p63. 34 
nufactures muft vary according to the time of year, to the 
change of fafhions, to foreign orders. See then how your 
laws of apprenticefhip operate—they prevent all labour when 
a particular kind cannot be exercifed ; and when there is an 
extraordinary demand for any particular kind, they prevent a 
fafficiency from being procured. 
Tue ancients knew no fuch impolitick reftrictions. They 
held that every man has a right to learn what another is 
willing to teach upon fuch terms as may be agreed on be- 
tween them. They never conceived that induftry is promoted 
by the profits of one man’s labour -neceflarily centering, for 
a ftated number of years, in the aggrandizement of another. 
They never held that the myfteries of all crafts are equally 
difficult to be acquired. They never conceived that fkill and 
integrity are infured by the workman’s having been a re- 
demptionary flave. Yet we maintain cuftoms founded upon 
fuch notions; though we fee that apprentices are, in general, 
as idle as they dare be; that when put out, (as they com- 
monly are from charity {chools,) with {mall apprentice fees, 
and bound for a long term of years, they become peculiarly 
worthlefs and unprofitable ; but that journeymen paid by the 
piece are prone even to endanger their healths by the afliduity 
of their application. 
To conclude thefe comments; though I am an enemy to 
every fpecies of monopoly in trade, I do not propofe to over- 
turn the whole fyftem of corporations and apprenticefhips. 
But let the doors of corporations be opened, by means of ma- 
nufacturing 
