Chapter IX. On the State of Craftsmen and Workmen

37. • Craftsmen and workmen are to be examined carefully by the Confessor; for very often they are silent in confession about the injustices and sins proper to their condition.

I. In general they are unjust by selling or hiring out their works for an unjust price; by not manifesting hidden defects of the works according to what was said about sale; by wasting time through culpable negligence; by turning other workers away from labor; by executing work badly, whether by too much haste or by omission of necessary things, etc.

II. But in particular the following especially are unjust:

1º Goldsmiths and silversmiths who adulterate gold and silver, pour lead into hollow spaces, buy diamonds from the ignorant below even the lowest just value, or sell counterfeit or artificial diamonds as if natural.

2º Clothmakers and wool-workers who mix wool of lesser price with good wool, and sell it for as much as if the whole material were of the same quality; who weave the beginning and end of a roll of cloth from much better wool; who use colored dyes deceptively; who, having been deceived in buying cloths, likewise deceive others by selling.

3º Millers who change grains, or mix with them foreign things of almost no value, such as beans, to increase the weight and mass; who for a wage retain something of the wheat or flour beyond the practice of the God-fearing.

4º Bakers who bake badly; who maliciously mix with wheat flour another from rye, barley, beans, etc.; who fraudulently diminish the weight.

5º Butchers who sell corrupted meats, or hand over worse quality for better.

6º Tailors and shoemakers who cut badly; who use corrupted or burned cloth or leather; who retain part of the cloth handed over to them, pretending that they used the whole in making the work.

7º Makers of hats who sell hats re-stuffed or dyed as new, or as if they had been standing in the shop for a longer time.

8º Printers who print copies in a greater number than was agreed upon, and retain them for themselves; who make adulterated editions against the right of one having a privilege ¹; who have unskilled correctors; who do not employ paper of the same quality as they promised in the prospectus, etc. - See St. Ligorius, n. 292.

¹ Nevertheless, one must inspect whether the laws granting a privilege of this sort can be held, or not, as merely penal, whether the editions which others attempt against the privilege are adulterated or not adulterated.