OP TMK 
 
 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION. 
 
 VOL. IL No. 5. \ 
 
 TWO CHAPTERS 
 
 ON T1IK 
 
 Mediaeval Guilds of England. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN, PH. D. 
 
 fi 
 ADJ. PROFESSOR OF POUTICAI. ECONOMY, 
 
 SCHOOL OP POLITICAL SCIENCE, 
 COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 
 
 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION. 
 
 NOTKM BKR, 1S87. 
 

 
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S3 
 
 ; 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGK. 
 IHTRODUCTIOX The Anglo-Saxon Guilds P 
 
 I. THE GUILDS-MERCHANT: 
 
 1. Origin ami Function 21 
 
 2. The Guilds and the Towns 33 
 
 3. The Later Fortunes 44 
 
 II. THE CRAFT GUILDS: 
 
 1. Origin and Development. 50 
 
 2. Constitution and Function......... 67 
 
 3. Industrial Relations 8tf 
 
 APPENDIX On the Etymology of Guild . . . .. 103 
 
 LIST or AUTHORITIES ... 107 
 
 647 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This essay was originally written in 1882-3 as a 
 doctor's dissertation in the School of Political Sci- 
 ence, Columbia College. It is here reprinted in its 
 original form, with a few additions and alterations, 
 mainly of a verbal nature. This explains the lack 
 of all reference to publications of the past four years. 
 The monograph is only a condensed fragment of 
 a much larger work, already partly in manuscript, 
 which is to treat of the social history of England to 
 the present time. The press of other occupations 
 has compelled me to lay it aside for several years, 
 but at some future day I trust to continue my inves- 
 tigations in England itself, and to complete the task 
 that has been marked out. 
 
 In the original essay much assistance was derived 
 from two German works. In the chapter on the 
 craft-guilds attention should be called to Ochenchow- 
 ski's essay on ''England's Wirthschaftliche Entwick- 
 elung'* (1879), with many of whose conclusions this 
 essay is in harmony. As to the merchant-guild, 
 especial acknowledgment is due to the scholarly 
 thesis of Dr. Gross, "Gilda Mercatoria"' (1883), which 
 treats the subject far more elaborately than has been 
 attempted in this monograph. Although the chapter 
 had been practically completed before the appearance 
 of Dr. Gross's thesis, he was nevertheless the first in 
 the field, and deserves all the credit for setting the 
 subject in its proper light. As we differ, however, 
 in a few points I have thought it permissible to pub- 
 lish the chapter. 
 
 COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW YORK, 
 November, 1887. 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 ' 
 
 . . 
 
 ..:: v. 
 
 THE ANGLO-SAXON GujL-ps: :*""":." 
 * 
 
 The early guilds had no connection with trade 
 or industry, but were voluntary associations formed 
 for a variety of purposes political, social and re- 
 ligious. Endeavors have been made to trace their 
 origin to the pagan customs of the primitive Teutons 
 at the sacrificial banquets and funeral festivities, 
 which often degenerated into the wildest orgies, 
 ending in violence and murder. 1 But this is clearly 
 inadequate. The common banquets were not pecu- 
 liar to the Scandinavians, but on the contrary were 
 an institution of the most wide-spread character. 
 They occur in the early history of every nation from 
 the Asiatic joint families to the Roman collegia, 
 Russian villages and Irish septs. 2 Still more unsat- 
 isfactory is the statement, elaborated by Brentano 
 into an ingenious theory, that these drinking bouts 
 contained in germ the essence of all guilds. Occa- 
 sional survivals of the practice are still found to-day 
 on the islands of the Baltic, and it would require a 
 peculiarly lively imagination to connect these casual 
 festivals with the mediaeval unions. There is abso- 
 lutely no evidence that any of the Anglo-Saxon 
 guilds were founded on such a basis, 3 nor is there 
 
 'Wilda, cap. 1; Lappenberg, 11-350. The foot notes in this ensay 
 contain only abbreviated references. For fall titles see the list of 
 Authorities printed at the end of the monograph. 
 
 'Maine, Early Hut., 79; Village Comm. cb. 4. 
 
 'Ordinance*, xvi. (Note of Smith.) 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. [390 
 
 any more reason to assert a similar origin for those 
 
 of the continent. In fact, the attempt to discover 
 
 any one particular source is idle. Combined efforts 
 
 ...of. individuals have always existed to supplement 
 
 'tbe de5edts** kff-" government and to afford mutual 
 
 A : ip^^^C^ itf tfase pf need. Indeed the social instinct 
 
 '*** "of "man, {fie* impulse to work or worship in common, 
 
 has shown itself in all nations and at all times. The 
 
 names of these associations naturally varied with 
 
 the different countries, and the ends they sought to 
 
 attain bore a fixed relation to the changing needs of 
 
 the society in which they existed. But the idea that 
 
 all guilds are derived from one fountain head is 
 
 plainly erroneous, and this vain attempt to discover 
 
 the impossible explains the one-sided, divergent 
 
 views of so many historians. 1 
 
 The earliest Anglo-Saxon guilds are of three kinds 
 religious or ecclesiastic, social, and protective 
 guilds. The introduction of Christianity gave a 
 strong impulse to the rapid formation of abbeys, and 
 from the sixth century on the associations of priests 
 occur in increasing numbers. These meetings of the 
 clergy gradually received the name of guilds or guild- 
 ships from the fact of each member being held to 
 contribute a fixed sum. For the word guild originally 
 denoted a common payment. In the time of Edgar 
 the gyldscipes of the priests are mentioned as an insti- 
 
 'Sybel, 19, finds their origin in the tribal constitution ; Maine, 
 Early Hiit., 232, in the primitive brotherhoods of co-villagers; 
 AVinzer, in the Scandinavian confederacies for plunder ; Sullivan, 
 I-ccvi., in the Irish grazing partnerships; Wilda, ch. 1, in the sacri- 
 ficial feast and Christian church; Hartwig, in the early com- 
 s mnnions; Brentano, in the family; Coote, Roman*, 383, Pearson, 
 274, Wright, 425 in the Roman Collegia. Cf. Thierry, 311, Mar- 
 quardsen, 43; Kemble, Saxont, 1-239; Gierke, 1-222. 
 
391] INTRODUCTION'. 11 
 
 tut ion of frequent occurrence, 1 and we possess the 
 statutes of several combinations from the charters of a 
 slightly later date. The guild at Woodbury was 
 founded by Bishop Osborn, and other guilds at 
 Evesham, Chertsey, Bath, Pershore, Wynchcombe, 
 Gloucester and Worcester were.united by Wulfatan 
 into a still larger association. 1 fCbntributions to the 
 common treasury, masses for the living, and funeral 
 rites for the deceased brethren, observance of a 
 mutual charity, and the bathing, feeding and cloth- 
 ing of one hundred poor men, are among the obliga- 
 tions of the members, who promise to conduct them- 
 selves as righteouslv as possible, and be of "one 
 heart and of one soul|" 3 ^ These guilds of the clergy, 
 existing in every populous district and thoroughly 
 imbued with the teachings of the early church, were 
 probably identical with the later guilds of Kalenders, 
 for in one case at least that of Bristol in the four- 
 teenth century the fraternity may be traced to a 
 so-called college of presbyters of the year 700. 4 j 
 
 A like spirit actuated the laymen in their social 
 guilds, although the influence of religious conviction 
 was soon overshadowed by the secular aims. The 
 ordinances of the Abbotsbury, Exeter and Cambridge 
 unions, which are still preserved, afford a clear insight 
 
 1 9 Thorpe, Ann. Law, 11-247. Cf. "nrum gegyldscipum" in 
 Jvdieia Citilatis Lond. 8.%G, which shows that societies and not dis- 
 tricts are meant 
 
 Printed in H ickes, 1820 ; Woodbury in Thorpe, Dip. Ang. 608. 
 Brentano and Stubbe ignore them. 
 
 *" Quasi cor unum et anima ana." 
 
 'Lingard, 246 ; Corry, H-4; Ord. 287. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. [392 
 
 into their constitution. 1 The members give yearly 
 donations of money or wax to preserve the candles 
 at the religious services, bring malt, honey, wheat, 
 wood and corn as well as bread to be distributed in 
 alms. Stated assemblies, common banquets, care for 
 the sick and the dead, prayers and masses, penalties 
 for " misgreeting " the brethren or neglecting to pay 
 the dues, provisions for assistance in misfortune, and 
 the formation of a fire insurance fund, are among 
 the features. The Thane's guild at Cambridge con- 
 tains the further principle that the society is respon- 
 sible in case a member slay a man, unless the act be 
 committed "with folly and deceit," in which case the 
 culprit alone is answerable. On the other hand the 
 murderer of a guild-brother must pay the society 
 eight pounds, in default of which the whole guild- 
 ship takes vengeance into its hands ; but if any 
 associate kill a co-member, he must not only pay the 
 wergild to the victim's family, but also suffer a 
 heavy fine or be expelled from the association. The 
 influence of the religious idea is manifest in the pre- 
 ambles, all of which state that the union was founded, 
 or held its assemblies, for the love of God and their 
 soul's need, both as regards the present and the 
 future life. The principle of mutual responsibility 
 again is seen in the words "Let all bear it if one 
 misdo, let all bear alike." 
 
 In addition to these unions we meet with traces of 
 slightly different societies in which the idea of pro- 
 tection comes to the foreground the so-called frith 
 
 'Printed in Thorpe, Dip. Ang., 605-617; Hickes, 21; Kemble, Cod. 
 Dipl. t No. 492. Translated in Kemble, Saxon*, 1-611; Eden, 1-591. 
 Cf. Turner, 111-98; Thierry. App. ; Stubbs, ffi*t., 1-412; Hart wig, 136. 
 They date from the eleventh century. 
 
393] INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 guilds. They are first mentioned in the laws of Ine, 
 or at least the word yeyilda is used both here and 
 in the laws of Alfred. 1 Provision is made for the 
 liability of members in case a thief be slain, and for 
 the division of the wcrgild among the relatives and 
 guildsmen : if the member slay a man and have no 
 paternal relatives, his maternal relatives and guild- 
 brothers share the penalty with him, or if there be 
 no relatives he pays one-half, the guild-brethren one- 
 half. On the other hand the guild receives half the 
 wergild if the murdered man be a member, the other 
 half going to the king if there be no surviving rela- 
 tives. Nothing further is told us of these guilds, but 
 the provisions often recur in the later ordinances as 
 long as mutual defense remained one of the objects, 
 and thus afford a strong presumption of their being 
 true guilds.* 
 
 A few decades later we find under j3thelstaii the 
 statutes of a fully developed frith-guild in the Judi- 
 
 1 Ine 16, 21, 23, Alfred 27, 28 in Thorpe, A nt. Lawn, 1-113-117, 
 78-81. Ch. 21 refers to the " far coming man, or stranger," but ch. 
 16 is in general terms. Waitz, 1-464; Brentano, Ixxiv. ; Stubbs, J7w/., 
 I-S9, hence err in restricting these guilds to strangers. Thorpe, 
 Glo&ary, asserts that the Gebeorscipes were guilds, but incorrectly, 
 for the word simply means a feast, and in Ine 6, Thorpe himself so 
 translates it. Cf. fsges Henrici Frimi, c. 87 g 9, 10; Sohmid, Ge*ctie, 
 587. As to the contiria of Tacitus see Waitz, 1-90. 
 
 2 The exact meaning of Gegildan is still disputed. Kemble, SOJF., 
 1-239,260; Hartwig, 1-151; Schmid, 588, translate it "those who 
 mutually pay for one another," but do not explain it; Wilda, Strafr., 
 389, "a wider family union;" Maurer, Krit. Uebertchau, 1-92. "travel- 
 ling companions;" Marqnardsen, 29, "robber-bands;" Stubbs, ////., 
 1-89, " associated of strangers," but he doubts his own conclusions, 
 1-414. Phillipps, 99, 104 says they are the later frankpledge. Waitz 
 1-462 reviews the subject and defends the view adopted in the text. 
 Cf. Palgrave, 1-196; Gierke, 1-224; Cox, 135; Salvioni, 9; and general 
 discussion in Gross, 91. 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. [394 
 
 da Civitatis Londonice. 1 This was no union of 
 smaller guilds, as has been asserted, but a combina- 
 tion of associations of one hundred men, subdivided 
 into smaller groups of ten, subject to common rules, 
 but otherwise independent of each other. The duties 
 consisted in mutual protection of property and the 
 pursuit of thieves, for whose destruction a reward 
 was offered. The members each gave a shilling to 
 defray the expenses of the search, and were pledged 
 to go to the adjacent riding in pursuit, while com- 
 pensation was made for losses or injuries incurred. 
 Mutual assistance, masses and fine bread for the 
 souls of the dead, and charity were commanded. But, 
 curiously enough, only the eleven (the heads of the 
 smaller groups) and the hyndenmen* and not all the 
 members, enjoyed the repast, although all assembled 
 to discuss the guild concerns. All the members were 
 declared to be in one friendship as in one foeship.* 
 Some have thought that we have not to deal with 
 any voluntary union here, because the preamble 
 states that the statutes were ordained by the bishops 
 and reeves of London, and confirmed by the pledges 
 of the frith-gegildas or guild-brethren. But this 
 only proves that the guild was expressly authorized 
 by the governmental officers, probably because of 
 their inability to execute the laws and provide a suf - 
 
 'Printed in Thorpe, Anc. Law*, 1-229, 11-496; Wilkins, 65. 
 Translated in Kemble, Sax., 11-521, and partly in Stnbbs, Char- 
 ter, 6. 
 
 3 The head of the 100. The contrary opinion of Thorpe, Glouary, 
 is disproved by Kemble, 1-243; Waitz, 1-466; Marquardsen, 39. As 
 to the eleven, see Kemble, 1-242, note 2. 
 
 3 "Swa on dnum freondscype, swa on num feondscipe." Jutlida 
 Civ. ch. 7. 
 
395] INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 ficient police. Similar provisions appear in all the 
 later guilds in GO far as the semi-religious and chari- 
 table regulations are concerned. We are thus war- 
 ranted in declaring it a true guild, but one in which 
 the object was primarily to preserve the peace rather 
 than to promote good fellowship and cultivate tht? 
 fraternal sentiment. 1 
 
 Traces of other guilds are also found. One is said 
 to have existed in Winchester in 8r>6, and although 
 nothing is told about its nature, it was probably the 
 same as the Cnighten-guild mentioned in Domesday.* 
 We hear of several other Cnighten-guilds at Can- 
 terbury, London, and Nottingham.' What these 
 Cnighten or Knights were is not certain. The word 
 originally denoted a servant, and although sometimes 
 employed in the sense of child or young man it 
 frequently occurs in the sense of a subordinate mem- 
 ber of a nobleman's retinue. It is apparently used 
 in this sense in the guild statutes of Exeter and 
 Cambridge, where the cnight contributes less honey 
 than the full member, and where his lord is respon- 
 sible if he draw a weapon or wound another. Their 
 rank and importance, however, increased until at 
 the Conquest they became the equals of the thanes 
 
 Cf. Palgrave, 1-633; Norton, 24; Thorpe, Dip. Ang. t xvii; Wai- 
 ford, 11-283 ; Gross, 13 ; Green, Conquest, 422. 
 
 Milner, 1-92 ; Donutday, IY-531, fol. 1, 3 : " Chenictehalla ubi 
 chenictes potabant gildara suam." 
 
 3 " Ego JSthelstan and ingan burhwara, ego .Ethel helm and cniahta 
 gealdan." Kemble, Cod. Dip., No. 293, attesting a charter in Can- 
 terbury. For Nottingham, Domesday 1-280, Dooms Equitum 
 house of the Knights. Cf. Freeman IV-199, Green, Conqwt, 442; 
 Dncange s. Y. A Gihalla also ocean in Dover; Dortutday, 1-1. 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. [396 
 
 or nobles. * The Anglische Knighten Guild of Lon- 
 don was founded under Edgar, and a fabulous 
 account of its origin is given, the king granting 
 thirteen well-beloved knights what was afterwards 
 known as the Portsoken ward on condition of their 
 victoriously "accomplishing three combat es, one 
 above ground, one under ground, and one in the 
 water." In 1115 the Knytte-gilda conveyed its lands 
 to the Trinity Priory and disappears from history.* 
 In 956 three guilds are mentioned at Canterbury, one 
 of these probably the Knighten-guild, the other per- 
 haps the religious guild of Domesday, and the chap- 
 manne guild of the time of Anselm.* Some have 
 endeavored to connect the Cnighten-guild with the 
 later guild-merchant, but this is negatived by the 
 fact of their concurrent existence at Nottingham. 4 
 It is of course true that membership in the one did 
 
 'For the various meanings see Ine, ch. 2; Thorpe, Index; Kemble, 
 Cod. Dip., VI-155 : Charter* of Oswald 557 ; Oswald 622 ; Aelflaed 
 685 ; Wulfaru 694 ; .Ethelstan 722 ; Eadsige 1336. Turner, III-373 ; 
 Schmid, 528 ; Anglo-&iton Chronicle, 1087; Kemble, Anglo-&noi>*, 
 1-513, 514 ; 11-335. Cf. Gross, 21. 
 
 * Stowe, 85 ; Madox, Firma Burgi, 23 ; Herbert, 1-5. 
 
 *Somner, 1-178, speaks of a charter mentioning the three "gefer- 
 scipas innan bnrhwara, utan burhwara, miccle gemittan." Printed 
 in Thorpe, ZWpJ., 303; Kemble, Cod., IV-267. The London frith - 
 guild is also called geferscipe, Judic. Cit. Lend., c. 1 1. Domesday 
 I. f. 3. speaks of "mansuras quas tenent clerici in gildam suam." of. 
 Mer. and Steph. 76 for another explanation, rather far-fetched. The 
 chapmanne guild is mentioned in Somner, 1-179; cf. Stubbs, 1-4 Hi. 
 
 4 Domesday, 1-280. Domus mercatorum and domus equitum or 
 hall of the Knights. So hanshus is often used for guildhall. Stubbs, 
 Charter*, 109. Wilda, 249, and Gross, 24, have attempted this con- 
 nection. 
 
397] INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 not preclude membership in the other, 1 and it is even 
 probable that the knights occasionally displayed an 
 interest in trade. But this by no means proves that 
 the Knigh ten-guilds were the precursors of the mer- 
 chant-guilds. In all probability the Knighten-guilds 
 were mere associations formed among the younger 
 nobles with the same aims as the other social fra- 
 ternities. 
 
 The formation of the guilds was no doubt fostered 
 by the necessities of social existence for the family 
 bond, of transcendent importance in early Teutonic 
 life, began to decay with the advance of civilization. 
 Traces still remain in the Anglo-Saxon law the 
 " maegth " still contribute the wergeld, support the 
 family of the deceased and act as compurgators for 
 each other. 2 But the relations are soon disrupted, 
 and the continued impotence of the government, 
 together with the incursions of the Danes, imperilled 
 the isolated existence of the freemen and doubtless 
 transmitted a huge impulse to the development of 
 the voluntary unions. We must not, however, sup- 
 pose that the guilds had their origin in the family. 
 The family theory cannot explain the predominance 
 of the religious and charitable features, and becomes 
 absurd when applied to the ecclesiastical guilds. 
 One might as well derive all modern institutions 
 from the family, for, of course, if the family bond 
 had continued to subsist, the present arrangements 
 would be unnecessary. The dissolution of the bond 
 
 1 At Canterbury we read of " cnihtan on Cantwareberig of cep- 
 manne gilde." Somner, 179 .Even here cniht seems to mean sim- 
 ply a member. 
 
 'Ine, 73-76; Hlothhaere and Ead., 6 ; Lent* of ike Northumbrian 
 Pried*, 51 ; in Thorpe, AM. Lw*. 
 2 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. [398 
 
 of kinsmen furthered, but certainly did not produce 
 the early guilds. The guilds, moreover, did not have 
 , j their birthplace in England, as has been confidently 
 / asserted. 1 Sworn unions are mentioned as a wide- 
 spread institution in the capitulary of 779, and in 
 fact the Council at Nantes speaks of the guilds 
 already in 658, while the earliest unambiguous Eng- 
 lish guilds date only from the eighth and ninth cen- 
 turies. 2 They were probably introduced from the 
 continent, where the religious unions and brother- 
 hoods of priests were as common as in England, 
 being continually rebuked by the synods for their 
 extravagant feasts and occasional contraventions of 
 ecclesiastical law. 3 The character of the early guilds 
 is shown by the repeated allusions in the church 
 councils, and there can be no doubt of the importance 
 of the religious element. 4 
 
 A variety of causes thus contributed to the origin 
 of European guilds, whose significant feature was a 
 fraternal feeling of mutual interdependence and close 
 affection. The idea of association was by no means 
 novel, but it so happened that the disintegration of 
 the 'tribal communities kept pace with the dissemina- 
 tion of a higher morality through the church. To 
 derive the guild from the family is fanciful and 
 when applied to the ecclesiastical unions meaning- 
 
 'By Brentano, Ivii., who here as elsewhere follows Wilda, 244. 
 
 * Cap. of 779 in Monum. Germ. Ui*t. I. Legum c. xvi, p. 37 ; the 
 Council of Xante* in Labbe*, X-472. Some put it in the year 800. 
 
 Hartwig, 158; Thierry, 412; Wilda, 63. 
 
 4 Of the members it is said : "in omni obsequio religionisconjun- 
 gimtur, videlicet in oblatione, in luminaribus, oblationibus mutum, 
 in exequiis defunctorum, in elecmosyni* ct ceteri* pietatiii ofticii*." 
 Labbe\ VIII-572 
 
399] INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 less. The frith-guilds originated in the virile spirit 
 of resistance to oppression, the social guilds in the 
 feeling of conviviality and reciprocal aid, the reli- 
 gious guilds in the desire to secure the blessings of 
 a future life ; but the idea by which all were pene- - 
 trated was the partial realization of the doctrine of \ 
 universal brotherhood which the early church so 
 zealously strove to diffuse. The guilds-merchant 
 and craft-guilds, which alone will be discussed in 
 the following chapters, were of a later date and had 
 a radically different origin. 1 
 
 1 For an excellent account of the social guilds, see Lucy Smith's 
 introduction to Ordinances. 
 
TUB GUILDS-MERCHANT. 
 
