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diff --git a/39030.txt b/39030.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f28db9 --- /dev/null +++ b/39030.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6497 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Influence and Development of English +Gilds, by Francis Aiden Hibbert + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Influence and Development of English Gilds + As Illustrated by the History of the Craft Gilds of Shrewsbury + +Author: Francis Aiden Hibbert + +Release Date: March 3, 2012 [EBook #39030] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFLUENCE AND *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned +images of public domain material from the Google Print +project.) + + + + + + + + + +THE INFLUENCE AND DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH GILDS. + + + + + London: C. J. CLAY AND SONS, + CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, + AVE MARIA LANE. + + CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. + LEIPZIG: F. A. BROCKHAUS. + NEW YORK: MACMILLAN AND CO. + + + + + Cambridge Historical Essays. No. V. + + + THE INFLUENCE AND DEVELOPMENT + OF ENGLISH GILDS: + AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE HISTORY OF + THE CRAFT GILDS OF SHREWSBURY. + + + BY FRANCIS AIDAN HIBBERT, B.A., + OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; + ASSISTANT MASTER IN DENSTONE COLLEGE. + + + _THIRLWALL DISSERTATION_, 1891. + + + Cambridge: + AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. + 1891 + + [_All Rights reserved._] + + + + + Cambridge: + PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS, + AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. + + + + + _TO THE REV. D. EDWARDES, M.A., + HEAD MASTER OF DENSTONE, + IN REMEMBRANCE OF MUCH KINDNESS + AND ENCOURAGEMENT._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +I should explain that, in the present Essay, I have restricted myself to +associations which had for their object the regulation of trade. Frith +Gilds and Religious or Social Gilds have received only passing notice. + +The Merchant Gild is too wide a subject to be treated in an Essay such as +this. Moreover the records of the Shrewsbury Merchant Gild are too meagre +to afford much information, and I would therefore have gladly passed over +the whole question in silence but that without some notice of it the Essay +would have seemed incomplete. + +My attention has thus been concentrated on the Craft Gilds, and on the +later companies which arose out of these. + +It is greatly to be regretted that we have no work on Gilds which deals +with the subject from an English point of view, and traces the development +of these pre-eminently English institutions according to its progress on +English soil. + +The value of Dr Brentano's extremely able Essay is very largely +diminished, for Englishmen, not only because he is continually attempting +to trace undue analogies between the Gilds and Trades Unions, but still +more because he has failed to appreciate the spirit which animated English +Merchants and Craftsmen in their relations with one another, and so has +missed the line of Gild development in England. If he had not confined his +attention, so far as English Gilds are concerned, solely to the London +Companies he could hardly have failed to discover his mistake. + +Something has been done to set the facts of the case in a clearer light by +Dr Cunningham briefly in his _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_[1]. + +But it is to be feared that Mr J. R. Green's _History_ is so deservedly +popular, and Mr George Howell's _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_ is so +otherwise reliable, that views differing from those which these writers +set forward--following Dr Brentano as it appears--stand little chance of +being generally known. + +Great as is the weight which must attach to such important authorities, I +have endeavoured--by looking at the facts in my materials from an +independent standpoint--to avoid being unduly influenced by their +conclusions, or by a desire to find analogies where none exist. + +The materials from which I have worked call for but little description. +They are simply the records of the Shrewsbury Gilds--either in their +original form as preserved in the town Museum and Library, or as printed +in the Shropshire Archaeological Society's _Transactions_. + +Though my view has been thus confined it has been kept purposely so. +English local history is its own best interpreter, and although in some +instances the documents have required illustrating and supplementing from +extraneous sources, these occasions have been few. At the same time I have +not omitted to notice how the effects of national events were felt in +provincial changes, and I have especially striven to point out how the +Shrewsbury records bear upon the various theories which have been put +forward respecting Gilds. Writing thus in a historical rather than an +antiquarian spirit I have not considered it necessary to overburden the +pages with needless footnotes referring repeatedly simply to the records +of the Shrewsbury Gilds. + +_October, 1890._ + + +NOTE.--_The Gild Merchant_, by Charles Gross, Ph.D. (Oxford, Clarendon +Press, 1890), appeared after the above had been written and the Essay sent +in. I have since had the advantage of reading it. The general conclusions +at which the writer arrives are so similar to those I had already formed, +that I have not found it necessary to alter what I had written. I have +however to some extent made use of the material he has brought together in +Vol. II., chiefly by way of strengthening the authorities in the footnotes +to which reference is made in the text. + + + + +EXTRACT FROM THE REGULATIONS FOR THE THIRLWALL PRIZE. + + +"There shall be established in the University a prize, called the +'Thirlwall Prize,' to be awarded for dissertations involving original +historical research." + +"The prize shall be open to members of the University who, at the time +when their dissertations are sent in, have been admitted to a degree, and +are of not more than four years' standing from admission to their first +degree." + +"Those dissertations which the adjudicators declare to be deserving of +publication shall be published by the University singly or in combination, +in an uniform series, at the expense of the fund, under such conditions as +the Syndics of the University Press shall from time to time determine." + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGES + + CHAPTER I. + + Introductory 1-6 + + CHAPTER II. + + The Merchant Gild 7-29 + Note 1. Chronological Table of Merchant Gilds 24-28 + Note 2. List of Trades and Professions 28-29 + + CHAPTER III. + + The Craft Gilds 30-54 + Note 1. Indenture of Apprenticeship (1414) 52-53 + Note 2. Oath of Freemen 53-54 + + CHAPTER IV. + + The Early History of the Gilds 55-76 + + CHAPTER V. + + Reconstruction of the Gild System 77-97 + + CHAPTER VI. + + The Degeneracy of the Companies 98-112 + + CHAPTER VII. + + Shrewsbury Show 113-127 + + CHAPTER VIII. + + The End of the Companies 128-144 + + Appendix I. Non-Gildated Tradesmen 145-156 + + Appendix II. Authorities cited 157-159 + + Index 160-168 + + + + +NOTE. + +On page 26 Liverpool should be inserted. The charter was granted in 1229, +by the king. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +[Sidenote: _Local life in England always varied._] + +In these days of convenience and easy transit, when distance has been +annihilated by the telegraph wire and the express train, we can hardly +realise, even with an effort, the extent to which such changes have +revolutionised the social life of Englishmen. Of local sentiment there can +be now but little, yet local sentiment has played a greater part in our +history than perhaps any other motive. The England of to-day is little +more than a great suburb of its capital. Yet it is a peculiar feature of +the England of the past that its local life was always singularly varied, +not only in the Middle Ages but down to quite recent times. Indeed the +characteristic is still more than traceable in some of our less busy +districts. + +In the past, too, some parts possessed the feature in a more marked degree +than others. We should naturally expect that few towns would have a +stronger infusion of local feeling than Shrewsbury. Through all its +history it has indeed been marked by strong individuality. + +[Sidenote: _Early growth of Shrewsbury._] + +Situated in the midst of the Marches of Wales, the centre round which long +waged the struggle for the fair lands westward of the Severn, its strong +walls and insular position soon gave it a marked commercial superiority +over the surrounding country. In consequence we find Shrewsbury at an +early date considerably more advanced than the unprotected land outside, +which lay open to the ravages of the Welsh. This condition of affairs, the +reverse of favourable for commercial advancement, continued to depress the +neighbourhood after Edward the First's conquest of the Principality, for +the disorders of the Lords Marchers kept the Borders in a state of +continual alarm, and prevented the inhabitants from settling down to any +regular and profitable industry[2]. + +Henry IV. on the death of Glendower effected the reconquest of Wales, and +enacted severe laws against the inhabitants. The only result was, however, +the organisation of robber bands whose definite object was to plunder and +harass more completely their English neighbours. The evil became so +intolerable that a special court had to be erected to remove it, and in +1478 was formed the Court of the President and Marches of Wales. + +By dint of powers of summary jurisdiction over disturbers of the public +peace, a diminution was effected in the disorders, and the border lands +were able to participate in the increase of trade which was such a marked +feature of the fourteenth century. In spite of the temporary shock given +to industry by the Reformation, the district had, by the latter part of +the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth, quite +recovered from the Welsh ravages, and its prosperity at this time was very +remarkable. + +The fertility of the district brought wealth to the market towns, and +provided a wide area of comfortable purchasers for the products of their +industries. The expansion of the Welsh cloth trade gave rise to a twofold +struggle. There was firstly a strenuous effort of the border towns to keep +it to themselves, and secondly a private quarrel as to which of them +should engross the market. Shrewsbury eventually secured the monopoly +after an arduous contest, and the importance of the town was thus +considerably enhanced. + +[Sidenote: _Its later prosperity._] + +The internal history of its Gilds will show how peculiarly the state of +Shrewsbury illustrates the period of quiet prosperity before the +introduction of machinery broke in upon the comfortable life of provincial +England. + +The county towns then possessed an importance of which they have since +been shorn by various causes[3]. Each was the capital of its district, +filling the part of a distant metropolis to which neither the country +gentleman nor the wealthy burgess could expect to go more than once or +twice in a lifetime. Shrewsbury, in particular, was possessed of features +which serve not only to make it especially typical of the social habits of +the period, but which at the same time give it an interest exceptionally +its own[4]. + +[Sidenote: _Its stationary condition in recent times._] + +And when the introduction of machinery transformed the face of England to +such a large extent, the changes which it brought to Shrewsbury were +extremely slight. Local life was strong. The town was slow to accommodate +itself to new conditions of industry. Its Gilds and companies maintained +their vigour to the end. Their yearly pageant continued to our own day. +The timbered houses which the substantial tradesmen built in the days of +their prosperity are still, many of them, standing. The streets of the +town have been only gradually altered and improved. They still follow the +old lines, often inconvenient, but always interesting: they still are +called by their old names, full of confusion to the stranger, full of +significance to the student. + +[Sidenote: _Importance of history of its Gilds._] + +[Sidenote: _Their quiet development._] + +Shrewsbury, then, exhibits a character eminently its own, from whatever +point we view its history. But it is a distinction of similarity rather +than the prominence of singularity. The progress of the town has gone on +quietly and calmly, seldom interrupted and never forced. The history of +its Gilds must of necessity present similar features. It will be a record +of silent development, often leaving few traces, yet not the less evident +to careful observation. + +[Sidenote: _Peculiarities._] + +But it is also a history in studying which we must be particularly on our +guard against being led astray by the analogy of similar institutions in +other parts of England or on the Continent. The desire to arrive at, or to +conform to, general conclusions often blinds writers to the fact to which +we have already drawn attention, namely, that local life in England was +always varied; that each town and district had its own strongly-marked +peculiarities. Bearing this in mind, deviations--apparent or real--from +the ordinary course of Gild history will cause us no surprise. The +shearmen's maypole quarrel[5] with the bailiffs is almost the only trace +of serious conflict at Shrewsbury between the municipal authorities[6] and +the companies until the seventeenth century. There are no signs of the +rise of Yeomen Gilds[7] in earlier or later years, though evidence in +plenty is found of the complete disregard shown by the masters for the +interests of the journeymen[8]. On the other hand, so far from the Court +of Assistants being a late creation we meet with it at Shrewsbury very +early in Gild history. + +[Sidenote: _Especial points of value._] + +It will also be a record rich in illustrations of contemporary social +life[9]. The closeness of relationship between religion and the ordinary +business pursuits of the mediaeval burgess; the wide public influence +exercised by the Gilds in their earlier years, and the remarkable family +feeling they maintained within the boundaries of the old towns even down +to the time when the companies had become utterly demoralised, will be +exemplified not less remarkably than the continuity of the Gild sentiment +through the shocks of the Reformation period, through the economic changes +of Elizabeth, and even (in some sort) through the Reforms of 1835. + +It is a history too which will help us to understand a problem of +considerable difficulty. We shall not only see the degenerated societies +of capitalists in full vigour down to the date of their enforced +termination as trading companies, but we shall also be enabled to perceive +how it was that they managed to retain their prejudicial and antiquated +privileges to the very end of their existence. + +It is indeed in the light which their history throws on the conditions of +provincial trade and the social customs of an ordinary provincial town +during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that its special +importance lies. The rapid progress which marked the commencement of that +period, not less than the torpor and decay which characterised the +corporate towns at its close will be found to be eminently exemplified in +the history of the Shrewsbury Gilds. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE MERCHANT GILD. + + +[Sidenote: _Universality of Gild feeling._] + +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 [Greek: eranoi][11] and +their [Greek: xunomosiai][12], and the Romans their _collegia +opificum_[13], each exhibiting not a few of the features of the mediaeval +Gilds. _Corps des metiers_ 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]: + +[Sidenote: _English and Continental Gilds._] + +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. + +[Sidenote: _Value of history of local Gilds._] + +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. + +[Sidenote: _Growth of towns in twelfth century._] + +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. + +[Sidenote: _They differed little from country, except in possession of a +Merchant Gild_] + +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. + +[Sidenote: _to preserve peace._] + +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. + +[Sidenote: _A.-S. Frith Gilds._] + +[Sidenote: _Trade regulations._] + +[Sidenote: _Royal authorisation: earliest mention._] + +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'etre_ 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]. + +[Sidenote: _Functions._] + +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. + +[Sidenote: _All Burgesses are Gildsmen._] + +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. + +[Sidenote: _Duties of Gildsmen._] + +[Sidenote: _Tendency to amalgamation of Gild and Communa._] + +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 +Wintoniae 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. + +[Sidenote: _But all Gildsmen not Burgesses._] + +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]. + +[Sidenote: _Distinction between Gild and Communa preserved in Charters, +but not in practice._] + +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. + +[Sidenote: _Gild seems to become Communa._] + +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. + +[Sidenote: _Rise of Craft Gilds favoured by Merchant Gild and Communa._] + +[Sidenote: _This favour natural under the circumstances and proved by the +Charters._] + +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. + +[Sidenote: _Summary._] + +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) + + Bath 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. + +apotecarius, specer, spicer--apothecary + +aurifaber--goldsmith + +baker, bakere, pistor, pictor--baker + +barber, tonsor, tyncer--barber + +bercarius, tannator, tanner--tanner + +botman--corn-dealer + +brewer--brewer + +carnifex--butcher + +carpentarius, faber--carpenter + +carrere--carrier + +cementarius--? plasterer + +cissor, tailur, taylor, tayleur, parmentarius, parminter, +parmonter--tailor + +clericus--clerk + +cocus--cook + +colier, coleyer--collier[49] + +comber--? wool-comber + +corvisarius, gorwicer, cordewaner, sutor--shoemaker + +coupere, hoppere (?)--cooper + +deyer--dyer + +forber--sword-cutler + +ganter, cirotecarius, glover--glover + +garnusur--garnisher + +grom--groom + +gunir, gynur + +harpour--harper + +haukerus, hawkerus, hawker--hawker + +justice--judge + +leche--leech + +loxmith, locker, lok--locksmith + +mason--mason + +mercer--mercer, merchant or retailer of small wares + +molendarius--miller + +palmer-- + +pannarius--draper, clothier + +petler, ? pelterer--seller of skins + +piscator--fisherman + +potter--potter + +prest, presbyter--priest + +sadeler--saddler + +scriptor--transcriber + +sherer, shearman--clothworker + +tabernarius, taverner--tavern-keeper + +teynterer-- + +walker or waller--? builder + +webbe--weaver + +wodemon--woodman + +wolbyer--wool-buyer + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE CRAFT GILDS. + + +[Sidenote: _The Merchant Gild and the craftsmen._] + +We have seen how the Merchant Gild consisted of all the traders whose +business lay in the town. Such an association, though nominally open to +all whether landowners or not who could afford to pay the requisite fees, +was in essence oligarchical, and this feature became in course of time its +most apparent characteristic. We saw, also, how there grew up a large +class extraneous to the privileged Merchant Gild. This body of outsiders +became continually larger and more important. The Welsh ravages in the +exposed country would induce numbers to seek the friendly shelter of the +town, which by this continuous infusion of fresh blood, found its trade +become more and more flourishing, and consequently its attractions to +"foreigners" more and more powerful. Each branch of industry was also +incessantly receiving large accessions of strength in the shape of +fugitive villains from the country-side, who, by residence during a year +and a day were released from fear of a reclaim to serfdom. These new +settlers, some of whom the advance of time found making considerable +strides towards prosperity, seeing themselves shut out from the Town Gild +both by the exclusive spirit of that body and by the fact that they +themselves were not owners of land within the town[50], but (even in the +case of the wealthiest of them) only renters of their shops, were +naturally drawn, by the spirit of the times, towards amalgamation[51]. + +[Sidenote: _Tendencies to union among the latter: Religious,_] + +It was natural that men working at the same trade,--living probably in the +same neighbourhood[52], and during intervals of rest exchanging gossip +from adjacent door-steps,--meeting one another in all the actions of daily +life and with thoughts and language running in similar grooves,--should +also desire to be not separated in worship. Likewise, in time of trouble, +when death brought gloom to the house of a fellow-workman, or when through +accident or misfortune he failed to appear at his accustomed place in yard +or workshop, it was by the ordinary promptings of nature that his brother +craftsmen came to offer their sympathy and help. And so we find the men of +the various trades forming themselves into fraternities, in order to pour +united supplications for Divine assistance and to offer thanks in common +for Divine favour[53]. The Tailors and Shoemakers had their chantries in +St Chad's Church, where the Weavers also had their especial altar, +maintaining in addition a light before the shrine of St Winifred in the +Abbey of the Holy Cross. The Drapers of the town early became drawn +together in a religious brotherhood, the chapel of which in the collegiate +church of Our Lady was the object of frequent and solicitous care when the +fraternity of the Holy Trinity was definitively changed into the +Worshipful Company of the Drapers. In the church of St Juliana the altar +of the Shearmen stood in the north aisle, where a chaplain said their +special mass for a yearly stipend of L4[54]. + +It was the pride of the Gilds to expend the best efforts of their wealth +and skill on the embellishment and maintenance of their chapel upon which +they were able to look as their own. Their worldly possessions at no one +time reached a figure high enough for them to provide a large endowment +for church or chantry, but the thankofferings of the years sufficed for +all current expenses. The fixed stipend was small, but the fabric, raised +and adorned as funds allowed, was commodious and beautiful[55]. + +It was to this ever-present desire to consecrate some portion of the +yearly profits of trade to the honour of Him who had given the increase, +that the annual pageant owed its pomp. The Corpus Christi procession was +an occasion of especial prominence at Shrewsbury, where the Gild charters +and records are full of minute regulations for its order. + +[Sidenote: _Social,_] + +The associations of fellow workmen for the purposes of religion also took +the form of clubs for mutual benefit and assistance. The Drapers were +maintaining their school and schoolmaster in 1492[56]; their almshouses +were only rivalled by those of the Mercers. The maintenance of poor and +decayed members was always one of the most prominent of the objects of +association. Attendance at the last offices by the grave of a deceased +brother, and remembrance of him in prayer, were likewise universal duties +of brethren. Edward VI.'s confiscation of Gild property broke down in all +the towns a great system of poor-relief which had hitherto freed the +government of that most difficult problem. Nor did the Gilds wait until a +brother was completely crushed before they came to his assistance. +Fluctuations of trade then as now sometimes brought occasions of temporary +embarrassment. But "the false and abominable contract of Usury ... which +the more subtily to deceive the people they call 'exchange' or +'chevisance,' whereas it might more truly be called 'mescheaunce,'" ... +was rightly looked upon as unworthy of fellow-workers for the common good, +"seeing that it ruins the honour and soul of the agent, and sweeps away +the goods and property of him who appears to be accommodated, and destroys +all manner of right and lawful traffick[57]." The common chest of the Gild +was therefore at the service of the brethren[58], not, as in the days of +degeneracy, to aid the capitalist in grinding down his workmen, but to +keep the craftsman from the clutches of the usurer. + +[Sidenote: _Commercial._] + +Out of these religious fraternities and social clubs developed what we may +more correctly term Craft Gilds; or to speak more strictly we should +perhaps rather say that many of these societies began to add to their +social and religious objects an additional one, namely trade +regulation[59]. They would be encouraged in this direction by the action +of the Merchant Gild, or its successor the municipal authority, which, as +the expansion of trade necessitated specialisation, was glad to depute its +powers to such associations[60]. + +[Sidenote: _Early Craft Gilds._] + +[Sidenote: _Effect of their growth on Merchant Gild._] + +The earliest mention of Craft Gilds is in the reign of Henry I., when +notice is found of the Weavers of London, Oxford, Winchester, Lincoln and +Huntingdon, the Cordwainers of Oxford and the Fullers of Winchester[61]. +They became more common and more influential as the development of +industry was fostered by the central government. This was especially the +policy of Edward I. and Edward III. By the end of the 14th century the +Craft Gilds become numerous. As they took over the duties and functions of +the Merchant Gild the existence of the latter was rendered to a +considerable extent superfluous, and the merging of the Gilda Mercatoria +into the Communa became not only inevitable but convenient and natural. +During the 14th and 15th centuries, when the Craft Gilds attained their +highest power, the decay of the Merchant Gilds became very marked. + +[Sidenote: _The later "Merchant Gild."