THE GILD MERCHANT.*
AN imperfectly understood institution of mediaeval England has found a competent historian in the Instructor in History at Harvard. Dr. Gross writes of the Gilda Mercatoria with a fullness of knowledge probably never before possessed by any writer, and as his knowledge is mainly derived from unprinted sources, a critic feels some diffidence in passing judgment on his conclusions. Dr. Gross is fully aware that his long study of the subject gives him a right to speak with authority, and he is not slow to point out the shortcomings of his predecessors, who almost without exception, he says, mis- understood the functions of the Gild. The Bishop of Oxford alone receives some carefully guarded praise ; but even his account of the Gild is characterised as vague and incomplete. On the initial question of the origin of the Gild Merchant, Dr. Gross differs from his predecessors, who place its beginnings Tho Oita Morohunt : a Costralttiort to British ItryNioipat History. By ,
Charles Gross, Ph.D., Instructor in History, Harvard University. 2 vole. Oxford ; Clarendon Press. 1890,
in Anglo-Saxon times, or even among the Continental Teutons. There were many Gilds among the Saxons, although the assertion is probably incorrect that England is the birthplace of Gilds, for they are first mentioned in a Carolingian Capitulary of the year 779. The Anglo-Saxon Gilds were, however, of a social and religious character ; although they watched over the interests of their members, there is no evidence to show that they were ever trading associations. Not until after the Conquest is the Gilda Mereatoria mentioned, and Dr. Gross is disposed to think that it was introduced from Normandy. He admits, however, that it may have been a spontaneous adaptation of the Gild idea to the trading interests which the Conquest did so much to develop. Like the earlier Gilds, the Gild Merchant held devotional and convivial meet- ings. To "drink the Gild Merchant," was a common expres- sion to denote attendance at one of its meetings. But its main purpose was to trade in boroughs under Royal and civic sanction. In the boroughs possessed of the Gild Merchant, which was granted by Royal Charter, the entire trade of the borough was in the hands of its members. Although non-gildsmen were sometimes permitted to trade, they could not do so without the permission of the Gild Merchant, and they had usually to pay for the privilege. It is calculated that in the thirteenth century' at least one-third of the boroughs of England, and probably a much larger number, possessed this privilege of exclusive dealing. Dr. Gross, whose historical sense is much inferior to his knowledge of documents, condemns the medireval institution to which he has given so much attention, in a spirit of crude modernism :—
"Such," he writes, "wore the fetters with which the English Gild Merchant of the Middle Ages, under the guise of a so-called freedom,' completely shackled free commercial intercourse. Whatever may be said in extenuation of its shortcomings owing to the exigencies of the times, it must be condemned as an insti- tution that blindly aimed to reduce free competition to a minimum, regarded what we now consider legitimate speculation as a crime, deflected from the town every powerful current of trade, merci- lessly obliterated the spirit of mercantile enterprise, and crushed out every stimulus to extensive production. The municipal atmosphere was surcharged with the spirit of rigid protection, which, like many other important institutions, existed in the borough long before it was adopted by the State. Indeed, mediteval towns of one and the same county regarded each other, from a mercantile point of view, with much more jealousy and hostility than different States now do."
Such sentiments are admirable when applied to modern re- strictions upon trade ; and a Free-trader living in America may be pardoned for impatience of Protection; they are out uf place, however, as a historical judgment on the Gild Merchant. The early life of society, like the early life of the individual, requires a protection which is foolish impertinence, when applied to its maturity. By means of these companies of privileged traders, the .mediesval boroughs secured for themselves a regularity in supply which more than compensated for the increased cost ; and what was more important, by creating a body of resident capitalists, they safeguarded their franchises. If the municipal authorities were unable to pay the tallages and ferms demanded by the King, their charters were forfeited ; it was to their gildsmen they looked to pay the severe and often sudden exactions of the Crown.
Like other orders, secular and religious, the medieval Gilds outlived their day of usefulness, and became injurious to the common weal. We find many complaints in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries of their exactions "after their own sinister mind and pleasure," and of the hardships to which they sub- jected the public "for ther owne singler profit and to the comen hurte and damage of the people." Dr. Gross tells a story which shows that picketing is not a modern invention. In 16l4, the Company of ,Mercers and Ironmongers in Chester ordered T. Aldney to slant his shop. On his refusal, two of the Company were told off to walk all day before the shop, to prevent people from entering it. The Mayor commanded the pickets to withdraw, but they refused, alleging their oath to the Company. "And so," writes the old chronicler, "they walked and remayned and plaied their wilfull parte." The exactions of the Gilds contributed to the widespread decay in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries of many once powerful boroughs, for they drove commerce and industry to the free- trade towns such as Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, where they were not fettered by ancient privileges. "Thus," writes Dr. Gross, "the rigid protection of the older chartered boroughs sapped their commercial prosperity, silencing the once busy looms of Norwich and Exeter, and sweeping away the cloth-halls of York and Winchester."
There has been a good deal of controversy regarding the relation of the Gild Merchant to the borough. Some have treated it as a private trading association with no administra- tive functions, while others maintain that it covered the whole area of municipal government, the head of the borough being the head of the Gild, a gildsman being tantamount to burgess. The latter view is an exaggeration of the functions of the Gild. Many were members of the Gild who were not burgesses,— for example, heads of religious houses, knights who lived in the vicinity of the borough, and even women. The qualification for membership of the Gild was ability to pay scot and lot; that for the burgess-ship, the ability to perform burghal duties. The Gild Merchant was, however, more than a private association, for it possessed judicial functions in matters pertaining to trade ; and in boroughs where the mercantile element predominated, there was in later times. a tendency to amalgamate the two adminis- trations.
Dr. Gross has an interesting chapter on the Craft Gilds, which were of later origin than the Gild Merchant. Originally the craftsmen were members of the Gild Merchant, but in later times they formed Gilds of their own. Dr. Brentano, in his ingenious essay on English Gilds, ascribes this change to the ill-treatment which the craftsmen suffered at the hands of the wealthier members of the Gild Merchant, which drove them to form independent associations. Between the Craft Gilds, according to Dr. Brentano, and the aristocratic Gild Merchant there was a prolonged struggle, which ended in the victory of the democratic Gilds, in the time of Henry VI. Dr. Gross regards the theory of Brentano as an unwarranted transference of Continental history to England, where such a struggle was rendered impossible by the power of the Crown and the democratic character of the municipal constitutions. The Gild Merchant, he maintains, decayed, gradually, through the specialisation of industry which led to- the formation of Gilds of craftsmen, and rendered superfluous the old organisation. Dr. Gross has an excellent chapter on the later Mercantile Companies, which are to be distinguished from the Gild Merchant. There is also a chapter on the- Scotch Gild Merchant, which requires separate treatment, for the municipal history of Scotland in the Middle Ages resembles that of the Continent rather than of England. The second volume contains a large number of documents never before printed. A full list of authorities is appended, and an admirable glossary of old English, French, and Latin words, which will be very serviceable to students of mediaival history.
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