member of the tribe is piously bound to do as his fathers have done and as his neighbors are doing.  This limitation applies to the choice of food to eat, clothes to wear, time to hunt, plant, and harvest, weapons and tools to use, where and how to trade, how much to give or take, and to countless other details of economic choice.  So, in early society, economic relations were complex and but slowly changing from generation to generation.  Custom, rather than competition, ruled in manifold ways the economic actions of men.

Custom continued to rule a large share of the individual life of the peoples of northern Europe through barbarian and feudal times.  Its force has gradually decreased, but even yet is not entirely set aside.  Political and economic interests were not clearly distinct in the Middle Ages.  Land was the all-important kind of wealth.  Military and other public services were performed by the higher landlords (as vassals of their overlords) who in this way paid at the same time what we to-day would call rent and taxes.  The landlord in turn received from his underlings services and goods in kind (food and supplies) and so (in modern eyes) was both a collector of taxes and a receiver of rent.  The rent, however, was not a competitive price, but consisted of the dues and services which the forefathers had been accustomed to pay.  In many ways also in the towns, close organizations of craftsmen and of merchants regulated prices and kept others out of their industries.  Industrial privilege pervaded the life of that time.

Yet through all the Middle Ages ran the forces of competition.  The inefficiency of customary services and the high prices charged by selfish privilege were constant invitations to men to become competitors.  Men strove to break over the barriers of custom and of prejudice.  Their efforts to attain freedom to compete was the vital force of the time.  The industrial history of the Middle Ages was largely the story of the struggle of the forces of competition against the bonds of custom and privilege.

Sec. 12. #Effect of modern forces upon custom#.  The industrial events following the discovery of America strengthened the forces making for economic freedom.  Discoveries in the Western hemisphere opened up a wide field for the adventure and enterprise of Europe.  Commerce is the strongest enemy of custom, and new opportunities gave a rude shock to the conservatism both of the manor and of the village.  With the rapid growth of industry and manufactures, old methods broke down.  In an open market custom declines; it flourishes best in sheltered places.  Further, the movement of thought in the Reformation, and the spirit of the times which expressed the principle of personal liberty and allowed the individual to follow his own opinions and take the consequences, were favorable to competition.  Despite these facts, the restraints of the national governments on trade continued great, in some respects increasing during