THE MERCHANT GILD.
[Sidenote: _Universality of Gild feeling._]
Dr Brentano[10] is particularly desirous to make it clear that he
considers England "the birthplace of Gilds." But it is scarcely necessary
to point out that the conception of the Gild belongs to no particular age
and to no particular country. Not to insist unduly on the universality of
an institution from which some writers have derived the Gilds, and to
which they certainly bear considerable resemblance, the family--common to
humanity itself--we note that the Greeks had their [Greek: eranoi][11] and
their [Greek: xunomosiai][12], and the Romans their _collegia
opificum_[13], each exhibiting not a few of the features of the mediaeval
Gilds. _Corps des metiers_ existed in France in very early times, perhaps
in direct continuation of the Roman institutions, and played a great part
in the beginnings of many towns[14]. So early as to be anterior to the
earliest known Frith Gilds, that is to say in the latter half of the
seventh century, a regularly organised system of confederation existed
among the Anglo-Saxon monasteries throughout England, according to the
rules of which the united Abbeys and Religious Houses undertook to pray
for the members, living and departed, of one another[15]:
[Sidenote: _English and Continental Gilds._]
Each of these associations, so various in date and object, bore great
resemblance to the Gilds of later times, according as the latter are
considered in the light of some one or other of their functions: now it is
the common feast, now it is the possession of corporate property, here it
is the union of all the workmen of a craft into one sodality, there it is
the association of neighbours for mutual responsibility and protection;
now it is the confraternity "in omni obsequio religionis." Such a
tendency to association is simply the result of man's gregarious nature,
and there is no need to restrict what is found alike in all peoples and
all periods. But it is none the less true that the tendency has been more
strongly marked in England than elsewhere. The earliest Gild Statutes
which have come down to us are English[16], and the development of Gilds
in England proceeded according to its normal course without being diverted
and confused by external and disturbing circumstances. The real history of
Gilds will thus be the history of _English_ Gilds, not of those of the
Continent, whose records detail rather a bitter struggle between rival
classes in the towns[17]. If the constitutional importance of the Gilds
was thus greater on the Continent than it was in England[18], this was
because _there_ a social institution was dragged out of its proper sphere
of action, and in the arena of politics was shorn of the most attractive
of its features.
[Sidenote: _Value of history of local Gilds._]
In these pages we shall be concerned solely with examples drawn from the
history of our own country. Where necessary reference will be made to the
institutions of other towns, but in general our attention will be
concentrated on one provincial borough only--a town, as we have seen, well
calculated to illustrate the social life of England in the past. It is
only by working out the several departments of local municipal history
that anything like a complete view of the subject can be ultimately
obtained[19]. In the following chapters an attempt will be made to
contribute something towards such a consummation.
The records of the later Craft Gilds at Shrewsbury are entirely
satisfactory, but unfortunately those of the Merchant Gild are of the most
meagre description. They throw but little light therefore on its functions
or history, and still less on the interesting question as to the precise
nature of the relationship which existed between the Gilda Mercatoria and
the Communa. Our attention will consequently be chiefly directed to an
examination of the history and development of the _Craft Gilds_. A few
remarks, more or less general in their scope, on the Merchant Gild seem
however to be called for, in anticipation of the history of the later
trade associations.
[Sidenote: _Growth of towns in twelfth century._]
In England, as elsewhere, the growth of the towns was one of the most
marked features of the twelfth century. This was due to various causes.
William's conquest had opened up increased facilities for communication
with the Continent: the Norman soldiers brought skilled Norman traders in
their train, and so war ministered to commerce just as subsequently the
Crusades were largely helpful to the growth of trade and the progress of
the towns. The vigorous administration of Henry I. and Henry II. had also
facilitated the expansion of industry. Henry I. favoured the rising towns
both because of their commercial utility and in order to make use of their
counterbalancing influence against the power of the Barons. Shrewsbury he
took into his own hands, having enforced the surrender of the town from
the rebellious Robert de Belesme. The amendment of the currency and the
organisation of the Courts of King's Bench and Exchequer were also as
favourable to material prosperity as were the legal reforms of Henry II.
afterwards. The circuits of the Justices Itinerant were restored, and
appeals to the king in Council were established. A further weakening of
baronial power was also effected by the destruction of the castles which
the lawlessness of Stephen's tenure of the sovereignty had permitted;
while the introduction of scutage made the king in some measure
independent of the feudal forces by enabling him to call in the support of
mercenary troops. On the other hand the Assize of Arms restored the
national militia to its old important place.
