A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2)

ARTIFICIAL PEARLS

Those round calcareous⁷⁵⁷ excrescences found both in the bodies and shells, especially on the nacreous coat, of several kinds of shell-fish⁷⁵⁸, have been much used as ornaments since the earliest ages⁷⁵⁹. The beautiful play of colours exhibited on their surface has raised them to a high value⁷⁶⁰; and this they have always retained on account of their scarcity and the expense arising from the laborious manner in which they are collected⁷⁶¹. By the increase of luxury among the European nations, the use of pearls has become more common; and even in Pliny’s time they were worn by the wives of the inferior public officers, in order that they might vie in the costliness of their dress with ladies of the first rank. It is probable, therefore, that methods were early invented to occasion or hasten the formation of pearls; and as at present those who cannot afford to purchase gold, jewels, and porcelain, use in their stead pinchbeck, artificial gems, and stone-ware, so methods were fallen upon to make artificial pearls.

The art of forcing shell-fish to produce pearls was known, in the first centuries of the christian æra to the inhabitants of the coasts of the Red-sea, as we are told by the philosopher Apollonius, who thought that circumstance worthy of particular notice. The Indians dived into the sea, after they had rendered it calm and more transparent by pouring oil into it. They then enticed the fish by means of some bait to open their shells; and having pricked them with a sharp pointed instrument, received the liquor that flowed from them in small holes made in an iron vessel, in which they hardened into real pearls⁷⁶². Olearius says that this account is to be found in no other author: but it has at least been copied by Tzetzes⁷⁶³.

We are as yet too little acquainted with shell-fish to be able to determine with certainty how much truth there really may be in this relation: but there is great reason to conjecture from it that the people who lived on the borders of the Red-sea were then acquainted with a method of forcing shell-fish to produce pearls; and as the arts in general of the ancient Indians have been preserved without much variation, the process employed by the Chinese at present, to cause a certain kind of mussels to form pearls, seems to confirm the account given by Philostratus. In the beginning of summer, at the time when the mussels repair to the surface of the water and open their shells, five or six small beads, made of mother-of-pearl, and strung on a thread, are thrown into each of them. At the end of a year, when the mussels are drawn up and opened, the beads are found covered with a pearly crust, in such a manner that they have a perfect resemblance to real pearls. The truth of this information cannot be doubted, though some experiments made in Bohemia for the same purpose were not attended with success⁷⁶⁴. It has been confirmed by various persons⁷⁶⁵, and it is very probable that some operations and secrets, without which the process would prove fruitless even in China, may be unknown to the Europeans. Besides, many observations are known which seem to show the possibility of such an effect being produced. Fabricius says that he saw in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks, at London, large Chamæ⁷⁶⁶, brought from China, in which there were several bits of iron wire, incrusted with a substance of a perfect pearly nature⁷⁶⁷. These bits of wire, he said, had been sharp, and it appeared as if the mussels, to secure themselves against the points of the wire, had covered them with this substance, by which means they had been rendered blunt. May not therefore the process employed by the ancients be still practised? And may not these bits of wire have been the same as those spikes used by the people in the neighbourhood of the Red-sea for pricking mussels, and which perhaps slipped from the hands of the Chinese workmen and remained in the animals?

The invention therefore of Linnæus cannot be called altogether new. That great man informed the king and council in the year 1761, that he had discovered an art by which mussels might be made to produce pearls, and he offered to disclose the method for the benefit of the kingdom. This however was not done, but he disposed of his secret to one Bagge, a merchant at Gottenburg, for the sum of eighteen thousand copper dollars, which make about five hundred ducats. In the year 1780, the heirs of this merchant wished to sell to the highest bidder the sealed-up receipt⁷⁶⁸: but whether the paper was purchased, or who bought it, I do not know; for Professor Retzius at Lund, of whom I inquired respecting it, could not inform me⁷⁶⁹. In the year 1763, it was said in the German newspapers, that Linnæus was ennobled on account of this discovery, and that he bore a pearl in his coat of arms; but both these assertions are false, though Fabricius conjectures that the first may be true⁷⁷⁰. Linnæus received his patent of nobility, which, together with his arms, I have seen, in the year 1756, consequently long before he said anything respecting that discovery, of which the patent does not make the least mention. What in his arms has been taken for a pearl, is an egg, by which M. Tilas, whose business it then was to blazon the arms of ennobled families, meant to represent all nature, after the manner of the ancient Egyptians. The arms are divided into three fields, each of which, by the colour forming the ground, expresses one of the kingdoms of nature; the red signifying the animal, and the green the vegetable, &c. Over the helmet, by way of crest, is placed the Linnæa⁷⁷¹; that beautiful little moth the Phalæna linneella, shining with its silvery colours, is displayed around the border instead of festoons; and below is the following motto, Famam extendere factis. Linnæus once showed me, among his collection of shells, a small box filled with pearl, and said, “Hos uniones confeci artificio meo; sunt tantum quinque annorum, et tamen tam magni.” “These pearls I made by my art, and though so large they are only five years old.” They were deposited near the Unio margaritifera, from which most of the Swedish pearls are procured; and the son, who was however not acquainted with his father’s secret, said the experiments were made only on this kind of mussel, though Linnæus himself assured me that they would succeed on all kinds.

