The Statute of Artificers had exercised far-reaching control over artisan production for two and a half centuries, and the repeal of its apprenticeship clauses in 1814 was bitterly resisted. It had limited entry into profitable trades in existence in 1563 to the children of masters and the holders of certain property qualifications, in defence of the then status quo. It had codified the compulsion of apprenticeship, fixed quotas of apprentices in many trades, and stipulated the length for apprentices to serve – for 'seven years at the least, so as the term of such apprentice do not expire afore such apprentice shall be of the age of twenty-four years at the least' for apprenticeships in husbandry 'until his age of twenty-one years at the least'. This had codified the decision of the London guilds in 1556 establishing twenty-four years as the minimum age for completing an apprenticeship, to avoid 'over hastie marriages and over sone [soon] setting up of households of and by the youth and young folkes of the said citie'. The repeal of the Statute was widely condemned by guilds and trade organisations on the grounds that the lack of statutory control would lower standards of production, adversely affect English overseas trade, and depress artisans' living standards. And yet the system had probably been in decline for some decades at least, and (as we shall see) the 1814 repeal was more an acknowledgement of this than conducive to any significant economic changes itself.