Guild
Guildsgroupsself-employed skilled craftsmenownershipcontrol overmaterialstools requiredproduce their goods. Historicallywere small business associations, since each crafter wasself-employed individual artisan or part ofsmall craft shop or co-operative. They existmodernmedieval incarnations, bothwhichdiscussedthis article. One's viewguilds tendsbe heavily colored by one's viewpolitical economy, sincewhole historytrade, technology, intellectual property, regulated professions,professional ethicsentwined withhistory ofguildsEurope.
| Tablecontents |
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2 European history 3 Organization 4 Fall ofGuilds 5 Influenceguilds 6 Modern guilds 7 Sources |
Early history
Regulated professions werefeature ofancientclassical world. The CodeHammurabi specifieddeath penaltybuilders, or masons, whose buildings fell oninhabitants. Hammurabi himself had beenstonemason, so this could be considered an early exampleself-regulation. The Hippocratic Oath appliesthis day asbasis ofmodern physicians' ethical code. All known legal codes include some limits onpractices or powersjurists, e.g.RulesCivil Procedure, or politicians, e.g.rulesparliamentary debate. It has generally been recognized that those inpositionspecial knowledge or trust werebe held accountable topublictheir adviceservices.
Islamic civilization extended this todegree toartisan as well - most notably towarraqeen, "those who workpaper". Early Muslimss were heavily engagedtranslatingabsorbing all ilm ("knowledge") from all other known civilizations, "as far as China." Critically analyzing, accepting, rejecting, improvingcodifying knowledge from other cultures becamekey activity, andknowledge industry as presently understood beganevolve. Bybeginning of9th century, paper had becomestandard mediumwritten communication,most warraqeen were engagedpaper-making, book-selling,takingdictationauthors,whomwere obligatedpay royalties on works,who had final discretion oncontents. Asstandard meanspresentation ofnew work was its public dictation inmosque or madrassah,frontmany scholarsstudents,high degreeprofessional respect was requiredensure that other warraqeen did not simply makesell copies, or that authors did not lose faith inwarraqeen or this systempublication. This was an early guild.
This publication industry that spannedMuslim empire fromfirst works under this system874 to15th century, gave riseall concernsmodern intellectual property lawyer would recognize: by means oftensthousandsbooks per year so published, instructional capital from one groupartisans admiredtheir work could be spreadother artisans elsewhere who could copy itperhaps "passoff" asoriginal, exploitingsocial capital built up at great expense byoriginatorstechniques. Artisans begantake various waysprotect their proprietary interests, restrict accesstechniques, materials, andmarkets.
European history
ByMiddle Ages (circa 1100) European guilds (or gilds)livery companies had evolved into an approximate equivalentmodern-day business organisations such as institutes or consortiums. They had strong controls over instructional capital, andmodern concepts oflifetime progressionapprenticecraftsman, journeyer,eventuallywidely-recognized mastergrandmaster beganemerge. The appearance ofeuropean guildsbelievedbe tied toemergent money economy, andurbanization. Before this timewas not possiblerunmoney-driven organization, as commodity money wasnormal waydoing business.
The guild was atcenterEuropean handicraft organization. The guild system appearedGermany inMiddle Ages, circa 1300. The guildsidentifiedorganizations enjoying certain privileges (letters patent), usually issued byking or stateoverseen by local town business authorities (some kindchambercommerce). These wereprecedecessors ofmodern patenttrademark system.
Like their Muslim predecessors, European guilds imposedperiodsapprenticeship,madedifficult or impossiblethose lackingapprovaltheir peersgain accessmaterials or knowledge, or sell into certain markets. Thesedefining characteristicsmercantilismeconomics, which dominated most European thinking about political economy untilriseclassical economics. States applied this thinking,instance,restrictflowgoldsilvermilitary opponents, as gold was usefulbuy weaponshire mercenaries.
Organization
The guild was made up by experiencedconfirmed expertstheir fieldhandicraft. They were called master craftsmen. Beforenew employee could rise tolevelmastery,hadgo throughschooling period during whichwere first called apprenticess. After this period thay could rise toleveljourneymen. An apprentice would typically not learn more thanmost basic techniques untilwere trusted by their peerskeepguild's or company's secrets.
The name journeyman comes fromfact that after being employed bymasterseveral years,after producingqualifying piecework,journeyman was givenletter which entitled himtravelother townscountrieslearnart from other masters. These journeys could span large partsEuropewas an inofficial waycommunicating new methodstechniques.
After this journeyseveral yearsexperience,journeyman could be electedbecomemaster craftsman. This would requireapprovalall masters ofguild,donationmoneyother goods,in many practical handicraftsproduction ofso-called masterpiece, that would illustrateabilities ofaspiring master craftsman.
The medieval guild was offeredletters patent (usually fromking)held an oligopoly on its trade intownwhichoperated: handicraft workers were forbidden by lawrun any business ifwere not members ofguild,only masters were allowedbe members ofguild. Before these privileges were legislated, these groupshandicraft workers were simply called "handicraft associations".
