Guild

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Medieval guilds (or gilds) were an approximate equivalent to modern-day business organisations such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

The guild used to be the center of European handicraft organization. The guild system appeared in Germany in the Middle Ages, circa 1300. The guilds are identified with organizations enjoying certain privileges, issued by local town business authorities (some kind of chamber of commerce).

The medieval guild held a oligopoly on its trade in the town in which it operated: handicraft workers were forbidden by law to run any business if they were not members of a guild. Before these privileges were legislated, these groups of handicraft workers were simply called "handicraft associations".

The town authorities were represented on the guild meetings and thus had a means of controlling the handicraft activities.

Because of industrialization and modernization of the trade and industry, the guilds power faded. In the 1800s the guild system was disbanded and replaced by free trade laws. By that time, a large portions of the former handicraft workers had already been converted to workers of the manufacturing industry.

The guilds are sometimes compared to modern labor unions and in the history of ideas they are sometimes counted as the major precursors to these. This view is however disputed.

Some guild traditions still remain in a few handicrafts, in Europe especially among shoemakers and barbers. Some of the ritual traditions of the guilds were conserved in order organizations such as the Freemasons.

Sources

• Söderlund, Ernst: Den svenska arbetarklassens historia - Hantverkarna II frihetstiden och den gustavianska tiden Stockholm 1949 (in Swedish)