SECTION III

1. Proposals for the Regulation of the Cloth Manufacture (temp Henry VIII)—2. Administrative Difficulties in the Regulation of the Manufacture of Cloth, 1537—3. An Act Touching Weavers, 1555—4. Enactment of Common Council of London as to Age of Ending Apprenticeship, 1556—5. William Cecil's Industrial Programme, 1559—6. The Statute of Artificers, 1563—7. Proposals for the Better Administration of the Statute of Artificers, 1572—8. Draft of a Bill Fixing Minimum Rates for Spinners and Weavers, 1593—9. Draft Piece-list Submitted for Ratification to the Wiltshire Justices by Clothiers and Weavers, 1602—10. An Act Empowering Justices to fix Minimum Rates of Payment, 1603-04—11. Administration of Acts Regulating the Manufacture of Cloth, 1603—12. Assessment made by the Justices of Wiltshire, dealing mainly with other than Textile Workers, 1604—13. Assessment made by the Justices of Wiltshire dealing mainly with Textile Workers, 1605—14. Administration of Wage Clauses of Statute of Artificers, 1605-08—15. Administration of Apprenticeship Clause of the Statute of Artificers, 1607-08—16. The Organisation of the Woollen Industry, 1615—17. Proceedings on the Apprenticeship Clauses of the Statute of Artificers, 1615—18. A Petition to Fix Wages Addressed to the Justices by the Textile Workers of Wiltshire, 1623—19. Appointment by Privy Council of Commissioners to Investigate Grievances of Textile Workers in East Anglia, 1630—20. Report to Privy Council of Commissioners appointed above, 1630—21. High Wages in the New World, 1645—22. Young Men and Maids Ordered to Enter Service, 1655—23. Request to Justices of Grand Jury of Worcestershire to Assess Wages, 1661—24. Proceedings on the Apprenticeship Clauses of the Statute of Artificers, 1669.

The documents in this section illustrate the regulation of industrial relationships by the government of the Tudors and of the first two Stuarts. The principal aims of their policy were to check the movement of the textile industries from the town to country districts (Nos. 3 and 6), to prevent the concentration of industry in the hands of capitalists (Nos. 3 and 11), or the creation of a necessitous proletariat (No. 4), to exercise a police supervision over the movement of labour (Nos. 6, 7 and 14), to maintain the quality of English goods (No. 2), to prevent class encroaching on class (Nos. 5 and 6) either through the wage earner demanding excessive wages (No. 5) or through the employer beating them down unduly (Nos. 8, 10, 19, 20), in short to crystallize existing relationships with such changes only as the economic developments of recent years, particularly the fall in the value of money (No. 6), and the spread of the textile industries into rural districts (No. 3) made inevitable.

The system was developed in numerous Acts, of which the most important are given below (Nos. 3, 6 and 10). The most comprehensive measure was the Statute of Artificers of 1563 (No. 6). There was little original in this Act. Just as the Statutes forbidding depopulation (Part II, section I) really only developed manorial customaries into a national system, and the Poor Law Statutes (Part II, section IV) were based on the experiments of municipal authorities, so the Statute of Artificers was based partly on the practices of gilds (Part II, section II), partly on the mediæval Statutes of Labourers (see Part I, section VI, Nos. 12—19). Indeed, Cecil's original proposal (No. 5) seems to have been to re-enact 12 Richard II, cap. 3, which the rise in prices had made out of date. If seriously entertained, this idea must have been discarded. The most important innovation introduced by the statute in its final form was the substitution of a system of industrial regulation applying to almost the whole country for regulations applying to particular localities and particular trades.

The most important parts of the Statute of Artificers were those relating to apprenticeship and to the assessment of wages. The former, if we may judge by the proceedings of the County Justices (Nos. 11 & 15) and of municipal authorities (Part II, section II, Nos. 9, 10, 11, 15), seem to have been administered with considerable strictness, which was only to be expected in view of the interest which gilds, boroughs, traders and craftsmen generally had in seeing that they were carried out. Judicial interpretations seem, however, to have begun at an early date to whittle them away to some extent (No. 17), for the Judges disliked rules "in restraint of trade" (No. 24 and section II, No. 18).

