remained through this whole period and
till long afterward the principal language of records, docu-
ments, and the affairs of the church. French continued to
be the language of the daily intercourse of the upper classes,
of the pleadings in the law courts, and of certain documents
and records. But English was taking its modern form, as-
serting itself as the real national language, and by the close
of this period had come into general use for the vast major-
ity of purposes. Within the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge grew up, and
within the fourteenth took their later shape of self-governing
groups of colleges. Successive orders of religious men and
women were formed under rules intended to overcome the
defects which had appeared in the early Benedictine rule.
The organized church became more and more powerful, and
disputes constantly arose as to the limits between its power
and that of the ordinary government. The question was
complicated from the fact that the English Church was but
one branch of the general church of Western Christendom,
whose centre and principal authority was vested in the Pope
at Rome. One of the most serious of these conflicts was
between King Henry II and Thomas, archbishop of Canter-
bury, principally on the question of how far clergymen should
be subject to the same laws as laymen. The personal dis-
pute ended in the murder of the archbishop, in 11 70, but
the controversy itself got no farther than a compromise. A
contest broke out between King John and the Pope in 1 205

24 Industrial and Social History of England

as to the right of the king to dictate the selection of a new
archbishop of Canterbury. By 12 13 the various forms of
influence which the church could bring to bear were success-
ful in forcing the king to give way. He therefore made
humble apologies and accepted the nominee of the Pope for
the office. Later in the thirteenth century there was much
popular opposition to papal taxation of England.

In the reign of Henry H, the conquest of Ireland was
begun. In 1283 Edward I, great-grandson of Henry, com-
pleted the conquest of Wales, which had remained incom-
pletely conquered from Roman times onward. In 1292
Edward began that interference in the affairs of Scotland
which led on to long wars and a nominal conquest. For a
while therefore it seemed that England was about to create
a single monarchy out of the whole of the British Islands.
Moreover, Henry II was already count of Anjou and Maine
by inheritance from his father when he became duke of Nor-
mandy and king of England by inheritance from his mother.
He also obtained control of almost all the remainder of the
western and southern provinces of France by his marriage
with Eleanor of Aquitaine. It seemed, therefore, that Eng-
land might become the centre of a considerable empire com-
posed partly of districts on the Continent, partly of the
British Islands. As a matter of fact, Wales long remained
separated from England in organization and feeling, little
]irogress was made with the real conquest of Ireland till in
the sixteenth century, and the absorption of Scotland failed
entirely. King John, in 1204, lost most of the possessions
of the English kings south of the Channel and they were
not regained within this period. The unification of the
English government and people really occurred during this
period, but it was only within the boundaries which were
then as now known as England.

Growth of the Nation 25

Henry II was a vigorous, clear-headed, far-sighted ruler.
He not only put down the rebellious barons with a strong
hand, and restored the old royal institutions, as already
stated, but added new powers of great importance, especially
in the organization of the courts of justice. He changed
the occasional visits of royal officials to different parts of the
country to regular periodical circuits, the kingdom being
divided into districts in each of which a group of judges held
court at least once in each year. In 1166, by the Assize of
Clarendon, he made provision for a sworn body of men in
each neighborhood to bring accusations against criminals,
thus making the beginning of the grand jury system. He
also provided that a group of men should be put upon their
oath to give a decision in a dispute about the possession of
land, if either one of the claimants asked for it, thus intro-
ducing the first form of the trial by jury. The decisions of
the judges within this period came to be so consistent and
so well recorded as to make the foundation of the Common
Law the basis of modern law in all English-speaking coun-
tries.

Henry's successor was his son Richard I, whose govern-
ment was quite unimportant except for the romantic personal
adventures of the king when on a crusade, and in his conti-
nental dominions. Henry's second son John reigned from
1199 to 1 2 16. Although of good natural abilities, he was
extraordinarily indolent, mean, treacherous, and obstinate.
By his inactivity during a long quarrel with the king of France
he lost all his provinces on the Continent, except those in
the far south. His contest with the Pope had ended in fail-
ure and humiliation. He had angered the barons by arbi-
trary taxation and by many individual acts of outrage or
oppression. Finally he had alienated the affections of the
mass of the population by introducing foreign mercenaries

26 Industrial and Social History of Etigland

to support his tyranny and permitting to them unbridled ex-
cess and violence. As a result of this wide-spread unpopu-
larity, a rebellion was organized, including almost the whole
of the baronage of England, guided by the counsels of
Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, and supported
by the citizens of London. The indefiniteness of feudal
relations was a constant temptation to kings and other lords
to carry their exactions and demands upon their tenants to
an unreasonable and oppressive length. Henry I, on his
accession in i loo, in order to gain popularity, had voluntarily
granted a charter reciting a number of these forms of oppres-
sion and promising to put an end to them. The rebellious
barons now took this old charter as a basis, added to it many
points which had become questions of dispute during the
century since it had been granted, and others which were of
special interest to townsmen and the middle and even lower
classes. They then demanded the king's promise to issue a
charter containing these points. John resisted for a while,
but at last gave way and signed the document which has
since been known as the " Great Charter," or Magna Carta.
This has always been considered as, in a certain sense, the
guarantee of English liberties and the foundation of the
settled constitution of the kingdom. The fact that it was
forced from a reluctant king by those who spoke for the
whole nation, that it placed definite limitations on his power,
and that it w-as confirmed again and again by later kings, has
done more to give it this position than its temporary and in
many cases insignificant provisions, accompanied only by a
comparatively few statements of general principles.

The beginnings of the construction of the English parlia-
mentary constitution fall within the next reign, that of
John's son, Henry HI, 12 16-12 72. He was a child at his
accession, and when he became a man proved to have but

Groivth of the Nation 27

few qualities which would enable him to exercise a real
control over the course of events. Conflicts were constant
between the king and confederations of the barons, for the
greater part of the time under the leadership of Simon de
Montfort, earl of Leicester. The special points of differ-
ence were the king's preference for foreign adventurers in
his distribution of offices, his unrestrained munificence to
them, their insolence and oppression relying on the king's
support, the financial demands which were constantly being
made, and the king's encouragement of the high claims and
pecuniary exactions of the Pope. At first these conflicts
took the form of disputes in the Great Council, but ulti-
mately they led to another outbreak of civil war. The
Great Council of the kingdom was a gathering of the nobles,
bishops, and abbots summoned by the king from time to
time for advice and participation in the more important
work of government. It had always existed in one form or
another, extending back continuously to the " witenagemot "
of the Anglo-Saxons. During the reign of Henry the name
" Parliament " was coming to be more regularly applied to it,
its meetings were more frequent and its self-assertion more
vigorous. But most important of all, a new class of mem-
bers was added to it. In 1265, in addition to the nobles
and great prelates, the sheriffs were ordered to see that two
knights were selected from each of their shires, and two
citizens from each of a long list of the larger towns, to attend
and take part in the discussions of Parliament. This plan
was not continued regularly at first, but Henry's successor,
Edward I, who reigned from 1272 to 1307, adopted it
deliberately, and from 1295 forward the " Commons," as
they came to be called, were always included in Parliament.
Within the next century a custom arose according to which
the representatives of the shires and the towns sat in a

2S Industrial and Social History of England

separate body from the nobles and churchmen, so that
Parhament took on its modern form of two houses, the
House of Lords and the House of Commons.

Until this lime and long afterward the personal character
and abilities of the king were far the most important single
factor in the growth of the nation. Edward I was one of
the greatest of English kings, ranking with Alfred, William
the Conqueror, and Henry II. His conquests of Wales and
of Scotland have already been mentioned, and these with
the preparation they involved and a war with France into
which he was drawn necessarily occupied the greater part
of his time and energy. But he found the time to intro-
duce good order and control into the government in all its
branches ; to make a great investigation into the judicial
and administrative system, the results of which, commonly
known as the " Hundred Rolls," are comparable to Domes-
day Book in extent and character ; to develop the organi-
zation of Parliament, and above all to enact through it a
series of great reforming statutes. The most important of
these were the First and Second Statutes of Westminster,
in 127s and 12S5, which made provisions for good order in
the country, for the protection of merchants, and for other
objects ; the Statute of Mortmain, passed in 1279, which put
a partial stop to injurious gifts of land to the church, and
the Statute Quia Etnptores, passed in 1290, which was
intended to prevent the excessive multiplication of sub-
tenants. This was done by providing that whenever in the
future any landholder should dispose of a piece of land it
should be held from the same lord the grantor had held
it from, not from the grantor himself. He also gave more
liberal charters to the towns, privileges to foreign mer-
chants, and constant encouragement to trade. The king's
firm hand and prudent judgment were felt in a wide circle

Growth of the Nation '29

of regulations applying to taxes, markets and fairs, the
purchase of royal supplies, the currency, the administration
of local justice, and many other fields. Yet after all it was
the organization of Parliament that was the most important
work of Edward's reign. This completed the unification
of the country. The English people were now one race,
under one law, with one Parliament representing all parts
of the country. It was possible now for the whole nation
to act as a unit, and for laws to be passed which would
apply to the whole country and draw its different sections
continually more closely together. National growth was
now possible in a sense in which it had not been before.

The reign of Edward II, like his own character, was
insignificant compared with that of his father. He was de-
posed in 1327, and his son, Edward III, came to the throne
as a boy of fourteen years. The first years of his reign
were also relatively unimportant. By the time he reached
his majority, however, other events were imminent which
for the next century or more gave a new direction to the
principal interests and energies of England. A description
of these events will be given in a later chapter.

For the greater part of the long period which has now
been sketched in outline it is almost solely the political and
ecclesiastical events and certain personal experiences which
have left their records in history, ^^'e can obtain but vague
outlines of the actual life of the people. An important
Anglo-Saxon document describes the organization of a great
landed estate, and from Domesday Book and other early
Norman records may be drawn certain inferences as to the
degree of freedom of the masses of the people and certain
facts as to agriculture and trade. P'rom the increasing body
of public records in the twelfth century can be gathered
detached pieces of information as to actual social and

30 Industrial ami Social History of England

economic conditions, but the knowledge that can be ob-
tained is even yet shght and uncertain. With the thirteenth
century, however, all this is changed. During the latter
part of the period just described, that is to say the reigns
of Henry III and the three Edwards, we have almost as
full knowledge of economic as of political conditions, of
the life of the mass of the people as of that of courtiers
and ecclesiastics. From a time for which 1250 may be
taken as an approximate date, written documents began to
be so numerous, so varied, and so full of information as to
the affairs of private life, that it becomes possible to obtain
a comparatively full and clear knowledge of the methods
of agriculture, handicraft, and commerce, of the classes of
society, the prevailing customs and ideas, and in general
of the mode of life and social organization of the mass of
the people, this being the principal subject of economic
and social history. The next three chapters will therefore
be devoted respectively to a description of rural life, of
town life, and of trading relations, as they were during the
century from 1250 to 1350, while the succeeding chapters
will trace the main lines of economic and social change
during succeeding periods down to the present time.

CHAPTER II

RURAL I.IFK AND ORGANIZATION

8. The Mediaeval Village. — In the Middle Ages in the
greater part of England all country life was village life. The
farmhouses were not isolated or separated from one another
by surrounding fields, as they are so generally in modern
times, but were gathered into villages. Each village was
surrounded by arable lands, meadows, pastures, and woods
which spread away till they reached the confines of the simi-
lar fields of the next adjacent village. Such an agricultural
village with its population and its surrounding lands is
usually spoken of asa"vill." The word "manor" is also
applied to it, though this word is also used in other senses,
and has differed in meaning at different periods. The word
" hamlet " means a smaller group of houses separated from
but forming in some respects a part of a vill or manor.

The village consisted of a group of houses ranging in
number from ten or twelve to as many as fifty or perhaps
even more, grouped around what in later times would be
called a "village green," or along two or three intersecting
lanes. The houses were small, thatch-roofed, and one-
roomed, and doubtless very miserable. Such buildings as
existed for the protection of cattle or the preservation of
crops were closely connected with the dwelling portions of
the houses. In many cases they were under the same roof.
Each vill possessed its church, which was generally, though
by no means always, close to the houses of the village.
There was usually a manor house, which varied in size from

3'

32 Industrial and Social History of England

an actual castle to a building of a character scarcely distin-
guishable from the primitive houses of the villagers. This
might be occupied regularly or occasionally by the lord of tlie
manor, but might otherwise be inhabited by the steward or
by a tenant, or perhaps only ser\'e as the gathering place
of the manor courts.

Connected with the manor house was an enclosure or
courtyard commonly surrounded by buildings for general

Thirteenth Century Manor House, Mii.lii.iioik, Shropshire.

{y^n^X, History of Dojitcstic J^Iamwrs and Smtiinetdi.)

farm purposes and for cooking or brewing. A garden or
orchard was often attached.

The location of the vill was almost invariably such that a
stream with its border meadows passed through or along its
confines, the mill being often the only building that lay de-
tached from the village group. A greater or less extent of
woodland is also constantly mentioned.

The vill was thus made up of the group of houses of tlie
villagers including the parish church and the manor house.

Rural Life and Organization

33

all surrounded by a wide tract of arable land, meadow, pas-
ture, and woods. Where the lands were extensive there
might perhaps be a small group of houses forming a sepa-
rate hamlet at some distance from the village, and occa-
sionally a detached mill, grange, or other building. Its
characteristic appearance, however, must have been that of
a close group of buildings surrounded by an extensive tract
of open land.

THII IthMU CENH.K\ MA^OK HllUbL B) IHIY 1 ^(jNl LL

(Tun

Lincolnshire.

estic Architecture iti Eiit^'auJ.)

9. The Vill as an Agricultural System. — The sui)port of
the vill was in its agriculture. The plan by which the lands
of the whole group of cultivators lay together m a large tract
surrounding the village is spoken of as the " open field " sys-
tem. The arable portions of this were ploughed in pieces
equalling approximately acres, half- acres, or quarter-acres.

The mediaeval English acre was a long narrow strip forty
rods in length and four rods in width, a half-acre or quartcr-

D

34 Industrial and Social History of England

acre being of the same length, but of two rods or one rod in
width. The rod was of different lengths in different parts
of the country, depending on local custom, but the most
common length was that prescribed by statute, that is to
say, sixteen and a half feet. The length of the acre, forty

Village with Open Fields, Nortershausen, near Coblentz,
Germany.

(From a photograph taken in 1894.)

rods, has given rise to one of the familiar units of length,
the furlong, that is, a " furrow-long," or the length of a fur-
row. A rood is a piece of land one rod wide and forty rods
long, that is, the fourth of an acre. A series of such strips
were ploughed up successively, being separated from each

Rural Life and Organi::jation

35

other either by leaving the width of a furrow or two un-
ploughed, or by marking the division with stones, or perhaps
by simply throwing the first furrow of the next strip in the
opposite direction when it was ploughed. When an un-
ploughed border was left covered with grass or stones, it
was called a " balk." A number of such acres or fractions
of acres with their slight dividing ridges thus lay alongside

Village with Open Fields, Udenhausen, near Coblentz,
Germany.

(From a photograph taken in 1894.)

of one another in a group, the number being defined by the
configuration of the ground, by a traditional division among
a given number of tenants, or by some other cause. Other
groups of strips lay at right angles or inclined to these, so
that the whole arable land of the village when ploughed or
under cultivation had, like many French, German, or Swiss
landscapes at the present time, something of the appearance
of a, great irregular checker-board or patchwork quilt, each

36 Industrial and Social History of England

large square being divided in one direction by parallel lines.
Usually the cultivated open fields belonging to a village were
divided into three or more large tracts or fields and these
were cultivated according to some established rotation of
crops. The most common of these was the three-field sys-
tem, by which in any one year all the strips in one tract or
field would be planted with wheat, rye, or some other crop
which is planted in the fall and harvested the next summer ;
a second great field would be planted with oats, barley, peas,
or some such crop as is planted in the spring and harvested
in the fall ; the third field would be fallow, recuperating its
fertility. The next year all the acres in the field which had
lain fallow the year before might be planted with a fall crop,
the wheat field of the previous year being planted with a
spring crop, and the oats field in its turn now lying unculti-
vated for a year. The third 5'ear a further exchange would
be made by which a fall crop would succeed the fallow of
that year and the spring crop of the previous year, a spring
crop would succeed the last year's fall crop and the field
from which the spring crop was taken now it its turn would
enjoy a fallow year. Iii the fourth year the rotation would
begin over again.

Agriculture was extremely crude. But eight or nine bush-
els of wheat or rye were expected from an acre, where now
in England the average is thirt)-. The plough regularly
required eight draught animals, usually oxen, in breaking up
the ground, thouglr lighter ploughs were used in subsequent
cultivation. The breed of all farm animals was small, carts
were few and cumbrous, the harvesting of grain was done
with a sickle, and the mowing of grass with a sliort, straight
scythe. The distance of the outlying parts of the fields
from the firm buildings of the village added its share to
the laboriousness of agricultural life.

Rural Life and Organization 37

The- variety of food crops raised was small. Potatoes
were of course unknown, and other root crops and fresh
vegetables apparently were little cultivated. Wheat and rye
of several varieties were raised as bread-stuff, barley and
some other grains for the brewing of beer. Field peas and
beans were raised, sometimes for food, but generally as
forage for cattle. The main supply of winter forage for the
farm animals had, however, to be secured in the form of
hay, and for this reliance was placed entirely on the natural
meadows, as no clover or grasses which could be artificially
raised on dry ground were yet known. Meadow land was
constantly estimated at twice the value of arable ground or
more. To obtain a sufficient support for the oxen, horses,
and breeding animals through the winter required, there-
fore, a constant struggle. Owing to this difficulty animals
that were to be used for food purposes were regularly killed
in the fall and salted down. Much of the unhealthiness of
mediaeval life is no doubt attributable to the use of salt
meat as so large a part of what was at best a very monoto-
nous diet.

Summer pasture for the horses, cattle, sheep, and swine
of the village was found partly on the arable land after the
grain crops had been taken off, or while it was lying fallow.
Since all the acres in any one great field were planted with
the same crop, this woulci be taken off from the whole
expanse at practically the same time, and the animals of the
whole village might then wander over it, feeding on the
stubble, the grass of the balks, and such other growth as
sprung up before the next ploughing, or before freezing
weather. Pasturage was also found on the meadows after
the hay had been cut. But the largest amount of all was
on the "common pasture," the uncultivated land and
woods which in the thirteenth century was still sufficiently

38 Industi'ial and Social History of England

abundant in most parts of England to be found in consid-
erable extent on almost every manor. Pasturage in all these
forms was for the most part common for all the animals of
the vill, which were sent out under the care of shepherds or
other guardians. There were, however, sometimes enclosed
pieces of pasture land in the possession of the lord of the
manor or of individual villagers.

The land of the vill was held and cultivated according to
a system of scattered acres. That is to say, the land held
by any one man was not all in one place, but scattered
through various parts of the open fields of the vill. He
would have an acre or two, or perhaps only a part of an
acre, in one place, another strip not adjacent to it, but
somewhere else in the fields, still another somewhere else,
and so on for his whole holding, while the neighbor whose
house was next to his in the village would have pieces of
land similarly scattered through the fields, and in many
cases probably have them adjacent to his. The result was
that the various acres or other parts of any one man's
holding were mingled apparently inextricably with those
of other men, customary familiarity only distinguishing
which pieces belonged to each villager.

In some manors there was total irregularity as to the
number of acres in the occupation of any one man ; in
others there was a striking regularity. The typical holding,
the group of scattered acres cultivated by one man or held
by some two or three in common, was known as a "vir-
gate," or by some equivalent term, and although of no uni-
versal equality, was more frequently of thirty acres than of
any other number. Usually one finds on a given manor that
ten or fifteen of the villagers have each a virgate of a given
number of acres, several more have each a half virgate or a
quarter. Occasionally, on the other hand, each of them has

Rural Life and Organisation 39

a different number of acres. In almost all cases, however, the
agricultural holdings of the villagers were relatively small. For
instance, on a certain manor in Norfolk there were thirty-
six holdings, twenty of them below ten acres, eight between
ten and twenty, six between twenty and thirty, and two be-
tween thirty and forty. On another, in Essex, there were
nine holdings of five acres each, two of six, twelve of ten,
three of twelve, one of eighteen, four of twenty, one of forty,
and one of fifty. Sometimes larger holdings in the hands of
individual tenants are to be found, rising to one hundred
acres or more. Still these were quite exceptional and the
mass of the villagers had very small groups of acres in their
possession.

It is to be noted next that a large proportion of the cul-
tivated strips were not held in virgates or otherwise by the
villagers at all, but were in the direct possession and culti-
vation of the lord of the manor. This land held directly by
the lord of the manor and cultivated for him was called the
" demesne," and frequently included one-half or even a
larger proportion of all the land of the vill. Much of the
meadow and pasture land, and frequently all of the woods,
was included in the demesne. Some of the demesne land
was detached from the land of the villagers, enclosed and
separately cultivated or pastured ; but for the most part it
lay scattered through the same open fields and was culti-
vated by the same methods and according to the same
rotation as the land of the small tenants of the vill, though
it was kept under separate management.

10. Classes of People on the Manor. — Every manor was
in the hands of a lord. He might be a knight, esquire, or
mere freeman, but in the great majority of cases the lord
of the manor was a nobleman, a bishop, abbot, or other
ecclesiastical official, or the king. But whether the manor was

40 Industrial and Social History of England

OF A Manor Housk.

(Turner, Domestic A rchiteotnre
iti England.)

the whole estate of a man of the lesser gentry, or merely one
part of the possessions of a great baron, an ecclesiastical
corporation, or the crown, the
relation between its possessor as
lord of the manor and the other
inhabitants as his tenants was the
same. In the former case he was
usually resident upon the manor ;
in the latter the individual or
corporate lord was represented
by a steward or other official who
made occasional visits, and fre-
J. quently, on large manors, by a
si;al, WITH REPRESENTATION resldcnt bailiff. There was also
almost universally a reeve, who
was chosen from among the
tenants and who had to carry on
the demesne farm in the interests of the lord.

The tenants of the manor, ranging from holders of con-
siderable amounts of land, perhaps as much as a hundred
acres, through various gradations down to mere cotters,
who held no more than a cottage with perhaps a half-acre
or a rood of land, or even with no land at all, are usually
grouped in the "extents " or contemporary descriptions of
the manors and their inhabitants into several distinct classes.
Some are described as free tenants, or tenants holding freely.
Others, and usually the largest class, are called villains, or
customary tenants. Some, holding only a half or a quarter
virgate, are spoken of as half or quarter villains. Again, a
numerous class are described by some name indicating that
they hold only a dwelling-house, or at least that their hold-
ing of land is but slight. These are generally spoken of as
cotters.

Rural Life and Ot'ganiaation 4 1

All these tenants hold land from the lord of the manor
and make payments and perform services in return for
their land. The free tenants most commonly make pay-
ments in money only. At special periods in the year they
give a certain number of shillings or pence to the lord.
Occasionally they are required to make some payment in
kind, a cock or a hen, some eggs, or other articles of con-
sumption. These money payments and payments of articles
of money value are called " rents of assize," or established
rents. Not unusually, however, the free tenant has to fur-
nish precariie or " boon-works " to the lord. That is, he
must, either in his own person or through a man hired for
the purpose, furnish one or more days' labor at the specially
busy seasons of the year, at fall and spring ploughing, at
mowing or harvest time. Free tenants were also freqwently
bound to pay relief and heriot. Relief was a sum of money
paid to the lord by an heir on obtaining land by inheritance.
Custom very generally established the amount to be paid
as the equivalent of one year's ordinary payments. Heriot
was a payment made in kind or in money from the property
left by a deceased tenant, and very generally consisted by
custom of the best animal which had been in the possession
of the man, or its equivalent in value. On many manors
heriot was not paid by free tenants, but only by those of
lower rank.

The services and payments of the villains or customary
tenants were of various descriptions. They had usually to
make some money payments at regular periods of the year,
like the free tenants, and, even more frequently than they,
some regular payments in kind. But the fine paid on the
inheritance of their land was less definitely restricted in
amount, and heriot was more universally and more regu-
larly collected. The greater part of their liability to the

42 Industrial and Social History of England

lord of the manor was, however, in the form of personal,
corporal service. Almost universally the villain was re-
quired to work for a certain number of days in each week
on the demesne of the lord. This "week-work" was most
frequently for three days a week, sometimes for two, some-
times for four ; sometimes for one number of days in the
week during a part of the year, f(jr another number during
the remaln<ler. In addition to this were usually the pri--
carice or boon-works already referred to. Sometimes as
part of, sometimes in addition to, the week work and the
boon-work, the villain was required to plough so many acres
in the fall and spring ; to mow, toss, and carry in the hay
from so many acres ; to haul and scatter so many loads
of manure ; carry grain to the barn or the market, build
hedges, dig ditches, gather brush, weed grain, break clods,
drive sheep or swine, or any other of the forms of agricul-
tural labor as local custom on each manor had established
his burdens. Combining the week-work, the regular boon-
works, and the extra specified services, it will be seen that
the labor required from the customary tenant was burden-
some in the extreme. Taken on the average, much more
than half of the ordinary villain's time must have been given
in services to the lord of the manor.

The cotters made similar payments and performed simi-
lar labors, though less in amount. A wide-spread custom
required them to work for the lord one day a week througli-
out the year, with certain regular payments, and certain
additional special services.

Besides the possession of their land and rights of common
pasture, however, there were some other compensations and
alleviations of the burdens of the villains and cotters. At the
boon-works and other special services performed by the
tenants, it was a matter of custom that the lord of the manor

Rural Life and Organi:;atioii 43

provide food for one or two meals a day, and custom fre-
quently defined the kind, amount, and value of the food
for each separate meal; as where it is said in a statement of
services : " It is to be known that all the above customary
tenants ought to reap one day in autumn at one boon-work
of wheat, and they shall have among them six bushels of
wheat for their bread, baked in the manor, and broth and
meat, that is to say, two men have one portion of beef and
cheese, and beer for drinking. And the aforesaid cus-
tomary tenants ought to work in autumn at two boon-works
of oats. And they shall have six bushels of rye for their
bread as described above, broth as before, and herrings, viz.
six herrings for each man, and cheese as before, and water
for drinking."

Thus the payments and services of the free tenants were
principally of money, and apparently not burdensome ;
those of the villains were largely in corporal service and
extremely heavy ; while those of the cotters were smaller, in
correspondence with their smaller holdings of land and in
accordance with the necessity that they have their time
in order to make their living by earning wages.

The villains and cotters were in bondage to the lord of
the manor. This was a matter of legal status quite inde-
pendent of the amount of land which the tenant held or of
the services which he performed, though, generally speak-
ing, the great body of the smaller tenants and of the laborers
were of servile condition. In general usage the words vil-
lanus, nativiis, serviis, (ustumariiis, and riisficiis are synony-
mous, and the cotters belonged legally to the same servile
class.

The distinction between free tenants and villains, using
this word, as is customary, to include all those who were
legally in servitude, was not a very clearly marked one,

44 Industrial atui Social History of Etigland

Their economic position was often so similar that the
classes shaded into one another. But the villain was, as
has been seen, usually burdened with much heavier services.
He was subject to special payments, such as " merchet," a
payment made to the lord of the manor when a woman of
villain rank was married, and " leyr," a payment made by
women for breach of chastity. He could be " tallageil "
or taxed to any extent the lord saw fit. He was bound to
the soil. He could not leave the manor to seek for better
conditions of life elsewhere. If he ran away, his lord could
obtain an order from a court and have him brought back.
When permission was obtained to remain away from tlie
manor as an inhabitant of another vill or of a town, it was
only upon payment of a periodical sura, frequently known as
" chevage " or head money. He could not sell his cattle
without paying the lord for permission. He had practically
no standing in the courts of the country. In any suit
against his lord the proof of his condition of villainage was
sufficient to put him out of court, and his only recourse was
the local court of the manor, where the lord himself or his
representative presided. Finally, in the eyes of the law,
the villain had no property of his own, all his possessions
being, in the last resort, the property of his lord. This
legal theory, however, apparently had but little apphcation
to real life ; for in the ordinary course of events the cus-
tomary tenant, if only by custom, not by law, yet held and
bequeathed to his descendants his land and his chattels quite
as if they were his own.

Serfdom, as it existed in England in the thirteenth cen-
tury, can hardly be defined in strict legal terms. It can be
described most correctly as a condition in which the villain
tenant of the manor was bound to the locality and to his
services and payments there by a legal bond, instead of

Rural Life and Organization 45

merely by an economic bond, as was the case with the
small free tenant.

There were commonly a few persons in the vill who were
not in the general body of cultivators of the land and were
not therefore in the classes so far described. Since the
vill was generally a parish also, the village contained tlie
parish priest, who, though he might usually hold some acres
in the open fields, and might belong to the peasant class,
was of course somewhat set apart from the villagers by his
education and his ordination. The mill was a valued pos-
session of the lord of the manor, for by an almost universal
custom the tenants were bound to have their grain ground
there, and this monopoly enabled the miller to pay a sub-
stantial rent to the lord while keeping enough i)rofit for
himself to become proverbially well-to-do.

There was often a blacksmith, whom we find sometimes
exempted from other services on condition of keeping the
demesne ploughs and other iron implements in order. A
chance weaver or other craftsman is sometimes found, and
when the vill was near sea or river or forest some who
made their living by industries dependent on the locality.
In the main, however, the whole life of the vill gathered
around the arable, meadow, and pasture land, and the
social position of the tenants, except for the cross division
of serfdom, depended upon the respective amounts of land
which they held.

11. The Manor Courts. — The manor was the sphere of
operations of a manor court. On every manor the tenants
gathered at frequent periods for a great amount of petty
judicial and regulative work. The most usual period for
the meeting of the manor court was once every three weeks,
though in some manors no trace of a meeting is found more
frequently than three times, or even twice, a year. I." these

46 Iiidiistfial and Social History of England

cases, however, it is quite probable that less formal meetings
occurred of which no regular record was kept. Different
kinds of gatherings of the tenants are usually distinguished
according to the authority under which they were held, or
the class of tenants of which they were made up. If the
court was held by the lord simply because of his feudal
rights as a landholder, and was busied only with matters of
the inheritance, transfer, or grant of lands, the fining of
tenants for the breach of manorial custom, or failure to per-
form their duties to the lord of the manor, the election of
tenants to petty offices on tlie manor, and such matters, it
was described in legal language as a court baron. If a
court so occupied was made up of villain tenants onlv, it was
called a customary court. If, on the other hand, the court
also punished general offences, petty crimes, breaches of
contract, breaches of the assize, that is to say, the estab-
lished standard of amount, price, or quality of bread or
beer, the lord of the manor drawing his authority to hold
such a court either actually or supposedly from a grant from
the king, such a court was called a court leet. With the
court leet was usually connected the so-called view of frank
pledge. Frank pledge was an ancient system, according to
which all men were obliged to be enrolled in groups, so that
if any one committed an offence, the other members of the
group would be obliged to produce him for trial. View of
frank pledge was the right to punish by fine any who failed
to so enroll themselves. In the court baron and the cus-
tomary court it was said by lawyers that the bodv of attend-
ants were the judges, and the steward, representing the lord
of the manor, only a presiding official ; while in the court
leet the steward was the actual judge of the tenants. In
practice, however, it is probable that not much was made
of these distinctions, and that the periodic gatherings were

Rural Life and Organization a^j

made to do duty for all business of any kind that needed
attention, while the procedure was that which had become
customary on that special manor, irrespective of the par-
ticular form of authority for the court.

Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Sutton
courtenay, berkshire.

{Domestic Architecture in tlie Forrrteenth Century.)

The manor court was presided over by a steward or other
officer representing the lord of the manor. Apparently all
adult male tenants were expected to be present, and any
inhabitant was liable to be summoned. A court was usu-
ally held in each manor, but sometimes a lord of several

48 Industrial and Social History of England

neighboring manors would hold the court for all of these
in some one place. As most manors belonged to lords who
had many manors in their possession, the steward or other
official commonly proceeded from one manor or group of
manors to another, holding the courts in each. Before the
close of the thirteenth century the records of the manor
courts, or at least of the more important of them, began to
be kept with very great regularity and fulness, and it is to
the mass of these manor court rolls which still remain that
we owe most of our detailed knowledge of the condition of
the body of the people in the later Middle Ages. The
variety and the amount of business transacted at the court
were alike considerable. When a tenant had died it was
in the meeting of the manor court that his successor ob-
tained a regrant of the land. The required relief was there
assessed, and the heriot from the property of the deceased
recorded. New grants of land were made, and transfers,
leases, and abandonments by one tenant and assignments to
another announced. For each of these processes of land
transfer a fine was collected for the lord of the manor.
Sucli entries as the following are constantly found : " John
of Durham has come into court and taken one bond-land
which Richard Avras formerly held but gave up because of
his poverty ; to have and hold for his liletime, paying and
doing the accustomed services as Richard paid and did
them. He gives for entrance 6j. S;/. ; " " .Agnes Mabeley is
given possession of a quarter virgate of land which her
mother held, and gives the lord 33.1'. 4^/. for entrance."

Disputes as to the right of possession of land and ques-
tions of dowry and inheritance were decided, a jury being
granted in many cases by the lord at the petition of a
claimant and on payment of a fee. Another class of cases
consisted in the imposition of fines or amerciaments for the

Rural Life and Organization 49

violation of tlie customs of the manor, of the rules of the
lord, or of the requirements of the culprit's tenure; such as
a villain marrying without leave, failure to perform boon-
works or bad performance of work, failure to place the
tenant's sheep in the lord's fold, cutting of wood or brush,
making unlawful paths across the fields, the meadows, or the
common, encroachment in ploughing upon other men's land
or upon the common, or failure to send grain to the lord's
mill for grinding. Sometimes the offence was of a more
general nature, such as breach of assize, breach of contract,
slander, assault, or injury to property. Still another part of
the work of the court was the election of petty manorial
officers ; a reeve, a reaper, ale-tasters, and perhaps others.
The duty of filling such offices when elected by the ten-
ants and approved by the lord or his steward was, as has
been said, one of the burdens of villainage. However,
when a villain was fulfilHng the office of reeve, it was cus-
tomary for him to be relieved of at least a part of the pay-
ments and services to which he would otherwise be subject.
Finally the manor court meetings were employed for the
adoption of general regulations as to the use of the com-
mons and other joint interests, and for the announcement
of the orders of the steward in the keeping of the peace.
12. The Manor as an Estate of a Lord. — The manor
was profitable to the lord in various wavs. He received
rents in money and kind. These included the rents of
assize from free and villain land tenants, rent from the ten-
ant of the mill, and frequently from other sources. Then
came the profits derived from the cultivation of the
demesne land. In this the lord of the manor was simjily a
large farmer, except that he had a supply of labor bound to
remain at hand and to give service without wages almost uj)
to his needs. Finally there were the profits of the manor

50 Industrial and Social History of England

courts. As has been seen, these consisted of a great variety
of fees, fines, amerciaments, and collections made by the
steward or other official. Such varied payments and
profits combined to make up the total value of the manor
to the landowner. Not only the slender income of the
country squire or knight whose estate consisted of a single
manor of some ten or twenty pounds yearly value, but the
vast wealth of the great noble or of the rich monastery or
powerful bishopric was principally made up of the sum of
such payments from a considerable number of manors. An
appreciable part of the income of the government even was
derived from the manors still in the possession of the
crown.

The mediasval manor was a little world in itself. The
large number of scattered acres which made up the
demesne farm cultivated in the interests of the lord of the
manor, the small groups of scattered strips held by free
holders or villain tenants who furnished most of the labor
on the demesne farm, the little patches of ground held by
mere laborers whose living was mainly gained by hired ser-
vice on the land of the lord or of more prosperous tenants,
the claims which all had to the use of the common pasture
for their sheep and cattle and of the woods for their swine,
all these togetlier made up an agricultural system which
secured a revenue for the lord, provided food and the raw
material for primitive manufactures for the inhabitants of
the vill, and furnished some small surplus which could be
sold.

Life on the media5val manor was hard. The greater part
of the population was subject to the burdens of serfdom,
and all, both free and serf, shared in the arduousness of
labor, coarseness and lack of variety of food, unsanitary
surroundings, and liability to the rigor of winter and the

Rural Life and Organization

51

attacks of pestilence. Vet the average condition of com-
fort of tlie mass of the rural inhabitants of Englanil was
probably as high as at any subsequent time. I'ood in pro-

'A>>/A\.teJii/^://fMV,

.^^jjS^3~5V^r« w^_

I

f-a==~JSi^*^

Interior of Fourteenth Century Manor House, Great
Malvern, Worcestershire.

{Domestic Architectitre in tlie Fouj-teeuth Century.^

portion to wages was very clieap, and tlie almost universal
possession of some land made it possible for the ver)' poor-
est to avoid starvation. ISIoreover, the great extent to
which custom governed all payments, services, and rights

52 Industrial and Social History of England

must have prevented much of the extreme depression
which has occasionally existed in subsequent periods in
which greater competition has distinguished more clearly
the capable from the incompetent.

From the social rather than from the economic point of
view the life of the mediaeval manor was perhaps most
clearly marked by this predominance of custom and by a
second characteristic nearly related. This was the singu-
larly close relationship in which all the inhabitants of the
manor were bound to one another, and their correspond-
ingly complete separation from the outside world. The
common pasture, the intermingled strips of the holdings in
the open fields, the necessary cooperation in the perform-
ance of their daily labor on the demesne land, the close
contiguity of their dwellings, their universal membership in
the same parish church, their common attendance and
action in the manor courts, all must have combined to
make the vill an organization of singular unity. This self-
centred life, economically, judicially, and ecclesiastically so
nearly independent of other bodies, put obstacles in the
way of change. It prohibited intercourse beyond the
manor, and opposed the growth of a feeling of common
national life. The manorial life lay at the base of tlie
stability which marked the mediseval period.

13. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gener.\l Works

Certain general works which refer to long periods of eco-
nomic history will be mentioned here and not again referred
to, excepting in special cases. It is to be understood that
they contain valuable matter on the subject, not only of

Rural Life and Organization 53

this, but of succeeding chapters. They should therefore
be consulted in addition to the more specific worlvs named
under each chapter.

Cunningham, William : Growth of English Industry and
Commerce, two volumes. The most extensive and valuable
work that covers the whole field of English economic
history.

Ashley, W. J. : English Economic History, two volumes.
The first volume is a full and careful analysis of mediseval
economic conditions, with detailed notes and references to
the primary sources. The second volume is a work of
original investigation, referring particularly to conditions
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but it does not
give such a clear analysis of the conditions of its period as
the first volume.

Traill, H. D. : Social England, six volumes. A com-
posite work including a great variety of subjects, but
seldom having the most satisfactory account of any one
of them.

Rogers, J. E. T. : History of Agriculture and Prices ; Six
Centuries of Jl'ork and IVages; Economic Interpretation
of History. Professor Rogers' work is very extensive and
detailed, and his books were largely pioneer studies. His
statistical and other facts are useful, but his general state-
ments are not very valuable, and his conclusions are not
convincing.

Palgrave, R. H. I. : Dictionary of Political Economv.
Many of the articles on subjects of economic history are the
best and most recent studies on their respective subjects,
and the bibliographies contained in them are especially
valuable.

Four single-volume text-books have been published on
this general subject : —

Cunningham, William, and McArthur, E. A. : Outlines of
Englisli Industiial History.

54 Industrial and Social History of England

Gibbins, H. de B. ; Industry in England.

Warner, George Townsend : landmarks in English Indus-
trial History.

Price, L. L. : A Sliort History of Englisli Commerce and
Industry.

Special Works

Seebohm, Frederic : Tlie English Village Communitx.
Although written for another purpose, — to suggest a cer-
tain view of the origin of the medijeval manor, — the first
five chapters of this book furnish the clearest existing
descriptive account of the fundamental facts of rural life
in the thirteenth century. Its publication marked an era
in the recognition of the main features of manorial organi-
zation. Green, for instance, the historian of the English
people, seems to have had no clear conception of many of
those characteristics of ordinary rural life which Mr. See-
bohn has made familiar.

Vinogradoff, Paul : Villainage in England.

Pollock, Sir Frederick, and Maitland, F. W. : History of
English Law, Vol. I.

These two works are of especial value for the organiza-
tion of the manor courts and the legal condition of the
population.

Sources

Much that can be explained only with great difficulty
becomes clear to the student immediately when he reads
the original documents. Concrete illustrations of general
statements moreover make the work more interesting and
real. It has therefore been found desirable by many
teachers to bring their students into contact with at least
a few typical illustrative documents. The sources for the
subject generally are given in the works named above.
An admirable bibliography has 1 ee i recently published by

Rural Life and Organization 55

Gross, Charles : The Sources and Literature of Englisli
History from t/ie Earliest Times to about 148J. References
to abundant material for the illustration or further investiga-
tion of the subject of this chapter will be found in the fol-
lowing pamphlet : —

Davenport, Frances G. : A Classified List of Printed
Original Materials for English Alanorial and Agrarian
History.

Sources for the medieval period are almost all in Latin
or French. Some of them, however, have been more acces-
sible by being translated into English and reprinted in con-
venient form. A few of these are given in C. W. Colby :
Selections from the Sources of English History, and G. C.
Lee : Source Book of English History.

In the Series of Translations and Reprints from tlie Origi-
nal Sources of European History, published by the Depart-
ment of History of the University of Pennsylvania, several
numbers include documents in this field. Vol. Ill, No. 5,
is devoted entirely to manorial documents.

DiSCL'SSIOXS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE MaNOR

The question of the origin of the medieval manorial
organization, whether it is principally of native English or
of Roman origin, or hewn from still other materials,
although not treated in this text-book, has been the sub-
ject of much interest and discussion. One view of the case
is the thesis of Seebohm's book, referred to above. Other
books treating of it are the following : —

Earle, John : Land Charters and Saxonic Documents,
Introduction.

Gomme, G. L. ; The Pillage Community.

Ashley, W. J. : A translation of Fustel de Coulanges,
Origin of Property in Land, Introduction.

Andrews, Charles M. : The Old English Manor, Intro-
duction.

56 Industrial and Social History of England

Maitland, F. AV. : Domesday Book and Beyond.

Meitzen, August : Siedeliing und Agrarwescn, Vol. II,
Chap. 7.

The writings of Kemble and of Sir Henry Maine belong
rather to a past period of study and speculation, but their
ideas still lie at the base of discussions on the subject.

CHAPTER III

TOWN LIFE AND ORGANIZATION

14. The Town Government. — In the middle of the
thirteenth century there were some two hundred towns in
England distinguishable by their size, form of government,
and the occupations of their inhabitants, from the rural
agricultural villages which have just been described. Lon-
don probably had more than 25,000 inhabitants ; York and
Bristol may each have had as many as 10,000. The popu-
lation of the others varied from as many as 6000 to less
than 1000. Perhaps the most usual population of an
English mediaeval town lay between 1500 and 4000.
They were mostly walled, though such protection was
hardly necessary, and the military element in English towns
was therefore but slightly developed. Those towns which
contained cathedrals, and were therefore the seats of
bishoprics, were called cities. All other organized towns
were known as boroughs, though this distinction in the use
of the terms city and borough was by no means always pre-
served. The towns differed widely in their form of govern-
ment ; but all had charters from the king or from some
nobleman, abbey, or bishopric on whose lands they had
grown up. Such a charter usually declared the right of the
town to preserve the ancient customs which had come to
be recognized among its inhabitants, and granted to it cer-
tain privileges, exemptions, and rights of self-government.
The most universal and important of these privileges were
the following : the town paid the tolls and dues owed to

57

58 Industrial and Social History of England

the king or other lord by its inhabitants in a lump sum, col-
lecting the amount from its own citizens as the latter or
their own authorities saw fit ; the town courts had jurisdic-
tion over most suits and offences, relieving the townsmen
from answering at hundred and county court suits which
concerned matters within their own limits ; the townsmen,
where the king granted the charter, were exempt from the

Town Wall of SouTHAMProN, built in the Thirteenth
Century.

(Turner: Domestic Architecture in E?ifflatid.)

payment of tolls of various kinds throughout his dominions ;
they could pass ordinances and regulations controlling the
trade of the town, the administration of its property, and
its internal affairs generally, and could elect officials to
carry out such regulations. These officials also corre-
sponded and negotiated in the name of the town with the
authorities of other towns and with the government. From

s

■J ci

Town Life and Organisation 59

the close of the thirteenth century all towns of any impor-
tance were represented in Parliament. These elements of
independence were not all possessed by every town, and
some had special privileges not enumerated in the above
list. The first charter of a town was apt to be vague and
inadequate, but from time to time a new charter was
obtained giving additional privileges and defining the old
rights more clearly. Nor had all those who dwelt within
the town limits equal participation in its advantages. These
were usually restricted to those who were known as citizens
or burgesses ; full citizenship depending primarily on the
possession of a house and land within the town limits. In
addition to the burgesses there were usually some inhabit-
ants of the town — strangers, Jews, fugitive villains from the
rural villages, or perhaps only poorer natives of the town —
who did not share in these privileges. Those who did
possess all civil rights of the townsmen were in many ways
superior in condition to men in the country. In addition
to the advantages of the municipal organization mentioned
above, all burgesses were personally free, there was entire
exemption from the vexatious petty payments of the rural
manors, and burgage tenure was the nearest to actual land
ownership existent during the Middle Ages.

15. The Gild Merchant. — The town was most clearly
marked off from the country by the occupations by which
-its people earned their living. These were, in the first
place, trading ; secondly, manufacturing or handicrafts.
Agriculture of course existed also, since most townsmen
possessed some lands lying outside of the enclosed portions
of the town. On these they raised crops and pastured
their cattle. Of these varied occupations, however, it was
trade which gave character and, indeed, existence itself to
the town. Foreign goods were brought to the towns from

6o Industrial and Social History of England

abroad for sale, the surplus products of rural manors found
their way there for marketing ; tlie products of one part
of the country which were needed in other parts were sought
for and purchased in the towns. Men also sold the products

^^wiS§

Hall of Merchanis' Company of York.

{Lambert; T'luo Tkofismid Yetirs of Gild Li/c. Published by
A, Brown & Sons, HuH.)

of their own labor, not only food products, such as bread,
meat, and fish, but also objects of manufacture, as cloth,
arms, leather, and goods made of wood, leather, or metal.
For the protection and regulation of this trade the organi-

Tou'u Life and Organization 6 1

zation known as the gild merchant had grown up in each
town. The gild merchant seems to have included all of
the population of the town who habitually engaged in the
business of selling, whether commodities of their own
manufacture or those they had previously purchased.
Membership in the gild was not exactly coincident with
burgess-ship ; persons who lived outside of the town were
sometimes admitted into that organization, and, on the
other hand, some inhabitants of the town were not in-
cluded among its members. Nevertheless, since practi-
cally all of the townsmen made their living by trade in
some form or another, the group of burgesses and the
group of gild members could not have been very different.
The authority of the gild merchant within its field of trade
regulation seems to have been as complete as that of the
town community as a whole in its field of judicial, financial, '
and administrative jurisdiction. The gild might therefore
be defined as that form of organization of the inhabitants
of the town which controlled its trade and industry. The
principal reason for the existence of the gild was to pre-
serve to its own members the monopoly of trade. No one
not in the gild merchant of the town could buy or. sell there
except under conditions imposed by the gild. Foreigners
coming from other countries or traders from other English
towns were prohibited from buying or selling in any way
that might interfere with the interests of the gildsmen.
They must buy and sell at such times and in such places
and only such articles as were provided for by the gild regu-
lations. They must in all cases pay the town tolls, from
which members of the gild were exempt. At Southamp-
ton, for instance, we find the following provisions : " 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

62 Industrial and Social History of England

or of the franchise." Similarly at Leicester, in 1260, it was
ordained that no gildsman should form a partnership with a
stranger, allowing him to join in the profits of the sale of
wool or other merchandise.

As against outsiders the gild merchant was a protective
body, as regards its own members it was looked upon and

Interior of Hall of Merchants' Company of York.

(Lambert: Two Thousand Years of Gild Life, Published by
A. Brown & Sons, Hull.)

constantly spoken of as a fraternity. Its members must all
share in the common expenditures, they are called brethren
of the society, their competition with one another is reduced
to its lowest limits. For instance, we find the provision
that " any one who is of the gild merchant may share in
all merchandise which another gildsman shall buy."

1 , :;3

r t V'^r \)a'\<- Watte H i, ^ p-^ .^ 4 ^.. -. wr>l^ ^J^

b^:>^ '^ W r^^tjT ^^^ vyT'- ttM^ylj**^- \ ."r

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• 'iHE Borough of Leicestkr.

Liblishcd by C. J. Clay & Sons, Cambridge.)

Town Life and Organisation 63

The presiding officer was usually known as the alderman,
while the names given to other officials, such as stewards,
deans, bailiffs, chaplains, skevins, and ushers, and the
duties they performed, varied greatly from time to time.

Meetings were held at different periods, sometimes annu-
ally, in many cases more frequently. At these meetings
new ordinances were passed, officers elected, and other
business transacted. It was also a convivial occasion, a
gild feast preceding or following the other labors of the
meeting. In some gilds the meeting was regularly known
as " the drinking." There were likewise frequent sittings
of the officials of the fraternity, devoted to the decision
of disputes between brethren, the admission of new mem-
bers, the fining or expulsion of offenders against the gild
ordinances, and other routine work. These meetings were
known as " morrowspeches."

