Sheilagh Ogilvie
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691137544
- eISBN:
- 9780691185101
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137544.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
Guilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, and have always attracted debate and controversy. They were sometimes viewed as efficient institutions that ...
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Guilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, and have always attracted debate and controversy. They were sometimes viewed as efficient institutions that guaranteed quality and skills. But they also excluded competitors, manipulated markets, and blocked innovations. Did the benefits of guilds outweigh their costs? Analyzing thousands of guilds that dominated European economies from 1000 to 1880, this book uses vivid examples and clear economic reasoning to answer that question. The book features the voices of honourable guild masters, underpaid journeymen, exploited apprentices, shady officials, and outraged customers, and follows the stories of the “vile encroachers”—women, migrants, Jews, gypsies, bastards, and many others—desperate to work but hunted down by the guilds as illicit competitors. It investigates the benefits of guilds but also shines a light on their dark side. Guilds sometimes provided important services, but they also manipulated markets to profit their members. They regulated quality but prevented poor consumers from buying goods cheaply. They fostered work skills but denied apprenticeships to outsiders. They transmitted useful techniques but blocked innovations that posed a threat. Guilds existed widely not because they corrected market failures or served the common good, but because they benefited two powerful groups—guild members and political elites. The book shows how privileged institutions and exclusive networks shape the wider economy—for good or ill.Less
Guilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, and have always attracted debate and controversy. They were sometimes viewed as efficient institutions that guaranteed quality and skills. But they also excluded competitors, manipulated markets, and blocked innovations. Did the benefits of guilds outweigh their costs? Analyzing thousands of guilds that dominated European economies from 1000 to 1880, this book uses vivid examples and clear economic reasoning to answer that question. The book features the voices of honourable guild masters, underpaid journeymen, exploited apprentices, shady officials, and outraged customers, and follows the stories of the “vile encroachers”—women, migrants, Jews, gypsies, bastards, and many others—desperate to work but hunted down by the guilds as illicit competitors. It investigates the benefits of guilds but also shines a light on their dark side. Guilds sometimes provided important services, but they also manipulated markets to profit their members. They regulated quality but prevented poor consumers from buying goods cheaply. They fostered work skills but denied apprenticeships to outsiders. They transmitted useful techniques but blocked innovations that posed a threat. Guilds existed widely not because they corrected market failures or served the common good, but because they benefited two powerful groups—guild members and political elites. The book shows how privileged institutions and exclusive networks shape the wider economy—for good or ill.
Federico Varese
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198297369
- eISBN:
- 9780191600272
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019829736X.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, Russian Politics
The first section of the chapter describes the main features of the original society of the vory-v-zakone – thieves-with-a-code-of-honour – the criminal fraternity that flourished in the Soviet ...
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The first section of the chapter describes the main features of the original society of the vory-v-zakone – thieves-with-a-code-of-honour – the criminal fraternity that flourished in the Soviet labour camps between the 1920s and the 1950s, and re-emerged in the 1970s. The account given is based on archival data that have not been presented before, and describes the rituals and practices involved, the vory code of behaviour, vory activities outside prison, and punishment in vory courts. The second section addresses the question of the origins of the vory-v-zakone society, namely, whether it was a Soviet or pre-Revolutionary phenomenon. It is concluded that the fraternity most likely evolved from pre-Revolutionary criminal nineteenth-century arteli (guilds) of ordinary thieves.Less
The first section of the chapter describes the main features of the original society of the vory-v-zakone – thieves-with-a-code-of-honour – the criminal fraternity that flourished in the Soviet labour camps between the 1920s and the 1950s, and re-emerged in the 1970s. The account given is based on archival data that have not been presented before, and describes the rituals and practices involved, the vory code of behaviour, vory activities outside prison, and punishment in vory courts. The second section addresses the question of the origins of the vory-v-zakone society, namely, whether it was a Soviet or pre-Revolutionary phenomenon. It is concluded that the fraternity most likely evolved from pre-Revolutionary criminal nineteenth-century arteli (guilds) of ordinary thieves.
Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691144870
- eISBN:
- 9781400842483
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691144870.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This chapter assesses the argument that both their exclusion from craft and merchant guilds and usury bans on Christians segregated European Jews into moneylending during the Middle Ages. Already ...
