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GILDS, or GUILDS
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See also:GILDS, or GUILDS . See also:Medieval gilds were voluntary associations formed for the mutual aid and See also:protection of their members. Among the gildsmen there was a strong spirit of fraternal co-operation or See also:Christian brotherhood, with a mixture of worldly and religious ideals—the support of the See also:body and the salvation of the soul. See also:Early meanings of the See also:root gild or geld were expiation, See also:penalty, See also:sacrifice or See also:worship, feast or banquet, and contribution or See also:payment; it is difficult to determine which is the earliest meaning, and we are not certain whether the gildsmen were originally those who contributed to a See also:common fund or those who worshipped or feasted together. Their See also:fraternities or See also:societies may be divided into three classes: religious or benevolent, See also:merchant and See also:craft gilds. The last two categories, which do not become prominent anywhere in See also:Europe until the 12th See also:century, had, like all gilds, a religious tinge, but their aims were primarily worldly, and their functions were mainlyof an economic See also:character. 1. Origin.--Various theories have been advanced concerning the origin of gilds. Some writers regard them as a continuation of the See also:Roman collegia and sodalilates, but there is little See also:evidence to prove the unbroken continuity of existence of the Roman and Germanic fraternities. A more widely accepted theory derives gilds wholly or in See also:part from the early Germanic or Scandinavian sacrificial banquets. Much See also:influence is ascribed to this See also:heathen See also:element by Lujo See also:Brentano, Karl See also:Hegel, W. E. Wilda and other writers. This view does not seem to be tenable, for the old sacrificial carousals lack two of the essential elements of the gilds, namely corporative solidarity or permanent association and the spirit of Christian brotherhood. Dr Max See also:Pappenheim has ascribed the origin of Germanic gilds to the See also:northern " See also:foster-brotherhood " or " sworn-brotherhood," which was an artificial See also:bond of See also:union between two or more persons. After intermingling their See also:blood in the See also:earth and performing other See also:peculiar ceremonies, the two contracting parties with grasped hands swore to avenge any injury done to either of them. The objections to this theory are fully stated by Hegel (Stadte and Gilden, i. 250-253). The foster-brotherhood seems to have been unknown to the See also:Franks and the Anglo-See also:Saxons, the nations in which medieval gilds first appear; and hence Dr Pappenheim's conclusions, if tenable at all, apply only to See also:Denmark or Scandinavia.
No theory on this subject can be satisfactory which wholly ignores the influence of the Christian See also: It is not necessary to seek the germ of gilds in any antecedent age or institution. When the old See also:kin-bond or maegth was beginning to weaken or dissolve, and the See also:state did not yet afford adequate protection to its citizens, individuals naturally See also:united for mutual help. Gilds are first mentioned in the Carolingian capitularies of 779 and 789, and in the enactments made by the See also:synod of See also:Nantes early in the 9th century, the See also:text of which has been preserved in the ecclesiastical ordinances of See also:Hincmar of Rheims (A.D.852). The capitularies of 8o5 and 821 also contain vague references to sworn unions of some sort, and a See also:capitulary of 884 prohibits villeins from forming associations " vulgarly called gilds" against those who have despoiled them. The See also:Carolingians evidently regarded such " conjurations" as " conspirations " dangerous to the state. The gilds of See also:Norway, Denmark and See also:Sweden are first mentioned in the 11th, 12th and 14th centuries respectively; those of See also:France and the See also:Netherlands in the 11th. Many writers believe that the earliest references to gilds come from See also:England. The See also:laws of See also:Ine speak of gegildan who help each other pay the wergeld, but it is not entirely certain that they were members of gild fraternities in the later sense. These are more clearly referred to in England in the second See also:half of the 9th century, though we have little See also:information concerning them before the rrth century. To the first half of that century belong the statutes of the fraternities of See also:Cambridge, Abbotsbury and See also:Exeter. They are important because they See also:form the See also:oldest body of gild ordinances extant in Europe. The thanes' gild at Cambridge afforded help in blood-feuds, and provided for the payment of the wergeld in See also:case a member killed any one. The religious element was more prominent in Orcy's gild at Abbots-See also:bury and in the fraternity at Exeter; their ordinances exhibit much solicitude for the salvation of the brethren's souls. The Exeter gild also gave assistance when See also:property was destroyed by See also:fire. Prayers for the dead, attendance at funerals of gildsmen, periodical banquets, the See also:solemn entrance See also:oath, fines for neglect of See also:duty and for improper conduct, contributions to a .common See also:purse, mutual assistance in See also:distress, periodical meetings in the gildhall,—in See also:short, all the characteristic features of the later gilds already appear in the statutes of these Anglo-Saxon fraternities. Some See also:continental writers, in dealing with the origin of municipal See also:government throughout western Europe, have, however, ascribed too much importance to the Anglo-Saxon gilds, exaggerating their prevalence and contending that they form the germ of medieval municipal government. This view rests almost entirely on conjecture; there is no See also:good evidence to show that there was any organic connexion between gilds and municipal government in England before the coming of the See also:Normans. It should also be noted that there is no trace of the existence of either craft or merchant gilds in England before the See also:Norman See also:Conquest. See also:Commerce and See also:industry were not yet sufficiently See also:developed to See also:call for the creation of such associations.