The greater part of the activity of the gild merchant con-
sisted in the holding of its meetings with their accompanying
feasts, and in the enforcement of its regulations upon its mem-
bers and upon outsiders. It fulfilled, however, many fraternal
duties for its members. It is provided in one set of statutes
that, " If a gildsraan be imprisoned in England in time of
peace, the alderman, with the steward and with one of the
skevins, shall go, at the cost of the gild, to procure the deliv-
erance of the one who is in prison." In another, " If any of
the brethren shall fall into poverty or misery, all the brethren
are to assist him by common consent out of the chattels
of the house or fraternity, or of their proper own." The
funeral rites, especially, were attended by the man's gild
brethren. " And when a gildsman dies, all those who are
of the gild and are in the city shall attend the service for
the dead, and gildsmen shall bear the body and bring it to
the place of burial." The gild merchant also sometimes

64 Industrial and Social History of England

fulfilled various religious, philanthropic, and charitable
duties, not only to its members, but to the public generally,
and to the poor. The time of the fullest development of
the gild merchant varied, of course, in different towns, but
its widest expansion was probably in the early part of the
period we are studying, that is, during the thirteenth cen-
tury. Later it came to be in some towns indistinguishable
from the municipal government in general, its members the
same as the burgesses, its officers represented by the officers
of the town. In some other towns the gild merchant
gradually lost its control over trade, retaining only its
fraternal, charitable, and religious features. In still other
cases the expression gradually lost all definite significance
and its meaning became a matter for antiquarian dispute.

16. The Craft Gilds. — By the fourteenth century the
gild merchant of the town was a much less conspicuous
institution than it had previously been. Its decay was
largely the result of the growth of a group of organizations
in each town which were spoken of as crafts, fraternities,
gilds, misteries, or often merely by the name of their
occupation, as " the spurriers," " the dyers," " the fish-
mongers." These organizations are usually described in later
writings as craft gilds. It is not to be understood that the
gild merchant and the craft gilds never existed contem-
poraneously in any town. The former began earlier and
decayed before the craft gilds reached their height, but
there was a considerable period when it must have been
a common thing for a man to be a member both of the gild
merchant of the town and of the separate organization of
his own trade. The later gilds seem to have grown up in
response to the needs of handicraft much as the gild mer-
chant had grown up to regulate trade, though trading occu-
pations also were eventually drawn into the craft gild form

Toivn Life and Organisation 65

of organization. The weavers seem to have been the ear-
Hest occupation to be organized into a craft gild ; but later
;,Imost every form of industry which gave employment to a
handful of craftsmen in any town had its separate fraternity.
Since even nearly allied trades, such as the glovers, girdlers,
pocket makers, skinners, white lawyers, and other workers
in leather ; or the fletchers, the makers of arrows, the bow-
yers, the makers of bows, and the stringers, the makers of
bowstrings, were organized into separate bodies, the num-
ber of craft gilds in any one town was often very large. At
London there were by 1350 at least as many as forty, at
York, some time later, more than fifty.

The craft gilds existed usually under the authority of the
town government, though frequently they obtained authori-
zation or even a charter from the crown. They were formed
primarily to regulate and preserve the monopoly of their
own occupations in their own town, just as the gild mer-
chant existed to regulate the trade of the town in general.
No one could carry on any trade without being subject to
the organization which controlled that trade. Membership,
however, was not intentionally restricted. Any man who
was a capable workman and conformed to the rules of the
craft was practically a member of the organization of that
industry. It is a common requirement in the earliest gild
statutes that every man who wishes to carry on that par-
ticular industry should have his ability testified to by some
known members of the craft. But usually full membership
and influence in the gild was reached as a matter of course
by the artisans passing through tlie successive grades of
apprentice, journeyman, and master. As an apprentice he
was bound to a master for a number of years, living in his
house and learning the trade in his shop. There was
usually a signed contract entered into between the master

66 Industrial and Social History of England

and the parents of the apprentice, by which the former
agreed to provide all necessary clothing, food, and lodging,
and teach to the apprentice all he himself knew about his
craft. The latter, on the other hand, was bound to keep
secret his master's affairs, to obey all his commandments,
and to behave himself properly in all things. After the
expiration of the time agreed upon for his apprenticeship,
which varied much in individual cases, but was apt to be
about seven years, he became free of the trade as a jour-
neyman, a full workman. The word "journeyman" may refer
to the engagement being by the day, from the French word
journi'e, or to the habit of making journeys from town to
town in search of work, or it may be derived from some
other origin. As a journeyman he served for wages in the
employ of a master. In many cases he saved enough money
for the small requirements of setting up an independent
shop. Then as full master artisan or tradesman he might
take part in all the meetings and general administration of
the organized body of his craft, might hold office, and
would himself probably have one or more journeymen in
his employ and apprentices under his guardianship. As
almost all industries were carried on in the dwelling-houses
of the craftsmen, no establishments could be of very con-
siderable size, and the difference of position between mas-
ter, journeyman, and apprentice could not have been great.
The craft gild was organized with its regular rules, its
officers, and its meetings. The rules or ordinances of
the fraternity were drawn up at some one time and
added to or altered from time to time afterward. The
approval of the city authorities was frequently sought for
such new statutes as well as for the original ordinances, and
in many towns appears to have been necessary. The rules
provided for officers and their powers, the time and char-

Town Life and Organisation

67

acter of meetings, and for a considerable variety of func-
tions. These varied of course in different trades and in
different towns, but some characteristics were almost uni-
versal. Provisions were always either tacitly or formally
included for the preservation of the monopoly of the crafts
in the town. The hours of labor were regulated. Night
work was very generally prohibited, apparently because of
the difficulty of oversight at that time, as was work on

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Saturday afternoons, Sundays, and other holy days. Pro-
visions were made for the inspection of goods by the
officers of the gild, all workshops and goods for sale being
constantly subject to their examination, if they should wish
it. In those occupations that involved buying and selling the

68 Industrial and Social History of England

necessities of life, such as those of the fishmongers and the
bakers, the officers of the fraternity, hke the town authori-
ties, were engaged in a continual struggle with " regrators,"
" forestallers," and "engrossers," which were appellations
as odious as they were common in the medifeval town.
Regrating meant buying to sell again at a higher price
without having made any addition to the \-alue of the
goods ; forestalUng was going to the place of production to
buy, or in any other way trying to outwit fellow-dealers by
purchasing things before they came into the open market
where all had the same opportunity; engrossing was buying
up the whole supply, or so much of it as not to allow
other dealers to get what they needed, the modern " corner-
ing of the market." These practices, which were regarded
as so objectionable in the eyes of medireval traders, were
frequently nothing more than what would be considered com-
mendable enterprise in a more competitive age. Another
class of rules was for mutual assistance, for kindliness
among members, and for the obedience and faithfulness
of journeymen and apprentices. There were provisions for
assistance to members of the craft when in need, or to
their widows and orphans, for the visitation of those sick
or in prison, for common attendance at the burial services
of deceased members, and for other charitable and philan-
thropic objects. Thus the craft gild, like the gild merchant,
combined close social relationship with a distinctly recog-
nized and enforced regulation of the trade. This regulation
provided for the protection of members of the organization
from outside competition, and it also prevented any con-
siderable amount of competition among members ; it sup-
ported the interests of the full master members of the craft
as against those in the journeyman stage, and enforced the
custom of the trade in hours, materials, methods of manu-
facture, and often in prices.

Town Life and Organization 69

The officers were usually known as masters, wardens, or
stewards. Their powers extended to the preser\'ation of
order among the master members of the craft at the meet-
ings, and among the journeymen and apprentices of the
craft at all times ; to the supervision, either directly or
through deputies, of the work of the members, seeing that
it conformed to the rules and was not false in any way ; to
the settlement, if possible, of disputes among members of
the craft ; to the administration of its charitable work ; and
to the representation of the organized body of the craft
before town or other authorities.

Common religious observances were held by the craftsmen
not only at the funerals of members, but on the day of the
saint to which the gild was especially dedicated. Most fra-
ternities kept up a shrine or chapel in some parish church.
Fines for the breach of gild rules were often ordered to be
paid in wax that the candles about the body of dead breth-
ren and in the gild chapel should never be wanting. All
the brethren of the gild, dressed in common suits of livery,
walked in procession from their hall or meeting room to the
church, performed their devotions and joined in the services
in commemoration of the dead. Members of the craft fre-
quently bequeathed property for the partial support of a
chaplain and payment of other expenses connected with
their " obits," or masses for the repose of their souls and
those of their relatives.

Closely connected with the religious observances was the
convivial side of the gild's life. On the annual gild day, or
more frequently, the members all gathered at their hall or
some inn to a feast, which varied in luxuriousness according
to the wealth of the fraternity, from bread, cheese, and ale to
all the exuberance of which the Middle Ages were capable.

Somewhat later, we find the craft gilds taking entire charge

70 Industrial and Social History of England

of the series or cycles of " mystery plays," which were given
in various towns. The words of the plays produced at York,
Coventry, Chester, and Woodkirk have come down to us
and are of extreme interest as embryonic forms of the
drama and examples of purely vernacular language. It is
quite certain that such groups of plays were given by the
crafts in a number of other towns. They were generally
given on Corpus Christi day, a feast which fell in the early
summer time, when out-door pleasures were again enjoyable
after the winter's confinement. A cycle consisted of a series
of dialogues or short plays, each based upon some scene of
bibUcal story, so arranged that the whole Bible narrative
should be given consecutively from the Creation to the Sec-
ond Advent. One of the crafts, starting early in the morn-
ing, would draw a pageant consisting of a platform on wheels,
to a regularly appointed spot in a conspicuous part of the town,
and on this platform, with some rude scenery, certain mem-
bers of the gild or men employed by them would proceed to
recite a dialogue in verse representative of some early part of
the Bible story. After they had finished, their pageant would
be dragged to another station, where they repeated their
performance. In the meantime a second company had
taken their former place, and recited a dialogue representa-
tive of a second scene. So the whole day would be occu-
pied by the series of performances. The town and the
craftsmen valued the celebration because it was an occasion
for strangers visiting their city and thus increasing the volume
of trade, as well as because it furnished an opportunity for
the gratification of their social and dramatic instincts.

It was not only at the periodical business meetings, or on
the feast days, or in the preparation for the dramatic shows,
that the gildsmen were thrown together. Usually all the
members of one craft lived on the same street or in the same

Toivii Life and Organization yi

part of the town, and were therefore members of the same
parish church and constantly brought under one another's
observation in all the daily concerns of life. All things com-
bined to make the craft a natural and necessary centre for
the interest of each of its members.

17. Non-industrial Gilds. — Besides the gilds merchant,
which included persons of all industrial occupations, and the
craft gilds, which were based upon separate organizations of
each industry, there were gilds or fraternities in existence
which had no industrial functions whatever. These are
usually spoken of as " religious " or " social " gilds. It would
perhaps be better to describe them simply as non-industrial
gilds ; for their religious and social functions they had in
common, as has been seen, both with the gild merchant and
the craft organizations. They only differed from these in
not being based upon or interested in the monopoly or over-
sight of any kind of trade or handicraft. They differed also
from the craft gilds in that all their members were on an
equal basis, there being no such industrial grades as appren-
tice, journeyman, and master ; and from both of the organi-
zations already discussed in the fact that they existed in
small towns and even in mere villages, as well as in indus-
trial centres.

In these associations the religious, social, and charitable
elements were naturally more prominent than in those fra-
ternities which were organized primarily for some kind of
economic regulation. They were generally named after
some saint. The ordinances usually provided for one or
more solemn services in the year, frequently with a proces-
sion in livery, and sometimes with a considerable amount
of pantomime or symbolic show. For instance, the gild of
St. Helen at Beverly, in their procession to the church of
the Friars Minors on the day of their patron saint, were pre-

72 Itidnstrial and Social History of England

ceded by an old man carrying a cross ; after him a fair
young man dressed as St. Helen ; then another old man
carrying a shovel, these being intended to typify the finding
of the cross. Next came the sisters two and two, after them
the brethren of the gild, and finally the officers. There were
always provisions for solemnities at the funerals of members,
for burial at the expense of the gild if the member who had
died left no means for a suitable ceremony, and for prayers
for deceased members. What might be called the insurance
feature was also much more nearly universal than in the
case of the industrial fraternities. Help was given in case
of theft, fire, sickness, or almost any kind of loss which was
not chargeable to the member's own misdoing. Finally it
was ver}' customary for such gilds to provide for the support
of a certain number of dependents, aged men or women,
cripples, or lepers, for charity's sake ; and occasionally
educational facilities were also provided by them from their
regular income or from bequests made for the purpose.
The social-religious gilds were extremely numerous, and
seem frequently to have existed within the limits of a craft,
including some of its members and not others, or within
a certain parish, including some of the parishioners, but
not all.

Thus if there were men in the mediseval town who were not
members of some trading or craft body, they would in all
probability be members of some society based merely on
religious or social feeling. The whole tendency of medieval
society was toward organization, combination, close union
with one's fellows. It might be said that all town life involved
membership in some organization, and usually in that one
into which a man was drawn by the occupation in which he
made his living. These gilds or the town government itself
controlled even the affairs of private economic life in the citv.

Town Life and Organization 73

just as the customary agriculture of the country prevented
much freedom of action there. Methods of trading, or
manufacture, the kind and amount of material to be used,
hours of labor, conditions of employment, even prices of
work, were regulated by the gild ordinances. The indi-
vidual gildsman had as little opportunity to emancipate
himself from the controlling force of the association as the
individual tenant on the rural manor had to free himself
from the customary agriculture and the customary services.
Whether we study rural or urban society, whether we look
at the purely economic or at the broader social side of
existence, life in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was
corporate rather than individual.

18. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gross, Charles : The Gild Alerciiant, two volumes. The
first volume consists of a full account and discussion of the
character and functions of the gild merchant, with a num-
ber of appendices on cognate subjects. The second volume
contains the documents on which the first is based.

Seligman, E. R. A. : Two Cliapters on Afediceval Gilds.

Brentano, L. : The History and Development of English
Gilds. An essay prefixed to a volume of ordinances of
English Gilds, edited by T. Smith. Brentano's essay is only
referred to because of the paucity of works on the subject,
as it is fanciful and unsatisfactory. No thorough and
scholarly description of the craft gilds exists. On the other
hand, a considerable body of original materials is easily
accessible in English, as in the following works : —

Riley ; Alemorials of London and London Life.

Smith, Toulmin : English Gilds.

Various documents illustrative of town and gild history
will also be found in Vol. II, No. i, of the Translations and

74 Industrial and Social History of England

Reprints, published by the Department of History of the
University of Pennsylvania.

Better descriptions exist for the position of the gilds in
special towns than for their general character, especially in
London by Herbert, in Hull by Lambert, in Shrewsbury by
Hibbert, and in Coventry by JMiss Harris.

CHAPTER IV

MEDLEVAL TRADE AND COMMERCE

19. Markets and Fairs. — Within the towns, in addition
to the ordinary trading described in the last chapter, much
buying and selling was done at the weekly or semi-weekly
markets. The existence of a market in a town was the
result of a special grant from the king, sometimes to the
burgesses themselves, sometimes to a neighboring noble-
man or abbey. In the latter case the tolls paid by out-
siders who bought or sold cattle or victuals in the market
did not go to the town or gild authorities, but to the person
who was said to " own " the market. Many places which
differed in scarcely any other way from agricultural villages
possessed markets, so that " market towns " became a
descriptive term for small towns midway in size between
the larger boroughs or cities and mere villages. The sales
at markets were usually of the products of the surrounding
country, especially of articles of food consumption, so that
the fact of the existence of a market on one or more days
of the week in a large town was of comparatively little im-
portance from the point of view of more general trade.

Far more important was the similar institution of period-
ical fairs. Fairs, like markets, existed only by grant from
the king. They differed from markets, however, in being
held only once a year or at most semi-annually or quar-
terly, in being invariably in the possession of private per-
sons, never of town governments, and in the fact that

75

']Q Industrial and Social History of England

during their continuance as a rule all buying and selling
except at the fairs was suspended within a considerable cir-
cuit. Several hundred grants of fairs are recorded on the
rolls of royal charters, most of them to abbeys, bishoprics,
and noblemen ; but comparatively few of them were of
sufficient size or importance to play any considerable part
in the trade and commerce of the country. Moreover, the
development of the towns with their continuous trade
tended to draw custom away from all the fairs except those
which had obtained some especial importance and an
international reputation. Of these, however, there was still
a considerable number whose influence was very great.
The best known were those of Winchester, of Stourbridge
near Cambridge, of St. Ives belonging to the abbot of
Ramsay, and of Boston. In early times fairs were fre-
quently held in the churchyards, but this came to be looked
upon as a scandal, and was prohibited by a law of 12S5.
The fairs were in many cases held just beyond the limits
of a town in an open field or on a smooth hillside. Each
year, some time before the opening day of the fair, this
ground was formally occupied by the servants of the owner
of the fair, wooden booths were erected or ground set
apart for those who should put up their own tents or prefer
to sell in the open. Then as merchants appeared from
foreign or English towns they chose or were assigned
places which they were bound to retain during the continu-
ance of the fair. By the time of the opening of the fair
those who expected to sell were arranged in long rows or
groups, according to the places they came from, or the kind
of goods in which they dealt. x\fter the opening had been
proclaimed no merchant of the nearby town could buy or
sell, except within the borders of the fair. The town
authorities resigned their functions into the hands of the

E JV C? i

4 LoD^lude West from Greppwlph S

8o Industrial and Social History of England

each town possessed the regulation. Merchants from
another town were treated much the same, whether that
town was EngHsh or foreign. In fact, " foreigner " or
"ahen," as used in the town records, of Bristol, for instance,
may apply to citizens of London or Oxford just as well as
to those of Paris or Cologne. Such " foreign " merchants
could deal when tliey came to a town only with members
of the gild, and only on the conditions required by the gild.
Usually they could buy or sell only at wholesale, and tolls
were collected from them upon their sales or purchases.
They were prohibited from dealing in some kinds of articles
altogether, and frequently the duration of their stay in the
town was limited to a prescribed period. Under such cir-
cumstances the authorities of various towns entered into
trade agreements with those of other towns providing for
mutual concessions and advantages. Correspondence was
also constantly going on between the officials of various
towns for the settlement of individual points of dispute, for
the return of fugitive apprentices, asking that justice might
be done to aggrieved citizens, and on occasion threatening
reprisal. Southampton had formal agreements with more
than seventy towns or other trading bodies. During a period
of twenty years the city authorities of London sent more than
300 letters on such matters to the officials of some 90 other
towns in England and towns on the Continent. The mer-
chants from any one town did not therefore trade or act
entirely as separate individuals, but depended on the prestige
of their town, or the support of the home authorities, or the
privileges already agreed upon by treaty. The non-payment
of a debt by a merchant of one town usually made any
fellow-townsman liable to seizure where the debt was owed,
until the debtor could be made to pay. In 12S5, by a law
of Edward I, this was prohibited as far as England was con-

MedicBval Trade and Covi7iierce 8 1

cerned, but a merchant from a French town might still
have his person and property seized for a debt of which
he may have had no previous knowledge. External trade
was thus not so much individual, between some English-
men and others ; or international, between Englishmen and
Frenchmen, Flemings, Spaniards, or Germans, as it was inter-
municipal, as it has been well described. Citizens of various
towns, London, Bristol, Venice, Ghent, Arras, or Lubeck,
for instance, carried on their trade under the protection
their city had obtained for them.

21. Foreign Trading Relations. — The regulations and
restrictions of fairs and town markets and gilds merchant
must have tended largely to the discouragement of foreign
trade. Indeed, the feeling of the body of English town
merchants was one of strong dislike to foreigners and a
desire to restrict their trade within the narrowest limits.
In addition to the burdens and limitations placed upon all
traders not of their own town, it was very common in the
case of merchants from abroad to require that they should
only remain within the town for the purpose of selling for
forty days, and that they should board not at an inn but in
the household of some town merchant, who could thus keep
oversight of their movements, and who would be held re-
sponsible if his guest violated the law in any way. This
was called the custom of "hostage."

The king, on the other hand, and the classes most influ-
ential in the national government, the nobility and the
churchmen, favored foreign trade. A series of privileges,
guarantees, and concessions were consequently issued by
the government to individual foreign merchants, to foreign
towns, and even to foreigners generally, the object of which
was to encourage their coming to England to trade. The
most remarkable instance of this was the so-called Carta

82 Industrial and Social History of England

Mercatoria issued by Edward I in 1303. It was given,
according to its own terms, for the peace and security of
merchants coming to England from Germany, France,
Spain, Portugal, Navarre, Lombardy, Tuscany, Provence,
Catalonia, Aquitaine, Toulouse, Quercy, Flanders, Brabant,
and all other foreign lands. It allowed such merchants
to bring in and sell almost all kinds of goods, and freed
them from the payment of many tolls and payments habitu-
ally exacted by the towns ; it gave them permission to sell
to strangers as well as to townsmen, and to retail as well as
sell by wholesale. It freed them from the necessity of
dwelling with native merchants, and of bringing their stay
to a close within a restricted time. Town and market
authorities were required by it to give prompt justice to
foreigners according to the law merchant, and it was prom-
ised that a royal judge would be specially appointed to
listen to appeals. It is quite evident that if this charter
had been enforced some of the most familiar and valued
customs of the merchants of the various English towns would
have been abrogated. In consequence of vigorous protests
and bitter resistance on the part of the townsmen its pro-
visions were partly withdrawn, partly ignored, and the
position of foreign merchants in England continued to
depend on the tolerably consistent support of the crown.
Even this was modified by the steady policy of hostility,
limitation, and control on the part of the native merchants.
With the exception of some intercourse between the
northern towns and the Scandinavian countries, the foreign
trade of England was carried on almost entirely by foreign-
ers. English merchants, until after the fourteenth century,
seem to have had neither the ability, the enterprise, nor the
capital to go to continental cities in an\' nnnibers to sell
the products of their own country or to buv goods which

Mediceval Trade and Commerce 83

would be in demand when imported into England. For-
eigners were more enterprising. From Flemish, French,
German, Italian, and even Spanish cities merchants came
over as traders. The product of England which was most
in demand was wool. Certain parts of England were fa-
mous throughout all Europe for the quality and quantity of
the wool raised there. The relative good order of England
and its exemption from civil war made it possible to raise
sheep more extensively than in countries where foraging
parties from rival bodies of troops passed frequently to and
fro. Many of the monasteries, especially in the north and
west, had large outlying wastes of land which were regu-
larly used for the raising of sheep. The product of these
northern and western pastures as well as the surplus product
of the demesnes and larger holdings of the ordinary manors
was brought to the fairs and towns for sale and bought up
readily by foreign merchants. Sheepskins, hides, and tanned
leather were also exported, as were certain coarse woven fab-
rics. Tin and lead were well-known products, at that time
almost peculiar to England, and in years of plentiful produc-
tion, grain, salt meat, and dairy products were exported.
England was far behind most of the Continent in industrial
matters, so that there was much that could be brought into
the country that would be in demand, both of the natural
productions of foreign countries and of their manufactured
articles.

Trade relations existed between England and the Scan-
dinavian countries, northern Germany, southern Germany,
the Netherlands, northeastern, northwestern, and southern
France, Spain and Portugal, and various parts of Italy. Of
these lines of trade the most important were the trade with
the Hanse cities of northern Germany, with the Flemish
-cities, and with those in Italy, especially Venice.

84 Industrial and Social History of England

22. The Italian and Eastern Trade. — The merchandise
which Venice had to offer was of an especially varied
nature. Her prosperity had begun with a coastwise
trade along the shores of the Adriatic. Later, especially
during the period of the Crusades, her training had been
extended to the eastern Mediterranean, where she obtained
trading concessions from the Greek Emperor and formed
a half commercial, half political empire of her own among
the island cities and coast districts of the Ionian Sea, along
the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmora, and finally in the
Black Sea. From these regions she brought the produc-
tions peculiar to the eastern Mediterranean : wines, sugar,
dried fruits and nuts, cotton, drugs, dyestuffs, and certain
kinds of leather and other manufactured articles.

Eventually Venice became the special possessor of a still
more distant trade, that of the far East. The products of
Arabia and Persia, India and the East Indian Islands, and
even of China, all through the Middle Ages, as in antiquity,
made their way by long and difficult routes to the western
countries of Europe. Silk and cotton, both raw and manu-
factured into fine goods, indigo and other dyestuffs, aro-
matic woods and gums, narcotics and other drugs, pearls,
rubies, diamonds, sapphires, turquoises, and other precious
stones, gold and silver, and above all the edible spices, pep-
per, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, could be obtained
only in Asia. There were three principal routes by which
these goods were brought into Europe : first, along the Red
Sea and overland across Egypt ; second, up the Persian
Gulf to its head, and then either along the Euphrates to a
certain point whence the caravan route turned westward to
the Syrian coast, or along the Tigris to its upper waters, and
then across to the Black Sea at Trebizond ; third, by cara-
van routes across Asia, then across the Caspian Sea, and

S6 Industrial and Social History of England

overland again, either to the Black Sea or through Russia
to the Baltic. A large part of this trade was gathered up
by the Italian cities, especially Venice, at its various outlets
upon the Mediterranean or adjacent waters. She had for
exportation therefore, in addition to her own manufactures,
merchandise which had been gathered from all parts of the
then known world. The Venetian laws regulated commerce
with the greatest minuteness. All goods purchased by
Venetian traders must as a rule be brought first to the city
and unloaded and stored in the city warehouses. A cer-
tain amount of freedom of export by land or water was
then allowed, but by far the greater proportion of the
goods remained under the partial control of the govern-
ment. When conditions were considered favorable, the
Senate voted a certain number of government galleys for a
given voyage. There were several objective points for these
voyages, but one was regularly England and Flanders, and
the group of vessels sent to those countries was known as the
" Flanders Fleet." Such an expedition was usually ordered
about once a year, and consisted of two to five galleys.
These were put under the charge of an admiral and pro-
vided with sailing masters, crews of rowers, and armed men
to protect them, all at the expense of the merchants who
should send goods in the vessels. Stringent regulations were
also imposed upon them by the government, defining the
length of their stay and appointing a series of stopping
places, usually as follows : Capo d' Istria, Corfu, Otranto,
Syracuse, Messina, Naples, Majorca, certain Spanish ports,
Lisbon ; then across the Bay of Biscay to the south coast
of England, where usually the fleet divided, part going to
Sluys, Middleburg, or Antwerp, in the Netherlands ; the
remainder going to Southampton, Sandwich, London, or
elsewhere in England. At one or other of the southern

Mediceval Trade and Commerce 87

ports of England the fleet would reassemble on its return,
the whole outward and return voyage usually taking about
a year.

The merchants who had come with the fleet thereupon
proceeded, to dispose of their goods in the southern towns
and fairs of England and to buy wool or other goods which
might be taken back to Venice or disposed of on the way.
A somewhat similar trade was kept up with other Italian
cities, especially with Genoa and Florence, though these
lines of trade were more extensive in the fifteenth century
than in the fourteenth.

23. The Flanders Trade and the Staple. — A trade of
greater bulk and greater importance, though it did not
include articles from such a distance as that of Italy, was
the trade with the Flemish cities. This was more closely
connected with English wool production than was that with
any other country. Ghent, Bruges, Ypres, Courtrai, Arras,
and a number of other cities in Flanders and the adjacent
provinces of the Netherlands and France had become popu-
lous and rich, principally from their weaving industry. For
their manufacture of fine fabrics they needed the English
wool, and in turn their fine woven goods were in constant
demand for the use of the wealthier classes in England.
English skill was not yet sufficient to produce anything
more than the crudest and roughest of textile fabrics. The
fine cloths, linens, cambrics, cloth of gold and silver, tapes-
tries and hangings, were the product of the looms of the
Flemish cities. Other fine manufactured goods, such as
armor and weapons, glass and furniture, and articles which
had been brought in the way of trade to the Netherlands,
were all exported thence and sold in England.

The Flemish dealers who habitually engaged in the
English trade were organised among themselves in a com-

88 Industrial and Social History of England

pany or league known as the " Flemish Hanse of London."
A considerable number of towns held such membership in the
organization that their citizens could take part in the trade
and share in the benefits and privileges of the society, and
no citizen of these towns could trade in England without
pa}'ing the dues and submitting himself to the rules of the
Hanse. The export trade from England to the Nether-
lands was controlled from the English side by the system
known as the "Staple." From early times it had been
customary to gather English standard products in certain
towns in England or abroad for sale. These towns were
known as " staples " or " staple towns," and wool, woolfells,
leather, tin, and lead, the goods most extensively exported,
were known as " staple goods." Subsequently the govern-
ment took control of the matter, and appointed a certain
town in the Netherlands to which staple goods must be
sent in the first place when they were exported from Eng-
land. Later certain towns in England were appointed as
staple towns, where all goods of the kinds mentioned above
should be taken to be registered, weighed, and taxed before
exportation. Just at the close of the period under dis-
cussion, in 1354, a careful organization was given to the
system of staple towns in England, by which in each of the
ten or twelve towns to which staple goods must be brought
for exportation, a Mayor of the Staple and two Constables
were elected by the " merchants of the staple," native and
foreign. These officials had a number of duties, some of
them more particularly in the interest of the king and
treasury, others in the interest of the foreign merchants,
still others merely for the preservation of good order and
the enforcement of justice. The law merchant was made
the basis of judgment, and every effort made to grant pro-
tection to foreigners antl at the same time secure the

Mediceval Trade and Commerce 89

financial interests of the government. Bat the policy of
the government was by no means consistent. Both before
and after this date, the whole system of staples was re-
peatedly abolished for a time and the whole trade in these
articles thrown open. Again, the location of the staple
towns was shifted from England to the continent and again
back to England. Eventually, in 1363, the staple came to
be established at Calais, and all " staplers," or exporters
of staple goods from England, were forced to give bonds
that their cargoes would be taken direct to Calais to be
sold.

24. The Hanse Trade. — The trade with Germany was at
this time almost all with the group of citizens which made
up the German Hanse or League. This was a union of
a large number of towns of northern Germany, such as
Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Dantzig, Brunswick, and per-
haps sixty or eighty others. By a series of treaties and agree-
ments among themselves, these towns had formed a close
confederation which acted as a single whole in obtaining
favorable trading concessions and privileges in various
countries. There had been a considerable trade between
the merchants of these towns and England from an early
time. They brought the products of the Baltic lands, such
as lumber, tar, salt, iron, silver, salted and smoked fish,
furs, amber, certain coarse manufactures, and goods obtained
by Hanseatic merchants through their more distant trade
connections, such as fine woven goods, armor and other
metal goods, and even spices and other Eastern goods, ob-
tained from the great Russian fairs. The Hanse cities had
entered into treaties with the English government, and pos-
sessed valuable concessions and privileges, and imported
and exported quite extensively. The term " sterling," as
applied to standard English money, is derived from the word

QO Industrial and Social History of England

" Easterling," which was used as synonymous with " Ger-
man," "Hansard," "Dutch," and several other names de-
scriptive of these traders.

The trade with the cities of northwestern France was
similar to that with the neighboring towns of Flanders.
That with northwestern France consisted especially of salt,
sail-cloth, and wine. The trade with Poitou, Gascony, and
Guienne was more extensive, as was natural from their long
political connection witli England. The chief part of the
export from southern France was wine, though a variety
of other articles, including fruits and some manufactured
articles, were sent to England. A trade of quite a varied
character also existed between England and the various
countries of the Spanish Peninsula, including Portugal.
Foreign trade with all of these countries was destined to
increase largely during the later fourteenth and the fifteenth
centurv, but its foundations were well laid within the first
half of the fourteenth. Vessels from all these countries
appeared from time to time in the harbors of England, and
their merchants traded under government patronage and
support in many English towns and fairs.

25. Foreigners settled in England. — The fact that almost
all of the foreign trade of England was in the hands of
aliens necessarily involved their presence in the country
temporarily or permanently in considerable numbers. The
closely related fact that the English were distinctly behind
the people of the Continent in economic knowledge, skill,
and wealth also led foreigners to seek England as a field
for profitable exercise of their abilities in finance, in trade,
and manufactures. The most conspicuous of these for-
eigners at the close of the thirteenth century and during
the early part of the fourteenth were the Italian bankers.
Florence was not onlv a great trading and manufacturing

Medi<zval Trade and Commerce 91

city, but a money centre, a capitalist city. The Bardi,
Pemzzi, Albert!, Frescobaldi, and other banking companies
received deposits from citizens of Florence and other Italian
cities, and loaned the money, as well as their own capital,
to governments, great nobles, and ecclesiastical corporations
in other countries. Wheia the Jews were expelled from
England in 1290, there being no considerable amount of
money among native Englishmen, the Italian bankers were
the only source from which the government could secure
ready money. When a tax had been authorized by Parlia-
ment, but the product of it could be obtained only after
a year or more spent in its collection, the Florentines were
at hand to offer the money at once, receiving security for
repayment when the receipts from the tax should come in.
Government monopolies like the Cornwall tin mines were
leased to them for a lump sum ; arrangements were made
by which the bankers furnished a certain amount of money
each day during a campaign or a royal progress. The
immediate needs of an impecunious king were regularly
satisfied with money borrowed to be repaid some months
afterward. The equipment for all of the early expeditions
of the Hundred Years' War was obtained with money bor-
rowed from the Florentines. Payments abroad were also
made by means of bills of exchange negotiated by the same
money-lenders. Direct payment of interest was forbidden
by law, but they seem to have been rewarded by valuable
government concessions, by the profits on exchange, and no
doubt by the indirect payment of interest, notwithstanding
its illegality.

The Italian bankers evidently loaned to others besides the
king, for in 1327 the Knights Hospitallers in England repaid
to the Society of the Bardi ^848 5;/., and to the Peruzzi
p/^551 \2s. \\d. They continued to loan freely to the king.

92 Industrial and Social History of England

till in 134S he was indebted to one company alone to the
extent of more than _3{^50,ooo, a sum equal in modern value
to about J?3, 000,000. The king now failed to repay what
he had promised, and the banking companies fell into
great straits. Defalcations having occurred in other coun-
tries also, some of them failed, and after the middle of the
century they never held so conspicuous a place, though some
Italians continued to act as bankers and financiers through

The Steelyard in the Seventeenth Century.

(Herbert: History of London Livery Companies.)

the remainder of the fourteenth and fifteenth centur}'.
Many Italian merchants who were not bankers, especially
A^enetians and Genoese, were settled in England, but their
occupation did not make them so conspicuous as the finan-
ciers of the same nation.

The German or Hanse merchants had a settlement of
their own in London, known as the "Steelyard," "Gild-
hall of the Dutch," or the " Easterling's House." They had
similar establishments on a smaller scale in Boston and

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McdicEval Trade and Commerce 93

Lynn, and perhaps in other towns. Their permission to
own property and to Hve in their own house instead of in
the houses of native merchants, as was the usual custom,
was derived, hke most privileges of foreigners, from the gift
of the king. Little by little they had purchased property
surrounding their original grants until they had a great
group of buildings, including a meeting and dining hall,
tower, kitchen, storage house, offices and other warehouses,
and a considerable number of dwelling-houses, all enclosed
by a wall and fences. It was located immediately on the
Thames just above London Bridge so that their vessels
unloaded at their own wharf. The merchants or their
agents lived under strict rules, the gates being invariably
closed at nine o'clock, and all discords among their own
nation were punished by their own officers. Their trade
was profitable to the king through payment of customs, and
after tlie failure of the ItaUan bankers the merchants of the
Steelyard made considerable loans to the English govern-
ment either directly or acting for citizens at home. In
1343, when the king had been granted a tax of 40J-. a sack
on all wool exported, he immediately borrowed the value of
it from Tiedemann van Limberg and Johann van Wolde,
Easterlings. Similarly in 1346 the Easterlings loaned the
king money for three years, holding his second crown as
security. Like the Florentines, at one time they took the
Cornwall tin mines at farm. They had many privileges
not accorded generally to foreigners, but were exceedingly
unpopular alike with the population and the authorities of
the city of London. There were some other Germans
domiciled in England, but nowhere else were they so con-
spicuous or influential as at the Steelyard.

The trade with Flanders brought Flemish merchants into
England temporarily, but they do not seem to have formed

94 Industrial and Social History of England

any settlement or located permanently in any one place.
Flemish artisans, on the other hand, had migrated to Eng-
land from early times and were scattered here and there in
several towns and villages. In the early part of the four-
teenth century Edward III made it a matter of deliberate
pohcy to encourage the immigration of Flemish weavers
and other handicraftsmen, with the expectation that they
would teach their art to the more backward native English.
In 1332 he issued a charter of protection and privilege to
a Fleming named John Kempe, a weaver of woollen cloth,
offering the same privilege and protection to all other
weavers, dyers, and fullers who should care to come to Eng-
land to live. In 1337 a similar charter was given to a body
of weavers coming from Zealand to England. It is believed
that a considerable number of immigrants from the Nether-
lands came in at this period, settled largely in the smaller
towns and rural villages, and taking English apprentices
brought about a great improvement in the character of
English manufactures. Flemings are also met with in local
records in various occupations, even in agriculture.

There were other foreigners resident in England, espe-
cially Gascons from the south of France, and Spaniards ;
but the main elements of alien population in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries were those which have just been
described, Italians, Germans from the Hanse towns, anil
Flemings. These were mainly occupied as bankers, mer-
chants, and handicraftsmen.

26. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dr. Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Com-
merce is particularly full and valuable on this subject. He
has given further details on one branch of it in his Alien
Immigrants in England.

Medieval Trade and Commerce 95

Schanz, Georg : Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende
des Mittelalters. This work refers to a later period than
that included in this chapter, but the summaries which the
author gives of earlier conditions are in many cases the best
accounts that we have.

Ashlev, W. J. : Earlv Historx of die Wocden Industry in
England.

Pauli, R. : Pictures from Old England. Contains an in-
teresting account of the Steelyard.

Pirenne, Henri : La Hanse fiamande de Londres.

Von Ochenkowski, W. : England's Wirthsschafdiche Ent-
wickelung im Ausgange des Mittelalters.

CHAPTER V

THE BLACK DEATH AND THE PEASANTS' REBELTIDX

Economic Changes of the Later Fourteenth and Early
Fifteenth Centi'ries

27. National Affairs from 1338 to 1461. — For the last
century or more England had been standing with her back
to the Continent. Deprived of most of their French pos-
sessions, engaged in the struggle to bring Wales, Scotland,
and Ireland under the English crown, occupied with repeated
conflicts with their barons or with the development of the
internal organization of the country, John, Henry HI, and
the two Edwards had had less time and inclination to inter-
est themselves in continental affairs than had Henry H and
Richard. But after 1337 a new influence brought England
for the next century into close connection with the rest of
Europe. This was the "Hundred Years' War" between
England and France. Several causes had for years combined
to make this war unavoidable : the interference of France in
the dispute with Scotland, the conflicts between the rising
fishing and trading towns on the English and the French side
of the Channel, the desire of the French king to drive the
English kings from their remaining provinces in the south of
France, and the reluctance of the English kings to accept
their dependent position in France. Edward HI com-
menced the war in 1338 with the invasion of France, and it
was continued with comparatively short intervals of peace
until 1452. During its progress the English won three of

96

Black Deaili and Peasants' Rebellion 97

the most brilliant military victories in their history, at Crecy,
Poitiers, and Agincourt, in 1346, 1356, and 1415. But most
of the campaigns were characterized by brutality, destruc-
tive ravaging, and the reduction of cities by famine. The
whole contest indeed often degenerated into desultory,
objectless warfare. A permanent settlement was attempted
at Bretigny in 1361. The English required the dismember-
ment of France by the surrender of almost one-third of the
country and the payment by the French of a large ransom
for their king, who had been captured by the English. In
return King Edward withdrew any other claims he might
have to territory, or the French crown. These terms were,
however, so humiliating to the French that they did not ad-
here to them, the war soon broke out again, and finally ter-
minated in the driving out of the English from all of France
except the city of Calais, in the middle years of the next
century.

The many alliances, embassies, exchanges of visits, and
other international intercourse which the prosecution of the
Hundred Years' War involved brought England into a closer
participation in the general life of Europe than ever before,
and caused the ebb and flow of a tide of influences be-
tween England and the Continent which deeply affected
economic, political, and religious hfe on both sides of the
Channel.

The Universities continued to flourish during almost the
whole of this period. It was from Oxford as a centre,
under the influence of John VVycliffe, a lecturer there,
that a great revival and reforming movement in the church
emanated. From about 1370 Wycliffe and others began
to agitate for a more earnest religious life. They trans-
lated the Bible into English, wrote devotional and polemic
tracts, preached throughout the country, spoke and wrote

H

gS Industrial and Social History of England

against the evils in the church at the time, then against
its accepted form of organization, and finally against
its official teachings. They thus became heretics. Thou-
sands were influenced by their teachings, and a wave of
religious revival and ecclesiastical rebellion spread over the
country. The powers of the church and the civil govern-
ment were ultimately brought to bear to crush out the " Lol-
lards," as those who held heretical beliefs at that time were
called. New and stringent laws were passed in 1401 and
1415, several persons were burned at the stake, and a large
number forced to recant, or frightened into keeping their
opinions secret. This religious movement gradually died out,
and by the middle of the fifteenth century nothing more is
heard of LoUardry.

Wycliffe had been not only a religious innovator, but a
writer of much excellent English. Contemporary with him
or slightly later were a number of writers who used the native
language and created permanent works of literature. T/ie
Vision of Piers Plowman is the longest and best of a num-
ber of poems written by otherwise unknown men. Geoffrey
Chaucer, one of England's greatest poets, wrote at first in
French, then in English ; his Canterbury Tales showing a
perfected English form, borrowed originally, like so much
of what was best in England at the time, from Italy or
France, but assimilated, improved, and reconstructed until
it seemed a purely English production. During the reign
of Edward III English became the official language of the
courts and the usual language of conversation, even among
the higher classes.

Edward III lived until 1377. Through his long reign of
half a century, during which he was entirely dependent on
the grants of Parliament for the fiuids needed to carry on
the war against France, this body obtained the powers, priv-

Black Death and Peasants Rebellion 99

ileges, and organization which made it thereafter such an
influential part of the government. His successor, Richard
11, after a period of moderate government tried to rule with
a high hand, but in 1399 was deposed through the influence
of his cousin, Henry of Lancaster, who was crowned as
Henry IV. Henry's title to the throne, according to heredi-
tary principles, was defective, for the son of an older brother
was living. He was, however, a mere child, and there was
no considerable opposition to Henry's accession. Under the
Lancastrian line, as Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI, who
now reigned successively, are called. Parliament reached the
highest position which it had yet attained, a position higher
in fact than it held for several centuries afterward. Henry
VI was a child at the death of his father in 1422. On com-
ing to be a man he proved too mild in temper to control the
great nobles who, by the chances of inheritance, had be-
come almost as powerful as the great feudal barons of early
Norman times. The descendants of the older branch of the
royal family were now represented by a vigorous and capa-
ble man, the duke of York. An effort was therefore made
about 1450 by one party of the nobles to depose Henry VI
in favor of the duke of York. A number of other nobles
took the side of the king, and civil war broke out. After a
series of miserable contests known as the " Wars of the
Roses" the former party was successful, at least temporarily,
and the duke of York became king in 1461 as Edward IV.

28. The Black Death and its Effects. — During the earlier
mediaeval centuries the most marked characteristic of society
was its stability. Institutions continued with but slight changes
during a long period. With the middle of the fourteenth
century changes become more prominent. Some of the
most conspicuous of these gather around a series of attacks
of epidemic disease during the latter half of the century.

tr^SflAVtC at OOBMi

Black Death and Peasants' Rebellion 1 01

From the autumn of 1348 to the spring of 1350 a wave
of pestilence was spreading over England from the south-
west northward and eastward, progressively attacking every
part of the country. The disease was new to Europe. Its
course in the individual case, like its progress through the
community, was very rapid. The person attacked either
died within two or three days or even less, or showed signs
of recovery within the same period. The proportion of
cases which resulted fatally was extremely large ; the infec-
tious character of the disease quite remarkable. It was, in
fact, an extremely violent epidemic attack, the most violent
in history, of the bubonic plague, with which we have un-
fortunately become again familiar within recent years.

From much careful e.xamination of several kinds of con-
temporary evidence it seems almost certain that as each
locality was successively attacked in 1348 and 1349 some-
thing like a half of the population died. In other words,
whereas in an ordinary year at that time perhaps one-tvi'en-
tieth of the people died, in the plague year one-half died.
Such entries as the following are frequent in the contempo-
rary records. At the abbey of Newenham, " in the time of
this mortality or pestilence there died in this house twenty
monks and three lay brothers, whose names are entered in
other books. And Walter, the abbot, and two monks were
left alive there after the sickness." At Leicester, " in the
little parish of St. Leonard there died more than 380, in
the parish of Holy Cross more than 400, in that of St.
Margaret more than 700 ; and so in every parish great
numbers." The close arrangement of houses in the villages,
the crowding of dwellings along narrow streets in the towns,
the promiscuous life in the monasteries and in the inns, the
uncleanly habits of living universally prevalent, all helped to
make possible this sweeping away of perhaps a majority of

I02 Industrial and Social History of England

the population by an attack of epidemic disease. It had
devastated several of the countries of Europe before appear-
ing in England, having been introduceil into Europe appar-
ently along the great trade routes from the far East. Within
a few months the attack in each successive district subsided,
the disease in the southwestern counties of England having
run its course between August, 1348, and Mav, 1349, in and
about London between November, 134S, and July, 1349, in
the eastern counties in the summer of 1349, and in the
more northern counties througli the last months of that 3"ear
or within the spring of 1350. Pestilence was frequent
throughout the Middle Ages, but this attack was not only
vastly more destructive and general than any which had
preceded it, but the disease when once introduced became
a frequent scourge in subsequent times, especially during
the remainder of the fourteenth century. In 1361, 136S,
and 1396 attacks are noticed as occurring more or less
widely through the country, but none were so extensive as
that which is usually spoken of as the "' Black Death " of
1348-1349. The term "Black Death" was not used con-
temporaneously, nor until comparatively modern times.
The occurrence of the pestilence, however, made an ex-
tremely strong impression on men's minds, and as " the great
mortalit}'," "the great pestilence," or "the great death," it
appears widely in the records and the literature of the time.
Such an extensi-\'e and sudden destruction of life could
not take place 'without leaving its mark in many directions.
Monasteries were depopulated, and the \alue of their
property and the strictness of their discipline diminished.
The need for priests led to the ordination of those who
were less carefully prepared and selected. The number of
students at Oxford and Cambridge was depleted ; the
building and adornment of many churches suspended.

Black Death and Peasants Rebellion 103

The war between England and France, though promptly
renewed, involved greater difficulty in obtaining equipment,
and ultimately required new devices to meet its expense.
Many of the towns lost numbers and property that were
never regained, and the distribution of population through-
out England was appreciably changed.

But the most evident and far-reaching results of the
series of pestilences occurring through the last half of the
fourteenth century were those connected with rural life and
the arrangement of classes described in Chapter II.

The lords of manors might seem at first thought to have
reaped advantage from the unusually high death rate. The
heriots collected on the death of tenants were more numer-
ous ; reliefs paid by their successors on obtaining the land
were repeated far more frequently than usual ; much land
escheated to the lord on the extinction of the families of
free tenants, or fell into his hands for redisposal on the
failure of descendants of villains or cotters. But these
were only temporary and casual results. In other ways
the diminution of population was distinctly disadvantageous
to the lords of manors. They obtained much lower rents
for mills and other such monopolies, because there were
fewer people to have their grain ground and the tenants of
the mills could therefore not make as much profit. The
rents of assize or regular periodical payments in money and
in kind made by free and villain tenants were less in amount,
since the tenants were fewer and much land was unoccupied.
The profits of the manor courts were less, for there were not
so many suitors to attend, to pay fees, and to be fined.
The manor court rolls for these years give long lists of
vacancies of holdings, often naming the days of the deaths
of the tenants. Their successors are often children, and in
many cases whole families were swept away and the land

104 Industrial and Social History of England

taken into the hands of the lord of the manor. Juries
appointed at one meeting of the manor court are sometimes
all dead by the time of the next meeting. There are con-
stant complaints by the stewards that certain land "is of no
value because the tenants are all dead ; " in one place that a
water-mill is worthless because " all the tenants who used it
are dead," in another that the rents are ^7 \^,s. less than
in the previous year because fourteen holdings, consisting
of 102 acres of land, are in the hands of the lord, in still
another that the rents of assize which used to be ^20 are
now only £,2 and the court fees have fallen from 40 to 5
shillings "because the tenants there are dead." There
was also less required service performed on the demesne
lands, for many of the villain holdings from which it was
owed were now vacant. Last, and most seriously of all, the
lords of manors suffered as employers of labor. It had
always been necessary to hire additional labor for the culti-
vation of the demesne farm and for the personal service of
the manor, and through recent decades somewhat more had
come to be hired because of a gradual increase of the prac-
tice of commutation of services. That is, villain tenants
were allowed to pay the value of their required days' work
in money instead of in actual service. The bailiff or reeve
then hired men as they were wanted, so that quite an appre-
ciable part of the work of the manor had come to be done
by laborers hired for wages.