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This chapter assesses the argument that both their exclusion from craft and merchant guilds and usury bans on Christians segregated European Jews into moneylending during the Middle Ages. Already during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, moneylending was the occupation par excellence of the Jews in England, France, and Germany and one of the main professions of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, and other locations in western Europe. Based on the historical information and the economic theory presented in earlier chapters, the chapter advances an alternative explanation that is consistent with the salient features that mark the history of the Jews: the Jews in medieval Europe voluntarily entered and later specialized in moneylending because they had the key assets for being successful players in credit markets—capital, networking, literacy and numeracy, and contract-enforcement institutions.Less
This chapter assesses the argument that both their exclusion from craft and merchant guilds and usury bans on Christians segregated European Jews into moneylending during the Middle Ages. Already during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, moneylending was the occupation par excellence of the Jews in England, France, and Germany and one of the main professions of the Jews in the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, and other locations in western Europe. Based on the historical information and the economic theory presented in earlier chapters, the chapter advances an alternative explanation that is consistent with the salient features that mark the history of the Jews: the Jews in medieval Europe voluntarily entered and later specialized in moneylending because they had the key assets for being successful players in credit markets—capital, networking, literacy and numeracy, and contract-enforcement institutions.
Tirthankar Roy
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198063780
- eISBN:
- 9780199080144
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198063780.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
This book chronicles how the concept of organizing people to serve economic ends emerged in early modern and colonial India. It examines rules of cooperation, why people decided to join forces, how ...
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This book chronicles how the concept of organizing people to serve economic ends emerged in early modern and colonial India. It examines rules of cooperation, why people decided to join forces, how disputes were settled, and how cooperative communities became increasingly unstable in more modern times. It focuses on five dimensions: actor, agent, time, purpose, and region. The leading actors are peasants, labourers, artisans, merchants/bankers, and the states. The rules of cooperation that formed inside communities of merchants and others were respected by the states. However, these rules would eventually become unstable due to the integration of India within a global-industrial economy and the introduction of a new rule of law in the old guise of ‘custom’. As a result, the endogamous guild, a kind of collective that used marriage rules to secure cooperative ties, became weaker, to be supplanted by other forms of organization. Collectives controlled property, managed resources, supplied training, and conducted negotiations. The regional angle is important because regions differed on the composition of enterprise, and globalization and colonialism unfolded unevenly across space. The book presents an economic history of institutional change in South Asia.Less
This book chronicles how the concept of organizing people to serve economic ends emerged in early modern and colonial India. It examines rules of cooperation, why people decided to join forces, how disputes were settled, and how cooperative communities became increasingly unstable in more modern times. It focuses on five dimensions: actor, agent, time, purpose, and region. The leading actors are peasants, labourers, artisans, merchants/bankers, and the states. The rules of cooperation that formed inside communities of merchants and others were respected by the states. However, these rules would eventually become unstable due to the integration of India within a global-industrial economy and the introduction of a new rule of law in the old guise of ‘custom’. As a result, the endogamous guild, a kind of collective that used marriage rules to secure cooperative ties, became weaker, to be supplanted by other forms of organization. Collectives controlled property, managed resources, supplied training, and conducted negotiations. The regional angle is important because regions differed on the composition of enterprise, and globalization and colonialism unfolded unevenly across space. The book presents an economic history of institutional change in South Asia.
Sheilagh Ogilvie
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691137544
- eISBN:
- 9780691185101
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137544.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter looks at the many ways guilds limited competition in order that their members might have a more comfortable living, at the expense of customers, employees, rivals, and the wider economy. ...
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This chapter looks at the many ways guilds limited competition in order that their members might have a more comfortable living, at the expense of customers, employees, rivals, and the wider economy. A guild controlled not only who could legally practise an occupation, but what he could do once he got in. The guilds' major preoccupation in these collectively agreed regulations was to manipulate markets in what their members produced and in the inputs they used to produce it. As the sole legitimate practitioners of a particular occupation, it made sense for guild masters to use their guilds to restrict internal rivalry and external competition that might push down prices and push up costs. The guilds had first to suppress outsiders who sold the same wares “much more cheaply,” and then to set minimum selling prices for guild members, “so they might have a comfortable living by doing so.”Less
This chapter looks at the many ways guilds limited competition in order that their members might have a more comfortable living, at the expense of customers, employees, rivals, and the wider economy. A guild controlled not only who could legally practise an occupation, but what he could do once he got in. The guilds' major preoccupation in these collectively agreed regulations was to manipulate markets in what their members produced and in the inputs they used to produce it. As the sole legitimate practitioners of a particular occupation, it made sense for guild masters to use their guilds to restrict internal rivalry and external competition that might push down prices and push up costs. The guilds had first to suppress outsiders who sold the same wares “much more cheaply,” and then to set minimum selling prices for guild members, “so they might have a comfortable living by doing so.”
