Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Part 19

The most ancient of these corporations was the Parisian _Hanse_, or corporation of the bourgeois for ca.n.a.l navigation, which probably dates its origin back to the college of Parisian _Nautes_, existing before the Roman conquest. This mercantile a.s.sociation held its meetings in the island of Lutetia, on the very spot where the church of Notre-Dame was afterwards built. From the earliest days of monarchy tradesmen const.i.tuted entirely the bourgeois of the towns (Fig. 203). Above them were the n.o.bility or clergy, beneath them the artisans. Hence we can understand how the bourgeois, who during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a distinct section of the community, became at last the important commercial body itself. The kings invariably treated them with favour. Louis VI.

granted them new rights, Louis VII. confirmed their ancient privileges, and Philip Augustus increased them. The Parisian Hanse succeeded in monopolising all the commerce which was carried on by water on the Seine and the Yonne between Mantes and Auxerre. No merchandise coming up or down the stream in boats could be disembarked in the interior of Paris without becoming, as it were, the property of the corporation, which, through its agents, superintended its measurement and its sale in bulk, and, up to a certain point, its sale by retail. No foreign merchant was permitted to send his goods to Paris without first obtaining _lettres de Hanse_, whereby he had a.s.sociated with him a bourgeois of the town, who acted as his guarantee, and who shared in his profits.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 203.--Merchants or Tradesmen of the Fourteenth Century.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in a Ma.n.u.script of the Library at Brussels.]

There were a.s.sociations of the same kind in most of the commercial towns situated on the banks of rivers and on the sea-coast, as, for example, at Rouen, Arles, Ma.r.s.eilles, Narbonne, Toulouse, Ratisbon, Augsburg, and Utrecht. Sometimes neighbouring towns, such as the great manufacturing cities of Flanders, agreed together and entered into a leagued bond, which gave them greater power, and const.i.tuted an offensive and defensive compact (Fig. 204). A typical example of this last inst.i.tution is that of the commercial a.s.sociation of the _Hanseatic Towns_ of Germany, which were grouped together to the number of eighty around their four capitals, viz., Lubeck, Cologne, Dantzic, and Brunswick.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 204.--Seal of the United Trades of Ghent (End of the Fifteenth Century).]

Although, as we have already seen, previous to the thirteenth century many of the corporations of artisans had been authorised by several of the kings of France to make special laws whereby they might govern themselves, it was really only from the reign of St. Louis that the first general measures of administration and police relating to these communities can be dated. The King appointed Etienne Boileau, a rich bourgeois, provost of the capital in 1261, to set to work to establish order, wise administration, and "good faith" in the commerce of Paris. To this end he ascertained from the verbal testimony of the senior members of each corporation the customs and usages of the various crafts, which for the most part up to that time had not been committed to writing. He arranged and probably amended them in many ways, and thus composed the famous "Book of Trades," which, as M. Depping, the able editor of this valuable compilation, first published in 1837, says, "has the advantage of being to a great extent the genuine production of the corporations themselves, and not a list of rules established and framed by the munic.i.p.al or judicial authorities." From that time corporations gradually introduced themselves into the order of society. The royal decrees in their favour were multiplied, and the regulations with regard to mechanical trades daily improved, not only in Paris and in the provinces, and also abroad, both in the south and in the north of Europe, especially in Italy, Germany, England, and the Low Countries (Figs. 205 to 213).

Etienne Boileau's "Book of Trades" contained the rules of one hundred different trade a.s.sociations. It must be observed, however, that several of the most important trades, such as the butchers, tanners, glaziers, &c., were omitted, either because they neglected to be registered at the Chatelet, where the inquiry superintended by Boileau was made, or because some private interest induced them to keep aloof from this registration, which probably imposed some sort of fine and a tax upon them. In the following century the number of trade a.s.sociations considerably increased, and wonderfully so during the reigns of the last of the Valois and the first of the Bourbons.

The historian of the antiquities of Paris, Henry Sauval, enumerated no fewer than fifteen hundred and fifty-one trade a.s.sociations in the capital alone in the middle of the seventeenth century. It must be remarked, however, that the societies of artisans were much subdivided owing to the simple fact that each craft could only practise its own special work.

Thus, in Boileau's book, we find four different corporations of _patenotriers_, or makers of chaplets, six of hatters, six of weavers, &c.

Besides these societies of artisans, there were in Paris a few privileged corporations, which occupied a more important position, and were known under the name of _Corps des Marchands_. Their number at first frequently varied, but finally it was settled at six, and they were termed _les Six Corps_. They comprised the drapers, which always took precedence of the five others, the grocers, the mercers, the furriers, the hatters, and the goldsmiths. These five for a long time disputed the question of precedence, and finally they decided the matter by lot, as they were not able to agree in any other way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 205.--Seal of the Corporation of Carpenters of St.

Trond (Belgium)--From an Impression preserved in the Archives of that Town (1481).]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 206.--Seal of the Corporation of Shoemakers of St.

Trond, from a Map of 1481, preserved in the Archives of that Town.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 207.--Seal of the Corporation of Wool-weavers of Ha.s.selt (Belgium), from a Parchment t.i.tle-deed of June 25, 1574.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 208.--Seal of the Corporation of Clothworkers of Bruges (1356).--From an Impression preserved in the Archives of that Town.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 209.--Seal of the Corporation of Fullers of St. Trond (about 1350).--From an Impression preserved in the Archives of that Town.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 210.--Seal of the Corporation of Joiners of Bruges (1356).--From an Impression preserved in the Archives of that Town.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 211.--Token of the Corporation of Carpenters of Maestricht.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 212.--Token of the Corporation of Carpenters of Antwerp.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 213.--Funeral Token of the Corporation of Carpenters of Maestricht.]

