The Probert Encyclopaedia of Money

GUILD

A guild is a society or association for carrying on commerce, a handicraft, or some other undertaking. Such associations are known from very early times in various countries. The societies of tradesmen exclusively authorized to practise their art, and governed by laws of their own, played a very important part in the middle ages. They often formed a bulwark against the oppression of the nobility, and were thus extremely conducive to the growth of municipal and civil liberty. Traces of these trade societies are found in the 10th century.

In Milan we find the mechanics united under the name credential. At Florence the trades were federated into twenty-one guilds or arti. These originated in 1282, on the overthrow of the nobility, and every candidate for citizenship was obliged to enter some particular guild. Such a step became a necessity at a period in which individual rights, as such, failed to secure respect. The purely Teutonic guilds, although connected with the constitution of the cities, possessed certain peculiarities. In the 13th century the German guilds of craftsmen obtained the right of defending by arms their own interests, and became so powerful that persons unconnected with a trade were often glad to attach themselves to them. As illustrations of the manner in which associations originally instituted for defensive purposes became the mainstay of a tyrannical monopoly may be mentioned, the frequent withholding of permission from more than a certain number of master mechanics to reside in one place, the restrictions placed upon particular branches of industry, and upon the free exercise, by each individual, of his trade except under the sanction of the guilds.

With the view of destroying the political influence which they had acquired the Emperor Frederick II abolished them by a decree issued in 1240; but the decree remained without effect, as did also the clauses inserted with a similar view into the Golden Bull in 1356, and it was not until the 20th century that unrestricted freedom to practise any trade was established in the German states. In Austria this was done in 1860, and in 1868 it was done for all the states of the North German Confederation.

In Britain trade guilds long possessed an importance which was mainly political. As the right of voting was involved in the membership of a guild, many persons, not mechanics, acquired the rights of 'freemen' by connecting themselves with some body of this kind. These guilds, in England, had no legal right to prevent any man from exercising what trade he pleased. The only restriction on the exercise of trades was the statute of Elizabeth I, requiring seven years' apprenticeship. This the courts held to extend to such trades only as were in being at the time of the passing of that statute; but by an act passed in 1835, every kind of restriction on artisans, trades, etc, was abolished.

The guilds or companies of the city of London (among the oldest of which are the weavers, founded in 1164; the parish clerks, in 1232; the saddlers, in 1280; the fishmongers, in 1284) were still very important corporations at the start of the 20th century, and gave relief to poor and decayed members, and also managed vast funds bequeathed for benevolent purposes. Besides the secular guilds there were from a very early period, in Britain, religious guilds. From the time of Henry II all such guilds were required to have a charter from the crown. In 1388 a return of these guilds was ordered to be made, and it was then found that that of Corpus Christi, York, numbered 14,800 members. The property of the religious guilds was sequestrated in the reign of Henry VIII.

In France guild-privileges were sold by the state from the 10th century until the revolution of 1789, but at that date guilds were entirely abolished. This was done also at a later period in Belgium, Holland, Italy, Sweden, and Denmark. Many of the trades-unions have now somewhat of the character of the ancient guilds.
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