Shrewsbury had seemed to be depressed by the conquest. The town had been
granted, in the first instance, to Roger de Montgomery, whose two great
works, his castle and his abbey, yet remain. Both the earl and his works
were at first the cause of complaint. In Domesday Book it is pointed out
that Montgomery had destroyed 51 houses to make room for his castle; to
the abbey he had granted 39 burgesses; 43 houses in the town were held by
Normans and exempted from taxation. Consequently, as the same sum was
required from the town as had been paid _tempore regis Edwardi_, the
burden fell with undue hardship on the English inhabitants who remained.
But the ultimate result of both castle and monastery was beneficial to the
town. The latter attracted trade and the former protected it[20], and
Shrewsbury early became a commercial centre of some importance.
[Sidenote: _They differed little from country, except in possession of a
Merchant Gild_]
The towns at this period differed but little from the country. They both
engaged in agriculture as well as trade; they were alike governed by a
royal officer, or by some lord's steward. In the towns the houses were of
course more closely clustered, and a further difference arose afterwards
in the fact that a freeman in the town, when admitted to the Gild, might
be landless[21]. The chief distinction indeed between town and country lay
in the fact that the former had a Merchant Gild.
[Sidenote: _to preserve peace._]
The origin of such commercial unions is lost in the dimness of antiquity.
Even in Anglo-Saxon times Dover had its Gildhall, and Canterbury and
London are said to have been also possessed of trading associations. They
came into being at first probably to preserve peace. At the date of the
Conquest the right of jurisdiction almost invariably belonged to whoever
held the town, but we cannot conceive that Roger Montgomery's successors
would be likely to concern themselves overmuch with internal police. As a
fact it would rest with the burghers themselves to protect their goods
and persons from mishap.
[Sidenote: _A.-S. Frith Gilds._]
[Sidenote: _Trade regulations._]
[Sidenote: _Royal authorisation: earliest mention._]
Frith Gilds, with much the same objects, had been common anterior to the
Conquest[22]. In most places where there was a market it was essential
that some recognised authority should be in existence to keep the peace,
as well as to be witness to sales[23]. The "laws of the city of London"
were apparently drawn up with the express design of supplementing
defective law[24]. They exhibit to us a complete authority for the
supervision of trade, corresponding to the later Merchant Gild in nearly
every particular: there is the common stock, the head man, the periodical
meetings at which "byt-fylling" plays its usual important part[25]. The
"ordinance which King Ethelred and his Witan ordained as 'frith-bot' for
the whole nation" imposed the duty of pursuing offenders on the town to
which they belonged[26]. There was thus evidently some organisation within
the boundaries of the town, and as the chief of the burgesses forming this
organisation were also the chief merchants (since trade was the
_raison-d'etre_ of the towns) it soon began naturally to frame commercial
regulations[27]. So the Town Gild became, when, after the Norman Conquest,
trade had assumed important dimensions, the Gilda Mercatoria with
exclusive powers and privileges by royal charter. The earliest
unmistakable mention of a Merchant Gild is at the end of the eleventh or
the beginning of the twelfth century[28]. Under Henry I. grants of
Merchant Gilds appear in one or two of the charters granted to towns[29],
and under Henry II., Richard and John they become more frequent[30].
Shrewsbury was one of the few which had the Merchant Gild confirmed as
early as the reign of Henry II.[31]
By these charters what had originally been a voluntary association now
became an exclusive body to which trade was restricted.
Important as were the advantages gained by the procuring of such royal
authorisation, these charters only set the seal to what had existed in
effect before. The landed and mercantile interests were practically
identical within the towns: the great merchants were also the great
landowners; the Gilda Mercatoria could thus frame regulations which it
would be extremely difficult for any trader to disregard[32].