Trades.

Fac-simile of Engravings on Wood, designed and engraved by J. Amman, in the Sixteenth Century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 214.--Cloth-worker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 215.--Tailor.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 216.--Hatter.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 217.--Dyer.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 218.--Druggist]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 219.--Barber]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 220.--Goldsmith]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 221.--Goldbeater]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 222.--Pin and Needle Maker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 223.--Clasp-maker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 224.--Wire-worker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 225.--Dice-maker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 226.--Sword-maker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 227.--Armourer.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 228.--Spur-maker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 229.--Shoemaker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 230.--Basin-maker.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 231.--Tinman.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 232.--Coppersmith.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 233.--Bell and Cannon Caster.]

Apart from the privilege which these six bodies of merchants exclusively enjoyed of being called upon to appear, though at their own expense, in the civic processions and at the public ceremonials, and to carry the canopy over the heads of kings, queens, or princes on their state entry into the capital (Fig. 234), it would be difficult to specify the nature of the privileges which were granted to them, and of which they were so jealous. It is clear, however, that these six bodies were imbued with a kind of aristocratic spirit which made them place trading much above handicraft in their own cla.s.s, and set a high value on their calling as merchants. Thus contemporary historians tell us that any merchant who compromised the dignity of the company "fell into the cla.s.s of the lower orders;" that mercers boasted of excluding from their body the upholsterers, "who were but artisans;" that hatters, who were admitted into the _Six Corps_ to replace one of the other trades, became in consequence "merchants instead of artisans, which they had been up to that time."

Notwithstanding the statutes so carefully compiled and revised by Etienne Boileau and his successors, and in spite of the numerous arbitrary rules which the sovereigns, the magistrates, and the corporations themselves strenuously endeavoured to frame, order and unity were far from governing the commerce and industry of Paris during the Middle Ages, and what took place in Paris generally repeated itself elsewhere. Serious disputes continually arose between the authorities and those amenable to their jurisdiction, and between the various crafts themselves, notwithstanding the relation which they bore to each other from the similarity of their employments.

In fact in this, as in many other matters, social disorder often emanated from the powers whose duty it was in the first instance to have repressed it. Thus, at the time when Philip Augustus extended the boundaries of his capital so as to include the boroughs in it, which until then had been separated from the city, the lay and clerical lords, under whose feudal dominion those districts had hitherto been placed, naturally insisted upon preserving all their rights. So forcibly did they do this that the King was obliged to recognise their claims; and in several boroughs, including the Bourg l'Abbe, the Beau Bourg, the Bourg St. Germain, and the Bourg Auxerrois, &c., there were trade a.s.sociations completely distinct from and independent of those of ancient Paris. If we simply limit our examination to that of the condition of the trade a.s.sociations which held their authority immediately from royalty, we still see that the causes of confusion were by no means trifling; for the majority of the high officers of the crown, acting as delegates of the royal authority, were always disputing amongst themselves the right of superintending, protecting, judging, punis.h.i.+ng, and, above all, of exacting tribute from the members of the various trades. The King granted to various officers the privilege of arbitrarily disposing of the freedom of each trade for their own profit, and thereby gave them power over all the merchants and craftsmen who were officially connected with them, not only in Paris, but also throughout the whole kingdom. Thus the lord chamberlain had jurisdiction over the drapers, mercers, furriers, shoemakers, tailors, and other dealers in articles of wearing apparel; the barbers were governed by the king's varlet and barber; the head baker was governor over the bakers; and the head butler over the wine merchants.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 234.--Group of Goldsmiths preceding the _Cha.s.se de St.

Marcel_ in the Reign of Louis XIII.--From a Copper-plate of the Period (Cabinet of Stamps in the National Library of Paris).]

These state officers granted freedoms to artisans, or, in other words, they gave them the right to exercise such and such a craft with a.s.sistants or companions, exacting for the performance of this trifling act a very considerable tax. And, as they preferred receiving their revenues without the annoyance of having direct communication with their humble subjects, they appointed deputies, who were authorised to collect them in their names.

The most celebrated of these deputies were the _rois des merciers_, who lived on the fat of the land in complete idleness, and who were surrounded by a mercantile court, which appeared in all its splendour at the trade festivals.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 235.--Banner of the Corporation of the United Boot and Shoe Makers of Issoudun.]

The great officers of the crown exercised in their own interests, and without a thought for the public advantage, a complete magisterial jurisdiction over all crafts; they adjudicated in disputes arising between masters and men, decided quarrels, visited, either personally or through their deputies, the houses of the merchants, in order to discover frauds or infractions in the rules of the trade, and levied fines accordingly. We must remember that the collectors of court dues had always to contend for the free exercise of their jurisdiction against the provost of Paris, who considered their acquisitions of authority as interfering with his personal prerogatives, and who therefore persistently opposed them on all occasions. For instance, if the head baker ordered an artisan of the same trade to be imprisoned in the Chatelet, the high provost, who was governor of the prison, released him immediately; and, in retaliation, if the high provost punished a baker, the chief baker warmly espoused his subordinate's cause. At other times the artisans, if they were dissatisfied with the deputy appointed by the great officer of the crown, whose dependents they were, would refuse to recognise his authority. In this way constant quarrels and interminable lawsuits occurred, and it is easy to understand the disorder which must have arisen from such a state of things. By degrees, however, and in consequence of the new tendencies of royalty, which were simply directed to the diminution of feudal power, the numerous jurisdictions relating to the various trades gradually returned to the hand of the munic.i.p.al provosts.h.i.+p; and this concentration of power had the best results, as well for the public good as for that of the corporations themselves.