The wage clauses of the Statute present a more difficult problem. There is no doubt that their object was to fix a maximum (not a minimum) wage for agricultural labour (Nos. 6 and 14), which, however, should move with movements in prices. This policy was not so oppressive as it appears to us, because of the wide distribution of landed property, the consequent fact that comparatively few rural workers depended entirely upon wages for their living, and the relatively small difference between the social position of the small farmer or master craftsman and the hired persons whom they employed. In a colony like Massachusetts, where the policy of fixing maximum wages was adopted, its motive was seen in the simplest form (No. 21). Even in England, however, the same motives were at work to a less degree (Nos. 5, 22 and 23). The policy of fixing a maximum wage was, in fact, on a par with that of fixing prices, and probably popular with the small masters and small landholders, who formed a large proportion of the urban and rural population. It did not come to an end with the destruction of the absolute monarchy, but continued, with fair regularity, down to 1688, and, after that, with much less regularity, at any rate to 1762.

The regulation of wages did not, however, only aim at fixing a maximum. It also aimed on some, perhaps rare, occasions at fixing a minimum, at any rate for workers in the textile industries. These latter were treated in a special way, because the development of capitalism in the textile industries (Nos. 2, 3, 8, 16 and 19) had created a wage problem of a modern kind, at any rate in the south and east of England, such as did not yet exist in agriculture. Municipal authorities had in the past fixed minimum rates for textile workers (section II, No. 5). In 1593 four Bills were drafted which proposed to do the same by legislation, of which one is printed below (No. 8), and in 1603-04 an Act (No. 10) was passed to this effect. Two examples of the establishment of minimum rates are given from the proceedings of the Wiltshire Quarter Sessions, in 1602 and 1623. In the former case (No. 9) a piece list was drafted by a committee of clothiers and weavers, which was subsequently issued without alteration by the Justices (No. 13). In the latter case (No. 18) the textile workers of Wiltshire asked the Justices to enforce the assessment of wages on their employers, and the Justices complied by ordering the rates to be published at Devizes. This shows that the regulation of wages did in some cases protect the workers. Naturally, however, the Justices required stimulating in this part of their duties, and during the period of Charles I's personal government the Privy Council intervened to compel them to fix rates, as it did to compel them to administer the Poor Laws. In 1630 it received a petition from the textile workers of Suffolk and Essex complaining that their wages had been reduced, and appointed commissioners to investigate the matter (No. 19), who compelled the employers to raise wages (No. 20). The policy of fixing minimum rates seems to have come to an end with the fall of the absolute monarchy in 1640, though it was occasionally revived by Parliament in the sixteenth century. (Part III, section III, Nos. 3, 4 and 15).

The more accessible of the modern writers dealing with the subject of this section are:—Cunningham, English Industry and Commerce, Modern Times, Part I; Ashley, Economic History, Vol. I, Part II, Chap, iii; Unwin, Industrial Organisation in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries; Abram, Social England in the Fifteenth Century; Dunlop and Denman, English Apprenticeship and Child Labour; Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages; Hewins, English Trade and Finance in the Seventeenth Century; Schanz, Englische Handelspolitik Gegen Ende des Mittelalters; Tawney in Die Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Band XI and XII, Heft 8 and 9; Macarthur, in E.H.R., Vols. IX, XIII and XV; Hewins in Economic Journal, Vol. VIII; Hutchins, ibid., Vol. X.

Bibliographies are given by Cunningham, op. cit., pp. 943-998; Unwin, op. cit., pp. 263-270; Ashley, op. cit., pp. 190-1, 243-8; Abram, op. cit., pp. 229-238; Dunlop & Denman, op. cit., pp. 355-63; the student may also consult the following:—

(1) Documentary authorities, 1485-1660:—The most important printed sources of information for the administration of the industrial legislation of the 16th century are Town Records (see bibliographies, especially those of Unwin and of Dunlop & Denman), and the Proceedings of the County Justices contained in the following works:—Hamilton, Devonshire Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Anne; Atkinson, Quarter Session Records of the North Riding of Yorkshire; Willis Bund, Worcester County Records, division I; Cox, Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals; Hardy, Hertford Quarter Session Records; Hardy & Page, Bedfordshire County Quarter Sessions; volumes published by the Historical MSS. Commission, especially Vol. I; Victoria County History, passim.

