abour is a commodity' into 'the labourer is
a commodity'--a great difference, which is not sufficiently understood
by many present-day writers. (See Roscher, _Political Economy_, s.
160.)]

This, according to Brants,[1] is essentially a matter upon which more
enlightenment will be found in histories of the working classes[2]
than in books dealing with the enunciation of abstract theories;
nevertheless, it is possible to state generally that it was regarded
as the duty of employers to give such a wage as would support the
worker in accordance with the requirements of his class. In the
great majority of cases the rate of wages was fixed by some
public--municipal or corporative--authority, but Langenstein
enunciates a rule which seems to approach the statement of a general
theory. According to him, when a man has something to sell, and has
no indication of the just price from its being fixed by any outside
authority, he must endeavour to get such a price as will _reasonably_
recompense him for any outlay he may have incurred, and will enable
him to provide for his needs, spiritual and temporal.[3] It was not
until the sixteenth century that the fixing of the just price of
wages was submitted to scientific discussion;[4] in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries there is little to be found bearing on this
subject except the passage of Langenstein which we have quoted, and
some strong exhortations by Antoninus of Florence to masters to pay
good wages.[5] The reason for this paucity of authority upon a subject
of so much importance is that in practice the machinery provided
by the guilds had the effect of preserving a substantially just
remuneration to the artisan. When a man is in perfect health he
does not bother to read medical books. In the same way, the proper
remuneration of labour was so universally recognised as a duty, and so
satisfactorily enforced, that it seems to have been taken for granted,
and therefore passed over, by the writers of the period. One may agree
with Brants in concluding that, 'the principle of just price in sales
was applied to wages; fluctuations in wages were not allowed; the just
price, as in sales, rested on the approximate equality of the services
rendered; and that this equality was estimated by common opinion.'[6]
Of course, in the case of slave labour it could not be said that any
wage was paid. The master was entitled to the services of the slave,
and in return was bound to furnish him