I conjecture that Linnæus alluded to this art in his writings so early as the year 1746, or long before he ever thought of keeping it a secret. The passage I mean is in the sixth edition of his Systema Naturæ, where he says, “Margarita. Testæ excrescentia latere interiore, dum exterius latus perforatur⁷⁷².” I once told him that I had discovered his secret in his own works; but he seemed to be displeased, did not inquire after the passage, and changed the discourse. That pearls are produced when the shells have been pierced or injured in a certain manner, is highly probable, and has been in modern times often remarked⁷⁷³. It appears also, that the animal has the power of sometimes filling up such openings with a calcareous substance, which it deposits in them. This substance assumes the figure of the orifice, and the animal particles it contains give it its brightness and lustre⁷⁷⁴. Pearl-fishers have long known that mussels, the shells of which are rough and irregular, or which exhibit marks of violence, commonly contain pearls, though they are found also in others in which the same appearances are not observed⁷⁷⁵. I am perfectly aware that some experiments made by piercing the shells of mussels, have been unsuccessful⁷⁷⁶; but this does not prove that it is impossible to procure pearls in that manner. Those who made them did not perhaps pierce the proper part of the shell; perhaps they made the orifice so large that it weakened the animal; and they may not have chosen the fittest season of the year. The strongest objection however which can be made on this subject, is the undeniable truth that the proper valuable pearls are not found adhering to the shell, but in the body only; and that therefore those calcareous balls which fill up holes, cannot be perfect pearls. But from the words of Linnæus above-quoted, I am led to conjecture, that he only made a hole in the shell without piercing it quite through. Linnæus also may have done some injury to the animal itself when it opened its shell; for it is certain that testaceous animals are strong-lived, and can easily sustain any violence. It appears by the Transactions of the Swedish Academy, that some have been of opinion that shell-fish might be made to produce pearls by a particular kind of nourishment; and Lister⁷⁷⁷ thinks that these excrescences would be more abundant, were the mussels placed in water impregnated with calcareous matter; but Professor Linnæus seems certain that his father employed none of these methods.

Under the name of false or artificial pearls are understood at present small beads, so prepared by art as to approach very near to real pearls in shape, lustre, colour, and polish. It appears that in Pliny’s time such were not known, else he certainly would have mentioned them. The invention was not easy, and this difficulty to imitate pearls has contributed, with the reasons before mentioned, to keep up their value. It would seem that at first, hopes were entertained of finding a method to make large pearls from small or broken ones. Tzetzes speaks of this imagined art, and receipts for that purpose have been still retained in various books, where they fill up room and amuse the ignorant; for it is hardly possible to give to the pulverised calcareous matter sufficient hardness, and that lustre which belongs only to the surface of real pearls, and which, when these are destroyed, is irrecoverably lost. More ingenious was the idea of making pearl-coloured glass beads of that kind called margaritini⁷⁷⁸; but it excites no wonder that this was not done earlier, although the art of making coloured glass is very old; for opal colours are obtained only by a skilful process and the addition of putty, bone-ashes, and other substances. Still earlier was the invention of making hollow glass beads, which were incrusted on the inside with a pearl-coloured varnish. This method was first pursued, as far as I have been able to learn, by some artists at Murano; but their invention seems to have been considered by the government as too fraudulent, and was therefore prohibited, as we are told by Francis Massarius, who lived in the beginning of the sixteenth century at Venice, and must therefore have had an opportunity of knowing the truth of this circumstance⁷⁷⁹. Some say that an amalgam of quicksilver was used for these pearls; and if that was the case, the object of the Venetian prohibition was rather of a medical nature. After this, small balls of wax or gum were covered with a pearl-coloured enamel. These were praised on account of their lustre; but as their beauty was destroyed by moisture, they did not continue long in use⁷⁸⁰. A French bead-maker, however, named Jaquin, at length found out the manner of preparing the glass pearls used at present, which excel all others, and which approach as near to nature as possible, without being too expensive.