(2) Literary authorities.—The law is explained by numerous writers of legal text books, e.g., Fitzherbert, The Book Belonging to a Justice of the Peace; Lambard, Eirenarcha; Sheppard, Whole Office of the County Justice of the Peace. Cases before the courts concerning apprenticeship are quoted in the Reports of Coke and Croke. Sidelights on contemporary opinion may be obtained from Rotuli Parliamentorum III, 269, 330, 352; IV, 330-331, 352; V, 110; More, Utopia; Starkey, A Dialogue between Cardinal Pole and Thomas Lupset (Early English Text Society, England in the Reign of King Henry VIII); Forest, The Pleasant Poesy of Princely Practice (ibid.); The Commonweal of this Realm of England (edited by E.R. Lamond); King Edward's Remains, a Discourse about the Reformation of many abuses (printed in Burnet's History of the Reformation); Winthrop's Journal; Petty, A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions, Chapter I, Section 4.

Articles to be certified to my lord privy seal according to his letter for the complaint of the weavers in the seven hundreds in the country of Kent.

First, that no clothier, that hath not had exercise in his youth by the space of two years at the least in the craft of weaving, use or have in his house or at his commandment any loom.

Item, that no clothier weaver using to make coloured clothes shall use, have, or occupy in his house or at his assignment any more than one loom.

Item, that if the cloth-maker have cause to complain upon the weaver for not duly and truly working of their clothes or the weaver cause to complain upon the clothier for not paying him his duty for the said weaving, that then the party grieved shall complain to the next justice of peace, and he shall assign one indifferent weaver and one indifferent clothier to examine the cause of variance and to assess what amends the party grieved shall have. And the party to stand and abide the order so made.

Item, where it is ordered by the statute of anno 4 E. 4 capitulo primo, that the clothier shall pay ready money to the weavers and spinners and other their artificers, that the said statute shall be put in due execution.

Item, if any clothier, tailor, cordwainer or other artificer, by what name or names soever he or they be called, that hereafter shall fortune to come out of any shire other than out of the said shire of Kent into any of the 7 hundreds there to seek service and to have work, that then he or they that will or shall happen to take him or them into his or their service or services, shall before one of the justices of the peace be bound unto the king by way of recognisance in such sum as by the discretion of the said justice shall be appointed; that the said person so by him taken into service shall be of good behaviour during the time that he shall be in his service, and that the said justice be not compellable to certify the same recognisance, unless the same recognisance be forfeited. And this to be done from time to time, as often as the justice of the peace shall think convenient. And if any man retain any man in his service without putting in surety, as is above said, that then the justice of the peace to have authority to commit such person or persons to ward, there to remain by his discretion.

Before my right hearty commendations to your good lordship. It may please the same to understand, that divers of the clothmakers in these parts have been with me, declaring unto me, that in case they shall be compelled to make cloth from Michaelmas forwards according to the king's act, it shall cause them and other of their occupation to cease and forbear clothmaking, saying, that it is impossible to keep the breadth of the cloth limited by the act, and also that the weavers, being very poor men, have not nor be able to provide looms and sleys to weave clothes according to the act. Whereunto I answered them, that there is much slander in outward parts for false clothmaking, and for remedy thereof this act was provided; and or ever the act was made, there were divers clothmakers spoken with, who affirmed, that it was reasonable; wherefore I told them that I thought that they did rather seek occasion to continue still false clothmaking, than put their good endeavour to make true cloth according to the act; and also I shewed to them, that the King's Highness had suspended the same act by a long time by his proclamation, to the intent that they might provide looms and other necessaries for the making of true cloth according to the act, wherefore I marvelled much that they had been so negligent in the provision thereof, declaring unto them, that I thought that the King's Highness would not defer the execution of the act any longer; which it seemed to me they lamented very sorely, saying that they would leave their occupying for the time; for they could not by no possible means make cloth according to the act, and specially for their breadth; and I bade them take heed and beware, for I thought, they might perform the act, if they had good will and good zeal to the common weal; and if they by obstinacy or wilfulness would leave clothmaking, whereby percase might grow murmur and sedition among the people for lack of work, that then it would be laid to their charges, to their perils and utter undoings. Whereunto they said obediently, that they would do that lay in their possible powers, but more they could not, beseeching me, that I would be a means to the King's Highness once again to suspend the act, which I would not promise them to do, and so left them for this time in despair of this matter; and so now advertise your good lordship thereof, to the intent that, if it seem by your wisdom convenient, ye may move the King's Majesty hereof to the intent, his Grace's pleasure may be known, whether his Highness of his goodness would yet suspend the act for one other year, which in my poor opinion, if so may stand with his Grace's pleasure, shall not be much amiss, beseeching your good lordship, that I may be advertised hereof as soon as you conveniently may; for Michaelmas is the last day of the old proclamation for this matter; and thus fare your good lordship as heartily well as I would myself. Written at Terlyng the 23rd day of September.

