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 munic.i.p.al rather than mercantile objects.

[Sidenote: _Rise of Craft Gilds favoured by Merchant Gild and Communa._]

[Sidenote: _This favour natural under the circ.u.mstances 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 munic.i.p.al 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 a.s.suredly 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 princ.i.p.al 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 doc.u.ment 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 Ma.s.sy 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)