ithout supervision by the
gilds. They retained control only of that part of industry which was
still carried on in the towns.

*40. The Influence of the Government on the Gilds.*--Internal divisions
and external changes in the distribution of industry were therefore
alike tending to weaken the gild organization. It had to suffer also
from the hostility or intrusion of the national government. Much of
the policy of the government tended, it is true, as in the case of the
enclosures, to check the changes in progress, and thus to protect the
gild system. It has been seen that laws were passed to prohibit the
exclusion of apprentices and journeymen from full membership in the
crafts. As early as 1464 a law was passed to regulate the growing
system of employment of craftsmen by clothiers. This was carried
further in a law of 1511, and further still in 1551 and 1555. The
manufacture of rope in the country parts of Dorsetshire was prohibited
and restricted to the town of Bridport in 1529; the cloth manufacture
which was growing up through the "hamlets, thorps, and villages" in
Worcestershire was forbidden in 1553 to be carried on except in the
five old towns of Worcester, Evesham, Droitwich, Kidderminster, and
Bromsgrove; in 1543 it was enacted that coverlets were not to be
manufactured in Yorkshire outside of the city of York, and there was
still further legislation in the same direction. Numerous acts were
also passed for the purpose of restoring the populousness of the
towns. There is, however, little reason to believe that these laws had
much more effect in preventing the narrowing of the control of the
gilds and the scattering of industries from the towns to the country
than the various laws against enclosures had, and the latter object
was practically surrendered by the numerous exceptions to it in laws
passed in 1557, 1558, and 1575. All the laws favoring the older towns
were finally repealed in 1623.

Another class of laws may seem to have favored the craft
organizations. These were the laws regulating the carrying on of
various industries, in some of which the enforcement of the laws was
intrusted to the gild authorities. The statute book during the
sixteenth century is filled with laws "for the true making of pins,"
"for the making of friezes and cottons in Wales," "for the true
currying of leather," "for the making of iron gads," "for setting
prices on wines," for the regulation of the coopers, the tanners, the