[Sidenote: _Functions._]
Besides, the benefits which resulted from common trading would be too
obvious for any individual who could procure entrance into the Gild to
abstain from doing so. It was far more to the common interest that one
representative should buy for all and then divide the purchase equitably
than that each should compete with each and so minister simply to the
profit of the seller.
There are several examples of such combined purchasing by a royal or
municipal officer in towns where there was no Merchant Gild[33]. It was
however generally effected by means of the latter, the granting of which
meant the according of permission to the members to settle for themselves
their custom in buying and selling.
The retail trade within the town was restricted to their own members
individually, and the wholesale trade coming _to_ the town was reserved to
themselves collectively. Members of the Merchant Gild alone might sell
within the walls, and traders coming from without might sell only to the
Merchant Gild.
There was no danger then as there would be now of such a practice driving
all trade away from the town, for the restrictions in force at one place
would be paralleled almost exactly in every other. At the periodical fairs
alone did free trade prevail.
But the exclusive privileges might be exceedingly harmful if the main body
of householders were not members of the Merchant Gild. It was then the
fact that the restricted trading was not "to the advantage of the
community of the borough but only to the advantage of those who are of the
said society[34]." When however the great majority of the householders
were members of the trading corporation the arrangement would work well
and beneficially for the whole town.
[Sidenote: _All Burgesses are Gildsmen._]
The effect of the granting of royal authorisation was, therefore, to
finally draw all burgesses into the Gild, for all townsmen of any
importance were traders. The records of the Shrewsbury Merchant Gild,
though of the scantiest description, are sufficient to show how
comprehensive was its range. All branches of trade were, at least down to
the time of Edward I., represented in it[35]; it comprised every rank and
degree, proportioning its fines and payments accordingly. The progress of
the fusion of races is shown by the lists of names, which are both Saxon
and Norman in indiscriminate order.
[Sidenote: _Duties of Gildsmen._]
[Sidenote: _Tendency to amalgamation of Gild and Communa._]
So closely indeed did the practical boundaries of Gild and town coincide
that in many places the former seemed to become the Communa, when the
kings began to grant charters of incorporation. Richard I. can even say
that all the privileges of his charter are granted "_civibus nostris
Wintoniae de gilda mercatorum_[36]," seeming to imply that at Winchester at
least there were no citizens extraneous to the Merchant Gild. The villain
flying from his lord could only be admitted to freedom through the
machinery of the Merchant Gild. The Merchant Gild was ready to the hand of
the burgesses as a centre, and the only centre, round which to rally when
engaged in defending their liberties or in procuring fresh privileges. On
the other hand the existence of such a secure and wealthy body, which
would be at all times able to ensure payment of the _firma burgi_, and
the frequent royal assessments which were laid upon the towns, would be an
additional inducement to the kings in granting the charters of liberties.
Glanvill, in the time of Henry II., doubtless already looked on the
Merchant Gild and the Communa as, for all practical purposes,
identical[37], from which the inference seems to lie that the possession
of such a gild had thus early come to be looked upon as the sign and
symbol of municipal independence. It is true that a town _might_ become a
free borough without possessing a Merchant Gild, but this would be an
exception to the general rule. It would be similar to the case of a free
borough not holding the _firma burgi_: such a contingency was possible but
unusual. To the mind of the lawyer therefore the possession of a Merchant
Gild seemed the necessary precursor of a royal charter of privileges. And
in practice this was found to be, speaking generally, the case.
This apparent identity of Burgesses and Gildsmen would find palpable
expression in the fact of the Gild Hall becoming the Town Hall. This
naturally did not take place to any considerable extent before the 14th
century, though during that period it became fairly common. It may have
been that the Merchant Gild permitted the use of its Hall for public
purposes, at first only occasionally and then more and more frequently
until at length what had been exceptional became normal (either through
precedent or purchase[38]); certain it is that the two names of Gild Hall
and Town Hall became practically synonymous in about the 14th and 15th
centuries. This had been foreshadowed at an early date. Domesday Book
spoke of the "gihalla Burgensium[39]" at Dover.
At Shrewsbury, in a charter of 1445, the Town Hall is called, as it is at
this day, the Gildhall.