3. An Act Touching Weavers [276] [2 & 3 Phil. & Mary, c.xi. Statutes of the Realm, Vol. IV, Part I, p. 286-87], 1555.

Forasmuch as the weavers of this realm have, as well at this present parliament as at divers other times, complained that the rich and wealthy clothiers do many ways oppress them, some by setting up and keeping in their houses divers looms, and keeping and maintaining them by journeymen and persons unskilful, to the decay of a great number of artificers which were brought up in the said science of weaving, their family and household, some by ingrossing of looms into their hands and possession, and letting them out at such unreasonable rents as the poor artificers are not able to maintain themselves, much less their wives, family and children, some also by giving much less wages and hire for the weaving and workmanship of [cloth] than in times past they did, whereby they are enforced utterly to forsake their art and occupation wherein they have been brought up: It is therefore, for remedy of the premises, and for the avoiding of a great number of inconveniences which may grow (if in time it be not foreseen) ordained, established and enacted, by authority of this present parliament, that no person using the feat or mistery of clothmaking and dwelling out of a city, borough, market town or corporate town, shall from the feast of St. Michael the Archangel now next ensuing, keep, retain or have in his or their house or possession any more or above one woollen loom at one time, nor shall by any means directly or indirectly receive or take any manner profit, gain or commodity by letting or setting any loom, or any house wherein any loom is or shall be used and occupied, which shall be together by him set or let, upon pain of forfeiture for every week that any person shall do contrary to the tenour and true meaning hereof 20s.

And be it further ordained and enacted by like authority, that no woollen weaver using or exercising the feat or mistery of weaving, and dwelling out of city, borough, market town or town corporate, shall after the said feast have or keep at any time above the number of two woollen looms, or receive any profit, gain or commodity, directly or indirectly as is aforesaid, by any more than two looms at one time, upon pain to forfeit for every week that any person shall offend or do to the contrary 20s.

And it is further ordained and enacted by like authority, that no person which shall after the said feast, use, exercise or occupy only the feat or mistery of a weaver, and not clothmaking, shall during the time that he shall use the feat or mistery of a weaver, keep or have any tucking mill, or shall use or exercise the feat or mistery of a [tucker] or dyer, upon pain to forfeit for every week that he shall so do 20s.

And it is further enacted by like authority, that no person which after the said feast shall use, exercise or occupy the feat or mistery of a tucker or fuller, shall during the time that he shall so use the said feat or mistery, keep or have any loom in his house or possession, or shall directly or indirectly take any profit or commodity by the same, upon pain to forfeit for every week 20s.

And it is further ordained and enacted by like authority, that no person whatsoever, which heretofore hath not used or exercised the feat, mistery or art of clothmaking, shall after the said feast, make or weave or cause to be made or woven any kind of broad white woollen cloths, but only in a city, borough, town corporate or market town, or else in such place or places where such cloths have been used to be commonly made by the space of ten years next before the making this act; upon pain of forfeiture for every cloth otherwise made five pounds.

Provided always and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that it shall not be lawful to any person or persons being a weaver, or that doth or shall use the art or mistery of a weaver or weaving, dwelling out of a city, borough, town corporate or market town, to have in his and their service any more or above the number of two apprentices at one time; upon pain to forfeit for every time that he shall offend or do contrary to this branch or article the sum of ten pounds.

And further be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that it shall not be lawful to or for any person or persons to set up the art or mistery of weaving, after the said feast of St. Michael, unless the same person or persons so setting up the same art or mistery of weaving, have been apprentice to the same art or mistery, or exercised the same, by the space of 7 years at the least; upon pain of twenty pounds to be forfeited to the King and Queen's Majesties, her Grace's heirs or successors, the one moiety of all which forfeitures shall be to the King and Queen's Highnesses, heirs [and] successors, and the other moiety to him or them that will sue for the same in any court of record by action of debt, bill, plaint or information, wherein no wager of law, essoigne or protection shall be admitted or allowed for the defendant.

... Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that this act or anything therein contained shall [not] in any way extend or be prejudicial to any person or persons that doth or shall dwell in the counties of York, Cumberland, Northumberland or Westmoreland; but that they and every of them shall and may have and keep looms in their houses, and do and exercise all and every thing and things for or concerning spinning, weaving, cloth working and clothmaking in the said counties, as they or any of them might have done or exercised lawfully before the making of this statute; anything contained in this statute to the contrary in any way notwithstanding.