_] + +In some places where this happened the name of the Merchant Gild wholly +disappeared. In others where the expression continued in use the +institution changed its character and became simply a religious +fraternity. In a few instances the select corporation alone inherited the +name: in some the whole body of freemen did so. Again, there are examples +of a survival of the expression as applied to the whole body of tradesmen, +that is the whole of the members of the various Gilds[62]. A Patent of +Queen Elizabeth, dated 1586, thus alludes to the aggregate of unions under +the collective name of "the Gild of Burgesses of Shrewsbury." In the same +way we read of "the several companies belonging to the guild merchant of +Reading," "the Guild of Merchants in Andever, which Guild is divided into +three several Fellowships," etc. Just as the Merchant Gild differentiated +itself into Craft Gilds, the Craft Gilds afterwards again in the aggregate +took the name and style of the Merchant Gild. + +[Sidenote: _Identity of interests of Corporation and Gilds seen in Police +regulations;_] + +If such additional proof were needed this action on their part might be +adduced in support of the assertion, which cannot be too strongly +emphasised or too often repeated, that in England there was no conflict +between the Merchant Gild and the Craft Gilds. Though these latter +associations had grown up in vindication, as it might seem, of the +principle of free amalgamation in opposition to oligarchical +exclusiveness, and although it was evident that as they increased the +Merchant Gild must decline, yet there was at no time any idea of +antagonism between the two kinds of authority within the town. On the +contrary internal police was very materially assisted by the Gilds[63]. +They carried on the good work which the Merchant Gild had inaugurated. Not +only were dissensions among combrethren to be brought before the Wardens +and Stewards instead of forming the occasion of unseemly brawls and +disturbances, but one of the objects for which the associations existed is +expressly stated to be "for the weale, rest and tranquilitie of the same +towne, and for good rule to be kept there[64]." With this object in view +the composition of the Tailors and Skinners (1478) contains several +articles which show how materially the officers of the Gild assisted the +bailiffs of the town[65]. + +[Sidenote: _evidenced by supervision of municipal authorities,_] + +The Gild officers, though freely elected by the combrethren took their +oaths of office before the bailiffs of the town, who also secured, if +necessary, the enforcement of the ordinances of the Gilds[66]. The town +authorities exercised, too, a general supervision: it seems to have been +the rule for the compositions to be annually (or periodically) inspected; +and for new regulations to be subject to municipal approval[67]. + +[Sidenote: _(therefore supported by them;) shown by Charters,_] + +One consequence of this authorisation by the town officials was that the +latter ceased to take cognisance of trade affairs except indirectly +through the Gilds; another was that the Gilds were supported by the town +authorities. In order to carry out the rules of the Gilds it was +imperative that all men of a trade should belong to the particular Gild of +that craft. For there might come men carrying on trade in the town +unwilling to submit to the rules framed for ensuring good work and +protecting the interests of the craft. These it would be impossible to +check until the Gild had been recognised and authorised by the crown or +the corporation, and so had obtained power to enforce its ordinances in a +legitimate way. It was in this manner that the necessity arose for +obtaining a charter[68]. The Fraternities, which in their earlier stages +had existed as voluntary associations, now received authoritative +recognition, by virtue of charters obtained from the king by the aid of +the corporation. The composition of the Tailors and Skinners (1478) shows +the company and the corporation in the closest connection; that of the +Mercers, granted by Edward Prince of Wales, Son of Edward IV., in 1480-81, +is countersigned by the bailiffs. + +The necessity for this authoritative recognition is clearly seen in the +continually recurring ordinance calling upon all men of the craft to join +the Gild. If the Gild had not been supported by royal and municipal +authority it would have been impossible for it to have carried out its +aims; as it was the task was sufficiently difficult. + +[Sidenote: _and Oaths._] + +The unity of interests of the Gilds and the corporation is further shown +by the words of the oaths. The wardens' oath of the company of Glovers ran +as follows. + + "You shalbe true to our Sov'aigne lord King ... his heirs and + successors and obedient to the Bailiffs of this town for the time + being and their successors. And you shall well and truly execute and + p'forme your office of Wardens of Glovers, Poynt-makers, pursers, + ffelmongers, Lethersellers and pa'hment-makers for this yeare + according to the true extent and meaning of your composition and of + all and singular articles and agreements therein expressed and + declared to the uttermost of your power. So helpe you God." + +The oaths of the other officers, and of the Freemen, contained like +promises[69]. + +[Sidenote: _Composition of Gilds._] + +[Sidenote: _Masters._] + +[Sidenote: _Apprentices._] + +[Sidenote: _Journeymen._] + +[Sidenote: _Women._] + +In the composition of the Trade Gilds there was no attempt to erect a +monopoly. All workers of the Craft except such as could make separate +terms with the corporation[70] were not only permitted to join the Gild, +but were compelled to do so. The members included Apprentices and +Journeymen as well as Masters[71]. Women too were not debarred from +joining[72], though they, like the Apprentices and Journeymen[73], took no +part in the business of administration[74]. The charter of the Drapers[75] +speaks of both brethren and sistren, and the list of members as given on +the occasions of "cessments" shows women-members, both wives of +combrethren, independent tradeswomen, and widows of deceased brothers. + +[Sidenote: _Officers._] + +In the election of their officers the English Gilds differed materially +from similar associations on the continent. In England the choice appears +to have been always unrestricted[76]. Refusal to accept office when +elected exposed the reluctant brother to a money fine. The oaths of the +officers, as we have seen, contained declarations of loyalty to the crown +and municipal authority, and in this way we may account for the absence of +_Masters_ among the officials of the Shrewsbury Gilds. The place of the +Master seems to have been filled, in some sort at least, by the bailiffs +of the town. At any rate none of the many Gilds of Shrewsbury ever had a +Master at the head of their officers. + +The _Wardens_ were uniformly two in number, freely elected by all the +brethren from such as were "the most worthiest and discreetest and which +will and best can[77]." That it was not altogether a needless precaution +to order that the elected wardens should be members of the Gild appears +from the later abuses which arose, wardens being sometimes chosen from +without the number of the combrethren[78]. The functions of these, the +principal officers, were generally to carry into effect the objects of the +Gild. To do this they possessed the right of search for inadequate +materials or unsuitable tools, and a general supervision over workmen to +secure competency. The composing of quarrels among combrethren was a +prominent part of their duties. + +[Sidenote: _Assistants._] + +The Board of Assistants which exercised so harmful an influence over the +companies in later days is found at Shrewsbury at an early date[79]. The +composition of the Tailors and Skinners, 1478 A.D., speaks of the "Fower +men ordeigned to the said Wardens to be assistant in counsel in good +counsel giving." They reappear in 1563 as the Four Assistants "for +advising them [the Wardens] in the Government of the Gild[80]." In this +particular as in so many others the Gilds of Shrewsbury seem to have been +distinguished by a greater desire to widen the area of the governing body +than was the case with the great companies of London and elsewhere. For +the language of some bye-laws of the corporation passed in 18 Edward IV., +seems to imply that the "Four Men" were common to all the companies. In +the Gilds of most provincial towns such Assistants no doubt shared in the +government from early years. + +The _Stewards_ were two in number. At a later date they were nominated by +the Wardens[81], though in earlier times probably elective. Their +particular duties nowhere very clearly appear. They seem to have assisted +the Wardens and Four Men in hearing and examining of "all manner of +matters, causes and controv'sies which shall happen amongst the +brethren[82]." + +The _Beadle_ summoned members to meetings and officiated in whatever of +formality was observed in them. He would keep the door of the Hall, and +see that none but brethren were admitted within the privileged chamber. +His was the duty of providing that due order and regularity was observed +in the proceedings, and, if necessary, of carrying into effect the +decisions of the assembly against refractory members. In the annual +Procession we can well imagine that the Beadles of the respective +companies would bear themselves with no common pride. Their duties also +included the summoning of members to weddings and funerals of brethren. + +The Mercers' composition of 1424 carefully details the duties of the +_Searcher_. He, as also the Beadle, was usually nominated by the Wardens, +Four Men and Stewards jointly, and, as his name implied, was charged with +bringing to the notice of the Gild anything contrary to its rules or +prejudicial to its interests. + +A _Clerk_ is also mentioned, who drew up indentures of apprenticeship and +kept the Gild registers. At a later period the office of _Treasurer_ was +introduced and became of considerable importance. + +[Sidenote: _Meetings._] + +The election of officers was the principle item of business at the great +annual meeting of the Gild. This was held on the festival of the Saint in +whose name the Gild was dedicated. It was preceded by Mass in the Parish +Church whither the brethren and sistren went in procession wearing their +distinctive hoods and liveries, and bearing lights in their hands. To add +to the dignity of the occasion a play or mystery was sometimes performed, +but more usually such representations were reserved for the great common +feast of Corpus Christi. + +[Sidenote: _Business at meetings._] + +[Sidenote: _Penalties._] + +At the meeting, which from its most general name of "mornspeche" appears +to have followed soon after Mass, great solemnity was observed. The +double-locked box[83] was opened by the two Wardens[84] amidst a +reverential silence, and the composition or charter preserved in it +rehearsed to the assembled brethren. Business was then proceeded +with:--election of officers, admittance of new brethren, authorisation of +indentures. Then if necessary regulations were passed for the government +of the Gild and ordinances made for the due protection of trade, such as +summonses to Intruders to enter the union. The ordinary penalties which +the companies might inflict were fines of money or of wax, (in which king +and corporation shared and which they were consequently willing to +enforce,) and, in extreme cases total expulsion from the Gild, which of +course meant exclusion from trade within the town. + +[Sidenote: _Halls._] + +After the "mornspeche" came the mutual feast. The brethren had begun the +day by union for worship, they ended it with union for social and +convivial festivity. In later times the business portion of the meeting +was transacted in the Hall of the Gild and the brethren afterwards +adjourned to some convenient tavern. Several of the Halls were standing +until quite recent times. Such were those of the Mercers, Tailors, and +Weavers[85]. That of the Shearmen is now used as an Auction Mart, but the +Drapers' Hall still retains its former dignity. + +[Sidenote: _Necessity of historical attitude_] + +It will be necessary to attempt some estimation of the extent and value +of the influence which the Gilds exercised on contemporary life and +thought. In doing this, and indeed in dealing with the whole subject of +trade regulation in the Middle Ages, it is necessary to bear continually +in mind that not only were the conditions of trade then very materially +different from those under which we now live, but that Economic Theory was +still more at variance with modern views. It is necessary therefore to +take a historical attitude, and to try to appreciate both the difference +of social conditions, and the difference of objects in view. These objects +may be considered firstly as individual and perhaps selfish; and, +secondly, as general and for the common good. + +[Sidenote: _in estimating importance of Gilds; Commercial,_] + +1. If we consider the charters from the first point of view we see that +the trade regulations were dictated by the desire to secure to all the +brethren their means of livelihood: "no broder" was to "induce or tyce any +other Mastres Accostom," or to employ the servants of another combrother, +or otherwise to act in a spirit of unbrotherly and dishonourable +competition. The charters are full of such regulations. No member might +obtrude wares before passers in the open street, or erect booths "for to +have better sale than eny of the combrethren[86]." + +2. Similarly also if we view the compositions in light of what we have +described as the second of their objects. The excellent motive of mediaeval +regulation of industry was to secure the prosperity of trade by ensuring +skilled workmanship and proper materials. In consequence it was forbidden +for workmen whose capacity was unknown to work in the town until their +efficiency had been proved. The Barbers' composition of 1432 ordered that +"no man' p'sone sette up nother holde no shoppe in Privite ny apperte ny +shave as a Maistre withinne the saide Tow' ny Franchise in to the Tyme +that ev'y such p'sone have the Wille and Assent of the Stywardes and +Maistres of the saide Crafte." It was the desire to ensure the public +being well served that prompted the articles in the composition of the +Mercers (1480-1) which ordered the Searcher "to make serche uppon all the +occupyers of the saide Craftes ... that non of theym occupie eny false +Balaunce Weight or Mesures belongeing to the sayde Craftes or eny of +theym, wherebie the Kyngs People in eny wyse myght be hurt or dysseyved." +It was also part of the same officer's duties to "oversee that any thyng +app'tenyng to the saide Craftes or eny of theym to be boght and solde in +the saide Towne and Frauncheses be able suffyceant and lawfull and that +noe dyssayte nor gyle to the Kyngs liege people therbye be had." No +indentures were to be drawn for less than "seven years at the least," so +that adequate training should be secured. + +We thus perceive how the Craft Gilds differed, on the one hand from the +Frith Gilds of more ancient times, and on the other from the Commercial +Companies of later days. The former were associations in which every +member was responsible for the actions of each of his fellows; in the +Craft Gilds each member bound himself to abide by the regulations of the +rest. The essence of the later Commercial Companies is union for mere +pecuniary gain; the Gilds set in the forefront of the objects of their +association the material benefit of the community and the religious and +moral good of the individual. The resemblance between Trades Unions and +the Mediaeval Gilds is not entirely fanciful; but no two documents can be +more widely different than the Prospectus of a Limited Liability Company +and a Gild Charter of the Middle Ages. + +[Sidenote: _Social,_] + +The Gild system may be considered from various points of view. Regarded in +its social aspect its importance can hardly be exaggerated. It has been +pointed out how the work of the Gilds prevented the difficulty of poor +relief becoming acute, and also how valuable their influence was in the +maintenance of order, through the respect they evinced for the established +law. The immense weight they must have had on the side of morality, by the +importance they attached to the moral character of their members must not +be overlooked. "The rules of the Gilds which have come down to us, quaint +and homely as they sound, breathe a spirit as elevated as it is simple, +and although we must probably make the usual allowance for the difference +between men's acts and their words, we cannot but believe that the +generations which formed such grand conceptions and which so persistently +strove to realise them, had a better side than posterity has +discovered[87]." + +The extent, too, to which they operated in linking class to class was +very great. There was no impassable barrier between commerce and birth. In +the lists of apprentices which have been preserved to us the entries of +names belonging to county families are frequent. It was the ordinary +custom for the younger sons to be put to business in the town. The social +value of such a habit must have been great. Within the craft, too, the +distinctions were only caused by differences in the degrees of wealth. By +industry and perseverance the meanest apprentice might look forward to +attainment of the highest honours his Gild could bestow, and even, by +success in trade, to nobility. As in Athelstan's time the merchant who +fared thrice beyond the sea at his own cost became of thegn-right +worthy[88], so it was all through the Middle Ages: even in the 17th +century Harrison says "our merchants do often change estate with +gentlemen, as gentlemen do with them, by a mutual conversion of the one +into the other[89]." + +[Sidenote: _Constitutional._] + +The education obtained by the framing of their own ordinances was also no +slight gain to the townsmen. They provided for their peculiar needs in +their own peculiar way, not always we may say in the best way, but in that +which they, who knew the special requirements of the case, considered the +best. Each who took part in drawing up those regulations would feel that a +certain share of responsibility rested with him to see that they were +kept. The constitutional importance also of this training, in imparting an +appreciation of the responsibilities and duties which devolve on those +who frame regulations was not unimportant. + +The services which the Gilds rendered to the cause of liberty by the +feeling of strong cohesion which they produced among the townsmen would be +less difficult to estimate if the burgesses had played a more distinctive +part in the work of Parliament[90]. It is easier to point out how, if they +may have interfered to some extent with family life on the one hand, they +on the other increased the tendency to narrowness and localism which was +otherwise sufficiently strong throughout the Middle Ages, and indeed +through considerably later times. Everything was antagonistic to the +widening of the townsman's sympathies. He found his trade, his ambition, +almost his whole life, satisfied within the walls of the borough in which +he dwelt; and the Craft Gilds crystallised, as it were, this tendency +towards insularity. + +[Sidenote: _Special interest of their history at present time._] + +It may be noticed how a special interest attaches at the present time to +the history of the Gilds and to the study of their influence and +development. + +The condition of the working classes must always be a point of vital +importance to the welfare of the state. It is peculiarly so to-day. +Anything therefore which can assist us to understand how the present +degradation of the craftsman has been brought about, and which may help +towards his amelioration, will be valuable and of practical usefulness. + +Five hundred years ago the working man differed very widely from his +modern representative; how widely may be gathered from a single +illustration. The architects of the Churches and other buildings which the +Middle Ages have bequeathed to us in such large numbers and of such +exquisite beauty are, in the vast majority of cases, unknown to-day even +by name. They were not less unknown to contemporaries. For they were men +of like nature with their fellows: _ancestors of our modern artisans_. How +great a change has grown up in the generations which have intervened. + +Five centuries ago the workman was intelligent and skilled, he is now +untrained and degraded: he was then able and accustomed to take a proper +pride in his work, he is now careless and indifferent: he used to be +provident and thrifty, now he is usually reckless and wasteful. + +It is not too much to say that a great reason of this vast difference is +to be found in the influence which the Gilds exercised. In their character +as Benefit Clubs they taught their members to be thrifty: by insisting on +a careful and systematic training during seven years of apprenticeship +they made them skilled and capable workmen, and as such able to take an +interest in, and to derive pleasure from their work. It has been pointed +out that the Gilds prevented extreme poverty from ever becoming at all +normal. Uncertainty of employment and demoralising fluctuations of wages +are among the most crying evils of our modern social _regime_. The Craft +Gilds did much to secure regularity of work and to steady the price of +labour. + +Thus it is evident how great and peculiar an interest attaches to the +whole subject of the Gilds at the present day. It is a subject which does +not merely offer attractions to the antiquary or provide valuable +materials for the student of constitutional and municipal development. It +has a far wider and more human significance. A study of the extent and +nature of the influence which the Gilds exercised on the condition and +skill of the working man in the past will help to solve the problem of his +improvement in the present and in the future. + + +NOTE I. + +INDENTURE OF APPRENTICESHIP FROM THE MERCERS' COMPANY'S RECORDS. A.D. +1414. + +Haec indentura testatur etc. inter Johannem Hyndlee de Northampton, +Brasyer, et Gulielmum filium Thomae Spragge de Salopia, quod predictus +Gulielmus posuit semetipsum apprenticium dicto Johanni Hyndlee, usque ad +finem octo annorum, ad artem vocatam _brasyer's craft_, qua dictus +Johannes utitur, medio tempore humiliter erudiendum. Infra quem quidem +terminum praefatus Gulielmus concilia dicti Johannis Hyndlee magistri sui +celanda celabit. Dampnum eidem Johanni nullo modo faciet nec fieri +videbit, quin illud cito impediet aut dictum magistrum suum statim inde +premuniet. A servicio suo seipsum illicite non absentabit. Bona et catalla +dicti Johannis absque ejus licentia nulli accomodabit. Tabernam, scortum, +talos, aleas, et joca similia non frequentabit, in dispendium magistri +sui. Fornicationem nec adulterium cum aliqua muliere de domo et familia +dicti Johannis nullo modo committet, neque uxorem ducet, absque licentia +magistri sui. Praecepta et mandata licita et racionabilia magistri sui +ubique pro fideli posse ipsius Gulielmi, diligenter adimplebit et eisdem +mandatis libenter obediet. Et si praedictus Gulielmus de aliqua convencione +sua vel articulo praescripto defecerit, tunc idem Gulielmus juxta modum et +quantitatem delicti sui magistro suo satisfaciet emendam aut terminum +apprenticiatus sui duplicabit. Et praefatus Johannes et assignati sui +apprenticium suum in arte praedicta meliori modo quo idem Johannes sciverit +ac poterit tractabunt docebunt et informabunt, seu ipsum informari facient +sufficienter, debito modo castigando, et non aliter. Praeterea dictus +Johannes concedit ad docendum et informandum dictum Gulielmum in arte +vocata _Peuterer's Craft_ adeo bene sicut sciverit seu poterit ultra +convencionem suam praemissam. Et idem Johannes nullam partem artium +praedictarum ab apprenticio suo concelabit. Invenient insuper Johannes et +assignati sui dicto Gulielmo omnia sibi necessaria, viz. victum suum et +vestitum, lineum, laneum, lectum, hospicium, calceamenta et caetera sibi +competencia annuatim sufficienter, prout aetas et status ipsius Gulielmi +exigerint. In cujus rei testimonium etc. 1414. + + +NOTE II. + +OATH TO BE TAKEN BY THE FREEMEN OF THE MERCERS' COMPANY. + +In the Company's records this oath occurs immediately after a curious +calendar, written in 15th century hand, and before a list of "Brethren +received and incorporated in the time of Rici Attynchin and John Cutlere +wardens" in 3 Henry VI., (1424-5). + +FIDELITAS. + +I shall trewe man be to God o'r Lady Seynt Marie Seynt Mychell +th'archangell patrone of the Gylde and to the Fraternite of the Mercers +Yremongers and Goldsmythes & Cappers w'in the Towne and Fraunches of +Shrowesbury I shall also Trewe man be to the king our liege lorde and to +his heyres kyngys and his lawes and mynystars of the same Truly obs've and +obey And ov' this I shall be obedyent to my wardens and their sumpneys +obey and kepe I shall be trewe and ffeythfull to the Combrethern of the +Gylde aforeseyd and ther co'ncell kepe All lawdable and lefull actes and +composic'ons made or to be made w{t}in the Seide Gylde truly obeye p'forme +and kepe aft' my reason and power I shall be contributare bere yelde and +paye all man' ordynare charges cestes and contribucons aftur my power as +any other master occupyer or combrother of the seid Gylde shall happen to +doe and bere: Soe helpe me God and halidame and by the Boke. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE GILDS OF SHREWSBURY. + + +[Sidenote: _Existed before they held charters._] + +In the foregoing chapter it has been shown how the Craft Gilds were called +into being. They possessed at first no charters[91] because none were +needed. It was only when friction arose that there came any necessity for +royal authority to step forward with its support and sanction[92]. + +[Sidenote: _Scanty notice at first._] + +And as they at first possessed no charters, so they have left few or no +records of their earliest life. So long as they worked in thorough accord +with the spirit of the age and completely fulfilled its requirements they +left scanty traces. It is only when the period of degeneracy commences +that we begin to have anything like adequate materials for their detailed +history. + +[Sidenote: _Fourteenth century; difficulties for Gilds to face._] + +The 14th century was fruitful in illustrations of the difficulties which +beset the work of the Gilds. + +The development of trade alone had proceeded far enough to render their +task already complicated: their difficulties were increased abnormally by +the exceptional conditions of labour brought about by the Black Death. The +Peasant Revolt compelled Parliament to take cognisance of industrial +difficulties. In 1388, at its meeting at Cambridge, it was largely +occupied with trade questions[93], and ordered the issue of writs to the +sheriff of each county in England, commanding returns of all details as to +the foundation, objects, and condition of both religious fraternities and +Craft Gilds. These returns show that most of the Gilds obtained their +charters during the 13th and the early years of the 14th centuries[94]. + +[Sidenote: _Development of industry._] + +It does not appear that any legislation followed upon this parliamentary +action, but provisions now begin to appear for the settlement of disputes +between masters and workmen, and also between brethren of the Gild. So far +the different classes of workmen had worked together in harmony upon the +whole, but it could not fail that a severance or at least a marked +diversity of interests should arise. Most important, as demonstrating +that it was the change in external circumstances, and not so much the +internal degeneracy of the Gilds themselves, which was causing the +friction, are the evidences which show that a great division of labour was +in progress[95]. In the 13th century the tailor and the cloth-merchant +sever their former connection: the businesses of the tanner and of the +butcher become distinct branches of trade[96]. Similarly the tanner and +the shoemaker were made separate callings[97]. The same movement is still +more clearly seen in the disputes which arose between allied Gilds as to +the particular work which each was charged with supervising[98]. It was +the creation of opposing interests, of which such were the outward signs, +that introduced the seed of decay into the Gild system. + +[Sidenote: _Fifteenth century: avowal of abuses,_] + +How rapidly the degeneracy proceeded may be gathered from a petition of +the Commons early in the 15th century (1437), which evoked an Act (15 Hen. +VI., cap. 6) definitely recognising the existence of abuses. After +reciting how the + + "masters, wardens, and people of Gilds, fraternities, and other + companies corporate, dwelling in divers parts of the realm, oftentimes + by colour of rule and governance to them granted and confirmed by + charters and letters patent ... made among themselves many unlawful + and little reasonable ordinances ... for their own singular profit + and to the common hurt and damage of the people," + +the statute proceeded to order that the Gilds should not in the future + + "make or use any ordinance in disparity or diminution of the + franchises of the king or others, or against the common profit of the + people, nor allow any other ordinance if it is not first approved as + good and reasonable by the Justices of the Peace or the chief + Magistrates aforesaid and before them enrolled and to be by them + revoked and repealed afterwards if they shall be found and proved to + be little loyal and unreasonable." + +[Sidenote: _but approval of the system._] + +[Sidenote: _Policy of Reform._] + +But it is abundantly clear that the complaints are against the abuses of +the system and not against the system itself. Dissatisfaction is expressed +at the "little reasonable ordinances" of the Gilds but not against the +companies themselves. The policy therefore of Henry VI. and Edward IV. was +to reform the Gilds by amending their ordinances, or, if necessary, giving +them charters of incorporation which should set forth definitely their +objects, and state both the extent and the limitation of their powers. It +is from this period that we date most of the existing records of the +Shrewsbury companies. The barbers are said to have been chartered by +Edward I. in 1304[99]; their earliest extant composition[100] is dated +1432 (10 Hen. VI.). The Shoemakers' composition of 1387 recited a charter +of Edward III.[101] A Vintners' company is said to have been erected in +Shrewsbury by Henry IV. in 1412[101]. + +But it is with the accession of Henry VI. that the great number of present +charters and compositions begins. The date of the Fishmongers' company is +1423[101], and the entries of the Mercers commence in the next year[101]. +The Barbers' composition of 1432 has been already mentioned. Then follow +the Weavers (1448-9), the Fletchers (1449), the Carpenters (1449-50) in +close proximity[101]. The Tailors and Skinners (1461) were recognised in +the last year of Henry VI.