In France, the duration of apprenticeships appears to vary in different towns and in different trades. In Paris, five years is the period required in a great number; but to qualify any person to exercise the trade as a master, he must, in many of them, serve five years more as a journeyman. During this latter term, he is called the companion of his master ; and the term itself is called his companionship.
In Ireland, restrictions similar to those sanctioned by the English statute of apprenticeship, have been esta blished by the bye-laws of the several corporations ; but by a regulation of the lord lieutenant and privy-council, ratified by 17 and 18 Car. II., foreigners and aliens may obtain admission as freemen into any city or cor poration, upon payment of a small fine of 20s. to the chief magistrate and common council. (Irish Trans. vol. iv.) In Scotland, the duration of apprenticeships is not regulated by any express law ; and the term is there fore different in different corporations. Three years, however, make a common term of apprenticeship, even in some very nice trades. Where an apprenticeship is long, a part of it may generally be redeemed by paying a small fine ; and, in most towns, a very small sum, by way of fine, is sufficient to purchase the freedom of any corporation. The weavers of linen and hempen cloth, the principal manufactures of the country, as well as all other artificers subservient to them, wheel-makers, reel makers, Rc. may exercise their trades in any town cor porate, without paying any fine. In all the towns corpo rate, too, every person is free to sell butcher's meat upon any lawful day of the week. Even in the incorpo rated trades, as there is no public law which specifies a particular term of apprenticeship, it must depend upon the bye-laws of the individual incorporation, the custom of the place, or the contract between the parties ; and it is, in general, much shorter than in England and other countries.
With regard to the policy of apprenticeships, the sub ject may be considered, 1st, As it affects the parties ; and, 2d, As it affects the community, or the public in general.— 1. It is evident, with respect to the parties themselves, that the one must be a great gainer, and the other a great loser, by an apprenticeship ; and this in propor tion to the length of the term. The master gains in two ways ; by the restrictions which apprenticeships and corporation laws impose upon the competition in trades ; and because he reaps the profit of the apprentice's la tour during the whole term. The apprentice is the
loser ; because years must elapse before he is enabled to carp a penny for himself, whatever may be his profi ciency in manual dexterity and skill. The competition in trades is restrained directly by the limitation of the number of apprentices ; and indirectly, though as effec tually, by long apprenticeships, which increase the ex pense of education. In Sheffield, no master-cutler can have more than one apprentice at a time, by a bye-law of the corporation. In Norfolk and Norwich, no master weaver can have more than two apprentices, by statute. (See the preceding article ) No master-hatter can have more than two apprentices any where in England, or in the English plantations. The silk-weavers in London had scarcely been incorporated a year, when they enac ted a bye-law, restraining any master from having more than two apprentices at a time ; and it required a parti cular act of parliament to rescind this bye-law.
2. Apprenticeships are extremely prejudicial to the public. They operate as a restraint on the free exercise of manual labour, and enhance, to the prejudice of the purchaser, the price of the articles brought to market. In both these respects, apprenticeships seem equally un just and impolitic. The patrimony of a poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands ; and every impediment thrown in the way of the free exercise of this strength and dexterity, so far as it is done without injury to his neighbour, is a plain violation of this most sacred property, and a manifest encroachment upon the just liberty both of the workman, and of might be disposed to employ him.
The abolition of apprenticeships would certainly have the effect of reducing the price of manufactured arti cles, by enlarging the competition in the different trades. Both master and apprentice would, perhaps, be losers by such a measure ; the former immediately, because he would be deprived of all the wages of the appren tice, which he now saves for seven years together ; the latter ultimately, because, in consequence of the enlarged competition, his wages would be less than at present, when he became a complete workman. The trades, the crafts, the mysteries, would all be losers ; but the pub lic would be a gainer, because the work of all artificers would come cheaper to market.