For as much as great poverty, penury, and lack of living hath of late years followed, ... and one of the chiefest occasions thereof, as it is thought, ... is by reason of the over hasty marriages and over soon setting up of households of and by the youth and young folks of the said city [of London], which hath commonly used, and yet do, to marry themselves as soon as ever they come out of their apprenticehood, be they ever so young and unskilful, yea, and often times many of them so poor that they scantily have of their proper goods wherewith to buy their marriage apparel ... and forasmuch as the chiefest occasion of the said inconveniences, as it is very evident, is by reason that divers and sundry apprentices, as well of the said artificers as also of other citizens of the said city, are commonly bound for so few years that their terms of apprenticeability expireth and endeth oversoon, and that they are there upon incontinently made free of the said city; ... for remedy, stay, and reformation whereof it is ordained ... that no manner of persons ... shall be any manner of ways or means made free of the said city ... until such time as he and they shall severally attain to the age of 24 years.

5. William Cecil's Industrial Programme [279] [Hist. MSS. Com. MSS. of the Marquis of Salisbury, Part I, pp. 162-3], 1559. Considerations delivered to the Parliament, 1559.

1. Vagabonds.—That the statute I Edward VI, Chap, viii., concerning idle persons and vagabonds being made slaves, now repealed, be revived with additions.

2. Labourers and Servants.—That the Statutes 12 Richard II, Chap. iii, "that no servant or labourer at the end of this term depart out of the hundred or place where he dwells," etc., and 13 Richard II, Chap. viii., ordering the Justices at every session to appoint by proclamation the wages of workers, etc., be confirmed with the addition "that no man hereafter receive into service any servant without a testimonial from the master he last dwelt with, sealed with a Parish Seal kept by the constable or churchwarden, witnessing he left with the free license of his master, penalty £10." So, by the hands of the masters, servants may be reduced to obedience, which shall reduce obedience to the Prince and to God also; by the looseness of the time no other remedy is left but by awe of law to acquaint men with virtue again, whereby the Reformation of religion may be brought in credit, with the amendment of manners, the want whereof has been imputed as a thing grown by the liberty of the Gospel, etc.

3. Husbandry.—That the Statutes, 4 Hen VII, Chap. 9, "for re-edifying houses of husbandry, and to avoid the decay of towns and villages," and 5 Edward VI, Chap. 5, "for maintenance of husbandry and tillage," be put in execution.

4. Purchase of Lands.—No husbandman, yeoman or artificer to purchase above 5l. by the year of inheritance, save in cities, towns and boroughs, for their better repair; one mansion house only to be purchased over and above the said yearly value. The common purchasing thereof is the ground of dearth of victuals, raising of rents, etc.

5. Merchants.—No merchant to purchase above £50 a year of inheritance, except aldermen and sheriffs of London, who, because they approach to the degree of knighthood, may purchase to the value of £200.

6. Apprentices.—None to be received apprentice except his father may spend 40s. a year of freehold, nor to be apprenticed to a merchant except his father spend £10 a year of freehold, or be descended from a gentleman a merchant. Through the idleness of these professions so many embrace them that they are only a cloak for vagabonds and thieves, and there is such a decay of husbandry that masters cannot get skilful servants to till the ground without unreasonable wages, etc....

III. Every person being unmarried and every other person being under the age of thirty years that after the feast of Easter next shall marry, and having been brought up in any of the said arts [etc.] or that hath exercised any of them by the space of three years or more, and not having lands, tenements [etc.] copyhold or freehold of an estate of inheritance or for term of lives of the clear yearly value of 40s. nor being worth of his own goods the clear value of 10l., ..., not being retained with any person in husbandry or in any of the aforesaid arts ... nor in any other art, nor in household or in any office with any nobleman, gentleman or others, ..., nor having a convenient farm or other holding in tillage whereupon he may employ his labour, shall (during the time that he shall so be unmarried or under the age of 30 years), upon request made by any person using the art or mystery wherein the said person so required hath been exercised as is aforesaid, be retained and shall not refuse to serve according to the tenor of this Statute upon the pain and penalty hereafter mentioned.

IV. No person which shall retain any servant shall put away his said servant, and no person retained according to this Statute shall depart from his master, mistress or dame before the end of his term, upon the pain hereafter mentioned, unless it be for some reasonable cause to be allowed before two Justices of Peace, or one at the least, or before the mayor or other chief officer of the city, borough or town corporate wherein the said master [etc.] inhabiteth, to whom any of the parties grieved shall complain; which said justices or chief officer shall have the hearing and ordering of the matter between the said master [etc.] and servant, according to the equity of the cause; and no such master [etc.] shall put away any such servant at the end of his term, or any such servant depart from his said master [etc.] at the end of his term, without one quarter warning given ... upon the pain hereafter ensuing.

