makers of woollen cloth, the dyers, the tallow chandlers, the saddlers
and girdlers, and dozens of other occupations. But although in many of
these laws the wardens of the appropriate crafts are given authority
to carry out the requirements of the 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 industrial code, which remained on
the statute book for two hundred and fifty years, being repealed only
in 1813, was primarily a reenactment of the statutes of laborers,
which had been continued from time to time ever since their
introduction 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 six months' notice of a close
of the contract by either employer or employee. By this statute all
the relations between master and journeyman 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were being superseded in much of their work by the national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 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 ones until they had received the approval of these
officials. There is no indication of the enforcement of this law. In
1504, however, it was reenacted with the modification that approval
might be sought from the justices on circuit. In 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 industries was alrea