After the Black Death the same demesne lands were to
be cultivated, and in most cases the larger holdings remained
or descended or were regranted to those who woukl expect
to continue their cultivation. Thus the demand for laborers
remained approximately as great as it had been before. The
number of laborers, on the other hand, was vastly dimin-
ished. They were therefore cagerl)' sought for by em-

Black Death and Peasants Rebellion 105

ployers. Naturally they took advantage of their positioQ
to demand higher wages, and in many cases combined to
refuse to work at the old accustomed rates. A royal ordi-
nance of r349 states that, " because a great part of the
people, especially of workmen and servants, have lately
died in the pestilence, many, seeing the necessity of masters
and great scarcity of servants, will not serve unless they
may receive excessive wages." A contemporary chronicler
says that " laborers were so elated and contentious that they
did not pay any attention to the command of the king, and
if anybody wanted to hire them he was bound to pay them
what they asked, and so he had his choice either to lose his
harvest and crops or give in to the proud and covetous
desires of the workmen." Thus, because of this rise in
wages, at the very time that many of the usual sources of
income of the lords of manors were less remunerative, the
expenses of carrying on their farming operations were
largely increased. On closer examination, therefore, it
becomes evident that the income of the lords of manors,
whether individuals or corporations, was not increased, but
considerably diminished, and that their position was less
favorable than it had been before the pestilence.

The freeholders of land below lords of manors were dis-
advantageously affected in as far as they had to hire laborers,
but in other ways were in a more favorable position. The
rent which they had to pay was often reduced. Land was
everj'where to be had in plenty, and a threat to give up
their holdings and go to where more favorable terms could
be secured was generally effective in obtaining better terms
where they were.

The villain holders legally of course did not have this
opportunity, but practically they secured many of its ad-
vantages. It is probable that many took up additional

Io6 Industrial an J Social History of England

land, perhaps on an improved tenure. Their pa3'ment3 and
their labor, whether done in the form of required " week-
work," or, if this were commuted, done for hire, were much
valued, and concessions made to them accordingly. They
might, as they frequently did, take to flight, giving up their
land and either obtaining a new grant somewhere else or
becoming laborers without lands of their own.

This last-named class, made up of those who depended
entirely on agricultural labor on the land of others for their
support, was a class which had been increasing in numbers,
and which was the most distinctly favored by the demand
for laborers and the rise of wages. They were the repre-
sentatives of the old cotter class, recruited from those who
either inherited no land or found it more advantageous to
work for wages than to take up small holdings with their
burdens.

But the most important social result of the Black Death
and the period of pestilence which followed it was the
general shock it gave to the old settled life and established
relations of men to one another. It introduced many im-
mediate changes, and still more causes of ultimate change ;
but above all it altered the ohl stability, so that change in
future would be easy.

29. The Statutes of Laborers. — The change which showed
itself most promptly, the rise in the prevailing rate of wages,
was met by the strenuous opposition of the law. In the
summer of 1349, while the pestilence was still raging in
the north of England, the king, acting on the advice of
his Council, issued a proclamation to all tlie sherifis and the
officials of the larger towns, declaring that the laborers were
taking advantage of the needs of their lords to demand
excessive wages, and prohibiting them from asking more
than had been due and accustomeil in tlie \"ear before the

Black Death and Peasants' Rebellion 107

outbreak of the pestilence or for the preceding fi\'e or six
years. Ever)' laborer when offered service at these wages
must accept it ; the lords of manors having the first right to
the labor of those living on their manors, provided they did
not insist on retaining an unreasonable number. If any
laborers, men or women, bond or free, should refuse to
accept such an offer of work, they were to be imprisoned
till they should give bail to ser\-e as required. Commis-
sioners were then appointed by the king in each county to
inquire into and punish violations of this ordinance.

When Parliament next met, in February, 135 1, the Com-
mons sent a pjetition to the king stating that his ordinance
had not been obeyed and that laborers were claiming double
and treble what thev had received in the 5'ears before the
pestilence. In response to the petition what is usually
called the '• First Statute of Laborers " was enacted. It re-
peated the requirement that men must accept work when it
was offered to them, established definite rates of wages for
\'arious classes of laborers, and required all such persons to
swear twice a year before the stewards, bailiffs, or other
oiificials that they would obey this law. If they refused
to swear or disobeyed the law, they were to be pjut in the
stocks for three days or mor* and then sent to the nearest
jail till they should agree to serve as required. It was
ordered that stocks should be built in each \-illage for this
purpose, and that the judges should visit each county twice
a year to inquire into the enforcement of the law. In 1357
the law was reenacted, with some changes of the destination
of the fines collected for its breach. In 1361 there was a
further reenactment of the law with additional penalties.
If laborers will not work unless they are given higher wages
than those estabUshed by law, they can be taken and im-
prisoned by lords of manors for as much as fifteen days, and

io8 Industrial and Social History of England

then be sent to the next jail to await the coming of the
justices. If any one after accepting service leaves it, he is
to be arrested and sued before the justices. If he cannot
be found, he is to be outlawed and a writ sent to every
sheriff in England ordering that he should be arrested, sent
back, and imprisoned till he pays his fine and makes amends

The Stocks at Shalford, near Guildford.

Present State,

(Jusserand : English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century, Published
by G, P. Putnam's Sons.)

to the party injured ; " and besides for the falsity he shall
be burnt in the forehead with an iron made and formed to
this letter F in token of Falsity, if the party aggrieved shall
ask for it." This last provision, however, was probably
intended as a threat rather than an actual punishment, for
its application was suspended for some months, and even

Black Deatli and Peasants Rebellion

109

then it was to be inflicted only on the advice of the judges,
and the iron was to remain in the custody of the sheriff.
The statute was reenacted with slight variations thirteen
times within the century after its original introduction ;
namely, in addition to the dates already mentioned, in
1362, 1368, 1378, 1388, 1402, 1406, 1414, 1423, 1427,
1429, and 1444.

VII! fMi^^^iutiftiJ Witmri;i faproi: irit '

UnftrolHtii .'.i'trntift -Mile

Laborers Reaping.

From a Fourteenth Century Manuscript.

(Jusserand; English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Ce'itury. Published
by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)

The necessity for these repeated reissues of the statutes
of laborers indicates that the general rise of wages was not
prevented. Forty years after the pestilence the law of
1388 is said to be passed, " because that servants and
laborers are not, nor by a long time have been willing to
serve and labor without outrageous and excessive hire."
Direct testimony also indicates that the prevailing rate of
wages was much higher, probably half as much again, as it

I lO Industrial and Social History of England

had been before the pestilence. Nevertheless, the enforce-
ment of the law in individual cases must have been a very
great hardship. The fines which were collected from
breakers of the law were of sufficient amount to be esti-
mated at one time as part payment of a tax, at another as a
valuable source of income to the lords of manors. Their
enforcement was intrusted at different times to the local
justices of the peace, the royal judges on circuit, and
special commissioners.

The inducement to the passage of the laws prohibiting a
rise in wages was no doubt partly the self-interest of the
employing classes who were alone represented in Parliament,
but partly also the feeling that the laboring class were taking
advantage of an abnormal condition of affairs to change
the well established customary rates of remuneration of
labor. The most significant fact indicated by the laws,
however, was the existence of a distinct class of laborers.
In earlier times when almost all rural dwellers held some
land this can hardly have been the case ; it is quite evident
that there was now an increasing class who made their liv-
ing simply by working for wages. Another fact frequently
referred to in the laws is the frequent passage of laborers
from one district to another ; it is evident that the popula-
tion was becoming somewhat less stationary. Therefore
while the years following the great pestilence were a period
of difficulty for the lords of manors and the employing
classes, for the lower classes the same period was one of
increasing opportunity and a breaking down of old restric-
tions. Whether or not the statutes had any real effect in
keeping the rate of wages lower than it would have other-
wise become is hard to determine, but there is no doubt
that the efforts to enforce the law and the frequent punish-
ment of individuals for its violation embittered the minds

Black Death and Peasants Rebellion 1 1 1

of the laborers and helped to throw them into opposition to
the government and to the upper classes generally. The
statutes of laborers thus became one of the principal causes
of the growth of that hostility which culminated in the
Peasants' Rebellion.

30. The Peasants' Rebellion of 138 1. — From the scanty
contemporary records still remaining we can obtain glimpses
of a widespread restlessness among the masses of the
English people during the latter half of the fourteenth
century. According to a petition submitted to Parliament
in 1377 the villains were refusing to pay their customary
services to their lords and to acknowledge the requirements
of their serfdom. They were also gathering together in
great bodies to resist the efforts of the lords to collect from
them their dues and to force them to submit to the deci-
sions of the manor courts. The ready reception given to
the religious revival preached by the Lollards throughout
the country indicates an attitude of independence and of
self-assertion on the part of the people of which there had
been no sign during earlier times. The writer who repre-
sents most nearly popular feeling, the author of the I'ision
of Piers Ploivman, reflects a certain restless and question-
ing mysticism which has no particular plan of reform to
propose, but is nevertheless thoroughly dissatisfied with the
world as it is. Lastly, a series of vague appeals to revolt,
written in the vernacular, partly in prose, partly in doggerel
rhyme, have been preserved and seem to testify to a de-
liberate propaganda of lawlessness. Some of the general
causes of this rising tide of discontent are quite apparent.
The efforts to enforce the statutes of laborers, as has been
said, kept continual friction between the employing and the
employed class. Parliament, which kept petitioning for
reenactments of these laws, the magistrates and special

1 1 2 Industrial and Social History of England

commissioners who enforced them, and the land-owners
who appealed to them for relief, were alike engaged in cre-
ating class antagonism and multiplying individual grievances.
Secondly, the \ery improvement in the economic position
of the lower classes, which was undoubtedly in progress,
made them doubly impatient of the many burdens which
still pressed upon them. Another cause for the prevalent

Adam aM) E\ e.

From a Fourteenth Century Manuscript.

(Jusserand: Ejiglish Wayfaring Life in tJie Fourteenth Century. Published
by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)

unrest may have lain in the character of much of the teach-
ing of the time. L'ndisguised communism was preached
by a wandering priest, John Ball, and the injustice of the
claims of the property-holding classes was a very natural
inference from much of the teachings of Wycliffe and his
" poor priests." Again, the corruption of the court, the

Black Dcatli and Peasants' Rebellion 1 1 3

incapacity of the ministers, and the faikire of the war in
France were all reasons for popular anger, if the masses of
the people can be supposed to have had any knowledge of
such distant matters.

But the most definite and widespread cause of discontent
was probably the introduction of a new form of taxation, the
general poll tax. Until this time taxes had either been
direct taxes laid upon land and personal property, or indi-
rect taxes laid upon various objects of export and import.
I'"" ^3 77) however, Parliament agreed to the imposition of a
tax of four pence a head on all laymen, and Convocation
soon afterward taxed all the clergy, regular and secular, the
same amount. Notwithstanding this grant and increased
taxes of the old forms, the government still needed more
money for the expenses of the war with France, and in
April, 1379, a graduated poll tax was laid on all persons
above sixteen years of age. This was regulated according
to the rank of the payer from mere laborers, who were to
pay four pence, up to earls, who must pay J^^,. But this
only produced some _^ 20,000, while more than ^100,000
were needed; therefore in November of 13S0 a third poll
tax was laid in the following manner. The tax was to be
collected at the rate of three groats or one shilling for
each person over fifteen years of age. But although the
total amount payable from any town or manor was to be as
many shillings as there were inhabitants over fourteen years
of age, it was to be assessed in each manor upon individuals
in proportion to their means, the more well-to-do paying
more, the poorer paying less ; but with the limits that no one
should have to pay more than J^\ for himself and his wife,
and no one less than four pence for himself and his wife.

The poll tax was extremely unpojjular. In the first place,
it was a new tax, and to all appearances an additional weight
I

114 Industrial and Social History of England

given to the burden of contributing to the never ending ex-
penses of the government of which the people were already
weary. Moreover, it fell upon everybody, even upon those
who from their lack of property had probably never before
paid any tax. The inhabitants of every cottage were made
to realize, by the payment of what amounted to two or three
days' wages, that they had public and political as well as
private and economic burdens. Lastly, the method of
assessing the tax gave scope for much unfairness and
favoritism.

In addition to this general unpopularity of the poll tax
there was a special reason for opposition in the circumstances
of that imposed in 13S0. As the returns began to come
in they were extremely disappointing to the government.
Therefore in March, 1381, the king, suspecting negligence on
the part of the collectors, appointed groups of commission-
ers for a number of different districts who were directetl to
go from place to place investigating the former collection
and enforcing payment from any who had evaded it before.
This no doubt seemed to many of the ignorant people the
imposition of a secoml tax. The first rumors of disorder
came in May from some of the villages of Essex, where the
tax-collectors and the commissioners who followed them
were driven away violently by the people. Finally, during
the second week in June, rioting began in several parts of
England almost simultaneously. In Essex those who had
refused to pay the poll tax and driven out the collectors now
went from village to village persuading or compelling the
people to join them. In Kent the villagers seized pilgrims
on their way to Canterbury and forced them to take an oath
to resist any tax except the old taxes, to be faithful to " King
Richard and the Commons," to join their party when sum-
moned, and never to allow John of Gaunt to become king.

Black Death and Peasants' Rebellion 1 1 5

A riot broke out at Dartford in Kent, then Canterbury was
overrun and the sheriff was forced to give up the tax rolls
to be destroyed. They proceeded to break into Maidstone
jail and release the prisoners there, and subsequently entered
Rochester. These Kentish insurgents then set out toward
London, wishing no doubt to obtain access to the young
king, who was known to be there, but also directe'd by an in-
stinctive desire to strike at the capital of the kingdom. By
Wednesday, the 12th of June, they had formed a rendezvous
at Blackheath some five miles below the city. Some of the
Essex men had crossed the river and joined them, others
had also taken their way toward London, marching along the
northern side of the Thames. At the same time, or by the
next day, another band was approaching London from Hert-
fordshire on the north. The body of insurgents gathered at
Blackheath, who were stated by contemporary chroniclers,
no doubt with the usual exaggeration, to have numbered
60,000, succeeded in communicating with King Richard, a
boy of fourteen years, who was residing at the Tower of
London with his mother and principal ministers and several
great nobles, asking him to come to meet them. On the
next day, Corpus Christi day, June 12th, he was rowed with
a group of nobles to the other bank of the river, where the
insurgents were crowding to the water side. The confusion
and danger were so great that the king did not land, and
the conference amounted to nothing. During the same
day, however, the rebels pressed on to the city, and a part
of the populace of London having left the drawbridge open
for them, they made their way in. The evening of the same
day the men from Essex entered through one of the city
gates which had also been opened for them by connivance
from within. There had already been much destruction of
property and of life. As the rebels passed along the roads,

1 1 6 Industrial and Social History of England

the villagers joined them and many of the lower classes
of the town population as well. In several cases they
burned the houses of the gentry and of the great eccle-
siastics, destroyed tax and court rolls and other documents,
and put to death persons connected with the law. When
they had made their way into London they burned and
pillaged the Savoy palace, the city house of the duke
of Lancaster, and the houses of the Knights Hospitallers
at Clerkenwell and at Temple Bar. By this time leaders
had arisen among the rebels. Wat Tyler, John Ball, and
Jack Straw were successful in keeping their followers from
stealing and in giving some semblance of a regular plan
to their proceedings. On the morning of Friday, the 14th,
the king left the Tower, and while he was absent the
rebels made their way in, ransacked the rooms, seized and
carried out to Tower Hill Simon Sudbury, archbishop of
Canterbury, who was Lord Chancellor, Robert Hales, Grand
Master of the Hospitallers, who was then Lord Treasurer,
and some lower officials. These were all put through the
hasty forms of an irregular trial and then beheaded. There
were also many murders throughout the city. Foreigners
especially were put to death, probably by Londoners them-
selves or by the rural insurgents at their instigation. A con-
siderable number of Flemings were assassinated, some being
drawn from one of the churches where they had taken
refuge. The German merchants of the Steelyard were
attacked and driven through the streets, but took refuge
in their well-defended buildings.

During the same three days, insurrection had broken out
in several other parts of England. Disorders are mentioned
in Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk,
Cambridge, Huntingdon, Hampshire, Sussex, Somerset,
Leicester, Lincoln, York, Bedford, Northampton, Surrey,

Black Death and Peasants' Rebellioii 1 1 7

and Wiltshire. There are also indications of risings in nine
other counties. In Suffolk the leadership was taken by a man
named John Wrawe, a priest like John Ball. On June 12th,
the same day that the rendezvous was held on Blackheath, a
great body of peasants under Wrawe attacked and pillaged
a manor house belonging to Richard Lyons, an unpopular
minister of the last days of Edward III. The next day they
looted a parish church where were stored the valuables of Sir
John Cavendish, Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench
and Chancellor of the town of Cambridge. On the 14th
they occupied Bury, where they sacked the houses of unpop-
ular men and finally captured and put to death Cavendish
himself, John of Cambridge, prior of the St. Edmund's
Abbey, and John of Lakenheath, an officer of the king.
The rioters also forced the monks of the abbey to hand over
to them all the documents giving to the monastery power
over the townsmen. There were also a large number of
detached attacks on persons and on manor houses, where
manor court rolls and other documents were destroyed and
property carried off. There was more theft here than in
London ; but much of the plundering was primarily intended
to settle old disputes rather than for its own sake. In Nor-
folk the insurrection broke out a day or two later than in
Suffolk, and is notable as having among its patrons a consid-
erable number of the lesser gentry and other well-to-do
persons. The principal leader, however, was a certain Geof-
frey Lister. This man had issued a proclamation calling in
all the people to meet on the 17th of June on Mushold
Heath, just outside the city of Norwich. A great multitude
gathered, and they summoned Sir Robert Salle, who was in
the military service of the king, but was living at Norwich,
and who had risen from peasant rank to knighthood, to
come out for a conference. When he declined their request

1 1 8 Industrial and Social History of England

to become their leader they assassinated him, and subse-
quently made their way into the city, of which they kept
control for several days. Throughout Norfolk and Cam-
bridgeshire we hear of the same murders of men who had
obtained the hatred of the lower classes in general, or that
of individuals who were temporarily influential with the in-
surgents. There were also numerous instances of the
destruction of court rolls found at the manor houses of lay
lords of manors or obtained from the muniment rooms of
the monasteries. It seems almost certain that there was
some agreement beforehand among the leaders of the re-
volt in the eastern districts of England, and probably also
with the leaders in Essex and Kent.

Another locality where we have full knowledge of the
occurrences during the rebellion is the town and monastery
of St. Albans, just north of London. The rising here was
either instigated by, or, at least, drew its encouragement
from, the leaders who gathered at London. The townsmen
and villains from surrounding manors invaded the great
abbey, opened the prison, demanded and obtained all the
charters bearing on existing disputes, and reclaimed a num-
ber of millstones which were kept by the abbey as a testi-
mony to the monopoly of all grinding by the abbey mill. In
many other places disorders were in progress. For a few
days in the middle of June a considerable part of England
was at the mercy of the revolted peasants and artisans,
under the leadership partly of men who had arisen among
their own class, partly of certain persons of higher position
who had sufficient reason for throwing in their lot with
them.

The culmination of the revolt was at the time of the exe-
cution of the great ministers of government on Tower Hill
on the morning of the 14th. At that very time the young

E W G

LoDgiiude Weal from Greenirlch

I20 Industrial and Social History of England

king had met a body of the rebels, mostly made up of men
from Essex and Hertfordshire at Mile End, just outside of
one of the gates of London. In a discussion in which they
stated their grievances, the king apparently in good faith,
but as it afterward proved in bad, promised to give them
what they demanded, begged them to disperse and go to
their homes, only leaving representatives from each village
to take back the charters of emancipation which he pro-
ceeded to have prepared and issued to them. There had
been no intentional antagonism to the king himself, and a
great part of the insurgents took him at his word and
scattered to their homes. The charters which they took
with them were of the following form : —

" Richard, by the grace of God, King of England and
France, and Lord of Ireland, to all his bailiffs and faithful
ones, to whom these present letters shall come, greeting.
Know that of our special grace, we have manumitted all of
our lieges and each of our subjects and others of the County
of Hertford ; and them and each of them have made free
from all bondage, and by these presents make them quit.
And moreover we pardon our same lieges and subjects
for all kinds of felonies, treasons, transgressions, and extor-
tions, however done or perpetrated by them or any of them,
and also outlawry, if any shall have been promulgated on
this account against them or any of them ; and our most
complete peace to them and each of them we concede in
these matters. In testimony of which things w-e have caused
these our letters to be made patent. Witness, myself, at
London, on the fifteenth day of June, in the fourth year of
our reign."

The most prominent leaders remained behind, and a
large body of rioters spent the rest of Friday and the fol-
lowing night in J^ondon. The king, after the inter\'iew at

Black Death and Peasants' Rebellion 12 1

Mile End, had returned to the Tower, then to the Queen's
Wardrobe, a Httle palace at the other side of London, where
he spent the night with his mother. In the morning he
mounted his horse, and with a small group of attendants rode
toward the Tower. As he passed through the open square
of Smithfield he met Wat Tyler, also on horseback, accom-
panied by the great body of rebels. Tyler rode forward to
confer with the king, but an altercation having broken out
between him and some of the king's attendants, the mayor
of London, Sir William Wahvorth, suddenly dashed forward,
struck him from his horse with the blow of a sword, and
while on the ground he was stabbed to death by the other
attendants of the king. There was a moment of extreme
danger of an attack by the leaderless rebels on the king
and his companions, but the ready promises of the king,
his natural gifts of pretence, and the strange attachment
which the peasants showed to him through all the troubles,
tided over a little time until they had been led outside of
the city gates, and the armed forces which many gentlemen
had in their houses in the city had at last been gathered
together and brought to where they had the disorganized
body of rebels at their mercy. These were then disarmed,
bidden to go to their homes, and a proclamation issued that
if any stranger remained in London over Sunday he would
pay for it with his life.

The downfall of Tyler and the dispersion of the insurgents
at London turned the tide of the whole revolt. In the
various districts where disorders were in progress the news
of that failure came as a blow to all their own hopes of
success. The revolt had been already disintegrating rather
than gaining in strength and unity ; and now its leaders
lost heart, and local bodies of gentry proportionately took
courage to suppress revolt in their own localities. The

122 Industrial and Social History of England

most conspicuous and influential of such efforts was that
of Henry de Spencer, bishop of Norwich. This warlike
prelate was in Rutlandshire when the news of the revolt
came. He hastened toward Norwich ; on his way met an
embassy from the rioters to the king ; seized and beheaded
two of its peasant members, and still pushing on met the
great body of the rebels near Walsham, where after a short
conflict and some parleying the latter were dispersed, and
their leaders captured and hung without any ceremony
other than the last rites of religion. As a matter of fact
the rising had no cohesion sufficient to withstand attack
from any constituted authority or from representatives of
the dominant classes.

The king's government acted promptly. On the 17th of
June, two days after the death of Tyler, a proclamation was
issued forbidding unauthorized gatherings of people ; on
the 23d a second, requiring aU tenants, villains, and free-
men alike to perform their usual services to their lords ;
and on the 2d of July a third, withdrawing the charters of
pardon and manumission which had been granted on the
15 th of June. Special sessions of the courts were organized
in the rebellious districts, and the leaders of the revolt were
searched out and executed by hanging or decapitation.

On the 3d of November Parliament met. The king's
treasurer explained that he had issued the charters under
constraint, and recognizing their illegality, with the ex-
pectation of withdrawing them as soon as possible, which
he had done. The suggestion of the king that the villains
should be regularly enfranchised by a statute was declined
in vigorous terms by Parliament. Laws were passed reliev-
ing all those who had made grants under compulsion from
carrying them out, enabling those whose charters had been
destroyed to obtain new ones under the great seal, granting

Black Death and Peasants' Rebellion 123

exemption from prosecution to all who had exercised illegal
violence in putting down the late insurrection, and finally
granting a general pardon, though with many exceptions, to
the late insurgents.

Thus the rising of June, 1381, had become a matter of
the past by the close of the year. The general conditions
which brought about a popular uprising have already been
discussed. The specific objects which the rioters had in
view in each part of the country are a much more obscure
and complicated question.

There is no reason to believe that there was any general
political object, other than opposition to the new and
burdensome taxation, and disgust with the existing ministry.
Nor was there any religious object in view. No doubt a
large part of the disorder had no general purpose whatever,
but consisted in an attempt, at a period of confusion and
relaxation of the law, to settle by violence purely local or
personal disputes and grievances.

Apart from these considerations the objects of the rioters
were of an economic nature. There was a general effort
to destroy the rolls of the manor courts. These rolls, kept
either in manor houses, or in the castles of great lords,
or in the monasteries, were the record of the burdens
and payments and disabilities of the villagers. Previous
payments of heriot, relief, merchet, and fines, acknowl-
edgments of serfdom, the obtaining of their land on bur-
densome conditions, were all recorded on the rolls and
could be produced to prove the custom of the manor to the
disadvantage of the tenant. It is true that these same rolls
showed who held each piece of ground and defined the
succession to it, and that they were long afterward to be
recognized in the national courts as giving to the customary
holder the right of retaining and of inheriting the land, so

1 24 Industrial and Social History of England

that it might seem an injury to themselves to destroy the
manor court records. But in that period when tenants
were in such demand their hold on their land had been in
no danger of being disturbed. If these records were
destroyed, the villains might well expect that they could
claim to be practically owners of the houses and little groups
of acres which they and their ancestors had held from time
immemorial ; and this without the necessity for payments
and reservations to which the rolls testified.

Again, lawyers and all connected with the law were the
objects of special hostility on the part of insurgents. This
must have been largely from the same general cause as that
just mentioned. It was lawyers who acted as stewards for
the great lords, it was through lawyers that the legal claims
of lords of manors were enforced in the king's courts. It
was also the judges and lawyers who put in force the
statutes of laborers, and who so generally acted as col-
lectors of the poll tax.

ISIore satisfactory relations with their lords were demanded
by insurgents who were freeholders, as well as by those who
were villains. Protests are recorded against the tolls on
sales and purchases, and against attendance at the manorial
courts, and a maximum limit to the rent of land is asked for.
Finally, the removal of the burdens of serfdom was evidently
one of the general objects of the rebels, though much of the
initiative of the revolt was taken by men from Kent, where
serfdom did not exist. The ser\itude of the peasantry is
the burden of the sermon of John Ball at Blackheath, its
abolition was demanded in several places by the insurgents,
and the charters of emancipation as given by the king pro-
fessed to make them " free from all bondage."

These objects were in few if any cases obtained. It is
extremely difficult to trace any direct results from the

Black Death and Peasants Rebellion 125

rising otlier tiian those involved in its failure, the punish-
ment of the leaders, and the effort to restore everything to
its former condition. There was indeed a conservative
reaction in several directions. The authorities of London
forbade the admission of any former villain to citizenship,
and the Commons in Parliament petitioned the king to re-
duce the rights of villains still further. On the whole, the
revolt is rather an illustration of the general fact that great
national crises have left but a slight impress on society,
while the important changes have taken place slowly and
by an almost imperceptible development. The results of
the rising are rather to be looked for in giving increased
rapidity and definite direction to changes already in prog-
ress, than in starting any new movement or in obtaining the
results which the insurgents may have wished.

31. Commutation of Services. — One of these changes,
already in progress long before the outbreak of the revolt,
has already been referred to. A silent transformation
was going on inside of the manorial life in the form of a
gradual substitution of money payments by the villain
tenants for the old labor for two, three, or four days a
week, and at special times during the year. This was often
described as " selling to the tenants their services." They
" bought " their exemption from furnishing actual work by
paying the value of it in money to the official representing
the lord of the manor.

This was a mutually advantageous arrangement. The
villain's time would be worth more to himself than to his
lord ; for if he had sufficient land in his possession he could
occupy himself profitably on it, or if he had not so much
land he could choose his time for hiring himself out to the
best advantage. The lord, on the other hand, obtained
money which could be spent in paying men whose services

1 26 Industrial and Social History of England

would be more willing and interested, and who could be
engaged at more available times. It is not, therefore, a
matter of surprise that the practice of allowing tenants to
pay for their services arose early. Commutation is notice-
able as early as the thirteenth century and not very unusual
in the first half of the fourteenth. After the pestilence,
however, there was a very rapid substitution of money
payments for labor payments. The process continued
through the remainder of the fourteenth century and the
early fifteenth, and by the middle of that century the en-
forcement of regular labor services had become almost
unknown. The boon-works continued to be claimed after
the week-work had disappeared, since labor was not so easy
to obtain at the specially busy seasons of the year, and the
required few days' services at ploughing or mowing or har-
vesting were correspondingly valuable. But even these
were extremely unusual after the middle of the fifteenth
century.

This change was dependent on at least two conditions, an
increased amount of money in circulation and an increased
number of free laborers available for hire. These conditions
were being more and more completely fulfilled. Trade at
fairs and markets and in the towns was increasing through
the whole fourteenth century. The increase of weaving and
other handicrafts produced more wealth and trade. Money
coming from abroad and from the royal mints made its way
into circulation and came into the hands of the villain ten-
ants, through the sale of surplus products or as payment for
their labor. The sudden destruction of one-half of the popu-
lation by the Black Death while the amount of money in the
country remained the same, doubled the circulation per
capita. Tenants were thus able to offer regular money pay-
ments to their lords in lieu of their personal services.

Black Death and Peasants' Rebellion \2f

During the same period the number of free laborers who
could be hired to perform the necessary work on the
demesne was increasing. Even before the pestilence there
were men and women on every manor who held little or no
land and who could be secured by the lord for voluntary
labor if the compulsory labor of the villains was given up.
Some of these laborers were fugitive villains who had fled
from one manor to another to secure freedom, and this
class became much more numerous under the circumstance
of disorganization after the Black Death. Thus the second
condition requisite for the extensive commutation was
present also.

It might be supposed that after the pestilence, when
wages were high and labor was so hard to procure, lords of
manors would be unwilling to allow further commutation,
and would even try to insist on the performance of actual
labor in cases where commutation had been previously
allowed. Indeed, it has been very generally stated that
there was such a reaction. The contrary, however, was the
case. Commutation was never more rapid than in the gen-
eration immediately after the first attack of the pestilence.
The laborers seem to have been in so favorable a position,
that the dread of their flight was a controlling inducement
to the lords to allow the commutation of their services if they
desired it. The interest of the lords in their labor services
was also, as will be seen, becoming less.

When a villain's labor services had been commuted into
money, his position must have risen appreciably. One of
the main characteristics of his position as a villain tenant had
been the uncertainty of his services, the fact that during the
days in which he must work for his lord he could be put to
any kind of labor, and that the number of days he must
serve was itself only restricted by the custom of the manor.

128 Industrial and Social History of Engla7id

His services once commuted into a definite sum of money,
all uncertainty ceased. Moreover, his money payments to
the lord, although rising from an entirely different source,
were almost indistinguishable from the money rents paid
by the freeholder. Therefore, serf though he might still be
in legal status, his position was much more like that of a
freeman.

32. The Abandonment of Demesne Farming. — A still
more important change than the commutation of services
was in progress during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
This was the gradual withdrawal of the lords of manors
from the cultivation of the demesne farms. From very
early times it had been customary for lords of manors to
grant out small portions of the demesne, or of previously
uncultivated land, to tenants at a money rent. The great de-
mesne farm, however, had been still kept up as the centre of
the agricultural system of the vill. But now even this was on
many manors rented out to a tenant or group of tenants. The
earliest known instances are jast at the beginning of the
fourteenth century, but the labor troubles of the latter half of
the century made the process more usual, and within the next
hundred years the demesne lands seem to have been prac-
tically all rented out to tenants. In other words, whereas,
during the earlier Middle Ages lords of manors had usually
carried on the cultivation of the demesne lands themselves,
under the administration of their bailiffs and with the labor
of the villains, making their profit by obtaining a food supply
for their own households or by selling the surplus products,
now they gave up their cultivation and rented them out to
some one else, making their profit by receiving a money
payment as rent. They became therefore landlords of the
modern type. A typical instance of this change is where
the demesne land of the manor of Wilburton in Cam-

Black Death and Peasants' Rebellion 129

bridgeshire, consisting of 246 acres of arable land and
42 acres of meadow, was rented in 1426 to one of the
villain tenants of the manor for a sum of ^8 a year. The
person who took the land was usually either a free or a vil-
lain tenant of the same or a neighboring manor. The land
was let only for a certain number of years, but afterward
was usually relet either to the same or to another tenant.
The word fanner originally meant one of these tenants
who took the demesne or some other piece of land, paying
for it a "farm " ox firina, that is, a settled established sum,
in place of the various forms of profit that might have been
secured from it by the lord of the manor. The free and
villain holdings which came into the hands of the lord by
failure of heirs in those times of frequent extinction of fami-
lies were also granted out very generally at a money rent, so
that a large number of the cultivators of the soil came to be
tenants at a money rent, that is, lease-holders or " farmers."
These free renting farmers, along with the smaller free-
holders, made up the "yeomen " of England.

33. The Decay of Serfdom. — It is in the changes dis-
cussed in the last two paragraphs that is to be found the key
to the disappearance of serfdom in England. Men had
been freed from villainage in individual cases by various
means. Manumission of serfs had occurred from time to
time through all the mediaeval centuries. It was customary
in such cases either to give a formal charter granting free-
dom to the man himself and to his descendants, or to have
entered on the manor court roll the fact of his obtaining his
enfranchisement. Occasionally men were manumitted in
order that they might be ordained as clergymen. In the
period following the pestilences of the fourteenth century
the difficulty in recruiting the ranks of the priesthood made
the practice more frequent. The charters of manumission

K

130 Industrial and Social History of England

issued by the king to the insurgents of 1381 would have
granted freedom on a large scale had they not been dis-
owned and subsequently withdrawn. Still other villains had
obtained freedom by flight from the manors where they had
been born. When a villain who had fled was discovered he
could be reclaimed by the lord of the manor by obtaining a
writ from the court, but many obstacles might be placed in
the way of obtaining this writ, and it must always have in-
volved so much difficulty as to make it doubtful whether it
was worth while. So long as a villain was anywhere else
than on the manor to which he belonged, he was practically
a free man, but few of the disabilities of villainage existing
except as between him and his own lord. Therefore, if a
villain was willing to sacrifice his little holding and make the
necessary break with his usual surroundings, he might fre-
quently escape into a veritable freedom.

The attitude of the common law was favorable to liberty
as against servitude, and in cases of doubt the decisions of
the royal courts were almost invariably favorable to the
freedom of the villain.

But all these possibilities of liberty were only for individ-
ual cases. Villainage as an institution continued to exist
and to characterize the position of the mass of the peas-
antry. The number of freemen through the country was
larger, but the serfdom of the great majority can scarcely
have been much influenced by these individual cases. The
commutation of services, however, and still more the aban-
donment of demesne farming by the lords of manors, were
general causes conducive to freedom. The former custom
indicated that the lords valued the money that could be
paid by the villains more than they did their compulsory
services. That is, villains whose services were paid for in
money were practically renters of land from the lords, no

Black Death and Peasants Rebellion 131

longer serfs on the land of the lords. The lord of the
manor could still of course enforce his claim to the various
payments and restrictions arising from the villainage of his
tenants, but their position as payers of money was much less
servile than as performers of forced labor. The willingness
of the lords to accept money instead of service showed as
before stated that there were other persons who could be
hired to do the work. The villains were valued more as
tenants now that there were others to serve as laborers.
The occupants of customary holdings were a higher class
and a class more worth the lord's consideration and favor
than the mere laborers. The villains were thus raised into
partial freedom by having a free class still below them.

The effect of the relinquishment of the old demesne farms
by the lords of the manors was still more influential in de-
stroying serfdom. The lords had valued serfdom above all
because it furnished an adequate and absolutely certain sup-
ply of labor. The villains had to stay on the manor and pro-
vide the labor necessary for the cultivation of the demesne.
But if the demesne was rented out to a farmer or divided
among several holders, the interest of the lord in the labor
supply on the manor was very much diminished. Even if
he agreed in his lease of the demesne to the new farmer
that the villains should perform their customary services in
as far as these had not been commuted, yet the farmer
could not enforce this of himself, and the lord of the manor
was probably languid or careless or dilatory in doing so.
The other payments and burdens of serfdom were not so
lucrative, and as the ranks of the old villain class were de-
pleted by the extinction of families, and fewer inhabitants
were bound to attend the manor courts, they became less so.
It became, therefore, gradually more common, then quite
universal, for the lords of manors to cease to enforce the re-

132 Industrial and Social History of England

quirements of serfdom. A legal relation of which neither
party is reminded is apt to become obsolete ; and that is
what practically happened to serfdom in England. It is
true that many persons were still legally serfs, and occasion-
ally the fact of their serfdom was asserted in the courts or
inferred by granting them manumission. These occasional
enfranchisements continued down into the second half of

re^ — f-'-?f*^Mf» ■■»»^'-%"-sjt«,7'ii?^^:f^5-''

Ax Old Street i.\ Worcester.

(Britton: Pictuyesqiie Autiqitities of English Ciiies)

the sixteenth century, and the claim that a certain man was a
villain was pleaded in the courts as late as 16 18. But long
before this time serfdom had ceased to have much practical
importance. It may be said that by the middle of the
fifteenth centtiry the mass of the English rural population
were free men and no longer serfs. With their labor ser-
vices commuted to money and the other conditions of their
villainage no longer enforced, they became an indistinguish-

Black Death and Peasants' Rebellio

133

able part either of the yeomanry or of the body of agricultu-
ral laborers.

34. Changes in Town Life and Foreign Trade. — The

changes discussed in the last three sections apply in the

Town Houses in the Fifieeniii Ceniur\,

(Wright, T. : History of Dojiit-stic I^Lm/iers and Sentiuwtits.)

main to rural life. The economic and social history of
the towns during the same period, except in as far as it
was part of the general national experience, consisted in a
still more complete adoption of those characteristics which

1 34 Industrial and Social History of England

have already been described in Chapter III. Their wealth
and prosperity became greater, they were still more inde-
pendent of the rural districts and of the central govern-
ment, the intermunicipal character of their dealings, the
closeness of connection between their industrial interests
and their government, the completeness with which all oc-
cupations were organized under the "gild system," were all of
them still more marked in 1450 than they had been in 1350.
It is true that far-reaching changes were beginning, but they
were only beginning, and did not reach an important develop-
ment until a time later than that included in this chapter.
The same thing is true in the field of foreign trade. The
latter part of the fourteenth and the early fifteenth century
saw a considerable increase and development of the trade
of England, but it was still on the same lines and carried on
by the same methods as before. The great proportion
of it was in the hands of foreigners, and there was the
same inconsistency in the policy of the central government
on the occasions when it did intervene or take any action
on the subject. The important changes in trade and in
town life which have their beginning in this period will
be discussed in connection with those of the next period
in Chapter VI.

35. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jessop, Augustus : The Coming of ilie Friars and otJier
Essays. Two interesting essays in this volume are on Tlie
Blacli Deatli in East Anglia.

Gasquet, F. A. : Tlie Great Pestilence of 13 4g.

Creighton, C. : History of Epidemics in Britain, two vol-
umes. This gives especial attention to the nature of the
disease.

Black Death and Peasants' Rebellion 135

Trevelyan, G. M. : England in the Age of IVycliffe.
This book, published in 1899, g'ves by far the fullest ac-
count of the Peasant Rising which has so far appeared in
English.

Petit-Dutaillis, C, et Reville, A. : Le Soiilh'ement des
Travailleurs d'Angleferre en ij8i. The best account of the
Rebellion.

Powell, Edgar : The Peasant Rising in East Anglia in
1381. Especially valuable for its accounts of the poll tax.

Powell, Edgar, and Trevelyan, G. M. : Documents Ulus-
trating the Peasants' Rising and the Lollards.

Page, Thomas Walker : The End of Villainage in England.
This monograph, published in 1900, is particularly valuable
for the new facts which it gives concerning the rural changes
of the fourteenth century.

CHAPTER VI

THE BREAKING UP OF THE MEDLEVAL SYSTEM

Economic Changes of the Later FirrEENXH and the Sixteenth
Centuries

36. National Affairs from 1461 to 1603. — The close of
the fifteenth and the opening of the sixteenth century has
been by universal consent settled upon as the passage from
one era to another, from the Middle Ages to modern times.
This period of transition was marked in England by at least
three great movements : a new type of intellectual life, a
new ideal of government, and the Reformation. The great-
est changes in English literature and intellectual interests
are traceable to foreign influence. In the fifteenth century
the paramount foreign influence was that of Italy. From the
middle of the fifteenth century an increasing number of young
Englishmen went to Italy to study, and brought back with
them an interest in the study of Greek and of other subjects
to which this led. Somewhat later the social intercourse
of Englishmen with Italy exercised a corresponding influ-
ence on more courtly literature. In 149 1 the teaching of
Greek was begun at Oxford by Grocyn, and after this time
the passion for classical learning became deep, widespread,
and enthusiastic. But not only were the subjects of intel-
lectual interest different, but the attitude of mind in the
study of these subjects was much more critical than it had
been in the Middle Ages. The discoveries of new routes to
the far East and of America, as well as the new speculations

136

Breaking itp of Mfdicsva! System 137

in natural science which came at this time, reacted on the
minds of men and broadened their whole mental outlook.
The production of works of pure literature had suffered a
decline after the time of Wycliffe and Chaucer, from which
there was no considerable revival till the early part of the
sixteenth century. Sir Thomas More's Utopia, written in
Latin in 15 14, was a philosophical work thrown into the
form of a literary dialogue and description of an imaginary
commonwealth. But writing became constantly more abun-
dant and more varied through the reigns of Henry VIII,
1509-1547. Edward VI, 1547-1553. -md iMary, 1553-1558,
until it finally blossomed out into the splendid Elizabethan
literature, just at the close of our period.

A stronger royal government had begun with Edward IV.
The conclusion of the war with France made the king's
need for money less, and at the same time new sources of
income appeared. Edward, therefore, from 1461, neglected
to call Parliament annually, as had been usual, and fre-
quently allowed three or more years to go by without any
consultation with it. He also exercised very freely what
was called the dispensing power, that is, the power to
suspend the law in certain cases, and in other ways asserted
the royal prerogative as no previous king had done for two
hundred years. But the true founder of the almost abso-
lute monarchy of this period was Henry VII, who reigned
from 1485 to 1509. He was not the nearest heir to the
throne, but acted as the representative of the Lancastrian
line, and by his marriage with the lady who represented the
claim of the York family joined the two contending factions.
He was the first of the Tudor line, his successors being his
son, Henry VIII, and the three children of Henry VIII,
Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth. Henry VII was an able,
shrewd, far-sighted, and masterful man. During his reign

138 Industrial and Social History of England

he put an end to the disorders of the nobihty ; made Parlia-
ment relatively insignificant by calling it even less frequently
than Edward IV had done, and by initiating its legislation
when it did meet. He also increased and regulated the
income of the crown, and rendered its expenditures subject
to control. He was able to keep ambassadors regularly
abroad, for the first time, and in many other ways to sup-
port a more expensive administration, though often by
unpopular and illegal means of extortion from the people.
He formed foreign political and commercial treaties in all
directions, and encouraged the voyages of the Cabots to
America. He brought a great deal of business constantly
before the Royal Council, but chose its members for their
ability rather than for their high rank. In these various
ways he created a strong personal government, which left
but little room for Parliament or people to do anything
except carry out his will. In these respects Henry's im-
mediate successors and their ministers followed the same
policy. In fact, the Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII,
and new internal and foreign difficulties in the reign of
Elizabeth, brought the royal power into a still higher and
more independent position.

The need for a general reformation of the church had long
been recognized. More than one effort had been made by
the ecclesiastical authorities to insist on higher intellectual and
moral standards for the clergy and to rid the church of various
evil customs and abuses. Again, there had been repeated
efforts to clothe the king, who was at the head of all civil
government, with extensive control and oversight of church
affairs also. Men holding different views on questions of
church government and rehgious belief from those held by
the general Christian church in the Middle Ages, had writ-
ten and taught and found many to agree with them. Thus

Breaking tip of Mediceval System 139

efforts to bring about changes in the estabhshed church had
not been wanting, but they had produced no permanent
result. In the early years of the sixteenth century, however,
several causes combined to bring about a movement of this
nature extending over a number of years and profoundly
affecting all subsequent history. This is known as the
Reformation. The first steps of the Reformation in Eng-
land were taken as the result of a dispute between King
Henry VIII and the Pope. In the first place, several laws
were passed through Parliament, beginning with the year
1529, abolishing a number of petty evils and abusive prac-
tices in the church courts. The Pope's income from Eng-
land was then cut off, and his jurisdiction and all other
forms of authority in England brought to an end. Finally,
the supremacy of the king over the church and clergy and
over all ecclesiastical affairs was declared and enforced. By
the year 1535 the ancient connection between the church
in England and the Pope was severed. Thus in England,
as in many continental countries at about the same time, a
national church arose independent of Rome. Next, changes
began to be made in the doctrine and practices of the
church. The organization under bishops was retained,
though they were now appointed by the king. Pilgrimages
and the worship of saints were forbidden, the Bible trans-
lated into English, and other changes gradually introduced.
The monastic life came under the condemnation of the
reformers. The monasteries were therefore dissolved and
their property confiscated and sold, between the years 1536
and 1542. In the reign of Edward VI, 1547-1553, the
Reformation was carried much further. An English prayer-
book was issued which was to be used in all religious wor-
ship, the adornments of the churches were removed, the
services made more simple, and doctrines introduced which

140 Industrial and Social History of England

assimilated the church of England to the contemporary
Protestant churches on the Continent.

Queen Mary, who had been brought up in the Roman faith,
tried to make England again a Roman Catholic country, and
in the later years of her reign encouraged severe persecu-
tions, causing many to be burned at the stake, in the hope
of thus crushing out heresy. After her death, however, in
155S, Queen Elizabeth adopted a more moderate position,
and the church of England was established by law in much
the form it had possessed at the death of Henry A'lII.

In the meantime, however, there had been growing up a
far more spontaneous religious movement than the official
Reformation which has just been described. Many thou-
sands of persons had become deeply interested in religion
and enthusiastic in their faith, and had come to hold different
views on church government, doctrines, and practices from
those approved of either by the Roman Catholic church or
by the government of England. Those who held such views
were known as Puritans, and throughout the reign of Eliza-
beth were increasing in numbers and making strenuous
though unsuccessful efforts to introduce changes in the
established church.

The reign of Elizabeth was marked not only by the con-
tinuance of royal despotism, by brilliant literary production,
and by the struggle of the established church against the
Catholics on the one side and the Puritans on the other, but
by difficult and dangerous foreign relations.

INIore than once invasion by the continental powers was
imminent. Elizabeth was threatened with deposition by
the English adherents of Mary, Queen of Scots, supported
by France and Spain. The English go\'ernment pursued a
policy of interference in the internal conflicts of other
countries that brought it frequently to the verge of war with

Breaking tip of MedicEval System 141

their governments and sometimes beyond. Hostility bor-
dering on open warfare was therefore the most frequent
condition of English foreign relations. Especially was this
true of the relations with Spain. The most serious contest
with that country was the war which culminated in the
battle of the Armada in 1588. Spain had organized an
immense fleet which was intended to go to the Netherlands
and convoy an army to be taken thence for the invasion of
England. While passing through the English Channel, a
storm broke upon them, they were attacked and harried by
the English and later by the Dutch, and the whole fleet was
eventually scattered and destroyed. The danger of invasion
was greatly reduced after this time and until the end of
Elizabeth's reign in 1603.

37. Enclosures. — The century and a half which extends
from the middle years of the fifteenth century to the close
of the sixteenth was, as has been shown, a period remark-
able for the extent and variety of its changes in almost every
aspect of society. In the political, intellectual, and rehgious
world the sixteenth century seemed far removed from the
fifteenth. It is not therefore a matter of surprise that eco-
nomic changes were numerous and fundamental, and that
social organization in town and country alike was com-
pletely transformed.

During the period last discussed, the fourteenth and the
early fifteenth century, the manorial system had changed
very considerably from its mediseval form. The demesne
lands had been quite generally leased to renting farmers,
and a new class of tenants was consequently becoming
numerous; serfdom had fallen into decay; the old manorial
officers, the steward, the bailiff, and the reeve had fallen
into unimportance ; the manor courts were not so active,
so regular, or so numerously attended. These changes were

142 Industrial and Social History of England

gradual and were still uncompleted at the middle of the
fifteenth century ; but there was already showing itself a
new series of changes, affecting still other parts of manorial
life, which became steadily more extensive during the
remainder of the fifteenth and through much of the six-
teenth century. These changes are usually grouped under
the name " enclosures."

The enclosure of land previously open was closely con-
nected with the increase of sheep-raising. The older form
of agriculture, grain-raising, labored under many difficulties.
The price of labor was high, there had been no improve-
ment in the old crude methods of culture, nor, in the open
fields and under the customary rules, was there opportunity
to introduce any. On the other hand, the inducements to
sheep-raising were numerous. There was a steady demand
at good prices for wool, both for export, as of old, and for the
manufactures within England, which were now increasing.
Sheep-raising required fewer hands and therefore high wages
were less an obstacle, and it gave opportunity for the invest-
ment of capital and for comparative freedom from the restric-
tions of local custom. Therefore, instead of raising sheep
simply as a part of ordinary farming, lords of manors, free-
holders, farming tenants, and even customary tenants began
here and there to raise sheep for wool as their principal or
sole production. Instances are mentioned of five thousand,
ten thousand, twenty thousand, and even twenty-four thou-
sand sheep in the possession of a single person. This
custom spread more and more widely, and so attracted the
attention of observers as to be frequently mentioned in the
laws and literature of the time.