[101], and eighteen years subsequently received +a new composition from Edward IV. (1478), who had in the first year of his +reign united the Fraternity of the Blessed Trinity with the company of the +Drapers[102]. The companies of the Millers, Bakers, Cooks, Butchers and +Shearmen certainly existed before 1478, as they are mentioned as taking +part in the Corpus Christi Procession at that date. In that year the +Tanners and Glovers were incorporated[103], as also were the +Saddlers[103]. The royal recognition of the Mercers[101] in the next year +completed the list of Shrewsbury companies erected before the 16th +century. + +[Sidenote: _Later Religious Gilds._] + +It will be convenient here to draw attention to a different kind of Gild +which was founded in Shrewsbury towards the close of this period: the +religious Gild of S. Winifred. + +The ancient Monks' Gilds which had spread so early over England, found as +was to be expected later imitators in large numbers. The oldest accounts +of these Gilds also, like those of the Monks' Gilds, are found in +England[104]. Religious or Social they are usually called. They all +evinced a strong religious character, but in addition had a care for the +old and needy. If a Gild-brother suffer loss through theft "let all the +Gildship avenge their comrade," says the Cambridge statute. They also took +cognisance of public welfare. If a Gild-brother do wrong "let all bear it: +if one misdo, let all bear alike." If a man be slain in fair quarrel with +a Gild-brother the _wite_ is to be borne by all, but the wilful or +treacherous murderer is "to bear his own deed." + +These Gilds rapidly spread over all Europe, and existed probably in every +town. They doubtless formed the model to which the later associations +looked, and, except in details, differed little from the Craft Gilds. They +were frequently connected with trade, even in some instances consisting +entirely of followers of specific crafts[105], and loans were made out of +the common chest to help members in misfortune[106]. We have scant +information of early religious Gilds in Shrewsbury, though there can be +but little doubt they flourished there as elsewhere. Later, in the 15th +century, one was founded by the Abbot of the Holy Cross, which presents +several unusual and interesting features. + +Thomas Mynde was elected Abbot on January 8th, 1460, but it was not till +1486 that he took measures to found the Fraternity of S. Winifred, though +probably the scheme had been previously shaping itself through the long +period of unsettlement which the Civil Wars had caused. The present Gild +differed from the earlier foundations in being deliberately created by +royal charter. The reason was that without such security it could not +receive grants of land, and Abbot Mynde was desirous to bequeath to it his +private possessions rather than to leave them to his Monastery,--a curious +commentary perhaps on the low estimation into which the religious houses +had fallen. + +The royal charter was not obtained without some trouble. The License +itself says it was granted "by [reason of] the sincere devotion which we +have and bear towards S. Winefrida Virgin and Martyr;" but Abbot Mynde +assures us that this laudable zeal required the practical stimulus of "a +large sum of money" before it would take effect in action. + +The terms of the charter allowed both brethren and sisters to join the +fellowship, the number being unregulated. The oath to support the Gild was +taken by each member on admittance, kneeling before the altar in the Abbey +of the Holy Cross. Power was given for the election of a Master, whose +duties were the regulation of the Gild and the supervision of its +property. The fraternity had its common seal, and the ordinary powers and +privileges of corporations. It was especially exempted from the Mortmain +Acts, and was allowed to acquire property to the yearly value of L10. The +objects to which this was to be devoted were the finding of two Chaplains, +or at least one, whose duties were the saying of a daily Mass at the Altar +of S. Winifred in the Abbey, and the celebration of a Requiem Mass on the +decease of a brother or sister of the Fraternity. At such Masses it was +especially provided that the prayers for the departed soul should be _in +English_. + +The Gild was joined in considerable numbers by the principal folk of the +town, but there is little information[107] respecting its history, which +may be at once anticipated here. At the confiscation of the Chantry and +Gild property the fraternity of S. Winifred was not able to plead the +excuse of usefulness for trade purposes, and it fell unnoticed in the ruin +of the great Abbey with which it was connected. Its life had been a short +one, but coming as it did at a time when religious fervour was weak and +morality lax, it no doubt served a useful purpose and deserved a better +fate than almost total oblivion. + +[Sidenote: _Charters granted to Craft Gilds._] + +Returning after this digression to the Craft Gilds it will be interesting +and profitable to make an examination and comparison of two of their +charters, one selected from the earlier and one from the later portion of +the period. The charter[108] of the Barbers' Gild, granted by Henry VI. in +1432, may be placed beside the composition[109] which Edward IV. gave to +the Mercers in 1480. + +[Sidenote: _Religious articles._] + +A point which strikes us forcibly on the most superficial examination of +the charters, is the prominence given, in one as in the other, to the +Corpus Christi procession. It is a striking illustration of the extent to +which mediaeval materialism had permeated society, and how deeply rooted +was that "tendency to see everything in the concrete, to turn the parable +into a fact, the doctrine into its most literal application[110]," which +scholastic philosophy had nurtured. The procession indeed would almost +appear, from the charters, to be the principal object for which the Gilds +exist. A considerable share of the fines is expressly devoted to the +"Increce of the Lyght that is boren yerely in the heye and worthie ffest +of Corpus Xti Day." The Mercers' composition regulates the order of the +procession and the weight of the candle which the company provides in it. +No member is to be out of his place on the festival without permission, +and the combrethren are especially prohibited from going to "the Coventrie +Fayre" at this season under penalty of a fine of twelve pence. The fact of +being enabled to take part in the procession is manifestly looked upon as +one of the great privileges and duties of the companies. + +The Mercers' Gild also provided for a priest to say a daily Mass at the +altar of S. Michael in the Church of S. Chad; and thirteen poor Bedesmen +were retained at a penny per week to pray for the King and Queen and +Councillors, and for the brethren of the Gild "both quyke and dedd." + +[Sidenote: _Trade articles._] + +The trade regulations of the two compositions are naturally cast in the +same mould. In both appears the prohibition of foreign labour (the Mercers +say "except in fayre tyme"), and of under-selling by combrethren as well +as unfair competition generally. The later regulations go further and +provide for the carrying out of the ordinances of the composition by the +appointment of a searcher to secure the use of good materials and to +prevent "dissayte and gyle," the use of false weights, &c. They also +forbid the taking of aliens as apprentices[111]. + +All indentures are to be for seven years at the least, and none are to be +taken as apprentices without being properly bound by indentures approved +by the wardens and recorded by the clerk. There is also the article which +now becomes common, against divulging the secrets of the craft, and an +interesting one against "eny confederacye or embracerye wherebie any +p'judices hurt or hynd'ance myght growe." + +[Sidenote: _Articles of reform._] + +In the later charter, too, it is evident that there had arisen no small +need for reform. In the forefront it is stated that the previous "Fines +assessyd uppon ev'y App'ntice at their entries to be maysters Combrethyrn +and Settursuppe of the said Craftes or any of them," "and in like wyse +gret Fynes uppon eny Forreyn that shoulde entre into the same" are +"thought overchargeable" and so are to be "dymynished and refowrmed." If +members refuse to pay them, as thus amended, they may be levied by +distress. Of how great a falling-off from the original spirit of +brotherhood do these two short articles speak. + +[Sidenote: _Police._] + +Both the documents provide for the trial of dissensions among brethren, in +preference to going before the ordinary tribunals, though by permission +cases might be taken before the bailiffs of the town. + +[Sidenote: _Liveries._] + +In a similar spirit of pacification the Mercers' composition forbids the +wearing of liveries "saving the lyverray of gownes or hodes of the said +Gylde to be ordeyned and worne," and that of the municipal +corporation[112]. This was in accordance with the Act 13 Henry IV. cap. 3. +The abuse of liveries had evoked from Parliament an attempt to put a total +stop to the custom[113] (13 Rich. II.). Such endeavours were futile. This +was at last recognised, and in 13 Henry IV. the use of liveries of cloth +was prohibited, but with the important proviso, "Gilds and fraternities +and crafts in the cities and boroughs within the kingdom which are founded +and ordained to good intent and purpose alone being excepted." In 1468 +Edward IV. confirmed previous legislation on the subject[114]. + +[Sidenote: _Sixteenth century._] + +In spite of reforms by improved compositions and legislative measures the +degeneracy of the Gilds proceeded apace. The statute 19 Hen. VII. cap. 7 +repeats the complaint of 15 Hen. VI. cap. 6, and re-enacts the same +restrictions. "Divers and many ordinances have been made by many and +divers private bodies corporate within cities, towns, and boroughs +contrary to the King's prerogative, his laws, and the common weal of his +subjects:" in future therefore the Gilds are prohibited from making any +new by-laws or ordinances concerning the prices of wares and other things +"in disheritance or diminution of the prerogative of the King, nor of +other, nor against the common profit of the people, but that the same Acts +or Ordinances be examined and approved by the Chancellor, Treasurer of +England, or Chief Justices." The repetition of the same articles shows how +little effective they had been in checking the abuses against which they +were directed. + +[Sidenote: _Policy of reform pursued._] + +Nevertheless Henry VII. and Henry VIII. persevered in the work of +regulating, reforming and strengthening the Gilds. The statute of +1530[115] once more diminished entrance fees, which had been inordinately +and illegally raised; but another of 1536[116] repeating the same +prohibition shows the utter futility of such measures in the condition of +trade which had been brought about. + +A more serious abuse appears in the latter statute, namely the attempt of +the masters to exact from their apprentices an oath promising to refrain +from prosecuting trade on their own account without consent of their late +master. Such abuses exhibit the Gilds in a state of wholesale +demoralisation. + +[Sidenote: _Reformation._] + +This was not unnatural under the circumstances, for the course of the +Reformation had tended to turn public opinion against the Gilds. Moreover +it now gave them a severe shock on one side, at any rate, of their +functions. + +[Sidenote: _Confiscation of Chantries and robbery of Gilds._] + +The confiscation of monastic lands had shown how easy it was for a needy +government to seize upon corporate property to its own use, and the +example was not long without being followed. The statute 37 Hen. VIII. +cap. 4 gave the whole property of all Colleges, Hospitals, Fraternities +and Gilds to the king. Before this wholesale desolation could be effected +Henry died, but Somerset obtained a renewal[117] of the grant to Edward +VI. + +The words of the Act are absolute in making over to the king all the lands +and other possessions of Chantries, Colleges, Hospitals, Gilds and bodies +of a similar nature, both religious and secular. No distinction is made as +to aim or object, utility or abuse. According to the terms of the statute, +we should expect every Gild and corporate body in the country to come to +an end with the years 1547-8. Nevertheless though the Chantries were +seized the Craft Gilds in general remained. The reason for this apparent +divergence between the provisions of the statute and the facts of the case +is given by Burnet. + +Two parties opposed the passing of the Act. Cranmer and the best of the +Reformers were grieved to see the material supports of the Church one +after another torn away to prop up the failing fortunes of needy and +rapacious courtiers. They desired to preserve the lands of the Chantries +till the king came of age, when they hoped they might be devoted to the +suitable object of augmenting the livings which had been in such numbers +impoverished by the Reformation changes. On the other hand were the +burgesses. These had no mind to see their own property confiscated, and +their benefit societies and clubs suddenly broken up. We may appreciate +the feelings of the nation respecting the proposed measure by considering +what would be the effect of a statute taking over the properties of all +benefit clubs, Trades Unions, Lodges of Oddfellows and Foresters, and +similar associations, to-day. + +Cranmer and his supporters failed to overthrow the measure in the Lords, +but when it came to the lower house it was at once evident that a +considerable amount of careful statesmanship and astute policy would be +requisite if the statute was to pass. Apparently no opposition was +expected, as the bill was already engrossed, or perhaps it was hoped that +it might be smuggled through amidst the hurry of the closing session. But +the government discovered that they had gone to the length of the nation's +patience. The Commons saw in its true enormity the conspiracy of the rich +and powerful against the weak and poor, and this once perceived a check +was given, tardy but not quite too late, to the long and disastrous +course of spoliation and confiscation. + +The opposition to the bill was obstinate, especially as regarded that +portion which dealt with the Gilds. Led by the members for Lynn and +Coventry the house showed unmistakeably that it was at length determined +to submit no longer. In fact the feeling was evidently so strong that the +government perceived the absolute necessity of drawing back. The mode in +which this was done is explained in the following extract, which, though +written from the court point of view, shows up the whole incident as a +choice specimen of the statesmanship of the period. + +"Whereas in the last Parliament holden at Westminster in November the +first year of the King's Majesty's reign, among other articles contained +in the Act for colleges and chantry lands, etc., to be given unto his +Highness, it was also insisted that the lands pertaining to all guilds and +brotherhoods within this realm should pass unto his Majesty by way of like +gift: At which time divers there being of the Lower House did not only +reason and arraign against that article made for the guildable lands, but +also incensed many others to hold with them, amongst the which none were +stiffer, nor more busily went about to impugn the said Article than the +burgesses for the town of Lynn in the county of Norfolk and the burgesses +of the city of Coventry in the county of Warwick.... In respect of which +their allegations and great labours made herein unto the House such of his +Highness's Council as were of the same House there present, thought it +very likely that not only that Article for the guildable lands should be +clashed, but also that the whole body of the Act might either sustain +peril or hindrance, being already engrossed, and the time of the +Parliament's prolongation hard at hand, unless by some good policy the +principal speakers against the passing of that article might be stayed. +Whereupon they did participate the matter with the Lord Protector's grace +and other of the Lords of his Highness's Council: who pondering on the one +part how the guildable lands throughout this realm amounted to no small +yearly value, which by the article aforesaid were to be accrued to his +Majesty's possessions of the Crown; and on the other part weighing in a +multitude of free voices what moment the labours of a few settlers had +been of heretofore in like cases, thought it better to stay and content +them of Lynn and Coventry by granting to them to have and enjoy their +guild lands etc. as they did before, than through their means, on whose +importance, labour, and suggestions the great part of the Lower House +rested, to have the article defaced, and so his Majesty to forego the +whole lands throughout the realm. And for these respects, and also for +avoiding of the promise which the said burgesses would have added for the +guilds to that article, which might have ministered occasion to others to +have laboured for the like, they resolved that certain of his Highness's +Councillors, being of the Lower House, should persuade with the said +burgesses of Lynn and Coventry to desist from further speaking or +labouring against the said article, upon promise to them that if they +meddled no further against it, his Majesty once having the guildable +lands granted unto him by the Act ... should make them over a new grant of +the lands pertaining then unto their guilds etc. to be had and used to +them as before: which thing the Councillors did execute, as was desired, +and thereby stayed the speakers against it, so as the Act passed with the +clause for the guildable lands accordingly[119]." + +[Sidenote: _Importance of the Opposition._] + +This remarkable document, which Canon Dixon printed for the first time, is +of surpassing interest, not only to the historian of the Craft Gilds but +also to the student of constitutional history. The unscrupulous recourse +of the government to jobbery and corruption is not more revolting than the +evidence of the increasing constitutional power of the Commons is +interesting. It is evident from the account that when the country was with +the house of Commons the voice of the latter could not be disregarded. + +The upshot was that an understanding was entered into, to the effect that +the Gild lands were to be only surrendered _pro forma_, and that they +should not in fact be confiscated. In most cases this arrangement was +adhered to, and when the great crisis was past it was seen that the Gilds +had lost their Chapels and Chantries with the fittings of these, but that +their other possessions remained to them. + +[Sidenote: _Need of caution._] + +It has been pointed out how the increasing constitutional power of the +Commons could make itself felt when the opinion of the nation was at its +back. That it undoubtedly was so at the present juncture cannot be +doubted. The method which was adopted for carrying out the provisions of +the Act demonstrates fully how violently the country had been excited by +the measure and by the danger to which the Gild lands had been exposed. +The usual way of putting such an Act into execution would have been to +send down commissioners to take particulars of the Gilds and Chantries and +of their possessions. But royal commissioners had come to be looked upon, +not without ample reason, as merely the formal heralds of state robbery. +If therefore such commissioners were now sent out to manage the +dissolution of the Chantries and Hospitals it was feared that disturbance +would arise beyond the power of the government to manage. The more politic +plan was therefore adopted of enlisting the people themselves in the cause +as much as might be. + +[Sidenote: _Injunctions._] + +Injunctions[120] were issued "to the Parson, Vicar, Curat, Chaunter, +Priests, Churchwardens, and two of the most honest Persons of the Parish +of ________ being no Founders, Patrons, Donors, Lessees, nor Farmers of +the Promotions of Corporations hereafter recited." + +These, or four of them, were to make a return as to the number of +"Chantries, Hospitals, Colleges, Free Chapels, Fraternities, Brotherhoods, +Guilds and Salaries, or Wages of Stipendiary Priests" in their parish, +together with all particulars as to the revenues, ordinances, objects, +abuses, names and titles of the same. Full lists were to be drawn up of +the lands and possessions of the Chantries, Colleges, and Gilds, and +enquiry was instituted respecting any recent dissolutions or alienations +which might have been made in prospect of the recent Act. + +The contingency alluded to in the last article has sufficed to provide +some writers with an excuse for the measure destroying the Chantries. No +doubt the shock which the action of Henry VIII. in reference to the +monasteries had given to all forms of corporate property had led many of +the Gilds to attempt the realization of their property. All such +transactions were to be null and void. + +[Sidenote: _Gilds too powerful and popular to be wholly destroyed._] + +Accordingly the commissioners went down to each town and hamlet and took +full particulars of all matters concerning the Gilds and Chantries. "All +such as have enye vestments or other goods of the Co{y} [of Mercers are +ordered] to bring them in," in order to be sold, with the rest of the +Chantry fittings, "to the most p'fitt." The fate of the other kinds of +property held by the Gilds, such that is as could not be definitely made +out to have been intended for the support of obits and the maintenance of +lights, seems to have depended considerably on fortuitous circumstances. +In each individual case the Gild had to secure for itself the best terms +it could. Sometimes its property was obtained by the town, either by grant +or by purchase[121]. At Shrewsbury the almshouses of the Drapers and +Mercers survived[122], and the vicar of S. Almond's Church in the same +town still receives the yearly sum which the Shearmen settled on the +chaplain they maintained in that church. + +[Sidenote: _Perversion of the confiscated revenues._] + +[Sidenote: _Disastrous effects on Gilds, and on Craftsmen._] + +As for the object which the Act itself alleged to have been the motive for +the destruction of the Chantries, namely the desire on the part of the +government to devote the revenues to the foundation and improvement of +grammar schools, it was forgotten as soon as parliament had separated. +Strype[123] is obliged to confess that the Act was "grossly abused, as the +Act in the former King's reign for dissolving religious houses was. For +though the public good was pretended thereby (and intended too, I hope), +yet private men, in truth, had most of the benefit, and the King and +Commonwealth, the state of learning, and the condition of the poor, left +as they were before, or worse. Of this, great complaints were made by +honest men: and some of the best and most conscientious preachers reproved +it in the greatest auditories, as at Paul's Cross, and before the King +himself. Thomas Lever, a Fellow, and afterwards Master of St John's +College in Cambridge, in a sermon before the King, in the year 1550 showed +'how those that pretended, that (beside the abolishing of superstition) +with the lands of abbeys, colleges, and chantries, the King should be +enriched, learning maintained, poverty relieved, and the Commonwealth +eased, purposely had enriched themselves.... And bringing in grammar +schools, which these dissolved chantries were to serve for the founding +of, he told the King plainly ... many grammar schools, and much charitable +provision for the poor, be taken, sold and made away; to the great slander +of you and your laws, to the utter discomfort of the poor, to the grievous +offence of the people, to the most miserable drowning of youth in +ignorance.... The King bore the slander, the poor felt the lack. But who +had the profit of such things, he could not tell. But he knew well, and +all the world saw, that the Act made by the King's Majesty and his Lords +and Commons of his Parliament, for maintenance of learning and relief of +the poor, had served some as a fit instrument to rob learning, and to +spoil the poor.'" The measure was indeed an act of spoliation devoid +either of excuse in its cause or benefit in its results. The suppression +of the Monasteries could doubtless be amply excused, but no real +justification is possible for this attempted wholesale seizure of +institutions founded and maintained for the benefit of the poor, for the +relief of suffering, and for the regulation of industry and police. As +regards the last--the regulation of industry and police--the attempt was +to a certain extent foiled, but in other respects it succeeded only too +well. Even on the Gilds which escaped its effects were disastrous. Their +spiritual aspect was taken away; their prestige and authority very +materially lessened. For they completely changed their nature. Instead of +being brotherhoods of workmen,--masters, journeymen, and +apprentices,--striving together for the common good, they now became +simply leagues of employers, companies of capitalists. The new powers +which the masters obtained were used to still further oppress the +craftsman, who was sufficiently degraded already through a variety of +causes. He was too poor and powerless to be able to take any part in the +new companies, and continued to sink deeper and deeper into degradation +and misery. And this, too, in spite of the great and rapid development of +trade which came simultaneously with this weakening blow at the authority +and stability of the Gilds. Shrewsbury participated in this expansion of +industry, and in the latter portion of the sixteenth century was +peculiarly prosperous. There was no migration of its trade to the freer +air of the neighbouring villages. The town was successful in retaining its +monopoly. + +But these two causes, (i) the weakening of the Gilds and their change of +character, and (ii) the vast development of trade which the age was +witnessing, combined to render the companies which survived the +Reformation quite unable to perform the work which the mediaeval Gilds had +done. Yet then above all was a controlling and a guiding power essential. +Elizabeth in consequence found that one of her first measures must be in +remedy of this condition of affairs. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +REORGANISATION OF THE GILD-SYSTEM. + + +[Sidenote: _Reign of Elizabeth._] + +Elizabeth, on her accession, found that immediate reform was imperative in +almost every department of state. The whole trade of the country was in a +condition of agitation. Everything seemed unsettled and insecure. + +[Sidenote: _Economic disturbances and industrial activity._] + +For the social upheaval which the Reformation had brought about came in +the train of a long period of economic disorder. The changes in the mode +of cultivation had thrown the mass of the country population out of work. +These were driven in large numbers by stress of circumstances into the +towns, which were consequently overstocked with hands. At this juncture +came the breaking down of the social police within the towns by the +weakening of the Gilds, while in the rural districts the dissolution of +the monasteries took away from the poor their main hope of sustenance. The +evils which such a policy of mere destruction must inevitably have brought +upon the nation were averted through the national growth of wealth which +the same period had witnessed. In the country parts the ejection of the +easy-going old abbots had at least favoured the adoption of newer and +improved methods of cultivation, so that a greater number of labourers +came in time to be required on the estate[124]. But far more satisfactory +for absorbing the surplusage of labour was the development which the +period witnessed in manufacture. The woollen trade in the west, the +worsted trade in the east, the iron trade in the south, and unmistakeable +signs of the cloth trade in the north already showed how the foundations +of England's wealth were laid. + +The writers of the period abound in notices of the unparalleled growth of +trade and commerce. Harrison laments "that every function and several +vocation striveth with other, which of them should have all the water of +commodity ran into her own cistern[125]." Ample openings for capital broke +through the old prejudices against the taking of interest. "Usury" as it +was called--"a trade brought in by the Jews--is now perfectly practiced +almost by every Christian, and so commonly that he is accompted but for a +fool that doth lend his money for nothing[126]." The English workman too +was growing rich and lazy in the sunlight of prosperous times, so that +"strangers" were frequently preferred to native craftsmen as "more +reasonable in their takings, and less wasters of time by a great deal than +our own[127]." + +This was the commencement of the period of Shrewsbury's greatest +prosperity. Edward IV.'s erection of the Court of the President and +Marches of Wales (1478) was a material cause of the advent of peace to the +Borders. Henry VII. could gratify national sentiment by tracing his +descent from Owen Tudor: he gave it a practical turn by placing his son +Arthur at Ludlow as ruler of the principality. The Welshmen had thus begun +to feel that their union with England was a real one before Henry VIII. +finally incorporated the country with the English kingdom. + +[Sidenote: _Increase of comfort._] + +The cessation of Welsh distractions had greatly favoured the advancement +of Shrewsbury. Its grammar school--founded by Edward VI.--as the entrance +register of Thomas Ashton, its first Headmaster, evidences, attracted +scholars from a very wide area, and helped to bring renown and wealth to +the town. Shrewsbury too was the market to which the Welsh cloth trade +naturally gravitated, though the town had powerful rivals with which to +contend. In the reign of Elizabeth it employed six hundred shearmen in the +woollen industry. Camden, writing in 1586, describes it as "a fine city, +well-inhabited and of good commerce, and by the industry of the Citizens +is very rich." From this period date the substantial homes of the +tradesmen of Tudor times which still survive in not inconsiderable numbers +to give so much picturesqueness to the streets of the town. This was the +era of improvements in domestic architecture. "If ever curious building +did flourish in England," says Harrison[128], "it is in these our years." +Ireland's mansion, which dates from 1570, and the house at the south-east +corner of the Market Square, built by John Lloyd in 1579, are existing +examples of this "curious building." Their elegance, no less than their +stability, betokens the advancement of manners as well as of wealth. +Though these houses are "yet for the most part of strong timber" "brick or +hard stone[129]" were beginning to be largely used. Rowley's mansion +(1618) is said to have been the first house in the town built wholly of +these materials. + +Everything combines to mark the reign of Elizabeth as an epoch in the +history of England. + +[Sidenote: _Economic policy._] + +The foundations of modern society were laid. We seem to come into the +range of modern, as distinct from mediaeval ideas and habits. The principal +points in which modern society differs from mediaeval are distinctly +visible. The problem of poor relief in particular becomes acutely +appreciated. The rise of capital is seen both in the modification of the +Usury laws, spoken of above, and in the enhancing of rents: prices +hitherto dependent on custom and regulation must now be decided by +competition. + +Not less remarkable is the permanence which attended Elizabeth's +legislation. Her economic settlement remained practically unchanged until +the development of machinery altered those social conditions for which it +had been adapted. + +[Sidenote: _The Statute 5 Eliz. a turning-point in Gild history._] + +She made trade regulation national instead of local. The Act of 5 +Elizabeth, c. 14, is a turning-point in the history of the Gilds. By it +the whole system of Gilds was re-modelled. Their experience was by no +means thrown away[130]. The information they had been accumulating was now +appropriated by the state, which took over many of the functions they had +hitherto performed. + +[Sidenote: _Many of the functions of the Gilds taken over by the state._] + +What had long been common law now became statute law. The old minimum of +seven years' apprenticeship was still enjoined as a necessary preliminary +to the exercise of any craft. Such apprentices when bound must be of an +age less than twenty-one years, and could only be bound to householders in +corporate or market towns. The proportion of journeymen to apprentices was +regulated: there were to be three apprentices to one journeyman. The +workman was protected from wilful dismissal. The hours of labour were +defined, and Justices of the Peace or the town magistrates were to assess +wages yearly at the Easter Sessions. All disputes between masters and +servants were to be settled by the same authorities. The statute +incorporated everything that was worth taking in the ordinances of the +Gilds and applied it nationally to the regulation of the country's trade. + +[Sidenote: _Trade-regulation becomes national instead of local._] + +[Sidenote: _This allows development of new centres_] + +The results of such a revolution in industrial regulation were great both +on trade in general and on the Gilds. There was no longer any excuse for +attempting to retard the development of the new centres which were +springing up. The action of the government in the matter of the Welsh +woollen trade to which reference will presently be made shows how its +policy was tending more and more towards allowing industry to take its own +course, instead of attempting to restrict it to one market. + +[Sidenote: _and encourages native workmen._] + +Another important result of the Act was the protection henceforth shown to +the native in opposition to the alien workman. The aim of the government +is now to regulate, protect, encourage, _native_ industry: the objects of +its desire in the past had been to provide plenty for the consumer and to +increase the strength of the country by extending its capacity for +production. The royal support accorded in consequence to Flemish and +German traders had made them objects of bitter jealousy to the struggling +English merchants[131]. This feeling of antipathy to alien workmen may be +traced from the reign of Richard II. It becomes very marked in that of +Edward IV.