and not by his lodgers. Whereas at Paris and
Edinburgh, people who let lodgings have
commonly no other means of subsistence; and
the price of the lodging must pay, not only
the rent of the house, but the whole expense
of the family.
Part II.—Inequalities occasioned by the
Policy of Europe.
Such are the inequalities in the whole of the
advantages and disadvantages of the different
employments of labour and stock, which the
defect of any of the three requisites above
mentioned must occasion, even where there is
the most perfect liberty. But the policy of
Europe, by not leaving things at perfect liberty,
occasions other inequalities of much
greater importance.
It does this chiefly in the three following
ways. First, by restraining the competition
in some employments to a smaller number
than would otherwise be disposed to enter
into them; secondly, by increasing it in others
beyond what it naturally would be; and,
thirdly, by obstructing the free circulation of
labour and stock, both from employment to
employment, and from place to place.
First, The policy of Europe occasions a very
important inequality in the whole of the advantages
and disadvantages of the different
employments of labour and stock, by restraining
the competition in some employments to
a smaller number than might otherwise be disposed
to enter into them.
The exclusive privileges of corporations are
the principal means it makes use of for this
purpose.
The exclusive privilege of an incorporated
trade necessarily restrains the competition, in
the town where it is established, to those who
are free of the trade. To have served an apprenticeship
in the town, under a master properly
qualified, is commonly the necessary requisite
for obtaining this freedom. The bye-laws
of the corporation regulate sometimes
the number of apprentices which any master
is allowed to have, and almost always the
number of years which each apprentice is obliged
to serve. The intention of both regulations
is to restrain the competition to a much
smaller number than might otherwise be disposed
to enter into the trade. The limitation
of the number of apprentices restrains it directly.
A long term of apprenticeship restrains
it more indirectly, but as effectually, by increasing
the expense of education.
In Sheffield, no master cutler can have more
than one apprentice at a time, by a bye-law of
the corporation. In Norfolk and Norwich,
no master weaver can have more than two apprentices,
under pain of forfeiting five pounds
a-month to the king. No master hatter can
have more than two apprentices anywhere in
England, or in the English plantations, under
pain of forfeiting five pounds a-month,
half to the king, and half to him who shall
sue in any court of record. Both these regulations,
though they have been confirmed by
a public law of the kingdom, are evidently
dictated by the same corporation-spirit which
enacted the bye-law of Sheffield. The silk-weavers
in London had scarce been incorporated
a year, when they enacted a bye-law,
restraining any master from having more than
two apprentices at a time. It required a particular
act of parliament to rescind this bye-law.
Seven years seem anciently to have been,
all over Europe, the usual term established
for the duration of apprenticeships in the
greater part of incorporated trades. All such
incorporations were anciently called universities,
which, indeed, is the proper Latin name
for any incorporation whatever. The university
of smiths, the university of tailors, &c.
are expressions which we commonly meet with
in the old charters of ancient towns. When
those particular incorporations, which are now
peculiarly called universities, were first established,
the term of years which it was necessary
to study, in order to obtain the degree of
master of arts, appears evidently to have been
copied from the term of apprenticeship in
common trades, of which the incorporations
were much more ancient. As to have wrought
seven years under a master properly qualified,
was necessary, in order to entitle any person to
become a master, and to have himself apprentices
in a common trade; so to have studied
seven years under a master properly qualified,
was necessary to entitle him to become a master,
teacher, or doctor (words anciently synonymous),
in the liberal arts, and to have scholars
or apprentices (words likewise originally
synonymous) to study under him.
By the 5th of Elizabeth, commonly called
the Statute of Apprenticeship, it was enacted,
that no person should, for the future, exercise
any trade, craft, or mystery, at that time exercised
in England, unless he had previously
served to it an apprenticeship of seven years
at least; and what before had been the bye-law
of many particular corporations, became
in England the general and public law of all
trades carried on in market towns. For though
the words of the statute are very general, and
seem plainly to include the whole kingdom,
by interpretation its operation has been limited
to market towns; it having been held that,
in country villages, a person may exercise several
different trades, though he has not served
a seven years apprenticeship to each, they being
necessary for the conveniency of the inhabitants,
and the number of people frequently
not being sufficient to supply each with a
particular set of hands.
By a strict interpretation of the words, too,
the operation of this statute has been limited