But sheep could not be raised to any considerable extent
on land divided according to the old open field system. In
a vill whose fields all lay open, sheep must either be fed

•A D

rj a

BreakiHg up of Mediceval System 143

with those of other men on the common pasture, or must
be kept in small groups by shepherds within the confines
of the various acres or other small strips of the sheep-raiser's
holding. No large number could of course be kept in this
way, so the first thing to be done by the sheep-raiser was to
get enough strips together in one place to make it worth
while to put a hedge or other fence around them, or else
to separate off in the same way a part or the whole of the
open pastures or meadows. This was the process known as
enclosing. Separate enclosed fields, which had existed only
occasionally in mediaeval farming, became numerous in this
time, as they have become practically universal in modern
farming in English-speaking countries.

But it was ordinarily impracticable to obtain groups of
adjacent acres or sufficiently extensive rights on the com-
mon pasture for enclosing without getting rid of some of
the other tenants. In this way enclosing led to evictions.
Either the lord of the manor or some one or more of the
tenants enclosed the lands which they had formerly held
and also those which were formerly occupied by some
other holders, who were evicted from their land for this
purpose.

Some of the tenants must have been protected in their
holdings by the law. As early as 1468 Chief Justice Bryan
had declared that " tenant by the custom is as well inheritor
to have his land according to the custom as he which hath
a freehold at the common law." Again, in 1484, another
chief justice declared that a tenant by custom who con-
tinued to pay his service could not be ejected by the lord
of the manor. Such tenants came to be known as copy-
holders, because the proof of their customary tenure was
found in the manor court rolls, from which a copy was taken
to serve as a title. Subsequently copyhold became one of

144 Industrial and Social History of England

the most generally recognized forms of land tenure in Eng-
land, and gave practically as secure title as did a freehold.
At this time, however, notwithstanding the statements just
given, the law was probably not very definite or not very well
understood, and customary tenants may have had but little
practical protection of the law against eviction. Moreover,
the great body of the small tenants were probably no longer
genuine customary tenants. The great proportion of small
farms had probably not been inherited by a long line of
tenants, but had repeatedly gone back into the hands of
the lords of the manors and been subsequently rented out
again, with or without a lease, to farmers or rent-paying
tenants. These were in most cases probably the tenants
who were now evicted to make room for the new enclosed
sheep farms.

By these enclosures and evictions in some cases the open
lands of whole vills were enclosed, the old agriculture came
to an end, and as the enclosers were often non-residents,
the whole farming population disappeared from the village.
Since sheep-raising required such a small number of labor-
ers, the farm laborers also had to leave to seek work else-
where, and the whole village, therefore, was deserted, the
houses fell into ruin, and the township lost its population
entirely. This was commonly spoken of at the time as
" the decaying of towns," and those who were responsible
for it were denounced as enemies of their country. In
most cases, however, the enclosures and depopulation were
only partial. A nTimber of causes combined to carry this
movement forward. England was not yet a wealthy coun-
try, but such capital as existed, especially in the towns, was
utilized and made remunerative by investment in the newly
enclosed farms and in carrying on the expenses of enclos-
ure. The dissolution of the monasteries between 1536 and

Breaking up of MedicBval System 145

1542 brought the lands which they had formerly held into
the possession of a class of men who were anxious to make
them as remunerative as possible, and who had no feeling
against enclosures.

Nevertheless, the changes were much disapproved. Sir
Thomas More condemns them in the Utopia, as do many
other writers of the same period and of the reign of Elliza-
beth. The landlords, the enclosers, the city merchants
who took up country lands, were preached against and in-
veighed against by such preachers as Latimer, Lever, and
Becon, and in a dozen or more pamphlets still extant. The
government also put itself into opposition to the changes
which were in progress. It was believed that there was
danger of a reduction of the population and thus of a lack
of soldiers ; it was feared that not enough grain would be
raised to provide food for the people ; the dangerous
masses of wandering beggars were partly at least recruited
from the evicted tenants ; there was a great deal of discon-
tent in the country due to the high rents, lack of occupa-
tion, and general dislike of change. A series of laws were
therefore carried through Parliament and other measures
taken, the object of which was to put a stop to the increase
of sheep-farming and its results. In 1488 a statute was
enacted prohibiting the turning of tillage land into pasture.
In 1514 a new law was passed reenacting this and requiring
the repair by their owners of any houses which had fallen
into decay because of the substitution of pasture for tillage,
and their reoccupation with tenants. In 15 17 a commis-
sion of investigation into enclosures was appointed by the
government. In 15 18 the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wol-
sey, issued a proclamation requiring all those who had en-
closed lands since 1509 to throw them open again, or else
give proof that their enclosure was for the public advantage.

146 Industrial and Social History of England

In 1534 the earlier laws were reenacted and a further pro-
vision made that no person holding rented lands should
keep more than twenty-four hundred sheep. In 1548 a
new commission on enclosures was appointed which made
extensive investigations, instituted prosecutions, and recom-
mended new legislation. A law for more careful enforce-
ment was passed in 1552, and the old laws were reenacted
in 1554 and 1562. This last law was repealed in 1593, but
in 1598 others were enacted and later extended. In 1624,
however, all the laws on the subject were repealed. As a
matter of fact, the laws seem to have been generally ineffec-
tive. The nobility and gentry were in the main in favor of
the enclosures, as they increased their rents even when they
were not themselves the enclosers ; and it was through these
classes that legislation had to be enforced at this time if it
was to be effective.

Besides the official opposition of the government, there
were occasional instances of rioting or violent destruction of
hedges and other enclosures by the people who felt them-
selves aggrieved by them. Three times these riots rose to
the height of an insurrection. In 1536 the so-called " Pil-
grimage of Grace" was a rising of the people partly in
opposition to the introduction of the Reformation, partly
in opposition to enclosures. In 1549 a series of risings
occurred, the most serious of which was the "camp " under
Kett in Norfolk, and in 1552 again there was an insurrec-
tion in Buckinghamshire. These risings were harshly re-
pressed by the government. The rural changes, therefore,
progressed steadily, notwithstanding the opposition of the
law, of certain forms of public opinion, and of the violence
of mobs. Probably enclosures more or less complete were
made during this period in as many as half the manors of
England. They were at their height in the early years of

Breaking tip of MedicEval System 147

the sixteenth century, during its latter half they were not so
numerous, and by its close the enclosing movement had
about run its course, at least for the time.

38. Internal Divisions in the Craft Gilds. — Changes in
town life occurred during this period corresponding quite
closely to the enclosures- and their results in the country.
These consisted in the decay of the gilds, the dispersion of
certain town industries through the rural districts, and the
loss of prosperity of many of the old towns. In the earlier
craft gilds each man had normally been successively an
apprentice, a journeyman, and a full master craftsman, with
a little establishment of his own and full participation in the
administration of the fraternity. There was coming now to
be a class of artisans who remained permanently employed
and never attained to the position of master craftsmen.
This was sometimes the result of a deliberate process of
exclusion on the part of those who were already masters.
In 1480, for instance, a new set of ordinances given to the
Mercers' Gild of Shrewsbury declares that the fines assessed
on apprentices at their entry to be masters had been exces-
sive and should be reduced. Similarly, the Oxford Town
Council in 1531 restricts the payment required from any
person who should come to be a full brother of any craft in
that town to twenty shillings, a sum which would equal per-
haps fifty dollars in modern value. In the same year Parlia-
ment forbade the collection of more than two shillings and
sixpence from any apprentice at the time of his apprentice-
ship, and of more than three shillings and fourpence when
he enters the trade fully at the expiration of his time. This
indicates that the fines previously charged must have been
almost prohibitive. In some trades the masters required
apprentices at the time of indenture to take an oath that
they would not set up independent establishments when

148 Industrial and Social History of England

they had fulfilled the years of their apprenticeship, a custom
which was forbidden by Parliament in 1536. In other cases
it was no doubt the lack of sufficient capital and enterprise
which kept a large number of artisans from ever rising above
the class of journeymen.

Under these circumstances the journeymen evidently
ceased to feel that they enjoyed any benefits from the
organized crafts, for they began to form among themselves
what are generally described as " yeomen gilds " or "journey-
men gilds." At first the masters opposed such bodies and
the city officials supported the old companies by prohibiting
the journeymen from holding assemblies, wearing a special
livery, or otherwise acting as separate bodies. Ultimately,
however, they seem to have made good their position, and
existed in a number of different crafts in more or less sub-
ordination to the organizations of the masters. The first
mention of such bodies is soon after the Peasants' Rebellion,
but in most cases the earliest rise of a journeyman gild in
any industry was in the latter part of the fifteenth or in the
sixteenth century. They were organizations quite similar to
the older bodies from which they were a split, except that
they had of course no general control over the industry.
They had, however, meetings, officers, feasts, and charitable
funds. In addition to these functions there is reason to
believe that they made use of their organization to influence
the rate of wages and to coerce other journeymen. Their
relations to the masters' companies were frequently defined
by regular written agreements between the two parties.
Journeymen gilds existed among the saddlers, cordwainers,
tailors, blacksmiths, carpenters, drapers, ironmongers,
founders, fishmongers, cloth-workers, and armorers in
London, among the weavers in Coventry, the tailors in
Exeter and in Bristol, the shoemakers in Oxford, and no
doubt in some other trades in these and other towns.

Breaking up of Mcdiceval System 149

Among the masters also changes were taking place in the
same direction. Instead of all master artisans or tradesmen
in an)' one industry holding an equal position and taking an
equal part in tlie administration of affairs of the craft, there
came, at least in some of the larger companies, to be quite
distinct groups usually described as those " of the livery "
and those "not of the livery." The expression no doubt
arose from the former class being the more well-to-do and
active masters who had sufficient means to purchase the
suits of livery worn on state occasions, and who in other
ways were the leading and controlling members of the
organization. This came, before the close of the fifteenth
century, in many crafts to be a recognized distinction of
class or station in the company. A statement of the mem-
bers in one of the London fraternities made in 1493 gives a
good instance of this distinction of classes, as well as of the
subordinate body last describetl. There were said to be at
that date in the Drapers' Company of the craft of drapers
in the clothing, including the masters and four wardens, one
hundred and fourteen, of the brotherhood out of the cloth-
ing one hundred and fifteen, of the bachelors' company
sixty. It was from this prominence of the liveried gildsmen,
that the term " Livery Companies " came to be applied to
the greater London gilds. It was the wealthy merchants
and the craftsmen of the livery of the various fraternities
who rode in procession to welcome kings or ambassadors at
their entrance into the city, to add lustre to royal wedding
ceremonies, or give dignity to other state occasions. In
1483 four hundred and six members of livery companies
riding in mulberry colored coats attended the coronation
procession of Richard III. The mayors and sheriffs and
aldermen of London were almost always livery men in one
or another of the companies. A substantial fee had usually

1 50 Indiislrial and Social Histoiy of England

to be paid when a member was chosen into the livery,
which again indicates that they were the wealthier members.
Those of the livery controlled the policy of the gild to the
exclusion of the less conspicuous members, even though
these were also independent masters with journeymen and
apprentices of their own.

But the practical administration of the affairs of the
wealthier companies came in many cases to be in the
hands of a still smaller group of members. This group
was often known as the " Court of Assistants," and
consisted of some twelve, twenty, or more members who
possessed higher rights than the others, and, with the
wardens or other officials, decided disputes, negotiated
with the government or other authorities, disposed of the
funds, and in other ways governed the organized craft or
trade. At a general meeting of the members of the Mercers
of London, for instance, on July 23, 1463, the following
resolution was passed ; " It is accorded that for the holding
of many courts and congregations of the fellowship, it is
odious and grievous to the body of the fellowship and
specially for matters of no great effect, that hereafter yearly
shall be chosen and associated to the wardens for the time
being twelve other sufficient persons to be assistants to the
said wardens, and all matters by them finished to be holden
firm and stable, and the fellowship to abide by them." Six-
teen years later these assistants with the wardens were given
the right to elect their successors.

Thus before the close of the sixteenth century the craft
and trading organizations had gone through a very consider-
able internal change. In the fourteenth century they had
been bodies of masters of approximately equal position, in
which the journeymen participated in some of the elements
of membership, and would for the most part in due time

Breaking up of MedicBval System 1 5 1

become masters and full members. Now the journeymen
had become for the most part a separate class, without
prospect of mastership. Among the masters themselves
a distinct division between the more and the less wealthy
had taken place, and an aristocratic form of government
had grown up which put the practical control of each of the
companies in the hands of a comparatively small, self-per-
petuating ruling body. These developments were all more
marked, possibly some of them were only true, in the case
of the London companies. London, also, so far as known,
is the only English town in which the companies were divided
into two classes, the twelve " Greater Companies," and the
fifty or more "Lesser Companies" ; the former having prac-
tical control of the government of the city, the latter having
no such influence.

39. Change of Location of Industries. — The changes
described above were, as has been said, the result of
development from within the craft and trading organizations
themselves, resulting probably in the main from increasing
wealth. There were other contemporary changes in these
companies which were rather the result of external influ-
ences. One of these external factors was the old difficulty
which arose from artisans and traders who were not mem-
bers of the organized companies. There had always been
men who had carried on work surreptitiously outside of the
limits of the authorized organizations of their respective
industries. They had done this from inability or unwilling-
ness to conform to the requirements of gild membership,
or from a desire to obtain more employment by underbid-
ding in price, or additional profit by using unapproved
materials or methods. Most of the bodies of ordinances
mention such workmen and traders, men who have not
gone through a regular apprenticeship, " foreigners " who

152 Industrial and Social History of England

have come in from some other locality and are not freemen
of the city where they wish to work, irresponsible men who
will not conform to the established rules of the trade.
This class of persons was becoming more numerous through
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, notwithstanding the
efforts of the gilds, supported by municipal and national
authority. The prohibition of any workers setting up busi-
ness in a town unless they had previously obtained the
approval of the officials of their trade was more and more
vigorous in the later ordinances ; the fines imposed upon
masters who engaged journeymen who had not paid the
due.s, newcomers into the town, were higher. The com-
plaints of the intrusion of outsiders were more loud and
frequent. There was evidently more unsupervised, unregu-
lated labor.

But the increase in the number of these unorganized labor-
ers, these craftsmen and traders not under the control of the
gilds, was most marked in the rural districts, that is to say,
in market towns and in villages entirely outside of the old
manufacturing and trading centres. Even in the fourteenth
century there were a number of weavers, and probably of
other craftsmen, who worked in the villages in the vicinity
of the larger towns, such as London, Norwich, and York,
and took their products to be sold on fair or market days in
these towns. But toward the end of the fifteenth century
this rural labor received a new kind of encouragement
and a corresponding extension far beyond anything before
existing. The English clothmaking industry at this period
was increasing rapidly. Whereas during the earlier periods,
as we have seen, wool was the greatest of English exports,
now it was coming to be manufactured within the country.
In connection with tliis manufacture a new kind of industrial
organization began to show itself which, when it was com-

Breaking np of Meditvval System 153

pleted, became known as the " domestic system." A class
of merchants or manufacturers arose who are spoken of as
"clothiers," or "merchant clothiers," who bought the wool
or other raw material, and gave it out to carders or combers,
spinners, weavers, fullers, and other craftsmen, paying them
for their respective parts in the process of manufacture, and
themselves disposing of the product at home or for export.
The clothiers were in this way a new class of employers,
putting the master weavers or other craftsmen to work for
wages. The latter still had their journeymen and appren-
tices, but the initiative in their industry was taken by the
merchants, who provided the raw material and much of the
money capital, and took charge of the sale of the com-
pleted goods. The craftsmen who were employed in this
form of industry did not usually dwell in the old populous
and wealthy towns. It is probable that the restrictions of
the gild ordinances were disadvantageous both to the cloth-
iers and to the small master craftsmen, and that the latter,
as well as journeymen who had no chance to obtain an
independent position, now that the town craft organizations
were under the control of the more wealthy members, were
very ready to migrate to rural villages. Thus, in as far as
the weaving industry was growing up under the manage-
ment of the employing clothiers, it was slipping out from
under the control of the town gilds by its location in the
country. The same thing occurred in other cases, even
without the intermediation of a new employing class. We
hear of mattress makers, of rope makers, of tile makers,
and other artisans establishing themselves in the country
villages outside of the towns, where, as a law of 1495 says,
" the wardens have no power or authority to make search."
In certain parts of England, in the southwest, the west, and
the northwest, independent weavers now set up for them-

I 54 Industrial and Social History of England

selves in rural districts as those of the eastern counties had
long done, buying their own raw materials, bringing their
manufactures to completion, and then taking them to the
neighboring towns and markets to sell, or hawking them
through the rural districts.

These changes, along with others occurring simultaneously,
led to a considerable diminution of the prosperity of many
of the large towns. They were not able to pay their usual
share of taxation, the population of some of them declined,
whole streets or quarters, when destroyed by fire or other
catastrophe, were left unbuilt and in ruins. Many of the
largest and oldest towns of England are mentioned in the
statutes of the reign of Henry VIII as being more or less
depleted in population. The laws and literature of the
time are ringing with complaints of the " decay of the
towns," where the reference is to cities, as well as where it
is to rural villages. Certain new towns, it is true, were
rising into greater importance, and certain rural districts
were becoming populous with this body of artisans whose
living was made partly by their handicraft, partly by small
farming. Nevertheless the old city craft organizations were
permanently weakened and impoverished by thus losing
control of such a large proportion of their various industries.
The occupations which were carried on in the country were
pursued without supervision by the gilds. They retained
control only of that part of industry which was still carried
on in the towns.

40. The Influence of the Government on the Gilds. —
Internal divisions and external changes in the distribution
of industry were therefore alike tending to weaken the gild
organization. It had to suffer also from the hostility or
intrusion of the national government. Much of the policy
of the government tended, it is true, as in the case of the

Breaking up of Mediaval System 1 5 5

enclosures, to check the changes in progress, and thus to
protect the gild system. It has been seen that laws were
passed to prohibit the exclusion of apprentices and journey-
men from full membership in the crafts. As early as 1464
a law was passed to regulate the growing system of employ-
ment of craftsmen by clothiers. This was carried further
in a law of 15 11, and further still in 155 1 and 1555. The
manufacture of rope in the country parts of Dorsetshire
was prohibited and restricted to the town of Bridport in
1529 ; the cloth manufacture which was growing up through
the " hamlets, thorps, and villages " in Worcestershire was
forbidden in 1553 to be carried on except in the five old
towns of Worcester, Evesham, Droitwich, Kidderminster,
and Bromsgrove ; in 1543 it was enacted that coverlets
were not to be manufactured in Yorkshire outside of the
city of York, and there was still further legislation in the
same direction. Numerous acts were also passed for the
purpose of restoring the populousness of the towns. There
is, however, little reason to believe that these laws had
much more effect in preventing the narrowing of the con-
trol of the gilds and the scattering of industries from the
towns to the country than the various laws against enclo-
sures had, and the latter object was practically surrendered
by the numerous exceptions to it in laws passed in 1557,
1558, and 1575. All the laws favoring the older towns
were finally repealed in 1623.

Another class of laws may seem to have favored the craft
organizations. These were the laws regulating the carrying
on of various industries, in some of which the enforce-
ment of the laws was intrusted to the gild authorities. The
statute book during the sixteenth century is filled with laws
" for the true making of pins," " for the making of friezes
and cottons in Wales," " for the true currying of leather,"

1 56 Industrial mid Social History of England

"for the making of iron gads," "for setting prices on wines,"
for tlie regulation of the coopers, the tanners, the makers
of woollen cloth, the dyers, the tallow chandlers, the saddlers
and girdlers, and dozens of other occupations. But al-
though in many of these laws the wardens of the appropriate
crafts are given authority to carry out the requirements
of tlie statute, either of themselves or along with the town
officials or the justices of the peace ; yet, after all, it is the
rules established by government that they are to carry out,
not their own rules, and in many of the statutes the craft
authorities are entirely ignored. This is especially true
of the " Statute of Apprentices," passed in the fifth year
of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1563. This great indus-
trial code, which remained on the statute book for two
hundred and fifty years, being repealed only in 1813, was pri-
marily a reenactment of the statutes of laborers, which had
been continued from time to time ever since their introduc-
tion in 1349. It made labor compulsory and imposed on
the justices of the peace the duty of meeting in each locality
once a year to establish wages for each kind of industry.
It required a seven years' apprenticeship for every person
who should engage in any trade ; established a working day
of twelve hours in summer and during daylight in winter ;
and enacted that all engagements, except those for piece
work, should be by the year, with si.x; months' notice of a
close of the contract by either employer or employee. By
this statute all the relations between master and journey-
man and the rules of apprenticeship were regulated by the
government instead of by the individual craft gilds. It is
evident that the old trade organizations were being super-
seded in much of their work by the national government.
Freedom of action was also restricted by the same power
in other respects also. As early as 1436 a law had been

Breaking 7tp of McdicEval System

157

passed, declaring that the ordinances made by the gilds
were in many cases unreasonable and injurious, requiring
them to submit their existing ordinances to the justices at
Westminster, and prohibiting them from issuing any new

Residence of Chantry Priests of Altar of St. Nicholas,
NEAR Lincoln Cathedral.

{Doiitcsiic Architecture in the Fciirtectith Century.^

ones until they had received the approval of these officials.
There is no indication of the enforcement of tliis law. In
1504, however, it was reenacted with the modification that
approval might be sought from the justices on circuit. In

158 Industrial and Social History of England

1530 the same requirement was again included in the law
already referred to prohibiting excessive entrance fees.
As the independent legislation of the gilds for their indus-
tries was already much restricted by the town governments,
their remaining power to make rules for themselves must
now have been very slight. Their power of jurisdiction was
likewise limited by a law passed in 1504, prohibiting the
companies from making any rule forbidding their members
to appeal to the ordinary national courts in trade disputes.
But the heaviest blow to the gilds on the part of the gov-
ernment came in 1547, as a result of the Reformation. Both
the organizations formed for the control of the various
industries, the craft gilds, and those which have been
described in Chapter III as non-industrial, social, or reli-
gious gilds, had property in their possession which had been
bequeathed or given to them by members on condition that
the gild would always support or help to support a priest,
should see that mass was celebrated for the soul of the
donor and his family, should keep a light always burning
before a certain shrine, or for other religious objects.
These objects were generally looked upon as superstitious
by the reformers who became influential under Edward VI,
and in the first year of his reign a statute was passed which
confiscated to the crown, to be used for educational or other
purposes, all the property of every kind of the purely reli-
gious and social gilds, and that part of the property of the
craft gilds which was employed by them for religious pur-
poses. One of the oldest forms of voluntary organization
in England therefore came to an end altogether, and one
of the strongest bonds which had held the members of the
craft gilds together as social bodies was removed. After
this time the companies had no religious functions, and
were besides deprived of a considerable proportion of their

Breaking up of Medieval System I 59

wealth. This blow fell, moreover, just at a time when all
the economic influences were tending toward their weaken-
ing or actual disintegration.

The trade and craft companies of London, like those of
other towns, were called upon at first to pay over to the gov-
ernment annually the amount which they had before used for
religious purposes. Three years after the confiscation they
were required to pay a lump sum representing the capi-
talized value of this amount, estimated for the London com-
panies at ;^20,ooo. In order to do so they were of course
forced to sell or mortgage much of their land. That which
they succeeded in retaining, however, or bought subse-
quently was relieved of all government charges, and being
situated for the most part in the heart of London, ultimately
became extremely valuable and is still in their possession.
So far have the London companies, however, departed from
their original purpose that their members have long ceased
to have any connection with the occupations from which
the bodies take their names.

41. General Causes and Evidences of the Decay of the
Gilds. — An analogous narrowing of the interests of the
crafts occurred in the form of a cessation of the mystery
plays. Dramatic shows continued to be brought out yearly
by the crafts in many towns well into the sixteenth century.
It is to be noticed, however, that this was no longer
done spontaneously. The town governments insisted that
the pageants should be provided as of old, and on the
approach of Corpus Christi day, or whatever festival was so
celebrated in the particular town, instructions were given for
their production, pecuniary help being sometimes provided
to assist the companies in their expense. The profit which
came to the town from the influx of visitors to see the pa-
geants was a great inducement to the town government to

i6o hidustrial and Social History of England

insist on their continuance. On the other hand, the com-
petition of dramas played by professional actors tended no
doubt to hasten the effect of the impoverishment and loss of
vitality of the gilds. In the last half of the sixteenth cen-
tury the mystery plays seem to have come finally to an end.

Thus the gilds lost the unity of their membership, were
weakened by the growth of industry outside of their sphere
of control, superseded by the government in many of their
economic functions, deprived of their administrative, legis-
lative, and jurisdictional freedom, robbed of their religious
duties and of the property which had enabled them to ful-
fil them, and no longer possessed even the bond of their
dramatic interests. So the fraternities which had embodied
so much of the life of the people of the towns during the
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries now came to
include within their organization fewer and fewer persons
and to affect a smaller and smaller part of their interests.
Although the companies continued to exist into later times,
yet long before the close of the period included in this
chapter they had become relatively inconspicuous and in-
significant.

One striking evidence of their diminished strength, and
apparently a last effort to keep the gild organization in ex-
istence, is the curious combination or consolidation of the
companies under the influence of the city governments.
Numerous instances of the combination of several trades are
to be found in the records of every town, as for instance the
" company of goldsmiths and smiths and others their breth-
ren," at Hull in 1598, which consisted of goldsmiths,
smiths, pewterers, plumbers and glaziers, painters, cutlers,
musicians, stationers and bookbinders, and basket-makers.
A more striking instance is to be found in Ipswich in 1576,
where the various occupations were all drawn up into four

Breaking up of Mediceval System i6i

companies, as follows: (i) The Mercers; including the
mariners, shipwrights, bookbinders, printers, fishmongers,
sword-setters, cooks, fletchers, arrowhead- makers, physi-
cians, hatters, cappers, mercers, merchants, and several
others. (2) The Drapers; including the joiners, car-
penters, innholders, freemasons, bricklayers, tilers, carriers,
casket-makers, surgeons, clothiers, and some others.
(3) The Tailors ; including the cutlers, smiths, barbers,
chandlers, pewterers, minstrels, pedlers, plumbers, pinners,
millers, millwrights, coopers, shearmen, glaziers, turners,
tinkers, tailors, and others. (4) The Shoemakers ; includ-
ing the curriers, collar-makers, saddlers, pointers, cobblers,
skinners, tanners, butchers, carters, and laborers. Each of
these four companies was to have an alderman and two
wardens, and all outsiders who came to the town and wished
to set up trade were to be placed by the town officials in
one or the other of the four companies. The basis of union
in some of these combinations was evidently the similarity
of their occupations, as the various workers in leather among
the " Shoemakers." In other cases there is no such simi-
larity, and the only foundation that can be surmised for the
particular grouping is the contiguity of the streets where the
greatest number of particular artisans lived, or their pro-
portionate wealth. Later, this process reached its culmina-
tion in such a case as that of Preston in 1628, where all the
tradesmen of the town were organized as one company or
fraternity called "The Wardens and Company of Drapers,
Mercers, Grocers, Salters, Ironmongers, and Haberdash-
ers." The craft and trading gilds in their medieval charac-
ter had evidently come to an end.

42. The Growth of Native Commerce. — The most dis-
tinctive characteristic of English foreign trade down to the
middle of the fifteenth century consisted in the fact that it

1 62 Industrial and Social History of England

hn.d been entirely in the hands of foreigners. The period
under discussion saw it transferred with quite as great com-
pleteness to the hands of Englishmen. Even before 1450
trading vessels had occasionally been sent out from the
English seaport towns on more or less extensive voyages,
carrying out Enghsh goods, and bringing back those of
other countries or of other parts of England. These ves-
sels sometimes belonged to the town governments, some-
times to individual merchants. This kind of enterprise
became more and more common. Individual merchants
grew famous for the number and size of their ships and the
extent of their trade ; as for instance, William Canynges of
Bristol, who in 1461 had ten vessels at sea, or Sturmys of
the same town, who at about the same time sent the first
English vessel to trade with the eastern Mediterranean, or
John Taverner of Hull, who built in 1449 ^ ^^'^ type of ves-
sel modelled on the carracks of Genoa and the galleys of
Venice. In the middle of the fourteenth century the long-
est list of merchants of any substance that could be drawn
up contained only 169 names. At the beginning of the six-
teenth century there were at least 3000 merchants engaged
in foreign trade, and in 1601 there were about 3500 trading
to the Netherlands alone. These merchants exported the
old articles of English production and to a still greater ex-
tent textile goods, the manufacture of which was growing
so rapidly in England. The export of wool came to an end
during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but the export of
woven cloth was more than enough to take its place. There
was not so much cloth now imported, but a much greater
variety and quantity of food-stuffs and wines, of articles of
fine manufacture, and of the special products of the coun-
tries to which English trade extended.

The entrance of English vessels into ports of towns or

Breaking 7ip of MedicEval System 163

countries whose own vessels had been accustomed to the
control of the trade with England, or where the old com-
mercial towns of the Hanseatic League, of Flanders, or
of Italy had valuable trading concessions, was not obtained
\\'ithout difficulty, and there was a constant succession of
conflicts more or less violent, and of disputes between
English and foreign sailors and merchants. The progress
of English commerce was, however, facilitated by the de-
cay in the prosperity of many of these older trading towns.
The growth of strong governments in Denmark, Sweden,
Norway, Poland, and Russia resulted in a withdrawal of
privileges which the Hanseatic League had long possessed,
and internal dissensions made the League very much weaker
in the later fifteenth century than it had been during the cen-
tury and a half before. The most important single occur-
rence showing this tendency was the capture of Novgorod
by the Russian Czar and his expulsion of the merchants of
the Hanse from their settlement in that commercial centre.
In the same way most of the towns along the south coast
of the Baltic came under the control of the kingdom of
Poland.

A similar change came about in Flanders, where the
semi-independent towns came under the control of the
dukes of Burgundy. These sovereigns had political interests
too extensive to be subordinated to the trade interests of
individual towns in their dominions. Thus it was that
Bruges now lost much of its prosperity, while Antwerp be-
came one of the greatest commercial cities of Europe.
Trading rights could now be obtained from centralized gov-
ernments, and were not dependent on the interest or the
antagonism of local merchants.

In Italy other influences were leading to much the same
results. The advance of Turkish conquests was gradually

164 Industrial and Social History of England

increasing the difficulties of the Eastern trade, and the
discovery of the route around the Cape of Good Hope in
149S finally diverted that branch of commerce into new
lines. English merchants gained access to some of this
new Elastern trade through their connection with Portugal, a
country advantageously situated to inherit the former trade
of Italy and southern Germany. Enghsh commerce also
profited by the predominance which Florence obtained over
Pisa, Genoa, and other trading towns. Thus conditions on
the Continent were strikingly favorable to the growing com-
mercial enterprise of England.

43. The Merchants Adventurers. — English merchants
who exported and imported goods in their own vessels were,
with the exception of the staplers or exporters of wool and
other staple articles, usually spoken of as "adventurers,"
" venturers," or " merchants adventurers." This term is used
in three different senses. Sometimes it simply means mer-
chants who entered upon adventure or risk by sending their
goods outside of the country to new or unrecognized
markets, as the "adventurers to Iceland," "adventurers to
Spain." Again, it is applied to groups of merchants in
various towns who were organized for mutual protection or
other advantage, as the "fishmongers adventurers" who
brought their complaints before the Royal Council in 1542,
"The Master, Wardens, and Commonalty of Merchant Ven-
turers, of Bristol," existing apparently in the fourteenth
century, fully organized by 1467, and incorporated in 1552,
"The Society of Merchants Adventurers of Newcastle upon
Tyne," or the similar bodies at York and Exeter.

But by far the most frequent use of the term is that by
which it was applied to those merchants who traded to the
Netheilands and adjacent countries, especially as exporters
of cloth, and who came within this period to be recognized

Breaking 2ip of Mediceval Syste'm 165

and incorporated as the "Merchants Adventurers" in a
special sense, with headquarters abroad, a coat of arms
of their own, extensive privileges, great wealth, influence,
and prominence. These English merchants, trading to the
Netherlands in other articles than those controlled by the
Staplers, apparently received privileges of trade from
the duke of Brabant as early as the thirteenth century, and
the right of settling their own disputes before their own
"consul" in the fourteenth. But their commercial enter-
prises must have been quite insignificant, and it was only
during the fifteenth century that they became numerous and
their trade in English cloth extensive. Just at the beginning
of this century, in 1407, the king of P^ngland gave a general
charter to all merchants trading beyond seas to assemble in
definite places and choose for themselves consuls or gov-
ernors to arrange for their common trade advantage. After
this time, certainly by the middle of the century, the regular
series of governors of the English merchants in the Nether-
lands was established, one of the earliest being William
Caxton, afterward the founder of printing in England. On
the basis of these concessions and of the privileges and
charters granted by the home government the " Merchants
Adventurers " gradually became a distinct organization, with
a definite membership which was obtained by payment of
a sum which gradually rose from 6^. Zd. to ^{^20, until it was
reduced by a law of Parliament in 1497 to ^6 I3J-. 4^/.
They had local branches in England and on the Continent.
In 1498 they were granted a coat of arms by Henry VII,
and in 1503 by royal charter a distinct form of government
under a governor and twenty-four assistants. In 1564 they
were incorporated by a royal charter by the title of " The
Merchants Adventurers of England." Long before that time
they had become by far the largest and most influential

1 66 Industrial and Social History of England

company of English exporting merchants. It is said that
the Merchants Adventurers furnished ten out of the sixteen
London ships sent to join the fleet against the Armada.

Most of their members were London mercers, though
there were also in the society members of other London
companies, and traders whose homes were in other English
towns than London. The meetings of the company in Lon-
don were held for a long while in the Mercers' hall, and their
records were kept in the same minute book as those of the
Mercers until 1526. On the Continent their principal office,
hall, or gathering place, the residence of their Governor and
location of the "Court," or central government of the com-
pany, was at different times at Antwerp, Bruges, Calais,
Hamburg, Stade, Groningen and Middleburg; for the
longest time probably at the first of these places. The
larger part of the foreign trade of England during the fif-
teenth and most of the sixteenth century was carried on
and extended as well as controlled and regulated by this
great commercial company.

During the latter half of the sixteenth century, however,
other companies of merchants were formed to trade with
various countries, most of them receiving a government
charter and patronage. Of these the Russia or Muscovy
Company obtained recognition from the government in
1554, and in 1557, when an ambassador from that country
came to London, a hundred and fifty merchants trading
to Russia received him in state. In 158 1 the Levant or
Turkey Company was formed, and its members carried
their merchandise as far as the Persian Gulf. In 15 85 the
Barbary or Morocco Company was formed, but seems to
have failed. In 1588, however, a Guinea Company began
trading, and in 1600 the greatest of all, the East India
Company, was chartered. The expeditions sent out by the

Breaking up of Mediceval System 167

Bristol merchants and then by the king under the Cabots,
those other voyages so full of romance in search of a north-
west or a northeast passage to the Orient, and the no less
adventurous efforts to gain entrance to the Spanish posses-
sions in the west, were a part of the same effort of com-
mercial companies or interests to carry their trading into
new lands.

44. Government Encouragement of Commerce. — Before
the accession of Henry VII it is almost impossible to dis-
cover any deliberate or continuous policy of the government
in commercial matters. From this time forward, however,
through the whole period of the Tudor monarchs a tolerably
consistent plan was followed of favoring English merchants
and placing burdens and restrictions upon foreign traders.
The merchants from the Hanse towns, with their dwellings,
warehouses, and offices at the Steelyard in London, were
subjected to a narrower interpretation of the privileges
which they possessed by old and frequently renewed grants.
In 1493 English customs officers began to intrude upon their
property ; in 1504 especially heavy penalties were threatened
if they should send any cloth to the Netherlands during the
war between the king and the duke of Burgundy. During
the reign of Henry VIII the position of the Hansards was
on the whole easier, but in 1551 their special privileges
were taken away, and they were put in the same position
as all other foreigners. There was a partial regrant of
advantageous conditions in the early part of the reign of
Elizabeth, but finally, in 1578, they lost their privileges for-
ever. As a matter of fact, German traders now came more
and more rarely to England, and their settlement above
London Bridge was practically deserted.

The fleet from Venice also came less and less frequently.
Under Henry VIII for a period of nine years no fleet came

1 68 Industrial and Social History of England

to English ports ; then after an expedition had been sent
out from Venice in 15 17, and again in 15 21, another nine
years passed by. The fleet came again in 1531, 1532, and
1533, ^'^^ even afterward from time to time occasional
private Venetian vessels came, till a group of them suffered
shipwreck on the southern coast in 1587, after which the
Venetian flag disappeared entirely from those waters.

In the meantime a series of favorable commercial treaties
were made in various directions by Henry VII and his
successors. In 1490 he made a treaty with the king of
Denmark by which English merchants obtained liberty to
trade in that country, in Norway, and in Iceland. Within
the same year a similar treaty was made with I'lorence, by
which the English merchants obtained a monopoly of the
sale of wool in the Florentine dominions, and the right to
have an organization of their own there, which should settle
trade disputes among themselves, or share in the settle-
ment of their disputes with foreigners. In 1496 the old
trading relations with the Netherlands were reestablished
on a firmer basis than ever by the treaty which has come
in later times to be known as the Interciirsus Magnus. In
the same year commercial advantages were obtained from
France, and in 1499 from Spain. Few opportunities were
missed by the government during this period to try to
secure favorable conditions for the growing English trade.
Closely connected as commercial policy necessarily was
with political questions, the former was always a matter of
interest to the government, and in all the ups and downs
of the relations of England with the Continental countries
during the sixteenth century the foothold gained by Eng-
lish merchants was always preserved or regained after a
temporary loss.

The closely related question of English ship-building was

Breaking tip of AledicBval System 169

also a matter of government encouragement. In 1485 a
law was passed declaring that wines of the duchies of
Guienne and Gascony should be imported only in vessels
which were English property and manned for the most
part by Englishmen. In 1489 woad, a dyestuff from
southern France, was included, and it was ordered that
merchandise to be exported from England or imported into
England should never be shipped in foreign vessels if
sufficient English vessels were in the harbor at the time.
Although this policy was abandoned during the short reign
of Edward VI it was renewed and made permanent under
Elizabeth. By indirect means also, as by the encourage-
ment of fisheries, English seafaring was increased.

As a result of these various forms of commercial influ-
ence, the enterprise of individual English merchants, the
formation of trading companies, the assistance given by the
government through commercial treaties and favoring stat-
utes, English commerce became vastly greater than it had
ever been before, reaching to Scandinavia and Russia, to
Germany and the Netherlands, to France and Spain, to
Italy and the eastern Mediterranean, and even occasionally
to America. Moreover, it had come almost entirely into
the hands of Englishmen ; and the goods exported and
imported were carried for the most part in ships of Eng-
lish build and ownership, manned by English sailors.

45. The Currency. — The changes just described were
closely connected with contemporary changes in the gold
and silver currency. Shillings were coined for tlie first
time in the reign of Henry VII, a pound weight of standard
silver being coined into 37 shillings and 6 pence. In 1527
Henry VIII had the same amount of metal coined into 40
shillings, and later in the year, into 45 shillings. In 1543
coin silver was changed from the old standard of 1 1 ounces

I/O Industrial and Social History of England

2 pennyweights of pure silver to i8 pennyweights of alloy,
so as to consist of lo ounces of silver to 2 ounces of alloy;
and this was coined into 48 shillings. In 1545 the coin
metal was made one-half silver, one-half alloy; in 1546,
one-third silver, two-thirds alloy; and in 1550, one-fourth
silver, three-fourths alloy. The gold coinage was corre-
spondingly though not so excessively debased. The lowest
point of debasement for both silver and gold was reacheil
in 1551. In 1560 Queen Elizabeth began the work of
restoring the currency to something like its old standard.
The debased money was brought to the mints, where the
government paid the value of the pure silver in it. Money
of a high standard and permanently established weight
was then issued in its place. Much of the confusion and
distress prevalent during the reigns of Henry VIII and
Edward VI was doubtless due to this selfish and unwise
monetary policy.

At about the same time a new influence on the national
currency came into existence. Strenuous but not very
successful efforts had long been made to draw bullion into
England and prevent English money from being taken out.
Now some of the silver and gold which was being extorted
from the natives and extracted from the mines of Mexico
and Peru by the Spaniards began to make its way into
England, as into other countries of Europe. These Ameri-
can sources of supply became productive by about 1525,
but very little of this came into general European circula-
tion or reached England till the middle of the centur)'.
After about 1560, however, through trade, and sometimes
by even more direct routes, the amount of gold and silver
money in circulation in England increased enormously.
No reliable statistics exist, but there can be little doubt
that the amount of money in England, as in Europe at

Breaking up of McdicBval System 1 7 1

large, was doubled, trebled, quadrupled, or perhaps in-
creased still more largely within the next one hundred
years.

This increase of money produced many effects. One
of the most important was its effect on prices. These had
begun to rise in the early part of the century, principally
as a result of the debasement' of the coinage. In the
latter part of the century the rise was much greater, due
now, no doubt, to the influx of new money. Most com-
modities cost quite four times as much at the end of the
sixteenth century as they did at its beginning.

Another effect of the increased amount of currency
appeared in the greater ease with which the use of money
capital was obtained. Saving up and borrowing were both
more practicable. More capital was now in existence and
more persons could obtain the use of it. As a result,
manufacturing, trade, and even agriculture could now be
conducted on a more extensive scale, changes could be
introduced, and production was apt to be profitable, as
prices were increasing and returns would be greater even
than those calculated upon.

46. Interest. — Any extensive and varied use of capital
is closely connected with the payment of interest. In
accord with a strict interpretation of certain passages in
both the Old and the New Testament, the Middle Ages
regarded the payment of interest for the use of money as
wicked. Interest was the same as usury and was illegal.
As a matter of fact, most regular occupations in the Middle
Ages required very little capital, and this was usually owned
by the agriculturists, handicraftsmen, or merchants them-
selves ; so that borrowing was only necessary for personal
expenses or in occasional exigencies. With the enclosures,
sheep farming, consolidation of farms, and other changes

172 Industrial and Social History of England

in agriculture, with the beginning of manufacturing under
the control of capitalist manufacturers, with the more exten-
sive foreign trading and ship owning, and above all with
the increase in the actual amount of money in existence,
these circumstances were changed. It seemed natural that
money which one person had in his possession, but for
which he had no immediate use, should be loaned to
another who could use it for his own enterprises. These
enterprises might be useful to the community, advantageous
to himself, and yet profitable enough to allow him to pay
interest for the use of the money to the capitalist who
loaned it to him. As a matter of fact much money was
loaned and, legally or illegally, interest or usury was paid
for it. INIoreover, a change had been going on in legal
opinion parallel to these economic changes, and in 1545
a law was passed practically legalizing interest if it was
not at a higher rate than ten per cent. This was, how-
ever, strongly opposed by the religious opinion of the
time, especially among men of Puritan tendencies. They
seemed, indeed, to be partially justified by the fact that
the control of capital was used by the rich men of the
time in such a way as to cause great hardship. In 1552,
therefore, the law of 1545 was repealed, and interest,
except in the few forms in which it had always been
allowed, was again prohibited. But the tide soon turned,
and in 1571 interest up to ten per cent was again made
lawful. From that time forward the term usury was re-
stricted to excessive interest, and this alone was prohibited.
Vet the practice of receiving interest for the loan of money
was still generally condemned by writers on morals till
quite the end of this period ; though lawyers, merchants,
and popular opinion no longer disapproved of it if the
rate was moderate.

Breaking ii_p of Mcdiaval System 173

47. Paternal Government. — In many of the changes
which have been described in this chapter, the share
which government took was one of the most important
influences. In some cases, as in the laws against enclo-
sures, against the migration of industry from the towns to
the rural districts, and against usury, the policy of King
and Parliament was not successful in resisting the strong
economic forces which were at work. In others, however,
as in the oversight of industry, in the confiscation of the
property of the gilds devoted to religious uses, in the set-
tlement of the relations between employers and employees,
in the control of foreign commerce, the policy of the gov-
ernment really decided what direction changes should take.

As has been seen in this chapter, after the accession of
Henry VII there was a constant extension of the sphere of
government till it came to pass laws upon and provide for
and regulate almost all the economic interests of the nation.
This was a result, in the first place, of the breaking down
of those social institutions which had been most permanent
and stable in earlier periods. The manor system in the
country, landlord farming, the manor courts, labor dues,
serfdom, were passing rapidly away ; the old type of gilds,
city regulations, trading at fairs, were no longer so general ;
it was no longer foreigners who brought foreign goods to
England to be sold, or bought English goods for exporta-
tion. When these old customs were changing or passing
away, the national government naturally took charge to
prevent the threatened confusion of the process of dis-
integration. Secondly, the government itself, from the
latter part of the fifteenth century onward, became abler
and more vigorous, as has been pointed out in the first
paragraph of this chapter. The Privy Council of the king
exercised larger functions, and extended its jurisdiction

174 Industrial and Social Histoty of England

into new fields. Under these circumstances, when the
functions of the central government were being so widely
extended, it was altogether natural that they should come
to include the control of all forms of industrial life, includ-
ing agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, internal trade,
labor, and other social and economic relations. Thirdly,
the control of economic and social matters by the gov-
ernment was in accordance with contemporary opinions
and feelings. An enlightened absolutism seems to have
commended itself to the most thoughtful men of that time.
A paternalism which regulated a very wide circle of inter-
ests was unhesitatingly accepted and approved. As a result
of the decay of raedisval conditions, the strengthening of
national government, and the prevailing view of the proper
functions of government, almost all economic conditions
were regulated by the government to a degree quite un-
known before. In the early part of the period this regu-
lation was more minute, more intrusive, more evidently
directed to the immediate advantage of government ; but
by the close of Elizabeth's reign a systematic regulation
was established, which, while not controlling every detail
of industrial life, yet laid down the general lines along
which most of industrial life must run. Some parts of this
regulation have already been analyzed. Perhaps the best
instance and one of the most important parts of it is the
Statute of Apprentices of 1563, already described in para-
graph 40. In the same year, 1563, a statute was passed
full of minute regulations for the fishing and fish-dealing
trades. Foreign commerce was carried on by regulated
companies ; that is, companies having charters from the
government, giving them a monopoly of the trade with
certain countries, and laying down at least a part of the
rules under which that trade should be carried on. The

Breaking up of MedicBval System 175

importation of most kinds of finished goods and the expor-
tation of raw materials were prohibited. New industries
were encouraged by patents or other government conces-
sions. Many laws were passed, of which that of 1571, to
encourage the industry of making caps, is a type. This law
laid down the requirement that every person of six years
old and upward should wear on every Sunday and holy day
a woollen cap made in England.

The conformity to standard of manufactures was enforced
either by the officers of companies which were established
under the authority of the government or by government
officials or patentees, and many of the methods and stand-
ards of manufacture were themselves defined by statutes or
proclamation. In agriculture, while the policy was less con-
sistent, government regulation was widely applied. There
were laws, as has been noted, forbidding the possession of
more than two thousand sheep by any one landholder and
of more than two farms by any one tenant; laws requiring
the keeping of one cow and one calf for every sixty sheep,
and the raising a quarter of an acre of flax or hemp for
every sixty acres devoted to other crops. The most
characteristic laws for the regulation of agriculture, how-
ever, were those controlling the export of grain. In order
to prevent an excessive price, grain-raisers were not allowed
to export wheat or other grain when it was scarce in Eng-
land. When it was cheap and plenty, they were permitted
to do so, the conditions under which it was to be allowed
or forbidden being decided, according to a law of 1571, by
the justices of the peace of each locality, with the restric-
tion that none should be exported when the prevailing price
was more than \s. yi. a bushel, a limit which was raised to
2S. 6d. in 1592.

Thus, instead of industrial life being controlled and regu-

I "]& Indiisirial and Social Histoiy of Eiiglatid

lated by town governments, merchant and craft gilds, lords
of fairs, village communities, lords of manors and their
stewards, or other local bodies, it was now regulated in its
main features by the all-powerful national government.

48. BIBLIOORAPH^'

Professor Ashley's second volume is of especial value for
this period.

Green, Mrs. J. R. : Town Life in England in tlie Fif-
teenth. Century, two volumes.

Cheyney, E. P. : Soeial Clianges in England in the Six-
teenth Century, Fart I, Rural Changes.

A discussion of the legal character of villain tenure in
the sixteenth century will be found in articles by Mr. I. S.
Leadam, in The English Historical Review, for October,
1893, and in the Transactions of the English Royal His-
torical Society for 1892, 1S93, and 1894 ; and by Professor
Ashley in the Etiglish Historical Review for April, 1893,
and Annals of the American Academy of Folitical Science
for January, 1891. (Reprinted in English Economic His-
tory, Vol. II, Chap. 4.)

