Defects

in

rods grew up with farming, but various kinds of weights-Avoirdupois and Troy-and liquid measures, the processes of measuring lumber and computing percentage and interest, were due to the needs of buyers and sellers, borrowers and lenders. Indeed, arithmetic was in early days in this country regarded as so "commercial" a subject that it was not taught in the "grammar schools" which fitted boys for college. Further, it was necessary for the trader in ships to study the sky; and although astronomy began earlier, it was among such a trading people as the Greeks that it made its greatest advance in early times. It is interesting, too, that our alphabet came from the great traders, the Phoenicians, and it was from them that the Greeks learned it and passed it on to Rome and through Rome to us.

It was indeed in the trading cities of Greece that science had its greatest growth in the Old World, and while we cannot say that trade deserved the credit for the wonderful genius of such men as Euclid, the geometer, or Democritus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, the philosophers, or Thales, who foretold an eclipse, yet the general exchange of thought and knowledge which trade favored had much to do with giving opportunity for science to develop.

It is in some respects surprising that there was so much ignorance in some matters in the medieval towns knowledge where there was such knowledge, taste, and skill in other matters. The cathedrals, the castles, the furnishings and carvings, the glass of early times were wonderful. On the other hand, men believed in magic and astrology. In medicine their remedies were often more dangerous than the disease; and they had almost no knowledge of chemistry which is so important today. One great

discovery was indeed made which helped to upset the whole scheme of castles, walls, and armor. This was gunpowder. It helped to put the common man on a level in war with the armed knight, and so to break down the power of the fighting class.

middle

class

Town life, trade, and handicraft made a great change Rise in social classes. The earlier division had been into of the Fighters and Workers, or into Free and Unfree, or into Gentry and Peasant. This growth of towns with their traders and craftsmen made a new class who were neither gentry nor peasants. They were free, but their strength was not in their land as with some of the free yeomen; it was in the wealth they gained through trade or skill, and in their union in town or gild. The wealth of the gentry was in land and was largely due to conquest or birth. The wealth of the burghers or town dwellers was due chiefly to their labor or shrewdness. This gave a field for a new kind of ability to show itself. Before this the chief rewards had been for brave fighters or capable rulers. In the church there had also been an opportunity for scholars, and administrators as well as preachers. But now there was an opportunity for the capable merchant and skilled craftsman. In Italy, in Germany, in France, in the Netherlands, and in England this Middle Class

arose.

But we must not think that every one could enter this class. In the first place, no one from the gentry could enter it, for trade or any kind of manual labor was looked upon as a disgrace for a gentleman. Nevertheless from our present point of view we can see why to be kept out of trade was really a limitation for the gentleman, even though he did not think of it as such.

For many who made very poor fighters or priests might have made good traders or craftsmen. The great means of developing a man is to give him a chance to do what he can do best.

But the middle class itself made the greatest restrictions. As we have seen, the gilds were strict in their rules, and tended to become exclusive. They bought their privileges at a high price. They did not propose to give them away, especially if giving them away was liable to reduce their value. They did not believe in open shops." Hence the system was a comfortable one for those who were in it, but only a limited number I could share its benefits.

66

Towns were able to secure greater liberty for their citizens than the peasants or villagers had enjoyed. This was due largely to two facts. First the town dwellers became used to acting together. They defended their walls, they made rules for markets and trading, and hence they were able to stand together against baron or king. In the second place, they had more wealth than peasants or villagers had, and so when they wanted a new privilege they could pay for it. It may seem disgraceful to us that liberty should have to be bought. If we wanted a just law or fair treatment we should think it shameful if we had to pay a legislature or a judge to grant this to us. But the liberties which the towns got in return for grants of money were not thought of as rights, which any one might feel justly belonged to him. They were rather privileges, special privileges, which had to be secured by a bargain. The course of progress has frequently been that some class or group or place would get a privilege for itself alone; then others would claim the same until it became at last a right for all. This has been conspicu

ously the case with education; for universities, colleges, and even more elementary schools have usually been established at first for special classes or groups; later they have been open to all.

Why labor and

trade were not honored

CHAPTER X

NEW IDEALS AND STANDARDS: DIGNITY OF
LABOR; HONESTY AND FAIRNESS

WE

E saw that the ideals of the military state were those of the gentleman, and that in early times it was not the thing for a gentleman to engage in trade or in manual labor. Town life did much to set up a new standard on this point; it did much to make work of any kind respected and even honorable.

To appreciate the full meaning of the change in men's ideas about work we must recall, first, that in savage life a large number of the crafts were carried on largely by women, and that at a later stage these and many of the new kinds of manual labor were allotted to slaves. We must recall, secondly, that in the ancient world trading was often done by foreigners who were not admitted to citizenship but formed a separate class. The citizens were warriors or descendants of warriors; merchants were neither.

In the Middle Ages the church had many communities of monks who were very industrious. They tilled the fields and set an example of regular employment at manual labor. This counted a little as against the attitude of the gentry. But it may be doubted whether the example of the monks would ever have been very successful in persuading men that work was honorable for those outside the cloister as well as for those inside. It needed a new class of men who should be workers,