Municipal bondsmen (Benacian Union)
The municipal bondsmen are a category of protected persons within the Benacian Union. Normally they comprise of those subjects of the Union-State who, having completed their mandatory education within their bailiwick of residence, failed to be purchased into meritorious service as apprentices by a lawfully constituted corporation or the Guilds of Benacia at the annual induction auctions. These residual persons, having been discovered to lack sufficient merit, are given over to the worshipful municipal corporation of their bailiwick in order to be found gainful employment.
A formerly meritorious subject can find himself in the invidious position of becoming a bondsman in the event of:
- Failing to pay annual guild dues;
- Re-categorisation by the Benacian Censorate, usually via the determination of status by a Cull Commission;
- Returning to their last assigned bailiwick of residence following the completion of a term of service with the Benacian Labour Reserve.
Those subjected to this condition were indentured and employed directly by the municipal corporation or else hired out to liveried companies (private corporations chartered with the guilds of Benacia), within the bailiwick. Rented bondsmen would only ever receive provisions of sustenance and shelter sufficient for their basic needs, whilst their notional wages, if hired out, would be paid directly to the Hall of Allocations and Appropriations of the bailiwick.
As a condition of their service, bondsmen may not travel freely beyond their bailiwick of residence and for this reason are prohibited from entry into or passage through a turnpike bastion unless by the exceptional permission of the worshipful corporation in whose service they are ultimately held under contractural obligation.
