> No you was not part of the family. And this was not part of the family thing either. It was more of the sweetshop with workers who have no choice thing. Name

> No you was not part of the family. And this was not part of the family thing either. It was more of the sweetshop with workers who have no choice thing. Name it part of the household then. In a modern sweetshop you get some money (or not) generally too less to pay for food and other things. Nobody cares if you die or just don't show up the next day. As a prentice, you don't get money, but you also don't buy food and you don't pay for a roof. Your master can not afford for you to not show up or be invalid for work, because he can only afford to house and teach so many prentices. He also can't afford you producing low-quality goods, because the goods get sold in his name. > You were not given choice to shop around or change up however you wanted. I think this conflicts with that you were required to have served multiple masters as part of your education. When a prentice shows up to a new master, it means the new master gets an already trained workforce while not having to pay for the expenses of the education. Your old master will not be willing/able to afford that loss, so you need to mess up some money before you get kicked out. > Your master was not your security net. You would be kicked off When you become invalid indefinitely, yes. When you get sick for some days, your master will get you back to work as soon as possible. > expected go back to your actual family. When you show up broke after years, I bet you get kicked out there also. You have better choices moving to a new city or living off the streets. > That was definitely not a thing either. They would vet you and your character with where you came from. There was a lot of suspicion about new people. You would have quite a difficult time to establish yourself or even find a living. Being banished was a punishment for a reason - and other village you go to will be very aware newcomer might be a troublemaker they did not wanted elsewhere. Having an influx of new people from the landscape were how the cities operated. Having more people made the city richer and more powerful. It really depended on how skilled you were. If you can claim to be able to do X and you are able to show it, than you have a good chance to find work. If you don't, then good luck dying in the streets. > That is significantly easier now. Being a criminal and trying to flee? Good luck with that in the time of surveillance and world-wide police cooperation. Nowadays you can pretty much only double down on being criminal, be convicted or flee to a third-world country, where you will probably die soon/ have a way lower living standard. In the past you also had the opportunity to just switch jurisdiction and stop being a criminal, while not having a different living standard.