4 - Alien merchant guilds and companies

Summary

All the Trade of the Merchants of the Staple, of the merchant Strangers, and of all other English Merchants, concerning th'exportation of all the Commodities of Wooll into those Countries where the same are especially to bee vented, is in the Power of the Merchants Aduenturours only …

(Gerard de Malynes, 1622)

Most merchant guilds were formed by local traders who got privileges from their home rulers. But some local merchant guilds formed branches abroad, where they also got privileges from foreign rulers. Contemporaries gave groups of foreign merchants living abroad various names: colony, community, nation, consulate, consulado, guild, corporation, universitas, societas, fondaco, massaria, Hof. An alien merchant colony, community or nation might (or might not) include other people from that place of origin alongside merchants, and the merchants it included might (or might not) organize themselves into a corporate group and obtain commercial privileges from the foreign ruler. By contrast, a consulate, consulado, guild, corporation, universitas or societas typically consisted specifically of merchants who had formed a corporate group and secured commercial privileges from a ruler. A fondaco, massaria or Hof was a dwelling or compound in which a group of foreign merchants chose to reside – or was obliged to do so. Once that happened, they were often (though not always) formally constituted as a corporate entity with commercial privileges.