 ORIGIN AND FUNCTION. 
 
 Trade and commerce never attained a great de- 
 velopment in early Britain, for the absence of legal 
 protection and the few wants of a primitive commu- 
 nity were hostile to any complicated system of 
 exchange. Under the Romans the products of the 
 tin mines and corn lands were much in demand. 1 But 
 the slight prosperity then enjoyed by the native 
 states soon ceased at the time of the Saxon invasions, 
 when the artificial trammels of legislation added to 
 the natural checks of violence and disorder effectu- 
 ally hampered all intercourse. No sales could be made 
 without witnesses, under penalty of forfeiture, owing 
 partly to the lack of general weights and measures, 
 partly to the danger of buying stolen goods, which 
 made strict formalities necesspry. 2 The vocation of 
 the chapmen or traders wa* attended with difficulties, 
 and the foreign merchant is rarely mentioned. 3 So 
 undeveloped was the connection with the mainland 
 that the government promoted all merchants, suc- 
 cessful in three voyages, to the nobility. 4 But Saxon 
 
 1 Elton, 35, 38, 305. 
 
 ' .Kt helstan, c. 10, Hloth and Kadric; c. 16, in Thorpe, 1-35, 205. 
 
 1 Masse re, who crossed the seas, opposed to Ciepemon, or inland 
 trader. For the latter, see Thorpe, 1-33, 83, 119. The word survived 
 in Chepy ng-gyld and Cheapside ; Green, Cong ^ 438. 
 
 'Ranks, 6; Ethelred, 11-2; in Thorpe, Anc. La*i, 1-193. 285. 
 
22 Medieval Guilds of England. [402 
 
 England was essentially agricultural, and even in 
 London no merchant guild existed. At the time of 
 the Conquest, however, an improvement set in. 
 Good roads, well-built bridges, and freedom from 
 outlaws, succeeded the dangerous highways and 
 former insecurity. The Danes transmitted a great 
 impulse to the growth of the seaport towns, and the 
 Normans kept up an active intercourse with their 
 continental kinsfolk. The growing importance of 
 the lithsmen or shippers is shown by their cooperat- 
 ing with the thanes and witan in electing Harold as 
 king. 1 
 
 About this time, then, the guilds-merchant began. 
 The first mention occurs in Domesday, as we have 
 seen, both knighten-guild and guild-merchant exist- 
 ing at Nottingham. Lincoln is said to have possessed 
 one during the Danish supremacy, and the Ceap- 
 manne guild at Canterbury exchanged lands, as we 
 saw, toward the close of the eleventh century. 2 Soon 
 the guilds occur in the town charters, and before 
 long there was scarcely an important borough in the 
 kingdom without its guild merchant. 1 A remarkable 
 exception, however, appears to have been London, 
 although it possessed the usual privileges accorded 
 to traders. 4 
 
 1 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 11-129. 
 
 2 Green, Conq. t 432 ; Somner, 1-179. 
 
 3 Gross, 37 gives a list of over ninety towns, which does not pre- 
 tend to be complete. 
 
 4 Wilda, 248, and Brentano, err here. Stubbs 1-405, 418, 419, ex- 
 presses himself doubtfully; but the term is never used in the Lon- 
 don charters. Norton, 34 : "There is no trace of London ever hav- 
 ing been a general mercantile guild." The " fraternite and glide 
 merchant " in Rot. part. 11-279, was a simple craft guild of grocers 
 
403] Medieval Guilds of England. 23 
 
 The origin and character of the association have \ 
 been so strangely misconceived 1 that it will be desir- | [ 
 able to present examples from the early charters. ; 
 The application for the privilege of forming the 
 guild 2 was made to the monarch, whose consent was 
 imperatively necessary, even though the great manor, 
 fords sometimes undertook to grant the privilege to 
 the_towns in their domains. 8 We find the grant 
 almost exclusively in the town charters to the effect 
 that the burgesses should have their guild-merchant 
 with its usual customs and privileges, or that they 
 should have all their reasonable guilds like those of 
 a neighboring town, or even simply that they should 
 have their Hanshus or guild-hall. 4 The documents 
 themselves jire so explicit as to the advantages and 
 object of the union that it is remarkable how any 
 serious misconception could have arisen. In almost 
 
 'Especially by Brcntano. Gross was the first to clear up the con- 
 fusions*. 
 
 2 Known as gilda mercatoria; gilda mcrcatorum, Milner 11-300; 
 gilda mercaria. Rot. Chart, 40; gilda mercanda, Reg. )F<ilmeb., H46; 
 gille mercatura, Hut. Doe. 82; gilde Markande, Arch. Jour. IX-79; 
 chepynggyld, Coates, 51; gilde de marchaunt, Stat. 37 Ed. Ill, c 5; 
 guild mercatory; and mercantile guild. 
 
 'So to Leicester, Thompson, Mun. Hut., 38; Beverly, Foedera, 
 i-10; Petersfield, Jfor. and St. 308; Lostwithiel, Brady, 45. As to 
 the king's authorization see Stubbs, Charter*, 109. 
 
 4 "Sciatis nos concessisse . . gildam suam mercatoriam cum omni- 
 bus libertatibns et consuetudinibus suis," Lib. Ciut., 672, to Oxford; 
 " gildam mercatoriam cum hansa et aliis consuetudinibus et libcrta- 
 tibus ad illam gildam pertinentibus," Madox, Firma B., 272, to 
 Worcester; " g. m. cum omnibus rebus suis," Woodward 1-271, to 
 Winchester; " omnes racionabiles gildas suas," Hut. Doe. 53. City 
 Charter*, 53; Cony, 201 ; to Dublin and Bristol. " Quod habeant suam 
 hanshus," Foedtra, 1-10; Stubbs, Cluirt., 110. "Gildam mercatorum 
 cam omnibus liberUtibus et consuetudinibus," Rot. Chart., 38; and 
 stubbe. Charter*, 309. 
 
24 .Medieval Guild* of England. [404 
 
 every case it is stated that no^one should carrv_pn 
 Anjjj^Hft in thft fiifo ftr^suburba, unless he were a 
 \i member of the guild, the provision recurring with 
 aflTendless variety of expression, such as that no 
 one shall buy or sell any merchandise, sell any mer- 
 chandise at retail or carry on any traffic. 1 The 
 members could, of course, waive this prohibition, 
 but it is evident that the permission was rarely 
 granted, for the guild would thereby defeat the very 
 reason of its existence. The ordinances of the guilds 
 themselves, moreover, insist, upon excluding non- 
 members from trading. An exception was made 
 only in the articles of food which every one was 
 allowed to purchase, while, of course, oji market day 
 _ orjn fair time all restrictions were relaxed.* Occa- 
 sionally the authorities interdicted retail traffic in 
 those particular articles only which happened to 
 form an important factor of the town commerce. 3 
 
 '"Itaquod aliquis qui non sit de gildhalla aliquam mercaturam 
 non faciet," Stubbs, Charter*, 167; " quod nullus qui non sit in gildu 
 ilia mercandisam aliquam in praedicto civitate vel in suburbio 
 faciet nisi de voluntate eorundem civium," Madox, F. B. t 272 ; Cf. 
 "mercandisare," " mercandisas suas ad retalliam vendere," etc., in 
 Plae. de quo Warrant*, 18 ; Lib. Cutt., G72 ; Mercw. and St., 473, 523; 
 Rot. Chart., passim ; Harland, 1-198. 
 
 2 "Nul ne deit rien acliater a re vend re en la vile nieynie fora il He it 
 gildeyn," Southamp. Ord. 19; ". ... yl ne deit achater ne vendreen 
 eel ou en vile fors que sa vitayle," ib. 25. In Marlborongh the 
 fullers who were neither citizens nor guild members could buy pro- 
 visions up to 3d. free. Liber Custumarum, 130. In Scotland "a stal- 
 
 langers may no tyme lott nor cavell but in ye time of a fairc, 
 
 for van is lawfull to ilk man to lott and cavell " Regiam Majet., 
 
 chap. 47. Cf. AVarden, 69. 
 
 *In Chichester : "Nullus in civitate vendat pannos per detail him 
 nisi sit de gilda mercatoria." Hay, 578. "Nul ne deit achater miel 
 ne seym ne sell de araunk, etc., fors le gildein. Ne taverne tener dc 
 vin ne vendre dras a detail for au jour de march ee ou de feire . . si 
 yl ne seit gildein." South. Ord. 20. 
 

 
 405] Xediaval Guilds of England. 25 
 
 But in the majority of cases the prohibition was quite 
 general. In London where the citizens enjoyed the 
 same privileges as guild-members elsewhere all non- 
 freemen were forbidden to sell at retail,. The 
 same distinction appears subsequently in the general 
 law that all aliens shall carry on only a wholesale 
 trade. 1 
 
 Que distinguishing feature of the guild-merchant 
 was thus the monopoly of internal trade. This was 
 doubtless the raison d'etre of the union. But not 
 less important was the exemption. from. all. manner 
 of petty imposts and vexatious taxes. The inhabi- 
 tants of mediaeval England could scarcely stir with- 
 out being subjected to some exaction. In addition 
 to the feudal aids, royal taxes and trinoda neces- 
 sitas* there were duties on imports and'4axes on 
 passengers, customs on a ship's lading and charges 
 for its landing, tolls on the bridges, on all internal 
 navigation and on wagons, whether on the road or 
 in the forest, payments for maintaining the walls, 
 for breaking turf for the market booths and for put. 
 ting up the stalls themselves, customs paid on 
 measuring and sealing cloths, 2 and finally innumer- 
 able forced contributions as hush-money for imag- 
 
 1 Qaod mercatores qui non sunt de libertate- . . . vina seu alia mer- 
 cimonia. ... .a<i rctalliam non vcndant. Lib. Cutt. 441. Of. 2 Rich. 
 II; 1 Rich. Ill c. 9, "aliens, artificers shall sell their wares in gross 
 and not by retail;" see Lib. Albu* I-xcv, where under Ed. I a city 
 regulation forbade the "strange merchants" to sell less than a cer- 
 tain quantity of different articles at a time. 
 
 *Fyrd, brigbote, burhbote. 
 
 'The Latin names are in the above order: theloneum, passagium, 
 lestagium, groundaginm (groundage), pontagium, ewagium, car- 
 riagium, chiminagium, muragium (murrage), pycagium, stallagium, 
 alnagium, (aulnage.) 
 
26 Medieval Guild* of England. [406 
 
 inary offenses. 1 It was essential for the merchant 
 traveling from town to town, or even trading within 
 the burgh, to he freed from these burdens, and we 
 find accordingly immunities of this kid in almost 
 every case. Thus in Bristol the members of the 
 guild-merchant huy and sell freely and quietly from 
 all tolls and customs; in Newcastle-under-Lyne they 
 huy and sell and traffic well and in peace freely, 
 quietly and honorably, and are quit from tolls, 
 passage, pontage, stallage, lastage, alnage and all 
 other customs. 2 
 
 Thft pYfmipt.ifni from these charges constitutes .the 
 second great feature of the society, and at the same 
 time proves how unavailing would he the grant of a 
 territorial lord without the confirmation of the king. 
 For the king alone could confer any right of unim- 
 
 d traffic throughout the whole realm. 
 / \ Another privilege that is often mentioned is the 
 fcawsa. 3 What this was is not very clear. The mag- 
 nificence of the Hanseatic league and its branches in 
 mediaeval England are well known, and the Steel- 
 yard of the hanse-merchants or Easterlings, who 
 were already protected by ^Etlielstan, became a re- 
 
 'Scotteshale and gieresgive. Foedera, 1-52; Stubbs, Charter*, 
 gloss.; Lib. Cuit., 760. 
 
 -Red Book of Bristol 30, in Barret, 179; Thompson, 91. Cf. "Quieti 
 de omni thelonio, passagio et consnetudine, Milner, 11-300; "Quiet i 
 a theloneo etc. per terrain, per aquam, per ripam maris, 'by lande and 
 by strande,'" Stubbs, Charter*, 168; "Quieti de thelonio etlestagio 
 etc. in feria et extra, et per portus maris omnium terrarum nostra- 
 rum, citra mare et ultra," Foedera, 1-50; also Hi*t. Doc. 2; Lib. Out. 
 671. Cf. also "the libertie of the merchandis gilde" in Dundee ; 
 Warden, 67. 
 
 *Rotuli Chart. 40, 211, 212, 65 etc. 
 
407] Ifedim-al Guilds of England. 27 
 
 nowned institution of London. 1 More than once did 
 the jealousy of the citizens of London, Boston, Lynn 
 and other towns against these foreigners break out 
 in riots and tumults, for they attained such a com- 
 manding position as even to decide by whom the 
 crown of England should be worn. 2 The advantages 
 of a "hanse" were frequently confirmed to the foreign- 
 ers temporarily in London, and the word is plainly 
 equivalent to a company of traders. 5 But the term 
 is much older and occurs frequently in the English 
 charters, probably at first having reference to the 
 privileges of merchants when away from home. For 
 the English had their guilds in foreign ports also. 4 
 Its meaning, however, soon became equivalent to 
 guild, or the rights of a guild, and in this generic 
 signification it is used all through the later docu- 
 ments. The "hanse of the guild" thus became a collec- 
 tive name which included all the usual attributes of 
 a trading corporation. 5 
 
 *De Imtiluti* Lond'tHi* II in Thorpe, Law, 1-300. Steelyard or 
 steelhof, a contraction of Stafel or Stapelhof (Eng. staple) denoted 
 the market for imports. It has no connection with "steel." Cf. 
 "Mercatoresalemann'qui habcnt domtim in civitate London, qui gild- 
 halla Theutonicoram nuncupatur," Rot. Orig. II, no. 35. See Stow, 
 1-520; Anderson, 1-299; Lappenberg, Vrk. Gc*ch. t and Sartorius. 
 
 *In the case of Edward IV.; Schanz, 1-177. 
 
 'Sartorius, 11-93. As to the "Manie-merchantoof Almaynt" nee 
 4 Ed. IV, c. 5; 19 Hen. VII, c. 23; Rot. P*rl. V-421; VI-4J5. 
 
 4 "Omnes de gilda, mercatoria ct Anglica" in Montrenil and Ham- 
 burg. Wilda, 265, 267. Cf . Rott. Lilt. Pat. 248 b. 
 
 *At Ipswich a knight gives a quarter of wheat to the "hanse of 
 the guild;" another a quarter to the "guild." Mer. and Stephens, 
 398. This shows the identity. Cf. Madox, Exch. t 278; Firma B. t 27. 
 Ansa or Hansa is also used in the sense of a tax. "Quietus de 
 introita et de tauro et de hansis et omnibus rebus." Gent. Mag. vol. 
 35-262; Thompson, 50; "quietus de ansa et omnibus aliis consuetudi- 
 
28 Medieval Guilds of England. [408 
 
 ' Finally the guild members were in general ab- 
 solved from the necessity of attending the shire moot 
 and hundred court. 1 The exactions of the sheriff, the 
 judicial officer of those days, were so severe that the 
 arbitrament of disputes by the local magistracy were 
 eagerly sought for. But as this jurisdictional free- 
 dom was just as frequently granted to the burgesses 
 quite irrespective of 'their membership in the associa- 
 tion,* we cannot declare it a distinguishing feature 
 of guild-life. It is hence erroneous to say that the 
 guild-merchant was a "liberty or privilege enabling 
 merchants to hold certain pleas in their own pre- 
 cincts." For although they exercised a certain juris- 
 diction in purely mercantile disputes, 5 it was always 
 subordinate to that of the regular court leet, and 
 there is no trace of any general civil or criminal 
 jurisdiction. Even where the chosen guild members 
 assisted in settling controversies they solemnly swore 
 to subordinate themselves to the municipal court and 
 uphold the customs of the town. "Hear ye, mayor 
 and brethren of the guild," so runs the oath at Lei- 
 cester, "that I will loyally render judgment and 
 decide the disputes for the poor equally with the rich, 
 each one according to the measure of the trespass, 
 
 nibus," Hot. Chart. 86. On the continent this was a common mean- 
 ing, Charter of St. Omer 6 in Kemble, A. Sax., 11-529; Statutes 
 of the Etaimiers Plombiers 6 in Ouin-Lacroix, 642. Cf. Stubbs, 
 JIM., 1-411; Anderson, 1-132. Gross, 95 attempts no explanation. 
 
 14< Quieti de schiris, hundred is, et omnibus placitis," Lib. Cu*t. 671; 
 Rot. Chart. 2; Mer. and St. 365; Foedcra, 1-50. 
 
 2 Rot. Chart., 45, 83, 93; Abbrev. Plac. 186, 351. 
 
 8 At Beverly the guild-merchant "with its pleas and tolls." Rep. 
 Pub. Rec., 431. Drake, app. xxxii. followed by many others, makes 
 the above mistake. 
 
400] Medfaval tyuild* of England. 29 
 
 and that I^rill ever come to the court of the portmote 
 and obey the summons of the mayor when informed 
 by the bailiff, provided I be in town and have no rea- 
 sonable excuse, and that I will loyally maintain the 
 assize of bread, wine and ale together with the 
 mayor, and will uphold the franchises and good cus- 
 toms of the town to the best of my ability. So help 
 me God and the saints. Amen!" 1 
 
 We may say then that the original documents 
 themselves afford an adequate explanation of the ob- 
 ject of the guild-merchant, and that this was in sub- 
 stance a monopoly of retail trade, and an exemption 
 from all petty burdens throughout the kingdom. The 
 attempts to identify it with an imagined protective 
 guild or with the civic community are, as we shall 
 see, entirely misplaced. 
 
 The internal organization 2 was similar to that of 
 the social guilds which existed all through the mid- 
 dle ages until virtually abolished by the wanton 
 rapacity of Henry VIII and his son. At the head 
 stood the alderman or master, who probably paid 
 something for his position,* and at his side were the 
 wardens or stewards, and occasionally other officers, 
 such as seneschals, ushers, clerks, deans and chap- 
 lains. 4 Membership was obtained by heredity, pur- 
 
 'Le Serment de Jurrez. Gent. Mag. vol. 35-262. Cf. Southampton 
 Ord. 44. 
 
 2 Few ordinances are preserved. The chief are those of South- 
 ampton, Arch. Journ., XVI-283; Berwick, Honard, 11-467, of 
 the 13th cent.; Worcester, Ord. 370; Preston, Baines, IV-287, Ccm. 
 Hut. Jfo. IV-476, of the 14th and 15th cent. The so-called guild 
 merchant at Coventry, Ord. 226, was probably a mere social guild. Cf. 
 Gross, 49. 
 
 *Pipe BoU for Worcester, o Stephen; for York, 31 Hen. I, p. 34, 
 where a hunting dog worth 20 sh. is given; Madoz, Exeh. 9 273. 
 
 'Corn. But. MM. 111-304, 344. Stat. of Bcnrie*, 6, also mentions 
 a Ferthingman. 
 
30 Mcdiaval Guilds of England. [410 
 
 -. 
 chase or gift, and frequent mention is made of the 
 
 seats of the associates, 1 ' which probably referred to 
 their position at the feasts or the arrangement of the 
 booths in fair-time. The alienation of the seats, 
 whether by sale or gift, was forbidden, 2 and while 
 the sons and sometimes the nephews and daughters 
 of members were admitted free of all charges, others 
 were obliged to pay an entrance fee and produce two 
 sureties. In the oath that was administered on ini- 
 tiation, the new member pledged himself to conform 
 to the ordinances, to be subject to the same burthens 
 as his fellows, to inform the officials and inhabitants 
 if he discovered any merchant in town who was not 
 a member, and to obey the command of the mayor 
 as well as to maintain the good usages of the city. 8 
 Peace and good will between the members were en- 
 joined; provisions of a charitable character, 4 such as 
 alms to the impoverished and visits to the impris- 
 oned, are occasionally found; the morning speeches 5 
 and periodical banquets were not omitted; and the 
 members were admonished not to forget to drink 
 their guild-merchant, on which festive occasions the 
 officers availed themselves of the opportunity to col- 
 lect the taxes.* 
 
 'At Totnes one "sits above the seat" of another. Com. Uitt. 
 III-343. 
 
 *"NnI ne deit ne ne puyzt par dreitz neon siege a noul homme 
 vendre ne doner. South. Ord. 10." 
 
 J Le Serment de ceux q'entrunt la gylde. Gent. Mag. vol. 35-202; 
 Nieholls, 11-376. 
 
 *South. Ord. 4, 6, 7, 11, 22. Berwick, 5, 6, 9, -11. Coventry in 
 Ord. 228,300. 
 
 ' Morgenspaec or meeting-day (Morgensprache). Also in the 
 social guilds, Ord. 54, 71, 83, 279. 
 
 ""Severe gilde markande" Arch. Jour. IX-73 at Winchester. 
 Cf. " potare gildam suam " in Domttday, IV-531. 
 
