168 LABOUR
knowledge of principles a short time sufficed to show how ineffectual minute legislation was to control wages. The statute was repealed in the following year, "for divers and many reasonable considerations and causes, the king's highness moving, and for the common wealth of the poor artificers, as freemasons, carpenters, and other persons necessary and convenient for the reparations and buildings, and other labourers and servants of husbandry." But what is surprising is that (although the first legislation of the 16th century was in favour of masters[1]) we find in 1514 a statute regulating wages and hours of work and even the summer day sleep of artificers and labourers, and in fact a re-enactment of the law of 1495,[2] The London workmen could not endure this restriction as to wages, and in the following year were allowed to take the previous rate when working within the city or its liberties; the king's works were, however, excepted.
At this point it is necessary to refer to the provisions made against vagrancy in the 16th century, these being closely connected with compulsory labour. The great social revolution caused by the suppression of the monasteries, and by the consequent withdrawal of the support which those institutions afforded to the indigent, and too often to the idle, had led to the dispersion over the face of the country of a multitude of beggars, many of whom were able to work but preferred idleness, often adding theft and robbery to mendicancy. Under these circumstances harsh and cruel statutes were passed in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Elizabeth.
In 1530 (22 Henry VIII.) any person, being whole and mighty in body and able to labour, found begging or being vagrant, and giving no satisfactory account how he lawfully obtained his living, might be arrested by a constable, and a justice might, in his discretion, cause every such idle person to be taken to the nearest town and there tied to the end of a cart naked, and to be beaten with whips throughout the town "till his body be bloody by reason of such whipping." He was then required to take an oath to return to his home "and put himself to labour as a true man ought to do." The whipping was to be repeated as often as he made default; but five years later the punishment for "rufflers, sturdy vagabonds, and valiant beggars" persisting in not working after a whipping was increased to having the upper part of the gristle of his right ear clean cut off. If still persistent he was to be tried, and executed as a felon.
On the accession of Edward VI. a law was passed by which a serving man wanting a master, or loitering or wandering, and not applying himself to honest labour, might on conviction be marked with the letter V, and adjudged to be the slave for two years of the person buying him, giving him only bread and water or small drink, and such refuse of meat as the master should think fit, and causing him to work by beating, chaining, or otherwise. If he ran away he might not only be punished by his master in the same way, but the justices, on conviction, were to have him marked on the forehead or ball of the cheek with an hot iron with the letter S, and adjudge him to be the master's slave for life. If he again ran away the offence became felony, and he was to suffer the pains of death "as other felons ought to do." Any child of a vagabond, above the age of five and under fourteen, might be adjudged the servant or apprentice of any person willing to take it until the age of twenty-four if a male and twenty if a female; if it ran away slavery followed for life. The master might put a ring of iron about the neck, arm, or leg of his slave to prevent his running away, with a penalty on any person helping him to take it off, and if the slave resisted correction he was to be executed as a felon. The slave might be sold or devised by will as other goods and chattels. This statute was repealed three years after, but it remains on the rolls of parliament, and nothing can obliterate the fact and the consequent disgrace attaching for all time to the parliament that could pass such a law. and to the country that could endure it for a day. This reintroduction of slavery in England by name, and in its worst form, is memorable, and serves to mark the alteration of opinion and feeling that has since taken place, much more than any contrast between freedom of labour and wages in the sense of the political economist.
Early in the reign of Elizabeth (5 Elizabeth, 1562) the statute commonly called "the Statute of Labourers" repealed all former statutes relating to labourers in husbandry and artificers or labourers engaged in particular trades, and consolidated and amended many former provisions. Its chief object was to provide a new rate of wages, and, in addition, to regulate in many respects the terms of employment as between the employer and the employed. This Act admits that the wages laid down by former statutes are in divers places too small in view of the general rise of prices, but approves of the principle and aims of previous legislation, the substance of which it seeks to digest into a single statute. The statute draws a main distinction between artificers and labourers in husbandry. The former may not be hired for a less term than a year, and any unemployed person brought up in a craft or who had practised it for more than three years was bound, on pain of imprisonment, to accept service if required "by any person using the art or mystery wherein he has been exercised," unless he had a farm in tillage, an estate worth 40 shillings a year, or goods to the yearly value of £10. Similar provision was made in respect of service in husbandry. Every person between the ages of twelve and sixty was in like manner bound to serve in husbandry unless possessed of property of specified amount, or employed as a fisherman or mariner, or in mining, or in any of the arts or sciences previously mentioned, or unless born a gentleman, or unless a member of a university or school. Minute regulations were made with reference to the rights and obligations both of master and servant. No person retained in husbandry or trade was to go out of the county or shire where he last served, to serve in any other, without a testimonial. No person leaving his service could be taken into another without showing such testimonial to the authorities of the place in which he was about to serve. If he broke this regulation he was to be imprisoned till he could procure a testimonial, and unless he did so within twenty-one days he was to be whipped. Every person retaining a servant without the latter showing such testimonial forfeited £5. Besides empowering justices in session to make a rate of wages, the statute fixed with great minuteness the hours of labour. In the time of harvest, justices or constables or other head officers might require artificers and persons meet for labour to serve by the day in mowing, reaping, shearing, getting, or turning of corn, grain, or hay, according to the skill and quality of the person, and upon refusal might put him in tho stocks for two days and a night. Even single women between the ages of twelve and forty might be compelled to serve in such employment as the justices might direct, under pain of imprisonment. Amended provision was made towards the close of the reign for justices yearly fixing the rate of wages.
It will be seen by the preceding summary how great