2. Religious Gilds after the Norman Conquest.—Though we have not much information concerning the religious gilds in the 12th century, they doubtless flourished under the Anglo-Norman See also:kings, and we know that they were numerous, especially in the boroughs, from the 13th century onward. In 1388 See also:parliament ordered that every See also:sheriff in England should call upon the masters and wardens of all gilds and brotherhoods to send to the See also: Their ordinances are similar to those of the above-mentioned Anglo-Saxon fraternities. Each member took an oath of See also:admission, paid an entrance-See also:fee, and made a small See also:annual contribution to the common fund. The brethren were aided in old age, sickness and poverty, often also in cases of loss by See also:robbery, shipwreck and conflagration; for example, any member of the gild of St See also:Catherine, Aldersgate, was to be assisted if he " fall into poverty or be injured through age, or through fire or See also:water, thieves or sickness." See also:Alms were often
given even to non-gildsmen; See also:lights were supported at certain altars; feasts and processions were held periodically; the funerals of brethren were attended; and masses for the dead were provided from the common purse or from See also:special contributions made by the gildsmen. Some of the religious gilds supported See also:schools, or helped to maintain roads, See also:bridges and See also:town-walls, or even came, in course of See also:time, to be closely connected with the government of the See also:borough; but, as a See also:rule, they were simply private societies with a limited See also:sphere of activity. They are important because they played a prominent role in the social See also:life of England, especially as eleemosynary institutions, down to the time of their suppression in 1547. Religious gilds, closely resembling those of England, also flourished on the See also:continent during the See also:middle ages.
3. The Gild Merchant.—The merchant and craft fraternities are particularly interesting to students of economic and municipal See also:history. The gild merchant came into existence in England soon after the Norman Conquest, as a result of the increasing importance of See also:trade, and it may have been transplanted from See also:Normandy. Until clearer evidence of See also:foreign influence is found, it may, however, be safer to regard it simply as a new application of the old gild principle, though this new application may have been stimulated by continental example. The evidence seems to indicate the pre-existence of the gild merchant in Normandy, but it is not mentioned anywhere on the continent before the 11th century. It spread rapidly in England, and from the reign of See also: But ,in some prominent towns, notably See also:London, See also:Colchester, See also:Norwich and the Cinque Ports, it seems never to have been adopted. In fact it played a more conspicuous role in the small boroughs than in the large ones. It was regarded by the townsmen as one of their most important privileges. Its See also:chief See also:function was to regulate the trade See also:monopoly conveyed to the borough by. the royal See also: Admission to the gild was not restricted to burgesses; nor did the brethren form an aristocratic body having See also:control over the whole municipal polity. No good evidence has, moreover, been advanced to prove that this or any other See also:kind of gild was the germ of the municipal constitution. On the other See also:hand, the gild merchant was certainly an See also:official See also:organ or See also:department of the borough See also:administration, and it exerted considerable influence upon the economic and corporative growth of the English municipalities. Historians have expressed divergent views regarding the early relations of the craftsmen and their fraternities to the gild merchant. One of the See also:main questions in dispute is whether artisans were excluded from the gild merchant. Many of them seem to have been admitted to membership. They were regarded as merchants, for they bought raw material and sold the manufactured commodity; no See also:sharp See also:line of_ demarcation was See also:drawn between the two classes in the 12th and 13th centuries. See also:Separate societies of craftsmen were formed in England soon after thegild merchant came into existence; but at first they were few in number. The gild merchant did not give See also:birth to craft fraternities or have anything to do with their origin; nor did it delegate its authority to them. In fact, there seems to have been little or no organic connexion between the two classes of gilds. As has already been intimated however, many artisans probably belonged both to their own craft fraternity and to the gild merchant, and the latter, owing to its See also:great See also:power in the town, may have exercised some sort of supervision over the craftsmen and their societies. When the king bestowed upon the tanners or weavers or any other body of artisans the right to have a gild, they secured the monopoly of working and trading in their See also:branch of industry. Thus with every creation of a craft fraternity the gild merchant was weakened and its sphere of activity was diminished, though the new bodies were subsidiary to the older and larger fraternity. The greater the commercial and See also:industrial prosperity of a town, the more rapid was the multiplication of craft gilds, which was a natural result of the ever-increasing See also:division of labour. The old gild merchant remained longest intact and powerful in the smaller boroughs, in which, owing to the predominance