The Trading and Industrial Gilds

Extract

Until the recent publication of Mr. Westlake’s interesting volume upon The Parish Gilds of Medieval England students were apt to devote far too exclusive attention to Gilds of the kind I propose to deal with in this article. There were two main reasons for this preference : firstly, there was much more copious material available concerning the Trade and Craft Gilds ; secondly, they were of a nature that appeals more readily to modern “ practical “ Englishmen. Yet it must not be forgotten that the early and normal Gilds in England were Religious Gilds, Confraternities having primarily a religious purpose, and only as a by-product any sort of social or industrial services.f The Trading and Industrial Gilds were later developments, existing side by side with, and in imitation of, the Religious Gilds. They fall into two clearly marked classes—the Gilds-merchant and the Craft Gilds.

A.—The Gilds-merchant. The Gilda Mercatoria, or Merchant-Gild, which is the earlier kind, seems in its origin to have been composed, not only of those who carried on trade from town to town and in foreign countries, but also of all the craftsmen of any sort in each town. We hear of it by name first in the end of the eleventh century. But it is very probable that some at least of the Cnighten-Gilds, of which we hear in Saxon times, were, or developed into, Merchant-Gilds. Certainly that at Canterbury was described indifferently as the Gild of Cnights at Canterbury or the Ceapmann-Gild, and Dr. Gross has shown that the word “cnight” was often used in charters as a synonym of “townsman.”