Gild Merchant

Gild Merchants or Guild Merchants were local merchant guilds in medieval England. They acted as both a guild and a form of local government.

Rules established by merchant guilds were often incorporated into the municipal charters granted to market towns, with incorporated societies of merchants in each town or city holding exclusive rights of doing business there. In many cases they became the governing body of a town. ^[1]

They were brought in by the Norman Conquest. ^[2] . London also did not have a Gild Merchant as the whole civic body as the London Guilds collectively organised, regulated and protected trade within the City. ^[3]

The Preston Guild Merchant is an example of a still existing Gilt Merchant although it no longer has governing functions. ^[4]

The Dublin Guild Merchant being first in precedence among the Dublin Guilds ^[5] and commanding 31 of the seats in the Dublin Corporation ^[6] until it was abolished in the 1840s. ^[7]

References

1. Reynolds 1977, p. 82.
2. Gross 1890, p. 3.
3. Gross 1890, pp. 20–21.
4. About Preston Guild, visitpreston.com
5. Guinness 1922.
6. Doyle 1977, p. 6.
7. "1821 – Merchant's Hall, Wellington Quay, Dublin". Archiseek - Irish Architecture. 26 April 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2021.

Sources

• Doyle, Mel (1977). "The Dublin Guilds and Journeymen's Clubs". Saothar. 3: 6–14. JSTOR   23195202 . Retrieved 7 February 2021.
• Gross, Charles (1890). The Gild Merchant.
• Guinness, Henry S. (1922). "Dublin Trade Gilds". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 12 (2): 143–163. JSTOR   25513267 . Retrieved 7 February 2021.
• Reynolds, Susan (1977). An Introduction to the History of English Medieval Towns. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN   0-19-822455-9.