: A Brief History of Printing. Part II: The Economic History of Printing by Hamilton Frederick W Frederick William - Printing History

@FreeBooks

Posted in: #FreeBooks #FreeBooksIndia #FreeBooksApp #gg

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

SUPPLEMENTARY READING 79

REVIEW QUESTIONS 80

The work of the Middle Ages was hand-work carried on by a small group of workmen living in the household of the master; in other words it was what we call today household industry. Very often there was no one engaged in the work except the master and his family. Sometimes he had an apprentice or two. Master workmen usually employed as many apprentices as they could use. The apprentices paid for the privilege of learning the trade. As we shall see presently, the knowledge of a trade and admission to the ranks of the master workmen was a privilege very well worth paying for.

The apprenticeship indenture or agreement was a contract covering a certain number of years, usually seven. During this period the apprentice was obliged to work for the master to the best of his ability, to be careful of the master's goods, and to be subject in every way to his personal control, a control which extended to the infliction of corporal punishment if the apprentice were idle or disobedient.

The master was bound to teach the apprentice his trade so that if the apprentice used due diligence he might at the end of his agreement qualify as a journeyman. He was obliged to furnish him board and lodging in his own home, to keep him decently clothed and, especially toward the end of the period, to give him a small wage for pocket money. We shall look a little closer at this matter of apprenticeship in a later chapter.

The masters themselves were organized into guilds. These guilds were a combination of what we now know as trade unions and employers' associations. Everybody connected with the trade in a regular and legal manner belonged to the guild. In some cases the master workman became so prosperous that he employed a considerable number of other master workmen and devoted his time to superintendence, but whether he were in this way an ancestor of a modern captain of industry or were at the other end of the scale, an apprentice just under indenture, he was recognized as part and parcel of the trade guild. If he were not free of the guild he was not permitted to work at the industry excepting as an employee. As we shall see, there grew up in this way an intermediate class of hired workmen who were neither apprentices nor masters.

The guilds acted very honestly and conscientiously in the interests of both the public and the trade. While they monopolized the industry, restricted the number of persons engaged in it, and permitted no outside competition, they guaranteed the quality of workmanship and product. A guild member putting inferior goods upon the market or in any way detracting from the workmanlike standards of the guild was liable to severe penalties, and as a rule these penalties were conscientiously inflicted.

Footnote 1:

The introduction of printing raised new questions. Printing did not fit into this scheme of things for several reasons. As a newly discovered art it did not properly belong to any of the known industries, which had gradually become consolidated into strong guilds. The printers, therefore, found themselves outside the recognized trade law.

They were, therefore, taken in hand by the authorities until such time as their own trade organization developed. Not only was the printing trade outside the guild organizations, but it was different from them in several important principles. In the first place, it was from the beginning a machine occupation; in the second place, it involved division of labor; and in the third place, it dealt with a product entirely different from that of the other craftsmen. The dawn of the printing industry was the dawn of an age of machinery in production. The product of the printing press was not simply an article of consumption. There is no comparison between a piece of cloth or a pair of shoes and a book. The book is a source of information and enlightenment, or the reverse. It may stir men to the ecstasies of devotion or incite them to rebellion or unsettle the foundations of their religious faith. It may serve the highest interests of mankind or it may be in the last degree dangerous to the church, the state, and the individual.

Obviously, to the fifteenth century mind everything called for the regulation of the industry. The fifteenth century, like those which immediately preceded it, was an age of regulation. The idea of the freedom of commerce and industry, so dear to the modern political economist, had not yet been conceived. All industry was subject to the most minute regulations partly imposed by the state and partly imposed by the guild. All the concerns of human life were subject to regulation, including even what people in different ranks of life should eat, drink, and wear. As there was no trade organization to regulate printing, of course it became immediately the subject of governmental interest.

A few of the copyists became printers. Probably the greater number of them lost their distinctive occupation and became absorbed in some way or other into other industries or, if they were too old for this, suffered the evils incident to permanent loss of occupation.

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

(0)

Login to post a comment!