Bourne, H. R. F. : English Merchants.

Froude, J- A. : History of England. Many scattered pas-
sages of great interest refer to the economic and social
changes of this period, but they are frequently exaggerated,
and in some cases incorrect. Almost the same remark ap-
plies to Professor Rogers' Six Centuries of Work and
Wages and Industrial ami Commercial History of England.

Busch, Wilhelm : A History of England under the Tudors.
For the economic policy of Henry VII.

CHAPTER VII

THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND

Economic Changes ov the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth
Centuries

49. National Affairs from 1603 to 1760. — The last three
rulers of the Tudor family had died childless. James, king
of Scotland, their cousin, therefore inherited the throne and
became the first English king of the Stuart family. James
reigned from 1603 to 1625. Many of the political and
religious problems which had been created by the policy of
the Tudor sovereigns had now to come up for solution.
Parliament had long been restive under the almost autocratic
government of Queen Elizabeth, but the danger of foreign
invasion and internal rebellion, long-established habit, Eliza-
beth's personal popularity, her age, her sex, and her occa-
sional yielding, all combined to prevent any very outspoken
opposition. Under King James all these things were
changed. Yet he had even higher ideas of his personal
rights, powers, and duties as king than any of his predeces-
sors. Therefore during the whole of the reign dispute and
ill feeling existed between the king, his ministers, and many
of the judges and other officials, on the one hand, and the
majority of the House of Commons and among the middle
and upper classes of the country, on the other. James
would willingly have avoided calling Parliament altogether
and would have carried on the government according to his
own judgment and that of the ministers he selected, but it

N 177

1 78 Industrial and Social History of England

was absolutely necessary to assemble it for the passing of
certain laws, and above all for the authorization of taxes to
obtain the means to carry on the government. The fall in
the value of gold and silver and the consequent rise of
prices, and other economic changes, had reduced the
income of the government just at a time when its necessary
expenses were increasing, and when a spendthrift king was
making profuse additional outlays. Finances were there-
fore a constant difficulty during his reign, as in fact they
remained during the whole of the seventeenth century.

In religion James wished to maintain the middle course
of the established church as it had been under Elizabeth.
He was even less inclined to harsh treatment of the Roman
Catholics. On the other hand, the tide of Puritan feeling
appealing for greater strictness and earnestness in the
church and a more democratic form of church government
was rising higher and higher, and with this a desire to expel
the Roman Catholics altogether. The House of Commons
represented this strong Protestant feeling, so that still
another cause of conflict existed between King and Parlia-
ment. Similarly, in foreign affairs and on many other ques-
tions James was at cross purposes with the main body of the
English nation.

This reign was the period of foundation of England's
great colonial empire. The effort to establish settlements
on the North American coast were at last successful in Vir-
ginia and New England, and soon after in the West
Indies. Still other districts were being settled by other
European nations, ultimately to be absorbed by England.
On the other side of the world the East India Company
began its progress toward the subjugation of India. Nearer
home, a new policy was carried out in Ireland, by which
largi^ numbers of English and Scotch immigrants were

Tlie Expansion of England 179

induced to settle in Ulster, the northernmost province.
Thus that process was begun by which men of English race
and language, living under English institutions and customs,
have established centres of population, wealth, and influence
in so many parts of the world.

Charles I came to the throne in 1625. Most of the
characteristics of the period of James continued until the
quarrels between King and Parliament became so bitter
that in 1642 civil war broke out. The result of four years
of fighting was the defeat and capture of the king. .After
fruitless attempts at a satisfactory settlement Charles was
brought to trial by Parliament in 1649, declared guilty of
treason, and executed.

A republican form of government was now established,
known as the " Commonwealth," and kingship and the
House of Lords were abolished. The army, however, had
come to have a will of its own, and quarrels between its
officers and the majority of Parliament were frequent.
Both Parliament and army had become unpopular, taxation
was heavy, and religious disputes troublesome. The ma-
jority in Parliament had carried the national church so far
in the direction of Puritanism that its excesses had brought
about a strong reactionary feeling. Parliament had already
sat for more than ten years, hence called the " Long Parlia-
ment," and had become corrupt and despotic. Under
these circumstances, one modification after another was
made in the form of government until in 1653 Oliver
Cromwell, the commander of the army and long the most
influential man in Parliament, dissolved that body by mili-
tary force and was made Lord Protector, with powers not
very different from those of a king. There was now a
period of good order and great military and naval success
for England ; Scotland and Ireland, both of which had de-

i8o Industrial and Social History of England

Glared against the Commonwealth, were reduced to obedi-
ence, and successful foreign wars were waged. But at home
the government did not succeed in obtaining either popu-
larity or general acceptance. Parliament after Parliament
was called, but could not agree with the Protector. In 1657
Cromwell was given still higher powers, but in 1658 he died.
His son, Richard Cromwell, was installed as Protector.
The republican government had, however, been gradually
drifting back toward the old royal form and spirit, so when
the new Lord Protector proved to be unecjual to the posi-
tion, when the array became rebellious again, and the
country threatened to fall into anarchy, Monk, an influen-
tial general, brought about the reassembling of the Long
Parliament, and this body recalled the aSn of Charles I to
take his hereditary seat as king. _^,^ir

This event occurred in 1660, and is known as the Restora-
tion. Charles II reigned for twenty-five years. His reign
was in one of its aspects a time of reaction in manners and
morals against the over-strictness of the former Puritan
control. In government, notwithstanding the independent
position of the king, it was the period when some of the
most important mjjlern institutions came into existence.
Permanent political parties were formed then for the first
time. It was then that the custom arose by which the
ministers of the government are expected to resign when
there proves to be a majority in Parliament against them.
It was then that a " cabinet," or group of ministers acting
together and responsible for the policy of the king, was first
formed. The old form of the established church came
again into power, and harsh laws were enacted against
Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, and members of the other
sects which had grown up during the earlier part of the
century.

The Expansion of England i8i

It was to escape these oppressive laws that many emi-
grated to the colonies in America and established new
settlements. Not only was the stream of emigration kept
up by religious persecutions, but the prosperity and abun-
dant opportunity for advancement furnished by the colonies
attracted great numbers. The government of the Stuart
kings, as well as that of the Commonwealth, constantly
encouraged distant settlements for the sake of commerce,
shipping, the export of English manufactured goods, and
the import of raw materials. The expansion of the country
through its colonial settlements therefore still continued.

The great literature which reached its climax in the reign
of Elizabeth continued in equal variety and abundance
throughout the reigns of James and Charles. The greater
plays of Shakespeare were written after the accession of
James. Milton belonged to the Commonwealth period, and
Bunj'an, the famous author of Pilgrim's Progress, was one
of those non-conformists in religion who were imprisoned
under Charles II. With this reign, however, quite a new
literary type arose, whose most conspicuous representative
was Dryden.

In 1685 James II succeeded his brother. Instead of
carrying on the government in a spirit of concession to
national feeling, he adopted such an unpopular policy that
in 1688 he was forced to flee from England, and his son-in-
law and daughter, William and Mary, were elected to the
throne. On their accession Parliament passed and the
king and queen accepted a " Bill of Rights." This declared
the illegality of a number of actions which recent sovereigns
had claimed the right to do, and guaranteed to Englishmen
a number of important individual rights, which have since
been included in many other documents, especially in the
constitutions of several of the American states and the first

1 82 Industrial and Social History of England

ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
The Bill of Rights is often grouped with the Great Charter,
and these two documents, along with several of the Acts of
the Parliaments of Charles I accepted by the king, make the
principal written elements of the English constitution. The
form and powers attained by the English government have
been, however, rather the result of slight changes from time
to time, often without intention of influencing the constitu-
tion, than of any deliberate action. Important examples of
this are certain customs of legislation which grew up under
William and Mary. The Mutiny Act, by which the array is
kept up, was only passed for one year at a time. The grant
of taxes was also only made annually. Parliament must
therefore be called every year in order to obtain money to
carry on the work of government, and in order to keep up
the military organization.

As a result of the Revolution of i6S8, as the deposition
of James II. and the appointment of William and INIary are
called, and of the changes which succeeded it, Parliament
gradually became the most powerful part of government,
and the House of Commons the strongest part of Parlia-
ment. The king's ministers came more and more to carry
out the will of Parliament rather than that of the king.
Somewhat later the custom grew up by which one of the
ministers by presiding over the whole Cabinet, nominating
its members to the king, representing it in interviews with
the king, and in other ways giving unity to its action, cre-
ated the position of prime minister. Thus the modern Par-
liamentary organization of the government was practically
complete before the middle of the eighteenth century.
William and Mary died childless, and Anne, Mary's sister,
succeeded, and reigned till 1714. She also left no heir. In
the meantime arrangements had been made to set aside

The Expansion of England 183

the descendants of James II, who were Ronnan CathoHcs,
and to give the succession to a distant line of Protestant
descendants of James I. In this way George I, Elector of
Hanover, of the house of Brunswick, became king, reigned
till 1727, and was succeeded by George II, who reigned till
1760. The sovereigns of England have been of this family
ever since.

The years following the Revolution of 168S were a time
of almost constant warfare on the Continent, in the colonies,
and at sea. In many of these wars the real interests of
England were but slightly concerned. In others her colo-
nial and native dependencies were so deeply affected as to
make them veritable national wars. Just at the close of the
period, in 1763, the war known in Europe as the Seven
Years' War and in America as the French and Indian War
was brought to an end by the peace of Paris. This peace
drew the outlines of the widespread empire of Great Britain,
for it handed over to her Canada, the last of the French
possessions in America, and guaranteed her the ultimate
predominance in India.

50. The Extension of Agriculture. — During the seven-
teenth and the first half of the eighteenth century there are
no such fundamental changes in social organization to chron-
icle as during the preceding century and a half. During
the first hundred years of the period the whole energy of
the nation seems to have been thrown into pohtical and
religious contests. Later there was development and in-
crease of production, but they were in the main an exten-
sion or expansion of the familiar forms, not such a change
of form as would cause any alteration in the position of the
mass of the people.

The practice of enclosing open land had almost ceased be-
fore the death of Elizabeth. There was some enclosing under

184 Industrial and Social History of England

James I, but it seems to have been quite exceptional. In
tlie main, tliose common pastures and open fields which had
not been enclosed by the beginning of this period, probably
one-half of all England, remained unenclosed till the recom-
mencement of the process long afterward. Sheep farming
gradually ceased to be so exclusively practised, and mixed
agriculture became general, though few if any of those fields
which had been surrounded with hedges, and come into the
possession of individual farmers, were thrown open or dis-
tributed again into scattered holdings. Much new land
came into cultivation or into use for pasture through the
draining of marshes and fens, and the clearing of forests.
This work had been begun for the extensive swampy tracts
in the east of England in the latter years of Elizabeth's
reign by private purchasers, assisted by an act of Parliament
passed in 1601, intended to remove legal difficulties. It
proceeded slowly, partly because of the expense and diffi-
culty of putting up lasting embarkments, and partly because
of the opposition of the fenmen, or dwellers in the marshy
districts, whose livelihood was obtained by catching the fish
and water fowl that the improvements would drive away.
With the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, however,
largely through the skill of Dutch engineers and laborers,
many thousands of acres of fertile land were reclaimed and
devoted to grazing, and even grain raising. Great stretches
of old forest and waste land covered with rough underbrush
were also reduced to cultivation.

There was much writing on agricultural subjects, and
methods of farming were undoubtedly improved, especially
in the eighteenth century. Turnips, which could be grown
during the remainder of the season after a grain crop had
been harvested, and which would provide fresh food for the
cattle during the whiter, were introduced from the Conti-

The Expansion of England 185

nent and cultivated to some extent, as were clover and
some improved grasses. But these improvements progressed
but slowly, and farming on the whole was carried on along
very much the same old lines till quite the middle of the eigh-
teenth century. The raising of grain was encouraged by a
system of government bounties, as already stated in another
connection. From 1689 onward a bounty was given on all
grain exported, when the prevailing price was less than six
shillings a bushel. The result was that England exported
wheat in all but famine years, that there was a steady en-
couragement even if without much result to improve methods
of agriculture, and that landlords were able to increase their
rents. In the main, English agriculture and the organiza-
tion of the agricultural classes of the population did not
differ very much at the end of this period from that at the
beginning except in the one point of quantity, the amount
of produce and the number of the population being both
largely increased.

51 . The Domestic System of Manufactures. — Much greater
skill in manufacturing was acquired, principally, as in earlier
periods, through the immigration of foreign artisans. In
Queen Elizabeth's time a great number of such men with
their families, who had been driven from the Netherlands
by the persecutions of the duke of Alva, came to England
for refuge. In Sandwich in 1561 some twenty families of
Flemings settled and began their manufactures of various
kinds of cloth ; in 1565 some thirty Dutch and Walloon
families settled in Norwich as weavers, in Maidstone a body
of similar artisans who were thread-makers settled in 1567 ;
in 1570 a similar group carrying on various forms of manu-
facture settled at Colchester ; and still others settled in
some five or six other towns. After 1580 a wave of French
Huguenots, principally silk-weavers, fled from their native

l86 Industrial and Social History of England

country and were allowed to settle in London, Canterbury,
and Coventry. The renewed persecutions of the Hugue-
nots, culminating in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes
in 16S5, sent many thousands more into exile, large numbers
of silk and linen weavers and manufacturers of paper, clocks,
glass, and metal goods coming from Normandy and Brit-
tany into England, and settling not only in London and its
suburbs, but in many other towns of England. These for-
eigners, unpopular as they often were among the populace,
and supported in their opportunities of carrying on their
industry only by royal authority, really taught new and
higher industries to the native population and eventually
were absorbed into it as a more gifted and trained com-
ponent.

There were also some inventions of new processes or de-
vices for manufacture. The " stocking frame," or machine
knitting, was invented in the time of Queen Elizabeth, but
did not get into actual use until the next century. It then
became for the future an extensive industry, especially in
London and Nottingham and their vicinity. The weaving
of cotton goods was introduced and spread especially in the
northwest, in the neighborhood of Manchester and Bolton.
A machine for preparing silk thread was invented in 1719.
The printing of imported white cotton goods, as calicoes
and lawns, was begun, but prohibited by Parliament in the
interest of woven goods manufacturers, though the printing
of linens was still allowed. Stoneware was also improved.
These and other new industries introduced by foreigners
or developed by English inventors or enterprising artisans
added to the variety and total amount of English manu-
facture. The old established industries, like the old coarser
woollen goods and hnen manufacture, increased but slowly
in amount and went through no great changes of method.

Tlie Expansion of England

187

These industries old and new were in some cases regu-
lated and supervised as to the quality of ware and methods
of manufacture, by the remaining gilds or companies, with
the authority which they possessed from the national govern-
ment. Indeed, there were within the later sixteenth and
the seventeenth centuries some new companies organized
or old ones renewed especially for this oversight, and to

1_. _ I M Weaving.

(Hogarth; The Industrious and the Lazy Apprentice.)

guard the monopoly of their members over certain indus-
tries in certain towns. In other cases rules were established
for the carrying on of a certain industry, and a patent or
monopoly was then granted by the king by which the person
or company was given the sole right to carry on a certain
industry according to those rules, or to enforce the rules
when it was carried on by other people. In still other in-
dustries a government official had the oversight and control

1 88 Industrial and Social History of England

of quality and method of manufacture. Much production,
however, especially such as went on in the country, was
not supervised at all.

Far the greater part of manufacturing industry in this
period was organized according to the " domestic system,"
the beginnings of which have been already noticed within
the previous period. That is to say, manufacturing was
carried on in their own houses by small masters with a
journeyman and apprentice or two. Much of it was done
in the country villages or suburbs of the larger towns, and
such handicraft was very generally connected with a cer-
tain amount of cultivation of the soil. A small master
weaver or nail manufacturer, or soap boiler or potter,
would also have a little farm and divide his time between
the two occupations. The implements of manufacture
almost always belonged to the small master himself, though
in the stocking manufacture and the silk manufacture they
were often owned by employing capitahsts and rented out
to the small manufacturers, or even to journeymen. In
some cases the raw material — wool, linen, metal, or what-
ever it might be — was purchased by the small manufacturer,
and the goods were either manufactured for special cus-
tomers or taken when completed to a neighboring town on
market days, there to be sold to a local dealer, or to a
merchant who would transport it to another part of the
country or export it to other countries. In other cases the
raw material, especially in the case of cotton, was the prop-
erty of a town merchant or capitalist, who distributed it to
the small domestic manufacturers in their houses in the
villages, paying them for the processes of production, and
himself collecting the completed product and disposing of
it by sale or export. This domestic manufacture was espe-
cially common in the southwest, centre, and northwest of

The Expansion of England 189

England, and manufacturing towns like Birmingham, Hali-
fax, Sheffield, Leeds, Bolton, and Manchester were growing
up as centres around which it gathered. Little or no organi-
zation existed among such small manufacturers, though their
apprentices were of course supposed to be taken and their
journeymen hired according to the provisions of the Statute
of Apprentices, and their products were sometimes subjected
to some governmental or other supervision.

Thus in manufacturing and artisan life as in agricultural
the period was marked by an extension and increase of the
amount of industry, on the same general lines as had been
reached by 1600, rather than by any considerable changes.

52. Commerce under the Navigation Acts. — The same
thing is true of commerce, although its vast extension was
almost in the nature of a revolution. As far back as the
reign of Elizabeth most of the imports into England were
brought in English vessels by English importers, and the
goods which were exported were sent out by English ex-
porters. The goods which were manufactured in scattered
villages or town suburbs by the domestic manufacturers
were gathered by these merchants and sent abroad in ever
increasing amounts. The total value of English exports in
1600 was about 10 million dollars, at the close of the cen-
tury it was some 34 millions, and in 1750 about 63 millions.
This trade was carried on largely by merchants who were
members of those chartered trading companies which have
been mentioned as existing already in the sixteenth century.
Some of these were "regulated companies" ; that is, they
had certain requirements laid down in their charters and
power to adopt further rules and regulations, to which their
members must conform. Others had similar chartered
rights, but all their members invested funds in a common
capital and traded as a joint stock company. In both kinds

I go Industrial and Social History of England

of cases each company possessed a monopoly of some cer
tain field of trade, and was constantly engaged in the exclu-
sion of interlopers from its trade. Of these companies the
Merchants Adventurers, the oldest and one of the wealthi-
est, controlled the export of manufactured cloth to the
Netherlands and northwestern Germany and remained
prominent and active into the eighteenth century. The
Levant, the Eastland, the Muscovy, and the Guinea or
Royal African, and, greatest of all, the East India Company,
continued to exist under various forms, and carried on their
distant commerce through the whole of this period. With
some of the nearer parts of Europe — France, Spain, Portugal,
and Italy — there was much trading by private merchants not
organized as companies or only organized among them-
selves. The " Methuen treaty," negotiated with Portugal
in 1 703, gave free entry of English manufactured goods
into that country in return for a decreased import duty on
Portuguese wines brought into England.

The foreign lands with which these companies traded fur-
nished at the beginning of this period the only places to
which goods could be exported and from which goods could
be brought ; but very soon that series of settlements of Eng-
lish colonists was begun, one of the principal inducements
for which was that they would furnish an outlet for English
goods. The " Plantation of Ulster," or introduction of
English and Scotch settlers into the north of Ireland
between i6io and 1620, was the beginning of a long pro-
cess of immigration into that country. But far the most
important plantations as an outlet for trade as in every
respect were those made on the coast of North America
and in the West Indies. The Virginia and the Plymouth
Companies played a part in the early settlement of these
colonies, but they were soon superseded by the crown, sin-

192 Industrial and Social History of England

gle proprietaries, or the settlers themselves. Virginia, New
England, Maryland, the Carolinas, and ultimately New York,
Pennsylvania, and Georgia on the mainland ; the islands of
Bermudas, Barbadoes, and Jamaica, and ultimately Canada,
came to be populous colonies inhabited by Englishmen and
demanding an ever increasing supply of English manufac-
tured goods. These colonies were controlled by the Eng-
lish government largely for their commercial and other forms
of economic value. The production of goods needed in
England but not produced there, such as sugar, tobacco, tar,
and lumber, was encouraged, but the manufacture of such
goods as could be exported from England was prohibited.
The purchase of slaves in Africa and their exportation to
the West Indies was encouraged, partly because they were
paid for in Africa by English manufactured goods, partly
because their use in the colonies made the supply of sugar
and some other products plentiful and cheap.

Closely connected with commerce and colonies as a
means of disposing of England's manufactured goods and
of obtaining those things which were needed from abroad
was commerce for its own sake, for the profits which it
brought to those engaged in it, and for the indirect value to
the nation of having a large mercantile navy.

The most important provision for this end was the passage
of the " Navigation Acts." We have seen that as early as
1485 certain kinds of goods could be imported only in Eng-
lish vessels. But in 1 65 1 a law was passed, and in 1660 under
a more regular government reenacted in still more vigorous
form, which carried this policy to its fullest extent. By these
laws all importation of goods into England from any ports
of Asia, Africa, or America was forbidden, except in vessels
belonging to English owners, built in England and manned
by English seamen ; and there was the same requirement

The Expansion of England 193

for goods exported from England to those countries. From
European ports goods could be brought to England only in
English vessels or in vessels the property of merchants of
the country in which the port lay ; and similarly for export.
These acts were directed especially against the Dutch mer-
chants, who were fast getting control of the carrying trade.
The result of the policy of the Navigation Acts was to secure
to English merchants and to English shipbuilders a monop-
oly of all the trade with the East Indies and Africa and with
the American colonies, and to prevent the Dutch from com-
peting with English merchants for the greater part of the
trade with the Continent of Europe.

The characteristics of English commerce in this period,
therefore, were much the same as in the last. It was, how-
ever, still more completely controlled by English merchants
and was vastly extended in amount. Moreover, this exten-
sion bid fair to be permanent, as it was largely brought
about by the growth of populous English colonies in Ire-
land and America, and by the acquisition of great spheres of
influence in India.

53. Finance. — The most characteristic changes of the
period now being studied were in a field to which attention
has been but slightly called before ; that is, in finance.
Capital had not existed in any large amounts in medieval
England, and even in the later centuries there had not
been any considerable class of men whose principal interest
was in the investment of saved-up capital which they had
in their hands. Agriculture, manufacturing, and even com-
merce were carried on with very small capital and usually
with such capital as each farmer, artisan, or merchant might
have of his own ; no use of credit to obtain money from in-
dividual men or from banks for industrial purposes being
ordinarily possible. Questions connected with money, capi-

194 Industrial and Social History of England

tal, borrowing, and other points of finance came into some-
wiiat greater prominence with the sixteenth century, but they
now attained an altogether new and more important notice.

Taxation, which had been looked upon as abnormal and
occasional during earlier times, and only justifiable when
some special need for large expenditure by the government
arose, such as war, a royal marriage, or the entertainment
of some foreign visitor, now, after long conflicts between
King and Parliament, which are of still greater constitu-
tional than financial importance, came to be looked upon
as a regular normal custom. In 1660, at the Restoration, a
whole system of excise duties, taxes on imports and exports,
and a hearth tax were established as a permanency for
paying the expenses of government, besides special taxes
of various kinds for special demands.

Borrowing, by merchants and others for ordinary purposes
of business, became much more usual. During most of the
seventeenth century the goldsmiths were the only bankers.
On account of the strong vaults of these merchants, their
habitual possession of valuable material and articles, and
perhaps of their reputation for probity, persons who had
money beyond their immediate needs deposited it with the
goldsmiths, receiving from them usually six per cent. Tlie
goldsmiths then loaned it to merchants or to the govern-
ment, obtaining for it interest at the rate of eight per cent
or more. This system gradually became better established
and the high rates decreased. Payments came to be made
by check, and promissory notes were regularly discounted
by the goldsmiths.

The greatest extension in the use of credit, however,
came from the establishment of the Bank of England. In
1 69 1 the original proposition for the Bank was made to the
government by AV'illiam Patterson. In 1694 a charter for

The Expansiott of England 195

the Bank was finally carried through Parliament by the
efforts of the ministry. The Bank consisted of a group of
subscribers who agreed to loan to the government ^1,200,
000, the government to pay them an annual interest of eight
and one-half per cent, or ;^i 00,000 in cash, guaranteed by
the product of a certain tax. The subscribers were at the
same time incorporated and authorized to carry on a gen-
eral business of receiving deposits and lending out money at
interest. The capital which was to be loaned to the gov-
ernment was subscribed principally by London merchants,
and the Bank began its career ia the old Grocers' Hall.
The regular income of ^100,000 a year gave it a nucleus of
strength, and enabled it to discount notes even beyond its
actual deposits and to issue its own notes or paper money.
Thus money could be borrowed to serve as capital for all
kinds of enterprises, and there was an inducement also for
persons to save money and thus create capital, since it
could always bring them in a return by lending it to the
Bank even if they were not in a position to put it to use
themselves. Along with the normal effect of such financial
inventions in developing all forms of trade and industry,
there arose a remarkable series of projects and schemes of
the wildest and most unstable character, and the early eigh-
teenth century saw many losses and constant fluctuations in
the realm of finance. The most famous instance of this was
the " South Sea Bubble," a speculative scheme by which a
regulated company, the South Sea Company, was chartered
in 1 719 to carry on the slave-trade to the West Indies and
whale-fishing, and incidentally to loan money to the govern-
ment. Its shares rose to many fold their par value and fell
to almost nothing again within a few months, and the gov-
ernment and vast numbers of investors and speculators were
involved in its failure.

196 Industrial and Social History of England

The same period saw the creation of the permanent
national debt. In earUer times kings and ministers had
constantly borrowed money from foreign or native lenders,
but it was always provided and anticipated that it would be
repaid at a certain period, with the interest. With the later
years of the seventeenth century, however, it became cus-
tomary for the government to borrow money without any
definite contract or expectation as to when it should be
paid back, only making an agreement to pay a certain rate
of interest upon it. This was satisfactory to all parties.
The government obtained a large sum at the time, with the
necessity of only paying a small sum every year for interest ;
investors obtained a remunerative use for their money, and
if they should need the principal, some one else was always
ready to pay its value to them for the sake of receiving the
interest. The largest single element of the national debt in
its early period was the loan of ;£i, 200,000 which served as
the basis for the Bank ; but after that time, as for a short
time before, sums were borrowed from time to time which
were not repaid, but became a permanent part of the debt :
the total rising to more than _^ 75,000,000 by the middle
of the century. Incidentally, this, like the deposits at the
goldsmiths and the Bank, became an opportunity for the
investment of savings and an inducement to create more
capital.

Fire insurance and life insurance both seem to have
had their origin in the later decades of the seventeenth
century.

Thus in the realm of finance there was much more of
novelty, of actually new development, during this period
than in agriculture, manufacturing, or commerce. Yet all
these forms of economic life and of the social organization
which corresponded to them were alike in one respect, that

Tlie Expansion of England 197

they were quite minutely regulated by the national govern-
ment. The fabric of paternal government whicli we saw
rising in the time of the Tudor sovereigns remained almost
intact through the whole of this period. The regulation of
the conditions of labor, of trade, of importation and exporta-
tion, of finance, of agriculture, of manufacture, in more or
less detail, was part of the regular work of legislation or ad-
ministrative action. Either in order to reach certain ulterior
ends, such as government power, a large navy, or a large
body of money within the country, or simply as a part of
what were looked upon at the time as the natural functions
of government, laws were constantly being passed, charters
formulated, treaties entered into, and other action taken by
government, intended to encourage one kind of industry and
discourage another, to determine rates of wages and hours
of labor, prescribe rules for agriculture, or individual trades
or forms of business, to support some kind of industry which
was threatened with decay, to restrict certain actions which
were thought to be disadvantageous, to regulate the whole
economic life of the nation.

It is true that much of this regulation was on the books
rather than in actual existence. It would have required
a much more extensive and efficient civil service, national
and local, than England then possessed to enforce all or
any considerable part of the provisions that were made by
act of Parliament or ordered by the King and Council.
Again, new industries were generally declared to be free
from much of the more minute regulation, so that enter-
prise where it arose was not so apt to be checked, as
conservatism where it already existed was apt to be per-
petuated. Such regulation and control, moreover, were quite
in accord with the feeling and with the economic and politi-
cal theories of the time, so there was but little sense of

198 Industrial and Social History of England

interference or tyranny felt by the governed. A regulated
industrial organization slowly expanding on well-established
lines was as characteristic of the theory as it was of the
practice of the period.

54. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gardiner, S. R. : The History of England, 1603-1642,
ten volumes.

Many scattered passages in this work and in its continu-
ations, like those in Froude's history, referred to in the last
chapter, apply to the economic and social history of the
period, and they are always judicious and valuable.

Hewins, W. A. S. : English Trade and Einance, chiefly in
the Seventeenth Century.

For this period Cunningham, Rogers, and Palgrave, in
the books already referred to, are almost the only secondary
authorities, except such as go into great detail on individual
points. Cunningham's second volume, which includes this
period, is extremely full and satisfactory.

Macpherson, D. : Annals of Commerce is, however, a book
of somewhat broader interest.

CHAPTER VIII

THE TERIOD OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Economic Changes of the Later Eighteenth and Early
Nineteenth Centuries

55. National Affairs from 1760 to 1830. — The seventy
years lying between these two dates were covered by the
long reign of George III and that of his successor George IV.
In the political world this period had by no means the im-
portance that it possessed in the field of economic develop-
ment. Parliament had already obtained its permanent form
and powers, and when George III tried to " be a king," as
his mother urged him, the effort to restore personal govern-
ment was an utter failure. Between 1775 and 1783 occurred
the American Revolution, by which thirteen of England's
most valued colonies were lost to her and began their prog-
ress toward a greater destiny. The breach between the
American colonies and the mother country was brought
about largely by the obstinacy of the king and his ministers
in adopting an arbitrary and unpopular policy. Other politi-
cal causes no doubt contributed to the result. Yet the
greater part of the alienation of feeling which underlay
the Revolution was due not to political causes, but to the
economic policy already described, by which American
commerce and industry were bent to the interests of
England.

In the American war France joined the rebellious colo-
nies against England, and obtained advantageous terms at
the peace. Within ten years the two countries had again

199

200 Industrial and Social History of England

entered upon a war, this time of vastly greater extent, and
continuing almost unbroken for more than twenty years.
This was a result of the outbreak of the French Revolution.
In I 7S9 the Estates General of France, a body correspond-
ing in its earlier history to the English Parliament, was
called for the first time for almost two hundred years. This
assembly and its successors undertook to reorganize French
government and society. In the course of this radical pro-
cess principles were enunciated proclaiming the absolute
liberty and equality of men, demanding the participation
of all in government, the abolition of aristocratic privileges,
and finally of royalty itself. In following out these ideas,
so different from those generally accepted in Europe, France
was brought into conflict with all the other European states,
including Great Britain. War broke out in 1793. Fighting
took place on sea and land and in various parts of the
world. France in her new-enthusiasm developed a strength,
vigor, and capacity which enabled her to make head against
the alliances of almost all the other countries of Europe,
and even to gain victories and increase her territory at their
expense. No peace seemed practicable. In her successive
internal changes of government one of the generals of the
army. Napoleon Bonaparte, obtained a more and more in-
fluential position, until in 1804 he took the title of Emperor.
The wars of the French Revolution therefore were merged
in the wars of Napoleon. Alliance after alKance was made
against Napoleon, England commonly taking the initiative
in the formation of them and paying large monthly subsidies
to some of the continental governments to enable them to
support their armies. The English navy won several brilliant
victories, especially under Nelson, althougli her land forces
played a comparatively small part until the battle of Water-
loo in 1815.

Period of Industrial Revolution 20i

The naval supremacy thus obtained made the war a mat-
ter of pecuniary profit to the EngUsh nation, notwithstand-
ing its enormous expense ; for it gave to her vessels almost
a complete monopoly of the commerce and the carrying
trade of the world, and to her manufactures extended mar-
kets which would otherwise have been closed to her or
shared with other nations. The cutting off of continental
and other sources of supply of grain and the opening of
new markets greatly increased the demand for English
grain and enhanced the price paid for it. This caused
higher rents and further enclosure of open land. Thus the
war which had been entered upon reluctantly and with
much opposition in 1793, became popular, partly because
of the feeling of the English people that it had become a
life and death struggle with France, but largely also because
English industries were flourishing under it. The wars
came to an end with the downfall of Napoleon in 1815, and
an unwonted period of peace for England set in and lasted
for almost forty years.

The French Revolution produced another effect in
England. It awakened a certain amount of admiration for
its principles of complete liberty and equality and a desire
to apply them to EngUsh aristocratic society and govern-
ment. In 1790 societies began to be formed, meetings
held, and pamphlets issued by men who sympathized with
the popular movements in France. Indeed, some of these
reformers were suspected of wishing to introduce a repub-
lic in England. After the outbreak of the war the ministry
determined to put down this agitation, and between 1793
and 1795 all public manifestation of sympathy with such
principles was crushed out, although at the cost of consider-
able interference with what had been understood to be
established personal . rights. Much discontent continued

202 Industrial and Social History of England

through the whole period of the war, especially among the
lower classes, though it did not take the form of organized
political agitation. It was a period, as will be seen, of violent
economic and social changes, which, although they enriched
England as a whole and made it possible for her to support
the unprecedented expenses of the long war, were very hard
upon the working classes, who were used to the old ways.

After the peace of 1815, however, political agitation
began again. The Whig party seemed inclined to resume
the effort to carry certain moderate reforms which had
been postponed on account of the war, and down below
this movement there was a more radical agitation for uni-
versal suffrage and for a more democratic type of govern-
ment generally. On the other hand, the Tory government,
which had been in power during almost the whole war
period, was determined to oppose everything in the nature
of reform or change, on the ground that the outrages
accompanying the French Revolution arose from just such
efforts to make reforming alterations in the government.
The radical agitation was supported by the discontented
masses of the people who were suffering under heavy taxes,
high prices, irregular employment, and many other evils
which they felt to be due to their exclusion from any share
in the government. The years intervening between 1815
and 1830 were therefore a period of constant bitterness
and contention between the higher and the lower classes.
Mass meetings which were called by the popular leaders
were dissolved by the government, radical writers were
prosecuted by the government for libel, the habeas corpus
act was suspended repeatedly, and threatened rioting was
met with severe measures. The actions of tlie ministers,
while upheld by the higher classes, were bitterly attacked by
others as being unconstitutional and tyrannical.

Period of Industrial Revolution 203

In 1800 the union of the group of British Islands under
one government was completed, at least in form. Scotland
had come under the same crown as England in 1603, and
the two Parliaments had been united in 1 707, the title
Great Britain having been adopted for the combined
nations. The king of England had held the title of Lord
of Ireland from the time of the first conquest, and of King
of Ireland since the adoption of the title by Henry VIII.
The union which now took place consisted in the abolition
of the separate Irish Parliament and the election of Irish
members to the combined or " Imperial" Parliament of the
three kingdoms sitting at Westminster. The official title
of the united countries has since been " The United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland."

56. The Great Mechanical Inventions. — As the eighteenth
century progressed one form of economic growth seems to
have been pressing on the general economic organization.
This was the constant expansion of commerce, the steadily
increasing demand for English manufactured goods for
export.

The great quantities of goods which were every year sent
abroad in English ships to the colonies, to Ireland, to the
Continent, to Asia and Africa, as well as those used at
home, continued to be manufactured in most cases by
methods, with instruments, under an organization of labor
the same as that which had been in existence for centuries.
The cotton and woollen goods which were sold in the West
Indies and America were still carded, spun, and woven in
the scattered cottages of domestic weavers and weaver-
farmers in the rural districts of the west and north of
England, by the hand cards, the spinning-wheel, the cum-
brous, old-fashioned loom. The pieces of goods were
slowly gathered from the hamlets to the towns, from the

Longitude West from Greenwich

Period of Industrial Revolution 205

towns to the seaports, over the poorest of roads, and by
the most primitive of conveyances. And these antiquated
methods of manufacture and transportation were all the
more at variance with the needs and possibilities of the
time because there had been, as already pointed out, a
steady accumulation of capital, and much of it was not
remuneratively employed. The time had certainly come for
some improvement in the methods of manufacture.

A closer examination into the process of production in
England's principal industry, cloth-making, shows that this
pressure on old methods was already felt. The raw material
for such uses, as it comes from the back of the sheep, the
boll of the cotton plant, or the crushed stems of the flax,
is a tangled mass of fibre. The first necessary step is to
straighten out the threads of this fibre, which is done in the
case of wool by combing, in the others by carding, both
being done at that time by hand implements. The next
step is spinning, that is drawing out the fibres, which have
been made parallel by carding, into a slender cord, and at
the same time twisting this sufficiently to cause the indi-
vidual fibres to take hold one of another and thus make
a thread of some strength. This was sometimes done on
the old high wheel, which was whirled around by hand and
then allowed to come to rest while another section of the
cotton, wool, or flax was drawn from the carded mass by
hand, then whirled again, twisting this thread and winding
it up on the spindle, and so on. Or it was done by the low
wheel, which was kept whirling continuously by the use of a
treadle worked by the foot, while the material was being drawn
out all the time by the two hands, and twisted and wound
continuously by the horseshoe-shaped device known as the
"flyer." When the thread had been spun it was placed upon
the loom ; strong, firmly spun material being necessary for

2o6 Industrial and Social History of England

the " warp" of upright threads, softer and less tightly spun
material for the "woof" or "weft," which w'as wrapped on
the shuttle and thrown horizontally by hand between the two
diverging lines of warp threads. After weaving, the fabric
was subjected to a number of processes of finishing, falling,
shearing, dyeing, if that had not been done earlier, and
others, according to the nature of the cloth or the kind of
surface desired.

In these successive stages of manufacture it was the
spinning that was apt to interpose the greatest obstacle, as
it took the most tune. From time immemorial spinning
had been done, as explained, on some form of the spinning-
wheel, and by women. One weaver continuously at work
could easily use up the product of five or si-x spinners. In
the domestic industry the weaving was of course carried on
in the dwelling-house by the father of the family with the
grown sons or journeymen, while the spinning was done for
the most part by the women and younger children of the
family. As it could hardly be expected that there would
always be as large a proportion as six of the latter class to
one of the former, outside help must be obtained and much
delay often submitted to. Many a small master who had
agreed to weave up the raw material sent him by the master
clothier witliin a given time, or a cloth weaver who had
planned to complete a piece by next market day, was
obliged to leave his loom and search through the neighbor-
hood for some disengaged laborer's wife or other person who
would spin the weft for which he was waiting. One of the
very few inventions of the early part of the century inten-
sified this difficulty. Kay's drop box and flying shuttle,
invented in 1738, made it possible for a man to sit still and
by pulling two cords alternately throw the shuttle to and fro.
One man coulj therefore weave broadcloth instead of its

Period of Industrial Revolution

207

requiring two as before, and consequently weaving was
more rapid, while no corresponding change had been in-
troduced into the process of spinning.

Indeed, this particular difficulty was so clearly recognized
that the Royal Society offered a prize for the invention of a
machine that would spin several threads at the same time.

SflNNlNG-JE.XNY.

(Byrn, Invention in the Nineteenth Century. Published by the Scientific
American Company.)

No one claimed this reward, but the spirit of invention
was nevertheless awake, and experiments in more than one
mechanical device were being made about the middle of
the century. The first to be brought to actual completion
was Hargreaves' spinning-jenny, invented in 1764. Accord-

2o8 Industrial and Social History of England

ing to the traditional story James Hargreaves, a small master
weaver living near Blackburn, on coming suddenly into the
house caused his wife, who was spinning with the old high
wheel, to spring up with a start and overset the wheel, which
still continued whirling, but horizontally, and with its spin-
dle in a vertical position. He was at once struck with the
idea of using one wheel to cause a number of spindles to
revolve by means of a continuous band, and by the device

Akkwright's First Spinnmng-machine.

(Ure: History of the Cotton Manu/acture.)

of substituting for the human hand a pair of bars which
could be successively separated and closed, and which
could be brought closer to or removed from the spindles on
wheels, to spin several threads at the same time. On the
basis of this idea and with the help of a neighboring me-
chanic he constructed a machine by which a man could
spill eight threads at the same time. In honor of his wife
he named it the "Spinning-jenny." The secret of this

Period of Industrial Revolution

209

device soon came out and jennies spinning twenty or thirty
or more threads at a time came into use here and there
through the old spinning districts. At the same time a
much more effective method was being brought to perfec-
tion by Richard Arkwright, who followed out some old
experiments of Wyatt of Northampton. According to this
plan the carded material was carried through successive

Sir Richard Arkwright.

(Portrait by Wright.)

pairs of rollers, each pair running more rapidly than the
previous pair, thus stretching it out, while it was spun after
leaving the last pair by flyers adapted from the old low or
treadle spinning-wheel. Arkwright's first patent was taken
out in 1769, and from that time forward he invented, pat-

2IO Industrial and Social History of England

ented, and manufactured a series of machines wliich made
possible the spinning of a number of threads at the same
time very much more rapidly than even the spinning-jenny.
Great numbers of Arkwright's spinning-machines were man-
ufactured and sold by him and his partners. He made
others for use in cotton mills carried on by himself with vari-
ous partners in different parts of the country. His patent
was eventually set aside as having been unfairly obtained,
and the machines were soon generally manufactured and
used. Improvements followed. An ingenious weaver named
Samuel Crompton, perceiving that the roller spinning was
more rapid but that the jennies would spin the finer thread,
combined the two devices into one machine, known from its
hybrid origin as the " mule." This was invented in 1779, '"^d
as it was not patented it soon came into general use. These
inventions in spinning reacted on the earlier processes and
led to a rapid development of carding and combing machines.
A carding cylinder had been invented by Paul as far back as
I 748, and now came into general use, while several wool-
combing machines were invented in 1792 and 1793.

So far all these inventions had been in the earlier textile
processes. Use for the spun thread was found in giving
fuller employment to the old hand looms, in the stocking
manufacture, and for export ; but no corresponding improve-
ment had taken place in weaving. From 1784 onward a
clergyman from the south of England, Dr. Edward Cart-
wright, was gradually bringing to perfection a power loom
which by the beginning of the nineteenth century began to
come into general use. The value put upon Cartwright's
invention maybe judged from the fact that Parliament voted
him a gift of ^10,000 in 1809. .Xrkwright had already won
a large fortune by his invention, and in 17S6 was knighte 1
in recognition of his services to the national industry.

Period of Industrial Revolution 2 1 1

While Cartwright was experimenting on the power loom,
an invention was made far from England which was in real-
ity an essential part of the improvement in the manufacture
of cotton goods. This was the American cotton gin, for the

Rev. Edmund Cartwright.

(Portrait by Robert Fulton.)

removal of the seeds from the fibre of the boll, invented by
Eli Whitney in 1792. Cotton had been introduced into the
Southern states during the Revolutionary war. Its cultiva-
tion and export now became profitable, and a source of

212 Industrial and Social History of England

supply became available at the very time that the inventions
for its manufacture were being perfected.

Spinning-jennies could be used in the household of the
weaver ; but the later spinning-machines were so large and
cumbrous that they could not be used in a dwelling-house,
and required so much power and rapidity of motion that
human strength was scarcely available. Horse power was
used to some extent, but water power was soon applied and
special buildings came to be put up along streams where
water power was available. The next stage was the appli-
cation of steam power. Although the possibility of using
steam for the production of force had long been familiar,
and indeed used to some extent in the pumping out of
mines, it did not become available for general uses until
the improvements of James Watt, patented in 1769 and suc-
ceeding years. In partnership with a man named Boulton,
Watt began the manufacture of steam-engines in 1781. In
1785 the first steam-engine was used for pou-er in a cotton
mill. After that time the use of steam became more antl
more general and by the end of the century steam power
was evidently superseding water power.

57. The Factory System. — But other things were needed
to make this new machinery available. It was much too
expensive for the old cottage weavers to buy and use. Capi-
tal had, therefore, to be brought into manufacturing which
had been previously used in trade or other employments.
Capital was in reality abundant relatively to existing oppor-
tunities for investment, and the early machine spinners and
weavers drew into partnership moneyed men from the
towns who had previously no connection with manufacturing.
Again, the new industry required bodies of laborers working
regular hours under the control of their employers and in
the buildings where the machines were placed and the

■?>

B ^

oi ':z,

Period of Industrial Revolution 213

power provided. Such groups of laborers or " mill hands "
were gradually collected where the new kind of manufac-
turing was going on. Thus factories, in the modern sense,
came into existence — a new phenomenon in the world.

These changes in manufacturing and in the organization
of labor came about earliest in the manufacture of cotton
goods, but the new machinery and its resulting changes
were soon introduced into the woollen manufacture, then
other textile lines, and ultimately into still other branches
of manufacturing, such as the production of metal, wooden,
and leather goods, and, indeed, into nearly all forms of pro-
duction. Manufacturing since the last decades of the eigh-
teenth century is therefore usually described as being done
by the " factory system," as contrasted with the domestic
system and the gild system of earlier times.

The introduction of the factory system involved many
changes : the adoption of machinery and artificial power,
the use of a vastly greater amount of capital, and the col-
lection of scattered laborers into great strictly regulated
estabhshments. It was, comparatively speaking, sudden, all
its main features having been developed within the period
between 1760 and 1800; and it resulted in the raising of
many new and difficult social problems. For these reasons
the term " Industrial Revolution," so generally applied to
it, is not an exaggerated nor an unsuitable term. Almost
all other forms of economic occupation have subsequently
taken on the main characteristics of the factory system, in
utilizing improved machinery, in the extensive scale on
which they are administered, in the use of large capital, and
in the organization of employees in large bodies. The in-
dustrial revolution may therefore be regartled as the chief
characteristic distinguishing this period and the times since
from all earlier ages.

214 Industrial and Social History of England

58. Iron, Coal, and Transportation. — A vast increase in
the production of iron and coal was going on concurrently
with the rise of the factory system. The smelting of iron
ore was one of the oldest industries of England, but it was a
declining rather than an advancing industry. This was due
to the exhaustion of the woods and forests that provided
fuel, or to their retention for the future needs of ship-build-
ing and for pleasure parks. In 1760, however, Mr. Roe-
buck introduced at the Carron iron-works a new kind of
blast furnace by which iron ore could be smelted with coal

.\ Canal a.nd Facforv Town in 1827.

as fuel. In 1790 the steam-engine was introduced to cause
the blast. Production had already begun to advance before
the latter date, and it now increased by thousands of tons
a year till far into the present century. Improvements
were introduced in puddling, rolling, and other processes
of the manufacture of iron at about the same time. Tlie
production of coal increased more than proportionately.
New devices in mining were introduced, such as steam

Period of Industrial Revolution

2IS

pumps, the custom of supporting the roofs of the veins with
timber instead of pillars of coal, and Sir Humphry Davy's
safety lamp of 1S15. The smelting of iron and the use
of the steam-engine made such a demand for coal that
capital was applied in large quantities to its production,
and more than ten million tons a year were mined before
the century closed.

"The Rocket" Locomotive, 1825.
(Smiles: Lif^' of George Siepheitson.)

Some slight improvements in roads and canals had been
made and others projected during the seventeenth and
early eighteenth centuries; but in the last quarter of the
century the work of Telford, Macadam, and other engineers,
and of the private turnpike companies or public authorities
who engaged them, covered England with good roads. The

2i6 Industrial ami Social History of England

first canal was that from Worsley to Manchester, built by
Brindley for the duke of Bridgewater in 1761. Within a
few years a system of canals had been constructed which
gave ready transportation for goods through all parts of the
country. The continuance of this development of transpor-
tation and its fundamental modification by the introduction
of railways and steamboats has been one of the most striking
characteristics of the nineteenth century.

59. The Revival of Enclosures. — The changes which
the latter half of the eighteenth century and the early part
of the nineteenth brought were as profound in the occu-
pation and use of the land as they were in the production
and transportation of manufactured goods. An agricultural
revolution was in progress as truly as was the industrial.

The improvements in the methods of farming already
referred to as showing themselves earlier in the century
became much more extensive. The raising of turnips and
other root crops spread from experimental to ordinary
farms so that a fallow year with no crop at all in the ground
came to be almost unknown. Clover and artificial grasses
for hay came to be raised generally, so that the supply of
forage for the winter was abundant. New breeds of sheep
and cattle were oljtained by careful crossing and plentiful
feeding, so that the average size was almost doubled, while
the meat, and in some cases the wool, was improved in
quality in even greater proportion. The names of such
men as Jethro TuU, who introduced the "drill husbandry,"
Bakewell, the great improver of the breeds of cattle, and
Arthur Young, the greatest agricultural obser\'er and writer
of the century, have become almost as familiar as those
of Crorapton, Arkwright, Watt, and other pioneers of the
factory system. The general improvement in agricultural
methods was due, not so much to new discoveries or inven-

Period of Indicstrial Revolution 2 1 7

tions, as it was to the large amount of capital which was
introduced into their practice. Expensive schemes of
draining, marling, and other forms of fertilizing were carried
out, long and careful investigations were entered upon, and
managers of large farms were trained in special processes
by landlords and farmers who had the command of large
sums of money ; and with the high prices prevalent tliey
were abundantly remunerated for the outlay. Great num-
bers of "gentlemen farmers," such as Lord Tovvnshend,
the duke of Bedford, and George III himself, who wrote
articles for the agricultural papers signed "Farmer George,"
were leaders in this agricultural progress. In 1793 a gov-
ernment Board of Agriculture was established, and through
the whole latter part of the century numerous societies for
the encouragement of scientific tillage and breeding were
organized.

