[Illustration:  Fig. 247.—­Fac-simile of the first six Lines on the Copper Tablet on which was engraved, from the year 1470, the Names and Titles of those who were elected Members of the Corporation of Goldsmiths of Ghent.]

The statutes of the corporations, which had the force of law on account of being approved and accepted by royal authority, almost always detailed with the greatest precision the conditions of labour.  They fixed the hours and days for working, the size of the articles to be made, the quality of the stuffs used in their manufacture, and even the price at which they were to be sold (Fig. 246).  Night labour was pretty generally forbidden, as likely to produce only imperfect work.  We nevertheless find that carpenters were permitted to make coffins and other funeral articles by night.  On the eve of religious feasts the shops were shut earlier than usual, that is to say, at three o’clock, and were not opened on the next day, with the exception of those of pastrycooks, whose assistance was especially required on feast days, and who sold curious varieties of cakes and sweetmeats.  Notwithstanding the strictness of the rules and the administrative laws of each trade, which were intended to secure good faith and loyalty between the various members, it is unnecessary to state that they were frequently violated.  The fines which were then imposed on delinquents constituted an important source of revenue, not only to the corporations themselves, but also to the town treasury.  The penally, however, was not always a pecuniary one, for as late as the fifteenth century we have instances of artisans being condemned to death simply for having adulterated their articles of trade.

[Illustration:  Fig. 248.—­Elder and Jurors of the Tanners of the Town of Ghent in Ceremonial Dress.—­Fac-simile of a Miniature in a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century.]

This deception was looked upon as of the nature of robbery, which we know to have been for a long time punishable by death.  Robbery on the part of merchants found no indulgence nor pardon in those days, and the whole corporation demanded immediate and exemplary justice.

According to the statutes, which generally tended to prevent frauds and falsifications, in most crafts the masters were bound to put their trade-mark on their goods, or some particular sign which was to be a guarantee for the purchaser and one means of identifying the culprit in the event of complaints arising on account of the bad quality or bad workmanship of the articles sold.

[Illustration:  Fig. 249.—­Companion Carpenter.—­Fragment of a Woodcut of the Fifteenth Century, after a Drawing by Wohlgemueth for the “Chronique de Nuremberg.”]