trade-gilds

Updated: June 12, 2025

The members of the trades thus abandoned by the wealthier burghers formed themselves into Craft-gilds which soon rose into dangerous rivalry with the original Merchant-gild of the town. A seven years' apprenticeship formed the necessary prelude to full membership of these trade-gilds.

John Richard Green - History of the English People, Volume I : Early England, 449-1071; Foreign Kings, 1071-1204; The Charter, 1204-1216

In no former age had finer copies of books been produced; in none had so many been transcribed. This increased demand for their production caused the processes of copying and illuminating manuscripts to be transferred from the scriptoria of the religious houses into the hands of trade-gilds like the Gild of St. John at Bruges or the Brothers of the Pen at Brussels.

John Richard Green - History of the English People, Volume III : The Parliament, 1399-1461; The Monarchy 1461-1540

If we descend from the aristocracy of trade to its poorer representatives, we find that time had wrought great changes in the lot of the smaller manufacturer and artisan. It is true that the old trade-gilds of Rome, which tradition carried back to the days of Numa, still maintained their existence.

A. H. J. (Abel Hendy Jones) Greenidge - A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate

Justice was administered ere yet a townhall housed the infant magistracy by mayor or bailiff sitting beneath a low pent-house, the "penniless bench" of later days, outside its eastern wall. Its bell summoned the burghers to council or arms. Around the church the trade-gilds were ranged as in some vast encampment. To the south of it lay Spicery and Vintnery, the quarter of the richer burgesses.

John Richard Green - History of the English People, Volume I : Early England, 449-1071; Foreign Kings, 1071-1204; The Charter, 1204-1216