The town authorities were represented onguild meetingsthus hadmeanscontrollinghandicraft activities. This was important since towns very often depended ongood reputationexport ofnarrow rangeproducts, on which not onlyguild's, buttown's, reputation depended. Controls onassociationphysical locationswell-known exported products, e.g. wine fromChampagneBordeaux regionsFrance, fine China from certain citiesHolland, lace from Chantilly, etc., helpedestablishtown's placeglobal commerce - this ledmodern trademarks.
Fall ofGuilds
Despite its advantagesagriculturalartisan producers,guild becametargetmuch criticism towardsend of1700s andbeginning of1800s. They were believedoppose free tradehinder technological innovation, technology transferbusiness development. Accordingseveral accountsthis time, guilds became increasingly involvedsimple territorial struggles against each otheragainst free practionerstheir arts, butneutralitythese claimsdoubted. It may be propaganda.
Two ofmost outspoken critics ofguild system were Jean-Jacques RousseauAdam Smith,all over Europetendencyoppose government control over tradesfavourlaissez-faire free market systems was growing rapidlymaking its way intopoliticallegal system. From this time comeslow regardwhich some people holdguildsthis day. For example, Smith writesThe WealthNations (Book I, Chapter X, paragraph 72):
- It isprevent this reductionprice,consequentlywagesprofit, by restraining that free competition which would most certainly occasion it, that all corporations, andgreater partcorporation laws, have been established. (...)when any particular classartificers or traders thought properact ascorporation withoutcharter, such adulterine guilds, aswere called, were not always disfranchised upon that account, but obligedfine annually tokingpermissionexercise their usurped privileges.
Becauseindustrializationmodernization oftradeindustry, andrisepowerful nation-states that could directly issue patentcopyright protections, often revealingtrade secrets,guilds power faded. AfterFrench Revolutionfellmost European nations through1800s, asguild system was disbandedreplaced by free trade laws. By that time,large portions offormer handicraft workers had already been convertedworkers ofmanufacturing industry, using not closely held techniques but standardized methods controlled by corporations.
This was not uniformly viewed aspublic good: Karl Marx criticizedalienation ofworker fromproductswork that this created, andexploitation possible since materialshourswork were closely controlled byowners ofnew, large scale meansproduction.
Influenceguilds
Guildssometimes saidbeprecursorsmodern trade unions,also, paradoxically,some aspects ofmodern corporation. Guilds, however, were groupsself-employed skilled craftsmenownershipcontrol overmaterialstoolsneededproduce their goods:were small business associations,other words, had very littlecommonunions. Howeverjourneymen organizations, which were attime illegal, may have been influential.
The privileges ofguildsproduce certain goods or services have similaritiesits spiritcharacter withoriginal patent systems that surfacedEngland1624. These systems playedroleendingguilds' dominance, as trade secret methods were superseded by modern firms directly revealing their techniques,counting onstateenforce their legal monopoly.
Some guild traditions still remain infew handicrafts,Europe especially among shoemakersbarbers. Some ofritual traditions ofguilds were conservedorder organizations such asFreemasons. Thesehowever not economically very important except as reminders ofresponsibilitiessome trades towardspublic.
Modern antitrust law could be saidbe derivedsome ways fromoriginal statutes by whichguilds were abolishedEurope, but theyofmuch more recent character.
Modern guilds
Modern guilds tendexistfields where, likemedieval warraqeen,very strongrigid systemintellectual property respect existsone industry: Screen Actors GuildWriters GuildAmerica,instance,capableexercising very strong controlHollywood,excluding other actorswriters who do not abide bystrict rulescompeting withinfilmtelevision industryAmerica. A lackmeaningful global competition may be part ofreason why guilds can persistthis industry.
Thomas Malone ofMassachusetts InstituteTechnology championsmodern variant ofguild structuremodern "e-lancers", professionals who do mostly teleworkmultiple employers. Insurance including any professional liability, intellectual capital protections, an ethical code perhaps enforced by peer pressuresoftware,other benefits ofstrong associationproducersknowledge, benefit from economiesscale,may prevent cut-throat competition that leadsinferior services undercutting prices. And, ashistorical guilds, resist foreign competition.
The free software community has from timetime exploredguild-like structureunite against competition from Microsoft, e.g. Advogato assigns journeyermaster ranksthose committingwork only or mostly on free software. Debian also publisheslistwhat constitutes free software - apparentlyGFDL used by Wikipedia does not qualify, so all authors who contribute here may well be subject somedayguild pressures.
InCityLondon,ancient guilds survive as Livery Companies, mostwhich playceremonial role.
Sources
- Söderlund, Ernst: Den svenska arbetarklassens historia - Hantverkarna II frihetstiden och den gustavianska tiden Stockholm 1949 (in Swedish)
Gilding isactapplyingthin layerusually gold over another surface.