Sheilagh Ogilvie
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691137544
- eISBN:
- 9780691185101
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137544.003.0009
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter discusses different measures of guild strength, in terms of guild numbers, producer—merchant relations, guilds' internal cohesiveness, their relationship with the state, characteristics ...
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This chapter discusses different measures of guild strength, in terms of guild numbers, producer—merchant relations, guilds' internal cohesiveness, their relationship with the state, characteristics of towns, interaction with the countryside, and the role of guild-free enclaves. It also examines how guild strength and weakness were associated with economic performance across pre-industrial Europe. First, European societies with relatively weak guilds saw comparatively rapid economic growth from the late medieval period onwards. Second, economic performance differed more modestly between societies with intermediate guilds and those with strong ones. Third, strong guilds were not associated with high per capita GDP or rapid economic growth at any point between 1300 and 1850. This casts doubt on the notion that guilds generated net benefits for European economies, even in their medieval inception.Less
This chapter discusses different measures of guild strength, in terms of guild numbers, producer—merchant relations, guilds' internal cohesiveness, their relationship with the state, characteristics of towns, interaction with the countryside, and the role of guild-free enclaves. It also examines how guild strength and weakness were associated with economic performance across pre-industrial Europe. First, European societies with relatively weak guilds saw comparatively rapid economic growth from the late medieval period onwards. Second, economic performance differed more modestly between societies with intermediate guilds and those with strong ones. Third, strong guilds were not associated with high per capita GDP or rapid economic growth at any point between 1300 and 1850. This casts doubt on the notion that guilds generated net benefits for European economies, even in their medieval inception.
SHEILAGH OGILVIE
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198205548
- eISBN:
- 9780191719219
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205548.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter investigates the economic position of widows in the pre-industrial German society under analysis in this book. Patterns of widows' work are distilled from a database of work observations ...
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This chapter investigates the economic position of widows in the pre-industrial German society under analysis in this book. Patterns of widows' work are distilled from a database of work observations extracted from church-court records and are compared with those of other females (and males). These findings are then set alongside information on widows' livelihoods from an 18th-century economic census. Data on widowed female household-headship are used to identify the variables encouraging widows' economic independence. Qualitative findings are then used to explore competing hypotheses about the biological, technological, cultural and institutional determinants of widows' economic position. The chapter discusses the institutional factors constraining widows' economic activities, in particular the ‘social capital’ of craft guilds, merchant guilds, and local communities. The chapter concludes by exploring the implications for the wider developing economy of these constraints on widows' work.Less
This chapter investigates the economic position of widows in the pre-industrial German society under analysis in this book. Patterns of widows' work are distilled from a database of work observations extracted from church-court records and are compared with those of other females (and males). These findings are then set alongside information on widows' livelihoods from an 18th-century economic census. Data on widowed female household-headship are used to identify the variables encouraging widows' economic independence. Qualitative findings are then used to explore competing hypotheses about the biological, technological, cultural and institutional determinants of widows' economic position. The chapter discusses the institutional factors constraining widows' economic activities, in particular the ‘social capital’ of craft guilds, merchant guilds, and local communities. The chapter concludes by exploring the implications for the wider developing economy of these constraints on widows' work.
Bas van Bavel
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199278664
- eISBN:
- 9780191707032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278664.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Each region received its specific social organization during the process of occupation in the early and high Middle Ages. This chapter discusses the social distribution of power and property, and ...