[Sidenote: _But all Gildsmen not Burgesses._]
But the _ideas_ of Gild-members and townsmen were long kept separate.
Burgess-ship depended on residence[40] and the possession of a
burgage-tenement, but not so membership of the Merchant Gild, which often
comprised among its numbers many outsiders[41]. In this way the two bodies
were clearly distinguished. At Ipswich it was ordered in John's
charter[42] that the statutes of the town were to be kept distinct from
those of the Gild "as is elsewhere used in cities and boroughs where there
is a Gild Merchant," for the latter would probably consist of both "de
hominibus civitatis" and also "de aliis mercatoribus comitatus[43]."
Ecclesiastics[44] and women might also be members of the Gild, but of
course could not be burgesses. Such members had, in some towns, to pay
additional fees[45].
[Sidenote: _Distinction between Gild and Communa preserved in Charters,
but not in practice._]
The charters were always granted to the "Burgesses," without reference to
their capacity as Gild-members, except in the cases where the privileges
granted were such as would only concern members of the Gild. It was the
"burgesses" who purchased the _firma burgi_ and who paid such goodly sums
for trading and other privileges. But in making up these payments they
were glad to avail themselves of the assistance of the non-burgess
merchants, not the least of whose recommendations seemed doubtless to lie
in the share they were willing to bear in contributing to the periodical
tallages and similar royal charges. They were indeed as a document
expresses it most serviceable when it was requisite "_defectus burgi
adimplere_[46]." Although in name it was the burgesses who paid the money
and who purchased the _firma burgi_, it was in fact the Merchant Gild
which bore the largest part.
In another way also the "foreigners" who were members of the Merchant Gild
were useful to the burgess-members of it.
During earlier years all the Craftsmen who so desired, and could afford
the necessary payments, were admitted into the Gild of Merchants. The
designation 'merchant' was then extended to all who engaged in trade. But
as the Gilda Mercatoria became in practice more and more identical with
the Communa the idea seems to have grown up that landless men, renters of
their shops within the towns, should not be admitted to the Gild.
[Sidenote: _Gild seems to become Communa._]
For in this period, that is during the 14th and 15th centuries, the old
democratic government of the towns was giving place to a close governing
council[47]. This was in no sense the Merchant Gild, though probably all
the members of the select body would be members of the Gild[48]. Being
also the most important of its members they would be able to use its
influence for their own ends, and in these measures they would generally
have on their side the majority of the "foreigners," who would not know or
care much about the internal concerns of the town. Thus it came about that
having secured important trading privileges the influence of the Merchant
Gild was chiefly directed, though by a small coterie of its members,
towards municipal rather than mercantile objects.
[Sidenote: _Rise of Craft Gilds favoured by Merchant Gild and Communa._]
[Sidenote: _This favour natural under the circumstances and proved by the
Charters._]
These latter it left to be dealt with by the new companies into which the
craftsmen were beginning to amalgamate. In this action they were helped
and encouraged by the Merchant Gild, or as it now was in practice, the
municipal authority. It is a mistake to speak of the rise of the Craft
Gilds in England as a movement bitterly hostile to the Merchant Gilds and
therefore strenuously opposed by the latter. The reverse was the fact. The
increased complexity of the task of regulating trade, as division of
labour developed and commerce expanded its bounds, became difficult, and
the central body was for this additional reason glad to depute its powers
to, and to exercise its functions through, smaller and specialised
agencies. The charters of the Craft Gilds too contain no articles which
would stand the members in stead in a conflict with a higher power,
whereas if these charters had been the hardly-won prize of a severely
contested struggle they would assuredly have contained some bitter
articles in consequence of the past and in preparation for the future. We
shall however examine the rise and history of the Craft Gilds in the
subsequent chapters.
[Sidenote: _Summary._]
The substance of the foregoing paragraphs may be briefly summarised thus.
The most noticeable feature in the Economic history of England during the
years immediately succeeding the Norman Conquest was the growth of the
towns. They differed however but little from the country districts in
government except in the particular that they possessed a Merchant Gild.
These trading corporations are first unmistakeably perceived soon after
the Conquest, originating probably in the need which arose, as the towns
increased in wealth and importance, for the existence of some authority to
preserve peace within their borders, as without peace and order trade
could not prosper.
