It was mainly for this reason that during the custom-order stage of
industry the journeymen seldom if ever raised a protest because the
regulation of the craft, be it through a guild or through an informal
organization, lay wholly in the hands of the masters. Moreover, the
typical journeyman expected in a few years to set up with an apprentice
or two in business for himself--so there was a reasonable harmony of
interests.
A change came when improvements in transportation, the highway and later
the canal, had widened the area of competition among masters. As a first
step, the master began to produce commodities in advance of the demand,
laying up a stock of goods for the retail trade. The result was that his
bargaining capacity over the consumer was lessened and so prices
eventually had to be reduced, and with them also wages. The next step
was even more serious. Having succeeded in his retail business, the
master began to covet a still larger market,--the wholesale market.
However, the competition in this wider market was much keener than it
had been in the custom-order or even in the retail market.
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