V. Every person between the age of 12 years and the age of 60 years not being lawfully retained nor apprentice with any fisherman or mariner haunting the seas, nor being in service with any carrier of any corn, grain or meal for provision of the city of London, nor with any husbandman in husbandry, nor in any city [etc.] in any of the arts ... appointed by this Statute to have apprentices, nor being retained ... for the digging ... melting ... making of any silver [or other metals, coal, etc.], nor being occupied in the making of any glass, nor being a gentleman born, nor being a student or scholar in any of the universities or in any school, nor having [lands or goods, as above, section 3], nor having a father or mother then living or other ancestor whose heir apparent he is then having lands [etc.] of the yearly value of £10 or above, or goods or chattels of the value of 40l., nor being a necessary or convenient officer or servant lawfully retained as is aforesaid, nor having a convenient farm or holding ... nor being otherwise lawfully retained according to the true meaning of this Statute, shall ... by virtue of this Statute be compelled to be retained to serve in husbandry by the year with any person that keepeth husbandry and will require any such person so to serve.

VI. [Penalty on masters unduly dismissing servants, 40s.: on servants unduly departing or refusing to serve, imprisonment.]

VII. None of the said retained persons in husbandry or in any of the arts or sciences above remembered, after the time of his retainer expired, shall depart forth of one city, town or parish to another nor out of the ... hundred nor out of the county where he last served, to serve in any other city ... or county, unless he have a testimonial under the seal of the said city or of the constable or other head officer and of two other honest householders of the city, town or parish where he last served, declaring his lawful departure, ..., which testimonial shall be delivered unto the said servant and also registered by the parson of the parish where such master [etc.] shall dwell....

VIII. [Penalty on a servant departing without such testimonial, imprisonment or whipping; on any one hiring him, 5l.]

IX. All artificers and labourers being hired for wages by the day or week shall betwixt the midst of the months of March and September be at their work at or before 5 of the clock in the morning, and continue at work until betwixt 7 and 8 of the clock at night, except it be in the time of breakfast, dinner or drinking, the which times at the most shall not exceed above 2 ½ hours in the day ... and all the said artificers and labourers between the midst of September and the midst of March shall be at their work from the spring of the day in the morning until the night of the same day, except it be in time afore appointed for breakfast and dinner, upon pain to forfeit one penny for every hour's absence to be deducted out of his wages.

X. [Penalty on artificers, etc., breaking contract with employers, imprisonment and fine of 5l.]

XI. And for the declaration what wages servants, labourers and artificers, either by the year or day or otherwise, shall receive, be it enacted, That the justices of the peace of every shire ... within the limits of their several commissions ... and the sheriff of that county if he conveniently may, and every mayor, bailiff or other head officer within any city ... wherein is any justice of peace, within the limits of the said city ... shall before the 10th day of June next coming, and afterward yearly at every general sessions first to be holden after Easter, or at some time convenient within six weeks next following Easter, calling unto them such discreet and grave persons of the said county or city as they shall think meet, and conferring together respecting the plenty or scarcity of the time and other circumstances necessary to be considered, have authority within the limits of their several commissions to rate and appoint the wages as well of such of the said artificers ... or any other labourer, servant or workman whose wages in time past hath been by any law rated and appointed, as also the wages of all other labourers, artificers [etc.] which have not been rated, as they shall think meet to be rated [etc.] by the year or by the day, week, month or other wise, with meat and drink or without meat and drink, and what wages every workman or labourer shall take by the great for mowing, reaping or threshing [and other agricultural employment] and for any other kind of reasonable labours or service, and shall yearly, before the 12th day of July next after the said assessment made, certify the same ... with the considerations and causes thereof into the Court of Chancery [280]; whereupon it shall be lawful to the Lord Chancellor of England [or] Lord Keeper upon declaration thereof to the Queen's Majesty ... or to the Lords and others of the Privy Council to cause to be printed and sent down before the 1st day of September next after the said certificate into every county ... proclamations containing the several rates appointed ... with commandment ... to all persons ... straitly to observe the same, and to all Justices [etc.] to see the same duly and severely observed ...; upon receipt whereof the said Sheriffs, Justices [etc.] shall cause the same proclamation to be entered of record ... and shall forthwith in open markets upon the market days before Michaelmas then ensuing cause the same proclamation to be proclaimed ... and to be fixed in some convenient place ...: and if the said sheriffs, justices [etc.] shall at their said general sessions or at any time after within six weeks ... think it convenient to retain for the year then to come the rates of wages that they certified the year before or to change them, then they shall before the said 12th day of July yearly certify into the said Court of Chancery their resolutions, to the intent that proclamations may accordingly be renewed and sent down, and if it shall happen that there be no need of any alteration ... then the proclamations for the year past shall remain in force....

