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.

§ 12. #Effect of modern forces upon custom#. The industrial events