In the early years of the eighteenth century there had
been signs of a revival of the old process of enclosures,
which had been suspended for more than a hundred years.
This was brought about by private acts of Parliament. An
act would be passed by Parliament giving legal authority to
the inhabitants of some parish to throw together the scat-
tered strips, and to redivide these and the common mead-
ows and pastures in such a way that each person with any
claim on the land should receive a proportionate share,
and should have it separated from all others and entirely in
his own control. It was the usual procedure for the lord
of the manor, the rector of the parish, and other large land-
holders and persons of influence to agree on the general
conditions of enclosure and draw up a bill appointing com-
missioners, and providing for survey, compensation, redis-
tribution, and other requirements. They then submitted this
bill to Parliament, where, unless there was some special rea-

2 1 8 Industrial and Social History of England

son to the contrary, it was jDassed. Its provisions were then
carried out, and although legal and parliamentary fees and
the expenses of survey and enclosure were large, yet as a
result each inhabitant who had been able to make out a
legal claim to any of the land of the parish received either
some money compensation or a stretch of enclosed land.
Such private enclosure acts increased slowly in number till
about the middle of the century, when the increase became
much more rapid.

The number of enclosure acts passed by Parliament and
the approximate extent of land enclosed under their provi-
sions were as follows : —

170(^1759 .

244 Enclosure Bills .

337,877 Acr

1 760-1 769 .

385 " " .

704,550 "

1770-1779 •

660

1,207,800 "

1 780-1 789 .

246 " "

450,180 "

1 790-1 799 .

469

858,270 "

1800-1S09 .

847 " " .

1,550,010 "

1810-1S19 .

S53 " '• .

1,560,990 "

1820-1S29 ,

205 " " .

375.150 "

1830-1839 .

136 " .' .

248,880 "

1 840-1 849 .

66

394,747 "

In 1756, 1758, and r773 general acts were passed en-
couraging the enclosure for common use of open pastures
and arable fields, but not enclosing or dividing them per-
manently, and not providing for any separate ownership.

In 1 80 1 an act was passed to make simpler and easier
the passage of private bills for enclosure; and in 1836
another to make possible, with the consent of two-thirds of
the persons interested, the enclosing of certain kinds of
common fields even without appealing to Parliament in
each particular case. Finally, in 1S45, the general Enclos-
ure Act of that year carried the policy of 1S36 further and
appointed a body of Enclosure Commissioners, to deter-

Period of Industrial Revolution 219

mine on the expediency of any proposed enclosure and to
attend to carrying it out if approved. Six years afterward,
however, an amendment was passed making it necessary
that even after an enclosure had been approved by the Com-
missioners it should go to Parliament for final decision.

By measures such as these the greater part of the lands
which had remained unenclosed to modern times were
transformed into enclosed fields for separate cultivation or
pasture. This process of enclosure was intended to make
possible, and no doubt did bring about, much improved
agriculture. It exerted incidentally a profound effect on
the rural population. Many persons had habitually used
the common pastures and open fields for pasture purposes,
when they had in reality no legal claim whatever to such
use. A poor man whose cow, donkey, or flock of geese
had picked up a precarious livelihood on land of undis-
tinguished ownership now found the land all enclosed and
his immemorial pri\'ileges withdrawn without compensation.
Naturally there was much dissatisfaction. A popular piece
of doggerel declared that : —

" The law lucks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from oFf the common;

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common from the goose."

Again, a small holder was frecjuently gi\en compensation
in the form of money instead of allotting to him a piece of
land which was considered by the commissioners too small
for effective use. The money was soon spent, whereas his
former claim on the land had lasted because it could not
readily be alienated.

A more important effect, however, was the introduction
on these enclosed lands of a kind of agriculture which the
small landholder was ill fitted to follow. Improved cultiva-

2 20 Industrial and Social History of England

tion, a careful rotation of crops, better fertilizers, drainage,
farm stock, and labor were the characteristics of the new
farming, and these were ordinarily practicable only to the
man who had some capital, knowledge, and enterprise.
Therefore, coincidently with the enclosures began a process
by which the smaller tenants began to give up their hold-
ings to men who could pay more rent for them by consoli-
dating them into larger farms. The freeholders also who
owned small farms from time to time sold them to neigh-
boring landowners when difficulties forced them or high
prices furnished inducements.

60. Decay of Domestic Manufacture. — This process would
have been a much slower one but for the contemporaneous
changes that were going on in manufacturing. As has been
seen, many small farmers in the rural districts made part of
their livelihood by weaving or other domestic manufacture,
or, as more properly described, the domestic manufacturers
frequently eked out their resources by carrying on some
farming. But the invention of machinery for spinning not
only created a new industry, but destroyed the old. Cotton
thread could be produced vastly more cheaply by machin-
ery. In 1786 a certain quantity of a certain grade of spun
yarn was worth 38 shillings ; ten years later, in 1796, it was
worth only 19 shillings; in 1806 it was worth but 7 shillings

2 pence, and so on down till, in 1832, it was worth but

3 shillings. Part of this reduction in price was due to the
decrease in the cost of raw cotton, but far the most of it to
the cheapening of spinning.

It was the same a few years later with weaving. Hand-
loom weavers in Bolton, who received 25 shillings a week as
wages in iSoo, received only 19 shillings and 6 pence in
1810, 9 shillings in 1S20, and 5 shillings 6 pence in 1830.
Hand work in other lines of manufacture showed the same

Period of Industrial Revolution 221

results. Against such reductions in wages resistance was
hopeless. Hand work evidently could not compete with
machine work. No amount of skill or industry or deter-
mination could enable the hand workers to make their
living in the same way as of old. As a matter of fact, a
long, sad, desperate struggle was kept up by a whole gen-
eration of hand laborers, especially by the hand-loom
weavers, but the result was inevitable.

The rural domestic manufacturers were, as a matter of
fact, devoting themselves to two inferior forms of industry.
As far as they were handicraftsmen, they were competing
with a vastly cheaper and better form of manufacture ; as
far as they were farmers, they were doing the same thing
with regard to agriculture. Under these circumstances
some of them gave up tlieir holdings of land an 1 diifted
away to the towns to keep up the struggle a little longer as
hand-loom weavers, and then to become laborers in the
fiictories ; others gave up their looms and devoted themselves
entirely to farming for a while, but eventually sold their
holdings or gave up their leases, and dropped into the class
of agricultural laborers. The result was the same in either
case. The small farms were consolidated, the class of yeo-
manry or small farmers died out, and household manufac-
ture gave place to that of the factory. Before the end of the
century the average size of English farms was computed at
three hundred acres, and soon afterward domestic spinning
and weaving were almost unknown.

There was considerable shifting of population. Certain
parts of the country which had been quite thickly populated
with small farmers or domestic manufacturers now lost the
greater part of their occupants by migration to the newer
manufacturing districts or to America. As in the sixteenth
century, some villages disappeared entirely. Goldsmith in the

222 Industrial and Social History of Englatid

Deserted Village described changes that really occurred,
however opposed to the facts may have been his description
of the earlier idyllic life whose destruction he deplored.

The existence of unenclosed commons and common fields
had been accompanied by very poor farming, very thriftless
and shiftless habits. The improvement of agriculture, the
application of capital to that occupation, the disappearance
of the domestic system of industry, and other changes made
the enclosure of common land and the accompanying changes
inevitable. None the less it was a relatively sudden and
complete interference with the established character of rural
life, and not only was the process accompanied with much
suffering, but the form which took its place was marked by
some serious disadvantages. This form was brought about
through the rapid culmination of old familiar tendencies.
The classes connected with the land came to be quite clearly
distinguished into three groups : the landlords, the tenant
farmers, and the farm laborers. The landlord class was a
comparatively small body of nobility and gentry, a few thou-
sand persons, who owned by far the greater portion of the
land of the country. Their estates were for the most part
divided up into farms, to the keeping of which in produc-
tive condition they contributed the greater part of the
expense, to the administration of which trained stewards
applied themselves, and in the improvement of which their
owners often took a keen and enlightened interest. They
received high rents, possessed unlimited local infiuence, and
were the favored governing class of the country. The class
of farmers were men of some capital, and frerjuentlv of
intelligence and enterprise, though rarely of education, who
held on lease from the landlords farms of some one, two,
or three or more hundred acres, paying relatively large
rents, and yet by the excellence of their farming making

Period of Industrial Revolution 223

for tliemselves a liberal income. The farm laborers were
the residuum of the changes which have been traced in the
history of landholding ; a large class living for the most part
miserably in cottages grouped in villages, holding no land, and
receiving day wages for working on the farms just described.

Notwithstanding the improvements in agriculture and the
increase in the extent of cultivated land, England ceased
within the eighteenth century to be a self-supporting coun-
try in food products. The form which the " corn laws "
had taken in 16S9 had been as follows : the raising of
wheat was encouraged by prohibiting its importation and
paying a bounty of about eightpence a bushel for its
exportation so long as the prevailing price was less than
six shillings a bushel. When it was between six shillings
and six shillings eightpence a bushel its importation was
forbidden, but there was no bounty paid for exportation.
Between the last price and ten shillings a bushel it could
be imported by paying a duty of a shilling a bushel.
Above the last price it could be imported free. Neverthe-
less, during the latter half of the eighteenth century it
became evident that there was no longer a sufficient
amount of wheat raised for the needs of the English
people. Between 1770 and 1790 exports and imports
about balanced one another, but after the latter year the
imports always exceeded the exports.

This was of course due to the great increase of popula-
tion and to its employment in the field of manufactures.
The population in England in 1 700 was about five millions,
in 1750 about six millions and a half, in 1800 about nine
millions, and in 1850 about eighteen millions. That is to
say, its progress was slow during the first half of the eighteenth
century, more rapid during the latter half, and vastly more
rapid during the nineteenth century.

2 24 Industrial and Social History of England

61. The Laissez-faire Theory. — A scarcely less complete
change than that which had occurred in manufactures, in
agriculture, and in social life as based upon these, was
that which was in progress at the same time in the realm
of ideas, especially as applied to questions of economic
and social life. The complete acceptance of the view
that it was a natural and desirable part of the work of
government to regulate the economic life of the people
had persisted well past the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury. But very different tendencies of thought arose in
the latter part of the century. One of these was the
prevailing desire for greater liberty. The word liberty
was defined differently by different men, but for all alike
it meant a resistance to oppression, a revulsion against
interference with personal freedom of action, a disinclina-
tion to be controlled any more than absolutely necessary,
a belief that men had a right to be left free to do as
they chose, so far as such freedom was practicable.

As applied to economic interests this liberty meant
freedom for each person to make his living in the way
he might see fit, and without any external restriction.
Adam Smith says : " The patrimony of a poor man lies
in the strength and dexterity of his hands ; and to hinder
him from employing this strength and dexterity in what
manner he thinks proper, without injury to his neighbor,
is a plain violation of this most sacred property. It is a
manifest encroachment upon the just liberty both of the
workman and of those who might be disposed to employ
him. As it hinders the one from working at what he
thinks piroper, so it hinders the other from employing
whom they think proper." Government regulation, there-
fore, in as far as it restricted men's freedom of action in
working, employing, buying, selling, etc., was an interfer-
ence with their natural liberty.

Period of Industrial Revolution 225

A second influence in the same direction was the preva-
lent beHef that most of the evils that existed in society
were due to the mistakes of civilization, that if men could
get back to a "state of nature" and start again, things
might be much better. It was felt that there was too
much artificiality, too much interference with natural devel-
opment. Arthur Young condemned the prevailing policy
of government, " because it consists of prohibiting the
natural course of things. All restrictive forcible measures
in domestic policy are bad." Regulation was unwise be-
cause it forced men's actions into artificial lines when it
would have been much better to let them follow natural
lines. Therefore it was felt not only that men had a right
to carry on their economic affairs as they chose, but that
it was wise to allow them to do so, because interference
or regulation had been tried and found wanting. It had
produced evil rather than good.

A third and by far the most important intellectual influ-
ence which tended toward the destruction of the system of
regulation was the development of a consistent body of eco-
nomic teaching, which claimed to have discovered natural
laws showing the futility and injuriousness of any such
attempts. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations was pub-
lished in 1776, the year of the invention of Crompton's
mule, and in the decade when enclosures were more rapid
than at any other time, except in the middle years of the
Napoleonic wars. This was, therefore, one of the earliest,
as it was far the most influential, of a series of books which
represent the changes in ideas correlative to the changes in
actual life already described. It has been described as
having for its main object "to demonstrate that the most
effectual plan for advancing a people to greatness is to
maintain that order of things which nature has pointed out.

2 26 Industrial and Social History of England

by allowing every man, as long as he observes the rules of
justice, to pursue his own interests in his own way, and to
bring both his industry and his capital into the freest com-
petition with those of his fellow-citizens." But the most
distinct influence exercised by the writings of Adam Smith
and his successors was not so much in pointing out that it
was unjust or unwise to interfere with men's natural liberty
in the pursuit of their interests, as in showing, as it was
believed, that there were natural laws which made all inter-
ference incapable of reaching the ends it aimed at. A
series of works were pubhshed in the latter years of the
eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth century by
Malthus, Ricardo, Macculloch, James Mill, and others, in
which principles were enunciated and laws formulated which
were believed to explain why all interference with free com-
petition was useless or worse. Not only was the whole sub-
ject of economic relations clarified, much that had been
regarded as wise brought into doubt, and much that had
been only doubted shown to be absurd, but the attainment
of many objects previously sought for was, apparently,
shown to be impossible, and to lie outside of the realm of
human control.

It was pointed out, for instance, that because of the lim-
ited amount of capital in existence at any one time, " a
demand for commodities is not a demand for labor;" and
therefore a law like that which required burial in a woollen
shroud did not give added occupation to the people, but only
diverted them from one occupation to another. Ricardo
developed a law of wages to the effect that they always tend
to the amount " necessary to enable the laborer to subsist,
and to perpetuate his race without either increase or dimi-
nution," and that any artificial raising or lowering of wages
is impossible, or else causes an increase or diminution in

Period of Indttsti'ial Revolution 227

their number which, through competition, soon brings back
the old rate. Rent was also explained by Ricardo as aris-
ing from the differences of quality between different pieces
of land, and as measured by the difference in the produc-
tivity of the land under consideration and that of the poor-
est land under cultivation at the time ; and therefore being
in its amount independent of direct human control. The
Malthusian law of population showed that population tended
to increase in a geometrical ratio, subsistence for the popu-
lation, on the other hand, only in an arithmetical ratio, and
that poverty was, therefore, the natural and inevitable result
in old countries of a pressure of population on subsistence.
The sanction of science was thus given alike to the desires
of the lovers of freedom and to the regrets of those who
deplored man's departure from the state of nature.

All these intellectual tendencies and reasonings of the
later eighteenth century, therefore, combined to discredit
the minute regulation of economic society, which had been
the traditional policy of the immediately preceding cen-
turies. The movement of thought was definitely opposed
to the continuance or extension of the supervision of the
government over matters of labor, wages, hours, industry,
commerce, agriculture, or other phenomena of production,
distribution, exchange, or consumption. This set of opin-
ions is known as the laissez-faire theory of the functions of
government, the view that the duties of government should
be reduced to the smallest possible number, and that it
should keep out of the economic sphere altogether. Adam
Smith would have restricted the functions of government
to three : to protect the nation from the attacks of other
nations, to protect each person in the nation from the injus-
tice or violence of other individuals, and to carry on certain
educational or similar institutions which were of general

228 Industrial and Social History of England

utility, but not to any one's private interest. Many of his
successors would have cut oiT the last duty altogether.

62. Cessation of Government Regulation. — These theo-
retical opinions came to be more and more widely held,
more and more influential over the most thoughtful of
English statesmen and other men of prominence, until
within the first half of the nineteenth century it may be
said that their acceptance was general and their influence
dominant. They fell in with the actual tendencies of the
times, and as a result of the natural breaking down of old
conditions, the rise of new, and the general acceptance of
this attitude of laissez-faire, a rapid and general decay of
the system of government regulation took place.

The old regulation had never been so complete in
reality as it was on the statute book, and much of it had
died out of itself. Some of the provisions of the Statute of
Apprentices were persistently disregarded, and when appeals
were made for its application to farm work in the latter
part of the eighteenth century Parliament refused to enforce
it, as they did in the case of discharged soldiers in 1726
and of certain dyers in 1777. The assize of bread was very
irregularly enforced, and that of other victuals had been
given up altogether. Many commercial companies were
growing up without regulation by government, and in the
world of finance the hand of government was very light.
The new manufactures and the new agriculture grew up to
a large extent apart from government control or influence ;
while the forms to which the old regulation did apply were
dying out. In the new factory industry practically the
whole body of the employees were without the qualifica-
tions required by the Statute of Apprentices, as well as
many of the hand-loom weavers who were drawn into the
industry by the abundance and cheapness of machine-spun

Period of Industrial Revolution 229

thread. In the early years of the nineteenth century a
strenuous effort was made by the older weavers to have the
law enforced against them. The whole matter was investi-
gated by Parliament, but instead of enforcing the old law
they modified it by acts passed in 1803 and iSog, so as to
allow of greater liberty. The old prohibition of using full-
ing mills passed in 1553 was also repealed in 1809. The
Statute of Apprentices after being weakened piecemeal as
just mentioned, and by a further amendment removing the
wages clauses in 18 13, and after being referred to by Lord
JNIansfield as " against the natural rights and contrary to
the common law rights of the land," was finally removed
from the statute book in 1814. Even the " Combination
Acts," which had forbidden laborers to unite to settle wages
and hours, were repealed in r824. Similar changes took
place in other fields than those of the relations between
employers and employees. The leading characteristics of
legislation on questiohs of commerce, manufactures, and
agriculture during the last quarter of the eighteenth cen-
tury and the first half of the nineteenth consist in the
fact that it almost wholly tended toward freedom from
government control. The proportions in which the influ-
ence of the natural breaking down of an outgrown system,
of the new conditions which were arising, and of pure theorv
were combined cannot of course be distinguished. All
were present. Besides this there is alwavs a large number
of persons in the community who would be primarily bene-
fited by a change, and who therefore take the initiative or
exercise a special pressure in favor of it.

The Navigation Acts began to go to pieces in 1796, when
the old rule restricting importations from America, Asia,
and Africa to British vessels was withdrawn in favor of the
United States ; in 181 1 the same permission to send goods

230 Industrial and Social History of England

to England in other than British vessels was given to
Brazil, and in 1S22 to the Spanish-American countries.
The whole subject was investigated by a Parliamentary
Commission in 1820, at the request of the London Cham-
ber of Commerce, and a policy of withdrawal from control
determined upon. In iS23,a measure was passed by
which the crown was empowered to form reciprocity
treaties with any other country so far as shipping was
concerned, and agreements were immediately entered into
with Prussia, Denmark, Hamburg, Sweden, and within the
next twenty years with most other important countries.
The old laws of 1660 were repealed in 1826, and a freer
system substituted, while in 1849 the Navigation Acts were
abolished altogether. In the meantime the monopoly of
the old regulated companies was being withdrawn, the India
trade being thrown open in 1S13 and given up entirely bv
the Company in 1833. Gradually the commerce of Eng-
land and of all the English colonies was opened equally to
the vessels of all nations.

A beginning of removal of the import and export duties,
which had been laid for the purpose of encouraging or
discouraging or otherwise influencing certain lines of pro-
duction or trade, was made in a commercial treatv entered
into bv Pitt with France in 17S6. The work was seriously
taken up again in 1824 and 1825 by Mr. Huskisson, and in
1S42 by Sir Robert Peel. In 1845 the duty was removed
from four hundred and thirty articles, partly raw materials,
partly manufactures. But the most serious struggle in the
movement for free trade was that for the repeal of the corn
laws. A new law had been passed at the close of the
Napoleonic wars in 1815, by which the importation of
wheat was forbidden so long as the prevailing price was
not above ten shillings a bushel. This was in pursuance

Period of Lidnstiial Revolution 231

of the old traditional policy of encouraging the production
of grain in order that England might be at least partially
self-supporting, and was further justified on the ground that
the landowners paid the great bulk of the taxes, which
they could not do if the price of grain were allowed to be
brought down by foreign competition. Nevertheless an
active propaganda for the abolition of this law was begun
by the formation of the "Anti-Corn Law League," in 1839.
Richard Cobden became the president and the most famous
representative of this society, which carried on an active
agitation for some years. The chief interest in the aboli-
tion of the law would necessarily be taken by the manufac-
turing employers, the wages of whose employees could thus
be made lower and more constant, but there were abundant
other arguments against the laws, and their abandonment
was entirely in conformity with the spirit of the age. At
the close of 1845, therefore. Peel proposed their repeal, the
matter was brought up in Parliament in the early months
of 1846, and a sliding scale was adopted by which a slight
temporary protection should continue until 1849, when any
protective tariff on wheat was to cease altogether, though
a nominal duty of about one and a half pence a bushel was
still to be collected. This is known as the " adoption of
free trade."

It remains to be noted in this connection that " free
trade in land " was an expression often used during the
same period, and consisted in an effort marked by a long
series of acts of Parliament and regulations of the courts to
simplify the title to land, the processes of buying and selling
it, and in other ways making its use and disposal as simple
and uncontrolled by external regulation as was commerce or
any form of industry.

Thus the structure of regulation of industry, which had

232 Industrial and Social History of England

been built up in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, or
which had survived from the Middle Ages, was now torn
down ; the use of the powers of government to make men
cany on their economic life in a certain way, to buy and
sell, labor and hire, manufacture and cultivate, export and
import, only in such ways as were thought to be best for the
nation, seemed to be entirely abandoned. The laissez-faire
view of government was to all appearances becoming en-
tirely dominant.

63. Individualism. — But the prevailing tendencies of
thought and the economic teaching of the period were not
merely negative and opposed to government regulation ;
they contained a positive element also. If there was to be
no external control, what incentive would actuate men in
their industrial existence ? What force would hold eco-
nomic society together ? The answer was a plain one.
Enlightened self-interest was the incentive, universal free
competition was the force. James Anderson, in his Politi-
cal Economy, published in 1801, says, " Private interest
is the great source of public good, which, though operating
unseen, never ceases one moment to act with unabating
power, if it be not perverted by the futile regulations of
some short-sighted politician." Again, Malthus, in his
Essav on Population, in 1817, says: "By making the
passion of self-love beyond comparison stronger than the
passion of benevolence, the more ignorant are led to pursue
the general happiness, an end which they would have totally
failed to attain if the moving principle of their conduct had
been benevolence. Benevolence, indeed, as the great and
constant source of action, would require the most perfect
knowledge of causes and effects, and therefore can only be
the attribute of the Deity. In a being so short-sighted as
man it would lead to the grossest errors, and soon transform

Period of Industrial Revolution 233

the fair and cultivated soil of human society into a dreary
scene of want and confusion."

In other words, a natural and sufficient economic force
was always tending to act and to produce the best results,
except in as fixr as it was interfered with by external regula-
tion. If a man wishes to earn wages, to receive payment,
he must observe what work another man wants done, or
what goods another man desires, and offer to do that work
or furnish those goods, so that the other man may be willing
to remunerate him. In this way both obtain what they
want, and if all others are similarly occupied all wants will
be satisfied so far as practicable. But men must be entirely
free to act as they think best, to choose what and when and
how they will produce. The best results will be obtained
where the greatest freedom exists, where men may compete
with one another freed from all trammels, at liberty to pay
or ask such wages, to demand or offer such prices, to accept
or reject such goods, as they wish or can agree upon. If
everybody else is equally free the man who offers the best
to his neighbor will be preferred. Effort will thus be stimu-
lated, self-reliance encouraged, production increased, im-
provement attained, and economy guaranteed. Nor should
there be any special favor or encouragement given by gov-
ernment or by any other bodies to any special individuals
or classes of persons or kinds of industry, for in this way
capital and labor will be diverted from the direction which
they would naturally take, and the self-reliance and energy
of such favored persons diminished.

Therefore complete individualism, universal freedom of
competition, was the ideal of the age, as far as there is ever
any universal ideal. There certainly was a general belief
among the greater number of the intelligent and influential
classes, that when each person was freely seeking his own

234 Industrial and Social History of England

best interest he was doing the best for himself ami for all.
Economic society was conceived of as a number of freely
competing units held in equilibrium by the force of compe-
tition, much as the material universe is held together by
the attraction of gravitation. Any hindrance to this free-
dom of the individual to compete freely with all others, any
artificial support or encouragement that gives him an ad-
vantage over others, is against his own real interest and
that of society.

This ideal was necessarily as much opposed to voluntary
combinations, and to restrictions imposed by custom or
agreement, as it was to government regulation. Individual-
ism is much more than a mere laissez-faire policy of govern-
ment. It believes that every man should remain and be
allowed to remain free, unrestricted, undirected, unassisted,
so that he may be in a position at any time to direct his
labor, ability, capital, enterprise, in any direction that may
seem to him most desirable, and may be induced to put
forth his best efforts to attain success. The arguments on
which it \yas based were drawn from the domain of men's
natural right to economic as to other freedom ; from ex-
perience, by which it was believed that all regulation had
proved to be injurious ; and from economic doctrine, which
was believed to have discovered natural laws that proved
the necessary result of interference to be evil, or at best
futile.

The changes of the time were favorable to this ideal.
Men had never been so free from external control by gov-
ernment or any other power. The completion of the pro-
cess of enclosure left every agriculturist at liberty to plant
and raise what he chose, and when and how he chose.
The reform of the poor law in 1834 abolished the act of
settlement of 1662, by which the authorities of each parish

Period of Industrial Revolution 235

had the power to remove to the place from which they
came any laborers who entered it, and so far as the law was
concerned, farm laborers were now free to come and go
where they chose to seek for work. In the new factories,
systems of transportation, and other large establishments
that were taking the places of small ones, employees were
at liberty to leave their engagements at any time they chose,
to go to another employer or another occupation ; and the
employer had the same liberty of discharging at a moment's
notice. Manufacturers were at liberty to make anything they
chose, and hire laborers in whatever proportion they chose.
And just as early modern regulation had been given up, so
the few fragments of mediseval restrictive institutions that
had survived the inters-ening centuries were now rapidly
abandoned in the stress of competitive society. Later
forms of restriction, such as trade unions and trusts, had not
yet grown up. Actual conditions and the theoretical state-
ment of what was desirable approximated to one another
more nearly than they usually have in the world's history.

64. Social Conditions at the Beginning of the Nineteenth
Century. — Yet somehow the results were disappointing.
More and better manufactured goods were produced and
foreign goods sold, and at vastly lower prices. The same
result would probably have been true in agriculture had not
the corn laws long prevented this consummation, and instead
distributed the surplus to paupers and the holders of govern-
ment bonds through the medium of taxes. There was no
doubt of English wealth and progress. England held the
primacy of the world in commerce, in manufactures, in
agriculture. Her rapid increase in wealth had enabled her
to bear the burden, not only of her own part in the Napo-
leonic wars, but of much of the expense of the armament
of the continental countries. Population also was increasing

236 Indiistj'ial and Social History of England

more rapidly than ever before. She stood before the world
as the most prominent and successful modern nation in all
material respects. Yet a closer examination into her in-
ternal condition shows much that was deeply unsatisfactory.
The period of transition from the domestic to the factory
system of industry and from the older to the new farming
conditions was one of almost unrelieved misery to great masses
of those who were wedded to the old ways, who had neither
the capital, the enterprise, nor the physical nor mental adap-
tability to attach themselves to the new. The hand-loom
weavers kept up a hopeless struggle in the garrets and
cellars of the factory towns, while their wages were sinking
lower and lower till finally the whole generation died out.
The small farmers who lost the support of spinning and other
by-industries succumbed in the competition with the larger
producers. The cottagers whose commons were lost to
them by enclosures frequently failed to find a niche for them-
selves in their own part of the country, and became paupers
or vagabonds. Many of the same sad incidents which
marked the sixteenth century were characteristic of this
period of analogous change, when ultimate improvement
was being bought at the price of much immediate misery.

Even among those who were supposed to have reaped the
advantages of the changes of the time many unpleasant phe-
nomena appeared. The farm laborers were not worse, per-
haps were better off on the average, in the matter of wages,
than those of the previous generation, but they were more
completely separated from the land than they had ever been
before, more completely deprived of those wholesome influ-
ences which come from the use of even a small portion of
land, and of the incitement to thrift that comes from the pos-
sibility of rising. Few classes of people have ever been more
utterly without enjoyment or prospects than the modern

^

Period of Indtistrial Revolution 237

English farm laborers. And one class, the yeomen, some-
what higher in position and certainly in opportunities, had
disappeared entirely, recruited into the class of mere
laborers.

In the early factories, women and children were employed
more extensively and more persistently than in earlier forms
of industry. Their labor was in greater demand than that
of men. In 1839, of 31,632 employees in worsted mills,
18,416, or considerably more than half, were under eigh-
teen years of age, and of the 13,216 adults, 10,192 were
women, leaving only 3024 adult men among more than
30,000 laborers. In 1832, in a certain flax spinning mill
near Leeds, where about 1200 employees were engaged, 829
were below eighteen, only 390 above ; and in the flax spin-
ning industry generally, in 1835, only about one-third were
adults, and only about one-third of these were men. In the
still earlier years of the factory system the proportion of
women and children was even greater, though reliable gen-
eral statistics are not available. The cheaper wages, the
easier control, and the smaller size of women and children,
now that actual physical power was not required, made them
more desirable to employers, and in many families the men
clung to hand work while the women and children went into
the factories.

The early mills were small, hot, damp, dusty, and un-
healthy. They were not more so perhaps than the cottages
where domestic industry had been carried on ; but now the
hours were more regular, continuous, and prolonged in
which men, women, and children were subjected to such
labor. All had to conform alike to the regular hours, and
these were in the early days excessive. Twelve, thirteen,
and even fourteen hours a day were not unusual. Regular
hours of work, when they are moderate in length, and a sys-

238 Industrial and Social History of England

tematized life, when it is not all labor, are probably whole-
some, physically and morally ; but when the summons to
cease from work and that to begin it again are separated
by such a short interval, the factory bell or whistle repre-
sents mere tyranny.

Wages were sometimes higher than under the old condi-
tions, but they were even more irregular. Greater ups and
downs occurred. Periods of very active production and of
restriction of production alternated more decidedly than
before, and introduced more irregularity into industry for
both employers and employees. The town laborer engaged
in a large establishment was, like the rural laborer on a large
farm, completely separated from the land, from capital, from
any active connection with the administration of industry,
from any probable opportunity of rising out of the laboring
class. His prospects were, therefore, as limited as his posi-
tion was laborious and precarious.

The rapid growth of the manufacturing towns, especially
in the north, drawing the scattered population of other parts
of the country into their narrow limits, caused a general
breakdown in the old arrangements for providing water,
drainage, and fresh air ; and made rents high, and conse-
quently living in crowded rooms necessary. The factory
towns in the early part of the century were filthy, crowded,
and demoralizing, compared alike with their earlier and their
present condition.

In the higher grades of economic society the advantages
of the recent changes were more distinct, the disadvantages
less so. The rise of capital and business enterprise into
greater importance, and the extension of the field of com-
petition, gave greater opportunity to employing farmers,
merchants, and manufacturers, as well as to the capitalists
pure and simple. But even for them the keenness of com-

Period of Industrial Rcvplntion 23Q

petition and the exigencies of providing for the varying con-
ditions of distant markets made the struggle for success a
harder one, and many failed in it.

In many ways therefore it might seem that the great
material advances which had been made, the removal of
artificial restrictions, the increase of liberty of action, the
extension of the field of competition, the more enlightened
opinions on economic and social relations, had failed to
increase human happiness appreciably ; indeed, for a time
had made the condition of the mass of the people worse
instead of better.

It will not, therefore, be unexpected if some other lines
of economic and social development, especially those which
have become more and more prominent during the later
progress of the nineteenth century, prove to be quite differ-
ent in direction from those that have been studied in this
chapter.

65. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Toynbee, Arnold : The Indusirial Revoluiion of the Eigh-
tcentli Century in England.

Lecky, W. E. H. : History of England in the Eigiiteenth
Century, Vol. VI, Chap. 23.

Baines, E. : History of the Cotton Manufacture tji Great
Britain.

Cooke-Taylor, R. W. : Tlie Modern Factory System.

Levi, L. : History of British Commerce and of the Eco-
nomic Progress of tlie British Nation.

Prothero, R. E. : The Pioneers and Progress of English
Farming.

Rogers, J. E. T. : Industrial and Commercial History.

Smith, Adam : An Inquiry into tlie Nature and Causes
of the Wealth of Nations.

CHAPTER IX

THE EXTENSION OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL

Factory Laws, the MoniFiCATioM of Land Ownership, Sanitary
Regulations, and New Public Ser^tces

66. National Affairs from 1830 to 1900. — The English
government in the year 1S30 might be described as a com-
plete aristocracy. The king had practically no powers
apart from his ministers, and they were merely the repre-
sentatives of the majority in Parliament. Parliament con-
sisted of the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
The first of these Houses was made up for the most part
of an hereditary aristocracy. The bishops and newly
created peers, the only element which did not come in by
inheritance, were appointed by the king and usually from
the families of those who already possessed inherited
titles. The House of Commons had originally been made
up of two members from each county, and two from each
important town. But the list of represented towns was
still practically the same as it had been in the fifteenth
century, while intervening economic and other changes had,
as has been seen, made the most complete alteration in the
distribution of population. Great manufacturing towns had
grown up as a result of changes in commerce and of the
industrial revolution, and these had no representation in
Parliament separate from the counties in which they lay.
On the other hand, towns once of respectable size had
dwindled until they had only a few dozen inhabitants, and

240

The Extension of Government Control 241

in some cases had reverted to open farming country ;
but these, or the landlords who owned the land on which
they had been built, still retained their two representatives
in Parliament. The county representatives were voted for
by all " forty shilling freeholders," that is, landowners whose
farms would rent for forty shillings a year. But the whole
tendency of English landholding, as has been seen, had been
to decrease the number of landowners in the country, so
that the actual number of voters was only a very small pro-
portion of the rural population.

Such great irregularities of representation had thus grown
up that the selection of more than a majority of the mem-
bers of the House of Commons was in the hands of a very
small number of men, many of them already members of the
House of Lords, and all members of the aristocracy.

Just as Parliament represented only the higher classes, so
officers in the army and to a somewhat less extent the navy,
the officials of the established church, the magistrates in
the counties, the ambassadors abroad, and the cabinet min-
isters at home, the holders of influential positions in the Uni-
versities and endowed institutions generally, were as a regular
thing members of the small class of the landed or mercantile
aristocracy of England. Perhaps one hundred thousand
out of the fourteen millions of the people of England were
the veritable governing classes. They alone had any con-
trol of the national and local government, or of the most
important pohtical and social institutions.

The "Reform of Parliament," which meant some degree
of equalization of the representation of districts, an exten-
sion of the franchise, and the abolition of some of the
irregularities in elections, had been proposed from time to
time, but had awakened little interest until it was advocated
by the Radicals under the influence of the P'rench Revolu-

R

243 Industrial and Social History of England

tion, along with some much more far-reaching propositions.
Between the years 1820 and 1830, however, a moderate
reform of Parhament had been advocated by the leaders of
the Whig party. In 1830 this party rather unexpectedly
obtained a majority in Parliament, for the first time for a
long while, and the ministry immediately introduced a re-
form bill. It proposed to take away the right of separate
representation from fifty-si.x towns, and to reduce the num-
ber of representatives from two to one in thirty-one others ;
to transfer these representatives to the more populous towns
and counties ; to extend the franchise to a somewhat larger
number and to equalize it ; and finally to introduce lists of
voters, to keep the polls open for only two da3's, and to
correct a number of such minor abuses. There was a bitter
contest in Parliament and in the country at large on the
proposed change, and the measure was only carried after it
had been rejected by one House of Commons, passed by a
new House elected as a test of the question, then defeated
by the House of Lords, and only passed by them when
submitted a second time with the threat by the ministry of
requiring the king to create enough new peers to pass it, if
the existing members refused to do so. Its passage was
finally secured in 1832. It was carried by pressure from
below through all its stages. The king signed it reluctantly
because it had been sent to him by Parliament, the House
of Lords passed it under threats from the ministry, who
based their power on the House of Commons. This body
in turn had to be reconstructed by a new election before it
would agree to it, and there is no doubt that the voters as
well as Parliament itself were much influenced by the cry of
" the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill," raised
by mobs, associations, and meetings, consisting largely of
the masses of the people who possessed no votes at all. In

TJie Extension of Govcnunetit Control 243

the last resort, therefore, it was a victory won by the masses,
and, little as they profited by it immediately, it proved to
be the turning point, the first step from aristocracy toward
democracy.

In 1 86 7 a second Reform Bill was passed, mainly on the
lines of the first, but giving what amounted to almost uni-
versal suffrage to the inhabitants of the town constituencies,
which included the great body of the workingmen. Finally,
in 1SS4 and 1885, the third Reform Bill was passed which
extended the right of voting to agricultural laborers as well,
and did much toward equalizing the size of the districts
represented by each member of the House of Commons.
Other reforms have been adopted during the same period,
and Parliament has thus come to represent the whole popu-
lation instead of merely the aristocracy. But there have
been even greater changes in local government. By laws
passed in 1835 and 1882 the cities and boroughs have been
given a form of government in which the power is in the
hands of all the taxpayers. In 1888 an act was passed
through Parliament forming County Councils, elected by
universal suffrage and taking over many of the powers
formerly exercised by the magistrates and large landholders.
In 1894 this was followed by a Parish Council Bill creating
even more distinctly local bodies, by which the people in
each locality, elected by universal suffrage, including that of
women, may take charge of ahnost all their local concerns
under the general legislation of Parliament.

Corresponding to these changes in general and local
government the power of the old ruling classes has been
diminished in all directions, until it has become little more
than that degree of prominence and natural leadership
which the national sentiment or their economic and intel-
lectual advantages give to them. It may be said that Eng-

244 Industrial and Social History of England

land, so far as its government goes, has come nearer to
complete democracy than any other modern country.

In the rapidity of movement, the activity, the energy, the
variety of interests, the thousand lines of economic, political,
intellectual, literary, artistic^ philanthropic, or religious life
which characterize the closing years of the ninteenth cen-
tury, it seems impossible to choose a few facts to typify or
describe the period, as is customary for earlier times.

Little can be done except to point out the main lines of
political movement, as has been done in this paragraph, or
of economic and social development, as will be done in the
remaining paragraphs of this and the next chapter. The
great mass of recent occurrences and present conditions are
as yet rather the human atmosphere in which we are living,
the problem which we are engaged in solving, than a proper
subject for historical description and analysis.

67. The Beginning of Factory Legislation. — One of the
greatest difficulties with which the early mill owners had to
contend was the insufficient supply of labor for their factories.
Since these had to be run by water power, they were
placed along the rapid streams in the remote parts of York-
shire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire, which
were sparsely populated, and where such inhabitants as there
were had a strong objection to working in factories. How-
ever abundant population might be in some other parts of
England, in the northwest where the new manufacturing was
growing up, and especially in the hilly rural districts, there
were but few persons available to perform the work which
must be done by human hands in connection with the mill
machinery. There was, however, in existence a source of
supply of laborers which could furnish almost unlimited
numbers and at the lowest possible cost. The parish poor-
houses or workhouses of the lara;e cities were overcrowded

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION

IN

ENGLAND aud WALES

1891

SCALE OF ENGLISH MILES

40 60 80 1.00

EXPLANATION

Under 100,

V>. From ICO to 200

200 to 300

Longitude West 2 from Greenwich

ENGRAVED BY BORMI

246 Industrial and Social History of England

with children. The authorities always had difficulty in
finding occupation for them when they came to an age
when they could earn their own living, and any plan of
putting them to work would be received with welcome.
This source of supply was early discovered and utilized by
the manufacturers, and it soon became customary for them
to take as apprentices large nuinbers of the poorhouse
children. They signed indentures with the overseers of the
poor by which they agreed to give board, clothing, and
instruction for a certain number of years to the children
who were thus bound to them. In return they put them to
work in the factories. Children from seven years of age
upward were engaged by hundreds from London and the
other large cities, and set to work in the cotton spinning
factories of the north. Since there were no other facilities
for boarding them, " apprentice houses " were built for them
in the vicinity of the factories, where they were placed under
the care of superintendents or matrons. The conditions
of life among these pauper children were, as might be
expected, very hard. They were remotely situated, apart
from the observation of the community, left to the burdens
of unrelieved labor and the harshness of small masters or
foremen. Their hours of labor were excessive. When the
demands of trade were active they were often arranged
in two shifts, each shift working twelve hours, one in the day
and another in the night, so that it was a common saying in
the north that " their beds never got cold," one set climb-
ing into bed as the other got out. When there was no
night work the day work was the longer. They were driven
at their work and often abused. Their food was of the
coarsest description, and they were frequently required to
eat it while at their work, snatching a bite as they could
while the machinery was still in motion. Much of the time

The Extension of Government Control 247

which should have been devoted to rest was spent in cleaning
the machinery, and there seems to have been absolutely no
effort made to give them any education or opportunity for
recreation.

The sad life of these little waifs, overworked, underfed,
neglected, abused, in the factories and barracks in the
remote glens of Yorkshire and Lancashire, came eventually
to the notice of the outside world. Correspondence de-
scribing their condition began to appear in the newspapers,
a Manchester Board of Health made a presentment in 1796
calling attention to the unsanitary conditions in the cotton
factories where they worked, contagious fevers were re-
ported to be especially frequent in the apprentice houses,
and in 1802 Sir Robert Peel, himself an employer of nearly
a thousand such children, brought the matter to the at-
tention of Parliament. An immediate and universal desire
was expressed to abolish the abuses of the system, and as a
result the " Health and Morals Act to regulate the Labor
of Bound Children in Cotton P'actories " was passed in the
same year. It prohibited the binding out for factory labor
of children younger than nine years, restricted the hours of
labor to twelve actual working hours a day, and forbade
night labor. It required the walls of the factories to be
properly whitewashed and the buildings to be sufficiently
ventilated, insisted that the apprentices should be furnished
with at least one new suit of clothes a year, and provided
that they should attend religious service and be instructed
in the fundamental English branches. This was the first of
the " Factory Acts," for, although its application was so
restricted, applying only to cotton factories, and for the
most part only to bound children, the subsequent steps in
the formation of the great code of factory legislation were
for a long while simply a development of the same prin-

24S Industrial and Social History of England

ciple, that factory labor involved conditions which it was
desirable for government to regulate.

At the time of the passage of this law the introduction of
steam power was already causing a transfer of the bulk of
factory industry from the rural districts to which the need
for water power had confined it to the towns where every
other requisite for carrying on manufacturing was more
easily obtainable. Here the children of families resident
in the town could be obtained, and the practice of using
apprentice children was largely given up. Many of the
same evils, however, continued to exist here. The prac-
tice of beginning to work while extremely 3'oung, long
hours, night work, unhealthy surroundings, proved to be as
common among these children to whom the law did not
apply as they had been among the apprentice children.
These evils attracted the attention of several persons of
philanthropic feehng. Robert Owen, especially, a success-
ful manufacturer who had introduced many reforms in his
own mills, collected a large body of evidence as to the
excessive labor and early age of employees in the factories
even where no apprentice labor was engaged. He tried to
awaken an interest in the matter by the publication of a
pamphlet on the injurious consequences of the factory sys-
tem, and to influence various members of Parliament to
favor the passage of a law intended to improve the condi-
tion of laboring children and young people. In 1815 Sir
Robert Peel again brought the matter up in Parliament. A
committee was appointed to investigate the question, and a
legislative agitation was thus begun which was destained to
last for many years and to produce a series of laws which
have gradually taken most of the conditions of eniplo\'ment
in large establishments under the cjntrol of the govern-
ment. In debates in Parliam.ent, in testimony before

Tlie Extension of Goveninicnt Control 249

government commissions of investigation, in petitions,
pampiilets, and newspapers, the conditions of factory labor
were described and discussed. Successive laws to modify
these conditions were introduced into Parliament, debated
at great length, amended, postponed, reintroduced, and in
some cases passed, in others defeated.

68. Arguments for and against Factory Legislation. —
The need for regulation which was claimed to exist arose
from the long hours of work which were customary, from
the very early age at which many children were sent to be
employed in the factories, and from various incidents of
manufacturing which were considered injurious, or as in-
volvi'ng unnecessary hardship. The actual working hours
in the factories in the early part of the century were
from twelve and a half to fourteen a day. That is to say,
factories usually started work in the morning at 6 o'clock
and continued till 12, when a period from a half-hour to
an hour was allowed for dinner, then the work began again
and continued till 7.30 or 8.30 in the evening. It was cus-
tomary to eat breakfast after reaching the mill, but this was
done while attending the machinery, there being no general
stoppage for the purpose. Some mills ran even longer
hours, opening at 5 a.m. and not closing till 9 p.m. In some
exceptional cases the hours were only 12 ; from 6 to 12 and
from I to 7. The inducements to long hours were very
great. The profits were large, the demand for goods was
constantly growing, the introduction of gas made it pos-
sible to light the factories, and the use of artificial power,
either water or steam, seemed to make the labor much less
severe than when the power had been provided by human
muscles. Few or no holidays were regarded, except
Sunday, so that work went on in an unending strain of pro-
tracted, exhausting labor, prolonged for much of the year
far into the night.

250 Industrial ami Social History of England

To these long hours all the hands alike conformed, the
children commencing and stopping work at the same time
as the grown men and women. Moreover, the children
often began work while extremely young. There was a
great deal of work in the factories which they could do just
as well, in some cases even better, than adults. They were
therefore commonly sent into the mills by their parents at
about the age of eight years, frequently at seven or even six.
As has been before stated, more than half of the employees
in many factories were below eighteen years, and of these a
considerable number were mere children. Thirdly, there
were certain other evils of factory labor that attracted atten-
tion and were considered by the reformers to be remediable.
Many accidents occurred because the moving machinery
was unprotected, the temperature in the cotton mills had to
be kept high, and ventilation and cleanliness were often en-
tirely neglected. The habit of keeping the machinery in
motion while meals were being eaten was a hardship, and in
many ways the employees were practically at the mercy of
the proprietors of the factories so long as there was no form
of oversight or of united action to prevent harshness or
unfairness.

In the discussions in Parliament and outside there were of
course many contradictory statements concerning the facts
of the case, and much denial of general and special charges.
The advocates of factory laws drew an extremely sombre
picture of the evils of the factory system. The opponents
of such legislation, on the other hand, declared that their
statements were exaggerated or untrue, and that the condi-
tion of the factory laborer was not worse than that of other
workingmen, or harder than that of the domestic worker
and his family had been in earlier times.

But apart from these recriminations and contradictions,

The Extension of Government Control 2 5 I

there were certain general arguments used in the debates
which can be grouped into tliree classes on each side. For
the regulating laws there was in the first place the purely
sentimental argument, repulsion against the hard, unrelieved
labor, the abuse, the lack of opportunity for enjoyment or
recreation of the children of the factory districts ; the feel-
ing that in wealthy, humane. Christian England, it was
unendurable that women and little children should work
longer hours, be condemned to greater hardships, and more
completely cut off from the enjoyments of life than were the
slaves of tropical countries. This is the argument of Mrs.
Browning's Cry of the Childroi : —

" Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,

Ere the sorrow comes with years ?
They are leaning their young heads against their mothers,

And that cannot stop their tears.
The young lamias are bleating in the meadows;

The young birds are chirping in the nest;
The young fawns are playing with the shadows ;

The young flowers are blowing toward the west;
But the young, young children, O my brothers !

They are weeping bitterly.
They are weeping in the play-time of the others

In the country of the free.

******
' For oh ! ' say the children, ' we are weary,

And we cannot run or leap :
If we cared for any meadows, it were merely

To drop down in them and sleep.'

******
They look up with their pale and sunken faces,

And their look is dread to see.
For they mind you of their angels in high places,

With eyes turned on Deity.
' How long,' they say, ' how long, O cruel nation.

Will you stand, to move the world on a child's heart,
Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation

And tread onward to your throne amid the mart? ' "

252 Industrial ami Social History of England

Secondly, it was argued that the long hours for the chil-
dren cut them off from all intellectual and moral training,
that they were in no condition after such protracted labor
to profit by any opportunities of education that should be
supplied, that with the diminished influence of the honje,
and the demoralizing effects that were supposed to result
from factory labor, ignorance and vice alike would continue
to be its certain accompaniments, unless the age at which
regular work was begun should be limited, and the number
of hours of labor of young persons restricted. Thirdly, it
was claimed that there was danger of the physical degener-
acy of the factory population. Certain diseases, especially
of the joints and limbs, were discovered to be very preva-
lent in the factory districts. Children who began work so
early in life and were subjected to such long hours of labor
did not grow so rapidly, nor reach their full stature, nor
retain their vigor so late in life, as did the population out-
side of the factories. Therefore, for the very physical pre-
servation of the race, it was declared to be necessary to
regulate the conditions of factory labor.

