them. But now another class with no benevolent traditions of
responsibility came into power--the capitalist, a parvenu whose
ambition was profit, not equity, and whose dealings with other
men were not tempered by the amenities of the gentleman but were
sharpened by the necessities of gain. It was upon such a class,
new in the economic world and endowed with astounding power, that
Adam Smith's new formularies of freedom were let loose.

During all these changes in the economic order, the interest of
the laborer centered in one question: What return would he
receive for his toil? With the increasing complexity of society,
many other problems presented themselves to the worker, but for
the most part they were subsidiary to the main question of wages.
As long as man's place was fixed by law or custom, a customary
wage left small margin for controversy. But when fixed status
gave way to voluntary contract, when payment was made in money,
when workmen were free to journey from town to town, labor became
both free and fluid, bargaining took the place of custom, and the
wage controversy began to assume definite proportions. As early
as 1348 the great plague became a landmark in the field of wage
disputes. So scarce had laborers become through the ravages of
the Black Death, that wages rose rapidly, to the alarm of the
employers, who prevailed upon King Edward III to issue the
historic proclamation of 1349, directing that no laborer should
demand and no employer should pay greater wages than those
customary before the plague. This early attempt to outmaneuver an
economic law by a legal device was only the prelude to a long
series of labor laws which may be said to have culminated in the
great Statute of Laborers of 1562, regulating the relations of
wage-earner and employer and empowering justices of the peace to