of See also:agriculture, few or no craft gilds were. formed. In some of the larger towns the crafts were prominent already in the 13th century, but they became much more prominent in the first half of the 14th century. Their increase in number and power was particularly rapid in the time of See also:Edward III., whose reign marks an era of industrial progress. Many See also:master craftsmen now became wealthy employers of labour, dealing extensively in the wares which they produced. The class of dealers or merchants, as distinguished from trading artisans, also greatly increased and established separate fraternities. When these various unions of dealers and of craftsmen embraced all the trades and branches of See also:production in the town, little or no vitality remained in the old gild merchant; it ceased to have an See also:independent sphere of activity. The tendency was for the single organization, with a See also:general monopoly of trade, to be replaced by a number of separate organizations representing the various trades and handicrafts. In short, the function of guarding and supervising the trade monopoly split up into various fragments, the aggregate of the crafts superseding the old general gild merchant. This transference of the authority of the latter to a number of distinct bodies and the consequent disintegration of the old organization was a See also:gradual spontaneous See also:movement,—a See also:process of slow displacement, or natural growth and decay, due to the See also:play of economic forces,—which, generally speaking, may be assigned to the 14th and 15th centuries, the very See also:period in which the craft gilds attained the See also:zenith of their power. While in most towns the name and the old organization of the gild merchant thus disappeared and the institution was displaced by the aggregate of the crafts towards the See also:close of the middle ages, in some places it survived See also:long after the 15th century either as a religious fraternity, shorn of its old functions, or as a periodical feast, or as a vague See also:term applied to the whole municipal See also:corporation. On the continent of Europe the medieval gild merchant played a less important role than in England. In See also:Germany, France and the Netherlands it occupies a less prominent See also:place in the town charters and in the municipal polity, and often corresponds to the later fraternities of English dealers established either to carry on foreign commerce or to regulate a particular part of the See also:local trade monopoly. 4. Craft Gilds.—A craft gild usually comprised all the artisans in a single branch of industry in a particular town. Such a fraternity was commonly called a " mistery " or " See also:company " in the 15th and 16th centuries, though the old term "gild" was not yet obsolete. " Gild" was also a common designation in See also:north Germany, while the corresponding term in See also:south Germany was Zunft, and in France metier. These societies are not clearly visible in England or on the continent before the early part of the 12th century. With the expansion of trade and industry the number of artisans increased, and they banded together for mutual protection. Some See also:German writers have maintained that these craft organizations emanated from manorial See also:groups of workmen, but strong arguments have been advanced against the validity of this theory (notably by F. Keutgen). It is unnecessary to elaborate any profound theory regarding the origin of the craft gilds. The union of men of the same occupation was a natural tendency of the age. In the 13th century the trade of England continued to expand and the number of craft gilds increased. In the 14th century they were fully developed and in a flourishing See also:condition; by that time each branch of industry in every large town had its gild. The development of these societies was even more rapid on the continent than in England. Their organization and aims were in general the same through-out western Europe. Officers, commonly called wardens in England, were elected by the members, and their chief function was to supervise the quality of the wares produced, so as to secure good and honest workmanship. Therefore, ordinances were made regulating the See also:hours of labour and the terms of admission to the gild, including See also:apprenticeship. Other ordinances required members to make periodical payments to a common fund, and to participate in certain common religious observances, festivities and pageants. But the regulation of industry was always See also:paramount to social and religious aims; the chief See also:object of the craft gild was to supervise the processes of manufacture and to control the monopoly of working and dealing in a particular branch of industry. We have already called See also:attention to the gradual displacement of the gild merchant by the craft organizations. The relations of the former to the latter must now be considered more in detail. There was at no time a general struggle in England between the gild merchant and the craft gilds, though in a few towns there seems to have been some See also:friction between merchants and artisans. There is no exact parallel in England to the conflict between these two classes in See also:Scotland in the 16th century, or to the great continental revolution of the 13th and 14th centuries, by which the crafts threw off the yoke of patrician government and secured more See also:independence in the management of their own affairs and more participation in the civic administration. The main causes of these conflicts on the continent were the monopoly of power by the See