Guild of Labour

The Guild of Labour is one of the eight organisations granted 'member' status among the Commercial Guilds which operate among the Eleven Cities surrounding the Sea of Jars. The group facilitates indentured labour in the cities and is particularly prominent in Chogyos and Ramoros, while the populace of other cities tend to regard it as a distasteful manifestation of Chogyan culture as much as a commercial enterprise.

History

Semi-voluntary labour has existed at various times and in various forms in most of the Eleven Cities. The Dog's House in Tyros, for example, was built using labour press-ganged from the city's navy, while serfdom was once fundamental to the societies of both Oluz and Halumay. In the sense that the term is now understood, however, the practice has a fairly localised and definite origin. During the Mast Wars the rulers of Chogyos sought to fortify the city by building causeways between the port and the two rocky outcrops a few hundred yards offshore. The building of causeways is hard and unpleasant labour and with the strongest backs in the city already engaged in its merchant and naval fleets it proved difficult to muster a sufficient workforce to make meaningful progress on the project.
Roughly a year after work started, however, a Chogyan flotilla arrived home from a successful raiding expedition against one of the city's enemies (history does not record which) with a large number of prisoners. Questions of what to do with these prisoners were addressed when members of the city's powerful clerisy of Zargyod suggested using them as forced labour to complete the causeways. The captives would be offered their freedom once the project was complete, incentivizing them to get the work done. The authorities agreed this was a workable idea and the construction of the causeways, and then the strongholds known as Zargyod's Fists, proceeded rapidly thereafter.
The notion of using prisoners as indentured labour on a more general basis quickly became established in Chogyos, aided by the endorsement and involvement of the clerics of Zargyod. References to indenture appear in The Book of Favour and clerics of the god in the other cities of the Chogyan Hegemony began to facilitate the movement of migrant labour around the western empire. Prisoners of war were soon unnecessary as conventionally-employed servants began acquiescing (either on their own initiative or under social pressure) to accept far-reaching fixed-term contracts. Attempts by cults of Zargyod to introduce the practice in western cities were also made, though with much less success, as the practice was increasingly seen as an aspect of Chogyan culture.
By the time of the Wesmodian Reformation indenture was fairly central to the economies of Chogyos and Loros and also firmly established in Elpaloz, Ramoros and Oluz (conversely, laws had been passed specifically banning it in Andymalon and Pholyos). The unrest of the Reformation caused a breakdown in authority which led to a great deal of ambiguity about how valid existing indentures were, and in Loros the entire system broke down. In other cities, however, the Commercial Guilds which emerged out of the clerisy of Zargyod were able to re-establish a degree of authority over the practice. The bureaucratic apparatus set up to extend that authority endured as a particular office within the Guilds and is now widely known as the Guild of Labour.

Current activities

The Guild of Labour serves as the brokerage and regulator of indentured labour in the Eleven Cities. Drawing on the credibility they enjoy as one of the "member" guilds of the Commercial Guilds, they are essentially the adjudicators of the practice; indentures practised without their approval is widely considered suspect. The Guild's lower-level operatives liaise with those seeking either indentured employment or employees and draw up contracts accordingly. These are then approved by mid-ranking operatives who work from offices in the guildhouses of all the cities except Andymalon, Pholyos and Dypholyos. These senior figures also adjudicate disputes between employers and employees and are considered esteemed local magistrates operating as important adjuncts to local governmental judiciaries. In Chogyos they mediate the working lives of between a quarter and a third of the population; rates are much lower in other cities, but high enough to keep the Guild busy.
The Guild is also periodically engaged in moving indentured labour, and those interested in entering the system, around the Eleven Cities. Ships transporting indentured labourers to their workplaces are a fairly common sight in the western part of the Sea of Jars, with the bulk of the traffic passing between Chogyos and either Oluz or Halumay. These ships are not especially welcome in eastern ports, and subsequently seldom seen in them, although visits are not unheard of. Although indenture is banned in some eastern cities, there is nothing preventing a ship bearing the endorsement of the Commercial Guilds from docking in a port for several days and politely letting it be known that those interested in indentured labour elsewhere might find information on the matter aboard. Local custom in such cities tells of the crews of such ships press-ganging people into such work or forbidding curious people from leaving until they have signed indentures widely seen as tantamount to slavery. The party line within the Guild is that these stories are absolute slander, and indeed actual instances of this are hard to find.  In cities where indenture is legal, the Guild runs more open recruiting drives, often offering free passage to the destination city as an inducement.