[132] The composition of the Mercers of Shrewsbury, dated +1480-81, had forbidden the apprenticeship of anyone "that is of Frenshe, +Flemyshe, Irysh, Douche, Walshe or eny other Nacyones not beyng at Truse +w{t} our Sov'ayne Lorde the Kynge, but onlye mere Englysshe borne." + +The new policy inaugurated by the statute of Elizabeth is however not more +national in its scope than in the preference it gives to native over +foreign workmen. + +[Sidenote: _Results on Gilds._] + +[Sidenote: _Many come to an end._] + +[Sidenote: _Many made more comprehensive._] + +[Sidenote: _These sometimes come into conflict with royal officers._] + +The results on the Gilds were more diverse. Many came to an end. This was +brought about through two causes: firstly, the need for many Gilds ceased +in consequence of the government now taking over their functions; +secondly, in many places the numerous Gilds were organized and amalgamated +into one or two larger and amended corporations[133]. On the other hand +the encouragement now afforded to native workmen caused a great +incorporation of new trades into many old Gilds, which became in +consequence more comprehensive. In a large number of cases these performed +their duties well for a long period. The new composition granted to the +Barbers of Shrewsbury in 1662 places this fact upon record. Occasionally +they came in conflict with the royal officers appointed to scrutinise the +wares, as was the case with the Mercers and the Anager at one period of +the company's existence. + +[Sidenote: _Many become state agents._] + +Not a few became the authorised agents of the state. Several of the +Shrewsbury Gilds were strengthened and encouraged with this object in +view. New compositions were granted by Elizabeth to the Tailors and +Skinners in 1563 (confirmed in the next year), to the Glovers in 1564 and +to the Shearmen in 1566. The Drapers had also figured in the Statute Book +on two occasions. The Acts 8 Elizabeth, c. 7, and 14 Elizabeth, c. 12, had +both been concerned with the affairs of the Drapers of Shrewsbury in their +capacity of state agents for the regulation of industry[134]. + +In 1605 the company of Drapers was incorporated by James I. and the Smiths +in 1621. The Tailors received a composition in 1627 and another in 1686. +The Tanners were regulated by a new composition in 1639, the Smiths in +1661, the Barbers in 1662. The records of the Mercers contain entries of +"cessments for renewing the Composition" in several years--1639, 1640, +1644, 1646 etc. + +[Sidenote: _Many new Gilds formed._] + +In many places of recent growth, or where the old Gilds had been destroyed +without there having been any construction of fresh machinery to take +their place, deliberate grants were made of new trade companies. The +Merchant Adventurers of Exeter were incorporated by Elizabeth expressly +for the purpose of supervising trade and "on account of the inconveniences +arising from the excessive number of artificers and unskilled persons +occupying the art or mystery of merchandising[135]." The charter which was +granted "hominibus mistere Marceriorum" at York in 1581 allowed them to +form themselves into a company under officers chosen with the consent of +the municipal authorities: the evils which necessitated the forming of +the company being expressly stated to be such as had ensued from a lack of +due regulation of trade[136]. At Axbridge every householder, whether +engaged in trade or not, was ordered, in 1614, to enrol himself in one of +the three companies of the town[137]. + +[Sidenote: _Intimate connection with civic authorities._] + +In all these charters care was taken that the new corporations should be +in due subordination to the town authorities[138]. In some places the +Mayor or other officer of the town was _ex officio_ head of the Gild. +Sometimes it was granted to the "Mayor, bailiffs and commonalty and their +successors for ever, that they shall and may from time to time ordain, +create, and establish, a society, gild, or fraternity, of one master and +wardens of every art, mystery and occupation used or occupied, or +hereafter to be used or occupied, within the said city and the suburbs +thereof; and that they with the assistance of the wardens of the said arts +and mysteries may make, constitute, ordain and establish laws, +constitutions and ordinances for the public utility and profit and for the +better rule and regiment of our city of Winchester and of the mysteries of +the citizens and inhabitants of the same[139]." Such power of supervision +was generally allowed to the municipal authorities. The head of the Gild +frequently took his oath of office before the Mayor. The Common Council +of the town had power to make such ordinances as it might think fit for +the good estate, order and rule of the Gildsmen. In certain cases too the +Mayor had power "to call and admitt unto the same Free Guild and +Burgeshipp of the said Town such and soe many able and discreete persons +as ... shall seeme fitt" and also "uppon any iust and lawful grounds and +causes to disffranchise them[140]." Under these conditions the public +authorities of the town would be ready to support the companies. In some +cases they were expressly ordered to do so. At Shrewsbury we shall find +the town Bailiffs assisting the companies in the efforts of the latter to +prevent the encroachments of foreigners. + +What all this change and reform amounted to was this. The system of Gilds +was re-organised and strengthened. Part of the functions which the Craft +Gilds had performed were taken over by the state. Part were left to be +still performed by the companies. The companies were in all cases brought +into the closest possible connection with the town and the town +authorities. + +As regards the designation of these 16th century trade associations it +appears that they were generally termed societies or companies in public +documents, probably because the name "Gild" might seem to savour somewhat +of the Chantries and mass-priests. But in their own books and lists they +still called themselves Gilds and fraternities. + +[Sidenote: _The new companies show permanence of Gild-feeling._] + +Though they differed essentially from these, as has been already pointed +out, yet, viewed superficially, they might seem to have retained many of +the features of the old Gilds. In practice they bore no small share of the +burden of public charities. They were also not unmindful of the wants of +their members, though of course these now consisted of masters only. +Elizabeth's charter to the Merchant Adventurers of Bristol ordered them to +distribute yearly among twenty poor men twenty "vestes panneas" and to +assist all of the company who were impoverished by mischance or otherwise. + +In their ordinances and compositions they were even more similar in +appearance to the old Gilds. The composition which Elizabeth granted to +the Glovers of Shrewsbury in 1564 is as strict as any mediaeval regulation. +It restricted all masters to a maximum of three apprentices. It confined +each brother to a single shop, and to the selling of the products of his +own work only. It authorised the Wardens to seize corrupt or insufficient +wares, and was altogether a most thorough piece of industrial regulation, +entirely modelled on the lines of the old Gild arrangements. + +Other indications of the same spirit were not lacking. In 1621 "by and +with the allowance and agreement of the right worthie" the town +authorities, skins and fells were ordered to be purchased only between +sunrise and sunset. As though the Wardens of the Barbers' company had not +been sufficiently thorough in executing their duties the new composition +which the company received from Charles II. in 1662 made provision for the +appointment of a searcher and defined the duties appertaining to the +office. The composition granted to the Smiths in 1621 forbade the keeping +of two shops by a single tradesman in the town, and disallowed the +employment of foreigners for a longer period than a week without express +permission obtained from the Wardens. The composition of the Tailors, +granted in 1627, forbade the wearing of "any lyvere of any Earle Lorde +Barronett Knight Esquire or Gentleman" while occupying any Gild office; +prohibited unfair competition and the employment of foreigners; and +ordered that "noe pettie Chapman or other p'son or p'sons shall buy any +Skynnes of furre" within the town. In the composition of 1686 the articles +are repeated against indiscriminate admittance of foreigners, and against +the piratical infringement of unfree persons on the province of the +brethren. + +The "Regulated Companies" which arose about the same time were a further +development of the same movement, but on a larger scale. In many respects +indeed the Craft Gilds of the 14th and 15th centuries were but little +different from the Regulated Companies of the 17th. Admission was +practically free on payment of a fine, the individual so received into +membership being left to prosecute his trade in his own way, by his own +means, and to his own particular profit. + +[Sidenote: _Though altered conditions of trade make their work +difficult._] + +But the difficulties attendant on attempts to regulate expanding trade +were daily growing greater and more numerous. "The false making and short +lengths of all sortes of cloths and stuffes" necessitated the appointment +by the Mercers of two men "to oversee and look after" these things in +1638. The Barbers too in 1662 empowered the stewards to search for bad +materials. In 1639 the Glovers' company was brought to something like a +crisis "by the taking of many apprentices." It was thought necessary to +dock each brother of one of the apprentices allowed by the Elizabethan +composition of 1564[141]. + +The frequency with which it was necessary to renew the compositions, the +reiteration of the same articles,--against employing foreigners, against +unfair competition, against neglect of the legal period of +apprenticeship,--again shows the futility of such restrictions. Actions +against intruders even thus early figure frequently on the records. In +those of the Tailors and Skinners the decision of the company under date +of August 23, 1627, is recorded thus:--"The Wardens and Sitters met and +agreed that the Wardens should fetch process for Intruders and implead +them before the Council in the Marches, and Mr Chelmicke to draw the bill +against them." + +The history of the Welsh woollen trade in its connection with Shrewsbury +well exhibits the economic policy of the day, and as it therefore +illustrates several of the points with which we have been concerned it may +be given here at some length. + +[Sidenote: _The features of the period seen in history of Welsh woollen +trade of Shrewsbury._] + +[Sidenote: _Flourishing in reign of Elizabeth,_] + +In the earlier part of the 16th century Oswestry appears to have been the +principal market for the Welsh products. At Shrewsbury however there was +also a large woollen trade, as we learn from the Act 8 Elizabeth, cap. 7, +entitled, "An Act touching the Drapers, Cottoners, and Frizers of +Shrewsbury." This statute recited that there had been time out of mind a +Gild of the art and mystery of Drapers legally incorporated in Shrewsbury, +which had usually set on work above six hundred persons of the art or +science of Shearmen or Frizers. Of late however it had come to pass that +divers persons, not being members of the said company, neither brought up +in the use of the said trade, had "with great disorder, upon a mere +covetous desire and mind, intromitted with and occupied the said trade of +buying Welsh cloth or lining, having no knowledge, experience or skill in +the same." The result is asserted to be that the men of the company are +impoverished and like to be brought to ruin unless speedy remedy be +provided. It is therefore forbidden that anyone inhabiting Shrewsbury +shall "occupy the trade" of buying Welsh woollens, unless he be free of +the company of the Drapers[142]. + +[Sidenote: _but injured by over-regulation caused by selfish interests._] + +Such a stringent regulation of trade met with directly contrary results to +those which had been expected. A statute six years later acknowledges the +failure of the measure, although it attempts to shift the blame from the +shoulders of the Government by representing the measure as one taken at +the request of the Drapers, instead of as a piece of state-craft[143]. + +The statute of 14 Elizabeth, cap. 12, almost entirely repeals 8 Elizabeth, +cap. 7, "at the humble suit of the inhabitants of the said town and also +of the said artificers, for whose benefit the said Act was supposed to be +provided[144].... For experience hath plainly taught in the said town that +the said Act hath not only not brought the good effect that then was hoped +and surmised, but also hath been and now is like to be the very greatest +cause of the impoverishing and undoing of the poor Artificers and others +at whose suit the said Act was procured, for that there be now, sithence +the making of the said Act, much fewer persons to set them awork than +afore." + +The whole incident is extremely interesting. It affords an excellent +illustration of the way in which the Gilds were in some places made state +agents for carrying into effect 5 Elizabeth, cap. 14. It also shows +plainly that state intervention was beginning to be found harmful even by +the men of that day. It evidences, moreover, how large the Welsh trade of +Shrewsbury had already grown. + +Oswestry however continued to be the chief emporium, and the Drapers of +Shrewsbury repaired thither every Monday for a long period after the date +of the statutes we have been considering. + +[Sidenote: _The Drapers' Company represents the interests of Shrewsbury_] + +The company of the Drapers was the most considerable and influential of +the trade associations of Shrewsbury. It numbered among its brethren the +great majority of the chief burgesses of the town. Its relations with the +municipal corporation were, as would be expected, very intimate. It was +the custom of the Drapers to attend divine worship in the church of St +Alkmund before setting out for the Oswestry market. In 1614 an order was +made for the payment of six and eightpence to the clerk of the church for +ringing the morning bell to prayers on Monday mornings at six o'clock, not +by the company as we should expect, but by the corporation[145]. + +[Sidenote: _in opposition to Oswestry, Chester,_] + +There arose considerable competition for the lucrative market which the +expansion of Welsh industry was every day rendering more profitable. The +inhabitants of Chester made a vigorous attempt to obtain the erection in +their city of "a staple for the cottons and friezes of North Wales." +Shrewsbury was however enabled to prevent the completion of the +scheme[146]. + +[Sidenote: _London; especially the last._] + +The attempt of London to obtain a share in the trade seemed fraught with +so much danger that the two rivals, Shrewsbury and Oswestry, made common +cause against the intruder. The complaint was a general one that the +merchants of London and their factors forestalled and engrossed +productions before they came to market. These obnoxious practices seem to +have been carried to a particularly distasteful length on the borders of +Wales. The transactions of a London dealer named Thomas Davies in 1619 +appear to have brought matters to a crisis. + +There had been complaints about the same man, with others, previously. He +had, by craft, obtained admission to the freedom of Oswestry, by which +means he could the better purchase the Welsh cloths. These he then carried +to London where he sold them "privately"[147]--that is, not in the proper +and public market. The Drapers of the two towns petitioned that the matter +might be settled before the Council[148]. Being foiled in his attempt to +plead his freedom of Oswestry[148] Davies appealed to the Lord Mayor and +Corporation of the Metropolis to support his claims to trade throughout +England in right of his citizenship of London[149]. The order of the +Council depriving the Londoners of what they called their "ancient +privilege" evoked strenuous opposition in the Metropolis, and petitions +numerously signed[150] were sent in asserting that the Drapers of +Shrewsbury and Oswestry had obtained the order by misrepresentation[151]. +It does not appear that these petitions were successful, as Thomas Davies +in his examination before the Council a little later, expressed his +willingness to resign his London freedom and to confine his dealings to +Oswestry. The fear of creating a precedent which would be largely +followed, and with probable detriment to the trade of Shrewsbury and +Oswestry, restrained the Council from allowing him to do this[152]. + +Not that the trade of Shrewsbury, at any rate, was likely to decrease +through any apathy on the part of its company of Drapers. They were on the +contrary singularly active at this time. And there was every need for them +to be vigilant. For, with the object of stimulating the industry of the +Principality by allowing a more extensive market, and probably also as a +result of the recent proceedings between the Drapers of Shrewsbury and +Oswestry and the citizens of London, a Proclamation was issued allowing +free trade in Welsh cloths. The novelty pleased neither the Welshmen[153] +nor the merchants of the borders. To the latter the chief consequence +seemed to be that the French company, which had the monopoly of exporting +such goods to France, was enabled to purchase direct from the +manufacturers in Wales instead of through the Drapers. The case was +undoubtedly a hard one for the latter, who could not export. Consequently +their grievance was a real one, and, as they showed in their petition to +the Council, ruin stared them in the face unless they too might be allowed +to export and so dispose of the large stock which was thrown on their +hands[154]. + +But at the same time they were successfully endeavouring to draw the Welsh +trade from Oswestry entirely to Shrewsbury[155]. + +They had prepared for the attempt by obtaining a new charter from +Elizabeth's successor in 1605. That they had lost no time in putting their +privileges to practical use is seen from their answer, four years later, +to a mandate issued to them by Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, who held +the overlordship of Oswestry, to desist from their efforts to undermine +the trade of his town. Their answer is entitled "The Copy of a Letter sent +by the Company to the Earle of Suffolk, Lord Chamberlen of his Majesties +Househoulde, the 24 June 1609," and begins + + "Right Honerabell, + + "Your letter bearing date the second of this June by the hands of Mr + Kinaston wee have receaved: wherein ytt appeareth yo{r} Lordship was + informed that wee the Societie of Drapers wentt abowte by underarte + and menesses to withdrawe your markett of Walshe Clothe from your + towne of Oswester." + +[Sidenote: _All competitors worsted._] + +Though they proceed to exculpate themselves from the charge, it is evident +their intention was to pursue in the future the same policy which they had +hitherto practised. In 1618 Suffolk fell and Oswestry was deprived of his +support, so that in 1621 the Shrewsbury Drapers felt justified in +resolving "That they will not buy Cloth at Oswestry or elsewhere than +Salop," in spite of the opposition of the clothiers of North Wales[156], +who, whether from convenience or old association, appeared to prefer +Oswestry as the locale of their market. However the Drapers' company, +assisted by the town[157], was sufficiently powerful to turn the +Proclamation allowing free trade in Welsh cloths to their own good, and +the market was drawn to Shrewsbury in spite of orders by the Council that +it should be re-established at Oswestry. The company did not hesitate to +declare to the Council itself that they were prepared, if necessary, to +disregard its orders. By 1633 the market at Oswestry had practically died +out. It was held at Shrewsbury on Wednesdays, and afterwards on Fridays. +In 1649 the date was altered to Thursday. + +[Sidenote: _Expansion of trade, and interlopers, destroy Shrewsbury's +monopoly._] + +To the Market House flocked the Welsh farmers, their bales of cloth being +borne to the town on the backs of hardy ponies. The merchandise was +exposed for sale in the large room upstairs. The Drapers assembled +beneath, and proceeded to make their purchases in order of seniority, +according to ancient usage. The custom which the Welshmen brought to the +town easily accounts for the keenness of the competition to secure the +market. For a long time the trade flourished. Gradually however the action +of "foreigners" in buying from the Welsh manufacturers at their homes[158] +broke down the monopoly which Shrewsbury had so long enjoyed. At the end +of the 18th century the sales had shrunk to miserable proportions. In +1803 the room over the market was relinquished by the Drapers, and though +a certain amount of Welsh trade was still carried on, it withdrew +gradually from the town until it finally left Shrewsbury altogether. The +Drapers might have realised that the time for restricting trade to the +freemen of their company was past. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE DEGENERACY OF THE COMPANIES. + + +[Sidenote: _Outside competition_] + +The competition of "interlopers" ruined the Welsh trade of Shrewsbury. It +was not, as we have seen, from any lack of vigilance on the part of the +companies. Stimulated by their new compositions they became extremely +active. As early as 1622 the actions against "foreigners" begin. Soon +afterwards they become of frequent occurrence until at length the books of +the companies are almost mere records of a daily struggle for existence. + +[Sidenote: _inevitable under the altered conditions of trade._] + +[Sidenote: _But the companies themselves are unsatisfactory._] + +[Sidenote: _Friction with the town authorities;_] + +This was of course inevitable under the altered conditions of trade. But +the companies exhibited in themselves all the radical defects which must +pertain to such a system when it has outgrown its necessity. We have seen +how free the earlier companies were from friction with the municipal +authorities. In the 17th century this is changed. The propriety of setting +up a May-pole had formerly been almost the only ground of conflict between +the bailiffs and the craftsmen. But in 1639 we find that the Tanners were +thought to be overstepping their powers; the corporation appointed a +committee to examine their composition. Some seventeen years later, +extreme measures had to be taken with regard to the same company. It was +the custom for the charters to be inspected by the corporation +periodically. In 1656 the Tanners refused to comply with the request to +produce their composition for the mayor's perusal, with the result that +the company was prosecuted by the corporation[159]. + +The town had been willing to support the Drapers in their measures to draw +the Welsh trade to Shrewsbury, but it did not approve of the line of +action they tried subsequently to take, namely, to limit all the trade to +their own members. In 1653 regulations were framed to prevent the company +"forestalling or engrossing the Welsh Flannels, Cloaths etc.[160]" A more +serious abuse transpired in connection with the Feltmakers' company in +1667. They refused to make one who had been lawfully apprenticed to the +trade in Shrewsbury free of their company. On this occasion the mayor and +aldermen exercised their right of supervision by ordering the Wardens to +admit the man, "and the Mayor is desired to give him the oath of a Freeman +of the said Company[161]." The importance of the mayor being thus +empowered by the municipal authorities to administer the oath of +admittance to one of the Gilds is very great, and shows how real was the +subordination of the latter to the town when the corporation chose to +exert its rights. + +An order of the corporation[162] directing that burgesses only are to be +elected Wardens of the companies points to another abuse, the existence of +which is proved by other evidence, viz., the admittance of non-residents +in the town to membership in the companies on payment of a sufficiently +large entrance fee. Yet the extent to which corruption could go was seen +forty years later when the corporation stultified itself by passing an +order[163] allowing the Haberdashers to elect persons, though they might +not be burgesses, as Wardens of their company. + +The general impression which such transactions leave is that extreme +laxity prevailed in all departments. The town woke up for a moment in 1702 +when the prospect perhaps of a harvest of unpaid fines induced them to +make an effort to recover all such[164]. It is to be regretted that +nothing remains to show to what extent the abuse had prevailed, nor how +far the present effort was successful. The annual fine of the Bakers' +company was L3. 6_s._ 8_d._ which they appear to have generally paid with +considerable reluctance[165]. The supply of provision to the town seems to +have given much trouble in the early years of the eighteenth century. +Permission was given, in 1730, to the country butchers to sell in the town +unless the town butchers could furnish meat in sufficient quantity. +Similar permission was accorded to the country bakers, if the Bakers' +company in the town would not pay their yearly fine. This they were +unwilling, or unable, to do, and the country bakers were in consequence +called in[166]. + +[Sidenote: _with one another,_] + +The picture given by such incidents is not more significant of the +degeneracy of the Gilds than is that which the friction of the companies +one with another presents. The Mercers and the Drapers had frequently made +mutual complaints of intrusion: the Mercers and the Glovers also appear as +great rivals in later years. In 1679 and at several subsequent dates there +were actions at law between the two companies. In 1727 the records of the +Glovers show that similar actions were again in process. In 1721 the +company unanimously agreed to withstand the Tailors in the matter of widow +Steen, whom they pledge themselves to support; "and that shee may goe on +with makeing Brichess peruided shee dos not line them with flonen or +Buckrom or cennet onlye Lether." + +[Sidenote: _and with their own members._] + +Nor is the evidence of intestine friction within the Gilds themselves less +significant of decay. So early as 1636 the Mercers were fain to confess +that the spirit of mutual assistance had disappeared, in the order which +they passed to the effect that any combrother refusing to pay his +assessment was to be distrained upon by authority of the Wardens. There +are several records of such distraints. In 1700 they find it necessary to +pass an ordinance against freemen taking the sons of intruders as +apprentices. The records of the other companies are, similarly, full of +like evidences of demoralisation. The companies are declared to be +impoverished by the taking of inordinate numbers of apprentices. The same +sort of abuse is found in a complaint which appears in the Glovers' books +in 1656: "the company is much impoverished by the taking in of foreigners +freemen such as have not served" their due apprenticeship. "The disorderly +manner of electing Wardens" about which the Glovers have to "take account" +in 1668 points to a great deterioration in the manner of holding Gild +meetings from that which has been sketched in a previous chapter[167]. +Worse than all is the confession that the Gild brothers have sunk so low +as to connive at intruders "for fraudulent lucre and gain[168]." The +Saddlers have the same sort of complaint in 1740. Some brethren are +infringing on the trades of others: resolutions are passed against such +conduct. Their books show that the resolutions were soon forgotten[169]. +The other Gilds experienced similar difficulties. In 1745 the Barbers +levied a fine of ten shillings on brethren who should so far forget +themselves as to instruct "men or women servants to dress hair." + +The problem of regulating trade would have been difficult enough under +the most favourable circumstances. With the Gilds in the condition which +we have been considering it was an impossibility. There was indeed a +feature in the modern companies which at the outset deprived the attempt +to utilise them beneficially for trade-purposes of all chance of success. + +[Sidenote: _The Gilds have changed to capitalist companies._] + +The old Gilds, which had lived through the shocks of the Reformation, and +the Elizabethan changes, had quite altered their character. The new ones +which had arisen differed widely from the old fraternities. Instead of +being brotherhoods of craftsmen desirous of advancing the public weal, +they were now mere societies of capitalists, intent only on private and +personal advantage. As a writer of 1680 observes "most of our ancient +Corporations and Guilds [have] become oppressive Oligarchies[170]." There +is a constant endeavour to restrict the companies to favoured individuals. +Every "foreigner" is subjected to a heavy fine, which grows larger in +amount as the companies feel the trade slipping from their hands in spite +of their desperate endeavours to restrict it. The new compositions +continually point to this abuse by bringing back the fines to their +original sum, or rather reducing them to an amount less inordinate than +that which they have irregularly reached. The admission stamp of the +Saddlers was 4/- in 1784. It reached 8/2 in 1799. In 1831 it was 20/2. The +Mercers' fine was fixed at L40. 