also:patricians, acts of violence committed by them, their See also:bad management of the finances and their See also:partisan administration of See also:justice. In some towns the victory of the artisans in the 14th century was so See also:complete that the whole civic constitution was remodelled with the craft fraternities as a basis. A widespread movement of this sort would scarcely be found in England, where trade and industry were less developed than on the continent, and where the motives of a class conflict between merchants and craftsmen were less potent. Moreover, borough government in England seems to have been mainly democratic until the 14th or 15th century; there was no See also:oligarchy to be depressed or suppressed. Even if there had been motives for uprisings of artisans such as took place in Germany and the Netherlands, the English kings would probably have intervened. True, there were popular uprisings in England, but they were usually conflicts between the poor and the See also:rich; the crafts as such seldom took part in these tumults. While many continental municipalities were becoming more democratic in the 14th century, those of England were drifting towards oligarchy, towards government by a close " select body." As a rule the craft gilds secured no dominant influence in the boroughs of England, but remained subordinate to the town government. Whatever power they did secure, whether as potent subsidiary See also:organs of the municipal polity for the regulation of trade, or as the chief or See also:sole See also:medium for the acquisition of citizenship, or as integral parts of the common council, was, generally speaking,-: the logical sequence of a gradual economic development, and not the outgrowth of a revolutionary movement by which oppressed craftsmen endeavoured to throw off the yoke of an arrogant patrician gild merchant. Two new kinds of craft fraternities appear in the 14th century and become more prominent in the 15th, namely, the merchants' and the journeymen's companies. The misteries or companies of merchants traded in one or more kinds of wares. They werepre-eminently dealers, who sold what others produced. Hence they should not be confused with the old gild merchant, which originally comprised both merchants and artisans, and had the whole monopoly Of the trade of the town. In most cases, the company of merchants was merely one of the craft organizations which superseded the gild merchant. In the 14th century the journeymen or yeomen began to set up fraternities in See also:defence of their rights. The formation of these societies marks a cleft within the ranks of some particular class of artisans—a conflict between employers, or master artisans, and workmen. The journeymen combined to protect their special interests, notably as regards hours of work and rates of See also:wages, and they fought with the masters over the labour question in all its aspects. The resulting struggle of organized bodies of masters and journeymen was widespread throughout western Europe, but it was more prominent in Germany than in France or England. This conflict was indeed one of the main features of German industrial life in the 15th century. In England the fraternities of journeymen, after struggling a while for complete independence, seem to have fallen under the supervision and control of the masters' gilds; in other words, they became subsidiary or affiliated organs of the older craft fraternities. An interesting phenomenon in connexion with the organization of crafts is their tendency to amalgamate, which is occasion-ally visible in England in the 15th century, and more frequently in the 16th and 17th. A similar tendency is visible in the Netherlands and in some other parts of the continent already in the 14th century. Several fraternities—old gilds or new companies, with their respective cognate or heterogeneous branches of industry and trade—were fused into one body. In some towns all the crafts were thus consolidated into a single fraternity; in this case a body was reproduced which regulated the whole trade monopoly of the borough, and hence See also:bore some resemblance to the old gild merchant. In dealing briefly with the See also:modern history of craft gilds, we may confine our attention to England. In the Tudor period the policy of the See also:crown was to bring them under public or See also:national control. Laws were passed, for example in 1503, requiring that new ordinances of " fellowships of crafts or misteries " should be approved by the royal justices or by other crown officers; and the authority of the companies to See also:fix the See also:price of wares was thus restricted. The See also:statute of 5 See also: In fact, many craft fraternities still survived in the second half of the 18th century, but their usefulness had disappeared. The medieval form of association was incompatible with the new ideas of individual See also:liberty and See also:free competition, with the greater separation of See also:capital and industry, employers and workmen, and with the introduction of the factory system. See also:Intent only on promoting their own interests and disregarding the welfare of the community, the old companies had become an unmitigated evil. Attempts have been made to find in them the progenitors of the trades unions, but there seems to be no immediate connexion between the latter and the craft gilds. The privileges of the old fraternities were not formally abolished until 1835; and the substantial remains or spectral forms of some are still visible in other towns besides London. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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