Jaquin once observed, at his estate near Passy, that when those small fish called ables or ablettes were washed, the water was filled with fine silver-coloured particles. He suffered this water therefore to stand for some time, and obtained from it a sediment which had the lustre of the most beautiful pearls; and which on that account led him to the attempt of making pearls from it⁷⁸¹. He scraped off the scales of the fish, and called the soft shining powder, which was diffused in the water, essence of pearl, or essence d’orient⁷⁸². At first he covered with it small beads made of gypsum, or hardened paste; and, as everything new, particularly in France, is eagerly sought after, this invention was greatly admired and commended. The ladies, however, for whose use it was chiefly intended, soon found that it did not entirely answer their expectations. They were displeased because this pearly coat, when exposed to heat, separated from the beads, adhered to the skin, and gave it a brightness which they did not wish. They proposed themselves, that small hollow glass beads might be covered, in the inside, in the same manner as mirrors are silvered, with the essence of pearl; and thus was brought to perfection an art of which the following account will enable the reader to form some idea.

Of a kind of glass easy to be melted, and made sometimes a little bluish or dark, slender tubes are prepared, which are called girasols⁷⁸³. From these the artist blows, by means of a lamp, as many small hollow globules as he may have occasion for. One workman can in a day blow six thousand; but when they are required to be extremely beautiful, only twelve or fifteen hundred; and that they may have a greater resemblance to nature, he gives them sometimes blemishes, like those generally observed in real pearls. They are made on all figures; some shaped like a pear, others like an olive, and some that may be considered as coques de perles⁷⁸⁴. To overlie these thin glass bubbles he mixes the pearl essence with a solution of isinglass; and the more of the former he uses, the more beautiful and more valuable the pearls become. This varnish, when heated, he blows into each globule with a fine glass pipe, and spreads it over the whole internal surface, by shaking the pearls thus prepared in a vessel placed over the table where he is at work, and which he puts in motion by his foot, until the varnish is equally diffused all over the inside of them, and becomes dry. Sometimes he adds to the essence some red, yellow, or blue colour; but as this is a deviation from nature, it is not accounted a beauty. To give these tender globules more solidity and strength, they are filled with white wax. They are then bored through with a needle, and threaded in strings for sale. The holes in the finer sort, however, are first lined with thin paper, that the thread may not adhere to the wax⁷⁸⁵.

The name able, or ablette, is given to several species of fish; but that which produces the pearl-essence is the Cyprinus alburnus, called in English the bleak. Professor Hermann, at Strasburg, was so kind as to send me one of these fish, which was caught there for the purpose of making pearl-essence, and which was dried so carefully that the species could with certainty be distinguished. It corresponded exactly with the figure given in Duhamel⁷⁸⁶, which has almost a perfect resemblance to that given by Schoneveld⁷⁸⁷. May not the alburnus mentioned by Ausonius among the inhabitants of the Moselle, be the same? At any rate, the bleak is to be found only in fresh water; and on account of its voracity bites readily at the hook. It is caught for the use of the French manufacturers in the Seine, the Loire, the Saone, the Rhine⁷⁸⁸, and several other rivers. To obtain a pound of scales above 4000 fish are necessary; and these do not produce four ounces of pearl essence; so that from eighteen to twenty thousand are requisite to have a pound of it. In the Chalonnois, the fishermen get for a pound of washed scales fifteen, eighteen, and twenty-five livres. The fish, which are four inches in length, and which have not a very good taste, are sold at a cheap rate, after their scales have been scraped off. At St. John de Maizel, or Mezel, in the Chalonnois, there was a manufactory in which 10,000 pearls were made daily⁷⁸⁹.