6_s._ 8_d._ in 1789, "besides fees." In +1823 it had sunk to L20. The Mercers were of course one of the richest of +the companies, yet the sum was a large one to pay for the privilege of +opening a shop in a provincial town. + +Other means to restrict themselves were also attempted. Increase in the +number of apprentices was viewed with disfavour. There are frequent +complaints of the "impoverishment" of the companies through the +indiscriminate admittance of "foreigners." All the evidence shows how +entirely they have degenerated into mere societies of capitalists. Their +records almost decline into bald columns of pounds, shillings and pence. +For it was to this completeness of degradation that the social body had +sunk. The merest selfishness was lauded as a patriotic virtue. Private +gain was recommended as a public benefit. Social disintegration and +industrial anarchy ruled supreme, and when commercial success had come to +be looked upon as the one avenue to honour and advancement, it was not to +be expected that the companies would escape the general infection. They +formed simply one among many means by which the individual was enabled to +fill his own pockets at the cost of a suffering and squalid populace. + +This change in their character, which became more marked as time went by, +naturally was not unattended by a change in their government. All +authority became engrossed by the richer members. The Four Assistants with +the Wardens and Stewards formed a close aristocratic board. Brentano, +speaking it would appear more particularly of the London companies, +says[171] the king nominated the first members of this court and +afterwards as vacancies occurred they were filled by co-optation. This was +not exactly the case with the Shrewsbury companies. There the annual +meeting[172] retained a considerable power in the election of officers to +the last. In some cases the Assistants or Four Men were elected freely by +the assembled combrethren, in others two only were thus elected, the two +retiring Wardens completing the number. The Tailors' composition of 1563 +provided that the two Wardens should be elected by the whole Gild: the +Four Assistants were then nominated by these Wardens "for advising them in +the Government of the Gild." The Wardens and Assistants then proceeded to +nominate the two Stewards. + +[Sidenote: _The companies and the close corporations._] + +They were thus as exclusive and aristocratic as the town corporations had +become. The degeneracy of the latter had been largely intensified by the +degeneracy of the former. For the principal members of the companies were +the principal members of the town corporation, which had silently, since +the fourteenth century, been usurping the ancient powers of the general +body of the burgesses. It was the companies which mainly profited by it. +They profited indirectly, by the influence which they exercised through +individual members on the town council, which had obtained part of the +functions of the Leet. They profited directly as they themselves acquired +definitely other of the powers of the Court Leet. They became the chief +or the sole medium for the acquisition of municipal freedom, and were +distinct town organs for the regulation of trade and industry. + +[Sidenote: _The journeymen no longer in the companies._] + +It is by reason of the widely-reaching influence of their degeneracy that +their later history is of importance. For as regards the poorer members of +society their history is useless. The workman disappears from their books. +That he no longer was looked upon as the brother member of the masters is +quite evident. + + "Our workmen do work hard, but we live at ease, + We go when we will, and we come when we please[173]." + +[Sidenote: _They begin to form benefit societies, animated by much of the +old Gild-spirit._] + +The most general means which the poor adopted to help themselves was the +formation of Friendly Societies. These arose in great numbers during the +18th century. The companies were not slow in helping to swell public +subscriptions and in assisting to pauperise the labouring class. To the +necessity of rendering real help to their unfortunate workmen they were +however entirely oblivious. This side of the work performed by the old +Gilds had been almost wholly overlooked by the post-reformation companies, +though it had been one of the most important of their predecessors' +functions. It was found that society could not get along without something +of the kind, and as the higher companies would not perform the work, the +lower craftsmen found it necessary to do it themselves. Here was a +distinct severance of interest between employers and workmen, yet it does +not seem unlikely that it was the old Gilds themselves which formed the +models for the new societies. At any rate the analogies between the Gilds +and the Benefit Societies, in the earlier phases of the latter, and +looking at the social and religious side of the former, are very +striking[174]. The simple rules of trade association show as much concern +for the morals of members as did the charters of the Gilds: they had their +annual feast, provided by subscription: they usually went in their +procession to the parish church on the day of the feast. They were perhaps +the earliest signs of that necessary return to something like the old Gild +system which the later Trades Unions have done so much to bring about. The +companies watched them grow up without a twinge of conscience, though it +was their own neglect of duty which made such associations an absolute +necessity. Being the only forms of combination which were left unmolested +by the government they were extensively formed, and this was well, for the +need of them was very great. + +[Sidenote: _Difficulties of reform; members would not, state would not, +the town authorities would not._] + +In spite of unmistakeable signs of inevitable changes the companies +refused to take warning. Their reform was indeed difficult, and, as it +proved, impossible. The workmen as we have seen could not, the masters +would not, take steps in this direction. The state derived too good an +income from them to be anxious for a change. The admission stamps, +constantly increasing in amount, were a profitable source of revenue. The +notices of "cessments for renewing the composition" are frequent. There +were also continual contributions of men and money for the "exigencies of +the State[175]." In 1798 the Mercers voted L100 annually to the government +"during the continuance of the war." The town also seemed to profit by +them. They were obliged, some of them at all events, to exhibit their +compositions annually or periodically to the mayor and pay a customary +fine on doing so. They continued to be of some service to the community in +the inefficient condition of the public police. Their social utility to +the town was also in their favour. In 1608 the corporation provided +materials in case of fire, when each of the companies was required to +maintain its proper proportion of hooks and buckets. Entries relating to +the "spout or water engine" are frequent in their records. In aid of +procuring public benefits the companies were not backward. Their chests +were readily opened to assist towards improvements in the town, such as +widening of streets, erection of bridges and the like. + +To the last also they preserved something of their charitable character, +though its exercise was as open to criticism as other forms of poor relief +during the eighteenth century. Nevertheless if the membership lists of the +Drapers and the Mercers could be made public they would be found to +contain the majority of the public benefactors of Shrewsbury during this +period. Public charities, such as the Infirmary and the Lancaster School +received annual subscriptions until the companies came to an end. The +necessity of continuing the annuities to the inmates of S. Chad's +almshouses formed a chief argument against the dissolution of the Mercers' +company. "The Worshipful Company of Drapers" still subscribes to schools +and charities year by year. + +[Sidenote: _Contemporaneous opinion of the companies._] + +In these circumstances we cannot wonder that the old companies found many +champions. The following letter is valuable as affording a view of the +contemporaneous opinion held of the Gilds by a man of ordinary common +sense and average education. It appeared in the _Salopian Journal_ of +August 27, 1823. It was evoked by a decision of the Judges of Assize in +favour of the Mercers' company in an important case to which reference +will be made in a later page. It was addressed to the editor of the +newspaper and commenced-- + + "SIR, + + As the Company commonly called 'the United Company of Mercers, + Grocers, Ironmongers, and Goldsmiths' in this town have established + the validity of their ancient customs by a suit at law of which there + is no account of their having done so since the time when the King's + Court for the Marches of Wales was held at Ludlow; at which time and + place the Council then, who held the pleas, determined also a like + suit in their favour: and as there is much argument for and against + the existence and usage of this incorporate body; permit me to lay + before the public an outline of both, that the subject at least might + be better understood than we often hear it repeated. It is contended + against, as exercising an arbitrary monopoly of trade, to the + detriment and oppression of the subjects of the realm; and which is + moreover injurious to the town itself, by depriving the Trade thereof + of that competition which brings down the Articles of manufacture to a + fair marketable value for the supply of its inhabitants. These are the + charges against them, which if indeed they could be substantiated + would be sufficient to show that their existence was an evil. But let + us look at the facts on the other side of the question, and see + whether there is any reality in these serious charges. In the first + place the Companies hold it requisite, in order to be free of their + body, that all but the sons of Freemen shall serve a regular + apprenticeship to one of the Corporation. Now in this they have been + sanctioned and dictated to by the ancient law of the land ... that + youths might be properly taught their respective arts, and that the + community might not be imposed upon by pretenders to that which they + were not properly acquainted with. + + On Foreigners or such as have not served a regular apprenticeship they + impose a fine of L20, before they will admit them as freemen, and + certainly in doing this they do not over-rate a seven years' + servitude, when the one is made equivalent to the other. + + Let us now see to the application of the money. A fund is made of it, + somewhat similar to 'Benefit Societies.' No part of it is applied to + private purposes; for even the Company's annual feast, about which + there is so much said, is not always at the expense of the fund, but + [is] borne individually; and the utility of such a feast to promote + harmony and goodwill, is acknowledged by all Societies[176]. But + further, these funds are confined to the relief of decayed and + deserving members of the Companies[177], and to every charitable and + public emergency wherein the general interest or welfare of the town + is concerned; and their annual disbursements, for centuries past, have + been regularly serviceable to the community at large as well as to + individual cases of distress. This the account of their expenditure + will show. Now, then this monopoly, as it is called, extends no + further than to exact an apprenticeship of seven years, or to a fine + of L20; the former sanctioned by law and the latter a sum of no + comparative amount to a respectable person, desirous of establishing a + respectable trade, especially if there be any truth in the argument, + that goods are sold by this corporate body for more money than they + would be, if no such corporation existed. Neither can the fine be + called excessive, because it is added to a stock which he from whom it + is exacted directs in common to be applied to the common good; and + which he may himself, as many others have done in cases of distress, + receive back again with large additions. + + But the increased population of Birmingham and Manchester is brought + forward as a proof of towns flourishing where trade is what is called + _free_. Let us look a little into this argument. Are not the wares + vended in these places proverbially _bad_? Do not all manner of + imposters from these places deluge the country with their spurious + goods, and impose them upon the unwary part of the public? Are these + towns to be compared with London, Liverpool, Bristol, for + respectability of their trade, for the goodness and cheapness of their + articles, when the quality is taken into account? Yet the trade of + these latter towns is regulated by corporations. + + I contend therefore that the Corporation in question is _beneficial_ + to this town and county, inasmuch as it tends to protect it from the + inundations of empirics and imposters, while it holds out no hindrance + to the fair and honest dealer who has a mind to compete with its + respectable tradesmen and settle amongst them. I am not in trade + myself; but hope I shall always see my native town preserved from that + sort of population which it has never yet been disgraced with. + + I have the honour to be, Mr Editor, + In technical language, + A COMBROTHER OF THE GUILD. + + SHREWSBURY, Aug. 22, 1823." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +SHREWSBURY SHOW. + + +[Sidenote: _Characteristic features of the Middle Ages._] + +A strange glamour hangs around the Middle Ages. We know so little of man's +actual life in those years,--and what little we do know seems to partake +so largely of the mysterious and the picturesque--all, his modes of life +and manners of thought are so far removed from our own,--that mediaeval +history would easily resolve itself into an enchanting pageant bright with +its colour and bewildering with its contradictions. It is perhaps in the +strange contrasts which are presented to us that its chief wonder is +found. In those years we find lust and rapine, and sacrilege and tyranny, +side by side with the fairest forms of chivalry[178], the most devoted +readiness to champion the cause of religion, the firmest attachment to the +forms of law[179]. We see only the prominent lights and the great shadows +of the picture, but all that should go to make it human and comprehensible +to us is hidden under the dust of centuries. + +We have noticed the existence of something of this contradictory spirit in +the view we have had of the early Gilds[180]. The elevated ideal which +they set before their members must of course have been far above the level +which was ever actually reached. We may smile at their vain attempts after +the impossible, yet we cannot but allow that their perseverance betokens +the widespread acceptance of a nobler conception of human life than is +common in our own too merely practical age. To the men of those days there +seemed no great incongruity in the lofty ideals of the Gild-compositions +and the lower standard which the brethren actually attained. It added but +another to the many striking contrasts which environed their daily life. + +[Sidenote: _Fondness for pageantry._] + +[Sidenote: _Its social importance._] + +That life was one passed largely in dulness and perhaps comparative +squalor. But the occasions of colour and merriment were not few. Each +season had its festivities, social and religious, when rich and poor met +on something like equal ground in the rude merry-making. This feature in +ordinary life was not without its social importance, and if only for this +reason no account of the Gilds would be complete which failed to take +notice of their processions and, in so doing, of the general life and +habits of the brethren at the different epochs of Gild history. We have +now nothing to take the place of those occasions of mutual enjoyment and +mirth, when "ceremony doff'd his pride" without censure, when the bashful +apprentice might perhaps tread a measure with his master's daughter, and +when the condescending mistress of the house might even allow herself to +be led out for a dance by one or other of her goodman's journeymen. + + "A Christmas gambol oft would cheer + A poor man's heart through half the year[181]." + +[Sidenote: _The Corpus Christi procession._] + +We have already seen how important an influence religious feelings had in +the actions of the Gilds. Among the yearly festivals the feast of Corpus +Christi soon became one of the most splendid for pomp and pageantry, and +to it the Gilds were naturally attracted. Some indeed existed with the +primary object of ensuring the glory of this particular feast. Most +important of these was the Corpus Christi Gild at York[182]. The Gild of +the Holy Trinity, also at York, concerned itself with the annual +production of a religious play illustrating the Lord's Prayer. The Gilds +of S. Helen (which represented the Invention of the Cross), of S. Mary, +and of Corpus Christi, at Beverley[183], were other famous fraternities +with similar objects. At Stamford was one which maintained a secular +play[184]. In most towns in England it became the custom for the Gilds, +each with its banners and insignia, to accompany the Corpus Christi +procession: in some places the event seems to have become especially +picturesque. At Coventry[185] and also at Shrewsbury, the procession has +lasted in some sort down to our own day[186]. At the former city Lady +Godiva has even lately ridden, though at fitful and uncertain intervals: +at the latter town, although the procession has now become a thing of the +past, it is little more than a decade since "Shrewsbury Show" was to be +seen annually, on the Monday following the feast of Corpus Christi, +passing along under the eaves of the timbered houses of the old border +town. + +[Sidenote: _The pageants of the Gilds._] + +The prominence which the charters of the Shrewsbury Gilds gave to the +procession has been sufficiently pointed out already. Every care was taken +to secure its fitting glory and splendour. Among the goods of the +companies which the inventories name are "Baners," "Baners for ye +Mynstrellys werying," "skukions for my'strells," "torches," "coots of +sense," "stondarts of mayle," "other pec's of mayle," besides many swords +and halberts, and the like. These various properties decked out the +pageant which each Gild contributed to the common procession. It was +exhibited by means of a wooden scaffold on wheels, differing probably but +little in appearance from the drays or trollies which were utilised in +later years. Dugdale in his _Antiquities of Warwickshire_ relates that +"before the suppression of the Monasteries this city[187] was very famous +for the pageants that were played therein upon Corpus Christi Day; which, +occasioning very great confluence of people thither from far and near, +was of no small benefit thereto: which pageants being acted with mighty +state and reverence by the friars of this house had theaters for the +several scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheels, and drawn to all +the eminent parts of the city for the better advantage of the spectators." + +At Shrewsbury there appears never to have been an elaborate miracle play +presented by the crafts[188]. Most likely the Show early took that form +which it exhibited in the later times of which we have more definite +record. The Gilds of the town walked in the procession, each member +bearing, in mediaeval days, a light "in honour of the Blessed Sacrament," +the officers wearing their liveries and carrying the banners and other +insignia, and thus escorting a tableau more or less appropriate to the +craft. No small expense and even taste appears to have been expended on +these representations, though their precise suitability it is in some +cases difficult to appreciate. Before Reformation times the tableaux were +generally of a biblical or ecclesiastical nature: after the 16th century +they were usually mythological or historical. Thus the Tailors were +presided over by Adam and Eve "the first of their craft," or by Queen +Elizabeth in ruffles of right royal magnitude. The Shearmen or +Clothworkers had a personation of bishop Blasius, with a black mitre of +wool and doubtless also the wool-comb with which he had been tortured at +his martyrdom. The place of the saint was subsequently usurped by the +king--Edward IV., who was remembered as having especially cultivated the +good offices of the wool-merchants. The Skinners and Glovers were ruled by +the king of Morocco, whose "Cote" was an expensive item in their accounts; +they had also an elaborate mechanical stag accompanied by huntsmen +sounding bugle blasts. The Smiths were appropriately represented by +Vulcan, or a knight in black armour "supported by two attendants who +occasionally fired off blunderbusses." The Painters were accustomed to +find their best representative of later years in a cheery-looking Rubens +brandishing palette and brush, while the Bricklayers, for some occult +reason, considered themselves adequately represented by bluff king Hal. +The twin saints Crispin and Crispianus patronised the Shoemakers, and S. +Katharine (at a spinning wheel) the Barbers. Venus and Ceres presided over +the Bakers. + +[Sidenote: _The Reformation._] + +[Sidenote: _Mary._] + +At the Reformation the Corpus Christi procession became shorn of its +splendour even before it altogether ceased under Edward VI. With Mary's +attempt to revive the old order efforts were made to restore the Show in +its pristine grandeur, though Edward VI.'s pillaging of the Gilds had +rendered the furnishing of the lights and vestments a matter of serious +difficulty. At Shrewsbury the municipal authorities endeavoured to keep up +the mystery plays by means of contributions from the various companies. + +[Sidenote: _Elizabeth._] + +The accession of Elizabeth was not likely to do any harm to the plays and +pageants, though the outward reason for their performance might be +changed. Elizabeth fully perceived the political and social usefulness of +such festivities: her provincial progresses were a succession of brilliant +shows and interludes which served a useful purpose in diverting the +nation's attention from the graver dangers which threatened England during +the queen's eventful reign. Elizabeth was also naturally fond of gaiety +and wit, and the tone of the people from the highest to the lowest was +dramatic. The Court had its "master of the revels," the Universities and +Inns of Court had their regular plays. Interludes were provided for the +queen's entertainment as she moved from town to town both at the houses of +the higher gentry and by the common people. They were indeed the ordinary +means by which honour was paid to any very distinguished visitor. + +The Shrewsbury playwright was Thomas Ashton the first master of the +grammar school. His theatre was the open ground without the walls, the +Quarrell or Quarry. The season of the year at which these performances of +Thomas Ashton took place was Whitsuntide, at which time Chester was also +engaged in its more famous productions. It is to be regretted that no +records[189] remain of these Shrewsbury plays, or a valuable addition +might be made to the scanty collections of such antiquities which have +been made public. These academic entertainments did not supplant the old +annual procession (the date of which was transferred to the Monday +following the feast of Corpus Christi) which continued apparently until +the power of the Puritans became too strong to admit of its longer +existence. Already that influence was at work, and Elizabeth had many +detractors among those of the stricter persuasion. The character of their +sternness, as well as the nature of their dissatisfaction at the gaiety +which Elizabeth fostered, is well exemplified at Shrewsbury in the +incident of the Shearmen's tree. The event is also noteworthy as being the +only occasion until later days on which anything like friction occurred +between the companies and the municipal corporation[190]. + +[Sidenote: _The Shearmen's tree._] + +The woollen trade, as we have seen[191], gave occupation to a very large +number of Shearmen. These belonged to the more unskilled class of +labourers, the work they performed being simply that of preparing the wool +for the later stages of manufacture. They were precisely the class to fail +to appreciate the religious changes, and such as would be likely to resort +to the physical force argument on any occasion. It was also to such men +that the revelry of Christmastide, Maytime, and the like were most +precious. Their life was a hard and colourless one, and they would for +this reason cling desperately to the old occasions of merriment. The +festival which appears to have been particularly odious to the Puritans +was that of May Day, when, Stow[192] tells us, it was the custom for the +citizens "of all estates" to have their "Mayings," and to "fetch in +Maypoles, with divers warlike shows, with good archers, morris dancers, +and other devices for pastime all the day long; and toward the evening +they had stage plays, and bonfires in the streets." To the youth of the +town it was a sufficiently harmless summer holiday. To the precise it was +plainly and purely a heathen survival. At Shrewsbury they were early in +active antagonism to it. In 1583 there occurred "soom contrav'sie about +the settinge upp of maye poales and bonfyers mackinge and erection of +treese before the sherman's haule and other places[193]," though +apparently without immediate effect, for two years later appears another +entry "Pd. for cutting down the tree, and the journeymen to spend +xv{d}.[194]" + +But it was not long before the Puritans prevailed. The May Day +merry-making was stopped and even the Gild festival prohibited. "This +yeare [1590-1] and the 6 day of June beinge Soondaye and the festivall day +of the Co{y} of the Shearmen of Salop aboute the settinge upp of a greene +tree by serte yonge men of the saide Co{y} before their hall doore as of +many years before have been acostomid but preachid against by the publicke +precher there and commawndid by the baylyffs that non sutche shoulde be +usid, and for the disobedience therein theye were put in prison and a +privey sessions called and there also indicted and still remayne untill +the next towne sessions for further triall[195]." The letter of the law +however was in their favour. At the sessions the judges decided that the +tree should be erected and "usyd as heretofore have be' so it be don +syvely and in lovynge order w{th}out contencion[196]." But the soreness +remained and the Shearmen were very turbulent for a long period. A curious +entry in 1596 betokens a continuance of the friction: "P{d} oure fyne for +not rerynge of Cappes to Mr Bayliffe 3/4[197]." For Puritan influence had +waxed stronger, and at length it was "agreed that there shall not be +hereafter any interludes or playes within this town or liberties uppon +anye Soundays or in the night tyme. Neyther shall there be any playinge at +footballe, or at hiltes or wastrells, or beare baytinge, within the walles +of this towne[198]." + +[Sidenote: _Commonwealth._] + +[Sidenote: _The Restoration._] + +During the civil wars and under the rule of the Commonwealth the +inhabitants of the town were too heavily burdened with taxes for the +maintenance of soldiers and for the repairs of the walls (for which the +companies were severally assessed) to have much wealth to expend on +revelry and merry-making, even had Puritan sourness admitted any such. But +the reaction consequent on the Restoration brought back the glory to +Shrewsbury. The agriculture of the district had now quite recovered from +the long-distant Welsh ravages: the internal trade of the town was also +very considerable. Shrewsbury was therefore a place of no small +importance. It played the part of a local metropolis in which the +fashions of the capital were mimicked by the wealthy tradesfolk, their +wives and daughters, and the country gentry and their families. For +neither class could often go to London. Travelling was a serious affair +not lightly to be undertaken. Consequently, just as the country gentleman +now spends a portion of the year in London, so his ancestor in the +seventeenth century made the adjacent county town his residence at certain +seasons. Besides "he was often attracted thither by business and pleasure, +by assizes, quarter sessions, elections, musters of militia, festivals and +races.... There were the markets at which the corn, the cattle, the wool, +and the hops of the surrounding country were exposed for sale.... There +were the shops at which the best families of the neighbourhood bought +grocery and millinery[199]." In Shrewsbury did the provincial beaux and +belles promenade by the side of the Severn and in the abbey gardens. These +latter were especially attractive. They were laid out "with gravell walks +set full of all sorts of greens--orange and Lemmon trees.... Out of this +went another garden much larger with severall fine grass walks kept +exactly cut and roled for company to walk in: every Wednesday most of y{e} +town y{e} Ladies and Gentlemen walk there as in St James's Parke, and +there are abundance of people of quality lives in Shrewsbury[200]." + +Farquahar in his sprightly comedy _The Recruiting Officer_ describes the +lively doings of the same "people of quality," and also of the more +stolid burghers. "I have drawn," he says, "the Justice and the Clown in +their _Puris Naturalibus_; the one an apprehensive, sturdy, brave +blockhead; and the other a worthy, honest, generous gentleman, hearty in +his country's cause and of as good an understanding as I could give him, +which I must confess is far short of his own." Farquahar seems to have +obtained a particularly good impression of the worthy Salopians. He +dedicates his comedy to "All Friends round the Wrekin." "I was stranger to +everything in Salop but its Character of Loyalty, the Number of its +Inhabitants, the Alacrity of the Gentry in Recruiting the Army, with their +generous and hospitable Reception of Strangers. This Character I found so +amply verify'd in every Particular that you made Recruiting, which is the +greatest Fatigue upon Earth to other, to be the greatest Pleasure in the +World to me[201]." Shrewsbury was one of the gayest of those many +provincial capitals "out of which the great wen of London has sucked all +the life[202]." + +[Sidenote: _Shrewsbury Show in 17th century._] + +Farquhar may have seen the old Show, which the Restoration had naturally +brought back, wend its noisy way to Kingsland. The procession itself was +easily rehabilitated, but the arbours on Kingsland, where the day was +spent in merrymaking, called for much attention. Great activity was +evinced in their repair, for they had fallen into sad decay during the +hard rule of the Puritans. Some of the companies adorned their arbours +with gateways, arms and mottoes, "dyalls," and the like. Most of the +gateways were of wood, but in 1679 the Shoemakers company erected a +handsome stone portal, which a few years subsequently they adorned with +figures of their patron saints, Crispin and Crispianus. As though the +events of a century previous were still fresh in men's minds, the legend +was painted underneath, + + "We are but images of stonne + Do us no harme--we can do nonne." + +About this time it is evident the Show was in a very prosperous condition. +Puritanism had not taken any real hold on the country, and the Church was +restored, and old ways of thinking and acting brought back, without any +disturbance or opposition[203]. Even in the companies the religious +element which was so strong in the earlier Gilds was not entirely wanting: +the day's proceedings included a sermon in the Church[204]. In the morning +the Wardens and members met in the open space before the castle, whence +they passed in a merry procession through the gaily decked streets to +Kingsland. There each Gild had its arbour surrounded by trees and supplied +with tables and benches. The mayor and corporation used to attend, and +were accustomed to visit each arbour in succession. The remainder of the +day passed in festivity and merriment, and the craftsmen with their +friends returned home in the evening "much invigorated with the essence +of barley-corn," as a writer of fifty years ago expresses it. + +[Sidenote: _Degeneracy._] + +But the degeneracy of the revived Show was very apparent. The dropping off +of the sermons deprived the companies of the last trace of that strong +religious element which had characterised their mediaeval ancestors. A +private letter of 1811 says, "Shrewsbury Show was on the 19th [of June] +but I did not go to it. That, like other things, is getting much worse." +The Drapers and Mercers had never gone to Kingsland, and gradually the +other companies began to withdraw from the Show. The formal procession +became confined practically to apprentices[205], while the masters +contented themselves with a dinner at one of the inns of the town[206]. +Everything was significant of the approaching end of the pageant. + +[Sidenote: _Reform agitation tends to check degeneracy, but Reform Acts +fatal to the Show._] + +When the Reform agitation threatened to deprive the companies of their +trading privileges at no distant period, and later, when it had succeeded +in doing so, attempts seem to have been made to bring into prominence +their social aspect[207], and the procession was again reinvigorated. The +pomp which signalised George the Fourth's coronation may also have given a +stimulus to pageantry. The arbours were repaired and rebuilt, and the year +1849 witnessed a grand revival of the procession. Attempts in this +direction were now not infrequent, but were necessarily spasmodic. Yet the +time-honoured Show was found to be possessed of wonderful vitality. When +the Municipal Corporations Act destroyed the exclusive privileges of +trading which the companies possessed they clung to their annual feast and +to the yearly procession, for which they retained the arbours at some +expense and self-denial. Gradually however as the successive freemen died +the arbours reverted one by one to the corporation of the town; the other +Gild property, which was not already divided, was shared among surviving +members, or fell through debt or similar causes into other hands. +Kingsland itself was to revert to the town at the decease of the last of +the members of the companies, according to an arrangement concluded in +1862. + +Even still the old Show was hard to kill. In spite of much that was +saddening, and much degradation, the procession lingered on till some +twelve or fourteen years ago, when it died a natural death. So another +link with the past was broken, and another spot of colour wiped away from +these duller days of uniformity and routine. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE END OF THE COMPANIES. + + +[Sidenote: _Failure of efforts to restrict trade._] + +The system of elaborate organisation by which men had regulated trade in +the past had given way to an equally complete system of individualism. +Confused philosophical reasoning, combined with the decay of old means of +regulation, had produced this anti-social state of things. Individual +competition, in uncontrolled energy, reigned supreme amid almost +incredible suffering and squalor. Everything which might tend to check the +progress of the devastation was looked upon with suspicion and swept +swiftly out of the way. All the old restraints were wanting, and +self-interest alone formed the mainspring of action. To this fetish +everything was sacrificed--men's bodies and men's principles. Commercial +dealings took the most questionable forms: adulteration of products went +on unchecked by any qualms of honesty. The companies had long ago ceased +to make any attempts in the direction of industrial regulation. The whole +efforts of their members were concentrated on the vain endeavour to +restrict trade to the chartered towns. + +Yet even the apologist for the companies, quoted at the end of the sixth +chapter, was obliged to allow that in this they had failed. The result of +the action of the "oppressive oligarchies" was the "excluding or +discouraging the English Subjects from Trading in our greatest and best +situated towns, where the markets are[208]." Shrewsbury saw the free towns +around growing up to importance and outstripping her in the race for +prosperity. Birmingham, not far distant, was already famous. Another free +town which rose rapidly was Manchester, where most of the new industries +did not come under the Apprenticeship Act, and were consequently free and +unshackled. Such formidable rivals drew away trade from the old privileged +boroughs. The companies were quite unable to retain their monopolies. + +But more than this. Even the measure of commercial prosperity which +Shrewsbury possessed--it was not small--cannot be in any appreciable +degree ascribed to the companies. A writer of 1825[209] who considers the +trade of the town at that date by no means "inconsiderable[210]" +attributes the fact to anything rather than the "Chartered +Companies[211]." "Here are two very large linen factories, besides several +manufactories for starch, soap, flannels, cotton goods, an extensive iron +and brass foundry, two ale and porter breweries, a spirit distillery, +etc.[212]" "Its fabrication of threads, linen cloths etc. etc. stands +unrivalled; whilst the more common articles of domestic life are executed +in a stile of neatness, certainly equal, if not superior, to those of any +other place of similar size[213]." The various causes which he looks upon +as conducing to this prosperity he sets forth with considerable detail: +"its contiguity to the Principality, the facility which it possesses for +the importation and exportation of goods, by means of its noble river and +canals, and its situation as the capital of an extensive and populous +county, combine to give it many advantages over a variety of places +equally insular[214]." That the companies had any hand in ministering to +this prosperity, or even served any useful purpose, seems never to have so +much as occurred to him. + +[Sidenote: _Struggle against intruders_] + +Yet they were putting their charters to the utmost use. They used every +means in their power to hold the trade. They obtained the assistance of +the municipal officers in seeking out and expelling intruders, even +hawkers and pedlars. Actions at law became rapidly more frequent, until at +last the life of the companies becomes one long effort to compel intruders +to take up their freedom by paying the necessary fines. The Barbers even +went so far as to prosecute men and women-servants for presuming to dress +their masters' and mistresses' hair. + +Though these measures were unsuccessful in attaining their object they +were not without most important results. + +[Sidenote: _impoverishes the companies,_] + +In the first place the companies saw their stock become rapidly +impoverished, and themselves on the verge of bankruptcy. So early as 1692 +the Mercers were obliged to raise L50 by means of mortgage, and in the +next year they were twice forced to sell some of their property. The +Grocers had, half a century previously[215], noted with sorrow how "the +Stock of the Company yearly decreaseth." The Barbers so early as 1744 +resolve to spend no more money at Show time "except the third part of the +Weavers' Bill." The Saddlers' stock in the three per cents. has to be sold +to defray the charges of actions against intruders in 1810, and about the +same time the Bakers' arbour was seized "on account of sustained charges +against the company in an action for supposed infringement of their +rights." Even the wealthy company of the Drapers had been compelled to +relinquish their annual holiday, at which open house was kept for town and +neighbourhood, in 1781. + +[Sidenote: _and calls down public odium on them._] + +But worse perhaps than this was the public odium they brought upon +themselves. That this was so was acknowledged in formal meeting at the +close of their public life, yet it had existed long before and grew daily +stronger. + +[Sidenote: _Other signs of decay._] + +[Sidenote: _Internal disorder._] + +[Sidenote: _Accounts carelessly kept._] + +[Sidenote: _Trade leaves them._] + +These two causes would have been alone sufficient to bring about the +downfall of the companies. But there were other signs of decay in plenty. +Internal disorder was adding to the degradation into which the once +honourable associations were falling. Even in 1668 the Glovers are +compelled to take into account "the disorderly manner of making wardens." +So late as 1832 the Saddlers inflict a fine on their steward for attending +meetings in a state of intoxication. The books are much less carefully +kept. The Glovers' company came to an untimely end in 1810 through +maladministration and carelessness in dealing with the yearly balance +sheet[216]. In 1822 so great a company as the Mercers' is found appointing +a committee to search for the charter, which is ultimately found in the +hands of a private individual whose magnanimity in surrendering what did +not belong to him is highly praised by a formal resolution[217]. We have +seen already how trade had fallen off. In 1770 a member of the Saddlers' +company paid five guineas "to be for ever excused from serving the office +of Steward or Warden." Private interest alone formed the motive of action +in commercial dealings. The individual knew nothing of obligations due to +society. + +[Sidenote: _General demoralisation._] + +Society was indeed in a state of rottenness. Outwardly there was plentiful +decorum; really there was sufficient sham with its usual concomitant, +laxity of morals, in a very marked degree[218]. It could hardly be +expected that this should be otherwise in the general disregard which +prevailed of all finer instincts: questionable commercial dealings and +adulteration of products, on the one hand, were naturally accompanied by +brutality and squalor on the other. Commercial success was the only +criterion, and as the companies could not stand the test of this +touchstone of merit they were doomed. + +[Sidenote: _Efforts to delay the end._] + +The Gilds of workmen in building trades had been seriously affected, if +not destroyed, long before by the Statute 2 and 3 Edward VI. cap. 15, +which allowed "any Freemason, roughmason, carpenter, bricklayer, +plasterer," etc. "borne in this realme or made Denizon, to work in any of +the saide Crafts in anye cittie Boroughe or Towne Corporate ... albeit the +saide p'son or p'sons ... doe not inhabyte or dwell in the cittee Borough +or Towne Corporate ... nor be free of the same." But in all other trades +the law had upheld the companies, and associations strong as these were in +antiquity were not to be destroyed without a struggle. In the early years +of the nineteenth century they began to think about internal reformation, +which, had it been accomplished with singleness of purpose, might perhaps +have secured their further usefulness and life. The expenses connected +with the annual feasts were regulated[219]. We have seen in the foregoing +chapter how the senior members began to withdraw from the dissoluteness +of the Show. The actions against intruders, which had long become chronic, +were pushed on with new vigour. In the hopes apparently of deciding the +question once for all the Mercers' company instituted a great suit against +a Mr Hart in the year 1823 which was looked upon by all parties as a test +case. Two years previously a committee had been appointed to search for +the charter and other documents which might be serviceable to the company +in the great struggle they were apparently then meditating. The opinion of +counsel was taken, and it being favourable to the company a full meeting +unanimously resolved to act upon it. The first thing to be done was to +retrench the expenses. It was decided that no dinner could be held that +year (1823), and the annual subscriptions to the Infirmary, the Lancaster +School, and other charitable objects were suspended. The costs of the +actions were to be borne by all the combrethren "rateably and in +proportion agreeable to the ancient custom and usage of the Company." But +several resignations and withdrawals took place, which show that there was +some doubt, if not as to the exact legality, at any rate as to the +expediency of the step which was being taken. But the great majority were +resolved to press the matter to the issue. Actions against several +intruders were consolidated, and that against Mr Hart came on for trial. +Important counsel were engaged, and everything was done on both sides to +discover the actual state of the law. The result was a verdict entirely in +favour of the company. But the assessment of damages at a farthing (while +the expenses incurred by the company were between six and seven hundred +pounds) showed how strongly public opinion ran in a direction contrary to +the mere letter of the law[220]. + +The defendants however in the present case submitted at once, and the +company soon recovered its former financial prosperity. Its subscriptions +were again paid after a brief interval. But it is noticeable that actions +against intruders went on precisely as before. The effect of this great +verdict, which was hailed with public dinners and illuminations, was +absolutely _nil_. + +It however stimulated the efforts of the companies in the direction of +reform. In consequence of the action the Mercers resolved that the +enrolment of apprentices (which they confessed had been "criminally +neglected") should be better carried out in future, and that a _bona fide_ +indenture for seven years should be required in all cases before any claim +to the freedom of the company could be admitted. As a tangible result a +new book of apprenticeship was commenced, which continued to be carefully +and neatly kept to the end. Its first entry is dated August 1, 1823, +though there are several records of earlier indentures. Its last is July +2, 1835. A new book for recording the petitions of foreigners to be +admitted was also provided. These were comparatively few in number. They +extend from July 31, 1823, to June 2, 1834. + +[Sidenote: _The Municipal Corporations Act._] + +Such was the condition of the companies when the Municipal Corporations +Act[221] was passed. No detailed description of this measure, albeit it +was "second in importance to the Reform Act alone[222]," is needed here. +As far as the companies were concerned its provisions were simple. It took +away from them wholly and entirely all their exclusive privileges of +trading. + +"Whereas in divers cities, towns, and boroughs a certain custom hath +prevailed, and certain bye-laws have been made, that no person, not being +free of a city, town, or borough, or of certain guilds, mysteries, or +trading companies within the same or some or one of them, shall keep any +shop or place for putting to show or sale any or certain wares or +merchandize by way of retail or otherwise, or use any or certain trades, +occupations, mysteries, or handicrafts for hire, gain, or sale within the +same: Be it enacted that, notwithstanding any such custom or bye-law, +every person in any borough may keep any shop for the sale of all lawful +wares and merchandizes by wholesale or retail, and use every lawful trade, +occupation, mystery, and handicraft, for hire, gain, sale or otherwise, +within any borough." In these words, which might seem the echo of Magna +Carta[223] through the centuries, liberty of trading was made a fact +throughout England. + +[Sidenote: _End of the companies._] + +It is interesting that we have recorded for us the way in which this +sweeping change was received by those most concerned. The Mercers had +foreseen (July 31, 1835) that it would be advisable to drop all pending +actions against foreigners until the result of the Act then before +Parliament should be decided. After it had become law the company met, for +the last time under the old conditions, on March 25, 1836, to consider +their position and to take steps for the future. It was apparently a +stormy meeting. An influential minority proposed to divide the property +among the members there and then, and so have done with the company. It +was however carried "That the chief rents ... be not disposed of, but +reserved to meet the payments to be made to the Alms people of St. Chad's +Almshouses[224], and for other purposes." The fire engine, the company's +weights and measures etc., were sold. The other companies acted in a +similar manner. The Saddlers divided at once the funds which remained in +the treasurer's hands, and which amounted to L1. 7_s._ 0_d._ for each +member[225]. Their arbour was however retained, and the rent from it +expended on the annual feast on Show Monday. This arrangement was to +continue so long as any of the freemen should be living: on the decease of +the last survivor the arbour was to devolve to the town council. Lastly, +all books, and whatever else remained to the company, were to be deposited +with the wardens for the time being. + +[Sidenote: _Partial continuation of the companies._] + +For attempts were made, even in the desperate pass to which the companies +seemed to be brought, to prolong the end. A few patriotic members kept up +the shadows of the old fraternities. The ancient custom of electing +officers was maintained; the Mercers' records bring the lists complete +down to 1876. The arbours were repaired, mostly at the cost of private +individuals, and at spasmodic intervals, while the Show still continued to +afford opportunities for dissolute revelry to the lowest of the town and +neighbourhood. The companies themselves fell back into their original +condition of voluntary associations of individuals united for purposes +partly benevolent but mainly social, and of which the state took no +cognisance. "No one can give much attention to the subject without coming +to the conclusion that feasting was one of the essential and most valued +features of the companies in their early days[226]:" it became so again in +their later. As they had existed long before external circumstances +brought them into prominence, so they continued long after they had ceased +to influence public affairs, and so they lingered on even after the nation +had plainly signified that their existence was not only superfluous but +injurious. For their endeavours to restrict trade had been, so far as they +had been successful, detrimental to the prosperity of the town, while they +had allowed the duty of succouring needy workmen to slip entirely from +their hands. + +The Friendly Societies which had long taken up this very important part of +the functions which the mediaeval Gilds had performed rose meanwhile into +public favour. Their excellent work was so apparent that an Act of +Parliament was passed for their encouragement in 1793, and it was even +urged that they should be made compulsory. + +[Sidenote: _Their property gives them life._] + +The companies had to all intents and purposes long forgotten their duty in +this respect, and they could not take it up again now, though had this +course been possible they might have commended themselves to public +favour. There was only one means which kept them alive. The secret of +their vitality was their possession of property[227], and as that melted +away the companies were found dropping out of existence. For being +deprived of their real essence they had nothing to recommend them. Even +the Show degenerated into a public scandal, and the companies, like their +annual pageant, at length died, one by one, unnoticed and +unregretted[228]. + +[Sidenote: _Return to organisation._] + +Yet there was arising, even at the time when the old companies were being +destroyed, a movement in favour of some return to organisation and +regulation. Organisation indeed seems to have been a characteristic of +the English people at all stages of their history. The Saxons had their +Frith Gilds and their Monks' Gilds; the English of the Middle Ages had +their Merchant, Religious, Social, and Craft Gilds; in the sixteenth +century they had their Trade Societies, the direct and in many cases the +little-altered successors of the Craft Gilds. Then came the larger +Regulated Companies, which also had some features in common with the +mediaeval Gilds, more with the sixteenth century societies. The main +differences between the earlier associations and those of a later date lay +in the avowed motive of confederacy and in the nature of the influence +they exercised. The ostensible motive of the Gilds was the general +welfare: in the case of the companies it was individual gain. The +influence of the Gilds may be called a healthy social and moral +influence[229]; that of the post-reformation companies in the towns was in +the main directed to selfish and political ends[230]. + +New organisations, adapted to altered conditions of life and new modes of +thought, resembling and yet differing from the Gilds, were now to arise +and take the place of the companies as these had taken the place of the +mediaeval fraternities. The growth of these however will be beyond the +scope of the present essay. + +It was doubtless necessary that the companies should be pulled down from +the lofty heights which they once had occupied. It was requisite that all +relics of the detailed system of trade-organisation which the Middle Ages +had handed down to us should be broken up, to make room for a _regime_ +more conformable to modern conditions of industry. The anarchic reign of +individualism through which trade passed at the beginning of this century +was an unavoidable step in economic development. + +But it was a step attended with infinite loss and inestimable suffering, +and it is well that proofs are not wanting of the approaching end of +unrestrained competition and anti-social individualism. Signs of change +are not wanting. Experience is continually demonstrating that organisation +can accomplish vastly more than individual enterprise; that combination is +immeasurably more powerful than competition. It is indeed the tracing out +of this reaction in favour of combination for common ends, which lends to +the economic history of the last hundred years its chief, perhaps its +only, human interest. + +[Sidenote: _Socialists and other forms of organisation._] + +The reaction has manifested itself in various ways. The _Socialists_ have +always made State-organisation of labour one of the strongest planks of +their platform[231]. At the same time Englishmen have looked with peculiar +jealousy on any attempts by the state to extend its sphere of action. +Nevertheless a steady development has been witnessed in this direction; +the various Civil Services show a uniform increase with the numbers and +requirements of the nation. The Board of Trade, the Local Government +Board, the Charity and Ecclesiastical Commissioners, are further +indications of the same tendency towards organisation. + +[Sidenote: _Trades Unions;_] + +The Gilds cannot, as we have seen, be censured for low aims; moreover +their endeavours to reach the level they set themselves were constant and +sincere. And the latter half of the nineteenth century has seen a +repetition of somewhat similar attempts. + +[Sidenote: _their achievements._] + +[Sidenote: _Improvement in status of labour._] + +The Trades Union movement[232] is one pregnant with promise for the +future[233]. Though the Unions were formed in the first instances for the +purpose of resistance to the masters, it may be hoped that as the need for +this grows weaker the analogy which their promoters love to institute +between them and the old Craft Gilds may become more and more real. They +have already done much to raise the condition of labour, and as Friendly +Societies they are of the highest value to the workmen[234]. There are +signs too that we may even obtain organisations which, with due allowance +for altered conditions, may accomplish much of the other good work which +Gilds performed for mediaeval industry. + +[Sidenote: _Attempts at regulation of trade._] + +The Unions already aim at ensuring stability of employment through +deliberate regulation of trade. By this means they hope to strike a +death-blow at that root-evil of our present industrial system, +irregularity of employment and uncertainty of wages. + +[Sidenote: _Further necessary approximation to Gilds._] + +But they yet fall short of the Gilds in two important particulars, and +until these deficiencies are made good Trades Unions can only be +considered as insufficient means to a highly desirable end. + +[Sidenote: _Appreciation of the common interests of masters and men,_] + +In the first place there must be no association of men against masters, or +masters against men, but union of men with masters for the common good of +the craft. Fifty years ago it was pointed out[235] that "the recent +destruction of the old Gilds was a purely negative policy, which required +to be followed up by a reconstruction on similar, but modified, +lines[236]." But of course nothing was attempted, though it is for their +care in seeing that the public was well served that the Gilds are chiefly +praised to-day. + +[Sidenote: _and of the necessity of ensuring a higher standard of work._] + +In the second direction much less advance has been made[237]. Yet it +cannot be expected that a high standard of wages is to be maintained +unless a high standard of workmanship is also ensured. Improvement in pay +can only with justice accompany improvement in skill and application. +Something of the sentiment and tradition of good work which so strongly +characterised the Middle Ages must be brought back. As yet it is wofully +lacking. Up to the present the Trades Unions have made no real attempt to +grapple with this evil, though its removal is a necessary preliminary to +anything like completeness in our industrial reformation. Until they can +show their ability to direct trade in this respect in a manner more +beneficial to the community than competing capitalists have done during +the past, the student will find their analogy to the mediaeval Gilds +incomplete (and that in a point where the latter might be followed with +benefit), and the public will consider their usefulness to society +unsatisfactory. + + + + +APPENDIX I + +NON-GILDATED TRADESMEN[238]. + + +The ordinary authorities on Economic history say little or nothing of the +non-gildated tradesmen in the towns, though these formed an important +portion of the commercial community. To understand fully the conditions +under which trade was carried on in mediaeval England the existence of such +unfree merchants must be taken into account and their importance +appreciated. + +Within the commercial class the enforcement of the Gild regulations +doubtless depended very largely on circumstances and individual +temperament. Moreover their reiteration evidences their futility in +attaining the objects they had in view. There must have been much greater +freedom and elasticity of thought and action during the Middle Ages than +is generally recognised. + +It must be remembered too that there were important exceptions to the +regulations of the Gilds. The king's servants, when exercising the royal +privileges of purveyance and pre-emption, were naturally unrestricted. In +Fair-time--and the Fairs were a very important feature in mediaeval +life--there was unrestrained freedom of trade. But more important than +these was another. It was quite possible for ungildated tradesmen to +purchase temporary or partial exemption from the local restrictions. + +It will be observed that the royal charters which authorise the Gilds and +grant exclusive privileges of trading differ somewhat in later years from +those of the earliest date. In the earliest grants the words simply allude +to the Gild only. Henry II.'s Charter to Lincoln is "Sciatis me +concessisse civibus meis Lincolniae ... gildam suam mercatoriam." There is +no hint of any tradesmen external to the Gild. But early in the thirteenth +century it becomes evident that such stringent exclusiveness could not be +enforced. The charter which Henry III. granted to Shrewsbury in 1227 +confirmed the Gild in the following terms:--"Concessimus etiam eisdem +Burgensibus et heredibus eorum quod habeant Gildam Mercatoriam cum Hansa +et aliis consuetudinibus et libertatibus ad Gildam illam pertinentibus, et +quod nullus qui non sit in Gilda ilia mercandisam aliquam faciat in +predicto Burgo _nisi de voluntate eorundem Burgensium_." At about the same +time the Earl of Chester and Huntingdon gave a charter to Chester +forbidding trade in the town "nisi ipsi cives mei Cestrie et eorum heredes +_vel per eorum gratum_." The phrase "nisi de voluntate eorundem Burgensium +(or Civium)" now became usual in the charters. In those granted by Edward +I. to the towns which he founded in Wales, and which may be looked upon in +some measure as model town constitutions, the provision appears in each. +Thus it may be said that by the end of the thirteenth century it had +become customary for the town authorities to grant exemptions from the +Gild restrictions by their own authority. They practically gave over to +the Gilds the supervision of trade, but at the same time retained in their +own hands the power of admitting traders without obliging them to join the +mercantile fraternities. + +This power of granting exemptions from the restrictions of the Gilds seems +to have been exercised in various towns in different degrees. In some it +extended no further than the permitting "foreigners" to come to casual +markets on payment of a toll upon each occasion. In