Such an union for securing internal peace, consisting as it did of the
principal persons interested, easily went on to enact commercial
regulations. These were, on the one hand, the reserving to its own body
the privilege of purchasing the stock of the foreign merchant, and, on the
other, restricting the right of selling within the town to its own
members. Royal authorisation set the seal to this practice. When the kings
began to give charters to the towns, the legal recognition of their
Merchant Gild was one of the chief of the privileges desired by the
townsmen.
This restricted trading was not prejudicial to the town because
practically all the burgesses were members of the Gild. If they all were
not Gildsmen _before_ the royal authorisation they would be likely to
become so afterwards.
But all Gildsmen were not burgesses. The latter _must_ be residents: the
former frequently included outsiders among their number.
Nevertheless as the years went by, the Gild seemed to become the Communa,
even as the Gild Hall became the Town Hall. Various reasons conduced to
this. There were practically no burgesses extraneous to the Merchant Gild,
though there were often Gildsmen who were not burgesses. The Merchant Gild
was the only machinery for freeing the fugitive villain after a year and a
day's residence in the town. It also afforded the best, and as a fact the
only, centre round which the burgesses could rally in the defence of their
old privileges or in the struggle for fresh ones. Its wealth and stability
were also an additional inducement to the kings in granting to the towns
their _firma burgi_. In theory the Gilda Mercatoria might be kept distinct
from the Communa, but in practice the two bodies were found to be
identical. But the later Communa did not take cognisance of trade affairs
except indirectly through the Craft Gilds which the increasing complexity
of trade was calling into being. Many of the members of these latter
bodies were members of the Merchant Gild, and to them were added large
numbers of the lesser craftsmen. The Craft Gilds specialized the work of
the Merchant Gild, which gradually ceased to discharge any important
office as a collective whole, though through the many branches into which
it had ramified its influence continued to be of the greatest importance
to the welfare of town and trade.
NOTE 1.
LIST OF MERCHANT GILDS.
The following is an attempt to construct a table of grants of the Merchant
Gild (down to 1485), in chronological order, and showing also, where
possible, by whom the grant was made.
Unfortunately the list is in several cases only approximately correct, as
the document from which I have obtained my date shows that the Merchant
Gild has evidently been granted at some previous time. In all cases
however the earliest known mention of the Gild is given.
In compiling this table I should acknowledge my plentiful use of the
materials recently made available in _The Gild Merchant_, by Charles Gross
(Oxford, 1890).
_William II. and Henry I._ (1087-1135)
Burford 1087-1107 Earl of Gloucester
Canterbury 1093-1109
_Henry I._ (1100-35)
Wilton 1100-35 King
Leicester 1107-18 Robert, Earl of Mellent
Beverley 1119-35 Abp Thurstan of York
York 1130-31
_Stephen_ (1135-54)
Chichester King
Lewes Reginald de Warrenne
_Stephen and Henry II._ (1135-89)
Petersfield
_Henry II._ (1154-89)
Carlisle King
Durham
Fordwich
Lincoln King
Oxford
Shrewsbury King
Southampton King
Wallingford King
Winchester King
Marlborough 1163 King
Andover 1175-6 King
Salisbury 1176 King
Bristol 1188 John, Earl of Moreton
_Richard I._ (1189-99)
Bath 1189 King