The first makers of these pearls must have laboured under a very great inconvenience, as they were acquainted with no method of preserving the fishy particles for any time. They were obliged to use the essence immediately, because it soon putrefied and contracted an intolerable stench. The great consumption, however, required that the scales should be brought from distant provinces. Attempts were made to preserve them in spirit of wine or brandy; but these liquors destroyed their lustre, and left them only a dull white colour. In the like manner brandy spoiled a real pearl, which, with the animal and the shell (Mactra lutraria), was sent to me by Dr. Taube, at Zell. It was therefore a very important discovery for this art that these animal particles can be kept for a long time in solution of ammonia, which is now alone used, and which perhaps could be used for many other purposes of the like kind.

That the inventor of these pearls was called Jaquin, and that he was a bead-maker at Paris, all agree; but the time of the invention seems to be uncertain. Some say that it belongs to the reign of Henry IV.⁷⁹⁰; and Reaumur mentions the year 1656. These pearls, however, in the year 1686, when Jaquin had an assistant named Breton, must not have been very common; for we are told in the Mercure Galant of that year, that a marquis possessed of very little property, who was enamoured of a lady, gained her affections and carried his point by presenting her with a string of them, which cost only three louis; and which she, considering them as real ones, valued at 2000 francs. The servant who put the marquis on this stratagem, declared that these pearls withstood heat and the moisture occasioned by perspiration; that they were not easily scratched, had almost the same weight as real ones, and that the person who sold them warranted their durability in writing. Jewellers and pawnbrokers have, therefore, been often deceived by them. Jaquin’s heirs continued this business down to a late period, and had a considerable manufactory au Rue de Petit Lion at Paris.

PAVING OF STREETS

The most beneficial regulations of police, which we have inherited from our ancestors, are at present considered to be so indispensable or necessary, that many people imagine they must at all times have existed. If one, however, takes the trouble to inquire into the antiquity of these regulations, it will be found that the greater part of them are new, and that they were unknown to the largest and most magnificent cities of ancient times. Among these are posts⁷⁹¹, the night-watch, hackney coaches, and, besides many others, the paving of streets.

Several cities, indeed, had paved streets before the beginning of the Christian æra; but those which are at present the ornament of Europe, Rome excepted, were all destitute of this great advantage, till almost the twelfth or thirteenth century. I must nevertheless acknowledge, that in the Greek and Roman authors I have hitherto met with more proofs of paved highways than of paved streets. But we have reason to believe that the richest nations paid attention to the streets before their doors, sooner than to the roads before their gates. In all probability, the former were paved at different times, and by private persons; and required so little expense and so few regulations, that no occasion was given to remark the time when it was done. On the other hand, for the constructing of highways many miles in length, the concurrence of states, and the consent and assistance of all the inhabitants, were necessary; and, on that account, such circumstances were inserted in annals, and they were sometimes copied afterwards by historians, and mentioned in their works. In the East, where the roads are not spoiled, as among us, by snow, ice, and rain, and where many cities were built on eminences and in dry situations, the paving of streets and highways may have been later thought of than might be expected, when we consider the refinement of the ancient people who inhabited that country, and the progress they had made in the arts. Such undertakings also were often retarded by the want of stone; an obstacle which many nations overcame with an ingenuity and patience at which we, among whom workmen are fewer, and the price of labour higher, because we have more wants, and enjoy more liberty, are not a little astonished. It is however to be conjectured, that those people who first carried on the greatest trade were the first who paid attention to have good streets and highways, in order to facilitate intercourse, so necessary to keep up the spirit of commerce.

This conjecture is in some measure confirmed by the testimony of Isidorus⁷⁹², who says that the Carthaginians had the first paved streets, and that their example was soon copied by the Romans. Long before that period, however, Semiramis paved highways, as we are told by the vain-glorious inscription which she herself caused to be put up⁷⁹³. Of the paving of the Grecian cities I know nothing further than that at Thebes the streets were under the inspection of the telearchs, who had the care of keeping them in repair, and of cleaning them. This office, which was there held in contempt, the spiteful inhabitants conferred upon Epaminondas, in order to disgrace him; but, by his prudence and attention to the public good, he rendered it so respectable, that it was afterwards sought for as an honourable employment. The streets of Thebes, therefore, were paved, else how would it have been possible to clean them⁷⁹⁴? Whether Jerusalem was paved I do not know; for, in the first book of Kings mention is made only of the fore-court of the temple⁷⁹⁵. Josephus⁷⁹⁶ relates that the Jews proposed to Agrippa, after the building of the temple was finished, to employ the workmen who had been discharged, the number of whom, with Jewish exaggeration, he makes amount to eighteen thousand, in paving the streets; this however was not done. We read in the Talmud⁷⁹⁷, that the streets of Jerusalem were swept every day, which undoubtedly implies a hard and solid pavement.

