THE MERCHANT GILD.

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 ??a???[11] and their ?????s?a?[12], and the Romans their collegia opificum[13], each exhibiting not a few of the features of the mediÆval Gilds. Corps des mÉtiers 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]:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’Être 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].

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.

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.

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 WintoniÆ 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.

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].

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.

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.

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.

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)
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.

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