others however it was +more largely and generally used, merchants being allowed to be resident +and to trade continually and regularly by payment of an annual fine. + +In the latter case the effect was to create two distinct classes of +traders within the town. The burgesses may be divided into two classes, +those of them who were gildsmen and those who were not. We now see that +the tradesmen dwelling in the towns may similarly be divided into two +classes, (i) those who were free of the town or of one of the Gilds (or +free both of the town and one of its Gilds), and (ii) those who were +neither burgesses nor gildsmen. Thus another has been added to the classes +into which the inhabitants of towns are usually divided. Mention of these +_unfree_ tradesmen is found in the records of many towns in England and +Wales: in Norwich, Winchester, Lincoln, Leicester, Andover, Yarmouth, +Canterbury, Henley-on-Thames, Malmesbury, Bury S. Edmunds, Totnes, Wigan, +Chester, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Clun, Brecknock, Neath, Bishops' Castle, +and others. + +The designation of these unfree tradesmen varies. At Andover they were +known as _custumarii_ (in opposition to the _hansarii_--the full members +of the Gild). At Canterbury a similar body appears under the name of +_intrants_. In Scotland and the north of England they were called +_stallingers_. The most usual name for them is however _censer_, +_chencer_, _tenser_, and variations of these. + +_Censer_ is apparently the name applied to one who pays a _cense_ or +_cess_. In Domesday mention is made of _censarius_--"Ibi sunt nunc 14 +censarii habentes septem carucatas"--and the _censarius_ is described as +"qui terram ad censum annuum tenet." The connection of the word is here +purely territorial. It becomes more personal later in the history as is +seen in the "Compotus Civitatis Wyntoniae" of the third year of Edward I., +which contains the following entry:--"Et de xliiij_s._ ij_d._ _ob._ de +hominibus habitacionibus in civitate Wynton' qui non sunt de libertate, +qui dicuntur Censarii, per idem tempus." Here the _censarii_ are evidently +considered in their capacity not as possible landowners, but solely as +tradesmen. The _census_ has changed from the land rent of Domesday to a +distinctly personal payment. + +A somewhat different class from the _censarii_ of Winchester are mentioned +in the statute 27 Henry VIII., cap. 7. From the preamble we can form a +good idea of the lawlessness and confusion which prevailed on the borders +of Wales at that period. It is related that in the Marches, where thick +forests frequently fringe the roads, "certain unreasonable Customs and +Exactions have been of long time unlawfully exacted and used, contrary +both to the law of God and man, to the express wrong and great +impoverishment of divers of the king's true subjects." The most crying of +these evils was that the foresters were accustomed to plunder all passing +along the roads (probably under the plea of taking toll), unless they bore +"a Token delivered to them by the chief Foresters ... or else were yearly +Tributors or Chensers." The statute offers no explanation of these terms, +but it is most likely they applied to persons paying an annual sum, either +to the king or the Lords Marchers, of the nature of Chief Rent, especially +as Cowell, in giving his explanation of the word _chenser_ which will be +noticed later, refers to this Act of Henry VIII. in support of his +definition. If this be so we see that although the signification of the +term had been extended so as to include distinctly personal and commercial +tolls, it had, in some districts, also retained its original connection +with land. This, censor, censer, gensor, chencer, and other variations, is +the most usual form of the word, but occasionally it is found as tenser, +tensor, tensur, and tensure. Tenser and tensor are used at Shrewsbury; at +Worcester the same word appears as tensure or tensar (_English Gilds_, pp. +382, 394). + +It is difficult to say whether or no _tenser_ is a confusion of _censer_. +Etymologically the words seem akin, _cense_ being a tax or toll (cess), +and _tensare_ meaning to lay under toll or tribute. In the Iter of 1164 +enquiry is directed to be made "de prisis et tenseriis omnium ballivorum +domini regis ... et quare prisae illae captae fuerint, et per quem" etc. +Another derivation of _tenser_ has been given. Owen and Blakeway (Vol. ii. +p. 525) explain it to be a corruption of "tenancier," and apparently +intend to imply that these non-gildated traders were considered as holding +directly of the king. This view receives some confirmation from Cowell's +definition of the "censure" and "censers" of Cornwall. He says (_A Law +Dictionary: or the Interpreter_ etc., ed. 1727) "Censure, or _Custuma +vocata_ censure, (from the Latin _Census_, which Hesychius expounds to be +a kind of personal money, paid for every Poll) is, in divers Manors in +_Cornwall_ and _Devon_, the calling of all Resiants therein above the age +of sixteen, to swear Fealty to the Lord, to pay _ij{d} per Poll, and j{d} +per an._ ever after; as _cert-money_ or _Common Fine_; and these thus +sworn, are called _Censers_." "Chensers," he says again, "are such as pay +Tribute or _cense_, Chief-rent or Quit-rent, for so the French _censier_ +signifies." Whether or no we receive Owen and Blakeway's derivation of the +word from _tenancier_, even with the support of Cowell's "censers" of +Cornwall, we may press the latter authority into service in showing that +the signification of _censer_ and _tenser_, however different the two +words might be in origin, became very similar in actual use. + +The fines which the tensers or censers paid were imposed in the Court +Leet. On the Court Leet Rolls at Shrewsbury are entered lists of names and +fines headed "Nomina eorum qui merchandizant infra villam Salopie et +Suburbia eiusdem, et non Burgenses, ergo sunt in misericordia." In the +first year of the reign of Henry IV. (A.D. 1399) it was ordered that these +fines should be levied before the feast of S. Katharine (November 25) in +each year. The Court Leet also decided the amount of the fines, but in +later times when the select body of magnates had deprived the popular +courts of so many of their powers and privileges we find that the +apportioning of the tensers' fines had also passed to the close +corporation. In 1519 the corporation fixed the tolls at 6_d._ quarterly. +The statute 35 Henry VIII., cap. 18, gave the control of the unfree +tradesmen in Canterbury to the Mayor and Aldermen of the City. "No +foreigner, not being free of the said City, shall buy or sell any +Merchandize (saving Victual) to another foreigner; nor shall keep any shop +nor use any mystery within the said City or the liberties thereof, without +the License of the Mayor and Aldermen, or the major part of them, in +writing under their Seal." At Winchester in 1650 the rates were revised by +the Mayor and Aldermen. The highest limit was fixed at L5, but the fees +actually paid were generally sums varying from 6_d._ to 3/4 only (Gross, +II. 264). + +When such a privilege was exercised by a select body it was certain to +give rise to abuses. Such was found to be the case in early years when the +fines were imposed by an authority other than the general assembly of +burgesses. In the county court held at Lincoln in 1272 it was alleged that +the late Mayor had taken pledges from the burgesses of Grimsby unjustly +under the plea of exacting _gildwite_ (as the fine or toll was sometimes +called). We learn that at Shrewsbury in 1449-50 "this yeare the Burgesses +and Tenssaars ... did varye." What the cause of contention was, or how the +dispute was settled, we do not know, but it could hardly arise over +anything other than the question concerning the tolls to be paid by the +tensers. + +In some towns special civic officials were appointed to supervise the +tensers. At Chester the "leave-lookers" were among the most important of +the borough officers. The word _leve_ or _leave_ has very much the same +signification as the word _cense_ or cess. It is the English "levy," and +was the fee or toll for permission to trade. The "leve-lookers" were the +officials who exacted the levy or toll which unfree tradesmen were obliged +to pay. At Chester they were "appointed annually by the Mayor for the +purpose of collecting the duty of 2_s._ 6_d._ claimed by the corporation +to be levied yearly upon all non-freemen who exercise any trade within the +liberties of the City." Their duties are described as having been "to give +Licence and compound with any that came either to buy or sell within +these liberties contrary to our grants;" "if any did dwell within the city +that were not free, if they did ever buy or sell within the liberties, +they did likewise compound with the _Custos_ and _Mercator_ [Custos Gilde +Mercatorie] by the year ... the Leave-lookers do gather two pence +halfpenny upon the pound, of all Wares sold by Forraigners within the +City." (Gross, II. 42.) The same name is found at Wigan, where the duty of +the "gate-waiters or leave-lookers" was to see that all "foreigners" paid +their fines for licence to reside and trade in the town. (Sinclair, +_Wigan_, _passim_.) + +It is not easy to define the exact status of the tensers. They were +certainly considered as an inferior body of burgesses, and might comprise +three classes. Firstly, those not willing or not able to enter one of the +gilds; secondly, traders waiting to be admitted burgesses; thirdly +ex-burgesses fallen from the higher state through misfortune. + +1. As an inferior class of tradesmen they could only purchase their stock +from townsmen (Gross, II. 177); they were incapable of bearing municipal +office (_Ibid._ II. 190) and they were liable to be called upon "to be +contributorie to alle the comone charges of the Citie, whan it falleth" +(_Ibid._ II. 190). In the general course of trade but little difference +might be perceptible between the tensers and the Gildsmen, but attempts to +fuse or to confuse the two classes were jealously resented whenever they +were discovered. Naturally these attempts to minimise the distinctions +between Gildsmen and non-gildsmen were generally prompted, in later times, +by political reasons. Only freemen of the town and members of the +companies had the privilege of voting in Parliamentary elections, and +great was the desire to obtain a position on the list of voters. In "An +Account of the Poll for Members of Parliament for the Borough of +Shrewsbury taken June 29 and 30, 1747" etc., information is supplied +concerning certain townsmen who had claimed to be freemen but were +rejected on account of having proved themselves to be otherwise by +payment, in times past, of the tensers' fines. Of John Bromhall, baker, we +read "It was objected to his vote that he was no Burgess, in support of +which it was proved that he had paid Tensership several years, and that +his ffather had paid toll. This Tensership is a ffine or acknowledgement +commonly paid by persons following trade in the town that are no +Burgesses, but it being insisted that it was paid through ignorance or +mistake, his ffather was called and admitted to prove that he had voted at +a former election for this Borough, whereupon the Mayor admitted his vote, +but upon examining a copy of the Poll for the year 1676 it appears that +all the ffamily of this Bromhall were upon a scrutiny rejected as not +Burgesses." + +2. They comprised also among their number many tradesmen waiting to be +made burgesses. We learn this distinctly from an ordinance of the +corporation of Leicester passed in the year 1467, to the effect that every +person opening a shop in the town should pay yearly 3/4 _till he enter +into the Chapman Gild_. (Nichols, _County of Leicester_, I. 376.) There +were several causes which would account for the existence of this class. +The towns grew increasingly jealous of extending their privileges, as +these became valuable. The Gildsmen would also desire to learn somewhat of +the character of the new-comer before admitting him to full membership +with themselves; while on the other hand the latter would wish to see +whether the trade of the town were sufficiently prosperous to warrant him +settling in the borough permanently. This cause would specially operate in +the case of the Welsh boroughs which grew up after Edward I.'s conquest of +the principality. + +The townsmen however did not approve of the growth of a wealthy class of +traders, sharing almost equal commercial privileges with themselves and at +the same time not liable to the burdens which were the necessary +accompaniment of those privileges. They therefore made it incumbent upon +every tenser who evidently was sufficiently satisfied with the trade of +the town to make the borough his permanent home, and who had attained to a +fair competency, that he should throw in his lot fully and completely with +them. He must become in fact a full burgess. This is carefully explained +in the _Ordinances of the City of Worcester_--regulations concerning the +trade of the town dating from the reign of Edward IV. No. XLVII. says +"Also, that euery Tensure be sett a resonable fyne, aft{r} the discression +of the Aldermen, and that euery tensure that hath ben w{t}yn the cyte a +yere or more dwellynge, and hath sufficiaunt to the valo{r} of XL_s._ or +more, be warned to be made citezen, by resonable tyme to hym lymitted, and +iff he refuse that, that he shalle yerly pay to the comyn cofre XL_d._, +ouer that summe that he shalle yerly pay to the Baillies or any other +officers; and so yerly to contynue tylle he be made citezen" (_English +Gilds_, p. 394). + +3. There were, thirdly, those who had fallen from a higher state through +misfortune or other cause. We read of individuals surrendering their +freedom and paying the tenser's fine. "He withdrew and surrendered the +freedom to the Commonalty, and now pays toll" (Gross, II. 240). + +As regarded their dealings other than commercial in nature the tendency +was to assimilate the tensers and the townsmen. In a grant made to +Shrewsbury by Henry VI. and confirmed by Parliament in 1445 the same +privileges are extended to the tensers as are possessed by the burgesses +in the matter of exemption from the necessity of finding bail in certain +cases. Similarly at Worcester the "tensures" shared with the citizens the +right to the assistance of the afferors in cases of wrongful or excessive +amercement. (_English Gilds_, 394.) + +Nevertheless where commercial privileges were at stake the distinction was +rigidly preserved by every means in the possession of the townsmen. The +tenser's fine was maintained up to the present century, though not without +considerable difficulty. On every hand there were evidences that the +companies had outlived their usefulness. Friction was everywhere injuring +the social machine. Competition and individualism had taken the place of +custom and co-operation. At Winchester there were grievous complaints of +intruders who did "use Arts, Trades, Misteries and manual occupations ... +without making any agreement or composition for soe doing, contrary to the +said antient usage and custome, tending to the utter undoeing of the +freemen ... and decay of the same City." Everywhere the records of the +companies detail little else than summonses to intruders to take up their +freedom and notices of actions at law against them for refusing to do so. +General demoralisation prevailed, and the existence of a class holding +such an equivocal position as that of the unfree tradesmen did not help to +mend matters. The case of John Bromhall which has been mentioned above +illustrates the general looseness which prevailed in all departments of +municipal administration. A ludicrous incident which happened at +Shrewsbury in connection with the tensers in later years is recorded by +Gough in his _Antiquities of Myddle_, published in 1834. "This Richard +Muckleston was of a bold and daring spirit, and could not brook an injury +offered to him. He commenced a suit against the town of Shrewsbury for +exacting an imposition on him which they call tentorshipp, and did +endeavor to make void their charter, but they gave him his burgess-ship to +be quiet." + +The companies were preserved from repetitions of this strange indignity by +the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, in consequence of +which there could no longer be any invidious distinction between freemen +and non-freemen, hansarii and custumarii, gildsmen and tensers. + + + + +APPENDIX II. + +AUTHORITIES CITED. + + +Abram, W. A.--Memorials of the Preston Guilds. + +An Account of the Poll for Members of Parliament for the Borough of +Shrewsbury etc. (1747). + +Boeckh, A.--Public Economy of Athens, translated by George Cornewall Lewis +(1842). + +Brentano, Lujo--On the history and development of Gilds and Origin of +Trade-Unions. + +"Britannia Languens, or a discourse of trade." (1680.) + +Bryce, J.--The Holy Roman Empire (1887). + +Cowell--A Law Dictionary: or the Interpreter etc. (1727). + +Cunningham, W.--The Growth of English Industry and Commerce (1885). + +Dugdale, W.--Antiquities of Warwickshire. + +Ebner, Dr Adalbert--Die kloesterlichen Gebets-Verbruederungen bis zum +Ausgange des Karolingischen Zeitalters (1891). + +Eden, Sir F. M.--The State of the Poor. + +Eyton, W.--Antiquities of Shropshire. + +Farquhar--The Recruiting Officer. + +Foucart--Les Associations religieuses chez les Grecs. + +Foxwell, H. S.--Irregularity of Employment and Fluctuations of Prices +(1886). + +Froude, J. A.--History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of +Elizabeth (12 vols., 1862-70). + +Gneist--Geschichte des Self-Government in England. + +Gneist--Das heutige Englische Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrecht. + +Gough--The Antiquities of Myddle (1834). + +Green, J. R.--A Short History of the English People (1886). + +Gross, Charles--The Gild Merchant (1891). + +Grote, George--History of Greece (1888). + +Hallam, H.--View of Europe during the Middle Ages. 1 vol. + +Harrison, W.--A description of England (in "Elizabethan England," Camelot +Series). + +Hatch, E.--The Organisation of the Early Christian Churches (Bampton +Lectures, 1881). + +Howell, G.--Conflicts of Capital and Labour (1890). + +Howell, Thomas--The Stranger in Shrewsbury (1825). + +Kemble, J. M.--The Saxons in England. + +Longfellow--The Golden Legend. + +Macaulay, Lord--History of England from the Accession of James II. (1889). + +May, Erskine--Constitutional History of England. 3 vols. (1887). + +Merewether and Stephens--History of the Boroughs. + +Nichols, J.--The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester +(1795-1815). + +Ordericus Vitalis--Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy (Bohn's +Series). + +Owen and Blakeway--History of Shrewsbury. + +[Owen, Hugh]--Some Account of the Ancient and Present State of Shrewsbury +(1808). + +Perry, C. G.--A History of the English Church (Vol. II.) (1878). + +Pidgeon's Memorials of Shrewsbury (old Ed.). + +Pidgeon's Some Account of the Ancient Gilds, Trading Companies, and the +origin of Shrewsbury Show (1862). + +Poynter, E. J.--Ten Lectures on Art (1880). + +Quarterly Review, Vol. 159. + +Riley, H. T.--Memorials of London ... in the XIII, XIV, and XV Centuries. + +Rogers, Thorold--Six Centuries of Work and Wages (1889). + +Rogers, Thorold--The Economic Interpretation of History (1888). + +Scott, Sir Walter--Marmion. + +Sinclair, D.--The History of Wigan. + +Smith, Toulmin--English Gilds (E. E. T. S.). + +State Papers, Domestic (Elizabeth). + +Statutes at Large (6 vols, 1758). + +Stow, John--A Survey of London (Carisbrooke Library). + +Strype--Ecclesiastical Memorials (1821). + +Stubbs, W.--Constitutional History of England (1883). + +Stubbs, W.--Select Charters (1884). + +Stubbs, W.--Lectures on Mediaeval History. + +Taylor MS. in Library of Shrewsbury School (Reprinted in S. A. S. Vol. +III.). + +Thackeray, W. M.--The Four Georges. + +Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary, being +the Diary of Celia Fiennes. + +Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society (cited as S. A. S.), +Vols. I-XI. + +Wordsworth, W.--The Happy Warrior. + + + + +INDEX. + + + Abbey at Shrewsbury, 11, 31, 60 + + Aberystwith, 26 + + Adventurers, Merchant, of Exeter, 84, 87 + + Aliens not to be taken as apprentices, 64, 82 + + Almshouses, 73, 109, 137 + + Altrincham, 26 + + Amalgamation natural in Middle Ages, 31 + and at all times, 140 + + Anager, 83 + + Andover, 25, 35, 147 + + Anglo-Saxons, gilds of, 12 + municipal organisation of, 13 + + Apothecary, 28 + + Apprentices, 39, 40, 46, 47, 52, 64, 66, 81 + + Arthur, son of Henry VII., 79 + + Arundel, Earl of, 27 + + Ashton, Thomas, 79, 119 + + Assistants, 5, 41 + + Assize of Arms, 11 + + Axbridge, 27, 85 + + + Bailiffs, assist gilds, 37 + assisted by gilds, 36 + supervise gilds, 37, 40 + + Bakers, 28, 59 + + Bala, 27 + + Bamborough, 27 + + Barbers, 28, 45, 58-9, 62, 83-4, 87, 89, 100, 102, 130 + + Bargains, common, 14, 15 + + Barnstaple, 27 + + Bath, 25 + + Beadle, duties of, 42 + + Beaumaris, 27 + + Bedesmen, 63 + + Bedford, 25 + + Benefit Clubs, 106, 110 + + Berwick on Tweed, 26 + + Beverley, 24, 115 + + Birmingham, 111, 129 + + Bishops' Castle, 147 + + Black Death, 56 + + Board of Trade, 141 + + Bodmin, 25 + + Borough, distinction between Merchant Gild and, 18, 19 + rise and development of, 10 + incorporation of, 14 + position of Merchant Gild in, 14, 16 + select body in, 19, 105 + classes of inhabitants, 147 + + Boroughs, list of, possessing Merchant Gilds, 24-28 + + Boston, 26 + + Brasier, 53 + + Brecknock, 147 + + Brentano, Dr, 7, 9, 104, 105 + + Bricks, revival of use of, 80 + + Bricklayers, 118 + + Bridgenorth, 26 + + Bridgewater, 26 + + Bristol, 25, 87, 111 + + Bromhall, John, 153, 155 + + Builder, 29 + + Builth, 26 + + Burford, 24 + + Burgesses, 3 + charters granted to, 14 + small share in work of Parliament, 49 + + Burgess-ship, qualifications of, 18, 106 + not identical with gildship, 18 + villains, women, and ecclesiastics excluded from, 18 + + Burnet, 67 + + Bury S. Edmund's, 25, 147 + + Butchers, 28, 57, 59 + + Byt-fylling, 13 + + + Caerswys, 26 + + Cambridge, 25, 56, 60, 74 + + Camden, 79 + + Canterbury, 12, 24, 147, 148, 150 + + Cappers, 53 + + Cardiff, 27 + + Cardigan, 26, 69 + + Carlisle, 25 + + Carnarvon, 26 + + Carpenters, 28, 59 + + Carrier, 28 + + Castle at Shrewsbury, 12 + + Censers or Tensers, see Shrewsbury + + Chantries, 32, 63, 67, 74, 86, 92 + + Charity Commissioners, 141 + + Charles II., 87 + + Charters did not necessarily create the gilds, 55 + to burgesses, 14 + + Chelmicke, Mr, 89 + + Chepgauel, 18 n. + + Chester, 25, 92, 119, 146, 147, 151 + Earl of, 25, 146 + + Chesterfield, 27 + + Chichester, 24 + + Cirencester, 27 + + Civil Services, 141 + + Clerk, 28, 43 + + Cloth Trade, 78-9 + cloth-workers, 29, 117 + cloth-merchant, 57 + + Clun, 147 + + Collier, 28 + + Commissioners for plundering gilds, 73 + + Commonwealth, 122 + + Communa, 14, 16 + + Companies, commercial, 6, 47, 86, 88, 98 et seq., 140 + + Compositions, 37-8, 55 n. + + Conflicts between Merchant Gild and Craft Gilds, 5, 9, 20, 21 + + Congleton, 26 + + Conquest, Norman, 10 + + Continent, commerce with, 10 + merchant gilds of, 5, 9, 20, 21 + + Conviviality, 13, 44, 111 + + Conway, 26 + + Cooks, 28, 59 + + Coopers, 28 + + Cordwainers, 35 + + Corn-dealer, 28 + + Cornwall, 149 + Earl of, 26, 27 + + Corporations, municipal, 14, 16, 105, 109, 127 + + _Corps-de-metier_, 8 + + Corpus Christi, gilds and Feast, 33, 43, 59, 63, 115, 118 + + Cottoners, 90 + + County Towns, their former importance, 3, 122-3 + + Coventry, 26, 115 + + Craft Gilds, earliest mention of, 34 + become numerous, 35 + favoured by Merchant Gild, 20, 22, 34, 36 + take over work of Merchant Gild, 20, 35 + motives for forming, religious, 31-2 + social, 33 + commercial, 34 + police, 36 + incorporated, 38, 55 + at Shrewsbury, 10 + favoured by municipal authorities, 36, 38, 43 + composition of, 39 + officers, election unrestricted, 40 + wardens, 41 + assistants, 41 + stewards, 42 + beadle, 42 + searcher, 43, 46, 87 + clerk, 43 + treasurer, 43 + key-keeper, 44 + take oath before bailiffs, 37, 40 + meetings, 43 + importance of, commercial, 45 + social, 33, 34, 47-50 + constitutional, 48-9 + as benefit clubs, 50 + specially interesting at present time, 49-51 + development of trade introduces abuses, 56-7 + policy of reform, 58 + demoralisation, 65-7 + robbed by government, 67 et seq. + effects of this, 75 et seq. + reorganisation, 81, 84-97 + its effects on gilds, 82 + intimate connection of later companies with corporation, 85-6, 99, + 105, 120-22 + they retain many of old gild characteristics, 87-8, 108-9 + though altered conditions make their work difficult, 88, 98 + and companies themselves are unsatisfactory, 98-102, 105 + they change to capitalist companies, 103-5 + from which journeymen are excluded, 106 + difficulties of reform, 107-8 + contemporaneous opinion of, at end of 18th century, 109-12 + destruction of, 136-137 + return to organisation partly on gild principles, 141-144 + + Craftsman of middle ages, 49 + degraded by Reformation, 75 + + Cranmer, 68 + + Criccieth, 26 + + Crispin and Crispianus, 118, 125 + + Custumarii, 147 + + Cyveiliog, Earl of, 26 + + + Davies, Thomas, 92 + + Denbigh, 27 + + Derby, 25 + + Despenser, le, 27 + + Devizes, 26 + + Devon, 150 + + Dixon, Canon, 71 + + Domesday Book, 11, 148 + + Doncaster, 28 + + Dover, 12 + + Drapers, 29, 32-3, 59, 73, 83-4, 90-7, 99, 101, 108-9, 126, 131 + + Dugdale, 116 + + Dunheved or Launceston, 26 + + Dunwich, 25 + + Durham, 25 + Bp of, 26 + + Dutch, 82 + + Dyer, 38 + + + Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 141 + + Edward the Confessor, 12 + + Edward I., 16, 26, 27, 35, 58 + his conquest of Wales, 2, 146, 154 + + Edward II., 27 + + Edward III., 27, 35, 59 + + Edward IV., 28, 38, 42, 58, 59, 62, 65, 79, 82, 117, 154 + + Edward VI.'s confiscation of gild property, 33, 62, 67, 118 + + Elizabeth, 35, 76-79, 81, 84, 86, 117, 118 + + Enclosures, 78 + + "England the birthplace of Gilds", 9 + + English Gilds differ from continental, 5, 9, 20, 21 + + Ethelred, 13 + + Exchequer, 11 + + Exeter, 84 + + + Fairs, freedom of trading at, 15, 146 + + Family sometimes considered the germ of the Gild, 7 + + Farquhar, 123 + + Faversham, 81 n. + + Feasts of Gilds, 13, 44, 111 + + Fee Farm or firma burgi, 17, 18, 19, 22 + + Fellmongers, 39 + + Feltmakers, 99 + + Fire-engine supported by gilds, 106, 137 + + Fishmongers, 29, 59 + + Flemings, 82 + + Fletchers, 59 + + Flint, 26 + + Fordwich, 25 + + "Foreigners," Forinseci, 19, 20, 98, 110, 147 + + Foresters, 68 + + Four Men, 41-2, 104 + + France, _corps-de-metier_ in, 8 + French, 82 + French company, 94 + + Freemen of companies, 39, 53, 106 + + Friendly Societies, 68, 116, 139, 142 + + Frith bot, 13 + + Frith gilds, 8, 13, 46, 140 + + Frizers, 90 + + Fullers, 35 + + Funerals attended by brethren, 43 + + Fusion of races shown in Shrewsbury gild records, 16 + + + Gainsborough, 27 + + Garnisher, 28 + + George IV., 126 + + German Merchants, 82 + + Gildhall, at Dover, 12 + becomes town hall, 17-18 + + Gild Merchant, see Merchant Gild + + Gilds, see Companies, Craft Gilds, Frith Gilds, Merchant Gilds, Monks' + Gilds, Religious Gilds, Yeoman Gilds + differences between English and foreign, 5, 9, 20, 21 + universality of gild feeling, 7 + earliest gild statutes, 9 + + Glanvill, 17 + + Gloucester, 25 + Earl of, 24 + + Glovers, 28, 39, 59, 83, 87, 101, 118 + + Godiva, 116 + + Goldsmith, 28, 53, 109 + + Grammar Schools, 74 + + Grampound, 27 + + Grantham, 28 + + Great Yarmouth, see Yarmouth + + Greeks, gilds among, 7 + + Griffith, Earl of Cyveiliog, 26 + + Grimsby, 151 + + Grocers, 109, 131 + + Groom, 28 + + Guildford, 26 + + + Haberdashers, 100 + + Halls of Gilds, see Gild Hall, 42, 44 + + Hansarii, 147 + + Harlech, 26 + + Harper, 29 + + Harrison, 78, 80 + + Hart, Mr, 134 + + Hartlepool, 26 + + Haverfordwest, 25 + + Hawkers, 29 + repressed by companies, 130 + + Hedon, 27 + + Helston, 25 + + Henley-on-Thames, 27, 147 + + Henry I., 10, 11, 14, 24-34 + + Henry II., 10, 11, 14, 17, 25, 146 + + Henry III., 26, 146 + + Henry IV., 2, 27, 59, 65, 150 + + Henry V., 27 + + Henry VI., 28, 57, 58, 59, 62, 66, 155 + + Henry VII., 65, 66, 79 + + Henry VIII., 66, 67, 73, 79, 118, 150 + + Henry de Lacy, 26 + + Hereford, 25 + + Historical attitude essential in studying history of gilds, 44 + + Hope, 27 + + Hugh le Despenser, 27 + + Huntingdon, 35 + + + Incorporation, municipal, 14, 16 + + Indentures of apprenticeship, 46, 52, 64 + + Infirmary, 109 + + Inns of Court, 119 + + Intrants, 148 + + Intruders and Interlopers, 89, 98 + cf. also Foreigners + + Ipswich, 18, 25 + + Irish not to be taken as apprentices, 82 + + Iron Trade, 78 + + Ironmongers, 53, 109 + + + James I., 84, 95 + + Jews, 78 + + John, 14, 18, 25 + + Journeymen, 39, 40, 106 + + Judge, a member of Merchant Gild, 29 + + Justices Itinerant, 11 + + Justices of the peace, 81 + + + S. Katharine, 118, 150 + + Kenfig, 27 + + Kinaston, Mr, 95 + + King's Bench, 11 + + Kingsland, 125, 127 + + Kingston-on-Thames, 26 + + Kirkham, 27 + + + Lampeter, 27 + + Lancaster, 27 + + Launceston, 26 + + Leather-sellers, 39 + + Leech, 29 + + Leet assesses Tensers' fines, 150 + loses its powers, 105, 150 + + Leicester, 24, 147, 153 + + Leve-lookers or leave-lookers, 151, 152 + + Lever, Thomas, 74 + + Lewes, 24 + + Lincoln, 25, 35, 146, 147 + + Liskeard, 26 + + Liverpool, 111 + + Livery, 43, 65 + + Llanfyllin, 27 + + Llantrissaint, 27 + + Lloyd, John, 80 + + Local Government Board, 141 + + Local history, value of, 10 + + Local life, always varied in England, 1 + + Locksmith, 29 + + London, 111 + its "laws", 13 + its Anglo-Saxon Gilds, 12 + its Craft Gilds, 35 + its rivalry with provincial towns, 92, 124 + its modern pre-eminence, 1, 3, 123 + + Lostwithiel, 26 + + Ludlow, 28, 79, 109 + + Lyme Regis, 26 + + Lynn Regis, 25, 69 + + + Macclesfield, 26 + + Machinery, introduction of, 4 + + Magna Carta, 136 + + Malmesbury, 25, 147 + + Marches, of Wales, 2, 148 + Lords of, 2 + Court of, 2, 89 + President of, 2 + + Markets, 13, 15 + + Marlborough, 25 + + S. Mary, Chantry in Church of, 53 + + Mary, 118 + + Mason, 29 + + Masters, 40-41, 67, 75-76, 103, 105 + + May Day, 5, 98, 120 + + Mayor administers oath of admission, 99 + + Mellent, Robert, Earl of, 24 + + Mercers, 33, 44, 53, 59, 62, 63, 64, 73, 82, 83, 84, 88, 101, 103, 108, + 126, 131, 135, 137, 138, + of York, 84 + + Merchant, 14, 29, 38, 48 + + Merchant Gilds, the chief difference between town and country, 12, 21 + originated to preserve peace, 12, 21 + compared with Frith Gilds, 13, 46 + trade regulations follow, 13 + earliest mention, 14 + royal authorisation, 14, 21 + at Shrewsbury, 10, 14 + effects, 16, 