411] Meditfval Guilds of England. 31 
 
 , /But these few ordinances of a social nature must 
 not lead us into the error of supposing that they 
 formed the real pith of the institution. On the con- 
 trary, they fall into utter insignificance when com- 
 pared with the large body of provisions of a purely 
 mercantile character, intended to enforce the true 
 object of the union as outlined in the charters. The 
 guilds-merchant was no summa con vi via as in Den- 
 mark, and did not have their origin in any desire to 
 wrest political rights from the feudal superiors, but 
 were founded simply to secure p^nnomir*. privileges. 
 Instead of being imbued with a spirit of universal 
 love, as some authors imagine, they were only too of- 
 ten actuated by a selfish exclusiveness and a desire 
 to_ enforce their class privileges in a narrow and 
 grasping spirit. Partnerships of any kind with non- 
 members were discredited and severely punished: 1 
 the brethren could not keep the goods of others even 
 temporarily in their hired premises: and examples of 
 their attempted oppression of outsiders are not lack- 
 ing. 2 The guild-merchant was at the outset a mere 
 company of traders, but the term merchant, which 
 by no means conveyed the same ideas as at present, 
 included not only those that carried on foreign com- 
 merce, but petty traders of all kinds, even artisans. 3 // 
 The guild, however, in course of time, lost its char- 
 acter as a purely private society, and became closely 
 
 '"Nul de la glide ne deit partcnir estre ne communier en nul 
 manere de marchaundises..a nul que [ne] seit de glide." South. Ord. 
 21. Cf. note of Smirke in Arch. Journal, XV 1-286. The ne must be 
 supplied, as Gross shows. Cf. Slat, of Berwick, 21, in Houard, 
 11-467. 
 
 2 At Derby: "Qui quidem usos [recited in detail] cedunt in injuriam 
 oppressionem et depanperacionem popoli." Plac. de quo W. 160. 
 I JTM. Doe. I, 82-88. 
 
82 Medieval Guilds of England. [412 
 
 connected with the municipal organization, although 
 never identical with it. Certain public duties grad- 
 ually devolved upon the guild, so that it formed a 
 useful adjunct to the local administration in sanitary 
 and general police regulations. 1 
 
 The guild-merchant in its prime was therefore an 
 organization of strictly defined import. In some 
 cases, doubtless influenced by the example of the 
 social fraternities, its aim was nevertheless totally 
 dissimilar, andit^ was^jnstituted solely for the_pur- 
 pose of securing exempflolQs'from^ommercial bur- 
 dens and enjoying a practical monopoly ofjaunicipal 
 (trade. It possessed property, enjoyed the privilege 
 [, of self-government, often formed conventions with 
 ^ the guild of a neighboring town to afford reciprocal 
 frights of free entry and exit, 2 was not without a cer- 
 ^ tain jurisdiction, 3 -although always subordinate to 
 the court leet, and often attained sufficient import- 
 ance to become to a limited extent an integral part 
 of the civic administration. But its function and 
 position cannot be completely understood until its 
 connection with borough life is elucidated and erro- 
 neous conjectures of various historians rectified. 
 This we shall attempt in the next paragraph. 
 
 1 At Berwick, ;!9, 3); Bristol, Barrett, vii; Cf. South. Ord. passim. 
 
 "go Monros an-1 Forbar, Com. JIM. MM. II-20T; erf. Curia guatuor 
 burgorum, Edinburjr. Berwick, Sterling, Rozbnry, in Houard, vol. II; 
 Regiam Majettat., 153. 
 
 The guild-court in Totnes and Aberdeen. Com. Hut. Jfo. III- 
 344; 1-122. 
 
413] Medieval Guilds of England. 33 
 
 THE GUILDS AND THE TOWNS. 
 
 The origin of the English towns is a question of 
 great complexity. No universally applicable rule 
 of communal evolution can be laid down. Borough 
 life in its infinite variety was clearly not produced 
 by any one set of circumstances. The opinion that 
 the towns were the outgrowth of the Roman munici- 
 pal system may now be considered definitely dis- 
 carded, for although a few sites now occupied by 
 thriving cities may have been inhabited by the Ro- 
 mans, their constitution when first met with in An- 
 glo-Saxon history is so different as to preclude all 
 inference of cause and effect. 1 Even in the case of 
 continental cities this view has been abandoned. 2 On 
 the other hand it is as yet premature to accept the 
 village-community theory, 3 for there are still many 
 historical facts which cannot be reconciled to the hy- 
 pothesis as an all-embracing explanation. Many of the 
 English towns grew up about the abbeys and monas- 
 teries 4 and not a few owed their origin to the in- 
 creasing facilities offered by trade. But whatever 
 be the true explanation, we are justified in making 
 the positive assertion that the towns were not devel- 
 
 'Wright, 360, Arckuobffia, Vol. 32-208; Coote, 359; Somers Vine, 4; 
 Pearson, 1-264, still uphold the theory. But see Stubbs, 1-62; Kem- 
 ble 11-297; Freeman V-470, 887. 
 
 By Hegel and Hullmann r. Maurer. These authors and Waits, 
 VII-400; Thierry, 1-302, have disproved the old views of Savigny 
 and Eichhorn. 
 
 'Maurer, 1-170; Gomme in Archaolog. vol. 46-46; Nasse, 20. 
 
 *So St. Albans, Beading, Coventry, Durham. Keg. Malm, zzzi; 
 Joe. 148. 
 
 3 
 
34 V Mediaval Guilds of England. [414 
 
 \ . ; : 
 
 oped from *he guilds, and that the connection has 
 been grossly exaggerated. 
 
 According to Brentano, 1 whose views on the subject 
 have been generally adopted, the Anglo-Saxon bor- 
 oughs were founded on a system of protective guilds, 
 one of which in effect governed the town. The 
 guilds-merchant, about whose real meaning he tells 
 us nothing, was synonymous with the Norman towns, 
 and the craft-guilds of late times, whose origin he 
 discovers in the exclusion of the artisans from the 
 full-burghers guild, everywhere drew the reins of 
 municipal power into their hands, Each of these 
 positions is utterly erroneous, and can be explained 
 only by a confusion of English and German rela- 
 tions. 
 
 The opinion that stunma convivia or governing 
 guilds existed in the Anglo-Saxon period is untena- 
 ble. The whole theory reduces itself to the single 
 statement that the Thanes' guild at Canterbury was 
 the governing body because the oldest of the three 
 guilds. But nothing is known as to the relative an- 
 tiquity of the three guilds; secondly, we do not know 
 that any of them was a Thanes' guild, and lastly, in 
 the charter of 956, given above, 1 the guilds appear 
 equally privileged. This conjecture is, hence, not 
 worthy of much confidence. Equally unsuccessful 
 is the argument based on the frith-guild of London. 
 The document says nothing about a union of pre- 
 viously existing guilds into one that embraced all the 
 citizens, and the society initiated for a distinct pur- 
 pose of mutual help cannot be regarded as the basis 
 
 l lntrod. Cap. III. First refuted by Gross, cap. 3. 
 Pape 16. 
 
415] Medieval Guilds of England. 35 
 
 of the town. This assumption is entirely gratuitous, 
 for London existed long before the guild was formed. 
 The union, moreover, is never again heard of, 
 which renders it probable that the guild died away 
 as security increased. The city was governed by 
 the reeve like any other shire, 1 and there is no trace 
 of the guild exerting any influence in the governing 
 body of the city; while there is absolutely no justifi- 
 cation for the statement that the frith-guild served 
 as a model for the formation of other town institu- 
 tions. Hypotheses and conclusions of this kind are 
 not well calculated to substantiate an imaginary 
 theory, which has nevertheless been blindly fol- 
 lowed. 1 The identification of the Knighten-guild of 
 London with a ruling corporation, and its develop- 
 ment into a municipality, have likewise been re- 
 garded as settled facts,* but the statement is founded 
 on a pure conjecture of an old historian that the 
 term alderman was "perhaps" transferred to the town 
 from the guild on its dissolution in 1115. 4 This con- 
 jecture, however, is anything but probable, for the 
 word alderman was not used to designate the heads 
 of the social guilds in Anglo-Saxon times, but on the 
 contrary denoted the governing officers of the hun- 
 dreds and shires, and many of the towns were in fact 
 nothing but hundreds. 5 There is, hence, no reason 
 to suppose that the municipal aldermen were the 
 descendants of guild officers. 
 
 "Stubbs 1-405, 6. 
 
 *By Wai worth, Howells, Green, Conquest. 
 
 By Brentano, Arbtittrg. 262; Wilda, 244; Hullman, II 1-60, 73. 
 
 4 Madox, Firma Burgi 30; cf . in general Gross, 72. 
 
 Stnbbe. //a/., 1-94; Palgrave, 1-102. 
 
36 Medieval Guilds of England. [416 
 
 In the Anglo-Saxon epoch, then, so far as we 
 know, guild and town were independent of each 
 other. The evolution of municipalities from frith- 
 guilds may be declared wholly mythical. With ref- 
 erence to the guild-merchant similar mistakes are 
 prevalent. "This trading guild was the very con- 
 stitution of a burg/' says one author; "the guild was 
 not a mere adjunct of the town community, but the 
 formal embodiment of the population into a civic 
 fraternity/* says another. "Citizens and guild were 
 identical, and what was guild law became the law of 
 the town/' says a third. 1 But these statements are 
 utterly false. It can be shown on the other hand 
 that burgess and guild member were distinct concep- 
 tions; secondly, that the government of the guild 
 and of the town were different; and thirdly, that the 
 grant of the guild was not the substantial creation 
 of the borough, just as little as the conferring of the 
 town charter necessarily implied the grant of a 
 guild. 
 
 In the first place, burgess and guild-member were 
 not the same. The burgess was the inhabitant 
 householder who paid scot and bore lot, i. e., con- 
 tributed his proportion to the taxes, bore his share of 
 the civic burdens and was enrolled at the court leet.* 
 The guild-members, on the other hand, were recruited 
 from strangers 5 as well as inhabitants. The guild- 
 
 1 Brady, 54; Thompson in Gent. Mag. vol. 35-596; Hi*t, 119; Brentano 
 XCiii, taken from Wilda, 146. But see Gneist, Verw. 1-139, Getch. 
 des Self government, 201. 
 
 2 "Quod cives sint in lotto et scotto." Liber AUnu, 269; cf. Travers' 
 Twiss II-xviii; Ord.346; Mer. and St. 1091. 
 
 'Called exterior vel extraneus homo, forinsecus, foraneus, foris- 
 habitans, alien, estraunge, as opposed to intrinsecus, privy or 
 densein. 
 
417] Medmval Guilds of England. 37 
 
 members might reside without the borough, the 
 citizen in general could not; the citizen must have a 
 house, the guild-member need not. 1 Inhabitants of 
 London are enrolled on the list of Dublin guild, and 
 the guild in Lincoln is granted to the citizens as well 
 as other merchants in the county. 2 In Berwick bur- 
 gess and out-dwelling or foreign guild-member are 
 distinguished, and in Bedford burgesses and others 
 who reside in the town belong to the guild. 3 
 
 Not only were strangers admitted, but it was pos- 
 sible to be a burgess without belonging to the guild. 
 In Reading the abbott chooses as warden one of the 
 burgesses, provided he be in the chepyng-guild; hence 
 there were others not in the guild. 4 In Southampton 
 certain individuals were members of the franchise 
 or town, but not of the guild; in Newcastle 
 some of the poor burgesses sue other burgesses who 
 belonged to the guild, while a general law provides 
 for the settlement of disputes between citizens and 
 merchants, which leads to the inference that some 
 citizens were certainly not merchants. 5 One could 
 even live in town without being either citizen or 
 guild member, as in Marlborough and Southamp- 
 
 l Cu*tum<il of Romncy 42 in Lyon. app.; Ipswich Domctday, 
 152; Lcget Burgorum 13; Mer. and St. 117; Ord. 373 37, 41 and 
 392 41. 
 
 *Hi*t. Doc. 82-S8; Fotdera 1-40; Stubbs, Charters, 166. 
 
 *Stat. of Bewick % 46; "Quod earn burgenses ville quam alii qnicum- 
 que, in eadem ville residentes, in ipsam gildam recipiunter." Plac. 
 de q. W. 18. Rogers, Work and Wage*, 107, confuses guild-merchant 
 with craft-guild in saving that the guild put effectual hindrances 
 on the introduction of strangers. 
 
 4 Cootes, app. 5. 
 
 *"Et si mscun trespase qne ne soit de lagilde e seit de la Fran- 
 chise." South. Ord. 13; Madox, F. B , 272; Ltgt Burgorum, c. ft. 
 
Hfe* 
 
 
 
 38 Medieval Guilds of England. [418 
 
 ton. 1 But the best proof of the distinction between 
 guild member and burgess lies in the fact that 
 women were frequently admitted full members,* 
 while of course they could not be burgesses. Fe- 
 males were at the same time constantly engaged in 
 trade and industry, so that it is not surprising 
 that they should have been compelled to join the 
 guild.* Prelates and monks, moreover, who were 
 certainly not citizens, were also admitted to mem- 
 bership, 4 for the clergy often attempted to carry on 
 a general trade, in consequence of which serious 
 quarrels arose between the monks and citizens, as 
 at Norwich and other towns. 5 They were even 
 occasionally permitted to form guilds-merchant of 
 their own, in order not to be put at a disadvan- 
 tage in selling the products of their large posses- 
 sions.' 
 
 In the second place, government of guild and 
 town were not identical. At Ipswich, immediately 
 after the grant of the town charter by King John, 
 the whole commonalty assembled at the burial- 
 ground to elect two bailiffs and four coroners, and 
 decided to choose twelve officers to govern the 
 borough and render judgment. These were accord- 
 ingly elected on a succeeding day and sworn before 
 
 l Reyis>. Malmetb. II, 393; "si estraunge on ascun autre que ne soil 
 de la glide ni de la Franchise." South. Ord. $ 14. 
 
 2 At Ipswich, Mer. and St. 520; Totnes, Com. Hut. Mu. III-&2; 
 Shrewsbury, Owen and Blake., 1-104. 
 
 *Cf. the regrateresses, bakeresses, breweresses. See 37 Ed. Ill 
 c.6. 
 
 *HUt. Doc. 82-88, 136; Com. Hut. Mast. III-342. 
 'Blomefield, 111-57; Rot. Hundred. 1-157, 27. 
 'So the convent at Coventry, Merew. and St., 469; at Bodinin, 
 Brady, 96. 
 
419] Mediaeval Guilds of England. 39 
 
 all the townsfolk, but on the other hand it was 
 decided that the guild-merchant should have a 
 "good, lawful and fit" man as alderman, chosen 
 by the common council of the town, and four good 
 and lawful men as associates, to maintain the guild 
 and " all things pertaining to the guild." The 
 town ordinances were directed to be enrolled and 
 transmitted to certain officials for safe-keeping, but 
 the statutes of the guild-merchant were put into a 
 " certain other roll," as was declared to be the 
 custom in all other cities and boroughs in which 
 a guild-merchant existed, and were entrusted to 
 the alderman of the guild in order that he might 
 never be at a loss to know how his office should 
 be conducted. 1 
 
 This proceeding clearly shows that the two bodies 
 had separate officers, separate aims, and a sepa- 
 rate organization. The town is subject to one set 
 of officials, the guild to another: the ordinances of 
 the town are put into a Domesday book, the regu- 
 lations of the guild into a distinct and separate roll. 
 But the document at the same time proves that the 
 i guild was something more than a mere private 
 society of traders, for the institution of the guild 
 is discussed by the whole commonalty, and the 
 chief officer is elected by the common council of 
 the town. And so it was elsewhere. The bailiffs 
 and " good men " of Southampton are elected by 
 the whole people and distinguished from the alder- 
 man, four skevins, usher and seneschal, the officers 
 
 *Rot. Chart. 65; Merew. and St., 393-401; Woddenpoon, 77. The 
 Dometday is reprinted in Hon. Jurid. Vol. II. Gross, 42, mentions 
 a translation in the British Museum. 
 
40 Mtdicwal Guilds of England. [420 
 
 of the guild. 1 At Berwick the aldermen and dean 
 of the guild are mentioned side by side with the 
 town mayor and provosts,* and thus in like manner 
 in all other towns where the guild officers occur. 
 Townsmen and guildsmen are continually distin- 
 guished, and in an agreement at Leicester fines 
 " which touch the community of the town and not 
 the community of the guild," are mentioned.* 
 
 Finally, the grant of a guild-merchant was not 
 the creation of a borough. 4 We should otherwise 
 expect to find every borough provided with a guild, 
 and this was certainly not the case. But we have 
 positive proofs. In the extracts from the charters 
 given on a previous page, we almost invariably 
 find that the burgesses are granted a guild-mer- 
 chant in addition to other usual privileges, the guild 
 forming clearly only one of a large number of 
 rights, and not being the foundation of them all.* 
 The principal privileges of a borough were an inde- 
 pendent jurisdiction, 6 the right of self-government 
 and the immunity from all separate taxes, in lieu 
 of which a gross sum the farm or firma burgi 
 was paid yearly. But the guild, or monopoly and 
 freedom of trade, was not necessarily granted, and 
 
 *8outh. Ord. 1, 44, 32. 54. Cf. Harland, 1-193. 
 
 2 5, 14, 33, 34. Ord., 339. 
 
 \Gent. Mag. vol. 35-599; Thompson, 129 (whose inferences are 
 therefore erroneous). As to Norwich, Blomefield, 11-37. 
 
 4 As Brady and Brentano say. 
 
 *Rot. Chart. 40, 65, 39, 93, 212, etc. Foedcra 1-40; Lib. Curt. 671, 
 etc. 
 
 Sac and Soc.; cf. Leg* Ed. Confe**>ri* t 22 in Thorpe, 1-451. Also 
 Gneist, Self-gov. 583; Brady, 40; Madox, F. B. t 18, and Exeh. 226; 
 Stubbs, Hist. 410. "Libertas burgi quod non implacitentur burgen- 
 ses extra Burgum," Abbrev. Plat. 186, 351. 
 
421] Jfediceval Guilds of England. 41 
 
 in many cases it was conferred at a late date. 
 Thus at Carlisle the town liberties were granted 
 at one period, but the guild-merchant was initiated 
 subsequently by an entirely different charter, and 
 the guild could hence not be the foundation of the 
 municipality. 1 In addition to these cases, it would 
 not be difficult to find instances where there were 
 boroughs but no guilds, 2 and others where there 
 were guilds but no boroughs, as in some of the 
 market towns and convents which were certainly 
 not boroughs. 
 
 This fundamental distinction between guild and 
 town applied equally well to Scotland from whose 
 towns some of the above illustrations have been 
 taken, and where the development was in many 
 respects essentially similar. They are mentioned 
 here again only because the case of Berwick-on-Tweed 
 has been triumphantly used as a convincing proof 
 of the identity between guild and town. 3 Here, it is 
 true, one general guild was formed by the consolida- 
 tion of all previously existing minor societies, but it 
 was neither a frith-guild nor the outgrowth of any 
 frith-guild which originally coincided with the whole 
 body of citizens. 4 On the contrary, it was a guild- 
 
 *Placita de q. W. 121. 
 
 2 As at London and the Cinque Ports. 
 
 3 Esp. by Brentano. Cf. the articles in Houard, 11-467; Wilda 
 376; Regiam Majett. 141; Ord. 338; Act* of Part, of Scotland 1-89. 
 
 4 14 to which Brent, refers contains no trace of a frith-guild, 
 nor the least mention of citizens: "Statuimus quod quotiescumque 
 A Idermannus, Ferthingmanni, Decanns, voluerint congregare con- 
 fratres gildae ad negotia gildae tractanda, omnes fratres gildae 
 veniant audito classico super forisfactum XII denariornm." Guild- 
 brother alone is mentioned. Brentano's assertion to the contrary 
 is incomprehensible. 12, 13, 31, 32 are the ordinary provisions 
 of a social nature. Cf. Gross, Beilage D. 
 
42 Medieval Guilds of England. [422 
 
 merchant, and plainly distinct from the town. The 
 town is governed by the mayor, provosts and twenty- 
 four good men elected by the whole commonality, 
 the guild by the aldermen and dean. Certain fines 
 go to the town, others to the guild ; citizen and 
 guild-brother are continually kept apart, and in one 
 section even opposed to each other. 1 The guild was 
 formed for purposes of trade, almost all the provi- 
 sions in which the union is mentioned referring to 
 commerce and market laws. And although most of 
 the burgesses would be members it was not necessa- 
 rily so. Women, moreover, were also admitted, and 
 could, of course, not be burgesses. 2 The statutes 
 simply show that one guild in the town had, as a 
 result of rivalries with the other less important 
 unions, absorbed them all, whether craft or social 
 guilds. 3 The consolidation was certainly the result 
 of a violent usurpation and in so far presents no 
 analogy with any English town ; 4 but even at Ber- 
 wick citizen and guild-brother were distinct catego- 
 ries, the guild did not govern the town, nor was it 
 tantamount to the civic administration. 
 
 The divergence between guild and municipality 
 must, however, not be exaggerated. In the smaller 
 towns where almost every one may have been inclu- 
 ded under the generic term of merchant, the guild' 
 very probably comprised nearly all the burgesses, 
 or at all events all the important burgesses; and 
 where the number of foreigners was insignificant, 
 
 ' 5, 6, 12, 14, 35 and 33, 34 ; 2 ; 46. 
 '"Exceptis filiis et filiabus gildae" 8. 
 1, 32. Cf. Gross, 100. 
 
 *The Judicia Civitatis Lend., as we saw, was neither merchant- 
 guild nor a union of previous lesser guilds. 
 
423] Mediaval GniMs of Entjlarul. 43 
 
 burgesses and guild-brethren may in truth have 
 been the same individuals. In some such cases the 
 guild-hall, as the most important building in the 
 place, was gradually put at the disposition of the 
 community and served as the town-hall. But this 
 was not confined to the guilds-merchant, for in the 
 case of Birmingham we possess explicit accounts of 
 the founding of a social guild by the whole common- 
 alty, whose place of assembly was used as the town- 
 hall, even after its abolition by Ed. VI. 1 The case 
 was probably analagous in other localities. In the 
 towns which belonged to the demesnes of prelates 
 where the episcopal jurisdiction was often retained 
 up to the reformation, as well as in the manorial 
 franchises of the secular lords where the independent 
 court leet was unknown, the guild-merchant was 
 one of the foremost privileges of the burghers and 
 frequently became the upholder of liberty against 
 the arbitrary exactions of the feudal superior. This 
 was especially true of Reading, Beverly and Malmes- 
 bury. 2 But on the other hand guild and town were 
 in general different conceptions, and sometimes even 
 opposed to each other, in one instance to such an 
 extent that the guild was ultimately abolished as 
 prejudicial to the interests of the citizens. 1 
 
 "The town-hall alias diet le guilde-halL" Cf. g. of the Holy 
 Cross. Ord. 239-250. 
 
