Guilds in England emerged as voluntary associations formed for religious and social purposes. Over time they developed into frith guilds that assumed collective responsibility for the conduct and mutual aid of their members and often became integral to local governance, as seen in early London. By the reign of Canute, guilds possessed formal charters and dedicated guildhalls with activities blending social, religious and practical functions. As guilds evolved, they laid the foundation for later merchant and craft guilds, which played central roles in medieval England's economic life.
The earliest English mentions of guilds are found in the seventh century laws of Ine of Wessex [1] but it is not clear that they were guild members in the later sense. [2]
In 930 AD, when Æthelstan was ruling there are a set of regulation and merger of the London frith guilds, oath bound organisations responsible for mutual defence and maintaining civil order. [3] Later, this concept expanded was used in Berwick-upon-Tweed where as well as keeping the law it was also used for external defence. [4] These guilds were associations with a corporate responsibility for the good conduct of their members and their mutual liability. The main objects of these guilds was the preservation of peace, right, and liberty. [5]
Guilds from early on had both religious and social functions with an example being the oldest surviving guild charter in Abbotsbury dating from Canute. [6] Aethelstan's Dooms of London of 930 also shows guilds with some commercial arrangements such as primitive insurance and assistance in catching thieves foreshadowing the Gild Merchants of the eleventh century. [5]
Gilds Merchant, which regulated commerce in provincial towns seem to have been introduced by the Normans giving the towns a level of local self government comparable to medieval communes [7] and proliferating to most substantial towns by the time of Edward I [5] and containing almost all the important citizens. [8] The gild merchants possessed extensive powers both on members who they could punish for dishonesty or breaching guild regulations as well as non members who could be fined for illicitly trading outside the guild's local monopoly. [5] They could also protect members trading in other towns and supervise the quality of goods offered for sale. [9] Guild merchants lost their residual power when Edward III in 1335 allowed foreign merchants to trade freely in England. [5]
As merchant guilds became more exclusive craftsmen formed their own craft guilds. to try to break down the merchants local trade monopoly and supervise their own trades with weavers and fullers being the first crafts to obtain royal recognition of their guilds, and by 1130 they had guilds established in London, Lincoln, and Oxford. [5]
The administration lay in the hands of wardens, bailiffs or masters with a long apprenticeship necessary before admission. The master craftsman was an independent producer, needing little or no capital, and employing journeymen and apprentices who hoped in time to become master craftsmen themselves, a progression seen by some commentators as negating the class struggle of the industrial era. [5]
The guilds cared for the interests both spiritual and temporal of their members, providing old age and sick pensions, pensions for widows and burial funds. The guilds where also present in the religious life of its members and were important in their towns' religious celebrations and festivities, and providing Masses for the souls of deceased members. [5]
Besides the merchant and craft guilds, the religious and social guilds continued to exist through the Middle Ages, being largely in the nature of confraternities. At the Reformation religious guilds were suppressed as superstitious foundations. [5]
Trade guilds survived as corporations or companies, such as the livery companies in London which still maintain a corporate existence for charitable and social purposes, although many have ceased to have close connections with the crafts, the names of which they bear. There are other survivals such as the Preston Guild merchant.
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