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Each region received its specific social organization during the process of occupation in the early and high Middle Ages. This chapter discusses the social distribution of power and property, and shows the long‐term effects of these regional structures. In the infertile regions, small‐scale landowners remained well‐entrenched, but the fertile regions occupied in the Frankish period saw the build‐up of large‐scale properties of the king and religious institutions. These large properties were often organized by way of manors. The chapter analyses the causes of the rise of manorial organization and its decline in the 12th to 14th centuries. The coastal regions only opened up in the high Middle Ages, like coastal Flanders and Holland, did not see the spread of manorialism at all; they were characterized by the freedom of the population and the ample scope for self‐determination. Ordinary peasants and townsmen organized themselves in villages, towns, guilds, commons, and other associations. Their rise was probably helped by the dissolution of central power, and the rise of competing authorities like princes and banal lords.Less
Each region received its specific social organization during the process of occupation in the early and high Middle Ages. This chapter discusses the social distribution of power and property, and shows the long‐term effects of these regional structures. In the infertile regions, small‐scale landowners remained well‐entrenched, but the fertile regions occupied in the Frankish period saw the build‐up of large‐scale properties of the king and religious institutions. These large properties were often organized by way of manors. The chapter analyses the causes of the rise of manorial organization and its decline in the 12th to 14th centuries. The coastal regions only opened up in the high Middle Ages, like coastal Flanders and Holland, did not see the spread of manorialism at all; they were characterized by the freedom of the population and the ample scope for self‐determination. Ordinary peasants and townsmen organized themselves in villages, towns, guilds, commons, and other associations. Their rise was probably helped by the dissolution of central power, and the rise of competing authorities like princes and banal lords.
Tirthankar Roy
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198063780
- eISBN:
- 9780199080144
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198063780.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
This book has examined how rules of cooperation emerged in South Asia and how they changed in more modern times. The actions of merchants, peasants, artisans, and workers in the pre-colonial business ...
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This book has examined how rules of cooperation emerged in South Asia and how they changed in more modern times. The actions of merchants, peasants, artisans, and workers in the pre-colonial business world were coordinated by guilds composed of kinsmen. These endogamous guilds, aided by regional states, were respected by rulers and regulated the accumulation and use of labour, capital, land, and knowledge. From the late eighteenth century, personal ties were weakened by an emerging new economy shaped by industrialization, foreign trade, and colonial rule. The informal and personal ways of doing business disappeared, resulting in unstable collectives. Among merchants and bankers, there was an imperceptible creative destruction of the community following the rise to prominence of individuals, families, and other associational rules. Entrepreneurs became successful by relying on old ties and formal institutions. Compromise and dualism were also evident among peasants, workers, and artisans in the twentieth century.Less
This book has examined how rules of cooperation emerged in South Asia and how they changed in more modern times. The actions of merchants, peasants, artisans, and workers in the pre-colonial business world were coordinated by guilds composed of kinsmen. These endogamous guilds, aided by regional states, were respected by rulers and regulated the accumulation and use of labour, capital, land, and knowledge. From the late eighteenth century, personal ties were weakened by an emerging new economy shaped by industrialization, foreign trade, and colonial rule. The informal and personal ways of doing business disappeared, resulting in unstable collectives. Among merchants and bankers, there was an imperceptible creative destruction of the community following the rise to prominence of individuals, families, and other associational rules. Entrepreneurs became successful by relying on old ties and formal institutions. Compromise and dualism were also evident among peasants, workers, and artisans in the twentieth century.
Cordelia Beattie
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199283415
- eISBN:
- 9780191712616
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283415.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter first considers what prompts the use of the category ‘single woman’ in some guild returns of 1388-9. The contention is that the category carries with it connotations of the legal ...
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This chapter first considers what prompts the use of the category ‘single woman’ in some guild returns of 1388-9. The contention is that the category carries with it connotations of the legal construct femme sole, that is, a woman who was not under coverture and thus was legally and economically independent. The chapter then turns to guild registers and account books, which record the entry and transactions of individual members. It focuses on the Register of the Guild of the Holy Cross, Stratford-upon-Avon, which continues to uses the categories ‘maiden’ and ‘widow’ for unmarried women but introduces the vernacular term ‘sengilman’ for unmarried (probably never-married) men in the 15th century. This again suggests that the classification of individuals entailed value-laden choices and one must consider the potentially different moral associations of categories.Less
This chapter first considers what prompts the use of the category ‘single woman’ in some guild returns of 1388-9. The contention is that the category carries with it connotations of the legal construct femme sole, that is, a woman who was not under coverture and thus was legally and economically independent. The chapter then turns to guild registers and account books, which record the entry and transactions of individual members. It focuses on the Register of the Guild of the Holy Cross, Stratford-upon-Avon, which continues to uses the categories ‘maiden’ and ‘widow’ for unmarried women but introduces the vernacular term ‘sengilman’ for unmarried (probably never-married) men in the 15th century. This again suggests that the classification of individuals entailed value-laden choices and one must consider the potentially different moral associations of categories.
David M Wilkinson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198568469
- eISBN:
- 9780191717611
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198568469.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
This book raises and attempts to answer the following thought experiment: ‘For any planet with carbon-based life, which persists over geological time-scales, what is the minimum set of ecological ...