 'Coates, 4<K56; Merew. and St., 137-141; Scaum., 1-150; RegMr. 
 J/alme*. 1-446. 
 
 * At Norwich: "Quod nulla gilda de cetero teneatur in civitate 
 praedicta ad detrimentum ejoadem civitatis." Blomefield, Ii-37. Cf. 
 Plac. df quo W., 160. 
 
44 Median** Guilds of England. [424 
 
 3. 
 
 THE LATER FORTUNES. 
 
 The guild-merchant must thus in the period of its- 
 prosperity be carefully distinguished from the bor- 
 ough ; its function was economic, not political ; its 
 membership and organization were independent 
 although its position was subordinate. But a second 
 period in the development succeeded, a period of 
 decadence, which began at different epochs in the 
 various towns, and which was practically completed 
 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In many 
 instances the guilds utterly disappeared, to be reorgan- 
 ized in later times, but with their nature essentially 
 modified. 1 In some cases they were replaced by the 
 companies of merchant adventurers, begun in the 
 thirteenth century as a small society but which soon 
 grew into an immense union with branches all over 
 the realm, and recruiting members from the divers 
 social and craft guilds. 2 Thus in Newcastle a guild- 
 merchant had been granted in the reign of John, 
 vrhile the fellowship of merchant adventurers, in a 
 petition of 1644, assert that they have been "an 
 antient guild of merchants ever since the seventeenth 
 yere of king John." 3 In other towns the guilds- 
 merchant became mere craft-guilds, forming one of 
 the numerous unions within the municipal limits, 
 and possessing no peculiar privileges. At Exeter the 
 
 1 At York and Coventry; Rot. Part., 1-202 ; Drake, I; Ord., 226. 
 
 'Anderson, 1-253; Schanz, 327-352; Herbert, 1-234; Mackenzie, II- 
 664. They still exist in York, Bristol and Newcastle. Com. JIit. 
 MSS. 1-110 ; Rep. Com. Lit. Cot. 16. 
 
 'Brand, 11-219 ; Merew. and St. 1672 ; also at Bristol, Barrett 182. 
 
425] Mediceval Guilds of England. 45 
 
 merchants formed a separate guild by the side of the 
 mercers and other artificers ; at York the merchants 
 and mercers formed one corporation with the grocers 
 and apothecaries. 1 In some cases again they were 
 converted into simple social guilds, and seem to have 
 lost all traces of their former economic significance. 8 
 But these were all exceptions. As a rule the guild 
 coalesced with the town organization and lost its 
 identity so completely that (jt became a mere 
 term to designate the privileges of the whole body of 
 burgesses. The mayor was now the chief officer of 
 the guild, the aldermen and chamberlains were the 
 officers of the town.! The guild, formerly a means 
 of procuring enfranchisement for villeins who had 
 been a member a year and a day 3 now acted by the 
 side of the court leet as a simple machinery for 
 admitting burgesses to the civic liberties. 4 Its func- 
 tions were no longer mercantile, it was no longer a 
 society or even a part of the administration, but be- 
 came simply a form, an assembly at which certain 
 civic business was transacted ; town hall and guild 
 hall were the same, and the guild, as a shadow of its 
 former self, became a phase or function of the cor- 
 
 *Rot. Part. V-290; Ord. 309 Drake, 11-224. Merchant and mercer 
 were originally the same; Rot. de lib. 168. 
 
 In the guild of the Holy Trinity in Lynn the ordinances were 
 still called those of the guild-merchant ; the alderman of the guild 
 interchanged office with the mayor and succeeded him at his death. 
 Blomefield, viii-516, Gross, 87. At Cottingham also; Allen, 11-218. 
 
 Rrgiam majett. II 17 ; Madox, F. S. t 271. 
 
 4 In Leicester we find yearly mention of those admitted as bur- 
 gesses in the guild. In 1572 the words guild-merchant are dropped 
 and replaced by "Freemen," showing their identity. Nicholla, 
 11-399. 
 
46 Mediaeval Guilds of England. [42* 
 
 poration.iy So in Worcester, in 1467, we have ordi- 
 nances "made by hole assent of citesens inhabi- 
 tantes in the cyte at their yelde-marchaunt " held in 
 the " yelde-hall." In these ordinances, which were 
 read to the assembled citizens every law-day, vestiges 
 of the old distinction between the fraternity and the 
 corporation may still be traced, although the guild is 
 merged in the town. The chamberlains are city offi- 
 cers, but still designated " keepers of the articles of 
 the guild." 2 The strong box where the treasures of 
 the old guild were kept is now a civic institution for 
 the reception of the city's moneys. Bailiffs and 
 chamberlains are charged with the execution of mer- 
 cantile provisions, and the fellowship is still mep- 
 tioned, although the guild as such has disappeared, 
 and all its former functions are now delegated to the 
 community. 1 The name itself simply denotes the 
 town meeting where the festival is celebrated as of 
 old. 4 A few centuries later the word disappears even 
 in this restricted sense. 3 But although guild and 
 town were now indeed synonomous, the community 
 was not ruled by the guild ; 6 even passing over the 
 evident failure to distinguish between the different 
 periods of guild-development, if we remember that 
 
 fitubbs, Hi*., Ill-oGo. 
 
 2 Printed in Ord. 376. The articles of 1496 in Green (Worcester) 
 app.; Brit. Arch. A**. V-245. Preamble, 29, 8, 2, 55, 64. 
 
 3 3, 5, 2, 9, 18, 53, 62. 
 
 4 " The day and feat of the said yelde " 62. 
 
 sin the Liber Legum at the beginning of the eighteenth century. 
 Ord. 411. 
 
 Stubbs, ffitt. 1 1 1-582 errs here. The common council of forty-eight 
 was chosen by the whole town, not by a guild. 47, 48. The 
 twenty-four were of the "grete acloth," but members of the craft- 
 guilds like the livery men at London, 
 
 
427] Mediatval Guilds of England. 47 
 
 guild was now a mere name for the whole body of 
 citizens, the mistake becomes easy of explanation. 
 Guild was now tantamount to town assembly, and 
 we often meet with references to the business trans- 
 acted in " full guild of the town." 1 The word was now 
 even used in the phrase "meadow-guild" to desig- 
 nate the assembly where the common lands were 
 allotted to each burgess. 2 
 
 The custom of holding the guild for the purpose of 
 admitting burgesses to participation in the corporate 
 franchise became in many cases the sole object of 
 the institution. In Preston, by a remarkable survi- 
 val, the custom has continued to this day, and every 
 twenty years witness a period of intense excitement. 
 Processions of the trades, banquets and festivities 
 continue for a whole week, and all business is at a 
 standstill. The proceedings culminate in the holding 
 of the guild-merchant, for which special officers are 
 appointed, aldermen, stewards and seneschal, the last 
 position filled by the town clerk. The names of bur- 
 gesses enrolled at the preceding guild-day are read, 
 and the new citizens then admitted, each one taking 
 an oath precisely similar to that of the brethren in 
 former centuries, but now utterly meaningless. He 
 swears that he will color no foreigners' goods (i. e., 
 take them into his house and pass them off as his 
 own), obey the mayor and bear all burdens, inform 
 the authorities as to the existence of any secret con- 
 venticles, and make known all strangers who trade 
 
 In Newcastle, Brand, 11-316. Cf. the Fellowship of Burgesses at 
 Barf ord in 1605. as a continuation of the old merch. guild. Rep. Pub. 
 /fee., 439; Orrf., 272. 
 
 , vol. 46-411. 
 
48 Medieval Guilds of England. [428 
 
 in the town. The festival is then continued through- 
 out the week until the merry-makers disperse only 
 to recommence after another twenty years. 1 
 
 The privilege of a guild-merchant was still occa- 
 sionally granted during the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries, but only as a mere form ; and the " hanse 
 of the guild " even survived in Lancaster in 1501.* 
 Often the name continued to exist, but the meaning 
 was totally forgotten, as at Winchester, where the 
 mayor in 1705 brought an action against one Wilkes 
 to prevent him from carrying on his trade, alleging 
 an old custom that no one should pursue his occupa- 
 tion unless free of the guild-merchant.* The judges 
 said " the words gilda mercatoria signify a corpora- 
 tion, but what it signifies in this declaration nobody 
 knows. We cannot take notice that the guild and 
 the city are all one, although it may be so ; non con- 
 stat to us whether the guild be the whole town or 
 part of the town, or what part of the town." In 
 short, the magistrates confessed their utter inability 
 to offer any explanation of the term : the institution, 
 once fraught with such a pregnant meaning, had 
 become a mere word, and nothing more. 
 
 To summarize the results of this chapter, we see 
 that the guilds-merchant were an institution of great 
 importance in the early mediaeval towns, and that 
 the period of their existence as independent organiza- 
 tions dates from the eleventh to the thirteenth or 
 fourteenth centuries. Their origin is not to be 
 
 Cf. History of Pretton (esp. 77) ; Dobson and Harland, 11-71. 
 Baines, IV-287 gives the Custumal. Also in Dobson and Ilarl. app. 
 
 iWalford, V-243. 
 
 3 Winton v. Wilkes, 1 Salkeld Report*, 203 ; 2 Ld. Raymond, 1134; 
 Kyd, 1-64 ; Merew. and Steph. 1920, note. 
 
429] Medieval Gvilth of England. 49 
 
 sought in any social or protective union, for although 
 they adopted certain features common to all guilds, 
 the disparity of their aims is so evident as to preclude 
 all inference of direct descent from Anglo-Saxon 
 frith-guilds. Perhaps at the outset a mere society of } 
 traders, they soon became invested with municipal 
 duties, and formed an integral part of the civic 
 administration. But although the guild was coor- 
 dinate with the town, it differed both in membership, 
 organization and function. Burgess and guild mem- 
 ber, municipal authority arid guild officer, town 
 grant and guild charter were^ntirely distinct. Insti- 
 tuted for the purpose of monopoly of trade and im- 
 munity from taxes, and* at the same time enjoying! 
 a certain exemption from the royal jurisdiction, the 
 guilds performed a genuine service in enforcing the 
 commercial laws and carrying out the economic 
 policy. But in the subsequent period, whose limits 
 it is difficult to define with precision, the guild-mer- 
 chant lost its character as a distinctive entity. Un- 
 dergoing in some cases a gradual transformation 
 into private associations of an ultimately dissimilar 
 nature, the guild in general coalesced with the cor 
 poration or became a mere assembly to admit new 
 comers to the freedom of the town, a mere form 
 whose true meaning daily grew more vague and 
 indistinct, shorn of any economic significance, and 
 slowly wasting away until nothing but the name 
 remained to recall the bright days of its former 
 prosperity. 
 
IL 
 
 THE CRAFT-GUILDS. 
 
 1. 
 ORIGIN AND DEVBIX>PMENT. 
 
 The origin of the English craft-guilds has never 
 been adequately investigated. Some have regarded 
 them as institutional developments from the Roman 
 artisan colleges. During Britain's subjection to 
 Rome, it is true that the colony was not without a 
 certain degree of industrial activity. In Winchester 
 alone the woollen cloths which supplied the greater 
 portion of the Roman army are reported to have 
 been woven. 1 Artisan colleges were accordingly not 
 lacking. In Bath we hear of a Collegium fabricen- 
 sium or college of smiths,* in Chichester of a col- 
 legium fabrorum or society of carpenters, and in 
 Scotland the inscriptions at Carey castle speak of 
 similar associations. 3 But these artisan colleges 
 cannot be looked upon as the direct prototypes of the 
 craft-guilds. The Roman colleges, far from being 
 associations of free craftsmen united for individual 
 or collective welfare, were hereditary caste-like 
 organizations imposed by the government upon the 
 laborers, and forming a branch of the state adminis- 
 tration, entirely different in object, influence and 
 
 *Brit. Archaol. Auoc. V-261. 
 2 Coote, Ord., 22 ; Pearson, 1-45. 
 3 Wright, 360 ; Thompson, 6. 
 
431] Af&ltoral Guilds of England. 51 
 
 constitution from the craft-guilds. 1 But even were 
 it otherwise, there is little probability of their con- 
 tinuous existence through the era of Saxon anarchy 
 to the Norman times. All the craft-guilds that we 
 know may be said to have had an absolutely inde- 
 pendent origin. Even on the continent the theory 
 of a Roman origin has been abandoned. - 
 
 Another view connects the craft-guilds with the 
 bond handicraftsmen. But this, although possibly 
 true of isolated cases on the continent, has no appli- 
 cation at all to England, notwithstanding the fact of 
 the similarity in the manorial system throughout 
 Europe. The old idea that the feudal system was 
 introduced by William is now thoroughly exploded, 
 and we know that for several centuries before the 
 conquest the same factors were at work as on the 
 continent. The whole land was divided into the 
 immense possessions of nobles and bishops, while 
 the laborers of all kinds were chiefly in a dependent 
 position. For a long period after the conquest, when 
 a single earl possessed seven hundred and ninety- 
 three large estates, and the whole county of Norfolk 
 had only sixty-six proprietors, 3 the economic state of 
 the manors remained very much as in the Saxon 
 epoch. 4 The tenants, like those of the manses 
 seigneuriales of France, or in the FrohnJtfifen of 
 
 'Rodbertus, Hildebrand Jahrb., VIII-418; CW Theod. XIII, 
 XIV contains many references. Cf. Brown, State Control of Indus- 
 try in the Fourth Century. Political Science Quarterly, vol. II, 496-O13. 
 
 'Stieda, 3; Maurer, 11-321; LevasHcur, 1-105, 193; Hegel, 11-265 ; 
 Schmoller, 378. 
 
 'Ellis, 72; Eden, &4. 
 
 4 Rogers, Work and Wage*, 38; Stabbs, tftrf., 1-273; Freeman, 
 V-462. 
 
62 Medicinal Guildt of England. [432 
 
 Germany, were composed of a multiplicity of ranks. 
 Even though the whole life bore the imprint of an 
 agricultural community, artisans of all kinds are not 
 rarely mentioned. In the enumeration of the ranks 
 and their respective duties in the Saxon laws the 
 agricultural element greatly predominates, but we 
 are expressly told that the . villein's (geneat) duties 
 are of a complex character. 1 And it is well known 
 that the artisans of the manor lords were recruited 
 from this class as well as from the bondmen (theoiv).- 
 At the time of the compilation of Domesday a 
 large proportion of the tenants was still composed of 
 freemen and socmen, or species of privileged villein 
 with fixed services and an interest equal to freehold. 
 The boors (bordarii) and cottagers (cottarii or coter- 
 elli) were personally free, although compelled to 
 work several days for their landlord, and to supply 
 his table with dairy products. The villeins (nativi) 
 again, termed regardant or in gross as they were 
 jannexed to the land or to the person of the lord, 
 gradually formed one class with the pure bondmen 
 (servi).* From these classes, which insensibly grew 
 into the copyholders of later times, the handicrafts- 
 men were chosen. The wants of opulent proprie- 
 tors engendered a multiplicity of workmen who fre- 
 quently appear in the manor-rolls and abbey regis- 
 ters of the period. The officials of the royal house- 
 hold are already mentioned in the very earliest 
 
 J Rectitudines singularum personarum. Thorpe, Early Law*, 
 1-432. 
 
 'Kernble, Cod. Dipt., 925 ; Dialogue of /Elf ric in Thorpe, Anakcta-, 
 Kemble, Anglo-8. 1-185. 
 
 3 Ellis, Introd. Other classes, like the Rachintstrts and Colibtrti, 
 midway between the free and servile, occur in Domesday. 
 
433] Medieval Guilds of England. 53 
 
 Anglo-Saxon laws. 1 At the abbeys of Peterborough 
 and Worcester there are long lists of workmen, from 
 bakers and brewers to fine leather workers and 
 weavers.* " Eighty less five bakers, brewers, seam- 
 sters, fullers, shoemakers, tailors, cooks, porters 
 and servingmen " minister to the abbot and brethren 
 at Bury St. Edmunds.* No manor is without its 
 famuli and operarii. 4 In some instances the work- 
 men are so numerous that special officials are dele- 
 gated to supervise them. From this it may be 
 inferred that the more extensive estates were not 
 without their workshops as on the continent. 5 In 
 the villages also, most of which were originally 
 included in the domain of a manorial lord, smiths 
 carpenters, millers, goldsmiths, dyers and the like 
 are continually recurring, 6 and the large lead, iron 
 and salt works must have given employment to a 
 numerous body of workmen. 7 
 
 But, while we meet with these references to the 
 dependent artisans in the landed estates, there is no 
 evidence of any combination of men of the same 
 craft into unions. In the towns, moreover, which 
 
 1 vEthelbirht, c. 7 " kyninges ambiht smith " or Praefectu* fabro- 
 rum. Thorpe, Early Law*, I-o. 
 
 *Regi*r. Wigorn. 122 et seq. Liber Niger in Ckron. Petroburg, 
 App. 167, etc. 
 
 *Chron. Jocelini, 148. 
 
 4 Cf. as to the serviens and operarius Bracton, II, c. 8 2; Fleta, II 
 c.71. 
 
 *"Magister super operarios" and "magister serviens/' in Ed- 
 mundsbory and Worcester. Ckron. Joe. 7; R*gi*. Wigom. 119 b. 
 
 Fabri, carpentarii, aurifabri, tinctores, etc., in Domudai 58* , 
 74, 187, 219* , 273, 298 ; Bolden, Bute, 568, 582. 
 
 'Plnmbarii, bloma ferri, and salinae. Dometday, 80, 91* , 104, 272, 
 27*, Begitl. Wigorm., 32- . 
 
54 Medieval Guilds of England. [434 
 
 were chartered in the reigns immediately succeeding 
 the conquest, there was no longer any room for 
 bond-handicraftsmen. Residence of a year and a 
 day liberated all villeins, and this, in fact, was the 
 cause of collision between the landlords and the 
 burghers. The very object and nature of the craft- 
 guilds precluded the possibility of their formation 
 among the bondsmen. The privilege of union was 
 granted only to the free inhabitants of the chartered 
 towns, while we have numerous examples of artifi- 
 cers being compelled to abandon the craft on dis- 
 tcoyery of their villeinage. 1 
 
 What then was the origin of the craft-guilds? 
 The commonly accepted view is that of Brentano, as 
 a development of Wilda's theory. According to him 
 just as the original guilds were founded to replace 
 the family, so the guilds merchant, which he identi- 
 fies with full citizens' guilds, grew out of the peace 
 clubs in the burghers' struggles against the lords, 
 r &nd in like manner the craft-guilds were formed by 
 \the expulsion of petty artisans from the town-guilds. 
 'The craftsmen, imbued with the old idea of the 
 family and actuated by brotherly love, formed their 
 unions for self -protection against the patricians, and 
 the trade regulations were only adopted subsequently 
 as a supplementary measure. After a few centuries 
 of continual strife, the artisans finally succeeded in 
 wresting all political power from the old-burgher 
 
 1 Memorials of London, 59 where three butchers are convicted of 
 holding lands in villeinage of the Bishop of London in 1305. Bren- 
 tano's idea of the existence of companies of bondmen in towns 
 (Introd. Iz.) is erroneous. Stubbs' note does not show that the 
 bondmen were craftsmen. 
 
435] Medieval Guilds of England. 55 
 
 guilds, and thenceforth oppressed them with the 
 same harshness as they themselves had previously 
 been treated. 1 
 
 Unfortunately these several positions are in great 
 part erroneous. We have seen that the family theory 
 is inexact, that the guild-merchant had no connec- 
 tion with any protective union, and that it was no 
 old-burghers' guild, nor synonymous with the urban 
 constitution. So also there is no proof of any political 
 oppression of the craftsmen by the guild-merchant, 
 nor was there any general conflict between patrician 
 burgesses and plebeian artisans, resulting in a com- 
 plete victory of the crafts, and giving them an inde- 
 pendent jurisdiction. In short, it would be diffi- 
 cult to present a more exaggerated description of 
 the mediaeval craft-guilds and their position in 
 English economic life. 
 
 And first as to the birth of the crafts through an 
 alleged exclusion from the "great guild.'" The 
 earliest charters date from a short period subsequent 
 to the conquest- During the reign of Henry I. the 
 union of weavers existed in London, and the cord- 
 wainers and weavers of Oxford as well as those of 
 Huntingdon pay for the privilege of having a guild. 2 
 The weavers and fullers of Lincoln enjoy similar 
 immunities. 3 In the time of Henry II. the guilds in 
 Nottingham and York are mentioned, 4 while the 
 ordinances of those in London, Winchester, Beverly, 
 
 'Introduction Chap. 4. 
 
 -Magnum Rat. Pipce 31 Hen. I. 2, 5 48, 109, 144. Ibid. Hen. II. 
 37, 150. The telaxii and corvesari i are mentioned. 
 Mttrtt. Plteit. 65. 
 *J/agn*m Rot. 2 Hen. II. 39. 153. 
 
