A qualified artisan working for someone else. Journeymen were workers (paid daily) who had served their apprenticeship and were not yet in a financial position to set up as masters. The late medieval craft guilds, by restricting the number of masters without limiting the number of apprentices, created increasing numbers of discontented and sometimes unemployed journeymen: in the 16th century it was found necessary in England for Parliament to pass legislation to compel masters with apprentices to employ journeymen. This legislation was no longer enforced by the 18th century, if it ever had been, and the Industrial Revolution with its factory system and demand for unskilled labour spelled doom for the journeyman. Associations of journeymen were the earliest trade unions (as distinct from guilds) in both Britain and the USA, one of the longest-lived being the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers in Philadelphia.