On the other hand, apart from denials as to the facts of
the case, there were several distinct arguments used against
the adoption of factory laws. In the first place, in the
interests of the manufacturers, such laws were opposed as an
unjust interference with their business, an unnecessary and
burdensome obstacle to their success, and a threat of ruin
to a class who by giving employment to so many laborers
and furnishing so much of the material for commerce were
of the greatest advantage to the country. Secondly, from
a somewhat broader point of view, it was declared that if
such laws were adopted England would no longer be able
to compete with other countries and would lose her pre-
eminence in manufactures. The factory system was being

The Extension of Government Control 253

introduced into France, Belgium, the United States, and
other countries, and in none of these was there anj' legal
restriction on the hours of labor or the age of the employees.
If English manufacturers were forced to reduce the length
of the day in which production was carried on, they could
not produce as cheaply as these other countries, and
English exports would decrease. This would reduce the
national prosperity and be especially hard on the working
classes themselves, as many would necessarily be thrown
out of work. Thirdly, as a matter of principle it was argued
that the policy of government regulation had been tried and
found wanting, that after centuries of existence it had been
deliberately given up, and should not be reintroduced.
Laws restricting hours would interfere with the freedom of
labor, with the freedom of capital, with the freedom of
contract. If the employer and the employee were both
satisfied with the conditions of their labor, why should the
government interfere? The reason also why such regula-
tion had failed in the past and must again, if tried now, was
evident. It was an effort to alter the action of the natural
laws which controlled employment, wages, profits, and other
economic matters, and was bad in theory, and would there-
fore necessarily be injurious in practice. These and some
other less general arguments were used over and over again
in the various forms of the discussion through almost half a
century. The laws that were passed were carried because
the majority in Parliament were either not convinced by
these reasonings or else determined that, come what might,
the evils and abuses connected with factory labor should be
abolished. As a matter of fact, the factory laws were car-
ried by the rank and file of the voting members of Parha-
ment, not only against the protests of the manufacturers
especially interested, but in spite of the warnings of those

254 Industrial and Social History of England

who spoke in the name of established teaching, and fre-
quently against the opposition of the political leaders of
both parties. The greatest number of those who voted for
them were influenced principally by their sympathies and
feelings, and yielded to the appeals of certain philanthropic
advocates, the most devoted and influential of whom was
Lord Ashley, afterward earl of Shaftesbury, who devoted
many years to investigation and agitation on the subject
both inside and out of Parliament.

69. Factory Legislation to 1847. — The actual course
of factory legislation was as follows. The bill originally
introduced in 18 15, after having been subjected to a series
of discussions, amendments, and postponements, was passed
in June, 1819, being the second " Factory Act." It applied
only to cotton mills, and was in the main merely an ex-
tension of the act of 1802 to the protection of children
who were not pauper apprentices. It forbade the employ-
ment of any child under nine years of age, and prohibited
the employment of those between nine and sixteen more
than twelve hours a day, or at night. In addition to the
twelve hours of actual labor, at least a half-hour must be
allowed for breakfast and an hour for dinner. Other minor
acts amending or extending this were passed from time to
time, till in 1833, after two successive commissions had
made investigations and reports on the subject, an impor-
tant law was passed. It applied practically to all textile
mills, not merely to those for the spinning of cotton. The
prohibition of employment of all below nine years was con-
tinued, children between nine and thirteen were to work
only eight hours per day, and young persons between thir-
teen and eighteen only twelve hours, and none of these at
night. Two whole and eight half holidays were required
to be given within the year, and each child must have a

The Extension of Govcruinciit Control 255

surgeon's certificate of fitness for labor. There were also
clauses for the education of the children and the cleanliness
of the factories. But the most important clause of this
statute was the provision of a corps of four inspectors with
assistants who were sworn to their duties, salaried, and pro-
vided with extensive powers of making rules for the exe-
cution of the act, of enforcing it, and prosecuting for its
violation. The earlier laws had not been efficiently carried
out. Under this act numerous prosecutions and convictions
took place, and factory regulation began to become a reality.
The inspectors calculated during their first year of service
that there were about 56,000 children between nine and
thirteen, and about ioS,ooo young persons between thirteen
and eighteen, in the factories under their supervision.

The decade lying between 1S40 and 1S50 was one of
specially great activity in social and economic agitation.
Chartism, the abolition of tlie corn laws, the formation of
trade unions, mining acts, and further extensions of the
factory acts were all alike under discussion, and they all
created the most intense antagonism between parties and
classes. In 1844 the law commonly known as the " Chil-
dren's Half-time Act " was passed. It contained a large
number of general provisions for the fencing of dangerous
machinery, for its stoppage while being cleaned, for the
repiort of accidents to inspectors and district surgeons, for
the public prosecution for damages of the factory owner
when he should seem to be responsible for an accident, and
for the enforcement of the act. Its most distinctive clause,
however, was that which restricted the labor of children to
a half-day, or the whole of alternate days, and required their
attendance at school for the other half of their time. All
women were placed by this act in the same category as
voung persons between thirteen and eighteen, so far as the

256 Industrial and Social History of England

restriction of hours of labor to twelve per day and the pro-
hibition of night work extended.

The next statute to be passed was an extension of this
regulation, though it contained the provision which had
long been the most bitterly contested of any during the
wliole factory law agitation. This was the " Ten-hour
Act " of 1847. From an early period in the century there
had been a strong agitation in favor of restricting by law
the hours of young persons, and from somewhat later, of
women, to ten hours per day, and this proposition had been
repeatedly introduced and defeated in Parliament. It was
now carried. By this time the more usual length of the
working day even when unrestricted had been reduced to
twelve hours, and in some trades to eleven. It was now
made by law half-time for children, and ten hours for young
persons and women, or as rearranged by another law passed
tliree years afterward, ten and a half hours for five days of
the week and a half-day on Saturday. The number of per-
sons to whom the Ten-hour Act applied was estimated at
something over 360,000. That is, including the children,
at least three-fourths of all persons employed in textile
industries had their hours and some other conditions of
labor directly regulated by law. Moreover, the work of men
employed in the same factories was so dependent on that
of the women and the children, that many of these restric-
tions applied practically to them also.

Further minor changes in hours and other details were
made from time to time, but there was no later contest on
the principle of factory legislation. The evil results which
had been feared had not shown themselves, and many of
its strongest opponents had either already, or did eventually,
acknowledge the beneficial results of the laws.

70. The Extension of Factory Legislation. — By the sue-

Tlie Extension of Government Control 257

cessive acts of 1819, 1833, 1844, and 1847, a normal length
of working day and regulated conditions generally had
been established by government for the factories employing
women and children. The next development was an exten-
sion of the regulation of hours and conditions of labor from
factories proper to other allied fields. Already in 1842 a

Women's Labor in Coal Mines.
(Report of Children's Employment Commission, 1S42.)

law had been passed regulating labor in mines. This act
was passed in response to the needs shown by the report of
a commission which had been appointed in 1840. They
made a thorough investigation of the obscure conditions of
labor underground, and reported a condition of affairs which
was heart-sickening. Children began their life in the coal

258 Industrial and Social History of England

mines at five, six, or seven years of age. Girls and
women worked like boys and men, they were less than half
clothed, and worked alongside of men who were stark naked.
There were from twelve to fourteen working hours in the
twenty-four, and these were often at night. Little girls of six
or eight years of age made ten to twelve trips a day up steep
ladders to the surface, carrying half a hundred weight of coal
in wooden buckets on their backs at each journey. Young
women appeared before the commissioners, when summoned
from their work, dressed merely in a pair of trousers, drip-
ping wet from the water of the mine, and already weary with
the labor of a day scarcely more than begun. A common
form of labor consisted of drawing on hands and knees over
the inequalities of a passageway not more than two feet or
twent)'-eight inches high a car or tub filled with three or
four hundred weight of coal, attached by a chain and hook
to a leather band around the waist. The mere recital of
the testimony taken precluded all discussion as to the desir-
ability of reform, and a law was immediately passed, almost
without dissent, which prohibited for the future all work
underground by females or by boys under thirteen years of
age. Inspectors were appointed, and by subsequent acts a
whole code of regulation of mines as regards age, hours,
lighting, ventilation, safety, licensing of engineers, and in
other respects has been created.

In 1846 a bill was passed applying to calico printing
works regulations similar to the factory laws proper. In
i860, 1 86 1, and 1863 similar laws were passed for bleaching
and dyeing for lace works, and for bakeries. In 1S64
another so-called factory act was passed applying to at least
six other industries, none of which had any connection with
textile factories. Three years later, in 1S67, two acts for
factories and workshops respectively took a large number of

The Extension of Government Control 2 5<J

additional industries under their care; and finally, in 1S78,
the "Factory and Workshop Consolidation Act" repealed
all the former special laws and substituted a veritable factory
code containing a vast number of provisions for the regula-
tion of industrial establishments. This law covered more
than fifty printed pages of the statute book. Its principle
provisions were as follows : The limit of prohibited labor
was raised from nine to ten years, children in the terms of
the statute being those between ten and fourteen, and
" young persons " those between fourteen and eighteen
years of age. For all such the day's work must begin
either at six or seven, and close at the same hour respec-
tively in the evening, two hours being allowed for meal-
times. All Saturdays and eight other days in the year must
be half-holidays, while the whole of Christmas Day and
Good Friday, or two alternative days, must be allowed as
holidays. Children could work for only one-half of each day
or on the whole of alternate days, and must attend school on
the days or parts of days on which they did not work. There
were minute provisions governing sanitary conditions, safety
from machinery and in dangerous occupations, meal-times,
medical certificates of fitness for employment, and reports of
accidents. Finally there were the necessary body of provi-
sions for administration, enforcement, penalties, and excep-
tions.

Since 1878 there have been a number of extensions of
the principle of factory legislation, the most important of
which are the following. In 1S91 and 1895, amending acts
were passed bringing laundries and docks within the pro-
visions of the law, making further rules against overcrowd-
ing and other unsanitary conditions, increasing the age of
prohibited labor to eleven years, and making a beginning
of the regulation of "outworkers" or those engaged by

26o Industrial and Social History of England

'- sweaters." " Sweating " is manufacturing carried on by
contractors or subcontractors on a small scale, who usually
have the work done in their own homes or in single hired
rooms by members of their families, or by poorly paid
employees who by one chance or another are not in a free
and independent relation to them. Many abuses exist in
these " sweatshops." The law so far is scarcely more than
tentative, but in these successive acts provisions have been
made by which all manufacturers or contractors must keep
lists of outworkers engaged by them, and submit these to
the factory inspectors for supervision.

In 1892 a " Shop-hours Act" was passed prohibiting the
employment of any person under eighteen years of age
more than seventy-four hours in any week in any retail or
wholesale store, shop, eating-house, market, warehouse, or
other similar establishment; and in 1893 the "Railway
Regulation Act " gave power to the Board of Trade to
require railway companies to provide reasonable and satis-
factory schedules of hours for all their employees. In 1S94 a
bill for a compulsory eight-hour day for miners was intro-
duced, but was withdrawn before being submitted to a vote.
In 1899 a bill was passed requiring the provision of a suffi-
cient number of seats for all female assistants in retail stores.
In 1900 a government bill was presented to Parliament carry-
ing legislation somewhat farther on the lines of the acts of
1S91 and 1S93, but it did not reach its later stages before
the adjournment.

71. Employers' Liability Acts. — Closely allied to the
problems involved in the factory laws is the question of
the liability of employers to make compensation for per-
sonal injuries sulTered by workmen in their service, ^^'ilh
the increasing use of machinery and of steam power for
manufacturing and transportation, and in the general absence

Tlie Extension of Government Control 26 r

of precaution, accidents to workmen became much more
numerous. Statistics do not exist for earlier periods, but in
1899 serious or petty accidents to the number of 70,760
were reported from such establishments. By Common Law,
in the case of negligence on the part of the proprietor or
servant of an establishment, damages for accident could
be sued for and obtained by a workman, not guilty of
contributory neghgence, as by any other person, except in
one case. If the accident was the result of the negligence
of a fellow-employee, no compensation for injuries would
be allowed by the courts ; the theory being that in the
implied contract between employer and employee, the latter
agreed to accept the risks of the business, at least so far as
these arose from the carelessness of his fellow-employees.

In the large establishments of modern times, however,
vast numbers of men were fellow-employees in the eyes of
the law, and the doctrine of "common employment," as it
was called, prevented the recovery of damages in so many
cases as to attract widespread attention. From 1865 foi-
ward this provision of the law was frequently complained of
by leaders of the workingmen and others, and as constantly
upheld by the courts.

In 1876 a committee of the House of Commons on the
relations of master and servant took evidence on this matter
and recommended in its report that the common law be
amended in this respect. Accordingly in 1S80 an Employ-
ers' Liability Act was passed which abolished the doctrine
of " common employment " as to much of its application,
and made it possible for the employee to obtain compensa-
tion for accidental injury in the great majority of cases.

In 1893 a bill was introduced in Parliament by the min-
istry of the time to abolish all deductions from the respon-
sibility of employers, except that of contributory negligence

262 Industrial and Social History of England

on the part of workmen, but it was not passed. In 1897,
however, the " Workmen's Compensation Act " was passed,
changing the basis of the law entirely. By this Act it was pro-
vided that in case of accident to a workman causing death
or incapacitating him for a period of more than two weeks,
compensation in proportion to the wages he formerly earned
should be paid by the employer as a matter of course, unless
"serious and wilful misconduct" on the part of the work-
man could be shown to have existed. The liability of
employers becomes, therefore, a matter of insurance of
workmen agahist accidents arising out of their employment,
imposed by the law upon employers. It is no longer dam-
ages for negligence, but a form of compulsory insurance.
In other words, since 1897 a legal, if only an implied part
of the contract between employer and employee in all forms
of modern industry in which accidents are likely to occur is
that the employer insures the employee against the dangers
of his work.

72. Preservation of Remaining Open Lands. — Turning
from the field of manufacturing labor to that of agriculture
and landholding it will be found that there has been some
legislation for the protection of the agricultural laborer
analogous to the factory laws. The Royal Commission of
1S40-1844 on trades then unprotected by law included a
report on the condition of rural child labor, but no law
followed until 1S73, wlien the "Agricultural Children's Act "
was passed, but proved to be ineffective. The evils of
"agricultural gangs," which were bodies of poor laborers,
mostly children, engaged by a contractor and taken from
place to place to be hired out to farmers, were reported
on by a commission in 1862, and partly o\'ercome by the
"Agricultural Gangs Act" of 1867. There is, however,
but little systematic government oversight of the farm-
laboring class.

The Extension of Governinent Control 263

Government regulation in the field of landholding has
taken a somewhat different form. The movement of
enclosing which had been in progress from the middle
of the eighteenth century was brought to an end, and a
reversal of tendency took place, by which the use and
occupation of the land was more controlled by the govern-
ment in the interest of the masses of the rural population.
By the middle of the century the process of enclosing was
practically complete. There had been some 3954 pri-
vate enclosure acts passed, and under their provisions or
those of the Enclosure Commissioners more than seven
million acres had been changed from mediaeval to modern
condition. But now a reaction set in. Along with the
open field farming lands it was perceived that open com-
mons, village greens, gentlemen's parks, and the old
national forest lands were being enclosed, and frequently
for building or railroad, not for agricultural uses, to the
serious detriment of the health and of the enjoyment of the
people, and to the destruction of the beauty of the country.
The dread of interference by the government with matters
that might be left to private settlement was also passing
away. In 1865 the House of Commons appointed a
commission to investigate the question of open spaces near
the city of London, and the next year on their recommen-
dation passed a law by which the Enclosure Commis-
sioners were empowered to make regulations for the use
of all commons within fifteen miles of London as public
parks, except so far as the legal rights of the lords of
the manors in which the commons lay should prevent.
A contest had already arisen between many of these lords
of manors having the control of open commons, whose
interest it was to enclose and sell them, and other persons
having vague rights of pasturage and other use of them.

264 Industrial and Social History of England

whose interest it was to preserve them as open spaces. To
aid the latter in their legal resistance to proposed enclos-
ures, the " Commons Preservation Society " was formed in
1865. As a result a number of the contests were decided
in the year 1866 in favor of those who opposed enclosures.
The first case to attract attention was that of Wimbledon
Common, just west of London. Earl Spencer, the lord of
the manor of Wimbledon, had offered to give up his rights on
the common to the inhabitants of the vicinity in return for a
nominal rent and certain privileges ; and had proposed that a
third of the common should be sold, and the money obtained
for it used to fence, drain, beautify, and keep up the remain-
der. The neighboring inhabitants, however, preferred the
spacious common as it stood, and when a bill to carry out
Lord Spencer's proposal had been introduced into Parlia-
ment, they contended that they had legal rights on the
common which he could not disregard, and that they
objected to its enclosure. The parliamentary committee
practically decided in their favor, and the proposition was
dropped. An important decision in a similar case was
made by the courts in 1S70. Berkhamstead Common, an
open stretch some three miles long and half a mile wide,
lying near the town of Berkhamstead, twenty-five miles north
of London, had been used for pasturing animals, cutting
turf, digging gravel, gathering furze, and as a place of
general recreation and enjoyment by the people of the two
manors in which it lay, from time immemorial. In 1866
Lord Brownlow, the lord of these two manors, began making
enclosures upon it, erecting two iron fences across it so as
to enclose 434 acres and to separate the remainder into two
entirely distinct parts. The legal advisers of Lord Brown-
low declared that the inhabitants had no rights which would
prevent him from enclosing parts of the common, although

77^1? Extension of Government Control 265

to satisfy them he offered to give to them the entire control
over one part of it. The Commons Preservation Society,
however, advised the inhabitants differently, and encouraged
them to make a legal contest. One of their number, Au-
gustus Smith, a wealthy and obstinate man, a member of
Parliament, and a possessor of rights on tlie common both
as a freeholder and a copyholder, was induced to take
action in his own name and as a representative of other
claimants of common rights. He engaged in London a
force of one hundred and twenty laborers, sent them down
at night by train, and before morning had broken down
Lord Brownlow's two miles of iron fences, on which he had
spent some ;!{^5ooo, and piled their sections neatly up on
another part of the common. Two lawsuits followed : one
by Lord Brownlow against Mr. Smith for trespass, the
other a cross suit in the Chancery Court by Mr. Smith to
ascertain the commoner's rights, and prevent the enclosure
of the common. After a long trial the decision was given
in Mr. Smith's favor, and not only was Berkhamstead Com-
mon thus preserved as an open space, but a precedent set for
the future decision of other similar cases. Within the years
between 1866 and 1874 dispute after dispute analogous to
this arose, and decision after decision was given declaring
the illegality of enclosures by a lord of a manor where there
were claims of commoners which they still asserted and
valued and which could be used as an obstacle to enclosure.
Hampstead Heath, Ashdown Forest, Malvern Hills, Plum-
stead, Tooting, Wandsworth, Coulston, Dartford, and a
great many other commons, village greens, roadside wastes,
and other open spaces were saved from enclosure, and
some places were partly opened up again, as a result either
of lawsuits, of parliamentary action, or of voluntary agree-
ments and purchase.

266 Industrial and Social History of England

Perhaps the most conspicuous instance was that of
Epping Forest. This common consisted of an open tract
about thirteen miles long and one mile wide, containing in
1870 about three thousand acres of open common land.
Enclosure was being actively carried on by some nineteen
lords of manors, and some three thousand acres had been
enclosed by rather high-handed means within the preceding
twenty years. Among the various landowners who claimed
rights of common upon a part of the Forest was, however,
the City of London, and in 187 1 this body began suit
against the various lords of manors under the claim that it
possessed pasture rights, not only in the manor of Ilford,
in which its property of two hundred acres was situated,
but, since the district was a royal forest, over the whole
of it. The City asked that the lords of manors should be
prevented from enclosing any more of it, and required to
throw open again what they had enclosed during the last
twenty years. After a long and expensive legal battle and
a concurrent investigation by a committee of Parliament,
both extending over three years, a decision was given in
favor of the City of London and other commoners, and the
lords of manors were forced to give back about three
thousand acres. The whole was made permanently into
a public park. The old forest rights of the crown proved
to be favorable to the commoners, and thus obtained at
least one tardy justification to set against their long and
dark record in the past.

In 1 87 1, in one of the cases which had been appealed,
the Lord Chancellor laid down a principle indicating a
reaction in the judicial attitude on the subject, when he
declared that no enclosure should be made except when
there was a manifest advantage in it ; as contrasted with
the policy of enclosing unless there was some strong reason

Tlie Extension of Government Control 267

against it, as had formerly been approved. In 1876 Parlia-
ment passed a law amending the acts of 1801 and 1845,
and directing the Enclosure Commissioners to reverse their
rule of action in the same direction. That is to say, they
were not to approve any enclosure unless it could be shown
to be to the manifest advantage of the neighborhood, as
well as to the interest of the parties directly concerned.
Finally, in 1893, by the Commons Law Amendment Act,
it was required that every proposed enclosure of any kind
should first be advertised and opportunity given for objec-
tion, then submitted to the Board of Agriculture for its
approval, and this approval should only be given when such
an enclosure was for the general benefit of the public. No
desire of a lord of a manor to enclose ground for his private
park or game preserve, or to use it for building ground,
would now be allowed to succeed. The interest of the
community at large has been placed above the private
advantage and even liberty of action of landholders. The
authorities do not merely see that justice is done between
lord and commoners on the manor, but that both alike shall
be restrained from doing what is not to the pubhc advantage.
Indeed, Parliament went one step further, and by an order
passed in 1893 set a precedent for taking a common entirely
out of the hands of the lord of the manor, and putting it in
the hands of a board to keep it for public uses. Thus not
only had the enclosing movement diminished for lack of
open farming land to enclose, but jniblic opinion and law
between 1864 and 1893 interposed to preserve such remain-
ing open land as had not been already divided. Whatever
land remained that was not in individual ownership and
occupancy was to be retained under control for the com-
munity at large.

73. Allotments. — But this change of attitude was not

268 Industrial and Social History of England

merely negative. There were many instances of govern-
ment interposition for the encouragement of agriculture
and for the modification of the relations between landlord
and tenant. In 1875, 1882, and 1900 the "Agricultural
Holdings Acts" were passed, by which, when improvements
are made by the tenant during the period in which he
holds the land, compensation must be given by the land-
lord to the tenant when the latter retires. No agreement
between the landlord and tenant by which the latter gives
up this right is valid. This policy of controlling the con-
ditions of landholding with the object of enforcing justice
to the tenant has been carried to very great lengths in the
Irish Land Bills and the Scotch Crofters' Acts, but the
conditions that called for such legislation in those coun-
tries have not existed in England itself. There has been,
however, much effort in England to bring at least some
land again into the use of the masses of the rural popula-
tion. In 18 19, as part of the administration of the poor
law, Parliament passed an act faciUtating the leasing out by
the authorities of common land belonging to the parishes
to the poor, in small " allotments," as they were called,
by the cultivation of which they might partially support
themselves. Allotments are small pieces of land, usually
from an eighth of an acre to an acre in size, rented out
for cultivation to poor or working-class families. In 1S31
parish authorities were empowered to buy or enclose land
up to as much as five acres for this purpose. Subsequently
the formation of allotments began to be advocated, not
only as part of the system of supporting paupers, but for
its own sake, in order that rural laborers might have some
land in their own occupation to work on during their spare
times, as their forefathers had during earlier ages. To
encourage this plan of giving the mass of the people again

The Extension of Government Control 269

an interest in the land the "Allotments and Small Hold-
ings Association " was formed ia 18S5. Laws which were
passed in 1882 and 1887 made it the duty of the authorities
of parishes, when there seemed to be a demand for allot-
ments, to provide all the land that was needed for the
purpose, giving them, if needed, and under certain restric-
tions, the right of compulsory purchase of any particular
piece of land which they should feel to be desirable. This
was to be divided up and rented out in allotments from
one quarter of an acre to an acre in size. By laws passed
in 1890 and 1894 this plan of making it the bounden
duty of the local government to provide sufficient allot-
ments for the demand, and giving them power to purchase
land even without the consent of its owners, was carried
still further and put in the hands of the parish council.
The growth in numbers of such allotments was very rapid
and has not yet ceased. The approximate numbers at
several periods are as follows : —

1873 246,398

1888 357,795

1890 455,005

1895 579.133

In addition to those formed and granted out by the
public local authorities, many large landowners, railroad
companies, and others have made allotments to their
tenants or employees. Large tracts of land subdivided
into such small patches are now a common sight in Eng-
land, simulating in appearance the old open fields of the
Middle Ages and early modern times.

74. Small Holdings. — Closely connected with the exten-
sion of allotments is the movement for the creation of
"small holdings," or the reintroduction of small farming.
One form of this is that by which the local authorities in

270 Industrial and Social History of England

1892 were empowered to buy land for the purpose of
renting it out in small holdings of not more than fifteen
acres each to persons who would themselves cultivate it.

A still further and much more important development in
the same direction is the effort to introduce " peasant pro-
prietorship," or the ownership of small amounts of farming
land by persons who would otherwise necessarily be mere
laborers on other men's land. There has been an old
dispute as to the relative advantages of a system of large
farms, rented by men who have some considerable capital,
knowledge, and enterprise, as in England ; and of a system
of small farms, owned and worked by men who are mere
peasants, as in France. The older economists generally
advocated the former system as better in itself, and also
pointed out that a policy of withdrawal by government
from any regulation was tending to make it universal.
Others have been more impressed with the good effects of
the ownership of land on the mental and moral character
of the population, and with the desirability of the existence
of a series of steps by which a thrifty and ambitious work-
ingman could rise to a higher position, even in the country.
There has, therefore, since the middle of the century, been
a widespread agitation in favor of the creation of smaller
farms, of giving assistance in their purchase, and of thus
introducing a more mixed system of rural land occupancv,
and bringing back something of the earlier English yeoman
farming.

This movement obtained recognition by Parliament in
the Small Holdings Act of 1892, already referred to. This
law made it the duty of each county council, when there
seemed to be any sufficient demand for small farms from
one to fifty acres in size, to acquire in any way possible,
though not by compulsory purchase, suitable land, to adapt

Tlie Extension of Government Control 271

it for farming purposes by fencing, making roads, and, if
necessary, erecting suitable buildings ; and then to dispose
of it by sale, or, as a matter of exception, as before stated,
on lease, to such parties as will themselves cultivate it. The
terms of sale were to be advantageous to the purchaser.
He must pay at least as much as a fifth of the price down,
but one quarter of it might be left on perpetual ground-
rent, and the remainder, slightly more than one-half, might
be repaid in half-yearly instalments during any period less
than fifty years. The county council was also given power
to loan money to tenants of small holdings to buy from
their landlords, where they could arrange terms of purchase
but had not the necessary means.

Through the intervention of government, therefore, the
strict division of those connected with the land into land-
lords, tenant farmers, and farm laborers has been to a con-
siderable extent altered, and it is generally possible for a
laborer to obtain a small piece of land as an allotment, or,
if more ambitious and able, a small farm, on comparatively
easy terms. In landholding and agriculture, as in manufac-
turing and trade, government has thus stepped in to prevent
what would have been the effect of mere free competition,
and to bring about a distribution and use of the land which
have seemed more desirable.

75. Government Sanitary Control. — In the field of buy-
ing and selUng the hand of government has been most felt
in provisions for the health of the consumer of various arti-
cles. Laws against adulteration have been passed, and a
code of supervision, registry, and enforcement constructed.
Similarly in broader sanitary lines, by the " Housing of the
Working Classes Act" of 1890, when it is brought to the
attention of the local authorities that any street or district
is in such a condition that its houses or alleys are unfit for

2J2 Industrial and Social History of England

liuman habitation, or that the narrowness, want of light or
air, or bad drainage makes the district dangerous to the
health of the inhabitants or their neighbors, and that these
conditions cannot be readily remedied except by an entire
rearrangement of the district, then it becomes the duty of
the local authorities to take the matter in hand. They are
bound to draw up and, on approval by the proper superior
authorities, to carry out a plan for widening the streets and
approaches to them, providing proper sanitary arrange-
ments, tearing down the old houses, and building new ones
in sufficient number and suitable character to provide dwell-
ing accommodation for as many persons of the working class
as were displaced by the changes. Private rights or claims
are not allowed to stand in the way of any such public
action in favor of the general health and well-being, as the
local authorities are clothed by the law with the right of
purchase of the land and buildings of the locality at a valua-
tion, even against the wishes of the owners, though they
must obtain parliamentary confirmation of such a compul-
sory purchase. Several acts have been passed to provide
for the public acquisition or building of workingmen's dwell-
ings. In 1899 the "Small Dwellings Acquisition Act" gave
power to any local authority to loan four-fifths of the cost
of purchase of a small house, to be repaid by the borrower
by instalments within thirty years.

Laws for the stamping out of cattle disease have been
passed on the same principle. In 1878, 1886, 1890, 1893,
and 1896 successive acts were passed which have given to
the Board of Agriculture the right to cause the slaughter of
any cattle or swine which have become infected or been sub-
jected to contagious diseases ; Parliament has also set apart
a sufficient sum of money and appointed a large corps of
inspectors to carry out the law. Official analysts of fer-

The Extension of Government Control 273

tilizers and food-stuffs for cattle have also since 1893 been
regularly appointed by the government in each county.
Adulteration has been taken under control by the " Sale of
Food and Drugs Act" of 1875, with its later amendments
and extensions, especially that of 1899.

76. Industries Carried on by Government. — In addition
to the regulation in these various respects of industries car-
ried on by private persons, and intervention for the protec-
tion of the public health, the government has extended its
functions very considerably by taking up certain new duties
or services, which it carries out itself instead of leaving to
private hands.

The post-office is such an old and well-established branch
of the government's activity as not in itself to be included
among newly adopted functions, but its administration has
been extended since the middle of the century over at least
four new fields of duty : the telegraph, the telephone, the
parcels post, and the post-office savings-bank.

The telegraph system of England was built up in the main
and in its early stages by private persons and companies.
After more than twenty-five years of competitive develop-
ment, however, there was widespread public dissatisfaction
with the service. Messages were expensive and telegraph-
ing inconvenient. Many towns with populations from three
thousand to six thousand were without telegraphic facilities
nearer than five or ten miles, while the offices of competing
companies were numerous in busy centres. In 1870, there-
fore, all private telegraph companies were bought up by the
government at an expense of ^10,130,000. A strict tele-
graphic monopoly in the hands of the government was es-
tablished, and the telegraph made an integral part of the
post-office system.

In 1878 the telephone began to compete with the tele-

T

2 74 Industrial and Social History of England

graph, and its relation to tlie government telegraphic monop-
oly became a matter of question. At first the government
adopted the policy of collecting a ten per cent royalty on
all messages, but allowed telephones to be established by
private companies. In the meantime the various companies
were being bought up successively by the National Tele-
phone Company which was thus securing a virtual monopoly.
In 1892 Parliament authorized the Postmaster General to
spend _^i, 000,000, subsequently raised to ^1,300,000, in
the purchase of telephone lines, and prohibited any private
construction of new lines. As a result, by 1897 the govern-
ment had bought up all the main or trunk telephone lines
and wires, leaving to the National Telephone Company its
monopoly of all telephone communication inside of the
towns. This monopoly was supposed to be in its legal pos-
session until 1904, when it was anticipated that the govern-
ment would buy out its property at a valuation. In 1S9S,
however, there was an inquiry by Parliament, and a new
"Telegraph Act " was passed in 1S99. The monopoly of
the National Company was discredited and the government
began to enter into competition with it within the towns,
and to authorize local governments and private companies
under certain circumstances to do the same. It was pro-
vided that every extension of an old company and every
new company must obtain a government license and that
on the expiring of this license the plant could be bought by
the government. In the meantime the post-office authori-
ties have power to restrict rates. An appropriation of
^2,000,000 was put in the hands of the Postmaster Gen-
eral to extend the government telephone system. It seems
quite certain that by 1925, at latest, all telephones will be
in the hands of the government.

The post-office sa\'ings-bank was established in 1861.

Tlie Extension of Govermnent Control 275

Any sum from one shilling upward is accepted from any
depositor until his deposits rise to p/^50 in any one year, or
a total of ;^200 in all. It presents great attractions from
its security and its convenience. The government through
the post-office pays two and one-half per cent interest. In
1870 there was deposited in the post-office savings-banks
approximately ;^r4,ooo,ooo, in 1880 ;^3i, 000,000, and ten
years later ^62,000,000. In 1880 arrangements were
made by which government bonds and annuities can be
bought through the post-office. In 1890 some _;^4,6oo,ooo
was invested in government stock in this way.

The parcels post was established in 18S3. This branch
of tlie post-office does a large part of the work that would
otherwise be done by private express companies. It takes
charge of packages up to eleven pounds in weight and
under certain circumstances up to twenty-one pounds,
presented at any branch post-office, and on prepayment
of regular charges delivers them to their consignees.

In these and other forms each year within recent times
has seen some extension of the field of government control
for the good of the community in general, or for the pro-
tection of some particular class in the community, and there
is at the same time a constant increase in the number and
variety of occupations that the government undertakes.
Instead of withdrawing from the field of intervention in
economic concerns, and restricting its activity to the nar-
rowest possible limits, as was the tendency in the last
period, the government is constantly taking more com-
pletely under its regulation great branches of industry, and
even administering various lines of business that formerly
were carried on by private hands.

2/6 Industrial and Social Histojy of England

77. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jevons, Stanley : The State in Relation to Labor.

" Alfred " (Samuel Kydd) : The History of the Factory
Movement from the Year 1S02 to the Enactment of the Ten
Hours Bill in 184J.

Von Planer, E. ; A Histoiy of English Factoty Legislation.

Cooke-Taylor, R. W. : The Factory System and the Fac-
tory Acts.

Redgrave, Alexander : The Factory Acts.

Shaftesbury, The Earl of: Speeches on Labour Questions.

Birrell, Augustine : Laiv of Employers' Liability.

Shaw-Lefevre, G. : English Commons and Forests.

Far the best sources of information for the adoption of
the factory laws, as for other nineteenth-century legislation,
are the debates in Parliament and the various reports of
Parliamentary Commissions, where access to them can be
obtained. The early reports are enumerated in the bibli-
ography in Cunningham's second volume. The later can
be found in the appropriate articles in Palgrave's Dic-
tionaty. For recent legislation, the action of organizations,
and social movements generally, the articles in Hazell's An-
jiual, in its successive issues since 1885, are full, trustworthy,
and valuable.

CHAPTER X

THE EXTENSION OF VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION
Trade Unions, Trusts, and Cooperation

78. The Rise of Trade Unions. — One of the most mani-
fest effects of the introduction of the factory system was
the intensification of the distinction between employers and
employees. When a large number of laborers were gath-
ered together in one establishment, all in a similar position
one to the other and with common interests as to wages,
hours of labor, and other conditions of their work, the fact
that they were one homogeneous class could hardly escape
their recognition. Since these common interests were in
so many respects opposed to those of their employers, the
advantages of combination to obtain added strength in the
settlement of disputed questions was equally evident. As
the Statute of Apprentices was no longer in force, and free-
dom of contract had taken its place, a dispute between
an employer and a single employee would result in the
discharge of the latter. If the dispute was between the
employer and his whole body of employees, each one of
the latter would be in a vastly stronger position, and there
would be something like equality in the two sides of the
contest.

Under the old gild conditions, when each man rose
successively from apprentice to journeyman, and from
journeyman to employer, when the relations between the
employing master and his journeymen and apprentices were

277

2/8 Industrial and Social History of England

very close, and the advantages of the gild were participated
in by all grades of the producing body, organizations of the
employed against the employers could hardly exist. It has
been seen that the growth of separate combinations was
one of the indications of a breaking down of the gild sys-
tem. Even in the later times, when establishments were
still small and scattered, when the government required that
engagements should be made for long periods, and that
none should work in an industry except those who had
been apprenticed to it, and when rates of wages and hours
of labor were supposed to be settled by law, the opposition
between the interests of employers and employees was not
very strongly marked. The occasion or opportunity for
union amongst the workmen in most trades still hardly
existed. Unions had been formed, it is true, during the first
half of the eighteenth century and spasmodically in still
earlier times. These were, however, mostly in trades where
the employers made up a wealthy merchant class and where
the prospect of the ordinary workman ever reaching the
position of an employer was slight.

The changes of the Industrial Revolution, however, made
a profound difference. With the growth of factories and
the increase in the size of business establishments the
employer and employee came to be farther apart, while at
the same time the employees in any one establishment or
trade were thrown more closely together. The hand of
government was at about the same time entirely withdrawn
from the control of wages, hours, length of engagements,
and other conditions of labor. Any workman was at liberty
to enter or leave any occupation under any circumstances
that he chose, and an employer could similarly hire or dis-
charge any laborer for any cause or at any time he saw fit.
Under these circumstances of homogeneity of the interests

Tlie Extension of Voluntary Association 279

of the laborers, of opposition of their interests to those of
the employer, and of the absence of any external control,
combinations among the workmen, or trade unions, natu-
rally sprang up.

79. Opposition of the Law and of Public Opinion. The
Combination Acts. — Their growth, however, was slow and
interrupted. The poverty, ignorance, and lack of training
of the laborers interposed a serious obstacle to the forma-
tion of permanent unions ; and a still more tangible diffi-
culty lay in the opposition of the law and of public opinion.
A trade union may be defined as a permanent organized
society, the object of which is to obtain more favorable
conditions of labor for its members. In order to retain its
existence a certain amount of intelligence and self-control
and a certain degree of regularity of contributions on the
part of its members are necessary, and these powers were
but slightly developed in the early years of this centur)'.
In order to obtain the objects of the union a "strike," or
concerted refusal to work except on certain conditions, is
the natural means to be emijloyed. But such action, or in
fact the existence of a combination contemplating such
action, was against the law. A series of statutes known as
the "Combination Acts" had been passed from time to time
since the sixteenth century, the object of which had been
to prevent artisans, either employers or employees, from
combining to change the rate of wages or other conditions
of labor, which should be legally established by the govern-
ment. The last of the combination acts were passed in
1799 and iSoo, and were an undisguised exercise of the
power of the employing class to use their membership in
Parliament to legislate in their own interest. It provided
that all agreements whatever between journeymen or other
workmen for obtaining an advance in wages for themselves

28o Industrial and Social History of England

or for other workmen, or for decreasing the number of
hours of labor, or for endeavoring to prevent any employer
from engaging any one whom he might choose, or for per-
suading any other workmen not to work, or for refusing to
work with any other men, should be illegal. Any justice
of the peace was empowered to convict by summary pro-
cess and sentence to two months' imprisonment any work-
men who entered into such a combination.

The ordinary and necessary action of trade unions was
illegal by the Common Law also, under the doctrine that
combined attempts to influence wages, hours, prices, or
apprenticeship were conspiracies in restraint of trade, and
that such conspiracies had been repeatedly declared to be
illegal.

In addition to their illegality, trade unions were extremely
unpopular with the most influential classes of Enghsh society.
The employers, against whose power they were organized,
naturally antagonized them for fear they would raise wages
and in other ways give the workmen the upper hand ; they
were opposed by the aristocratic feeling of the country,
because they brought about an increase in the power of
the lower classes ; the clergy deprecated their growth as
a manifestation of discontent, whereas contentment was
the virtue then most regularly inculcated upon the lower
classes ; philanthropists, who had more faith in what should
be done for than by the workingmen, distrusted their self-
interested and vaguely directed efforts. Those who were
interested in England's foreign trade feared that they would
increase prices, and thus render England incapable of com-
peting with other nations, and those who were influenced by
the teachings of political economy opposed them as being
harmful, or at best futile efforts to interfere with the free
action of those natural forces which, in the lontr run, must

The Extension of Voluntary Association 281

govern all questions of labor and wages. If the average
rate of wages at any particular time was merely tlie quotient
obtained by dividing the number of laborers into the wages
fund, an organized effort to change the rate of wages would
necessarily be a failure, or could at most only result in driving
some other laborers out of employment or reducing their
wages. Finally, there was a widespread feeling that trade
unions were unscrupulous botlies which overawed the great
majority of their fellow-workmen, and then by their help
tyrannized over the employers and threw trade into recurring
conditions of confusion. That same great body of unin-
structed public opinion, which, on the whole, favored the
factory laws, was quite clearly opposed to trade unions.
With the incompetency of their own class, the power of the
law, and the force of public opinion opposed to their exist-
ence and actions, it is not a matter of wonder that the devel-
opment of these working-class organizations was only very
gradual.

Nevertheless these obstacles were one by one removed,
and the growth of trade unions became one of the most
characteristic movements of modern industrial history.

80. Legalization and Popular Acceptance of Trade Unions.
■ — -During the early years of the century combinations, more
or less long lived, existed in many trades, sometimes secretly
because of their illegality, sometimes openly, until it became
of sufficient interest to some one to prosecute them or their
officers, sometimes making the misleading claim of being
benefit societies. Prosecutions under the combination laws
were, however, frequent. In the first quarter of the century
there were many hundred convictions of workmen or their
delegates or officers. Yet these laws were clear instances
of interference with the perfect freedom which ought theo-
retically to be allowed to each person to employ his labor

282 Industrial and Social History of England

or capital in the manner he might deem most advantageous.
Their inconsistency with the general movement of abolition
of restrictions then in progress could hardly escape observa-
tion. Thus the philosophic tendencies of the time com-
bined with the aspirations of the leaders of the working
classes to rouse an agitation in favor of the repeal of the
combination laws. The matter was brought up in Parlia-
ment in 1S22, and two successive committees were ap-
pointed to investigate the (juestions involved. As a result,
a thoroughgoing repeal law was passed in 1824, but this in
turn was almost immediately repealed, and another substi-
tuted for it in 1S25, a great series of strikes having impressed
the legislature with the belief that the former had gone too
far. The law, as finally adopted, repealed all the combina-
tion acts which stood upon the statute book, and relieved
from punishment men who met together for the sole purpose
of agreeing on the rate of wages or the number of hours
they would work, so long as this agreement referred to the
wages or hours of those only who were present at the meet-
ing. It declared, however, the illegality of any violence,
threats, intimidation, molestation, or obstruction, used to
induce any other workmen to strike or to join their asso-
ciation or take any other action in regard to hours or wages.
Any attempt to bring pressure to bear upon an employer to
make any change in his business was also forbidden, and the
common law opposition was left unrepealed. The effect of
the legislation of 1S24 and 1S25 was to enable trade unions
to exist if their activity was restricted to an agreement upon
their own wages or hours. Any effort, however, to establish
wages and hours for other persons than those taking part in
their meetings, or any strike on questions of piecework or
number of apprentices or machinery or non-union workmen,
was still illegal, both by this statute and by Common Law.

The Extension of Voluntary Association 283

The vague words, " molestation," " obstruction," and " intimi-
dation," used in the law were also capable of being con-
strued, as they actually were, in such a way as to prevent
any considerable activity on the part of trade unions. Never-
theless a great stimulus was given to the formation of organi-
zations among workingmen, and the period of their legal
growth and development now began, notwithstanding the
narrow field of activity allowed them by the law as it then
stood. Combinations were continually formed for further
objects, and prosecutions, either under the statute or under
Common Law, were still very numerous. In 1S59 a further
change in the law was made, by which it became lawful to
combine to demand a change of wages or hours, even if the
action involved other persons than those taking part in the
agreement, and to exercise peaceful persuasion upon others
to join the strikers in their action. Within the bounds of
the limited legal powers granted by the laws of 1825 and
1859, large numbers of trade unions were formed, much
agitation carried on, strikes won and lost, pressure exerted
upon Parliament, and the most active and capable of the
working classes gradually brought to take an interest in the
movement. This growth was unfortunately accompanied
by much disorder. During times of industrial struggle non-
strikers were beaten, employers were assaulted, property was
destroyed, and in certain industrial communities confusion
and outrage occurred every few years. The complicity of
the trade unions as such in these disorders was constantly
asserted and as constantly denied ; but there seems little
doubt that while by far the greatest amount of disorder was
due to individual strikers or their sympathizers, and would
have occurred, perhaps in even more intense form, if there
had been no trade unions, yet there were cases where the
organized unions were themselves responsible. The fre-

2S4 Industrial and Social History of England

quent recurrence of rioting and assault, the losses from
industrial conflicts, and the agitation of the trade unionists
for further legalization, all combined to bring the matter to
attention, and four successive Parliamentary commissions of
investigation, in addition to those of 1824 and 1825, were
appointed in 182S, 1S56, i860, and 1S67, respectively. The
last of these was due to a series of prolonged strikes and
accompanying outrages in Shefifield, Nottingham, and Man-
chester. The committee consisted of able and influential
men. It made a full investigation and report, and finally
recommended, somewhat to the public surprise, that further
laws for the protection and at the same time for the regula-
tion of trade unions be passed. As a result, two laws were
passed in the year 1871, the Trade Union Act and the
Criminal Law Amendment Act. By the first of these it was
declared that trade unions were not to be declared illegal
because they were "in restraint of trade," and that they
might be registered as benefit societies, and thereby become
quasi-corporations, to the extent of having their funds pro-
tected by law, and being able to hold property for the
proper uses of their organization. At the same time the
Liberal majority in Parhament, who had only passed this
law under pressure, and were but half hearted in their
approval of trade unions, by the second law of the same
year, made still more clear and vigorous the prohibition
of " molesting," "obstructing," "threatening," "persistently
following," "watching or besetting" any workmen who had
not voluntarily joined the trade union. As these terms
were still undefined, the law might be, and it was, still
sufficiently elastic to allow magistrates or judges who dis-
approved of trade unionism to punish men for the most
ordinary forms of persuasion or pressure used in industrial
conflicts. An agitation was immediately begun for the

The Extension of Voluntary Association 285

repeal or modification of tliis later law. This was accom-
plished finally by the Trade Union Act of 1875, by which
it was declared that no action committed by a group of
workmen was punishable unless the same act was criminal
if committed by a single individual. Peaceful persuasion
of non-union workmen was expressly permitted, some of
the elastic words of disapproval used in previous laws were
omitted altogether, other offences especially likely to occur
in such disputes were relegated to the ordinary criminal
law, and a new act was passed, clearing up the whole ques-
tion of the illegality of conspiracy in such a way as not to
treat trade unions in any different way from other bodies,
or to interfere with their existence or normal actions.

Thus, by the four steps taken in 1825, 1859, 1871, and
1875, all trace of illegality has been taken away from trade
unions and their ordinary actions. They have now the
same legal right to exist, to hold property, and to carry out
the objects of their organization that a banking or manu-
facturing company or a social or literary club has.

The passing away of the popular disapproval of trade
unions has been more gradual and indefinite, but not less
real. The employers, after many hard-fought battles in
their own trades, in the newspapers, and in Parliament,
have come, in a great number of cases, to prefer that there
should be a well-organized trade union in their industry
rather than a chaotic body of restless and unorganized
laborers. The aristocratic dread of lower-class organiza-
tions and activity has become less strong and less im-
portant, as political violence has ceased to threaten and as
English society as a whole has become more democratic.
The Reform Bill of 1867 was a voluntary concession by the
higher and middle classes to the lower, showing that politi-
cal dread of the working classes and their trade unions had

2S6 Industrial and Social History of England

disappeared. The older type of clergymen of the estab-
lished church, who had all the sympathies and prejudices
of the aristocracy, has been largely superseded, since the
days of Kingsley and jNIaurice, by men who have taken the
deepest interest in working-class movements, and who teach
struggle and effort rather than acceptance and contentment.

The formation of trade unions, even while it has led to
higher wages, shorter hours, and a more independent and
self-assertive body of laborers, has made labor so much
more efficient that, taken in connection with other ele-
ments of English economic activity, it has led to no result-
ing loss of her industrial supremacy. As to the economic
arguments against trade unions, they have become less in-
fluential with the discrediting of much of the theoretical
teaching on which they were based. In 1S67 a book by
^\'. T. Thornton, On Labor, its Wrongful Claims and
Rightful Dues, successfully attacked the wages-fund theory,
since which time the belief that the rate of wages was abso-
lutely determined bv the amount of that fund and the num-
ber of laborers has gradually been given up. The belief in
the possibility of voluntary limitation of the effect of the
so-called "natural laws" of the economic teachers of the
early and middle parts of the century has grown stronger
and spread more widely. Finally, the general popular feel-
ing of dislike of trade unions has much diminished within
the last twenty-five years, since their lawfulness has been
acknowledged, and since their own policy has become more
distinctly orderly and moderate.

Much of this change in popular feeling toward trade
unions was so gradual as not to be measurable, but some
of its stages can be distinguished. Perhaps the first very
noticeable step in the general acceptance of trade unions,
other than their mere legalization, was the interest and ap-

Tlie Extension of Voluntary Association 287

proval given to the formation of boards of conciliation or
arbitration from 1867 forward. These were bodies in which
representatives elected by the employers and representatives
elected by trade unions met on equal terms to discuss differ-
ences, the unions thus being acknowledged as the normal form
of organization of the working classes. In 1885 the Royal
Commission on the depression of trade spoke with favor of
trade unions. In 1889 the great London Dockers' strike
called forth the sympathy and the moral and pecuniar)' sup-
port of representatives of classes which had probably never
before shown any favor to such organizations. More than
?2oo,0oo was subscribed by the public, and ever}' form of
popular pressure was brought to bear on the employers.
In fact, the Dock Laborers' Union was partly created and
almost entirely supported by outside pubhc influence. In
the same year the London School Board and County Coun-
cil both declared that all contractors doing their work must
pay "fair wages," an expression which was afterward defined
as being union wages. Before 1S94 some one hundred and
fifty town and county governments had adopted a rule that
fair wages must be paid to all workmen employed directly
or indirectly by them. In 1890 and 1893 and subsequently
the government has made the same declaration in favor of
the rate of wages established by the unions in each industry.
In 1890 the report of the House of Lords Committee on the
sweating system recommends in certain cases " well-con-
sidered combinations among the laborers." Therefore public
opinion, like the formal law of the country, has passed from
its early opposition to the trade unions, through criticism and
reluctant toleration, to an almost complete acceptance and
even encouragement. Trade unions have become a part of
the regularly established institutions of the country, and few
persons probably would wish to see them go out of existence
or be seriously weakened.