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This book raises and attempts to answer the following thought experiment: ‘For any planet with carbon-based life, which persists over geological time-scales, what is the minimum set of ecological processes that must be present?’. The main intention of this book is to use an astrobiological perspective as a means of thinking about ecology on Earth. Its focus on processes contrasts with the commoner focus in ecology textbooks on entities such as individuals, populations, species, communities, ecosystems, and the biosphere. The book suggests that seven ecological processes are fundamental (not including natural selection and competition, which characterize all of life rather than only ecology): energy flow (energy consumption and waste product excretion), multiple guilds (autotrophs, decomposers, and parasites), tradeoffs (specialization versus generalization, leading to biodiversity within guilds), ecological hypercycles (cycles within cycles), merging of organismal and ecological physiology (as life spreads over the planet, biotic and abiotic processes interact so strongly as to be inseparable), photosynthesis (which it suggests likely in most biospheres but not inevitable), and carbon sequestration. These fundamental processes lead to the emergence of nutrient cycling. The integration of Earth System Science with ecology is vitally important if ecological science is to successfully contribute to the massive problems and future challenges associated with global change. The book is heavily influenced by Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis.Less
This book raises and attempts to answer the following thought experiment: ‘For any planet with carbon-based life, which persists over geological time-scales, what is the minimum set of ecological processes that must be present?’. The main intention of this book is to use an astrobiological perspective as a means of thinking about ecology on Earth. Its focus on processes contrasts with the commoner focus in ecology textbooks on entities such as individuals, populations, species, communities, ecosystems, and the biosphere. The book suggests that seven ecological processes are fundamental (not including natural selection and competition, which characterize all of life rather than only ecology): energy flow (energy consumption and waste product excretion), multiple guilds (autotrophs, decomposers, and parasites), tradeoffs (specialization versus generalization, leading to biodiversity within guilds), ecological hypercycles (cycles within cycles), merging of organismal and ecological physiology (as life spreads over the planet, biotic and abiotic processes interact so strongly as to be inseparable), photosynthesis (which it suggests likely in most biospheres but not inevitable), and carbon sequestration. These fundamental processes lead to the emergence of nutrient cycling. The integration of Earth System Science with ecology is vitally important if ecological science is to successfully contribute to the massive problems and future challenges associated with global change. The book is heavily influenced by Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis.
Sheilagh Ogilvie
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691137544
- eISBN:
- 9780691185101
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137544.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This introductory chapter provides a brief history of guilds and an overview of the debate surrounding them. The effects of guilds on economy and society have always attracted controversy. ...
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This introductory chapter provides a brief history of guilds and an overview of the debate surrounding them. The effects of guilds on economy and society have always attracted controversy. Contemporaries held strong views about them, with guild members and their political allies extolling their virtues, while customers, employees, and competitors lamented their misdeeds. Modern scholars are also deeply divided on guilds. Some claim that guilds were so widespread and long-lived that they must have generated economic benefits. Other scholars take a darker view. Guilds, they hold, were in a position to extract benefits for their own members by acting as cartels, exploiting consumers; rationing access to human capital investment; stifling innovation; bribing governments for favours; harming outsiders such as women, Jews, and the poor; and redistributing resources to their members at the expense of the wider economy.Less
This introductory chapter provides a brief history of guilds and an overview of the debate surrounding them. The effects of guilds on economy and society have always attracted controversy. Contemporaries held strong views about them, with guild members and their political allies extolling their virtues, while customers, employees, and competitors lamented their misdeeds. Modern scholars are also deeply divided on guilds. Some claim that guilds were so widespread and long-lived that they must have generated economic benefits. Other scholars take a darker view. Guilds, they hold, were in a position to extract benefits for their own members by acting as cartels, exploiting consumers; rationing access to human capital investment; stifling innovation; bribing governments for favours; harming outsiders such as women, Jews, and the poor; and redistributing resources to their members at the expense of the wider economy.
Sheilagh Ogilvie
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691137544
- eISBN:
- 9780691185101
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137544.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter explores how guilds defined and enforced entitlement. A first entitlement sought by any guild was to decide who could practise certain economic activities. Every guild aimed to secure ...
