2. What is a Guild?
A guild was a partnership formed by a master craftsman, journeymen
and apprentices of the same trade, governed by ordinances or special
statutes.
3. When did they arise?
Guilds emerged in Europe during the Low Middle Ages. Its purposes
were essentially of an economic and social nature, consisting of
controlling the supply and prices of the products they manufactured,
but also ensuring the prosperity and security of members.
4. They regulated the work activity, training and learning of their
associates. They established a strict hierarchy between apprentices,
journeymen and master craftsman. They also protected them in case of
misfortune such as widowhood, orphanhood or illness. They also
developed religious work expressed in the veneration of their private
saints and the creation of brotherhoods.
How did they work?
This is a guild in
Barcelona.
5. The guilds disappearance:
Throughout the eighteenth century, the guilds, an institution of feudal
character, already very weakened, were disappearing, being replaced by
private initiative, the freedom of industry and commerce of capitalism.