XIII. [Penalty for giving wages higher than the rate, ten days' imprisonment and fine of 5l.; for receiving the same, twenty-one days' imprisonment.]

XIV. [Penalty on servants, etc., assaulting masters, etc., one year's imprisonment.]

XV. Provided that in the time of hay or corn harvest the Justices of Peace and also the constable or other head officer of every township upon request ... may cause all such artificers and persons as be meet to labour ... to serve by the day for the mowing ... or inning of corn, grain and hay, and that none of the said persons shall refuse so to do, upon pain to suffer imprisonment in the stocks by the space of two days and one night....

XVII. Two justices of peace, the mayor or other head officer of any city (etc.) and two aldermen or two other discreet burgesses ... if there be no aldermen, may appoint any such woman as is of the age of 12 years and under the age of 40 years and unmarried and forth of service ... to be retained or serve by the year or by the week or day for such wages and in such reasonable sort as they shall think meet; and if any such woman shall refuse so to serve, then it shall be lawful for the said justices [etc.] to commit such woman to ward until she shall be bounden to serve as aforesaid.

XVIII. And for the better advancement of husbandry and tillage and to the intent that such as are fit to be made apprentices to husbandry may be bounden thereunto, ... every person being a householder and having half a ploughland at the least in tillage may receive as an apprentice any person above the age of 10 years and under the age of 18 years to serve in husbandry until his age of 21 years at the least, or until the age of 24 years as the parties can agree ...

XIX. Every person being an householder and 24 years old at the least, dwelling in any city or town corporate and exercising any art, mistery or manual occupation there, may after the feast of St. John Baptist next coming ... retain the son of any freeman not occupying husbandry nor being a labourer and inhabiting in the same or in any other city or town incorporate, to be bound as an apprentice after the custom and order of the city of London for 7 years at the least, so as the term of such apprentice do not expire afore such apprentice shall be of the age of 24 years at the least.

XX. Provided that it shall not be lawful to any person dwelling in any city or town corporate exercising any of the misteries or crafts of a merchant trafficking into any parts beyond the sea, mercer, draper, goldsmith, ironmonger, embroiderer or clothier that doth put cloth to making and sale, to take any apprentice or servant to be instructed in any of the arts [etc.] which they exercise, except such servant or apprentice be his son, or else that the father or mother of such apprentice or servant shall have ... lands, tenements (etc.) of the clear yearly value of 40s. of one estate of inheritance or freehold at the least....

XXI. From and after the said feast of St. John the Baptist next, it shall be lawful to every person being an householder and 24 years old at the least and not occupying husbandry nor being a labourer dwelling in any town not being incorporate that is a market town ... and exercising any art, mistery or manual occupation ... to have in like manner to apprentices the children of any other artificer not occupying husbandry nor being a labourer, which shall inhabit in the same or in any other such market town within the same shire, to serve as apprentices as is aforesaid to any such art [etc.] as hath been usually exercised in any such market town where such apprentice shall be bound.

XXII. Provided that it shall not be lawful to any person dwelling in any such market town exercising the art of a merchant trafficking into the parts beyond the seas, mercer [etc. as above, section XX] to take any apprentice or in any wise to instruct any person in the arts [etc.] last before recited, after the feast of St. John Baptist aforesaid, except such servant or apprentice shall be his son, or else that the father or mother of such apprentice shall have lands [etc.] of the clear yearly value of 3l. of one estate of inheritance or freehold at the least....

XXIII. From and after the said feast it shall be lawful to any person exercising the art of a smith, wheelwright, ploughwright, millwright, carpenter, rough mason, plaisterer, sawyer, lime-burner, brickmaker, bricklayer, tiler, slater, healyer, tilemaker, linen-weaver, turner, cooper, millers, earthen potters, woollen weaver weaving housewives' or household cloth only and none other, cloth-fuller otherwise called tucker or walker, burner of ore and wood ashes, thatcher or shingler, wheresoever he shall dwell, to have the son of any person as apprentice ... albeit the father or mother of any such apprentice have not any lands, tenements or hereditaments.