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This chapter explores how guilds defined and enforced entitlement. A first entitlement sought by any guild was to decide who could practise certain economic activities. Every guild aimed to secure the exclusive right for its members to do specific kinds of work in a particular place. A guild also secured the right to decide who could gain admission to the guild “mysteries.” To enforce these privileges, guilds erected an elaborate array of entry barriers, making admission costly or impossible for any applicant who could not satisfy conditions relating to citizenship, ethnicity, religion, occupation, wealth, property, fees, marriage, age, legitimate birth, parental occupation, ancestral “purity,” reputation, or approval by existing guild members. By limiting the number of practitioners, guilds sought, in the words of the Burgdorf shoemakers' guild in 1785, “to create a better and surer livelihood for the remainder.”Less
This chapter explores how guilds defined and enforced entitlement. A first entitlement sought by any guild was to decide who could practise certain economic activities. Every guild aimed to secure the exclusive right for its members to do specific kinds of work in a particular place. A guild also secured the right to decide who could gain admission to the guild “mysteries.” To enforce these privileges, guilds erected an elaborate array of entry barriers, making admission costly or impossible for any applicant who could not satisfy conditions relating to citizenship, ethnicity, religion, occupation, wealth, property, fees, marriage, age, legitimate birth, parental occupation, ancestral “purity,” reputation, or approval by existing guild members. By limiting the number of practitioners, guilds sought, in the words of the Burgdorf shoemakers' guild in 1785, “to create a better and surer livelihood for the remainder.”
Henk Looijesteijn and Marco H. D. Van Leeuwen
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265314
- eISBN:
- 9780191760402
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265314.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
The Dutch Republic had a broad range of means to establish an individual's identity, and a rudimentary ‘system’ of identity registration, essentially established at the local levels of town and ...
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The Dutch Republic had a broad range of means to establish an individual's identity, and a rudimentary ‘system’ of identity registration, essentially established at the local levels of town and parish. This chapter seeks to provide a description of the ways in which the Dutch established an individual's identity. The various registration methods covered almost the entire population of the Dutch Republic at some stage in their life, and it is argued that on balance identity registration in the Dutch Republic was fairly successful. The chapter contends that the degree to which identity was registered and monitored in the early modern era in the Netherlands, while certainly not wholly effective, is remarkable given the absence of a centralized state and the lack of a large bureaucracy.Less
The Dutch Republic had a broad range of means to establish an individual's identity, and a rudimentary ‘system’ of identity registration, essentially established at the local levels of town and parish. This chapter seeks to provide a description of the ways in which the Dutch established an individual's identity. The various registration methods covered almost the entire population of the Dutch Republic at some stage in their life, and it is argued that on balance identity registration in the Dutch Republic was fairly successful. The chapter contends that the degree to which identity was registered and monitored in the early modern era in the Netherlands, while certainly not wholly effective, is remarkable given the absence of a centralized state and the lack of a large bureaucracy.
Sheilagh Ogilvie
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691137544
- eISBN:
- 9780691185101
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691137544.003.0010
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This concluding chapter argues that guilds did redistribute resources to their members at the expense of everyone else; they did not generate countervailing benefits by solving failures in markets ...
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This concluding chapter argues that guilds did redistribute resources to their members at the expense of everyone else; they did not generate countervailing benefits by solving failures in markets for quality, training, or innovation; and they did inflict unintended harm on the wider economy. In practice, markets are never perfect and states are never impartial, and this was undoubtedly true of the markets and states of pre-modern Europe. However, guilds made little contribution to correcting market or state failures. By seeking rents for their own members, guilds intensified market failures, sometimes deliberately, sometimes inadvertently. They also contributed to making governments even more corrupt than they already were by offering an effective institutional mechanism whereby two powerful groups, guild members and political elites, could collaborate in capturing a larger share of resources at the expense of the rest of the economy.Less
This concluding chapter argues that guilds did redistribute resources to their members at the expense of everyone else; they did not generate countervailing benefits by solving failures in markets for quality, training, or innovation; and they did inflict unintended harm on the wider economy. In practice, markets are never perfect and states are never impartial, and this was undoubtedly true of the markets and states of pre-modern Europe. However, guilds made little contribution to correcting market or state failures. By seeking rents for their own members, guilds intensified market failures, sometimes deliberately, sometimes inadvertently. They also contributed to making governments even more corrupt than they already were by offering an effective institutional mechanism whereby two powerful groups, guild members and political elites, could collaborate in capturing a larger share of resources at the expense of the rest of the economy.
