SOURCES OF MODERN INDUSTRIAL CONFLICTS 47 
stage was seen the growing control of capital ownership. The mer- 
chant-capitalist, mediating between producer and ultimate consumer, 
determined the kind and quantity of goods to be made. Price be- 
came an increasingly significant consideration in every dealing. The 
merchant was a skilled bargainer while the craftsman degenerated 
into a skilled artisan, versed only in partial processes, selling only 
his labor and the services of his tools and simple machines. While 
the artisan dealt on personal, friendly terms with his helpers, often 
members of his family, the sharp bargaining of the merchant who 
contracted for the output of the shop prompted him to adopt “driv- 
ing” tactics. The national government, moreover, deeply concerned 
in exploration, colonization, and the raising of funds for war in the 
interest of power-aggrandizement, pursued exploitative policies 
regulating processes and wages as well as trade. Continuity of 
employment was uncertain, depending upon conditions of a wide 
market over which neither the artisan, individual merchant, nor the 
government—ifor all its efforts at regulation of commerce—could 
exercise adequate control. Here began, then, the modern subjuga- 
tion to impersonal forces, the expanding market and the profit motive 
demanding lower cost obtainable through increasing mechanization 
of productive processes. 
With the emergence of the factory system, manual and mental 
workers, having naught but their labor to sell, contracted individually 
with agents of absent, unknown, and often utterly impersonal capi- 
talists to render certain services at stipulated prices. Rarely was the 
contract written, and as its duration was ordinarily unstated, it was 
subject to cancellation at will by either party. 
The ostensibly equal freedom thus accorded both the employer 
and the employee, some would say, is but an illusion. The employee 
normally is in no position to consider carefully all the terms of the 
labor contract before agreeing to it; and he can ill afford to cancel 
it and seek another position, except in periods of extreme prosperity 
when there is an inflated demand for labor. The employer, however, 
ordinarily has the advantages of superior bargaining skill, more ac- 
curate knowledge of the labor market, an over-supply of labor and 
greater waiting power—having less at stake, profits rather than live- 
E