The Growth of Trade Guilds of Medieval Europe......

THE GROWTH OF TRADE GUILDS

Introduction:

·        At the beginning of the Middle Ages, most trade was in luxury goods, which only the wealthy could afford. People made everyday necessities for themselves.

·        By the High Middle Ages, more local people were buying and selling more kinds of products. These included everyday goods, such as food, clothing, and household items. They also included the specialized goods that different towns began producing, such as woolen cloth, glass, and silk.

·        Most towns had a market, where food and local goods were bought and sold. Much larger were the great merchant fairs, which could attract merchants from many countries. A town might hold a merchant fair a couple of times a year.

·        The goods for sale at large fairs came from all over Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. With the growth of trade and commerce, merchants grew increasingly powerful and wealthy. They ran sizable businesses and looked for trading opportunities far from home.

Trade Guilds

Guilds: Medieval towns began as centers for trade, but they soon became places where many goods were produced, as well. Both trade and the production of goods were overseen by organizations called guilds.

Types of Guilds: There were two main kinds of guilds: merchant guilds and craft guilds.

·        Merchant Guilds: Merchant guilds came to dominate the business life of towns and cities. In towns that had become independent, members of merchant guilds often sat on town councils or were elected mayor.

·        Craft Guilds: All types of craftspeople had their own guilds, from cloth makers to cobblers (who made shoes, belts, and other leather goods), to the stonemasons who built the great cathedrals.

Functions of Guilds:

1.      Guilds provided help and protection for the people doing a certain kind of work, and they maintained high standards.

2.     Guilds controlled the hours of work and set prices.

3.     They also dealt with complaints from the public.

4.     The guilds therefore punished members who cheated. If, for example, a coal merchant cheated a customer, all coal merchants might look bad.

5.     Guild members paid dues to their guild. Their dues paid for the construction of guildhalls and for guild fairs and festivals.

6.      Guilds also used the money to take care of members and their families who were sick and unable to work

Membership of a Guild:

Step 1: Starting around age 12, a boy, and sometimes a girl, became an apprentice.

Step 2: An apprentice’s parents signed an agreement with a master of the trade.

Step 3: The master agreed to house, feed, and train the apprentice. Sometimes, but not always, the parents paid the master a sum of money. Apprentices rarely got paid for their work.

Step 4: At the end of seven years, apprentices had to prove to the guild that they had mastered their trade. To do this, an apprentice produced a piece of work called a “master piece.”

Step 5: If the guild approved of the work, the apprentice was given the right to become a master and set up his or her own business. Setting up a business was expensive, however, and few people could afford to do it right away.

Journeyman:  

·        If unable to begin a business they became journeymen instead. . It comes from the French word journee, for “day.”  

·          A journeyman was a crafts person who found work “by the day,” instead of becoming a master who employed other workers.