Apprenticeship is frequently mentioned in pre-modern histories but there has been little research into the institution itself. Apprenticeship in Early Modern Europe comprises ten chapters on the topic, nine being local case-studies from towns and cities across western Europe.
Until recently, apprenticeship was often discussed as part of broader studies on urban guilds. This was based on a belief, challenged across the chapters in this volume, that apprenticeship was closely tied into the guild system and used to control entry into the crafts. In some regions, such as the Holy Roman Empire, the Low Countries and England, guilds had some role in drawing up contracts. More often, however, the role of guilds amounted only to setting a framework of rules, with contracts being produced privately and enforced through the courts. This has implications for the decline of apprenticeship in the modern period. Rather than being a consequence of the demise of the guild system, it occurs later with the emergence of larger firms, greater opportunities in urban centres, new technology and the division of labour (p. 316).
The volume also challenges any preconception of apprenticeship as being an institution solely for young men. Although well below 10 per cent of the total, girls formed a proportion of those trained in the crafts across the case-studies and training was carried out by mistresses as well as masters. The presence of young women was particularly common in the cloth-related crafts. Yet Patrick Wallis’ findings for England find most trades had at least some female apprentices (p. 270).
Individual chapters sometimes feel a little detached from each other rather than cohering as a whole. Several themes recur in numerous chapters, such as the contract process, pay arrangements and retention rates, but without comparisons to one another. Overarching themes are addressed in the introduction and conclusion, yet Prak and Wallis make little reference to the volume's contributions. A few apparent inconsistencies between chapters, perhaps representing regional differences or ambiguities of terminology, might also have been addressed. Ruben Schalk states that the cost of buying a shop was a financial barrier to becoming a master (p. 201). Yet Giovanni Colavizza, Riccardo Cella and Anna Bellavitis found that masters sometimes worked for other masters, presumably with no shop of their own (pp. 108–9).
Apprenticeship is closely associated with urban history and most of the chapters draw their evidence from towns and cities. In contrast, Merja Uotila offers urban historians a fascinating insight into how urban practices influenced rural communities through her research into Finland. Uotila finds a system inspired by urban practices but adapted to the local situation. Masters reported new apprentices to their parish priest. This presumably implied a spiritual dimension to acknowledging the boy or girl's place in the household but also acted as a register, with priests being turned to in cases of runaway apprentices (p. 177).
Having explored apprenticeship through case-studies, Prak and Wallis’ concluding analysis serves the important function of identifying common practices. Their contributions emphasize the areas of similarity. Contrasting practices also emerge from the chapters, which might have been discussed further. One such area is the retention of apprentices and the enforcement of contracts. Evidence from Germany and the northern Netherlands finds legal processes permitting mid-contract changes to new masters (pp. 157, 202–3). Ruben Schalk finds this occurred for 8.6 to 14.1 per cent of apprentices in the northern Netherlands, with the switch being an opportunity either to change craft or to negotiate a higher rate of pay owing to the skills already gained. This would appear very different from the southern Netherlands, where guilds were fined heavily for hiring runaway apprentices (p. 233). Differences in enforcement affected the nature of the contracts. In the southern Netherlands, longer contracts could be negotiated at a lower price on the condition that apprentices worked for masters below the market rate in their final years (p. 224). Such contracts would not have been desirable for masters had it been too easy to leave early.
Future research might turn its attention to questions beyond the remit of this collection. First, is the origin of apprenticeship. The private negotiation of contracts, independent of guilds, is a common theme across the chapters. This raises the intriguing question of whether the practices predate the development of craft guilds. Secondly, is the black market in labour. Surviving documents are biased towards above-the-board arrangements, often backed up by contracts. The black market is alluded to by a number of contributors, in particular Clare Haru Crowston and Claire Lemercier, but is a central theme for none.
The chapters of this volume are essential reading for urban historians studying the social and economic structure of the region or city in question. Collectively, they have a wealth of information for those interested in broader themes relating to apprenticeship, but readers may find themselves needing to join the dots between the case-studies.