That neither the streets of Rome nor the roads around it were paved during the time of its kings, is well known⁷⁹⁸. In the year 188, after the abolition of the monarchical form of government, Appius Claudius, who was then censor, constructed the first real highway, which was as properly called after him the Appian Way, as it was named on account of its excellence the queen of roads⁷⁹⁹. The time however when the streets began to be paved, cannot with certainty be determined; for the passage of Livy⁸⁰⁰, from which some have endeavoured to prove that it was in the year 578 after the building of the city, is inconclusive, as it will admit of various explanations equally probable. It may be read, without forcing the sense, as if Livy said that the pavement of the streets was then covered with sand for the first time; that the streets were then first paved at the public expense, or that the paving of them was then performed for the first time by contract. Besides, we are told by Livy himself⁸⁰¹, that the censors in the year of the city 584 caused the streets to be paved from the Oxen-market (Forum Boarium) to the temple of Venus, and around the seats of the magistrates in the great circus: but the information of the same historian that the ædiles in the year 459 caused the streets to be paved from the temple of Mars to the Bovile, and from the Capena gate to the temple of Mars⁸⁰², does not apply here, as some have imagined; for the temple of Mars was without the city, and the author speaks not of streets, but of highways. The extravagant Heliogabalus caused the streets around the palace, or on the Palatine mount, to be paved with foreign marble⁸⁰³. The inspection of the streets belonged to the ædiles; and, under certain circumstances, occasionally to the censors. In the course of time, however, particular officers, curatores viarum, called on account of their number quatuor viri viarum, were appointed for that express purpose. Thus we are told that the two brothers, Publii Malleoli, when curule ædiles, caused the Mons Publicius to be paved, so that carriages could pass from the street Velia to Mount Aventine⁸⁰⁴. That streets paved with lava, having deep ruts made by the wheels of carriages, and raised banks on each side for the accommodation of foot-passengers, were found both at Herculaneum and Pompeii, is well known from the information of various travellers.

Of modern cities, the oldest pavement is commonly ascribed to that of Paris; but it is certain that Cordova in Spain was paved so early as the middle of the ninth century, or about the year 850, by Abdorrahman II., the fourth Spanish caliph. This prince, who knew the value of the arts and sciences, and who favoured trade so much that abundance in his reign prevailed throughout the whole land⁸⁰⁵, caused water to be conveyed into that city, which was then his capital, by leaden pipes, and ornamented it with a mosque and other elegant buildings⁸⁰⁶.

The capital of France was not paved in the twelfth century; for Rigord, the physician and historian of Philip II., relates, that the king standing one day at a window of his palace near the Seine, and observing that the carriages which passed threw up the dirt in such a manner that it produced a most offensive stench, his majesty resolved to remedy this intolerable nuisance by causing the streets to be paved; which was accordingly done, notwithstanding the heavy expense that had prevented his predecessors from introducing the same improvement. The orders for this purpose were issued by the government in the year 1184; and upon that occasion, as is said, the name of the city, which was then called Lutetia on account of its dirtiness, was changed to that of Paris⁸⁰⁷. This service rendered to Paris by that sovereign, who first also caused the cathedral to be surrounded by a wall, is confirmed by various historians⁸⁰⁸. Mezeray informs us, that Gerard de Poissy, then intendant of the finances, expended eleven thousand marks of silver in this undertaking. It appears that a certain income was allowed to the city for defraying the expenses; for in 1285, a hundred years after, when it was proposed that the pavement should be carried without the gate of St. Martin, the citizens excused themselves from the work, by saying that the funds assigned to them were not sufficient for that purpose⁸⁰⁹. It is certain, that in the year 1641 the streets in many quarters of Paris were not paved⁸¹⁰.