James E. Shaw
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263778
- eISBN:
- 9780191734823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263778.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The guilds were essential allies in the operation of the regulatory system, which can be considered an early-modern example of a public/private partnership. Not only were the guilds the chief ...
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The guilds were essential allies in the operation of the regulatory system, which can be considered an early-modern example of a public/private partnership. Not only were the guilds the chief ‘customers’ of the court, providing much of the funding for public officials, they also had the authority to enforce market rules in their own sector. The price paid for their cooperation was the confirmation of their privileges and the division of the economy into separate sectors. This chapter emphasizes the functional role of guild litigation as opposed to the rhetoric that has surrounded it. From the point of view of a ‘command economy’, guild litigation served no useful purpose. The government considered it to be a waste of money, ‘petty disputes’ of no real significance.Less
The guilds were essential allies in the operation of the regulatory system, which can be considered an early-modern example of a public/private partnership. Not only were the guilds the chief ‘customers’ of the court, providing much of the funding for public officials, they also had the authority to enforce market rules in their own sector. The price paid for their cooperation was the confirmation of their privileges and the division of the economy into separate sectors. This chapter emphasizes the functional role of guild litigation as opposed to the rhetoric that has surrounded it. From the point of view of a ‘command economy’, guild litigation served no useful purpose. The government considered it to be a waste of money, ‘petty disputes’ of no real significance.
David M. Wilkinson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198568469
- eISBN:
- 9780191717611
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198568469.003.0003
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
The problems faced by a hypothetical planet with only one species strongly suggest that any functioning ecological system must have organisms from at least two major ecological guilds: autotrophs and ...
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The problems faced by a hypothetical planet with only one species strongly suggest that any functioning ecological system must have organisms from at least two major ecological guilds: autotrophs and decomposers. While conventional predators do not seem to be crucial to planetary ecologies it is likely that parasites will quickly evolve, and through density dependent processes help to regulate population sizes. Density dependence may be crucial in preventing the runaway population growth of a species, leading to it monopolizing a planet's ecology. While density independent processes (be they a cold winter on a local scale, or the impact of a large meteorite at the planetary scale) can greatly affect abundance, they cannot provide regulation; this requires the ‘thermostat’ like behaviour of density dependence. As such, both multiple guilds and the presence of parasites are likely to have positive Gaian effects in most biospheres.Less
The problems faced by a hypothetical planet with only one species strongly suggest that any functioning ecological system must have organisms from at least two major ecological guilds: autotrophs and decomposers. While conventional predators do not seem to be crucial to planetary ecologies it is likely that parasites will quickly evolve, and through density dependent processes help to regulate population sizes. Density dependence may be crucial in preventing the runaway population growth of a species, leading to it monopolizing a planet's ecology. While density independent processes (be they a cold winter on a local scale, or the impact of a large meteorite at the planetary scale) can greatly affect abundance, they cannot provide regulation; this requires the ‘thermostat’ like behaviour of density dependence. As such, both multiple guilds and the presence of parasites are likely to have positive Gaian effects in most biospheres.
Sheilagh Ogilvie
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198205548
- eISBN:
- 9780191719219
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205548.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
What role did women play in the pre-industrial European economy? This book tackles this question using a body of new evidence. By examining women's activities in a particular pre-industrial economy — ...
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What role did women play in the pre-industrial European economy? This book tackles this question using a body of new evidence. By examining women's activities in a particular pre-industrial economy — the early modern German territory of Württemberg — it questions mono-causal explanations that ascribe women's economic position to reproductive biology, technology, or cultural beliefs. Instead, it shows that social institutions play the key role. Markets expanded in Europe between 1600 and 1800, creating economic opportunities for both women and men, but they were circumscribed by strong ‘social networks’ — local communities, craft guilds, merchant guilds, and church courts — supported by the growing early modern state. These corporative bodies generated a ‘social capital’ of shared norms and collective sanctions that benefitted insiders but harmed outsiders. This book illuminates the ‘dark side’ of social capital by showing how collective norms can stifle innovation and growth by perpetuating the privileges of powerful interest groups and by preventing weaker economic agents — such as women, migrants, and minorities — from participating fully in the economy. It offers comparisons between women's position in different developing economies, historical and modern. Finally, it proposes a new methodology for combining qualitative and quantitative evidence to cast light on ‘invisible’ economic agents such as women and the poor who are often pushed into the black market informal sector by formal sector institutions.Less
What role did women play in the pre-industrial European economy? This book tackles this question using a body of new evidence. By examining women's activities in a particular pre-industrial economy — the early modern German territory of Württemberg — it questions mono-causal explanations that ascribe women's economic position to reproductive biology, technology, or cultural beliefs. Instead, it shows that social institutions play the key role. Markets expanded in Europe between 1600 and 1800, creating economic opportunities for both women and men, but they were circumscribed by strong ‘social networks’ — local communities, craft guilds, merchant guilds, and church courts — supported by the growing early modern state. These corporative bodies generated a ‘social capital’ of shared norms and collective sanctions that benefitted insiders but harmed outsiders. This book illuminates the ‘dark side’ of social capital by showing how collective norms can stifle innovation and growth by perpetuating the privileges of powerful interest groups and by preventing weaker economic agents — such as women, migrants, and minorities — from participating fully in the economy. It offers comparisons between women's position in different developing economies, historical and modern. Finally, it proposes a new methodology for combining qualitative and quantitative evidence to cast light on ‘invisible’ economic agents such as women and the poor who are often pushed into the black market informal sector by formal sector institutions.