56 yfedicfval Guilds of England. [436 
 
 Oxford and Marl bo rough are still preserved. 1 Dur- 
 ing the same period the bakers and weavers of Lon- 
 don were declared remiss in their payments to the 
 king, 8 and the goldsmiths, butchers and pepperere 
 were among the fifteen guilds amerced as adulterine 
 or set up without royal license. 3 The saddlers, also, 
 are mentioned as a guild of long standing in the 
 metropolis in a compact of the twelfth century. 4 
 * These examples afford abundant evidence of the 
 widespread development of the crafts under the early 
 Norman monarchs, and show that in England as on 
 the continent their inception must be ascribed to the 
 beginning of the twelfth century. This period of 
 ?apid progress in industry, as well as the subsequent 
 reigns of John and Henry III., witnessed, as we have 
 seen, the free bestowal of charters to the towns, and 
 of grants to the guilds-merchant. The burgesses 
 were often vouchsafed the privilege^oflforming 
 "merchant and other guilds," or, as was frequently 
 id, "all reasonable guilds," which clearly included 
 the crafts. 5 The craft-guilds were thus often created 
 synchronously with the guilds-merchant ; in some 
 towns they existed before the guilds-merchant,' and 
 in others there were crafts but no guilds-merchant 
 
 Lex teluriorum et fulioram. Liber CW., 130-131 ; Liber Niger of 
 Winchester f. 22, 31, 32 ; Archaol. Journal IX-G9. 
 
 'Bolengarii et telarii. Magnum Rot. 4 Hen. II 112, 114. 
 
 3 Aurifabri, bocherii, and piperarii in 26 Hen. II. Madox, Exeh.. 
 390 ; Maitland, 1-52 ; Magnum Rot. Pip. 1 Rich. 11-226. 
 
 4 Madox, Firma Burgi, 27. 
 
 of Bristol, 53 ; Mereweth. and Steph., 360. 
 
 '80 at Oxford and Lincoln where the guilds-merchant were 
 formed in the time of Hen. II., while some of the craft-guilds are 
 found under Hen. I. Lib. Cnt. t 671; Foedera, 1-40. 
 
4371 ^fedi(Kval Guilds of England. 57 
 
 at all. 1 The improbability of the statement that the 
 expulsion of the artisans from the old-burghers' 
 guilds gave rise to the craft-guilds thus becomes 
 apparent especially as there appears never to have 
 been any such expulsion, or any such combination 
 of old-burgher and merchant guild. 
 
 The relation of these two institutions, although 
 very obscure and never yet thoroughly investigated, 
 seems to have been very different from that which 
 most authors have imagined. 2 The strong pres- 
 sure of royal authority in England, and the equal 
 subjection of all to the city jurisdiction, would have 
 rendered all general conflict between the guilds 
 very difficult far more difficult than was the case 
 on the continent. Moreover, their interests in the_ 
 main were harmonious. For the guild-merchant 
 would in most cases be composed of the majority 
 of the inhabitants, and it was of the utmost import- 
 ance for the artisans, who kept little shops and sold 1 
 the product of their own industry, to enjoy the 
 immunities which formed the characteristics of the 
 merchant-guild.* We accordingly find, in the only I 
 full list of members that has come to our notice, a/ 
 large number of handicraftsmen, notwithstanding! 
 the fact that they were again enrolled in unions 09 
 their own. 4 
 
 'So at London and the Cinque Ports. 
 
 *Merewether and St., as well as Rogers, Work and Waget, continu- 
 ally confound them. 
 
 3 In London the glovers keep shop, and bay and sell. Mentor. 245. 
 Cf. the craftsmen's booths for the sale of goods in Winchester. Ord. 
 355. Arctool. Jinn-no* IX-69 et seq. 
 
 4 In 1226 a ropere, sellator, letherkeranere, tinctor, miles, loke- 
 smith, tailor, career, tumor, palleter, oxbernere, pictor, faber, fus- 
 terc, cercler, cordoaner, limberner, etc., occur in the gille-merca- 
 tura of Dublin. Hut. Doe. I, 82-88. 
 
68 MedicKTdl Guild* of England. [438 
 
 J This simultaneous membership in different unions 
 // was hot at all uncommon. The social guilds were 
 often in part composed of craftsmen, and the mem- 
 bers of a craft guild not infrequently formed a 
 smaller union of a social or even religious character, 
 or, as it is said, a " particular brotherhood or guyle 
 within their gene rail corporacion." 1 The merchant 
 adventurers later on recruited their numbers from 
 the crafts, and it was possible for the same person 
 to belong to both guild-merchant and social frater- 
 nity. 2 If Brentano's view were correct, that all the 
 guilds were at bottom protective unions, such com- 
 mingling of membership would be absurd, because 
 superfluous. 
 
 On the other hand, there seems to have been 
 an exception in the case of the weavers in vari- 
 ous towns, like London, Beverly, Marl borough, Ox- 
 ford, Winchester and Lincoln. 3 There the weavers 
 undeniably occupied a subordinate position at first. 
 The reason of this is not clear. Some ascribe it to 
 their conjectured foreign origin. 4 But the objection 
 to this explanation is that the foreign immigration 
 of weavers did not begin until the time of Edward 
 
 1 So at Norwich, Ord. 453 ; York, Ibid. 141 and Drake, 
 App. xxviii ; also Norfolk Archaol. VII-108 ; Herbert 11-440. 
 
 -Mackenzie, 11-607 ; Schanz, 11-340; cf. the merchant in Ord. 458. 
 
 'See for Lincoln Abbree. Plac. 65 ; Winchester's operarii burcllo- 
 rum et chalonum in Arch. Journal VI 1-374. For the others see 
 Liber Cmt. 130-131. 
 
 4 So Riley, Introd. to Lib. Cut. lx-1 and Ofhenchowt&i 60, note 2. 
 The Flemings, introduced by Hen. I., settled near Wales and did 
 not go to these towns. Ashley, Early Hittory of the English Woollen 
 Industry, 21 et seq. does not attempt any explanation, bat thinks 
 that the weavers formed no exception to the general rule. But see 
 next note. 
 
439] Medieval Guilds of England. 59 
 
 III. It is possible, therefore, that in exceptional 
 cases like these the craft-guilds were at the outset 
 regarded with disfavor by the guild-merchant. 
 Strong corroboration of the fact that the weavers 
 and fullers were in this respect different from the 
 other crafts, is afforded by the charter of Alexander 
 II. to Aberdeen, where the king grants that the bur- 
 gesses should have their merchant-guild, weavers 
 and fullers alone excepted. 1 And in other Scotch 
 towns the weavers and waulkers were long kept out- 
 side the-guildry of later centuries. It must be con- 
 fessed, nevertheless, that the connection is obscure. 
 In the main, however, the guild-merchant and the 
 craft-guild were in one sense coordinate bodies, and 
 at the same time bore the relation of the greater 
 including the less, although many members of both 
 societies were the same individuals. The regulations 
 of a police nature, generally left to the city author* 
 ities, were occasionally delegated to the guild-merl 
 chant, which thereby obtained a limited super-^ 
 vision over the crafts. At Southampton the 
 statutes of the guild-merchant contain a number of 
 provisions relative to the crafts. 2 At High Wy- 
 combe, in the fourteenth century, the guild-merchant 
 still exacts "stallage" from the weavers. 3 At Beverly 
 the officers of the companies were appointed yearly 
 by the guild-merchant, 4 which there, as in the other 
 episcopal towns, exercised many important func- 
 
 1 Warden, Burgh Law*, 90. 
 
 *Arrh*ol. Journal, XVI-283, esp. the later ordinances. 
 
 'Com. Hiil. Mu. 1876, 566. 
 
 * Allen, 11-122 ; Scaum, 163, etc. 
 
60 X&liaval Guilds of England. [440 
 
 tions. Traces of a former partial subordination of 
 the craft to the merchant-guild in Worcester are still 
 preserved in the time of Edward IV.; 1 the tailors 
 at Leicester paid ten shillings to the merchant-guild 
 for every new master, and the other trades were 
 ^probably under the same obligations ; 2 while the 
 confiscation of the weavers' cloths in Lincoln was 
 in all likelihood the act of the guild-merchant. 3 But, 
 as a rule, the ultimate power was lodged in the 
 hands of the municipal authorities, and the subjec- 
 tion of craft-guild to city was, as we shall see, prac- 
 tically complete. 
 
 The picture that has been drawn of the struggle 
 between plebeian artisans and patrician burghers has 
 likewise been much exaggerated. There are indeed 
 a few isolated instances of friction where a particular 
 fraternity endeavored to exercise unauthorized pow- 
 ers and prosecute the trade utterly regardless of the 
 urban authorities. But the rebellious attempts were 
 quickly frustrated and do not possess the signifi- 
 cance given them by the partisans of a pet theory. 
 The guild of weavers in London is a case in point. 
 As has just been shown, the weavers there 
 and in some other towns, like Winchester, Marl- 
 borough, Oxford and Beverly, at first enjoyed an 
 humble position. No member could implead a 
 citizen, or be admitted to the franchise unless 
 he abjured the fraternity, hated by all burgesses 
 on account of the favors shown by the various 
 
 1 Ordinances, 379, 9 et alii. 
 
 'Nicholls, vol. I. Stubbs, Hut. III-581; Cf. Thompson, ffiit., 84. 
 
 'The alderman (and provosts) took the goods because they were 
 dyed and sold "contrary to law." The alderman, as head of the mer- 
 chant-guild, would watch over all sales. Abbwriatio Plac. 65. 
 
441] Medieval Guilds of England. 61 
 
 monarchs. 1 Their continual attempts to attain an 
 independent position through encroachments on the 
 city liberties finally became so unendurable that, 
 after London was erected into a commune in 1191, 
 the citizens applied to King John for their utter 
 exclusion from the town. 2 This monarch granted 
 the prayer, but with his accustomed avarice immedi- 
 ately restored the weavers to their old position on 
 payment of an increased fine. The conflict was 
 renewed in succeeding reigns until determined under 
 Edward I. by the complete subjugation of the guild, 
 whose officers are ratified by the mayor. 3 We hence 
 do not see any general struggle between the patri- 
 cians of the guild-merchant and the plebeian artisans, 
 but simply a contest of strength between the whole 
 body of citizens (who did not form a guild-merchant) 
 and a small collection of outsiders attempting to 
 arrogate to themselves illegitimate powers. 4 
 
 There are a few other sporadic instances of 
 attempted insubordination. The fullers and dyers 
 of Lincoln under King John complained that the 
 authorities had seized their goods and refused to give 
 
 1< Ne nul franke homme ne .puet estre atteint par teller ne par 
 fuloan, ne il ne poent tesmoign porter," etc., Lib. Cn*t. 130. "E si nul 
 de eux enrich eist si qil voille son mettier guerpir for* jure et tonz 
 ustilz ostera de son ostiel. E si face taunt vers la cite qil soit en la 
 fraunchise e de la custume de Londres, si come il dient." Ibid. 130, 
 131, Ixi. 
 
 -'"Pro gilda telaria delenda ita ut de cetero non snscitetur." Liber 
 Alb'i*, 134 66 ; Madox, Exch., 279. 
 
 'Ord. of 28 Ed. I. in Lib. Cn*l. 121, 126. For a later lawsuit, in 14 
 Ed. II., see Lib. Cu*. 416 ; Plae. de q. W. 465. Cf. Sot. Part., III-600, 
 IV-50. 
 
 4 Cf. in general Madox, Finnn B. t 192, 284 ; Norton, 398; Herbert, 
 1-17; Stubbe, Hut. 1 1 1-572; Ochenchowski, 59. 
 
62 Mediaeval Guilds of England. [442 
 
 them up. The alderman and provosts replied that 
 the cloths were dyed and sold in derogation of the 
 customs of the town and in face of a positive pro- 
 hibition, and the court finally decided against the 
 craftsmen, who were able to adduce no satisfactory 
 proof of their unwarranted claims, the result not 
 leaving much doubt as to the futility of opposition 
 on the part of the guilds. 1 The final example is the 
 struggle of the tailors with the corporation of Exeter 
 under Edward IV. The guild, which had existed for 
 a long period, assumed to make such disturbances as 
 to cause the expulsion of its members from the 
 town council and to arouse the enmity of the whole 
 population. After several serious difficulties the city 
 magistrates petitioned the king to quash the letters 
 patent, in consequence of which the turbulent society 
 was shown its proper place and its- powers strictly 
 defined as subordinate to those of the urban adminis- 
 tration. 2 Here again we do not see any general 
 struggle between patricians and plebeians, but sim- 
 ply a riotous society seeking to set itself above the 
 general laws, and whose attempt results in ignomini- 
 ous failure, thus showing the weakness of the guilds 
 and the error of asserting their general victory over 
 the towns. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this Brentano attempts to 
 prove their triumph by the charter of Ed. II. to Lon- 
 don, which, according to him, prescribed that "no 
 person should be admitted to the freedom of the city 
 
 1 Abbreviate Plac. 65. "Fullonibus similiter non licet (tingere et 
 vemlere pannos) quia non habent legem vel communiam cum liber is 
 civibus." 
 
 *0rd. 299-330 esp. 311; Arch. Journ. XI-182; Izacke,89; Rot. 
 Parl., V-290 ; Merew. and St., 896. 
 
443] Merit aval Guilds of England. 63 
 
 unless he were a member of one of the trades or 
 mysteries." But a mere glance at the document 
 suffices to show that it contains no such provision. 
 On the contrary, it says that no native or foreigner"^ 
 " who practices any mystery or occupation " should 
 be admitted without the consent of the officers of his 
 craft, but if he were no craftsman the whole com- 
 munity (and not the guild officers who would natur- 
 ally have no interest in the matter) should pass uponi 
 the question. 1 The applicants were divided into two 
 classes, artisans and non-artisans, and with the latter 
 the guilds had no concern at all. The significance 
 of the charter is thus just the opposite of what has 
 been asserted, the importance of the first clause, 
 which can be understood only when the function of 
 the craft is grasped, being economic and not political. 
 In the year 1375 it is true that the elective franchise ' 
 for mayor and council was put in the hands of some 
 of the companies, but in the very next decade the 
 right was restored to the original voters or free inhabj 
 
 itants of the wards. 2 It is thus difficult to see how 
 
 . 
 
 indigena ---- de certo mistero vcl officio in libcrtatem civ. 
 non admittatur nisi per manucaptionem sex hominuin....de mes- 
 tero vel officio de qno ille erit....et eadem forma... .obser vet ur de 
 alienigenis. . . .t si non sint de certo mistero, tune in libertatem. . . 
 non admittentur sine assensu com muni tat is civitatis. Lib. CM**. 
 269-270. Brcntano takes the statement at third hand, but both Her- 
 bert, 1-27, and Norton, 120, give it correctly. Stubbe, Hut. 1-419, 
 unfortunately repeats Brentano's statement without verifying it. 
 
 *LOxrAlbu* 41, 462; in 1384, confirmed in 1386. Even at the 7 
 height of their fortunes, in 1475, the guilds did not have the govern- 
 ment entirely in their hands. The common council was still elected 
 by the inhabitants at large, the aldermen likewise by the citizens 
 of the wards, while the livery companies, which composed only a 
 small part of the craft-guild*, possessed but a limited share (in con- 
 junction with the representatives of the citizens at Urge) in electing _/. 
 
64 Medieval Guilds of England. [444 
 
 this proved the " completion of their triumph. " The 
 troubles which ensued at the election of Nicholas 
 Brembre as mayor in 1386 were not owing to any 
 general conflict between guilds and town, for a large 
 number of the craft-guilds themselves petitioned 
 the king against the usurpations of the grocers. 
 The petitioners included the crafts of cordwainers, 
 saddlers, mercers, spurriers, bladesmiths, painters, 
 armorers, embroiderers and founders. 1 The guilds, 
 indeed, comprised many of the important inhabitants, 
 and the city officers were often chosen from their 
 ranks, but this was true already at a very short 
 period after their foundation. 2 The lamentations, 
 therefore, over the poor oppressed plebeians are as 
 misplaced as the account of their subsequent victory, 
 
 I for the craft-guilds, on the contrary, were neither 
 oppressed nor oppressors ; they were, in most in- 
 
 ^ stances, composed of freemen on a par with the other 
 
 ft citizens, and on the other hand never acquired any 
 ^complete independence of the municipal adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 / 1 The early charters throw some light on the true 
 origin of the craft-guilds. They all provide for the 
 establishment of an association with the free customs 
 
 the mayor and sheriffs. Cf. the various ordinances in Merer/, and 
 St. 1986-2000. Stubbs, JR*t. t 111-76 thus seems to exaggerate in 
 speaking of the " final victory of the guilds." In 1651 the election 
 of all officers was restored to the free inhabitants of the wards, and 
 it was not until 1721 that parliament, influenced no doubt by the 
 erroneous conclusions of Brady's Treatise on Borough*, gave the 
 franchise to the livery companies, a right which they still possess. 
 
 tRoluliParl., III-225. 
 
 2 A mercer was mayor in 1214. Rep. Com. Lit. Cot. 12 ; a pepperer 
 in 1231, Seymour and Merchant, 11-67 ; Cf. Lib. de ant. Legibut 175; 
 CJironique*, 20, 39, 40, 69, etc. 
 
445] Afedi&cal (rttilds of England. 65 
 
 of a collective personality entitled to possess property 
 and regulate their internal management, but con- 
 taining as a cardinal point the provision that no one 
 should venture to carry on the trade either in the 
 city or suburbs unless a member. 1 It amounted to 
 what in the German guilds was known as the Zunft- 
 zwang. This regulated monopoly of industry but 
 monopoly in the good sense, for all citizens could 
 obtain admission at first was the kernel of the 
 institution, the condition sine qua non of exercising 
 any supervision over the craftsmen. But the reason 
 of such monopoly and of the formation of the 
 crafts is illustrated by a later occurrence in London : 
 Several potters complain to the mayor and aldermen 
 that many persons buy pots of bad metal and put 
 them on the fire to resemble pots that have been 
 used and are of old brass, and then sell them to the 
 deception of the public, for the moment they become 
 exposed to a great heat " they come to nothing and 
 melt.' ?s The mayor forbids outsiders from doing 
 this, four men are chosen as wardens to guard 
 against the recurrence of such deceits, and the 
 organization is completed. 
 
 The crafts could thus not be initiated without per- 
 mission. 3 The towns often assumed the right of 
 recognizing the formation of guilds, which was 
 regarded as a perfectly legitimate exercise of muni- 
 
 "'Quod null us nisi per illos (i. e. tclarios) se intromittat infra civi- 
 tatoin de eo ministerio, et nisi nit in eorum pilda," etc. Lib. Cvtt. 33, 
 48. Cf. a later charter in Ord. 300; a charter of 1199 in Deering, 92 ; 
 Mad <>x, Exch., 1-339 for other examples. 
 
 *Memor. 118. In the Cordwainers* Guild, in the time of Henry 
 III., the object is: "ad omnimodas falsitatesdeceptiones in poeterum 
 evitandas." Lib. Mcmorandorum, 441. 
 
 Notwithstanding the contrary opinion of Smith, Ord. 128, 130. 
 
 5 
 
66 Medieval Guilds of England. [446 
 
 cipal powers. But this authorization was in general 
 of no avail without an express charter from the 
 monarch, just as in the case of the guild-merchant 
 and social fraternities. 1 The ordinances of the craft- 
 guilds were in strict conformity with the general 
 legislation as well as with the customs of the city, 
 and although the by-laws of the union often re- 
 dounded to the advantage of the artificers, the 
 avowed and ostensible object was the common weal 
 and prosperity.* The regulations of the craft were 
 subject to the periodical approval of the municipal 
 officers, 8 and the guilds were formed and recognized 
 as welcome auxiliaries to the organs for the enforce- 
 ment of the market laws. Care, indeed, must be 
 taken not to exaggerate the involuntary character of 
 the unions, for the early rights of the craft-guilds 
 were probably, in part at least, the growth of self- 
 assertion. _But^ the laborers sought to unite, not 
 because of any necessity of political protection, but 
 in order to obtain certain economic advantages, to 
 secure a provisional jurisdiction, and primarily to 
 supervise the actions of the members and to prevent 
 any one individual from gaining an unfair advantage 
 over the other. Instead of being so imbued with 
 the spirit of self -sacrifice and brotherly love, as the 
 
 1 Tear Book, 49 Ed. Ill, fol. 36 where the judges held that no guild 
 could be initiated except by royal charter. 
 
 2 The ordinances of the brasiers, under Henry V., are accepted, 
 because " consonant with reason and redounding to the public 
 honor and to the advantage of the common weal." Memorials, 627. 
 Cf . the masons, Mem. 280 ; the farriers, 290. 
 
 3 Cf. Memorial*, 120 (pepperere), 145 (armorers), 178 (tapicers), 281 
 (masons), 392 (farriers), etc. 
 
1 Brentano, Ho wells and Wai worth po**im. 
 
 2 In the case of the London weavers some of their customs, recited 
 in detail, were declared to be "ad singalare proficuum eorundem 
 telariomm et commune dispendium populi." Lib. Cu*t., 421. 
 
 'The Latin names were mistcra, an*, artificium, facultas, officium, 
 f raternitas, and gi Ma. Mystery is the French mettitr or metitr, and 
 has no connection with "mysterious.'* Madox, F. B., 33. 
 
 447] Mediaval Guilds of England. 67 
 
 upholders of a rather sentimental theory assert, 1 the 
 members were actuated chiefly by the thought of 1 
 their own pecuniary advantage.* But above all, the j 
 ordinances were not so much the spontaneous work 
 of the crafts themselves, as the outgrowth of a gen- ^ \ 
 .eralmediseval policy, and can be understood only as J J 
 subordinate factors in the municipal life. The crafts \ j / 
 were favored by the towns because they were useful! 
 allies in upholding the municipal regulations ; com-l 
 monalty and guilds each sought their own interests, I 
 but their endeavors were in the main practically] 
 coincident and their relations generally harmonious./ 
 This can be shown by setting forth their constitution / 
 and true function. I ' 
 
 2. 
 
 CONSTITUTION AND FUNCTION. 
 
