And, unmarried women between 12 and 40 may be
required by town officials to work by the year, the week, or day
for wages they determine.
All artificers and laborers hired by the day or week shall work
from 5 am to 7 PM. All artificers must labor at agriculture at
haytime and harvest to avoid the loss of grain or hay. Every
householder who raises crops may receive as an apprentice a child
between 10 and 18 to serve in agriculture until he is age 21. A
householder in a town may receive a child as an apprentice for 7
years, but merchants may only take as apprentices children of
parents with 40s. freehold. (This was designed to inhibit
migration to the towns. It excluded three fourths of the rural
population.)
No one may be a craftsman until he has served seven years as an
apprentice. These artificers may have children as apprentices:
smith, wheelmaker, ploughmaker, millmaker, miller, carpenter,
rough mason, plasterer, a timber sawer, an ore burner, a lime
burner, brickmaker, bricklayer, tilemaker, tiler, layer of slate
roofs, layer of wood shingle roofs, layer of straw roofs, cooper,
earthen potter, linen weaver, housewife who weaves wool for sale
or for household use.
Fish, but no meat, may be eaten on Wednesdays so that there will
be more fishermen and mariners and repair of ports. (This was done
because fishing had declined since the dissolution of the
monasteries.
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