XXIV. After the first day of May next coming it shall not be lawful to any person, other than such as now do lawfully exercise any art, mistery or manual occupation, to exercise any craft now used within the realm of England or Wales, except he shall have been brought up therein seven years at the least as apprentice in manner abovesaid, nor to set any person on work in such occupation being not a workman at this day, except he shall have been apprentice as is aforesaid, or else having served as an apprentice will become a journeyman or be hired by the year; upon pain that every person willingly offending shall forfeit for every default 40s. for every month.

XXV. Provided that no person exercising the art of a woollen cloth weaver, other than such as be inhabiting within the counties of Cumberland, Westmoreland, Lancaster, and Wales, weaving friezes, cottons or housewives' cloth only, making and weaving woollen cloth commonly sold by any clothier, shall have any apprentice or shall instruct any person in the science of weaving aforesaid in any place (cities, towns corporate, and market towns only except), unless such person be his son, or else that the father or mother of such apprentice or servant shall ... have lands [etc.] to the clear yearly value of 3l. of an estate of inheritance or freehold ... upon pain of forfeiture of 20s. for every month.

XXVI. Every person that shall have three apprentices in any of the said crafts of a cloth-maker, fuller, shearman, weaver, tailor or shoemaker shall keep one journeyman, and for every other apprentice above the number of the said three apprentices one other journeyman, upon pain of every default therein, 10l.

XXVIII. If any person shall be required by any householder having half a ploughland at the least in tillage to be an apprentice and to serve in husbandry, or in any other kind of art before expressed, and shall refuse so to do, then upon the complaint of such housekeeper made to one Justice of Peace of the county wherein the said refusal is made, or of such householder inhabiting in any city, town corporate, or market town to the mayor, bailiffs or head officer of the said city [etc.] ... they shall have full power to send for the same person so refusing; and if the said Justice or head officer shall think the said person meet to serve as an apprentice in that art ... the said Justice or head officer shall have power ... to commit him unto ward, there to remain until he will be bounden to serve ... and if any such master shall evil entreat his apprentice ... or the apprentice do not his duty to his master, then the said master or apprentice being grieved shall repair unto one Justice of Peace within the said county or to the head officer of the place where the said master dwelleth, who shall ... take such order and direction between the said master and his apprentice as the equity of the case shall require; and if for want of good conformity in the said master the said Justice or head officer cannot compound the matter between him and his apprentice, then the said Justice or head officer shall take bond of the said master to appear at the next sessions then to be holden in the said county or within the said city [etc.] ... and upon his appearance and hearing of the matter ... if it be thought meet unto them to discharge the said apprentice, then the said Justices or four of them at the least, whereof one to be of the quorum, or the said head officer, with the consent of three other of his brethren or men of best reputation within the said city [etc.] shall have power ... to pronounce that they have discharged the said apprentice of his apprenticehood ...: and if the default shall be found to be in the apprentice, then the said Justices or head officer, with the assistants aforesaid, shall cause such due punishment to be ministered unto him as by their wisdom and discretions shall be thought meet.

XXIX. Provided that no person shall by force of this Statute be bounden to enter into any apprenticeship, other than such as be under the age of 21 years.

XXX. And to the end that this Statute may from time to time be ... put in good execution ... be it enacted, That the Justices of Peace of every county, dividing themselves into several limits, and likewise every mayor or head officer of any city or town corporate, shall yearly between the feast of St. Michael the Archangel and the Nativity of our Lord, and between the feast of the Annunciation of our Lady and the feast of the Nativity of St. John Baptist ... make a special and diligent inquiry of the branches and articles of this Statute and of the good execution of the same, and where they shall find any defaults to see the same severely corrected and punished without favour ... or displeasure.

XXXI.... Every Justice of Peace, mayor, or head officer, for every day that he shall sit in the execution of this Statute, shall have allowed unto him 5s. to be paid ... of the fines [etc.] due by force of this Statute....

XXXIII. Provided always that this Act shall not be prejudicial to the cities of London and Norwich, or to the lawful liberties [etc.] of the same cities for the having of apprentices.

XXXIV. [Contracts of apprenticeship contrary to this Act to be void, and a penalty of 10l.]

XXXV. [Contracts of apprenticeship to hold good though made while the apprentice is under age.]