Steven Gunn, David Grummitt, and Hans Cools
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199207503
- eISBN:
- 9780191708848
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207503.003.004
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter examines the direct contributions made by towns to their princes' wars. Town councils had constantly to manoeuvre between the sometimes exorbitant demands of their princes, the ...
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This chapter examines the direct contributions made by towns to their princes' wars. Town councils had constantly to manoeuvre between the sometimes exorbitant demands of their princes, the reluctance of the townsfolk to meet the costs of war, and the necessity to keep the town safe from attack. They raised companies of troops for field service, especially in England, as well as defending themselves with their own militias or shooting guilds. Some towns, such as York and 's-Hertogenbosch, were more militarized than others. Some supplied ships or encouraged privateers. Most developed their holdings of artillery and maintained arsenals, and nearly all paid some attention to their fortifications, though those on the coast or military frontiers did so more urgently. The costly bastions of the new trace italienne style appeared with increasing frequency in the Netherlands but not — except perhaps as temporary earthworks — in England.Less
This chapter examines the direct contributions made by towns to their princes' wars. Town councils had constantly to manoeuvre between the sometimes exorbitant demands of their princes, the reluctance of the townsfolk to meet the costs of war, and the necessity to keep the town safe from attack. They raised companies of troops for field service, especially in England, as well as defending themselves with their own militias or shooting guilds. Some towns, such as York and 's-Hertogenbosch, were more militarized than others. Some supplied ships or encouraged privateers. Most developed their holdings of artillery and maintained arsenals, and nearly all paid some attention to their fortifications, though those on the coast or military frontiers did so more urgently. The costly bastions of the new trace italienne style appeared with increasing frequency in the Netherlands but not — except perhaps as temporary earthworks — in England.
Steven Gunn, David Grummitt, and Hans Cools
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199207503
- eISBN:
- 9780191708848
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199207503.003.006
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter examines the impact of war on the economic and political structures of urban life and civic finances. Wartime destruction and interruptions to trade posed challenges to the management of ...
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This chapter examines the impact of war on the economic and political structures of urban life and civic finances. Wartime destruction and interruptions to trade posed challenges to the management of urban economies, but offered comparative advantages to towns in more peaceful areas or able to claim privileges in return for their loyalty. War drove up civic expenditure everywhere, but the effects were most dramatic in the Netherlands in the 1480s and 1490s, where many towns were driven by their indebtedness into closer tutelage by princely officials. Yet war also served to consolidate the powers of town councils over the townsfolk and the surrounding countryside. Especially in the Netherlands, it promoted the concentration of power in the hands of a smaller oligarchy of magistrates more prepared than the wider citizenry or the guilds to meet the prince's demands.Less
This chapter examines the impact of war on the economic and political structures of urban life and civic finances. Wartime destruction and interruptions to trade posed challenges to the management of urban economies, but offered comparative advantages to towns in more peaceful areas or able to claim privileges in return for their loyalty. War drove up civic expenditure everywhere, but the effects were most dramatic in the Netherlands in the 1480s and 1490s, where many towns were driven by their indebtedness into closer tutelage by princely officials. Yet war also served to consolidate the powers of town councils over the townsfolk and the surrounding countryside. Especially in the Netherlands, it promoted the concentration of power in the hands of a smaller oligarchy of magistrates more prepared than the wider citizenry or the guilds to meet the prince's demands.