Bedford King
Gloucester
Nottingham John, Earl of Moreton
Bury S. Edmund's 1198
_John_ (1199-1216)
Chester 1190-1211 Earl of Chester
Dunwich 1200 King
Ipswich 1200 King
Cambridge 1201 King
Helston 1201 King
Derby 1204 King
Lynn Regis 1204 King
Malmesbury 1205-22
Yarmouth 1208 King
Hereford 1215 King
Bodmin 1216 King
Totnes 1216 King
Newcastle-on-Tyne 1216 King
_Henry III._ (1216-1272)
Preston
Haverfordwest
Portsmouth
Worcester 1226-27 King
Bridgenorth 1227 King
Rochester 1227 King
Montgomery 1227 King
Hartlepool 1230 Bp of Durham
Dunheved (Launceston) 1231-72 Richard, Earl of Cornwall
Newcastle-under-Lyme 1235 King
Liskeard 1239-40 Richard, Earl of Cornwall
Wigan 1246 King
Sunderland 1247 King
Cardigan 1249 King
Reading 1253 King
Scarborough 1253 King
Guildford 1256
Kingston-on-Thames 1256 King
Boston ? 1260
Macclesfield 1261 King
Coventry 1267-68 King
Lostwithiel 1269
_Edward I._ (1272-1307)
Berwick
Bridgwater
Congleton Henry de Lacy
Devizes King
Welshpool Griffith, Lord of Cyveiliog
Aberystwith 1277 King
Windsor 1277 King
Builth 1278 King
Rhuddlan 1278 King
Lyme Regis 1284 King
Caernarvon 1284 King
Conway 1284 King
Criccieth 1284 King
Flint 1284 King
Harlech 1284 King
Altrincham 1290 Hamon de Massy
Caerswys 1290 King
Overton 1291-2
Newport (Salop) 1292
Chesterfield 1294 John Wake
Kirkham 1295 King
Beaumaris 1296 King
Henley-on-Thames 1300 ? Earl of Cornwall
Barnstaple 1302
Newborough 1303 King
_Edward II._ (1307-1327)
Llanfyllin
Ruyton 1308-9 Earl of Arundel
Wycombe 1316
Bala 1324 King
_Edward III._ (1327-1377)
Gainsborough Earl of Pembroke
Bamborough 1332
Grampound 1332
Lampeter 1332
Denbigh 1333 King
Lancaster 1337
Cardiff 1341 Hugh le Despenser
Nevin 1343-76 Prince of Wales
Llantrissaint 1346 Hugh le Despenser
Hedon 1348 King
Hope 1351 Prince of Wales
Pwllheli 1355 Prince of Wales
Neath 1359 Edward le Despenser
Kenfig 1360 Edward le Despenser
Newton (S. Wales) 1363 Prince of Wales
_Richard II._ (1377-1399)
Axbridge
Newport 1385 Earl of Stafford
Oswestry 1398 King
_Henry IV._ (1399-1413)
Saffron-Walden
Cirencester 1403 King
_Henry V._ (1413-1422)
None
_Henry VI._ (1422-1461)
Plymouth 1440
Walsall 1440
Weymouth 1442
Woodstock 1453 King
_Edward IV._ (1461-1483)
Ludlow 1461 King
Grantham 1462
Stamford 1462
Doncaster 1467
Wenlock 1468
_Richard III._ (1483-1485)
Pontefract
NOTE 2.
LIST OF TRADES, HANDICRAFTS AND PROFESSIONS COMPRISED IN THE LISTS OF
MEMBERS OF THE SHREWSBURY MERCHANT GILD.
apotecarius, specer, spicer--apothecary
aurifaber--goldsmith
baker, bakere, pistor, pictor--baker
barber, tonsor, tyncer--barber
bercarius, tannator, tanner--tanner
botman--corn-dealer
brewer--brewer
carnifex--butcher
carpentarius, faber--carpenter
carrere--carrier
cementarius--? plasterer
cissor, tailur, taylor, tayleur, parmentarius, parminter,
parmonter--tailor
clericus--clerk
cocus--cook
colier, coleyer--collier[49]
comber--? wool-comber
corvisarius, gorwicer, cordewaner, sutor--shoemaker
coupere, hoppere (?)--cooper
deyer--dyer
forber--sword-cutler
ganter, cirotecarius, glover--glover
garnusur--garnisher
grom--groom
gunir, gynur
harpour--harper
haukerus, hawkerus, hawker--hawker
justice--judge
leche--leech
loxmith, locker, lok--locksmith
mason--mason
mercer--mercer, merchant or retailer of small wares
molendarius--miller
palmer--
pannarius--draper, clothier
petler, ? pelterer--seller of skins
piscator--fisherman
potter--potter
prest, presbyter--priest
sadeler--saddler
scriptor--transcriber
sherer, shearman--clothworker
tabernarius, taverner--tavern-keeper
teynterer--
walker or waller--? builder
webbe--weaver
wodemon--woodman
wolbyer--wool-buyer