22 + chronological list of, 24-8 + relations with communa, 10, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 34 + with Craft Gilds, 20 + compared with Trades Unions, 46 + functions and privileges of, 14-16, 18-19, 21 + duties of gildsmen, 17 + comprised majority of householders, 15, 22 + all branches of trade, 16, 19, 30 + and professions, 18 + and women, 18 + and ecclesiastics, 18 + a rallying point for burgesses, 16, 22 + all burgesses are gildsmen, 16 + but all gildsmen are not burgesses, 18 + efforts towards municipal objects, 20 + gild hall becomes town hall, 17 + in later years delegates its mercantile functions to Craft Gilds, 20, + 22, 30, 34, 36 + who sometimes in aggregate receive name of "Merchant Gild", 35 + subsequent history, 35 + + S. Michael, patron of Mercers' Company, 53, 63 + + Militia, national, 11 + + Miller, 29, 59 + + Monasteries, 8, 67, 77 + + Monks' Gilds, 8 (and n. 2), 59, 140 + + Monks excluded from burgess-ship, 18 + + Montgomery, 26 + + Mornspeche, 43-44 + + Mortmain Acts, 55 (n. 2), 61 + + Much Wenlock, see Wenlock + + Municipal Corporations Act, 127, 136, 156 + + Municipalities, see Boroughs + + Mynde, Abbot, 61 + + + Neath, 27, 147 + + Nevin, 27 + + Newborough, 27 + + Newcastle-on-Tyne, 25 + + Newcastle-under-Lyme, 26 + + Newport (Salop), 26 + + Newport, 27 + + Newton, 27 + + Norfolk, 69 + + Norman Conquest, 10 + favours trade, 13, 21 + + Norwich, 147 + + Nottingham, 25 + + + Oaths, 39, 53 + + Odd Fellows, 68 + see Friendly Societies + + Oswestry, 27, 89 + rivalry with Shrewsbury, 91-96 + + Overton, 26 + + Oxford, 25, 35 + + + Pageants, 4, 33, 42, 63, 113-127 + + Painters, 118 + + Palmer, 29 + + Parchment-makers, 39 + + Paul's Cross, 74 + + Peasant Revolt, 56 + + Pelterer, 29 + + Pembroke, Earl of, 27 + + Petersfield, 24 + + Pewterer, 53 + + Plasterer, 28 + + Plymouth, 28 + + Pointmaker, 39 + + Police regulations aided by gilds, 65, 108 + + Pontefract, 28 + + Poor maintained by Craft Gilds, 33, 47, 80 + + Portsmouth, 26 + + Potter, 29 + + Pre-emption, gildmen's right of, 15 + royal right of, 145 + + Preston, 25 + + Priest, 29 + + Privileges of gildsmen, 15, 17, 63, 64, 65 + + Processions, see Pageants + + Puritans, 120, 125 + + Pursers, 39 + + Pwllheli, 27 + + + Reading, 26, 35 + + _Recruiting Officer_, 123-4 + + Reformation, its shock to industry, 3, 6, 77 + to gilds, 67 + + Reform movement fatal to companies, 6, 127 + and Show, 127 + + Religion and trade, 5, 107, 125 + + Religious Gilds, 60 + of Holy Trinity, 59 + of S. Winifred, 31, 59-62 + frequently connected with trade, 60 + + Residence not requisite for membership of Merchant Gild, 18 + + Restoration, 122, 125 + + Rhuddlan, 27 + + Richard I., 14, 16, 25 + + Richard II., 27, 65, 82 + + Richard III., 28 + + Richard, Earl of Cornwall, 26 + + Robert de Belesme, 11 + + Rochester, 26 + + Roger de Montgomery, 11, 12 + + Romans, gilds of, 7 + + Rowley's Mansion, 80 + + Rubens, 118 + + Ruyton, 27 + + + Saddlers, 29, 59, 131 + + Saffron Walden, 27 + + Salisbury, 25 + + _Salopian Journal_, 109 + + Scarborough, 26 + + Schools maintained by Gilds, 33 + Lancaster, 109 + + Searcher's duties, 43 + + Severn, 123 + + Shearmen, 5, 32, 59, 79, 83, 90, 103, 117, 120-2 + + Shoemakers, 28, 32, 57, 58 + + Shrewsbury, its strong individuality, 1 + its geographical position, 2 + early growth, 2, 3 + in Domesday, 11 + depressed by Conquest, 11 + taken by Henry II., 11 + later prosperity, 3 + streets and houses, 4 + its abbey, 11, 31, 60 + castle, 12 + peculiarities of its gild history, 5, 40-42 + its gild-records, 10, 16 + gilds, 4, 36, 58-9 + gild hall, 17 + gild-chantries, 32, 63, 74, 92 + religious gilds, 31, 59-62 + Merchant Gild confirmed, 14, 25, 146 + incorporation of Craft Gilds, 58-9 + early history of, 55-76 + Reformation changes, 77-97 + obtains monopoly of Welsh cloth trade, 3, 91-7 + rivalry with Coventry, 63 + in 16th century, 76, 79 + with Oswestry in the 17th century, 89-96 + with Chester, 92 + with London, 92, 124 + typical of the 17th century, 4, 122-5 + influence of machinery upon, 4 + later degeneracy of its companies, 98-112, 129-139 + Shrewsbury Show, 113-127, 137 + Tensers of, (Appendix 155) and other towns, 147 + etymology, 149-150 + their fines, 150 + status, 152-154 + privileges, 147, 155 + relations with burgesses, 155 + later history, 155 + + Skinners, 36, 38, 41, 59, 83, 89, 118 + + Skins, seller of, 29 + + Smiths, 84, 88, 118 + + Social Gilds, see Religious Gilds + + Socialists, 141 + + Social life changed by newer conditions, 1, 123 + + Somerset, 67 + + Southampton, 25 + + Stafford, Earl of, 27 + + Stallingers, 148 + + Stamford, 28, 115 + + Steen, Widow, 101 + + Stephen, 24 + + Stewards, duties of, 42 + + Stow, 120 + + Strype, 74 + + Suffolk, Earl of, 95 + + Sunderland, 26 + + Sword Cutler, 28 + + + Tailors, 28, 32, 36, 38, 41, 44, 57, 59, 83, 84, 88, 89, 101, 117 + + Tanners, 28, 57, 59, 98-9 + + Tavern-keeper, 29 + + Tensers, see Shrewsbury + + Teynterer, 29 + + Thegn-right obtained by three voyages, 48 + + Thurstan, Abp of York, 24 + + Tolls paid by ungildated merchants, 146-156 + + Totnes, 18 (n. 6), 25, 147 + + Town bargains, common, 15 + + Townhall, 17-18 + + Towns, growth of, in twelfth century, 10, 21 + differed little from country, 12, 21 + trade their _raison-d'etre_, 13 + town gild, 13, 31 + struggle of classes in continental, 9 + but not in English, 9 + growth of select body, 19, 105 + + Trade favoured by Conquest, 10, 13, 35 + expansion of, 20 + localisation of, 31 + + Trade Unions, 47, 68, 141-144 + + Treasurer of gild, 43 + + Tudor, Owen, 79 + + + Universities, 119 + + Usury, 33, 78, 80 + + + Villain enfranchised by joining Merchant Gild, 16, 22, 30 + + Vintners, 59 + + Vulcan, 118 + + + Wake, John, 27 + + Wales, 2, 30, 146, 154 + incorporated with England, 79 + cloth trade of, 3, 89-97, 99 + Prince of, 27, 38, 79 + + Wallingford, 25 + + Walsall, 28 + + Wardens' Oath, 39 + + Warenne, Reginald de, 24 + + Warwick, 69 + + Warwickshire, 116 + + Weavers, 29, 32, 34, 44, 59, 131 + + Weddings, 43 + + Welshpool, 26 + + Wenlock, 28 + + Weymouth, 28 + + Wigan, 147 + leve-lookers or gate-waiters at, 152 + + William I., 10 + + Wilton, 24 + + Winchester, 16, 25, 35, 85, 147, 148, 155 + + Windsor, 26 + + S. Winifred, 31, 59, 61 + + Witan, 13 + + Wite, 60 + + Women, members of gilds, 39, 40 + but not burgesses, 18 + + Woodman, 29 + + Woodstock, 28 + + Wool-comber, 28 + wool-buyer, 29 + woollen-trade, 78 + + Worcester, 26, 147, 149, 154, 155 + + Working men, of middle ages, 49 + degraded by Reformation, 75 + and by subsequent policy, 106 + hopes for their future, 142-144 + + Worsted Trade, 78 + + Wrekin, 124 + + Wycombe, 27 + + + Yarmouth, 25, 147 + + Yeomen gilds, 5 + + York, 24, 84, 115 + Abp Thurstan of, 24 + + +CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] I speak of the old edition. I have not had the advantage of using the +newer work. + +[2] That the land did not contain a population adequate for its +cultivation is evident from a Statute of 1350 which allows the people of +the Marches of Wales (and Scotland) to go about in search of work at +harvest-time, as they had been accustomed to do aforetime. (_Rot. Parl._ +II. 234.) _Work and Wages_, pp. 131-2. + +[3] Cf. Thackeray, _The Four Georges_, p. 320, "decayed provincial +capitals, out of which the great wen of London has sucked all the life." + +[4] Macaulay. _History of Eng._, Vol. I. pp. 165-6. Infra, Chap. VII. + +[5] Cf. infra, Chap. VII. + +[6] Brentano, 44, 52, 54, 58. Green, _Short Hist._, 193. G. Howell, +_Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, 22-25, 29, 31. + +[7] Cunningham, _Growth of Industry_, 212. Brentano, 90, 95. + +[8] Cf. infra, Chap. V. + +[9] Cf. especially Chap. VII. + +[10] _The Hist. and Development of Gilds._ Cf. especially Note 1. + +[11] _Ibid._ 8. "The objects of the [Greek: eranoi] were of the most +varied description; ... associations of this kind were very common in the +democratic states of Greece, and to this class the numberless political +and religious societies, corporations, unions for commerce and shipping, +belonged." Boeckh, _Public Economy of Athens_, p. 243. + +[12] Grote, _Hist. of Greece_, Vol. VI. p. 247, n. 1, where several +interesting parallels with the Mediaeval Gilds will be found. (Cf. also +infra, p. 34, note 2.) + +[13] E. Hatch, Bampton Lectures, Lect. II. notes. + +[14] Cunningham, p. 124. + +[15] Cf. _Die kloesterlichen Gebets Verbruederungen bis zum Ausgange des +Karolingischen Zeitalters_, von Dr Adalbert Ebner. Similar spiritual +confederations are found in Italy in the second quarter of the eighth +century, and in the ninth they become common in southern Europe. Alcuin +speaks of them by the terms _pacta caritatis_, _fraternitas_, +_familiaritas_. The monks of the allied houses were termed _familiares_. +Dr Brentano (p. 20) says that at later times "conventions like that +between the Fraternity of London Saddlers and the neighbouring Canons of +St Martin-le-Grand, by which the saddlers were admitted into brotherhood +and partnership of masses, orisons, and other good deeds with the canons, +were common." + +[16] Brentano, pages 1, 2. They are printed in Kemble's _The Saxons in +England_, Vol. I. Appendix D. + +[17] Brentano, 49. + +[18] Gneist, _Self Government_, Vol. I. p. 110; _Verwaltungsrecht_, Vol. +I. p. 139. + +[19] Stubbs, III. 576, 578. + +[20] _Work and Wages_, p. 126. + +[21] Stubbs, I. 452. + +[22] Stubbs, I. 449: _Select Charters_, 63, cap. 27, 28: 67, cap. iii., +viii., 1., etc. + +[23] _Select Charters_, 66, 12: 72, 6. + +[24] Stubbs, I. 450. + +[25] _Select Charters_, 67, iii., viii., 1. + +[26] _Ibid._ 72, ii. cap. 6. + +[27] Cunningham, 129, Stubbs, I. 452, Brentano, 42. + +[28] Gross, I. 5; II. 28, 37. See note 1 to this Chapter. + +[29] Cf. note 1 to this Chapter. + +[30] _Ibid._ + +[31] _Select Charters_, 167 etc.; Stubbs, I. 452, and n. 1; Eyton's +_Shropshire_, XI. 134. + +[32] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159. + +[33] Gross, I. 135, 136 and notes; II. 133, 149. + +[34] _Ibid._ I. 42. + +[35] Cf. note 2 to this Chapter. + +[36] _Select Charters_, 265. + +[37] _Select Charters_, 162, "Communam scilicet gildam." + +[38] Gross, I. 83 and note 1. + +[39] Stubbs, I. 451. + +[40] _Select Charters_ (Helston), 314. + +[41] Gross, I. 54. The Rolls of the Shrewsbury Merchant Gild contain a +large number of names of "foreigners." For instance in 1209 there were +apparently 56 foreigners; in 1252 these had increased to 234. + +[42] Printed in Gross, II. 114-123. + +[43] _Select Charters_, 166 (Charter of Henry II. to Lincoln). + +[44] Gross, II. 235, and cf. note 2 to this Chapter. + +[45] Cf. the "Chepgauel" at Totnes. Gross, II. 236. + +[46] Gross, I. 57. + +[47] Owen and Blakeway, I. 169-174. Erskine May, _Const. Hist._ III. +276-77. + +[48] This close relationship of, and actual difference between, the two +bodies is very distinctly seen at Bristol in the reign of Edward IV., when +it was the custom for the Mayor and Council of the town to choose the +chief officers of the Merchant Gild, and to pass ordinances for its +regulation. Gross, II. 25. + +[49] On the early use of coal, cf. _Work and Wages_, p. 124. + +[50] The Statutes of Labourers first gave a recognised position to the +"men who neither held land, nor were free burgesses," but who had a +dwelling, and paid the rates of some town. Cf. Cunningham, 193-4. Supra, +p. 19. + +[51] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159; _Economic Interpretation_, p. 298. + +[52] Cf. "Butchers' Row" at Shrewsbury, where also the High Street was +formerly called Bakers' Row (Pidgeon's _Handbook_, old Ed. p. 37). The +Street which was afterwards known as Single Butcher Row had been earlier +called "Shoemakers' Row" (Phillips, p. 200). + +[53] Cf. the Monks' Gilds alluded to above, p. 8 and n. 2. + +[54] "Which is now the only fragment left to the incumbent of the Church's +income before the Reformation." S. A. S. x. 223. + +[55] Longfellow expresses this well in _The Golden Legend_: + + "The Architect + Built his great heart into these sculptured stones, + And with him toiled his children, _and their lives + Were builded, with his own, into the walls, + As offerings unto God_." + +[56] At Worcester a Gild School educated 100 scholars. The substitute +which the Government provided at the Reformation was for less than half +that number. Toulmin Smith's Collection, p. 203 and note. + +[57] Ordinances of the City of London, framed in 1363. + +[58] The Greeks had private Societies called [Greek: thiasoi] and [Greek: +orgeones] which also presented this feature. Cf. Foucart, _Les +Associations religieuses chez les Grecs_. + +[59] Brentano, 54. Cunningham, 203, n. 2. + +[60] Cf. supra, p. 20. In writing thus I have not forgotten that an +opposite view is taken by Dr Brentano, Mr J. R. Green, Mr Geo. Howell, and +in fact most of the writers who have touched on the subject. + +[61] Gross, I. 114. + +[62] Hartlepool, 1673. "It is ordered at a general guild ... that +whosoever ... shall presume to come in and within the liberty of this +corporation, to trade or occupye ... to the prejudice of the free trades +and companyes within the corporation" etc. Gross, II. 106-7. + +[63] Cunningham, 209, n. 1. + +[64] Tailors' Composition, of 1478. + +[65] The Bailiffs are to apprehend on the third day any person coming to +the town "suspitiouslie w{th}oute anie lawfull errand or occasion," and to +detain him in prison "till he have found suertie of his good bearing or +els to avoide the towne." "And if anie man be comitted to their warde by +the wardens w{th} the fower men ordeigned to the said wardens to be +assistaunt in counsell in good counsell giving of anie crafte w{th}in the +said Towne and Frauncheses that then that person that is so comitted to +warde ... be not deliv'ed out of warde by the Bailiffs w{th}out assent and +agreement of the said wardens and fower men." "Item ... that no manne of +their Crafte journeyman or other be attendant nor at the calling of anie +gentleman, nor to noe other person otherwise than the lawe will but onlie +to the wardens of their Crafte for the good rule of the same and assisting +of the Bailiffs for keeping of the peace and for good rule of the Towne." + +Mercers' Composition, 1480-81. The searcher is "to make serche and espye +all suche p'sones as frawdelentlye abbrygg, w{t}draw or cownceyle the +payments of theyre dewties" (such as Toll, Murage, etc.). + +No livery is to be worn except that of the Gild or Corporation. When the +town bell rings the alarum members of the Gild are to go to the help of +the Bailiffs only. + +[66] Tailors' Composition, of 1478. Cf. _Eng. Gilds_, pp. 286, 385, 407, +420, etc. + +[67] There are examples of the town drawing up trading ordinances to which +the Gildsmen conformed. Cf. The Usages of Winchester and the Ordinances of +Worcester in _Eng. Gilds_, pp. 349, 370. Cf. also pp. 334-337. + +[68] Also before they could hold land in mortmain it would be necessary to +obtain a charter. + +[69] The Oath of the Freemen of the Mercers' Company is given as a note to +this Chapter. + +[70] Cf. Appendix. + +[71] "The position of master and journeyman was not that of capitalist and +labourer, so much as that of two fellow-workers, one of whom, from his +superior status, was responsible to the town for the conduct of both." +Cunningham, 211. As showing the position of an apprentice in the 15th +century a Shrewsbury Indenture is given as a note to this Chapter. + +[72] Cunningham, 211, n. 1. Brentano, 40, 68. + +[73] "The Stock in Trade required to set up in business was not great and +an apprentice when his term of service was over, became a master almost as +a matter of course. Journeymen were scarce, or at any rate not plentiful +enough to have much influence on Trade.... Thus Capital and Labour were +united." _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159, p. 53. + +[74] Brentano, 40. + +[75] Merewether and Stephens. + +[76] For interference with Free Election on the Continent cf. Brentano. + +[77] Tailors' Composition, 1563. + +[78] Cf. infra, Chap. VI. + +[79] Cf. the four Auditors to superintend the accounts of the London +Grocers (1348) and the six members who were chosen "to aid the Wardens in +the discharge of their duties" (1397), of whom Mr George Howell says: +"_Other than these, no notice of the existence of a committee or of +assistants, in England, appears earlier than the sixteenth Century_." +_Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, p. 40. Brentano, p. 62. Cf. the four +Assistants in the Merchant Gild of Ipswich, Gross, I. 24. + +[80] The "Four Men of Counsel" of the Mercers were, by the Composition of +1480-81, chosen by the Wardens. + +[81] Mercers' Composition, 1480-81. Tailors' and Skinners', 1563. + +[82] Tailors' Composition, 1563. + +[83] Several of these are in the Town Museum at Shrewsbury. + +[84] A "Key-keeper" appears later in the lists of officers. + +[85] Their situation is given in _Some account of the Ancient and Present +state of Shrewsbury_, published in 1808. + +[86] Barbers' Composition (1483 A.D.). + +[87] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159, p. 44. + +[88] _Select Charters_, p. 65. + +[89] _Elizabethan England_, p. 9. + +[90] Stubbs, _Constitutional History_, Vol. III., p. 607. + +[91] The writs issued in 1388 order returns of the "Charters and Letters +Patent _si quas habent_": cf. Toulmin Smith, pp. 128, 130. The +"Compositions" spoken of below were renewals and confirmations of +previously enjoyed privileges. They usually assert that the Gild has been +in existence "a tempore quo non extat memoria." + +[92] Charters were also necessary before lands could be acquired in +mortmain. + +[93] Stubbs, ii. p. 504 and note 1. + +[94] Toulmin Smith. Introduction, p. xxiv. It is from these returns that +Mr Toulmin Smith has compiled his collection of ordinances of "English +Gilds," which however comprise but a small portion of the whole, and throw +little or no light on the working of the Graft Gilds. The documents have +not yet been calendared, but they do not appear to contain anything +relating to Shrewsbury. + +[95] Cunningham, p. 210, 211. + +[96] Green, _Short History_, p. 192. + +[97] Cunningham, p. 214. + +[98] Brentano, 75: Riley, _Memorials_, 539, 565, 568, 570, 571, &c. + +[99] Pidgeon's _Gilds of Shrewsbury_; _S. A. S._, Vol. V. p. 265. + +[100] _S. A. S._, Vol. V. p. 266. + +[101] Pidgeon's _Gilds_. + +[102] Merewether and Stephens. Pidgeon's _Gilds_. + +[103] Pidgeon's _Gilds_; _S. A. S._ Vol. x. p. 33. + +[104] Those of Abbotsbury, Cambridge and Exeter. Cf. supra, p. 9. + +[105] Toulmin Smith, pp. 29, 42, &c. + +[106] _Ibid._, 7, 8, 11, &c. + +[107] The little that is known about it is given in Owen and Blakeway's +_History of Shrewsbury_, II. 122. + +[108] It is printed in _S. A. S._, Vol. V. + +[109] _S. A. S._, Vol. VIII. + +[110] Bryce, _Holy Roman Empire_, p. 95. + +[111] "None that is of Frenshe, Flemmyshe, Irysh, Dowche, Walshe, or any +other Nacyones borne not beyng at Truse w{t} our Sov'ayne Lorde the kynge, +but onlye mere Englysshe borne." + +[112] Such Articles against the wearing of Liveries were common in the +Gild Statutes. Cf. Toulmin Smith, _passim_. + +[113] Except by the Nobility to their personal dependents. Cf. Stubbs, +III. 552. + +[114] 8 Edw. IV. c. 2. + +[115] 22 Hen. VIII. c. 4. The Entrance Fees for Apprentices had been +raised in some cases to 30/- and 40/-. They are now reduced to 2/6 +Entrance Fee, and 3/4 Fee on taking up freedom. + +[116] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 5. + +[117] 1 Edw. VI. cap. 14. + +[118] _Hist. of Reformation_, II. 72. + +[119] May, 1548; Council Book MS. in the Privy Council Office. Cf. Dixon, +_Hist. of Church of Eng._ Vol. II. page 462, note. + +[120] Burnet, _Hist. of Reformation_, IV. 281. + +[121] Cf. Gross, I. 162, II. 14, 170, 279. + +[122] The Statute 14 Eliz. c. 14 was enacted "For the assurance of gifts, +grants etc. made and to be made to and for the relief of the poor in the +Hospitals etc." + +[123] _Memorials_, Vol. II. Part I. page 100. + +[124] Against this were to be set the "enclosing" and "non-residence" +grievances. + +[125] _Elizabethan England_, p. 11. + +[126] _Ibid._, p. 121. + +[127] _Ibid._, p. 117. + +[128] _Elizabethan England_, p. 117. + +[129] _Ibid._ + +[130] The good work of the Gilds is expressly acknowledged in many +charters of the time, e.g. the charter granted to Faversham (1616) recites +that long experience had shown that the dividing of the government of +towns into several companies had worked great good, and was the means of +avoiding many inconveniences and preposterous disorders, in respect that +the government of every artificer and tradesman being committed to men of +gravity, best experienced in the same faculty and mystery, the particular +grievances and deceits in every trade might be examined, reformed and +ordered. Gross, II. 89. + +[131] Cunningham, p. 181. + +[132] Cf. especially, 3 Edw. IV. c. 4; 22 Edward IV. c. + +[133] Gross, II. 1, 2, 55, 89, 186-7, 208, 250. + +[134] Cf. infra, pp. 90-91. The repealing statute (14 Eliz. c. 12) avowed +that not only had the former Act been "supposed for the benefit of the +said town" but had also been intended for the "advancing of the +Corporation of Drapers, Cottoners and Friezers of the said town." + +[135] Gross, II. 87. + +[136] Gross, II. 281. Cf. also pp. 12, 87, 199, 234, 247-8, 250, 281, 355, +360. + +[137] _Ibid._, 12. + +[138] _Ibid._, 56, 90, 91, 176, 186, 193, 199, 234, 247, 251, 264, 364, +385. + +[139] Merewether and Stephens, 1408. + +[140] Cromwell's Charter to Swansea. Gross, II. 234. + +[141] Cf. the ordinance which appears in the Tailors' records, A.D. 1711, +April 11. "No combrother shall at any one time have more than two +apprentices, one having served 3-1/2 years before the other apprentice be +bound, and no apprentice above 17 years taken, and he must be unmarried." + +[142] It was also directed against the paying of the Shearmen in kind. + +[143] Cf. also 18 Eliz. cap. 15 (Goldsmiths): 8 Eliz. cap. 11 +(Haberdashers). + +[144] In 1570-1 when Sir Henry Sidney, Lord President of Wales, passed +through Shrewsbury. + +[145] Shrewsbury Corporation Records. + +[146] State Papers, Domestic, 1566? (p. 285). + +[147] State Papers, Domestic, 1619, Oct. ? + +[148] _Ibid._, 1620, Jan. ? + +[149] _Ibid._, 1620, Jan. ? (There are several petitions against other +intruders also, by the countenance of the City of London, "who wish to +engross all markets.") + +[150] _Ibid._, 1620, Jan. ? + +[151] _Ibid._, 1620, Jan. 28. + +[152] _Ibid._, 1620, Feb. 21. + +[153] State Papers, Domestic, 1622. Several petitions from North Wales +against the Proclamation. + +[154] _Ibid._, 1621. Petition of Drapers of Shrewsbury. + +[155] _Ibid._, 1621, May 21. Petition of Clothiers of North Wales: the +Drapers of Shrewsbury are trying to draw all trade to Shrewsbury, which +will be their ruin. + +[156] State Papers, Domestic; Oswestry Corporation Records, printed in _S. +A. S._ Vol. III. + +[157] In 1622 the Bailiffs had requested a loan from the Mercers towards +the establishing of a market for Welsh cloth in Shrewsbury. + +[158] The traders of Liverpool seem to have been the first to do this, so +far as the Welsh trade of Shrewsbury was concerned. Cf. Owen's +_Shrewsbury_. + +[159] Orders of Corporation (collected by Godolphin Edwardes, Mayor in +1729). _S. A. S._ Vol XI. + +[160] _Ibid._ + +[161] _Ibid._ + +[162] Orders of Corporation (1689). + +[163] _Ibid._ (1729). + +[164] _Ibid._ + +[165] "1619. That the Corporation endeavour to compel the wardens of the +Bakers' Company to pay their old annuity of L4. 6_s._ 8_d._ (sic) to the +Corporation." Orders of Corporation printed in Phillips' _History of +Shrewsbury_, p. 170. + +[166] Orders of Corporation printed in Phillips' _History of Shrewsbury_. + +[167] Cf. supra, p. 44. + +[168] Glovers' records, 1681. + +[169] 1782. Two members were called upon to show cause why they practise a +profession contrary to that they have sworn to follow. + +[170] _Britannia Languens_, p. 355. + +[171] p. 88. + +[172] Consisting however of masters only. + +[173] Macaulay, _History of England_, Vol I. p. 204, n. + +[174] Cf. Howell, _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, pp. 16, 62, 79, 103, +109, 472. + +[175] Resolution of Saddlers in 1798, voting L50. + +[176] This sentiment finds expression even in some of the compositions. + +[177] That is, masters only, not workmen. + +[178] _The Happy Warrior_ of Wordsworth gives us probably a very true idea +of the mediaeval conception of the perfect knight. + +[179] Cf. Stubbs' _Lectures on Constitutional History_. + +[180] Cf. supra, p. 47. + +[181] Scott's _Marmion_. + +[182] Brentano, p. 21. + +[183] _Ibid._ p. 21. + +[184] Toulmin Smith, p. 192. + +[185] It is a curious coincidence that these two towns which earlier +evinced such jealousy towards one another's procession (cf. supra, p. 63) +should have maintained it longest. + +[186] The festivities of the Preston Gild were held at intervals of twenty +years. The last took place in 1882 (cf. Abram, _Memorials_), but many +features place the Preston pageants in a different class from that to +which those of Shrewsbury and Coventry belong. + +[187] i.e. Coventry. + +[188] Though there is no doubt that the Quarry was used for the +performance of plays by other actors. Cf. infra, p. 119. + +[189] Phillips (p. 201) gives the titles of two of these plays: "Julian +the Apostate" (at which Elizabeth intended to be present, but was +misinformed as to the date: when she arrived at Coventry tidings reached +her that it was already performed) in 1565, and "The Passion of Christ" in +1567. + +[190] Cf. supra, pp. 5, 36, 85, 92, 98-9. + +[191] Cf. supra, p. 90. + +[192] Stow's _Survey_, p. 124. + +[193] Shearmen's records. + +[194] _Ibid._ + +[195] Taylor MS. + +[196] Shearmen's records. + +[197] _Ibid._ + +[198] (1594.) Owen and Blakeway, Vol. I. p. 396. + +[199] Macaulay, _History of England_, Vol. I. p. 164. + +[200] _Through England on a Side Saddle in the time of William and Mary, +being the Diary of Celia Fiennes._ + +[201] From the dedication to _The Recruiting Officer_. + +[202] Thackeray, _The Four Georges_, p. 320. + +[203] Perry, _Church History_, Vol. II. p. 512. + +[204] Glovers' records, 1781. "Item, 1/- for carrying the Flag to Church +on Show Day." + +[205] Saddlers' records, 1810. "Treasurer to pay 2 guineas to the +apprentices to go to Kingsland on Show Monday, and that they may have the +use of the Cloth, Flag and Streamers belonging to the Company." + +[206] Saddlers' records, 1812. "That L10 be allowed to dine the company +instead of going to Kingsland." + +[207] Cf. infra, p. 138. + +[208] _Britannia Languens_, p. 355. + +[209] _The Stranger in Shrewsbury._ + +[210] _Ibid._ p. 24. + +[211] _Ibid._ On p. 28 they are described as being 16 in number. They +appear to have varied considerably in number at different periods. + +[212] _The Stranger in Shrewsbury_, p. 24. + +[213] _Ibid._ p. 97. + +[214] _Ibid._ p. 97. + +[215] In 1637. + +[216] Though a few patriotic members kept the arbours etc. in repair a few +years longer. + +[217] "1822. Thomas Frances Dukes made a Combrother free of all expense, +for his handsome conduct in giving up the Charter." (Mercers' Records.) + +[218] Cf. _The Stranger in Shrewsbury_, p. 28. + +[219] The Mercers decide that their dinner shall not cost above L25. + +[220] A similar case was tried at Ludlow in 1831 when the Hammer-men +obtained a verdict in their favour and a farthing damages. + +[221] 5 and 6 Will. IV. c. 76. + +[222] _Constitutional History of England_, Erskine May, Vol. III. p. 285. + +[223] Section 41. Omnes mercatores habeant salvum et securum exire de +Anglia, et venire in Angliam, et morari et ire per Angliam, tam per terram +quam per aquam, ad emendum et venendum, sine omnibus malis toltis. + +[224] These were finally pulled down in 1859. + +[225] The Mercers followed this example in 1878. + +[226] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159, p. 50. + +[227] _Quarterly Review_, Vol. 159, p. 56. The Drapers' company at +Shrewsbury still survives to manage S. Mary's Almshouses. + +[228] In 1835 there appear to have been companies in at least the +following other towns in England, Alnwick, Bristol, Carlisle, Chester, +Coventry, Durham, Gateshead, Haverfordwest, Kendal, Kingston-on-Thames, +Lichfield, London, Ludlow, Morpeth, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Oxford, Preston, +Richmond, Ruthin, Sheffield, Southampton, Wells, and York. + +[229] Cf. supra, pp. 47-51. + +[230] Cf. supra, pp. 105-106. + +[231] Howell, _Conflicts of Capital_ etc., p. 494. + +[232] The story of the rise of Trades Unions has been told with much +detail by Mr G. Howell in his _Conflicts of Capital and Labour_, and by Dr +Brentano in the last portion of his Essay on Gilds. + +[233] It is to be hoped that the development of the "New Unionism" will +not frustrate this hope. + +[234] Mr John Burns has recently been urging on Trades Unions the +advisability of surrendering this feature, so that the funds may the more +completely be devoted to militant purposes. + +[235] By Henry Lytton Bulwer, M.P., in a letter to the Handloom weavers +when they petitioned for the creation of gilds of trade. + +[236] Foxwell, _Irregularity of Employment_, p. 72. + +[237] "There is of late a partial revival of good workmanship in many +trades ... but it will require years of toil to recover our lost ground in +the markets of the world." G. Howell, _Conflicts of Capital_ etc., p. 225. +Prof. Foxwell points out that "the master cutlers of Sheffield have done +something in [the] direction lately of exposing and punishing +falsification" etc., _Irregularity of Employment_ etc., p. 80 and note. Mr +E. J. Poynter notices that "the firm of which Mr William Morris is the +head, of which indeed he is the sole member, started the idea, now well +understood, that the only possible means of producing work which shall be +satisfactory from every side is to return to the principles on which all +works of art and art-manufacture were executed, not only in the Middle +Ages, but at all epochs up to the beginning of this century." _Ten +Lectures on Art_, p. 274. + +[238] This paper was written for the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural +History Society, and was printed in substance in their _Transactions_, 2nd +Series, Vol. III., Part ii., p. 253. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}. + +The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these +letters have been replaced with transliterations. + +Footnote 118 appears on page 67 of the text, but there is no corresponding +marker on the page. + +The original text includes an intentional blank space. 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