 The unions known by the names of mystery, fac- 
 ulty, trade, fellowship, or (from the fact of possess- 
 ing particular' costumes) livery company, 3 existed in 
 large numbers throughout the realm, and were fre- 
 quently divided into two or three categories. Thus 
 in London the principal crafts were the twelve "sub- 
 stantial companies" or "livery companies;" in York 
 there were thirteen greater and fifteen lesser guilds; 
 and in Newcastle we find twelve chief mysteries. 
 
 I 
 
68 Mediaeval Guilds of England. [448 
 
 fifteen bye-trades and many other smaller fraterni- 
 ties. 1 At the side of the alderman or master, 2 the 
 chief officer, stood four or six wardens or searchers 3 
 who possessed the general authority to inspect work 
 and rectify abuses. Occasionally a number of assist- 
 ants were appointed to aid them in the discharge of 
 their duties, and this custom, begun in 1379 in the 
 Grocers' Company in London, 4 paved the way for a 
 subsequent transformation of the crafts into close 
 corporations. As in all guilds, the social gatherings, 
 processions and annual feasts played a great role, 
 and we find here and there provisions for the com- 
 mon welfare, assistance to the needy and the main- 
 tenance of a chaplain. 5 But these few ordinances of 
 a charitable character played an exceedingly insigni- 
 ficant part in the constitution of the craft-guilds, and 
 it is an egregious error 6 to magnify them into the 
 very kernel of the guild's existence, and to consider 
 the economic functions as a mere appendage to or 
 development from the spirit of fraternal affection. 
 The immense majority of ordinances contain no men- 
 tion of anything but purely trade matters, and it was 
 
 'Herbert, 1-38; Drake, 207; Brand, 11-312. In Newcastle, Norwich 
 
 iand York alone there were over 150 craft-guilds. Rep. Cam. LVD. Cos. 
 16. There is hence no foundation for the statement of th German 
 authors (especially Sch6nberg,Handbuch der polititthen (Ekonomie, 884) 
 that the guilds were not so common in England as on the continent. 
 Their influence was not so great, it is true, but they existed in every 
 large town. 
 
 2 Also known as "pilgrim" or "graceman." Herbert, 1-51; Ord. 
 281. 
 
 'Also called purveyors, keepers, overseers, or surveyors. 
 
 4 Herbert, 1-53. The forerunners of the Courts of Assistants. 
 
 *Mem. 232; Hot. Orig. Abbrec. II-149b; Merew. and St. 968, in 
 Shrewsbury. 
 
 Committed by Brentano, cxxiv. 
 
449] Medieval Guilds of England. 69 
 
 not until the crafts became wealthy corporations in 
 the fifteenth century that hospitals were founded 
 and the charitable spirit occupied a more important 
 share in the counsels. The true significance_of the 
 crafts was economic, not social, and their function 
 was by no means that of a purely private societjl 
 animated with feelings of love and good-will to all] 
 The true explanation is very different. 
 
 Membership in the guild in the period of their J 
 prosperity depended on full citizenship. 1 But the ex- / 
 elusion of strangers cannot be explained, as has been 
 thought, by any imagined political tendency of the 
 crafts. The non-citizens, whether aliens or simple 
 strangers, enjoyed but a precarious position in 
 mediaeval England. On their arrival in town they 
 were compelled to lodge with one of the burgesses 
 assigned to them as host, and responsible for their 
 good behavior. 1 The period of their sojourn was 
 often limited to forty days, and they were allowed to 
 trade only with citizens or members of the merchant- 
 guild, and were subject at fair time to separate tri- 
 bunals, such as the pie-powder courts. 3 In all cases 
 heavy fines were imposed.' 1 The distinction between 
 
 1 Memor. 179, 227, 239, 245, 247, 258, 321, 391, etc. Articles of the 
 tapicers, spurriers, hatters, glovers, shearmen, furbishers, plumbers, 
 lawyers, etc.; Lib. Cutt. 83, for the year 1303. 
 
 M8 Hen. VI. c. 4; Lib. Cu*t. 68 (Ordination* Telariorum vii); 
 Lib (leant, leg. 118. 
 
 'City Charier* of Bristol, 58; Liber Albu*, 674; Calend. Rot. Pat. t 21. 
 Ipswich Domesday, 22. The pie-powder courts were held for the 
 "dusty feet," (pied* poudrt*,) I. e., for those coming from a distance. 
 
 4 "Et qe nulle frank homme de la citee neit compagnie ove 
 homme estraunge, ne avowe merchandise de homme estraunge, par 
 qoy le Roy ne ses bailiffs de la citee perdent la costume de eux." 
 Liber Alb'n* 264, 289. 
 
\ 
 
 70 Medieval Guild* of England. [450 
 
 freeman and foreigner is strongly accentuated in the 
 general laws and all the city regulations like those 
 of Worcester, Bristol, Winchester, Ipswich, and the 
 Cinque Ports 1 . It would, indeed, have been unreason- 
 able to admit the stranger to the benefits of municipal 
 privileges without subjecting him to the correspond- 
 ing duties like that of scot and lot. The exclusion of 
 non-freemen from the crafts was thus not so much the 
 result of any independent action of the guilds, but 
 was a principle of the early common law and some, 
 times even made obligatory upon the societies by the 
 ! city regulations. 2 The qualification of freeman was 
 [necessarily relaxed in the case of women who were 
 ' also admitted as members, for certain occupations were 
 almost exclusively conducted by them. 8 The widows 
 of deceased brethren, moreover, continued the trade 
 until they contracted another marriage a custom 
 we find mentioned in the city constitution of 
 Evesham as late as 1687 in which case they were 
 compelled to abandon the guild and sell the house to 
 some one who practiced the same handicraft. 4 
 
 But participation in the franchise was not enough. 
 A perfect acquaintance with the details of the trade 
 and the desire as well as the ability to produce good 
 work were in all cases preliminary requisites. 6 In 
 
 l Ord. 383 17; Mon-Jurid, 11-115, 147; Arch. Journal, IX-69; Lynn 
 (App. Vol. II) Custumal* of Winchetter, Cheltea, Doter, Sandwich, &e. 
 
 *"Et quo nulle prentiz apres soiin terme parcomply use sonn mis- 
 teer en la citee einz qil soit jure a la franchise." Lib. Albu* 272. Cf. 
 the exclusion of non-freemen from trade in Leicester as late as 
 1749. Throsby, 11-152. 
 
 Herbert, 1-423; 37 Ed. III. c. 6; Leges Burgorum c. 69; llitt. Doe. 
 232. 
 
 *Lib. Cust. 124, 130; Merew. and St. 1831. 
 
 Jfn. 244, 258, 281, 547, 570, etc. 
 
451] Medieval Guilds of England. 71 
 
 fact the main provisions of the craft, the very soul , 
 of its constitution, were the regulations intended to/ 
 ensure the excellence of the products and the ' 
 capacity of the workman. The ordinances almost 
 invariably commence with a recital of the various 
 subterfuges employed by knavish artificers to deceive 
 the public. As a consequence articles are drawn up 
 to abolish the mischievous practices by providing for 
 the establishment of the wardens, to whom is dele- 
 gated the duty of carefully scrutinizing the crafts-/ 
 men's handiwork. 1 They are expected to make an' 
 impartial and inquisitorial examination, and in case 
 of detecting any work imperfect, either by reason of 
 roguery or negligence, to confiscate the goods with' 
 an unsparing hand and to bring the offender to jus- 
 tice. This duty they performed so zealously as even 
 to enter the royal palaces in search of fraudulent 
 workmen, until the monarchs assumed to consider 
 this an unwarrantable encroachment on the royal 
 prerogative and forbade them in future from "malla- 
 pertlye viewing what his majestic had a-making." 2 
 In order to facilitate the search it was incumbent 
 upon the artisans of each particular craft to inhabit 
 definite quarters of the city and not elude the vigi- 
 lance of the inspectors by distributing themselves in 
 outlying or semi-concealed apartments. 5 
 
 The whole character of the craft guild is explained 
 by these regulations, designed to prevent fraud and 
 deception of the public. But it was due to the com. 
 pulsion of the city authorities rather than to any 
 
 1 "Jurat i ad faciendum scrutininm." Lib. Cu*t. 104; Of. Mem. 292. 
 1 Proceed. Prity Council, VI 1-288. This occurred as late as 1541. 
 Stephanidet 12; Mem. 180, 360, 330. In Reading each of the five 
 wards had its particular guild. Reader,* 52. 
 
72 Median* Guilds of England. [452 
 
 1 philanthropic anxiety on the part of the trades. 
 
 fi Carefully ascertained rules as to the exact proportion 
 and quality of the raw materials were prescribed 
 with great minuteness; the mixing of good and bad 
 wares was strictly prohibited, and the greatest care 
 was exercised in the selection of proper tools. Not 
 only was a separation of different employments com- 
 manded, 1 but the various branches of the same trade 
 were even kept distinct, as, for instance, the cord- 
 wainers and cobblers. "If any one has to do with 
 old shoes he shall not meddle with new shoes among 
 the old, in deceit of the common people and to the 
 scandal of the trade." 2 Such provisions were but 
 natural, for effectual supervision would have been 
 impossible where the shop was littered with a multi- 
 tude of entirely diverse materials, affording increased 
 facilities for the commission of fraud; while an em- 
 barrassing factor would have been added by simulta- 
 neous membership in different and perhaps opposing 
 guilds. 
 
 Similar considerations led to the prohibition of 
 night work or sales by candle-light. Brentano, in 
 conformity with his whole theory, asserts that the 
 real ground was the solicitude for the well being of 
 the guild-brothers, but he flatly contradicts the ex. 
 plicit language of the statutes. The spurriers shall 
 not work after curfew, "by reason that no man can 
 work so neatly by night as try day," and especially 
 because many persons "compass how to practice de- 
 ception in their work," and introduce false and 
 
 1 E. g. bowyer not to be fletcher, latoner not to be goldsmith, far- 
 rier not to be smith. Mem. 349, 399. 293. 
 
 2 J/e/. 392; Liber Albu* 718, as to old and new clothes (fripperers). 
 
453] .Ifalnrntl Guilds of England. 73 
 
 cracked iron for tin and put gilt on false copper. 1 The 
 glovers forbid sales in the evening because "folks 
 cannot have such good knowledge by candle-light as 
 by day, whether the wares are made of good leather - 
 or of bad;" the pewterers object to night work be. 
 cause "sight is not as profitable by night, or as cer- 
 tain as by day to the profit, that is, of the com- 
 munity;" and the cutlers adopt a similar provision 
 on account of the frauds, in that "the wares have 
 not been assigned by the wardens, but sent privily 
 to sell" in different quarters. 2 Already in 1300 this 
 prohibition was imposed upon the weavers by the 
 city authorities. 3 Occasionally the additional reason 
 is given that the nocturnal workmen make too much 
 noise, and thus disturb the neighbors or incur the 
 danger of giving rise to conflagrations. 4 But the chief 
 consideration is, in these as in all the other regula- 
 tions, the attempt to render all attempts at over- 
 reaching the public impossible. 
 
 It was, as we saw, imperative on the craftsmen to 
 furnish an adequate guarantee of his fitness to join 
 the guild and produce good work. This guarantee 
 consisted in the fact of a previous apprenticeship 
 and the evidence of a good moral character. For it 
 was correctly presumed that intemperance and de- 
 bauchery would in general imply mendacity and 
 imposture. The apprenticeship continued as a rule 
 for seven years, but was, in itself, an insufficient se- 
 curity. Defective workmanship indeed was generally 
 
 1 Memorial*, 226. 
 
 2 Mem. 219, 246, 343,. Cf. hatters 209, bowyers and fletehera, 348. 
 * Liber Gust. 124 XVI. "Mes qe bien et loialment oevre, et qe el 
 
 ne oevre pas de nuy t." 
 *Mem. 227, 538, 
 
74 Medieval Guild* of England. [454 
 
 the effect of fraud, not of inability, and the longest 
 apprenticeship could give no security against fraud. 1 
 It was on this account that the provisions as to 
 morality and probity were adopted, and made ap- 
 plicable to apprentices and journeymen as well as to 
 the members proper. Not only were they required 
 to be of good rule and demeanor, 2 but the most 
 curious by-laws were sometimes enacted to keep the 
 younger men out of mischief. In Newcastle, for 
 instance, they were forbidden to "danse, dyse, carde 
 or mum, or use any gytternes, or use any cut hose, 
 cut shoes, pounced jerkins or any berds." 3 All con- 
 traventions were visited at first with fines, then with 
 distraint, or confiscation of tools, and finally with 
 expulsion from the society. 4 
 
 It is, however, utterly erroneous to regard all 
 these provisions, which constitute some of the chief 
 points of the craft organization solely as the inde- 
 pendent work of the guilds themselves "which stood 
 like loving mothers providing and assisting at the 
 side of their sons in every circumstance of life." 5 
 This view could only have arisen through a total 
 neglect to observe the general economy of mediaeval 
 society, and through a failure to see that the guilds 
 were no purely private and independent unions, but 
 mere stones in the structure of industrial life, apart 
 from which they cannot be comprehended. The 
 
 'A.lsim Smith, Wealth of Nation*, I, ch. 10. 
 
 2 The apprentice must be "bonae famneet honesUc converaatiouis, 
 tractabilis, mansuetus, morigeratus." Lib.mfmorandorttm 442; Herbert 
 II-5741; Jfcro. 3GO. 
 
 Brand, 11-228. 
 
 * Liber Cut. 425; Herbert, 1-191; Jfcw., 178, 239; Ord. t 156. 
 
 5 Brentano, cxxviii; Green, //**/., 192-194. 
 
455] )fedia>ra1 Guilds of England. 75 
 
 middle ages were a period of customary, not of com- 
 petitive prices, and the idea of permitting agree- 
 ments to be decided by the individual preferences of 
 vendor or purchaser was absolutely foreign to the 
 jurisprudence of the times. The "higgling of the 
 market" was an impossibility simply because the 
 laws of the market were not left to the free arbitra- 
 ment of the contracting parties. Under the supposi- 
 tion that the interests of the whole community 
 would be best subserved by avoiding the dangers of 
 an unrestricted competition, the government inter- 
 fered to ordain periodical enactments of customary 
 or reasonable prices reasonable, that is to say, for 
 both producer and consumer. Tabulated tariffs and 
 official regulations of all things, from beer to labor, 
 filled the statute books, 1 and it would have seemed 
 preposterous for the producer to ask as much as he 
 could get, or on the contrary to demand less than his 
 neighbor and thus undersell him. The three great 
 offences of mediaeval trade were regrating, forestall- 
 ing and engrossing buying in order to sell at 
 enhanced prices, intercepting goods and provisions 
 on the way to market to procure them more cheaply, 
 and keeping back wares purchased at wholesale in 
 order to strike a more favorable bargain subsequent- 
 ly. 2 But above all great solicitude was shown for 
 the interest of consumers and every precaution was 
 observed to preclude the possibility of deceiving pur- 
 
 *Cf. Assisa panis et cenrisiae, 51 Hen. Ill; statutum dc pistoribua 
 13. Ed. I. Also 2 Ed. Ill; 23 Ed. Ill; 37 Ed. III;47 Ed. Ill, etc. 
 
 Cf. 8tat. 5 and 6 Ed. VI c. 14; Old usages of Winchester in Ord. 
 353. The last term is the origin of the word grocer ace. to 37 Ed. 
 Ill c. 5. The merchants are called "grossers because they do 
 ingrctes all manner of merchandise vendible, and suddenly do en- 
 hance the price " 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
76 Medivml Guilds of England. [456 
 
 chasers. It was deemed of paramount importance to 
 watch over every stage of the production, and the 
 government, far from being antagonistic to the forma- 
 tion of the crafts, usually compelled the workmen to 
 frame ordinances in keeping with this economic policy. 
 The authorities even went further, and in those cases 
 where no anterior organization had existed or where 
 the guild administration was imperfect, imposed 
 general regulations on the artisans which they were 
 compelled to follow in their guilds. 1 
 
 The guild rules were therefore only part and par- 
 eel of the common laws, and not merely the inde- 
 pendent work of the crafts themselves. 2 This was 
 as true of the system of apprenticeship as we have 
 seen it to be of the other provisions. As far back as 
 King Alfred it was provided that slaves should be 
 freed in the seventh year of their bondage, and the 
 same provision extended to Scotland, for in the laws 
 of King David I. we find the statement that native 
 bondmen who had escaped could be reclaimed by 
 their lord only for seven years. 3 Seven years' service 
 was regarded as a qualification of admission into the 
 franchise and applied to all inhabitants, whether 
 artisans or not; and as the custom arose of compell- 
 ing all handicraftsmen to be citizens, what had 
 originally been a general law was now adopted by 
 the guilds. The seven years' apprenticeship now 
 enabled the applicant to become a burgess and at 
 the same time a guild member. But it was no new . 
 
 '37 Ed. Ill c. 7; 7 Ed. IV c. 1; 19 Hen. VII c. 6; Regiam majettat. 
 of crimes and judges), T. 2, c. 18. 
 *Cf. Ochenchowski, 75. 
 
 3 Dooms of Alfred 11 in Thorpe, Early L., 1-47; Leges Borgorum 
 c. 17. This last for the year 1140. 
 
457] Mfdfaral Guilds of England. 77 
 
 ordinance of the crafts, for the subject is regulated 
 in the urban charters also, and when the guild rules 
 mention it the words "according to the ancient 
 usage of the city " are usually added. 1 And just as 
 the sons of burgesses were admitted to the liberties 
 with the single condition that they should dwell in 
 the town, so the sons of guilds men were exempted 
 from the necessity of the seven years' apprentice- 
 ship. 2 The indentures, moreover, were necessary by 
 the common law, and the enrollment invariably took 
 place at the court leet or before the municipal au- 
 thorities. 3 In many cases the local customs pre- 
 vented villeins from binding their sons as apprentices, 
 but this only exemplifies the exclusiveness of the 
 town communities and the general tenor of the law, 
 not any spontaneous action of the crafts. 4 
 
 The remaining features of the guild manifest the 
 same dependence on the laws of the realm. The sev- 
 erance of occupations was imposed upon the trades, 
 not spontaneously adopted by them, and the mediae- 
 val statutes teem with provisions of this nature, as, 
 for instance, that shoemakers shall not be tanners, 
 brewers not be coopers, cordwainers not be curriers, 
 butchers not be cooks, drapers not be " litsters,"* 
 while a statute of 1363 admonishes all artificers and 
 
 
 1 Liber Albu*, 157, 272; Lib. Mcmorand. 442; Metnor. 282. 
 
 * Ordinance* of Worcester 35 in Ord. 390. 
 
 *Lb. Cv*t. 93; Lib. Albu* 655 ; Men and St. 722-727 ; Ord. 390. 
 
 4 "Quod antiquitus nullus factus fuit apprenticing nee saltern admfo- 
 8U8 fait in libertatem civitatis, nisi cognitus fuerat esse libera con- 
 ditionis." Liber Albu* 33, 452; 8tat. 8 Hen. VI c. 11; Northouck, 107 
 as to the quality of gentleman ; for Lynn and Yarmouth, Mer. and 
 St., 762, 11G9. 
 
 *Rich. II. c, 12; 1 Hen. VII c. 6; 19 Hen. VII c, 19; 23 Hen. 
 VIII. c. 4 ; Regiam Maj. (of crimes, etc.) Tit. 4 c. 22 ; Ord. 405. 
 
78 Medicsval Guilds of England. [458 
 
 handicraft people to use only one mystery or occupa- 
 tion. 1 And whether the dominant idea was to pre- 
 vent fraud or hinder high prices, the fact remains 
 that the provisions emanated from the government 
 and not from the crafts. In like manner the restric- 
 tion of the number of apprentices and workmen, 
 examples of which are rarely found in the early 
 guild-laws, was not due alone to a desire to limit 
 competition, but principally to the fact that all mem- 
 bers were responsible for the actions of their assist- 
 ants and that the administrative authorities objected 
 to the employment of a larger number than the 
 master could support and answer for. Thus the 
 regulations of London declare that the masters shall 
 take apprentices only in so far as they are able to 
 support them, and under Henry III. the number of 
 assistant workmen is limited to eight in order that 
 the master may answer for them and the King's 
 peace may not be disturbed. 2 
 
 But the subordination of the guilds to the general 
 
 laws of the realm constitutes only one-half of the 
 
 explanation. The other half must be sought in the 
 
 \ commanding influence of the towns in economic 
 
 Uife. 3 All powers of market and social police were 
 
 1 " All artificers and people of mysteries shall each choose his own 
 mystery," and " shall henceforth use no other." 37 Ed. Ill, c. 6. 
 Stat. 11-379. This was so strictly enforced that in 1385 Mayor Nicho- 
 las Brembre disfranchised seven freemen (haberdashers, weavers 
 and tailors) for pursuing occupations to which they had not been 
 brought up. Herbert, 1-30. 
 
 2 "Etquenulle desormes ne preigne apprentice plus qedenxou 
 trois a plus forsques sicomes il est de poiar de eux sustenir;" Lib. 
 Albus, 383. Liber Mcmorandorum, 443: "Quod pax Domini nostri ne- 
 quaquam la-datur." 
 
