Many medieval boys who learned basic reading and simple arithmetic soon left school to begin learning a trade. Entry into a trade was controlled by the local guild, forerunner of labor unions. Parents paid a significant fee to the craftsman who took on their sons; there was a regular written contract signed with guild member witnesses. The master’s chief duty, by this contract, was to make sure that at the end of the term, the boy had been trained with the skills he needed. The apprentice’s duty was simply to obey his master and not run away, which would be breach of contract. There are many court records of disputes over apprenticeships, but few medieval parents complained if their sons were beaten. Rather, parents were most likely to complain if their sons were not being taught skills appropriately. Boys were steeled to put up with just about any harsh treatment as long as they were learning. They were usually between ten and twelve years old when they began, and in everyone’s minds, they were stepping into the first part of adult life.
Trades that began with apprenticeships included nearly everything that wasn’t plain farm work. In the early medieval period, even priests were trained with apprenticeships instead of seminary. By the late medieval years, craft specialties had multiplied beyond anything the early period could have imagined. Ironworking had been a unified trade around, say, 1100, but by 1300, let alone 1400, metal work was carried out by many trained specialists. There were iron refiners, needle and pin makers, locksmiths, clockmakers, wiremakers, farriers, loriners (they made bits for horse bridles) armorers, and toolmakers of many different types. Additionally copper and brass required different skills; and that’s just metal work. All things made of wood (barrels, furniture, ships and buildings), cloth (weaving, dyeing, fulling, tailoring) and many other substances (wax candles, soap, leather, glass) required skilled craftsmen. A boy could also apprentice in grocery or shipping businesses.
Most boys did not have free choice of a trade, because most of life isn’t very free either now or then. If they didn’t go into the same line of work as their fathers (which saved hundreds on apprentice fees), they went into a line of work that their father’s connections could get them into. Guilds controlled how many new workers entered each field, and it was not always easy to find a place.
Once contracted into a trade, the boy could count on a learning period between three and ten years. Bakers studied only about three years, while goldsmiths had among the longest student terms.