288 Industrial and Social History of England

81. The Growth of Trade Unions. — The actual growth
of trade unionism has been irregular, interrupted, and has
spread from many scattered centres. Hundreds of unions
have been formed, lived for a time, and gone out of exist-
ence ; others have sur\'ived from the very beginning of the
century to the present ; some have dwindled into insignifi-
cance and tlien revived in some special need. The work-
men in some parts of the country and in certain trades were
early and strongly organized, in others they have scarcely
e\'en yet become interested or made the effort to form
unions. In the history of the trade-union movement as a
whole there have been periods of active growth and multi-
plication and strengthening of organizations. Again, there
have been times when trade unionism was distinctly losing
ground, or when internal dissension seemed likely to deprive
the whole movement of its vigor. There have been three
periods when progress was particularly rapid, between 1830
and 1834, in 1873 and 1874, and from 1889 to the present
time. But before the middle of the century trade unions
existed in almost every important line of industry. By
careful computation it is estimated that there were in Great
Britain and Ireland in 1S92 about 1750 distinct unions or
separate branches of unions, with some million and a half
members. This would be about twenty per cent of the
adult male working-class population, or an average of about
one man who is a member of a trade union out of five who
might be. But the great importance and influence of the
trade unionists arises not from this comparatively small
general proportion, but from the fact that the organizations
are strongest in the most highly skilled and best-paid in-
dustries, and in the most thickly settled, highly developed
parts of the country, and that they contain the picked and
ablest men in each of the industries where they do exist.

The Extension of Voluntary Association 289

In some occupations, as cotton spinning in Lancashire,
boiler making and iron sliip building in the seaport towns,
coal mining in Northumberland, glass making in the Mid-
land counties, and others, practically every operative is a
member of a trade union. Similarly in certain parts of the
country much more than half of all vvorkingmen are trade
unionists. Their influence also is far more than in pro-
portion to their numbers, since from their membership are
chosen practically all workingmen representatives in Parlia-
ment and local governments and in administrative positions.
The unions also furnish all the most influential leaders of
opinion among the working classes.

82. Federation of Trade Unions. — From the earliest days
of trade-union organization there have been efforts to ex-
tend the unions beyond the boundaries of the single occu-
pation or the single locality. The earliest form of union
was a body made up of the workmen of some one industry
in some one locality, as the gold beaters of London, or the
cutlers of Sheffield, or the cotton spinners of Manchester.
Three forms of extension or federation soon took place ;
first, the formation of national societies composed of men of
the same trade through the whole country ; secondly, the
formation of "trades councils," — bodies representing all
the different trades in any one locality ; and, thirdly, the
formation of a great national organization of workingmen
or trade unionists. The first of these forms of extension
dates from the earliest years of the century, though such
bodies had often only a transitory existence. The Man-
chester cotton spinners took the initiative in organizing a
national body in that industry in 1829; in 1S31 a National
Potters' Union is heard of, and others in the same decade.
The largest and most permanent national bodies, however,
such as the compositors, the flint-glass makers, miners, and

2go Industrial and Social History of England

others were formed after 1840; the miners in 1844 number-
ing 70,000 voting members. Several of these national
bodies were formed by an amalgamation of a number of
different but more or less closely aUied trades. The most
conspicuous example of this was the .Amalgamated Society
of Engineers, the formation of which was completed in
1850, and which, beginning in that year with 5000 mem-
bers, had more than doubled them in the ne.xt five years,
doubled them again by i860, and since then has kept up
a steady increase in numbers and strength, having 67,928
members in 1890. The increasing ease of travel and cheap-
ness of postage, and the improved education and intelli-
gence of the workingmen, made the formation of national
societies more practicable, and since the middle of the cen-
tury most of the important societies have become national
bodies made up of local branches.

The second form of extension, the trades council, dates
from a somewhat later period. Such a body arose usually
when some matter of common interest had happened in the
labor world, and delegates from the various unions in each
locality were called upon to organize and to subscribe funds,
prepare a petition to Parliament, or take other common
action. In this temporary form they had existed from a
much earlier date. The first permanent local board, made
up of representati\'es of the various local bodies, was that
of Liverpool, formed in 1848 to protect trade unionists
from prosecutions for illegal conspiracy. In 1S57 a perma-
nent body was formed in Sheffield, and in the years imme-
diately foUou-ing in Glasgow, London, Bristol, and other
cities. They have since come into existence in most of the
larger industrial towns, 120 local trades councils existing in
1892. Their influence lias been variable and limited.

The formation of a general body of organized working-

Tlie Extension of Voluntary Association 291

men of all industries and from all parts of the country is an
old dream. Various such societies were early formed only
to play a more or less conspicuous role for a few years and
then drop out of existence. In 1S30 a " National Associa-
tion for the Protection of Labor" was formed, in 1834 a
" Grand National Consolidated Trades Union," in 1845 a
" National Association of United Trades for the Protection
of Labor," and in 1874 a "Federation of Organized Trade
Societies," each of which had a short popularity and influ-
ence, and then died.

In the meantime, however, a more practicable if less am-
bitious plan of unification of interests had been discovered
in the form of an " Annual Trade Union Congress." This
institution grew out of the trades councils. In 1864 the
Glasgow Trades Council called a meeting of delegates from
all trade unions to take action on the state of the law of
employment, and in 1S67 the Sheffield Trades Council called
a similar meeting to agree upon measures of opposition to
lockouts. The next year, 1S68, the Manchester Trades
Council issued a call for " a Congress of the Representatives
of Trades Councils, Federations of Trades, and Trade Socie-
ties in general." Its plan was based on the annual meetings
of the Social Science Association, and it was contemplated
that it should meet each year in a different city and sit for
five or six days. This first general Congress was attended
by 34 delegates, who claimed to represent some 118,000
trade unionists. The next meeting, at Birmingham, in
1S69, was attended by 48 delegates, representing 40 sepa-
rate societies, with some 250,000 members. \\'\\\\ the ex-
ception of the next year, 1870, the Congress has met
annually since, the meetings taking place at Nottingham,
Leeds, Sheffield, and other cities, with an attendance ^■ary-
ing between one and two hundred delegates, representing

292 Industrial and Social History of England

members ranging from a half-million to eight or nine hun-
dred thousand. It elects each year a Parliamentary Com-
mittee consisting of ten members and a secretary, whose
duty is to attend in London during the sittings of Parlia-
ment and exert what influence they can on legislation or
appointments in the interests of the trade unionists whom
they represent. In fact, most of the activity of the Con-
gress was for a number of years represented by the Parlia-
mentary Committee, the meetings themselves being devoted
largely to commonplace discussions, points of conflict be-
tween the unions being intentionally ruled out. In recent
years there have been some heated contests in the Congress
on questions of general policy, but on the whole it and its
Parliamentary Committee remain a somewhat loose and in-
eff'ective representation of the unity and solidarity of feeling
of the great army of trade unionists. As a result, however,
of the efforts of the unions in their various forms of organi-
zation there have always, since 1874, been a number of
"labor members" of Parliament, usually officers of the great
national trade unions, and many trade unionist members of
local government bodies and school boards. Representative
trade unionists have been appointed as government inspect-
ors and other officials, and as members of government inves-
tigating commissions. JNIany changes in the law in which
as workingmen the trade unionists are interested have been
carried through Parliament or impressed upon the ministry
through the influence of the organized bodies or their
officers.

The trade-union movement has therefore resulted in the
formation of a powerful group of federated organizations, in-
cluding far the most important and influential part of the
working classes, acknowledged by the law, more or less
fully approved by public opinion, and influential in national

The Extension of Voluntary Association 293

policy. It is to be noticed that while the legalization of
trade unions was at first carried out under the claim and
with the intention that the workingmen would thereby be
relieved from restrictions and given a greater measure of
freedom, yet the actual effect of the formation of trade
unions has been a limitation of the field of free competition
as truly as was the passage of the factory laws. The control
of the government was withdrawn, but the men voluntarily
limited their individual freedom of action by combining
into organizations which bound them to act as groups, not
as individuals. The basis of the trade unions is arrange-
ment by the collective body of wages, hours, and other con-
ditions of labor for all its members instead of leaving them
to individual contract between the employer and the single
employee. The workman who joins a trade union therefore
divests himself to that extent of his individual freedom of
action in order that he may, as he believes, obtain a higher
good and a more substantial liberty through collective or
associated action. Just in as far, therefore, as the trade-
union movement has extended and been approved of by law
and public opinion, just so far has the ideal of individuaUsm
been discredited and its sphere of applicability narrowed.
Trade unions therefore represent the same reaction from
complete individual freedom of industrial action as do fac-
tory laws and the other extensions of the economic functions
of government discussed in the last chapter.

83. Employers' Organizations. — From this point of
view there has been a very close analogy between the
actions of workingmen and certain recent action among
manufacturers and other members of the employing classes.
In the first place, employers' associations have been formed
from time to time to take common action in resistance to
trade unions or for common negotiations with them. As

294 IndiLstiial and Social History of England

early as 1814 the master cutlers formed, notwithstanding
the combination laws, the " Sheffield Mercantile and Manu-
facturing Union," for the purpose of keeping down piece-
work wages to their existing rate. In 185 1 the "Central
Association of Employers of Operative Engineers " was
formed to resist the strong union of the " Amalgamated
Engineers." They have also had their national bodies,
such as the " Iron Trade Employers' Association," active in
1878, and their general federations, such as the "National
Federation of Associated Employers of Labor," which was
formed in 1S73, and included prominent shipbuilders, textile
manufacturers, engineers, iron manufacturers, and builders.
INIany of these organizations, especially the national or dis-
trict organizations of the employers in single trades, exist
for other and more general purposes, but incidentally the
representatives of the masters' associations regularly arrange
wages and other labor conditions with the representatives
of the workingmen's associations. There is, therefore, in
these cases no more competition among employers as to
what wages they shall pay than among the workmen as to
what wages they shall receive. In both cases it is a matter
of arrangement between the two associations, each repre-
senting its own membership. The liberty both of the indi-
vidual manufacturer and of the workman ceases in this
respect when he joins his association.

84. Trusts and Trade Combinations. — But the com-
petition among the great producers, traders, transportation
companies, and other industrial leaders has been diminished
in recent times in other ways than in their relation to their
employees. In manufacturing, mining, and many wholesale
trades, employers' associations have held annual or more
frequent meetings at which agreements have been made as
to prices, amount of production, terms of sale, length of

Tlie Extension of Voluntary Association 295

credit, and other such matters. In some cases formal com-
binations have been made of all the operators in one trade,
with provisions for enforcing trade agreements. In such a
case all competition comes to an end in that particular
trade, so far as the subjects of agreement extend. The
culminating stage in this development has been the forma-
tion of " trusts," by which the stock of all or practically all
the producers in some one line is thrown together, and a
company formed with regular officers or a board of manage-
ment controlling the whole trade. An instance of this is the
National Telephone Company, already referred to. In all
these fields unrestricted competition has been tried and
found wanting, and has been given up by those most con-
cerned, in favor of action which is collective or previously
agreed upon. In the field of transportation, boards of rail-
way presidents or other combinations have been formed, by
which rates of fares and freight rates have been established,
"pooling" or the proportionate distribution of freight
traffic made, " car trusts " formed, and other non-competi-
tive arrangements made. In banking, clearing-house agree-
ments have been made, a common policy adopted in times
of financial crisis, and through gatherings of bankers a com-
mon influence exerted on legislation and opinion. Thus in
the higher as in the lower stages of industrial life, in the
great business interests, as among workingmen, recent move-
ments have all been away from a competitive organization
of economic society, and in the direction of combination,
consolidation, and union. Where competition still exists
it is probably more intense than ever before, but its field
of application is much smaller than it has been in the past.
Government control and voluntary regulation have alike
limited the field in which competition acts.

85. Cooperation in Distribution. — Another movement in

296 Industrial and Social History of England

the same direction is the spread of cooperation in its various
forms. Numerous cooperative societies, with varying objects
and methods, formed part of the seething agitation, experi-
mentation, and discussion characteristic of the early years
of the nineteenth century ; but the cooperative movement
as a definite, continuous development dates from the organi-
zation of the "Rochdale Equitable Pioneers" in 1844.
This society was composed of twenty-eight working weavers
of that town, who saved up one pound each, and thus
created a capital of twenty-eight pounds, which they in-
vested in flour, oatmeal, butter, sugar, and some other gro-
ceries. They opened a store in the house of one of their
number in Toad Lane, Rochdale, for the sale of these arti-
cles to their own members under a plan previously agreed
to. The principal points of their scheme, afterward known
as the " Rochdale Plan," were as follows : sale of goods at
regular market prices, division of profits to members at
quarterly intervals in proportion to purchases, subscription
to capital in instalments by members, and payment of five
per cent interest. There were also various provisions of
minor importance, such as absolute purity and honestv of
goods, insistance on cash payments, devoting a part of their
earnings to educational or other self-improvement, settling
all questions by equal \ote. These arrangements sprang
naturally from the fact that they proposed carrying on their
store for their own benefit, alike as proprietors, share-
holders, and consumers of their goods.

The source of the profits they would have to divide
among their members was the same as in the case of any
ordinary store. The difference between the wholesale price,
at which they would buy, and the retail market price, at
which they would sell, would be the gross profits. From
this would have to be paid, normally, rent for their store.

Tlie Extension of Vohmtaiy Association 297

wages for their salesmen, and interest on their capital. But
after these were paid there should still remain a certain
amount of net profit, and this it was which they proposed to
divide among themselves as purchasers, instead of leaving
it to be taken by an ordinary store proprietor. The capital
they furnished themselves, and consequently paid them-
selves the interest. The first two items also amounted to
nothing at first, though naturally they must be accounted
for if their store rose to any success. As a matter of fact,
their success was immediate and striking. They admitted
new members freely, and at the end of the first year of
their existence had increased in numbers to seventy-four
with ^187 capital. During the year they had done a busi-
ness of ^7 10, and distributed profits of ;^2 2. A table of
the increase of this first successful cooperative establishment
at succeeding ten years' periods is as follows : —

Date

Members

Capital

Business

Profits

1855
1865
1875
1885
1S98

1,400

5,326

8,415

1 1 ,084

12,719

£ 11,032

78,778
225,682

324,645

£ 44,902
196,234

305,657
252,072

292,335

£ 3,109
25,156
48,212

45,254

They soon extended their business in variety as well as
in total amount. In 1847 they added the sale of linen and
woollen goods, in 1850 of meat, in 1867 they began bak-
ing and selling bread to their customers. They opened
eventually a dozen or more branch stores in Rochdale, the
original Toad Lane house being superseded by a great
distributing building or central store, with a library and
reading room. They own much property in the town, and
have spread their activity into many lines.

298 Industrial and Social History of Englatid

The example of the Rochdale society was followed by
many others, especially in the north of England and south
of Scotland. A few years after its foundation two large
and successful societies were started in Oldham, having
between them by i860 more than 3000 members, and
doing a business of some ^80,000 a year. In Liverpool,
Manchester, Birmingham, and other cities similar societies
grew up at the same period. In 1863 there were some
454 cooperative societies of this kind in existence, 381 of
them together having ioS,ooo members and doing an
annual business of about ^2,600,000. One hundred and
seventeen of the total number of societies were in Lancashire
and 96 in Yorkshire. Many of these eventually came to
have a varied and extensive activity. The Leeds Coopera-
tive Society, for instance, had in 1S92 a grist mill, 69
grocery and provision stores, 20 dry goods and millinery
shops, 9 boot and shoe shops, and 40 butcher shops. It
had 12 coal depots, a furnishing store, a bakery, a tailoring
establishment, a boot and shoe factory, a brush factory,
and acted as a builder of houses and cottages. It had at
that time 29.958 members. The work done by these
cooperative stores is known as " distributive cooperation,"
or " cooperation in distribution." It combines the seller
and the buyer into one group. From one point of view
the society is a store-keeping body, buying goods at whole-
sale and selling them at retail. From another point of
view, exactly the same group of persons, the members of
the society, are the customers of the store, the purchasers
and consumers of the goods. Whenever any body of men
form an association to carry on an establishment which sells
them the goods they need, dividing the profits of the
buying and selling among the members of the association,
it is a society for distributive cooperation.

The Extension of Voluntary Association 299

A variation from the Rochdale plan is that used in three
or perhaps more societies organized in London between
1856 and 1875 by officials and employees of the govern-
ment. These are the Civil Service Supply Association, the
Civil Service Cooperative Society, and the Army and Navy
Stores. In these, instead of buying at wholesale and selling
at retail rates, sharing the profits at the end of a given
term, they sell as well as buy at wholesale rates, except
for the slight increase necessary to pay the expenses of
carrying on the store. In other words, the members obtain
their goods for use at cheap rates instead of dividing up
a business profit.

But these and still other variations have had only a slight
connection with the working-class cooperative movement
just described. A more direct development of it was the
formation, in 1864, of the Wholesale Cooperative Society,
at Manchester, a body holding much the same relation
to the cooperative societies that each of them does to its
individual members. The shareholders are the retail co-
operative societies, which supply the capital and control its
actions. During its first year the Wholesale Society pos-
sessed a capital of ^^2456 and did a business of ^51,858.
In 1865 its capital was something over ^7000 and business
over _^i20,ooo. Ten years later, in 1875, its capital was
^360,527 and yearly business ^2,103,226. In 1889 its
sales were ^7,028,994. Its purchasing agents have been
widely distributed in various parts of the world. In 1873
it purchased and began running a cracker factory, shortly
afterward a boot and shoe factory, the next year a soap
factory. Subsequently it has taken up a woollen goods
factory, cocoa works, and the manufacture of ready-made
clothing. It employs something over 5000 persons, has
large branches in London, Newcastle, and Leicester,

300 Industrial and Social History of England

agencies and depots in various countries, and runs six
steamships. It possesses also a banking department.
Cooperative stores, belonging to wholesale and retail dis-
tributive cooperative societies, are thus a well-established
and steadily, if somewhat slowly, extending element in
modern industrial society.

86. Cooperation in Production. — But the greatest prob-
lems in the relations of modern industrial classes to one
another are not connected with buying and selling, but with
employment and wages. The competition between em-
ployer and employee is more intense than that between
buyer and seller and has more influence on the constitution
of society. This opposition of employer and employee is
especially prominent in manufacturing, and the form of
cooperation which is based on a combination or union of
these two classes is therefore commonly called "coopera-
tion in production," as distinguished from cooperation in
distribution. Societies have been formed on a cooperative
basis to produce one or another kind of goods from the
earliest years of the century, but their real development
dates from a period somewhat later than that of the coop-
erative stores, that is, from about 1850. In this year there
were in existence in England bodies of workmen who were
carrying on, with more or less outside advice, assistance, or
control, a cooperative tailoring establishment, a bakery, a
printing shop, two building establishments, a piano factory,
a shoe factory, and several flour mills. These companies
were all formed on the same general plan. The workmen
were generally the members of the company. They paid
themselves the prevailing rate of wages, then divided among
themselves either equally or in proportion to their wages
the net profits of the business, when there were any, having
first reserved a sufficient amount to pay interest on capital.

Tlie Extension of Voluntary Association 301

As a matter of fact, the capital and much of the direction
was contributed from outside by persons philanthropically
interested in the plans, but the ideal recognized and
desired was that capital should be subscribed, interest
received, and all administration carried on by the workmen-
cooperators themselves. In this way, in a cooperative
productive estabUshment, there would not be two classes,
employer and employee. The same individuals would be
acting in both capacities, either themselves or through
their elected managers. All of these early companies failed
or dissolved, sooner or later, but in the meantime others
had been estabhshed. By 1862 some 113 productive
societies had been formed, including 28 textile manufactur-
ing companies, 8 boot and shoe factories, 7 societies of iron
workers, 4 of brush makers, and organizations in various
other trades. Among the most conspicuous of these were
three which were much discussed during their period of
prosperity. They were the Liverpool Working Tailors'
Association, which lasted from 1850 to i860, the Man-
chester Working Tailors' Association, which flourished from
1850 to 1872, and the Manchester Working Hatters' Asso-
ciation, 1851-1873. These companies had at different
times from 6 to 30 members each. After the great strike
of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, in 1852, a series
of iron workers' cooperative associations were formed. In
the next twenty years, between 1862 and 1882, some 163
productive societies were formed, and in 1892 there were
143 societies solely for cooperative production in existence,
with some 25,000 members. Cooperative production has
been distinctly less prosperous than cooperative distribu-
tion. Most purely cooperative productive societies have
had a short and troubled existence, though their dissolu-
tion has in many cases been the result of contention rather

302 Industrial and Social History of England

than ordinary failure and has not always involved pecuniary
loss. In addition to the usual difficulties of all business,
insufficiency of capital, incompetency of buying and selling
agents and of managers, dishonesty of trusted officials or
of debtors, commercial panics, and other adversities to
which cooperative, quite as much as or even more than in-
dividual companies have been subject, there are peculiar
dangers often fatal to their cooperative principles. For
instance, more than one such association, after going through
a period of struggle and sacrifice, and emerging into a period
of prosperity, has yielded to the temptation to hire addi-
tional employees just as any other employer might, at regu-
lar wages, without admitting them to any share in the profits,
interest, or control of the business. Such a concern is little
more than an ordinary joint-stock company with an unusu-
ally large number of shareholders. As a matter of fact,
plain, clear-cut cooperative production makes up but a small
part of that which is currently reported and known as such.
A fairer statement would be that there is a large element
of cooperation in a great many productive establishments.
Nevertheless, productive societies more or less consistent to
cooperative principles exist in considerable numbers and
have even shown a distinct increase of growth in recent
years.

87. Cooperation in Farming. — Very much the same
statements are true of another branch of cooperative ef-
fort, — cooperation in farming. Experiments were made very
early, they have been numerous, mostly short-lived, and yet
show a tendency to increase within the last decaile. Sixty
or more societies have engaged in cooperative farming, but
only half a dozen are now in existence. The practicability
and desirability of the application of cooperative ideals to
agriculture is nevertheless a subject of constant discussion

TJie Extension of ]'^olnntary Association 303

among those interested in cooperation, and new schemes are
being tried from time to time.

The growth of cooperation, hke that of trade unions, has
been dependent on successive modifications of the law ;
though it was rather its defects than its opposition that caused
the difficulty in this case. When cooperative organizations
were first formed it was found that by the common law
they could not legally deal as societies with non-members ;
that they could not hold land for investment, or for any
other purpose than the transaction of their own business,
or more than one acre even for this purpose ; that they
could not loan money to other societies ; that the embezzle-
ment or misuse of their funds by their officers was not pun-
isliable ; and that each member was responsible for the
debts of the whole society. Eight or ten statutes have
been passed to cure the legal defects from which coopera-
tive associations suffered. The most important of these
were the " Frugal Investment Clause " in the Friendly
Societies Act of 1846, by which such associations were
allowed to be formed and permitted to hold personal prop-
erty for the purposes of a society for savings ; the Industrial
and Provident Societies Act, of 1852, by which cooperative
societies were definitely authorized and obtained the right
to sue as if they were corporations ; the Act of 1862, which
repealed the former acts, gave them the right of incorpora-
tion, made each member liable for debt only to the extent
of his own investment, and allowed them greater latitude
for investments ; the third Industrial and Provident Socie-
ties Act of 1876, which again repealed previous acts and
established a veritable code for their regulation and exten-
sion ; and the act of 1894, which amends the law in some
further points in which it had proved defective. All the
needs of the cooperative movement, so far as they have

304 Industrial and Social History of England

been discovered and agreed upon by those interested in its
propagation, have thus been provided for, so far as the law
can do so.

Cooperation has always contained an element of philan-
thropy, or at least of enthusiastic belief on the part of those
especially interested in it, that it was destined to be of great
service to humanity, and to solve many of the problems of
modern social organization. Advocates of cooperation have
not therefore been content simply to organize societies
which would conduce to their own profit, but have kept up
a constant propaganda for their extension. There was a
period of about twenty years, from 1S20 to 1840, before
cooperation was placed on a solid footing, when it was
advocated and tried in numerous experiments as a part of
the agitation begun by Robert Owen for the establishment
of socialistic communities. Within this period a series of
congresses of delegates of cooperative associations was held
in successive years from 1830 to 1S46, and numerous peri-
odicals were pubhshed for short periods. In 1850 a group
of philanthropic and enthusiastic young men, including such
able and prominent men as Thomas Hughes, Frederick
D. Maurice, and others who have since been connected
through long lives with cooperative effort, formed them-
selves into a " Society for promoting Working Men's Asso-
ciations," which sent out lecturers, published tracts and a
newspaper, loaned money, promoted legislation, and took
other action for the encouragement of cooperation. Its
members were commonly known as the "Christian Social-
ists." They had but scant success, and in 1854 dissolved
the Association and founded instead a "Working Men's Col-
lege " in London, which long remained a centre of coopera-
tive and reformatory agitation.

So far, this effort to extend and regulate the move-

The Extension af Voluntary Association 305

ment came rather from outside sympathizers than from
cooperators themselves. With 1869, however, began a
series of annual Cooperative Congresses which, like the
annual Trade Union Congresses, have sprung from the ini-
tiative of workingmen themselves and which are still con-
tinued. Papers are read, addresses made, experiences
compared, and most important of all a Central Board and
a Parliamentary Committee elected for the ensuing year.
At the thirty-first annual Congress, held in Liverpool in
1899, there were 1205 delegates present, representing over
a million members of cooperative societies. Since 1887 a
" Cooperative Festival," or exhibition of the products of
cooperative workshops and factories, has been held each
year in connection with the Congress. This exhibition is
designed especially to encourage cooperative production.
At the first Congress, in 1869, a Cooperative Union was
formed which aims to include all the cooperative societies
of the country, and as a matter of fact does include about
three-fourths of them. The Central Cooperative Board
represents this Union. It is divided into seven sections,
each having charge of the affairs of one of the seven dis-
tricts into which the country is divided for cooperative
work. The Board issues a journal, prints pamphlets, keeps
up correspondence, holds public examinations on auditing,
book-keeping, and the principles of cooperation, and acts
as a statistical, propagandist, and regulative body. There
is also a " Cooperative Guild " and a " Women's Coopera-
tive Guild," the latter with 262 branches and a membership
of i2,S37> in 1898.

The total number of recognized cooperative societies in
existence at the beginning of the year 1900 has been esti-
mated at 1640, with a combined membership of 1,640,078,
capital of ;^i9,759,039, and investments of ^11,681,296.

X

3o6 Industrial and Social History of England

The sale of goods in the year 1898 was ^^65,460,871, and
net profits had amounted to ;^7,i6s,753. During the year
189S, iSi new societies of various kinds were formed.

88. Cooperation in Credit. — In England building socie-
ties are not usually recognized as a form of cooperation,
but they are in reality cooperative in the field of credit in
the same way as the associations already discussed are in
distribution, in production, or in agriculture. Building so-
cieties are defined in one of the statutes as bodies formed
" for the purpose of raising by the subscription of the mem-
bers a stock or fund for making advances to members out
of the funds of the society." The general plan of one of
these societies is as follows : A number of persons become
members, each taking one or more shares. Each share-
holder is required to pay into the treasury a certain sum
each month. There is thus created each month a new
capital sum which can be loaned to some member who may
wish to borrow it and be able and willing to give security
and to pay interest. The borrower will afterward have to
pay not only his monthly dues, but the interest on his loan.
The proportionate amount of the interest received is credited
to each member, borrower and non-borrower alike, so that
after a certain number of months, by the receipts from dues
and interest, the borrower will have repaid his loan, whilst
the members who have not borrowed will receive a corre-
sponding sum in cash. Borrowers and lenders are thus the
same group of persons, just as sellers and consumers are
in distributive, and employers and employees in productive
cooperation. The members of such societies are enabled
to obtain loans when otherwise they might not be able to ;
the periodical dues create a succession of small amounts to
be loaned, when otherwise this class of persons could hardly
save up a sufficient sum to be used as capital; and finally

Tlie Extension of Voluntary Association 307

by paying the interest to tiieir collective group, so that a
proportionate part of it is returned to the borrower, and by
the continuance of the payment of dues, the repayment of
the loan is less of a burden than in ordinary loans obtained
from a bank or a capitalist. Loans to their members have
been usually restricted to money to be used for the build-
ing of a dweUing-house or store or the purchase of land ;
whence their name of " building societies." Their forma-
tion dates from 1815, their extension, from about 1834.
The principal laws authorizing and regulating their opera-
tions were passed in 1836, 1874, and 1894. The total
number of building societies in England to-day is estimated
at about 3000, their membership at about 600,000 mem-
bers with ;^"5 2,000,000 of funds. The history of these
societies has been marked by a large number of failures,
and they have lacked the moral elevation of the cooperative
movement in its other phases. The codifying act of 1894
established a minute oversight and control over these so-
cieties on the part of the government authorities while at
the same time it extended their powers and privileges.

The one feature common to all forms of cooperation is the
union of previously competing economic classes. In a co-
operative store, competition between buyer and seller does
not exist ; and the same is true for borrower and lender in
a building and loan association and for employer and em-
ployee in a cooperative factory. Cooperation is therefore in
hne with other recent movements in being a reaction from
competition.

89. Profit Sharing. — There is a device which has been
introduced into many establishments which stands midway
between simple competitive relations and full cooperation.
It diminishes, though it does not remove, the opposition
between employer and employee. This is " profit sharing."

3o8 Industrial and Social History of England

In the year 1865 Henry Briggs, Son and Co., operators of
collieries in Yorkshire, after long and disastrous conflicts
with the miners' trade unions, offered as a measure of con-
ciliation to their employees that whenever the net profit of
the business should be more than ten per cent on their
investment, one-half of all such surplus profit should be
divided among the workmen in proportion to the wages they
had earned in the previous year. The expectation was that
the increased interest and effort and devotion put into the
work by the men would be such as to make the total earn-
ings of the employers greater, notwithstanding their sacri-
fice to the men of the half of the profits above ten per cent.
This anticipation was justified. After a short period of
suspicion on the part of the men, and doubt on the part of
the employers, both parties seemed to be converted to the
advantages of profit sharing, a sanguine report of their
experience was made by a member of the firm to the Social
Science Association in 1868, suras between one and six
thousand pounds were divided yearly among the employees,
while the percentage of profits to the owners rose to as
much as eighteen per cent. This experiment split on the
rock of dissension in 1875, b*^' ''^ '^^ meantime others,
either in imitation of their plan or independently, had in-
troduced the same or other forms of profit sharing. Another
colliery, two iron works, a textile factory, a millinery firm, a
printing shop, and some others admitted their employees to
a share in the profits within the years 1865 and 1866. The
same plan was then introduced into certain retail stores, and
into a considerable variety of occupations, including several
large farms where a share of all profits was offered to the
laborers as a "bonus" in addition to their wages. The
results were very various, ranging all the way from the most
extraordinary success to complete and discouraging failure.

The Extension of ]'oluntafy Association 3^9

Up to 1S97 about 170 establishments had introduced some
form of profit sharing, 75 of which had subsequently given
it up, or had gone out of business. In that year, however,
the plan was still in practice in almost a hundred concerns,
in some being almost twenty years old.

A great many other employers, corporate or individual,
provide laborers' dwellings at favorable rents, furnish meals
at cost price, subsidize insurance funds, offer easy means of
becoming shareholders in their firms, support reading rooms,
music halls, and gymnasiums, or take other means of admit-
ting their employees to advantages other than the simple
receipt of competitive wages. But, after all, the entire con-
trol of capital and management in the case of firms which
share profits with their employees remains in the hands of
the employers, so that there is in these cases an enlightened
fulfilment of the obligations of the employing class rather
than a combination of two classes in one.

With the exception of profit sharing, however, all the
economic and social movements described in this chapter
are as truly collective and as distinctly opposed to individu-
alism, voluntary though they may be, as are the various
forms of control exercised by government, described in the
preceding chapter. In as far as men have combined in
trade unions, in business trusts, in cooperative organizations,
they have chosen to seek their prosperity and advantage in
united, collective action, rather than in unrestricted individ-
ual freedom. And in as far as such organizations have been
legalized, regulated by government, and encouraged by pub-
lic opinion, the confidence of the community at large has
been shown to rest rather in associative than in competitive
action. Therefore, whether we look at the rapidly extend-
ino- sphere of government control and service, or at the
spread of voluntary combinations which restrict individual

310 Industrial and Social History of Eiiglatul

liberty, it is evident that the tendencies of social develop-
ment at the close of the nineteenth century are as strongly
toward association and regulation as they were at its begin-
ning toward individualism and freedom from all control.

90. Socialism. — All of these changes are departures from
the purely competitive ideal of society. Together they
constitute a distinct mo\'ement toward a quite different
ideal of society — that which is described as socialistic.
Socialism in this sense means the adoption of measures
directed to the general advantage, even though they dimin-
ish individual freedom and restrict enterprise. It is the
tendency to consider the general good first, and to limit
individual rights or introduce collective action wherever
this will subserve the general good.

Socialism thus understood, the process of limiting pri-
vate action and introducing public control, has gone very
far, as has been seen in this and the preceding chapter.
How far it is destined to extend, to what fields of industry
collective action is to be applied, and which fields are to be
left to individual action can only be seen as time goes on.
Many further changes in the same direction have been
advocated in Parliament and other public bodies in recent
years and failed of being agreed to by very small majorities
only. It seems almost certain from the progress of opinion
that further socialistic measures will be adopted within the
near future. The views of those who approve this social-
istic tendency and would extend it still further are well
indicated in the following expressions used in the minority
report of the Royal Commission on Labor of 1895. "The
whole force of democratic statesmanship must, in our opin-
ion, henceforth be directed to the substitution as fast as
possible of public for capitalist enterprise, and where the
substitution is not yet practicable, to the strict and detailed

The Extension of I "olnntary Association 3 1 1

regulation of all industrial operations so as to secure to
every worker the conditions of efficient citizenship."

There is a somewhat different use of the word socialism,
according to which it means the deliberate adoption of
such an organization of society as will rid it of compe-
tition altogether. This is a complete social and philo-
sophic ideal, involving the consistent reorganization of all
society, and is very different from the mere socialistic ten-
dency described above. In the early part of the century,
Robert Owen developed a philosophy which led him to
labor for the introduction of communities in which compe-
tition should be entirely superseded by joint action. He
had many adherents then, and others since have held simi-
lar views. There has, indeed, been a series of more or less
short-hved attempts to found societies or communities on
this socialistic basis. Apart from these efforts, however,
socialism in this sense belongs to the history of thought or
philosophic speculation, not of actual economic and social
development. Professed socialists, represented by the
Fabyan Society, the Socialist League, the Social Demo-
cratic Federation, and other bodies, are engaged in the
spread of socialistic doctrines and the encouragement of all
movements of associative, anti-individualistic character rather
than in efforts to introduce immediate practical socialism.

91. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice : The History of Trade
Unionism. This excellent history contains, as an Appendix,
an extremely detailed bibliography on its own subject and
others closely allied to it.

Howell, George : Conflicts of Labor and Capital.

Rousiers, P. de : The Labour Question in Britain.

3 1 2 Industrial and Social History of England

Holyoake, G. I. : History of Cooperation, two volumes.
This is the classical work on the subject, but its plan is so
confused, its style so turgid, and its information so scattered,
that, however amusing it may be, it is more interesting and
valuable as a history of the period than as a clear account
of the movement for which it is named. Mr. Hol)oake has
written two other books on the same subject : A History of
tlic Roclidale Pioneers and Tlie Cooperative Movement tf
To-dav.

Pizzamiglio, L. : Distrdn/ting Cooperative Societies.

Jones, Benjamin ; Cooperative Production.

Oilman, N. P. ; Profit Sliaring i>etiueen Empioxer and
Employee ; and A Dividend to Lalmr.

Webb, Sidney and Beatrice : Problems of Modern In-
dustry.

Verhaegen, P. : Socialistcs Anglais.

A series of small modern volumes known as the Social
Science Series, most of which deal with various ])hases of
the subject of this chapter, is published by Swan, Sonnen-
schein and Co., I^ondon, and the list of its eighty or more
numbers gives a characteristic view of recent writing on the
subject, as well as further references.

INDEX

Acres, 33.

Adventurers, 164.

Agincourt, 97.

Agricultural Children's Act, 262.

Agricultural Gangs Act, 262.

Agricultural Holdings Acts, 268.

Alderman, 63.

Ale-tasler, 49.

Alfred, 13.

Alien immigrants, 90.

Allotments and Small Holdings As-
sociation, 269.

Amalgamated Society of Engineers,
290.

Angevin period, 22.

Anti-Coin Law League, 231.

Apprentice, 65.

Apprentice houses, 246.

Apprentices, Statute of, 156, 228.

Arkwriglil, Sir Richard, 209.

Armada, 141.

Army and navy stores, 299.

Arras, 81, 87.

Ashley, Lord, 254.

Assize of Bread and Beer, 63, 228.

Assize, rents of, 41, 49.

Bailiff, 40, 141.

Balk, 35.

Ball, John, 112.

Bank of England, 194.

Barbary Company, 166.

Bardi, 91.

Bcrkhamstead Common, 264.

Beverly, 71.

Birmingham, 189.

Black Death, 99.

Blackheath, 115.

Bolton, 1S9.

Boon-works, 41.

Boston, 76.

Bridgewater Canal, 216,

Bristol, 80, 148, 162.
Britons, 4.

Bryan, Chief- Justice, 143.
Building Societies, 306.
Burgage Tenure, 59.
Burgesses, 59.

Calais, 89, 97.

Cambridge, 117.

Canterbury, n, 115.

Canynges, William, 162.

Carding, 205, 210.

Carta Mercatoria, 81.

Cartwright, Edmund, 210.

Cavendish, ]ohn, 117.

Chaucer, 98.

Chester, 70.

Chevnge, 44.

Children's Half-time Act, 255.

Children's labor, 237, 246.

Church, organization of the, 11.

Civil Service Supply Association, 299,

Climate, 2.

Clothiers, 153.

Coal, 3, 214.

Coal mines, labor in, 257.

Cobden, Richard, 231.

Cologne, 80,

Colonies, 178, 190.

Comljination Acts, 279.

Combinations, legalization of, 23j.

Commerce, 81, 134, 161, 189.

Common employment, doctrme of,

261.
Commons, 37, 263.
Commons Preservation Society, 264.
Commutation of services, 125.
Competition, 226, 233, 311,
Cooperation in credit, 306.
Cooperation in distribution, 295,
Cooperation in farming, 302.
Cooperation in production, 300.

m

314

Lidex

Cooperative congresses, 305.

Cooperative legislation, 303.

Copyholders, 143.

Corn Laws, 185, 223, 230.

Corpus Chrisli day, 70.

Colters, 40.

Cotton gin, 211.

Cotton manufacture, 188, 203.

County councils, 243.

Court of Assistants, 150.

Court rolls, 46.

Coventry, 70, 148.

Craft gilds, 64, 147.

Crafts, 64, 147.

Crafts, combination of, 160.

Crecy, 97.

Crompton, Samuel, 210.

Cromwell, 179.

Cry of the Children, 251.

Currency, 169.

Customary tenants, 41, 143.

Danes, 12.

Dartford, 115.

Davy, Sir Humphry, 215.

Dean, 63.

Decaying of towns, 144, 154.

Demesne farming, abandonment of,

128, 141.
Demesne lands, 39, 104, 131.
Dockers' strike, 287.
Domesday Book, 18, 29.
Domestic system, 153, 185, 188, 220.
Drapers, 149, 161.
Droitwich, 155.

Eastern trade, 84, 164.

East India Company, 166, 190.

Employer's Liability Acts, 260.

Enclosure commissioners, 218, 263.

Enclosures, 141, 216.

Engrossers, 68.

Epping Forest, 266.

Essay on Population, 232.

Essex, 114.

Evesham, 155.

Fabyan Society, 311.
Factory Acts, 244.

Factory and Workshop Consolida-
tion Act, 258.

Factory system, 212.
Fairs, 75.

Farmers, 129, 144.

Federation of trade unions, 289.

Fens, 184.

Feudalism, 20.

Finance, 169, 193.

Flanders, 163.

Flanders fleet, 86, 167.

Flanders trade, 87, 168.

Flemish artisans in England, 94, 116.

Flemish Hanse of London, 88.

Florence, 90, 168.

Forestallers, 68.

Foreign artisans in England, 94.

Foreign trade, 81, 134, 161, 189, 203,

230.
Forty-shilling freeholders, 241.
Frank pledge, 46.
Fraternities, 62, 71.
Freeholders, 41, 124, 241.
Free-tenants, 41.
Free trade in land, 231.
French Revolution, 200.
Fugitive villains, 59, 130,
Fulling mills, 229.
Furlong, 34.

Gascony, 90, 94, 169.

Geography of England, i.

Ghent, 87.

Gildhall, 69, 92.

Gild merchant, 59.

Gilds, craft, 64.

Gilds, non-industrial, 71.

Government policy toward gilds, 65,

154-
Greater Companies of London, 153.
Grocyn, 136.
Groningen, 166.
Guienne,9o, 169.
Guinea Company, 166.

Hales, Robert, 116.
Hamburg, 89, 166, 230,
Hamlet, 31.

Hand-loom weavers, 188. 203, 220.
Hanseaiic League, S9, 163.
Hanse trade, 89, 167.
Hargreaves, James, 207.
Health and Morals Act, 247.

Index

31S

Heriot, 41.

Hospitallers, 91, 116.

Hostage, 81.

Houses of the Working Classes Act,

271.
Huguenots, 185.
Hull, 160.
Hundred Years' War, 96.

Iceland, 168.

Individualism, 232.

Industrial revolution, 213.

Insular situation of England, 2.

Insurance, 196.

biiei'cursus Magnus, 168.

Interest, 171.

Ireland, conquest of, 24.

Irish union, 203.

Iron, 3, 214.

Italian trade, 84, 164, 167.

Italians in England, 90.

Jack Straw, n6.
Jews, 59, 91.
John of Gaunt, 114,
lourneymen, 66, 147.
Journeymen gilds, 148.

Kay, 206.
Kenipe, John, 94.
Kent, 9, 114.
Kidderminster, 155.

Laborers, Statutes of, 106.

Laissez-faire, 224, 228.

Land, reclamation of, 6.

Latimer, Hugh, 145.

Law merchant, 78.

Law of wages, 226.

Lawyers, hostility to, 124.

Lead, 3, 83, 88.

Leather. 83, 88.

Leeds, 189.

Leet, 46.

Leicester, 62, 79.

Lesser Companies of London, 151.

Levant Company, 166.

Leyr, 44.

Lister, Geoffrey, 117.

Livery Companies, 149.

Location of industries, change of,

Lollards, 98, iii.

London, 149.

Lord of manor, 39, 103, 125, 143.

Lubeck, 89.

Lynn, 93.

Lyons, Richard, 117.

Macadam, 215.

Magna CaJ'ta, 26.
Malthus, 232.
Manchester, 189, 247, 284.
Manor, 31.

Manor-courts, 123, 141.
Manor-house, 31, 123.
Manufacturing towns, 189, 238.
Manumissions, 120, 129.
Markets, 75,
Market towns, 75.
Masters, 65.

Mechanical inventions, 203.
Mercers, 147, 150. 166.
Merchant gilds, 59.
Merchants adventurers, 164.
Merchet, 44.
Methuen Treaty, 190.
Mile End, 120.
Mill-hands, 213, 221.
Misteries, 64.
Monopolies, 187.
More, Sir Thomas, 145.
Morocco Company, 166.
Morrowspeche, 63.
Mule spinning, 210.
Muscovy Company, 166.
Mushotd Heath, 117.
Mutiny Act, 182.
Mystery plays, 70.

Napoleon, 200.

National debt, 196.

Native commerce, 161.

Nativus, 43.

Navigation la\ss, 169, 189, 192, 229.

Newcastle-on-Tyne, 164.

Non-industrial gilds, 71.

Norman Conquest, 15.

Norway. 163.

Norwich, 117.

Novgorod, 163.

3i6

Index

0|">en-fields, 33, 142, 217.
Origin of the manor, 55.
Owen, Robert, 248, 311.
Oxford, 102, 147.

Pageants, 159.

Parcels post, 275.

Parish councils, 243, 269.

Parliament, foundation of, 26.

Paternal government. 173.

Peasant proprietorship, 270.

Peasants' rebellion, iii.

Peel, Sir Robert (the elder), 247.

Peel, Sir Robert (the younger), 230.

Peruzzi, 91.

Pie Powder Courts, 78.

Pilgrimage of Grace, 146.

Plymouth Company, 190.

Poitiers, 97.

Poll tax, 113.

Poor Priests, 112.

Portugal, 83, 190.

Post-office Savings Bank, 274.

Power-loom, 210.

Prehistoric Britain, 4.

Private Enclosure Acts, 217.

Privy Council, 138.

Profit-sharing, 307.

Puritans, 140, 178.

Railway Regulation Act, 260.
Reaper, 49.
Reeve, 40.
Reformation, 138.
Reform of Parliament, 241.
Regrators, 68.
Regulated Companies, 174.
Relief, 21, 41.
Religious gilds, 71, 158.
Rents of Assize, 41.
Reorganized Companies, 187.
Restoration, iSo.
Revolution, Industrial, 213.
Revolution of 1688, 181.
Ricardo, David, 226.
Rochdale Pioneers, 296.
Rochdale plan, 296.
Romans in Britain, 5.
Roses, Wars of the, 99.
Russia Company, 166.
Rusticus, 43.

St. Albans, 118.

St. Edmund's Abbey, 117.

St. Helen of Beverly, 71.

St. Ives' Fair, 76, 79.

Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 273.

Savoy Palace, 116.

Saxon invasion, 8.

Scattered strips, 38.

Scotland, contest with, 24.

Serfdom, 43, 120, 124.

Serfdom, decay of, 129.

Seri'us, 43.

Sheep-raising, 142.

Sheffield, 189, 284.

Shop Hours Act, 260.

Shrewsbury, 147.

Skevin, 63.

Sliding scale, 231.

Small Dwellings Acquisition Act,

272.
Small holdings, 269.
Smith, Adam, 224.
Smithfield, 121.

Social Democratic Federation, 311.
Social gilds, 71, 158.
Socialism, 310.
Socialist League, 311.
Sources, 54.
Southampton, 6r.
South Sea Bubble, 195.
Spain, 82, 168.
Spencer, Henry de, 122.
Spices, 84.
Spinning, 205.
Spinning-jenny, 207.
Stade, 166.
Staple, 87.

Statute of Apprentices, 156, 228.
Statutes of Laborers, 106.
Steelyard, 92, 167.
Sterling, 89.
Steward, 40, 46.
Stourbridge Fair, 76.
Sturmys, 162.
Sudbury, 116.
Sweating, 260.

Tallage, 44.
Taverner, John, 162.
Taxation, 194.
Telegraph, government, 273.

Index

317

Telephone, government, 273.
Telford, 215.
Temple Bar, 116.
Ten-hour Act. 256.
Three-field system, 36.
Tin, 3, 83, 88, 91, 93.
Tolls, 57, 78, 82.
Town government, 57.
Towns, 57, 79, 154.
Trade combinations, 294.
Trade routes, 84.
Trade unions, 279.
Trades councils, 289.
Transportation, 214.
Trusts, 294.
Turkey Company, 166.

Ulster, Plantation of, 190.
Usury, 171.
Utopia, 145.

Venice, 84.
Venturers, 164.
Vill,3i.

Village community, 54.
Villages, 31, 114.
Villain, 40, 111, 125.
Villainage, 130.
/ 'illaiins, 43.
Virgate, 38.

Virginia Company, 190.

Vision of Piers PIowi/ia)t, 98, iii.

Wages in hand occupations, 220.
Wages, law of, 226.
Wales, conquest of, 24.
Walloons, 185.
Walworth, Sir William, 121.
Wardens, 69, 161.
Watt, James, 212.
Wat Tyler, 116, 121.
[ ] 'ealfk of Nations, 225.
Weavers, 65, 152, 188.
Weaving, 205.
Week-work, 42.
Whitney, Eli, 211.

Wholesale Cooperative Society, 299.
Wilburton, 12S.
Wimbledon Common, 264.
Winchester Fair, 76.
VVolsey, Cardinal, 145.
Women's labor, 237.
Woodkirk, 70.

Wool, 83, 87, 142, 205, 210, 216.
Worcester, 155.
Wycliffe, 97,

Yeomen, 129. 221, 237.
Yeomen gilds, 148.
York, 65, 70.
Young, Arthur, 225.
Ypres, 87.

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