 3 Ochenkowski, 64 overlooks this. 
 
459] Xedfaeal Guilds of Enylaml. 79 
 
 from the first massed in the hands of the urban 
 authorities. The one central point of burgensic life 
 was the court leet, for the administrative and crimi- 
 nal jurisdiction was of paramount importance to the 
 maintenance of local liberties. The burghers in their 
 town assemblies enacted a multitude of commercial 
 measures which would have been totally ineffectual 
 without the cooperation of a strong court of penal 
 jurisdiction, and to this court every townsman, 
 whether guild member or no, was amenable. No 
 more fundamental mistake has been made than to 
 ascribe to the craft-guilds an independent jurisdic- 
 tion, for this, we may say, was absolutely unknown 
 in England. 1 The matter was substantially the same 
 in the royal towns as well as in those situated in 
 the demesnes of lords and prelates, with the excep- 
 tion that in the latter serious disputes often arose 
 between townsmen and bishops in reference to trade. 
 The sources of contention in Malmesbury, Winches- 
 ter, Reading, etc., were the encroachments of the 
 episcopal lords in matters pertaining to the crafts. 
 But even there the disputes were conducted by the 
 citizens at large rather than by the individual guilds, 
 and an independent jurisdiction of the guild officers 
 was utterly unthought of. 2 Even in the tailors' 
 guild at Exeter, which attempted to arrogate to itself 
 exclusive powers, the franchises and lawful customs 
 of the city are expressly saved over against the 
 limited jurisdiction of the crafts. 3 
 
 In London the matter is still clearer, for although 
 
 "The handicraftsmen retained everywhere the independent 
 government and jurisdiction over their trade." Brentano, cxxiii. 
 *IUgi*t. Jfa*m6.,II-393 ; Arch. Journ,, VII-374 ; Coates, 50-65. 
 Ordinance, 306. 
 
80 Medictval Guilds of England. [460 
 
 in some instances the disputes were preliminarily 
 settled by the wardens, 1 there is not the least trace 
 of any final or independent adjudication. The mem- 
 bers are, on the contrary, expressly declared subject 
 to the civic officials, by whose verdict they are often 
 imprisoned.* The wardens brought the offenders to 
 the guildhall, and upon satisfactory proof of their 
 guilt the culprits were amerced by the mayor in 
 various sums according to the gravity of the offence, 
 a portion in some cases being reserved to the guild.* 
 Especially severe transgressions subjected the guilty 
 party to the pillory, and, as has been said, even to 
 imprisonment; and continued repetition of the offence 
 entailed the utter exclusion from the craft. It was 
 not even necessary for the wardens to present the 
 offender before the municipal court ; any one taxed 
 with the commission of fraud, whether by guild- 
 officer or layman, was subjected to punishment. But 
 the craft officials would naturally enjoy more oppor- 
 tunities of detecting the evidences of defective 
 workmanship and were accordingly the usual medium 
 through which the civic administration made its 
 authority felt. The guilds were, therefore, to a 
 i\ certain extent organs of the city government, but 
 \! entirely subordinated to it, and there can be no ques- 
 tion as to their utter lack of an independent jurisdic- 
 tion. In entire conformity with this subordination 
 of the guilds, the wardens or supervisors were subject 
 
 1 Jfem. 218, 248 ; Liter ( W. 126. This last document shows the 
 preliminary jurisdiction of the weavers' guild in 1300. 
 
 *Mem. 242, 246, 259, 301, 332, 355, 364, 391, 394, 539, 556, etc. ; 
 Ord. 332, 337, mention the jurisdiction of mayor and aldermen. 
 
 3 Cutlers, spurriers, pelterers, blacksmiths, br osiers, etc. Mem. 
 217, 227, 328, 538, 636. 
 
461] Medieval Guilds of England. 81 
 
 to the ratification of the city authorities. It is 
 hence a great mistake to speak of the " complete 
 independence of the craft-guilds, whose right of 
 freely electing a warden was never restricted/' At 
 Norwich the mayor could discharge the masters of 
 the crafts at any time. 1 At Exeter the master and 
 warden surrender their powers annually to the head 
 of the city government. 2 In Bristol the " maister of 
 the bakers, brewers, bochers, and all other craftes," 
 must be presented to the mayor and take their oath 
 in his presence. 3 At Great Yarmouth and Lynn the 
 relation was the same, while in York the officers of 
 only three of the powerful corporations were ex- 
 empted from the necessity of taking their oaths before 
 the mayor, oaths in which they there as elsewhere 
 pledge themselves not to contravene the laws or city 
 customs and to conform to the ordinances approved 
 by the municipal court. 4 
 
 The predominance of the town laws further appears 
 in the characteristic manner in which the guild 
 articles were framed. The good men of the trade 
 present an humble petition to the mayor, and if that 
 functionary deems the proposed ordinances conducive 
 to the common welfare, he accords the desired per- 
 mission. Sometimes, however, the articles were 
 ordained by the city quite irrespective of the initia- 
 tion of the crafts, the regulations being enacted as 
 simple manifestations of the police power to which 
 all inhabitants were equally subject. The municipal 
 
 1 Blomefield, 11-130. 
 'Ordinance*, 334. 
 
 Office of the mayor of Bristol in Ord. 420 ( 16). Cf . 246. 
 4 Drake, 224 ; Slat. 14 and 15 Hen. VIII. c. 3. Sacramentam magis- 
 troram et gardianum misteraram in Liber Attnu, 527. 
 6 
 
82 Mediaeval Guilds of England. [462 
 
 ordinances thus essentially corresponded with the 
 provisions of the guilds themselves. In all those 
 occupations concerned with the preparation of articles 
 of food the urban measures were still more stringent, 
 and the town officers had plenary powers whether 
 the wardens stood at their side or not. The ale-con- 
 ners, e. g., were to keep a sharp lookout on the 
 brewers, cooks, bakers and petty hucksters, " put a 
 reasonable price, at their discretion," on the com- 
 modities, and prevent all fraudulent dealing. 1 Thus 
 the London bakers at one time " skulk like foxes so 
 as not to be found by the officers of the city in case 
 their loaves shall be found deficient," in consequence 
 of which rigorous measures were adopted; later on 
 the right of search was taken from the wardens (to 
 whom it seems to have been given in the interim), 
 and the craftsmen were ordered to obey the mayor 
 " after the old usage and customs of the laws."* In 
 Winchester also some of the bakers " by sotill meanes 
 for their syngler weale to the comyn hurt of the 
 residew get the sale of all biscatt into their handes " 
 and the attempted frauds lead to their strict regula- 
 tion by the city. 3 The municipal flesh-say ers and 
 fish-savers had aualagous duties to perform, and the 
 wardens of many crafts were expressly required to 
 be accompanied by officers of the mayor. 4 
 
 The provisions as to the reception of strangers, 
 pursuing a certain trade, as freemen of the city, are 
 susceptible of a similar explanation. The enfran- 
 
 'Oath of the Ale-Connere in Liber Albm, 316. 
 2 Ibid. Ixxi ; Proceed. Privy Council, V-196. 
 
 3 Brit. ArcKctol. ASM. 11-22. 
 
 4 As to the fish-sayer, flesh-gayer and ale-taster in Leicester see 
 Nicholls, 11-376; Ord. 336 ; 23 Henry VIII. c. 4. 7 ; Mem. passim. 
 
463] Medieval Guilds of England. 83 
 
 chisement of a foreigner (in the mediaeval sense) 
 enabled him to carry on the trade. The crty^ 
 therefore accorded the privilege to those of the * 
 would-be craftsmen only whom the wardens declared 
 of ability and good repute; for the grant of the * 
 franchise without any such condition would have 
 flooded the trades with untrustworthy artisans, and 
 thus defeated the very object for which the crafts 
 were recognized by the city namely, as valuable 
 assistants to the industrial order. The guilds them- 
 selves were the best judges of individual sufficiency, 
 and the interests of town and craft here coincided. " 
 For the town, with its regard for the interests of con- 
 sumers, would lead the efforts of the guild to keep 
 bad workmen aloof from the trade. We accordingly 
 find in the city charters, as well as in the 
 craft ordinances, the provision that any artisan, 
 coveting participation in the franchise, should be 
 examined by the good folks who rule the trade, and 
 
 who would thereafter be answerable for all his 
 
 - 
 
 actions. 1 But, in order to prevent any abuse of this 
 privilege, the examination took place before the city 
 authorities, and the guilds took a pledge not to refuse 
 admission, through a spirit of malice or monopoly, 
 to any one otherwise properly qualified. 2 This pre- 
 caution was in the main sufficient to check the crafts 
 from giving rein to the spirit of selfish and unjustifi- 
 able exclusion, although one of the chief charges 
 brought later on against the London weavers was to 
 the effect that they would admit no one without an 
 
 'City Charters in Lib. Cul. 269, 270 ; Liber Albu*, 142, 495. Bnelen 
 and Spurriers in Mem. 228, 277. 
 Articles of the Furbishers, Mem. 258. 
 
84 Medieval Guild* of England. [464 
 
 . 
 
 exorbitant fine, pursuing their malicious machina- 
 tions in order to artificially enhance prices and seek 
 their own private gain at the expense of the public 
 welfare. 1 
 
 The few remaining guild-laws for which artificial 
 explanations have been attempted can again be un- 
 derstood only by keeping in mind their utter depend- 
 ence on the municipalities. Thus the provision that 
 if any member purchase commodities fit for use by 
 the trade, every other member may participate in 
 the bargain and compel the purchaser to give him a 
 share, 2 is by no means a proof of the self-sacrificing 
 spirit of the brethren. It is simply a penalty for 
 transgressing the city laws against engrossing, the 
 policy of which prohibited both underselling and 
 overcharging. The identical provision occurs in the 
 earliest custumals of the towns, and was copied from 
 them into the by-laws of the guilds.* So also, as to 
 the regulation that if a workman has contracted to 
 finish a piece of work and is unable to keep the 
 agreement, the members shall aid him. Far from 
 being an outburst of loving feeling, this is simply a 
 punishment for those who have wilfully and falsely 
 guaranteed the ability of a workman whose inca- 
 
 "'Quod neminem in eorum gild am recipe re curant nisi gravitur 
 redimatar, malitiose machinantes," etc. etc. Lib. Oust., 421; Plat, de 
 q. W. 466. In 1331. 
 
 2 "That no one for any singular profit shall engross lead coming to 
 the city for sale. . . .but that all persons of the said trade, as well 
 poor as rich, who may wish, shall be partners therein at their de- 
 sire." Mem. 322 ; Ord. 210, for Worcester ; guild-merchant at Ber- 
 wick, in Ord. 345 37. 
 
 a "If any merchant, neighbor or stranger, bring any merchandise 
 to sell in the town, all the freemen shall have a part if they claim 
 part." Custumal of Rye 59, 51. 57 ; of Winchelsea 3S, 39, in 
 Lyon, app. 
 
465] Mediaeval GuiM* of England. 85 
 
 pacity they were in duty bound to know. For 
 civic magnates here again were determined to pre- 
 vent the employer from being disappointed or de- 
 frauded through any fault of the artisan. 1 A similar 
 enactment existed in the Scotch laws, as applicable 
 to all the craft-guilds, and it is significant that the 
 provision did not originate with the guilds, but was 
 imposed upon them as a police measure. 2 
 
 The true nature of the craft-guild can now be 
 clearly perceived. It was no protective guild or 
 outgrowth of the guild-merchant, no combination of 
 oppressed plebeians struggling against the patricians 
 and imbued with a spirit of fraternal affection, to 
 which the economic function was subordinate and 
 superadded. Above all, it was no purely voluntary! 
 union which gained a complete independence of the 
 town or an entire mastery over the inhabitants. On" 
 the contrary, the craft-guild was a union of artisans 
 for purely economic purposes, but always subordinate 
 to the general laws and municipal administration j 
 Although its early development may have been in 
 a great measure autonomous, it was recognized by 
 the city authorities because a useful auxiliary .in 
 maintaining and executing the police measures. 
 And although the guild afforded an incidental 
 protection to its members through the usual advan- 
 tages of all union, it was something far more than a 
 mere private society. In its character as a municipal 
 organ it was frequently called upon to furnish mili- 
 
 1 Memorial, Masons, 281. 
 
 *Ktgiam Maj. (of crimes, Ac). TH. 5, c. 30 ; tit 2, c. 19 ; tit 4, c. 
 27: "Craft isman qoha begin nes ane work and delaies to end the same 
 sail make no impediment to ane other of the samin craft to end the 
 lin work under paine of tinsell (loss) of their friedom." 
 
86 Mediawl Guilds >f England. [466 
 
 tary contingents, and to perform its share of the 
 " watch and ward." 1 A link in the great chain of 
 economic development, it can be understood only in 
 conjunction with the whole theory of mediaeval 
 economic policy. Its main features were impressed 
 from without rather than evolved from within, the 
 result of compulsory obedience to the general prin- 
 ciples of town and state rather than the elaboration 
 of peculiarities inherent in the guilds as associations 
 which breathed the spirit of peace and good will to all. 
 But before passing a final verdict upon their influence 
 in shaping the destiny of the mediaeval artisan it 
 will be necessary to cast a glance at the relations of 
 master and workman and note how far the grave 
 social problem confronting modern society existed or 
 was met by the mediaeval unions. 
 
 3. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. 
 
 The line of demarkation so sharply denned to-day 
 between a capitalistic and a laboring class was not 
 yet drawn in the early period of mediaeval industry. 
 For centuries far into the middle ages there was a 
 period of rude plenty, but of no opulence. The bur- 
 gesses were on a similar footing, and the compara- 
 tive equality of wealth among the town citizens at 
 first went hand in hand with the parity of political 
 rights. Specialization of industry and division of 
 labor were still in a rudimentary condition, for pro- 
 ducer, middleman and retailer were not yet differen- 
 
 Ordinance of 1370 in Memorials 345; Herbert, 1-122; Maitland, 
 1-216. 
 
467] Mediasml Guilds of England. 87 
 
 tiated. The artisan bought his materials, fashioned 
 his products and displayed his finished wares for 
 sale on the counter of his little shop, or on the rough 
 boards of the booths at fair time. If his business 
 increased to a sufficient extent he received two or 
 three apprentices, and in case of need a certain 
 number of additional workmen or journeymen. But 
 there was no monopoly or exaggerated exclusiveness. 
 Any one could become apprentice, and the number 
 was limited only by the ability of the master to 
 support them or by considerations of a police nature. 
 The apprentice formed a member of the master's 
 family. For the principles of the law of parent and 
 child were made applicable to a certain extent, and 
 all responsibility for purchases of the apprentices as 
 well as for their behavior were imposed on the 
 masters by city ordinance. 1 From one of the indent- 
 ures that have been preserved we can obtain a clear 
 view of his position. The apprentice is to keep his* 1 
 master's secrets, do him no injury nor commit exces- 
 sive waste on his goods. He is not to frequent 
 taverns, commit fornication or adultery with the 
 housemaids or in town, nor betroth himself without 
 his master's permission. He is not to wear certain 
 garments, play at dice, chequers, or any other unlaw- 
 ful game, but is to conduct himself soberly and 
 piously as a good and faithful servant, or in default 
 to serve double time. The master, on the other 
 hand, agrees to find him in all necessaries, food, 
 clothing, bed, and so on, for four years. In the fifth 
 year he finds himself, but receives twenty shillings 
 and the tools of the trade; and in the sixth year he 
 
 Dc servientibus, cmentibus Mercamliaas et Bona. Libtr Albu* 
 286; /ft*. Doc. 242. 
 
88 Medieval Guilds of England. [468 
 
 gets forty shillings but finds his own tools. The 
 master agrees on his side to teach him the craft 
 jwithout any concealment. 1 The oftentimes carious 
 rules to ensure the good morals and proper demeanor 
 have been touched on above. This strict super- 
 vision could not have been but galling to the young 
 men, as is proved by several amusing examples. 2 
 But there was no general clashing of interests, no 
 endeavor to exclude the apprentice of proper charac- 
 ter. Everyone became in time shopkeeper and 
 master, provided he possessed the requisite ability. 
 The condition of the workmen proper was essen- 
 tially similar. They were known by the various 
 names of varlet, sergeaunt, yeoman, garson, bachelor, 
 allowe and journeyman, 8 and were taken for any 
 stipulated period, although probably at first engaged 
 by the day as the last term implies. Restrictions 
 were rarely placed on their number; but the necessi- 
 ties of a small household would in general preclude 
 the master from employing more than a limited num- 
 ber. When any positive limitation was ordained it 
 was at first rather the exercise of the city police power 
 
 'Indenture of 1409 in Madox, Formulate Anglican., 98. One of 
 1451 is translated in Rogers, Ayrie. and Price*, I V-98. 
 
 'Herbert, 1-124 ; 11-35, 108. Cf. 19 Hen. VII c. 4; 19 Hen. VII. 
 c. 12. 
 
 *Varlet or vadlett French valet ; sergcaunt or serjatint overour 
 ouvrier; garson garc.on ; allow 3 or allowsman (Herbert, 11-181 , 
 193) nlloue" (who differed from valet in that the one had panned 
 through an apprenticeship, the other not. Ordin. of the Forcetiers. 
 Livro des Metiers, 359). Bachelor German Geselle, Junggcsello. 
 Yeoman is an abbreviation of young man. The term soudeier 
 (solidarius) is once used in Lib. Cu$t. 79, 6. Journeyman comes 
 from jour, journe*e. The Latin names were garcio, valleUus, 
 serviens. 
 
469] Medieval Guilds of England. 89 
 
 than the result of any attempted monopoly. They 
 were well cared for in the craft ordinances them- 
 selves and as regards the necessaries of life, were so 
 especially well treated that the government felt 
 impelled to interfere occasionally and extend the 
 sumptuary laws to them. 1 All possible disputes 
 were settled primarily by the wardens, some of 
 whom were in certain crafts chosen from the ranks 
 of the journeymen themselves.* If the master 
 refused to give the stipulated wages, the wardens 
 forbade him to work until the obligation should 
 be fulfilled. The journeyman was likewise pro- 
 tected against other exactions on the part of unscru- 
 pulous masters, such as attempts to compel him to 
 serve beyond his time or against his will, while a 
 stimulus was given to loyal fidelity by prescribing 
 assistance out of the guild funds in case of illness or 
 misfortune. 3 On the other hand, if the workman was 
 disobedient or endeavored to overreach his master in 
 any way, he incurred fine and punishment. The stand- 
 ard of morality was not all too high, and the reason 
 advanced for shutting the shops on Sunday is, that 
 the "journeymen and apprentices had wasted and 
 purloined the property of their masters while they 
 have been attending at their parish churches." 4 
 Hence the necessity of regulations and of subjecting 
 the assistants to stringent penalties in case of per- 
 versity. Such provisions appear perfectly justifiable 
 when it is remembered that the masters were respon- 
 
 >37 Ed. III., c. 8, c. 11, as to the yeomen and servants of artificers 
 or people of handicraft. 
 Ord. 332 ; Mem. 634. 
 
 Alien Weavers, Founder*, Braelers, in Memorutl*, 307, 514, 277. 
 *Mcmor. 218, 245. 
 
90 Medieval Guilds of England. [470 
 
 1 
 
 sible as head workmen for the quality of the wares 
 and the conduct of their assistants, and that personal 
 supervision could be rendered searching only by the 
 strict accountability of the subordinates. 
 
 But a conflict of interests was in general unknown. 
 The journeyman always looked forward to the 
 period when he would be admitted to the freedom of 
 the trade. This was a rule not difficult for an 
 expert workman to attain. No insuperable obstacle 
 was thrown into his path. In fact, there was 
 no superabundance of skilled labor at this time. It 
 was a period of supremacy of labor over capital, 
 and the master, although nominally so called, was 
 less an employer than one of the employed. Toiling 
 by the side of his assistants and in reality falling 
 into one category with them, he was subject to the 
 same vicissitudes of economic life. The relations 
 were in the main harmonious, and there was thus no 
 wage-earning class as distinguished from the em- 
 ployers or capitalists and arrayed in hostility against 
 them. 
 
 Naturally, however, there were sporadic cases of 
 disaffection on the part of individual workmen 
 against imagined or perhaps real maltreatment by 
 the master. These cases no doubt existed from the 
 earliest period. Thus in 1303, in one of the earliest 
 craft ordinances that we possess, the journeymen 
 cordwainers of London are forbidden to assemble or 
 make any provisions prejudicial to their masters or 
 to the public. 1 In 1350 again it is related, that in 
 
 'Ordinatio Renovata 7, in Lib. Curt., 84: "Defendu est qe lesser- 
 jauntz overours de la cordewanerie, ne a litres, ne facent nul con- 
 gregacioun par faire parveaunce qe soil prejudice au mester et 
 damage au commun people ; sur peyne denprisonment." 
 
471] Medieval Guilds of England. 91 
 
 case of a dispute between a master-shearman and 
 his "vadlett," the latter had been accustomed to go 
 to his associates, and by "covin and conspiracy" so 
 arrange it that no one should work for his own 
 master until the matter had been substantially 
 settled; in future, however, the disagreements are 
 to be arranged, as in the other trades, by the 
 wardens. 1 But although this, as well as the similar 
 case of the journeymen weavers in 1362, 2 resembles 
 to a certain degree our modern strike and boycott, it 
 is not indicative of any general banding together 
 of the yeomen against the employers. 
 
 For although the journeymen and apprentices 
 here and there formed associations of their own, 
 these were simple fraternities of a social character. 
 As on the Continent, they were considered quite 
 harmless and in most cases freely permitted. Some- 
 times, however, they were prohibited, as tending to 
 weaken the paternal authority of the craftsmen. 
 The "congregations" of the journeymen cord- 
 wainers above were doubtless of this class and 
 continued to exist, for over three-quarters of a 
 century later they are again charged with making 
 an illegal fraternity for which they sought a confirma- 
 tion from the Pope.' The general proclamation of 
 1383 was however not directed especially against 
 such associations, as has been represented. For this 
 forbade conspiracies and combinations of all kinds, 
 
 * Manorial*, 247. 
 *Mtwrial*, 306. 
 'Ibid.. 495. 
 
93 MedicBval Guilds of England. [472 
 
 and did not mention the workmen at all. 1 Probably 
 the regulation was designed to prevent the recur- 
 rence of such riots as had taken place during Wat 
 Tyler's uprising, in 1381. The character of the early 
 journeymen's guilds is shown by their fraternities in - 
 Coventry, where the journeymen or young people of 
 various trades, "observing what merry meetings 
 and feasts their masters had, themselves wanted the 
 like pleasure, and did therefore of their own accord 
 assemble together, and for their better conjunction 
 make choice of a master with clerks and officers." 2 
 But as this was found to be to "the prejudice of the 
 other guilds and disturbance of the city," the mayor 
 and citizens petitioned the king, in 1425 to abolish 
 them. 
 
