ART AND COMMERCE.

to give to his work, which is also a religious function, that contentment of mind, and leisure, and pride and pleasure in it for its own sake, which are essential to all artistic excellence."+

The craftsman had this leisure for thought, and even for dreaming, and his economic position made him secure against oppression or want. He had no need to accumulate wealth, and we do not find that the wage asked by the traditional craftsman in unspoilt districts to-day represents more than a bare living for self and family.

Too often we forget that industry, per se, is of little or no value to humanity, if the results are valueless. But the true craftsman will often work overtime if he is interested. I have had Sinhalese craftsmen who insisted on working by lamplight far into the night. But the same craftsmen demand the right on other occasions to come and go at their will, and it would be quite vain to expect any particular piece of work done within a fixed time. The artistic and the commercial methods are thus radically different; and the artistic result cannot be attained on commercial lines, nor vice versa.

The current rate of wages for all depended much more on the general cost of living than on the degree of skill required for this special craft or the other.

† Sir George Birdwood, India."

"Industrial Arts of

THE ESSENTIALS.

The craft was much more a

calling" than a trade,

and to this day Sinhalese craftsmen care more for congenial work, and personal appreciation, than for money payments. And as we have seen, in the most typical cases, the craftsman received no money wage at all, but was repaid in other ways. Many a British workman would be glad to exchange his money wage for such security and appreciation as belonged to the Sinhalese craftsman of a hundred years ago. Presents, indeed, were expected, even grants of land, but these were for faithfulness and excellence; not a payment at so much a yard or so much an hour for such and such kinds of work. For the work was art, not commerce, and it would have been as idle to demand that a carpet like the Ardebil carpet should be designed and made at so much per square foot, as to expect Academy pictures to be done in the same way; indeed, I think it would be more reasonable to sell these by the square yard, than to suppose that the works of the Mediaval Eastern craftsman could be valued in such a way.

If now, in conclusion, we endeavour to sum up the results to which we are led by this study of the Indian craftsman, and by a correlation of his position in society with that of the craftsman in periods of good production in the Western world, and in other parts of Asia, we find that no really great traditional art has ever been produced, except under the

THE ESSENTIALS.

following conditions: Freedom of the craftsman from anxiety as to his daily bread; legal protection of the standard of work; his art not exploited for profit. These are the material conditions; even more important is that spiritual conception of the serious purpose of art, which we find expressed in the work of true craftsmen of whatever age or place, but perhaps more in India than anywhere else. In other words, it has only been when the craftsman has had the right to work, the right to work faithfully, a right to the due reward of his labour, and at the same time a conscious or subconscious faith in the social and spiritual significance of his work, that his art has possessed the elements of real greatness. And so we can hardly avoid the conclusion that these will always be conditions necessary for the production of fine art and craft.

LIST OF APPENDICES.

I. SIR GEORGE BIRDWOOD

INDIAN VILLAGE POTTER.

ON THE

II. SIR GEORGE BIRDWOOD ON MACHINERY AND HANDICRAFT IN INDIA.

III. WILLIAM MORRIS ON COMMERCIAL WAR.

IV. E. B. HAVELL ON CRAFTSMEN AND CULTURE.

V. E. B. HAVELL ON THE OFFICIAL SUPPRESSION OF INDIAN CRAFTSMANSHIP AT THE PRESENT DAY.

VI. LAFCADIO HEARN ON CRAFT GODS IN JAPAN.

VII. LAFCADIO HEARN ON CRAFT GUILDS IN JAPAN.

VIII. SER MARCO POLO ON CRAFT GUILDS IN CHINA.

IX. BHIKKU P. C. JINAVARAVAMSA ON CRAFTSMEN IN SIAM.

X. MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS IN ANCIENT INDIA.

XI. BOOKS RECOMMENDED

READER.

ΤΟ THE