 The practice of sending children away to act as servants was even more common in towns than in the countryside. The inhabitants of towns largely made their livelihood as merchants or artisans, and this activity was strictly controlled by guilds. The members of these guilds would in turn employ young people – primarily boys – as apprentices, to learn the craft and later take a position as guild members themselves. These apprentices made up part of the household – or "family" – as much as the children of the master.