 !; 
 
 The journeymen saddlers in London had also 
 formed a fraternity during the fourteenth century, 
 but in 1396 the masters complained that the men 
 deserted their work too often in order to attend the 
 vigils of their deceased brethren, and to make 
 offerings for them on the morrow, occurrences 
 which were made the occasion of much carousing.* 
 So also the "yomen taillours," composed of the 
 servingmen and journeymen formed an assembly 
 and inhabited houses in a certain district of the 
 city in contradiction of their masters' wishes. Ad- 
 
 14 'That no man make none congregacions conventicles ne assem- 
 bles of peoples in prive neu apert .ne over more in none 
 
 manere ne make alliances, confederacies, conspiracies, ne obliga- 
 ciouns forio bynde men togidre forto susteyne eny qnereles in 
 lyvingge and deyingge togidre." Memorial*, 480. Brentano hence 
 errs. 
 
 *Rotuli Clautorum, 3 Hen. VI ; Dugdalc, 125. 
 
 3 Jfcm. 542. A precisely similar complaint is made in France. 
 Ordonnancf, Y-596. 
 
473] Mediceral Guilds of England. 93 
 
 vantage having been taken of this to create several 
 disturbances and to adopt a livery of their own, 
 they were enjoined by the city officers from " com- 
 mitting and perpetrating so harmfully such evils and 
 misdeeds " and admonished to obey the wardens 
 and masters. But this again was no manifesta- 
 tion of any class antagonism. It is especially stated 
 that the journeymen were mere youths. 1 There 
 were no men of mature age in their ranks, for the 
 simple reason that at this period, the beginning of 
 the fifteenth century, it was still possible for every 
 workman to become a master, the one grade passing 
 naturally and by an easy stage into the other. 
 We thus see in the account nothing but the evidence 
 of youthful insubordination. The fraternity more- 
 over, probably after having mended its ways, con- 
 tinued to exist. 
 
 The journeymen's associations which seem to have 
 been quite common (for the statute of 1402 speaks 
 of "fraternities or guilds of servants" in general)* 
 were thus mere social brotherhoods, formed by the 
 young "desirous of merry meetings and feasts." 
 It is not permissible to cite them as proving any 
 conflict between labor and capital at this period. 
 The unions were everywhere confined to the youths 
 who in turn gradually became masters and were 
 enrolled as full members of the craft-guild proper. 
 
 This virtual identity of interests and the predomi- \ 
 nance of labor continued until the close of the I 
 fifteenth and commencement of the sixteenth cen- / 
 
 1 "Journeymen and eervingmen like a race at once youthful and 
 unstable," etc. Jfem. 611. 
 '26 Rich. II. 
 
94 Medieval Guilds of England. 474] 
 
 / turies. It has, indeed, been asserted 1 that the plague 
 of 1348-9 brought the opposition between the 
 working class and the employers, between labor and 
 capital to a crisis. But this is an error and ante 
 dates the true course of events by at least a century. 
 The celebrated Statutes of Laborers, passed immedi- 
 diately after the pestilence, were intended to check 
 the immense increase in the rate of wages which 
 followed as a natural result of the dearth of work, 
 men. They strictly defined the amount which farm 
 lal orers as well as all manner of artisans were to 
 take for their services, and referred as a standard to 
 the rates prevalent in 1346, the last year of great 
 plenty and cheapness before the plague. To regard 
 these statutes as harsh and iniquitous enactments 
 unjustifiably oppressing the workmen is erroneous, 
 because prices as well as wages were regulated. 2 
 The provisions extended to all classes of traders and 
 merchants as well as to the artisans, and were 
 nothing but a manifestation of the mediaeval 
 economic policy which made custom and not compe- 
 tition the controlling law. But the opposing view, 
 that the purpose of the law was to protect the poor 
 and the weak, is fanciful; we should suppose that 
 
 'By Brentaiio, cxliii. Cunningham, 194 falls into the same error. 
 Weeden, The Social Law of Labor, 173, who follows Brentaiio, is 
 equally incorrect in his statement that the guild statutes before the 
 fourteenth century do not mention workmen as such. The only 
 complete ordinances that we have before 1300, those of the Cap- 
 pers and Lorimers of London, speak of the emprentiz, serjeaunt, 
 soudeier and servientes. Liber Cutt. 78, 4, <5 ; 101, 6. 
 
 2 23 Ed. Ill c. 6. Also 25 Ed. III. In France a similar statute 
 was passed in 1351, which, however, permitted the workmen to take 
 one-third more than before the plague, and which regulated all 
 prices minutely. Ordonnnncc*, 11-377. 
 
475] Mediceval Guilds of England. 95 
 
 the English parliament was overflowing with love 
 and kindness to the weak and oppressed, and had no 
 aim but to alleviate their distress. Unfortunately 
 the mediaeval legislators were not of that stamp, but 
 under the guise of well-sounding phrases generally 
 pursued the selfish interests of the higher classes to 
 which they belonged. In the regulations of 1350 
 for London we see the truth, half expressed in the 
 words, " to amend and redress the damages, the 
 grievances of the good folks rich and poor," so that 
 at all events the enactment was not even ostensibly 
 made in the interests of the poor alone. 1 
 
 But the importance of the statute lies in the fact 
 that while the country workmen mentioned were 
 mere agricultural laborers, the provisions relating to 
 the town artisans included all of the enumerated 
 artificers, masters as well as journeymen. Both are 
 treated alike under the general appellation of work- 
 men or artificers, for it would have been poor policy 
 to reduce the wages of the journeymen simul- 
 taneously with allowing the full guild-members to 
 charge for their handiwork as they chose. The 
 misconception has arisen from the use of the word 
 " masters*' in the preamble, 2 for it evidently refers 
 in that place only to the landlords and to those of 
 the general public that might have occasion to enlist 
 the services of the craftsmen or guild -member. But 
 there is certainly no intention to draw any distinc- 
 tion between the master- workman and the journey- 
 
 1 Regulations as to wages and prices, Memorials. 253. 
 
 2 "Because a great part of the people, and especially of workingmen 
 and servants, late died of the pestilence, many, seeing the necessity 
 of masters, will not serve unless they receive excessive wages," etc. 
 Stat. 1-907-311. 
 
96 Medieval Guild* of England. [476 
 
 man, between the two different classes existing in 
 the craft itself, for the list of workmen includes 
 masters in the sense of guild-members as well as 
 others. 1 The fortunes of craftsman and yeoman 
 were still substantially the same ; there was no new 
 and vital distinction now appearing for the first 
 time between employer and employed within the 
 craft. Of course the master-artisan was engaged by 
 various members of the population to perform 
 stipulated work, and in this sense there was a dis- 
 tinction between the temporary employer and 
 employed such as had always existed; and it was to 
 regulate this very relation that the statute was 
 adopted. But the question now engaging our atten- 
 tion is a quite different one, namely, was there a 
 capitalist class engaged in production as distin- 
 guished from and giving employment to a laboring 
 class as such. The answer cannot be equivocal. 
 
 The regulations which were immediately issued in 
 London and other towns serve to attest the truth of 
 the foregoing statement. The prices which the 
 artisans are to take for their work are carefully 
 defined, but the journeymen or "garsons" occur 
 only twice in the long enumeration, and the regula- 
 tion is manifestly intended for the guild-member or 
 master-workman. 2 And in the succeeding statutes 
 which speak of the laborers and artificers, the 
 master- workmen are always meant, unless, as is 
 rarely the case, especial mention is made of the yeo- 
 
 1 23 Ed. Ill, c. 5 simply speaks of "quicumqce alii artifices et 
 operarii." 
 
 * Memorial*, 253. The master-daubers for instance shall take 5d., 
 the journeymen 3 id., per day. 
 
477] Mediasval Guild* of England. 97 
 
 men. 1 It would, however, have been impossible for 
 the masters to reduce the prices of their own labor 
 without a similar action on the part of their assist- 
 ants and this accordingly took place without opposi- 
 tion everywhere except among the shearmen, wher^ 
 the masters petitioned for an equable reduction of 
 the journeymen's wages, and reminded the authori- 
 ties that they themselves had been treated in a 
 similar manner. 1 We see, then, that it is entirely 
 incorrect to speak of a general conflict between 
 capital and labor at this period. 
 
 Even in the trade of masons, which has been 
 brought prominently forward as tending to prove a 
 class antagonism, the relation was still similar. The 
 statutes which forbid combinations among the 
 masons and carpenters were not directed against the 
 journeymen, as has been asserted, but against the 
 masters themselves. 3 The reason is expressly stated 
 to be the infringement of the statute of laborers 
 which, as we know, prescribed the prices of the 
 masters' labor. The masons, or free-masons, were 
 probably regarded with peculiar disfavor on account 
 of their curious solemnities, which were often 
 declared blasphemous in France and elsewhere ; but 
 their growth was nevertheless fostered by the church 
 authorities because of their great aid in constructing 
 the cathedrals. In 1429 a lodge of free-masons was 
 initiated by the archbishop of Canterbury himself. 4 
 
 E. g. 34 Ed. mcos? Ed. III. c. 6, where artificers or handi- 
 craft people occur, and opposed in c. 9 to the yeomen. 
 * Memorial*, 250. 
 
 3 "That all alliances and covins of masons and carpenters, and con- 
 gregations, chapters, ordinances and oaths betwixt them made, or to 
 be made, shall be void and wholly annulled." Ed. III. c 9 (1360). 
 Cf. for the reason 3 Hen. VI. c. 1 (1427). 
 
 4 Hut. of Freemawnry, 95. 
 
 7 
 
98 Mediwval Guilds of England. [478 
 
 There is no evidence that the number of dependent 
 workmen was so much greater in this trade than in 
 any other, and the most superficial glance into the 
 archives and statutes of the middle ages will show 
 that the legal regulations of wages referred not only 
 to the building trades but to every conceivable and 
 well-known occupation, and thus do not " indicate 
 the peculiar position of these trades." The royal 
 mandate of 1353, moreover, as to the workmen 
 engaged in building the palace of Westminster, does 
 not by any means tell us of a strike, but simply 
 speaks of the withdrawal of certain workmen without 
 the permission of the king, and of their accepting 
 employment in other places.* They were patently 
 master-masons, for it would have been out of the 
 question for the journeymen to make independent 
 contracts of service with any members of the public. 
 The crown objected to the masons seeking work 
 elsewhere because it had for centuries claimed the 
 right of commanding the labor of any of its sub- 
 jects/ just as during this century it still impressed 
 seamen into its service. But there was no strike or 
 opposition between master and workman in the 
 modern sense. The city enactments of the period 
 treated them alike with the exception that masters 
 were permitted to take slightly more than the jour- 
 
 'Brentano, cxlv. 
 
 *Mfm. 271. "Whereas many workmen and laborers who were 
 
 retained upon our works and were receiving our wages, have 
 
 withdrawn from such our works without leave, and have been re. 
 ceived to work for divers men of the city and county," etc., etc. 
 
 See the curious case of a joiner ordered to " coom to the king's 
 worcke," in 1541, and his excuses for delay. Proceed. Privy Coun- 
 cil VII-254. 
 
479J Mediaral Guilds of England. 99 
 
 neymen for their exertions. But the restrictions 
 applied equally to both classes, for they were still all 
 in effect laborers, although, it is true, of different 
 grades. 1 
 
 We are now in a position to form a judgment of 
 the merits of the craft-guild system in its prime, \ 
 from the twelfth to the fifteenth or sixteenth century. / ^ i 
 The guilds were, on the whole, admirably adapted ' 
 to the necessities of the period, and their faults were / 
 those common to all mediaeval economic institutions. 
 Primarily intended as an organization of the inde- 
 pendent middle class, the crafts were useful adjuncts \ 
 in upholding industrial order, and, on the whole, did 
 not prove untrue to their task as organs for the 
 transmission of skill and probity from generation to 
 generation. The apprentice and journeyman found 
 in the guild a school well calculated to fit them for 
 their future career, and, treated as members of the 
 family union, they were taught the value of self-' 
 restraint and impressed with the feeling of necessity 
 for self-improvement. The possibility of reaching 
 the goal of complete independence, attainable by 
 all without exception, acted as a stimulus to good 
 behavior and honest workmanship, while the har- 
 monious relations in the workshop and the absence 
 of any serious class opposition inculcated many a 
 valuable lesson capable of being turned to account 
 in later life. 
 
 The craft-guilds, it is true, imposed many limita- 
 
 >Cf. the carpenters, masons, plasterers, daubers, tilers and "lour 
 servauntz." Liber Atiu* 728; the tilers and "lour parsons," lb. 
 729, repetitions of the order made under Ed. I. IMtcr Cud. 99, where 
 the employer gives the master-workman meals in part payment. 
 See also Ochenchowaki, 117. 
 
100 Medieval Guilds of England. [480 
 
 tions on the members. In pursuance of the general 
 spirit of mediaeval legislation they prevented an 
 undue competition and thus rendered any individual 
 opulence impossible. They entered into minute and 
 often unwise regulations of manufacture, and sur- 
 rounded the artificers with a network of galling 
 restrictions. But they strove to ensure honesty and 
 satisfaction, and did not, as might be supposed, 
 prove a serious drag on the progress of industry. 
 For this was, after all, conditioned rather by the gen. 
 eral laws than by any independent achievement of the 
 
 r guilds. The small handicraftsman felt his honor 
 involved in maintaining the good traditions of his 
 predecessors; and possibly because the organization 
 pieserved him from a continual struggle for existence 
 and ensured a comparatively contented life, he endeav- 
 ored to increase his efficiency and to take an honest 
 
 j pride in the creations of his own industry. But the 
 ' secret of the success of the guild, and of the absence 
 
 t of any serious social struggles, lies in the fact that 
 every workman either was, or could in time become, 
 ^his own master. Acting as his own employer, and 
 thrown into direct contact with the consumers, he 
 was enabled to take advantage of the improvement 
 made in the methods of production, and to reap the 
 benefits for himself. In other words, he enjoyed 
 both wages and profits, and in this character of 
 [profit-taker he kept pace with the progress of indus- 
 try. It was a period of the predominance of labor 
 over capital, but still there was a cooperation between 
 the two elements. The chief value of the craft-guilds 
 : viewed from this standpoint was constituted by the 
 fact that they favored the possession of a small 
 ( i capital by the workman himself. This consideration 
 
481] Mediccral Guilds of England. 101 
 
 becomes important in the light of modern problems, 
 for the guilds thus in part realized the Ultima Thule 
 of present industrial aspirations, the system of pro- 
 ductive cooperation. And although the conditions 
 have been too materially altered to make a new birth 
 of the craft-guilds either possible or desirable, their 
 earlier history would tend to show thai the main ; 
 principle which underlay their economic prosperity 
 is still capable of being infused witU-'n* new '.Vrgop*-! 
 that may one day revolutionize existing relations. 
 
 The limits of this essay will not permit us to trace 
 the later fortunes of the crafts, their gradual degen- 
 eration and final decay in the succeeding centuries, 
 nor to institute any comparison with the continental 
 guilds in this place. We shall be satisfied to have 
 thrown some light on the real nature and position of 
 the guilds-merchant and their connection with the 
 towns, as well as to have shown that the hitherto 
 accepted views as to the origin and function of the 
 craft-guilds are in a great measure erroneous. The 
 guild-merchant had by no means the influence 
 ascribed to it in municipal development; and the 
 craft-guild, although incontestably ameliorating the~| 
 condition of the mediaeval laborer, had its chief 
 characteristics impressed from without, performing a 
 valuable service in upholding industrial order, and 
 escaping any class antagonism in the period of its 
 prosperity rather by the natural force of external 
 circumstances than by any conscious and independent 
 action of its own. 
 

 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ON THE ETYMOLOGY OP GUILD. 
 
 The word guild (gild, gyld, gilde, gylde, ghilde, 
 gicld , gylda, gilda, gulda, gildona, ghildonia, gellonia) 
 is used in the early documents in three senses: contri- 
 bution, feast, and association. Of these the first is 
 the primary signification. The root is found in the 
 Anglo-Saxon gylden, or geldan, "to pay," and in 
 this sense of payment or money compensation the 
 term occurs in the early laws and far down into the 
 Norman epoch. As examples compare the following : 
 Wergeld or wergild, 1 the penalty paid for murder ; 
 angylde,* the simple value of the article stolen ; 
 theofgild, the penalty paid by thieves ; hydgylde 8 the 
 payment made by slaves as a substitute for flogging; 
 ceap gild, 4 the marketprice or money equivalent ; 
 deovlum-gelda, 5 payment or offering to the devil, 
 and the common dane-gild. The word guild is also 
 used alone in the sense of money penalty.' In 
 Domesday the word geldare, "to pay," is used on 
 almost every page, as also the term gild a, or " pay- 
 ment to the king," 7 and geldabilis (guildable), "liable 
 
 '^thelbirht c. 31 (Thorpe, Ancient Lawt, 11). Cf. Leod-geld c. 7. 
 'Alfred, c. 6 (Thorpe, 67). 
 Ine, c. 2 (Thorpe, 105). 
 
 Vudfe. ficU. London, c. 1 4 and ^Ethelstan, c. 19 (Thorpe, 229, 209). 
 Wihtraed, c. 12 (Thorpe, 41). 
 JEthelstan, c. 19. 
 
 ''In gildam de Dovere" I-llb, fol. 108b. "Hoc Bargain non geldat 
 nisi qaamlo Exonia geldat, et tone reddat xi denarioa pro geldo." 
 
104 APPENDIX. [484 
 
 to pay." 1 The word guild occurs in this sense far 
 into the Middle Ages. Of. "quietus ab omnibus gil- 
 dis" in the laws of Henry I.* and "gulda," or "guda," 
 in the same signification in the Hundred Rolls. 5 The 
 "guildable" is the district from which these pay- 
 ments are raised. This was the original meaning in 
 all Teutonic tongues : Gothic gild, Danish gield, old 
 German gelten, modern German geld. 
 
 As a distinctive feature of the early unions was 
 the common contribution, the word gild was naturally 
 and gradually applied to the society itself as well as 
 to the banquets and festivities whose expenses were 
 defrayed by common payments. Brentano (Ixviii) 
 inverts cause and effect in asserting the original 
 meaning to be a sacrificial meal. Sacrifice, moreover, 
 has nothing to do with the primary meaning. Gilde 
 to-day yet signifies a banquet in Danish, 4 and is 
 probably used in the sense of festivity in the laws of 
 Hen. 1., "in omni potacione vel gylde." 5 The use of 
 the term in later times in the phrase "meadow-guild" 
 has been explained above.* Some writers who have 
 failed to notice these three distinct meanings imagine 
 that the word always implies a real association ; 
 others, on the contrary, exaggerate the primary sig- 
 nification and scarcely allow the . idea of union to 
 come to the foreground at all. 7 Both extremes are 
 
 Cf. fol. 20 and 262. Cf. Stat. 11 Hen. VII. c. 9 (1495) "The lands 
 shall be gildable." Also Madox, Firma B. t 80. 
 
 2 II 3 (Thorpe, 501). 
 
 *Rot. Hund. 193. Archxol. Jour. VIII-411. "Ad geldam et 
 Scottum " Madox, F. B. t 273. 
 
 4 Wilda.9, 18. 
 
 'Thorpe, Ancient Law, 1-538. 
 
 Cf. p. 47. 
 
 'Lappenberg, Gech. t 1-609, Merew. and Steph. I,-82 et patnm. 
 
485] 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 105 
 
 incorrect. Hensleigh Wedgewood gives a fantastic 
 derivation from the Welsh " gwyl," a holiday. 1 Sul- 
 livan connects it with the Irish "gial," a pledge. 2 But 
 these are farfetched explanations and unnecessary, 
 The word having obtained its general meaning of 
 "society," was naturally applied to both merchant 
 and craft guild, although their aims were quite dif- 
 ferent from those of the Anglo-Saxon unions and 
 social fraternities. 
 
 * English Etymology, 1-19. 
 
 1 0'Cuny's Irith, I-ocxvL Cf. in general Thorpe, Ducange, Spel- 
 man, Glouary, . e.; Merew. and St. 14, 294, 353, 600 ; Lucy Smith in 
 Ord. xix ; Schniid, Index, 603; Wilda, cap. 1 ; Hartwig ; Feith, ( AJ 
 
 OildU Groningani*.) 
 
LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 
 
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 ANDERSON, An historical and chronological Deduction of the 
 
 Origin of Commerce. 2 vols. London, 1764. 
 ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE, ed. Benj. Thorpe. 2 vols. Lond 
 
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 ARCH.EOLOGIA, Published by the Society of Antiquaries of Lon- 
 don, from 1770 on to the present. 
 ARCHAEOLOGICAL Journal, or Journal of the Archaeological 
 
 Institute. London, from 1845 on. 
 ASHLEY, The Early History of the English .Woollen Industry. 
 
 American Economic Association. 1887. 
 BAINES, History of Lancaster. 4 vols. 1836. 
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 BLACK BOOK of the Admiralty. 4 vols. esp. vol. II. London, 
 
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 BLOMEFIELD, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the 
 
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 BOLDON BUKE, ed. by Greenwell. Surtees Society, 1852. 
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 , Die Arbeitergilden der Gegenwart. 2 vols. Leipeic, 1871. 
 
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108 LIST OP AUTHORITIES. [488 
 
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 , Urkundliche Geschichte des hansischen Stahlhofs zu Lon- 
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110 LIST OF AUTHORITIES. [490 
 
 MACKENZIE, Discriptive and historical account of Newcastle-on- 
 
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491] LIST OP AUTHORITIES. Ill 
 
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 Appendix. 
 
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