It is very probable that other opulent cities, finding the benefit which the capital derived from this improvement, were induced to follow its example. At any rate we know that Dijon, which was then reckoned one of the most beautiful, had paved streets so early as the year 1391, to which Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, the second husband of Margaret heiress of Flanders and other parts of the Netherlands, contributed two thousand livres; and in 1424 paviors were employed on all the streets⁸¹¹. Historians remark, that after this period, dangerous diseases, such as the dysentery, spotted fever and others, became less frequent in that city.

That the streets of London were not paved at the end of the eleventh century, is asserted by all historians. As a proof of this, they relate that in the year 1090, when the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, in Cheapside, was unroofed by a violent storm of wind, four pillars or beams, which were twenty-six feet in length, sunk so deep into the ground, that scarcely four feet of them appeared above the surface. The streets of London then, says Howel, were not paved, but consisted of soft earth⁸¹². I can however find no account of the time when paving was first introduced. It appears that the pavement of this immense city became gradually extended as trade and opulence increased. Several of the principal streets, such as Holborn, which at present are in the middle of the city, were paved for the first time by royal command in the year 1417⁸¹³. Others were paved under Henry VIII., some in the suburbs⁸¹⁴ in 1544, others in 1571 and 1605, and the great market of Smithfield, where cattle are sold, was first paved in 1614⁸¹⁵.

Of German cities I can mention only Augsburg, which by its trade soon rose to such eminence as to be able to rival magnificent Rome, of which it was a colony, in many expensive improvements. This city from the earliest periods had small subterranean passages under the streets for conveying away filth, which in some measure resembled the Roman cloacæ. Hans Gwerlich, a rich merchant there, having caused a neat foot-path to be made before his house in the oxen-market in 1415, gave rise to the paving of the city; for this convenience was so much admired, that after that time all the streets were paved successively at the expense of the government. Berlin, in the first half of the seventeenth century, was not entirely paved. The new market was first paved in 1679 and the following years, and King-street before the houses in 1684. The square behind the cathedral and before the present tilt-yard remained without pavement in 1679.

When a solid bottom had been given to streets, the cleansing of them, which, as the Roman prætors said, is a continual improvement⁸¹⁶, was then rendered possible. At Rome were appointed tribuni rerum nitentium, who had the care of cleaning the streets, markets, temples, baths and other public places⁸¹⁷. Strict orders were given that no filth should be thrown into the river or streets; whoever transgressed against this prohibition was subjected to punishment, and obliged to repair the damage⁸¹⁸. The public sewers, cloacæ, under the streets contributed very much to facilitate the cleaning of them, yet they were commonly full of mud⁸¹⁹, as those of Paris are at present, notwithstanding the many expensive regulations established to prevent that nuisance.

Some centuries after Paris was paved, every citizen was obliged to repair the street before his house, and to clean it at his own expense, as is expressly commanded in an order issued by Philip the Bold⁸²⁰, in the year 1285. The public however are often careless and negligent respecting the most beneficial regulations, when the maintaining of them is attended with trouble and expense, be it ever so small. By this want of attention, all the streets of Paris were in the fourteenth century entirely spoiled and filled with dirt; but they were again repaired; and in 1348 a law was first made for inflicting punishment upon those who neglected to clean them⁸²¹. This law was rendered more severe in 1388, and several times afterwards. The novelty of it, the dread of punishment, and the vigilance of the new inspectors, produced such an effect, that the inhabitants of one or more neighbouring streets joined together and kept at their common expense a dirt-cart, which at that time was called un tombereau; but the nobility and the clergy, who always wish for immunities, endeavoured to exempt themselves from this burthen. The markets and public squares remained therefore uncleaned, and became still dirtier, as those who resided in the neighbourhood began to throw filth into them privately in the night-time, in order to avoid the expense of having it carried away, till at length these places were rendered so impassable that the toymen who frequented them with their wares wished to abandon them. For this reason it was enacted in the year 1399, that no one should be exempted from cleaning the streets; and an order was issued in 1374, that all those who lived in the markets, together with the toymen who had booths there, should clean them at their joint expenses⁸²². Many now made the removing of dirt a trade, and entered into contracts for that purpose; but they as well as the paviors turned so extravagant in their demands, that a price was set upon the labour of the former in 1396, and the latter in 1501 were united into a company, every member of which was obliged to subscribe to certain regulations⁸²³.