Guild

The craft guild was important in the life of the medieval city, closely affecting the economic welfare of both artisans and consumers. It sought to aid artisans in two principal ways: by protecting against the competition of artisans in the same trade in other cities, and by protecting from possible competition of fellow citizens working in other shops belonging to the same trade. The guild accomplished the first aim by monopolizing its trade in the city, thus permitting no goods from other cities to be imported for sale. It fulfilled the second by establishing uniform hours for all shops making the same commodity, and uniform wages for workers in the same industry. To prevent any one master from obtaining an advantage over another, the guild decreed how many people were to be employed in each shop, the number of tools to be used, the hours of labor, and the prices the master could charge for his finished goods. The guild enforced its rules by constant and close supervision of the shops. No master was permitted to advertise his goods, lest he attract more business than another master. Any improvement in the technique of production, which might enable one shop to produce goods more quickly and cheaply than another, was likewise prohibited. The aim of the craft guild was to create complete equality among the members of each of the three classes into which it was divided. Consumers benefited from the existence of the craft guild chiefly because of the high standards of the guild set up for finished work, although they were deprived of the possibility of lower prices from improved methods of production and from competition in selling.

The craft guilds were an important force in the economic life of Europe from the 12th to the 15th century. In France and Flanders in the 12th and 13th centuries they frequently threatened to seize control of municipal governments. To weaken the guilds, some municipalities deprived them of many privileges, including the right to regulate industries. In the 14th century, nevertheless, the guilds began to compete with the rich merchants of the cities for the right to govern. In some cities the guilds actually succeeded in taking over the municipal government completely. In Liège, in 1384, for example, the municipal council was composed entirely of representives from the 32 craft guilds of that city.

In the 15th century, however, the power of the craft guilds began to decline. They became subject to the internal tensions described above, between masters and journeymen. They were also subjected to much criticism and sometimes to action by public authorities because of the restrictions they placed upon industrial activity and freedom of labor. The chief cause, however, of the decline and eventual disappearance of the craft guilds was the rise in the 16th century of a new system for producing and distributing commodities, capitalism. This new economic system stressed large-scale production of goods, competition for markets between producers, and wide distribution of goods. Inasmuch as the craft guild was inclined against all three principles, capitalists generally established their shops in centers where no craft guilds existed. The latter, unable to produce goods even for their own local markets as quickly or cheaply as did the capitalistic enterprises, were slowly forced out of existence. In 1776 Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, controller general of finance for Louis XVI of France, abolished all but four of the craft guilds in order to permit workers freely to offer their services to employers, and during the French Revolution all guilds were abolished. Prussia and other German states abolished the German craft guilds at the beginning of the 19th century, and those craft guilds that still remained in Britain were abolished by acts of Parliament in 1814 and 1835.

The term guild is still in considerable use today. It is applied to associations of various kinds—for example, associations for charitable work and organizations formed to promote various cultural activities, such as music and the drama—and to certain labor organizations such as the American Newspaper Guild. It is also applied to a type of modern socialism.