to the needs of the time. But when the market widened, and capital became more important, there followed an increasing division of labour; and the mercantile and industrial aspects of the gild were differentiated. The trading functions now began to pass to a special class of traders, and the master craftsmen were confined to the purely manual functions. There were in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries various ways by which the craftsman could be deprived of his economic independence1: one branch of an industry might control the remaining branches and usurp the trading functions; or within the same craft these functions might pass to the more enterprising members; or a separate and distinct organization of trading capitalists might dominate the whole industry from without. To trace the development of these various movements, we shall therefore examine in turn (1) the amalgamation of crafts, (2) the rise of the livery company, (3) the growth of mercantile societies. In all cases production and distribution were separated; the gild or handicraft system was supplanted by what is commonly termed the domestic system, where the manufacturer becomes dependent upon the merchant and loses direct contact with the consumer.

gamation

The fifteenth century witnessed striking changes in (i.) Amalthe development of the gild system, of which one of of crafts. the most pregnant was the amalgamation of crafts. A process of integration began, by which the crafts surrendered their individuality and merged their separate identity into a collective organization, while still apparently retaining control over their members in matters of trade. At Norwich in 1449 there were several small misteries which contained so few persons that they could not be called crafts, and it was ordered therefore that each mistery should be united with some craft, though maintaining a separate existence as well as its own wardens. Accordingly, the Bladesmiths, Locksmiths and Lorimers were annexed to the Smiths' craft 2; and there are also many examples of

1 On the forms of industrial organization resulting from the Division of Labour, see Unwin, Industrial Organization.

2 Records of Norwich, ii. 280. See also W. C. Hazlitt, The Livery Companies of the City of London (1892), 26.

combination in other towns. The roll of membership was in fact often very small; at York, for example, the gilds connected with the cloth trade averaged each sixty-five members, but the gilds engaged in the iron industry numbered only eleven each, and the wax-chandlers only six 1. Hence in the struggle for existence the smaller misteries were frequently too impoverished to bear the financial burdens laid upon them, and were compelled to abandon their independence. On this account the Pursers and Glovers of London united in 1498 to form one body 2: "Both the said fellowships of late be sore decayed, both in number of persons and substance of goods, that they can nor may severally live hereafter of themselves, nor to support nor to maintain their said fellowships, nor to bear lot nor scot nor any other charge, as they have done in time past". In 1502 they joined the Leathersellers who had already received the White Tawyers in 1479, and who also absorbed the Pouchmakers in 15173. The reason assigned by the White Tawyers for their amalgamation with the Leathersellers was that there is of the same craft so few persons in number, that they have no choice to make any wardens to rule the same craft". This supports the conjecture that the union of crafts must have been largely due to the very scanty roll of membership. Another example is that of the Horners and Bottlemakers, who joined together in 14764. Among the charges, whose burden was beyond the resources of many gilds, the most prominent was usually that of the pageant, and where the craft lacked substantial men to support the expense, it was grouped with other gilds for this purpose. At Coventry in 1444 the Card-makers, Saddlers, Masons and Painters "by long time past have been as one fellowship in bearing costs, charges, and all other duties of old time to their pageant and the said fellowship belonging" 5. Again the Barbers were compelled in 1531 to contribute to the pageant of the Girdlers, though some years later (1552) they succeeded in obtaining their discharge. At York the Tapiters, Cord

1 York Memorandum Book, i. pp. xlii, xlv.

2 Black, Leathersellers' Company, 42.

3 Ibid. 38 (1479), 42 (1502), 47 (1517). 5 Coventry Leet Book, i. 205.

4 Letter Book L, 138.

6 Ibid. iii. 710 (1531), 805 (1552),

makers and Linen-weavers united for "the bringing forth of the pageants "1; and the Masons tried to compel the Tilers and Plasterers to contribute to their pageant 2. The Drapers (1505) also complained that their pageant was so costly that they required assistance 3, and the Coopers alleged their inability to support their pageant having been parted from the Joiners 4. In many cases, however, the amalgamation of the gilds was due to economic forces and marked a new stage in the organization of industry. The members of one craft often attempted to exercise control over all who were engaged in other branches of the same industry. As early as 1327 the Joiners, Painters and Lorimers, allied crafts of saddle-making, complained that the Saddlers "by conspiracy and collusion among themselves have ordained . . . that no one of the trades aforesaid shall be so daring as to sell any manner of merchandise that unto their own trade pertains, either to freemen of the city or to other persons, but only to themselves in the business. of saddlery "5. At Coventry (1435) the union of the workers in iron enabled certain among them to control the whole process and to pass on badly - tempered iron to smiths, brakemen, girdlemakers and cardwire-drawers. Apparently a number of employers "had all the craft in their own hands' and gave out work to men in all the four different branches. of iron-working. The authorities broke up the union on the ground that it facilitated deceit and was detrimental to the public interest. In the case of the saddle-makers and the iron-workers, we see how one section endeavoured to obtain the ascendancy by engrossing the whole trade into its hands and depriving the other crafts of their independence. In the cloth trade which passed through many hands, and where the division of labour was greatest, it was inevitable that the weavers, dyers, fullers and shearmen should be grouped together in a condition of economic dependency upon the drapers. The amalgamation of crafts was thus in many

1 Davies, Municipal Records of York, 236 (n.) (temp. Ric. III). York Memorandum Book, i. 148 (early fifteenth century).

Davies, op. cit. 236.

Riley, Memorials of London, 157.

* Infra, p. 417 seq.

York Memorandum Book, i. 67. 6 Coventry Leet Book, i. 180-181.

(ii.) The

livery company.

cases a sign that industry was passing through a new phase of development, in which a class of employers assumed the functions of the middleman and thrust itself between the master craftsman and the consumer. As a result the former came to lose his independence; he was now to all intents and purposes a wage-earner paid by piece-work, but working in his own home, and employed by more than one capitalist. The fifteenth century thus marks a period of transition in industrial organization, in which the gild system underwent considerable modification and was gradually transformed into the domestic system.

The new form of industrial association evolved in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the incorporated livery company. It varied fundamentally from the older craft gild in the differentiation of two distinct classes, the mercantile and the industrial. The trader and the manual worker were now separated, and while the former secured the control of industry, the latter lost his economic independence and acquired an inferior status. The outward sign of the altered condition of things was the wearing of the livery which, while forbidden to the retainers of great households, was permitted to the crafts by the act of 14111. Originally the livery was assumed in order to stimulate the feeling of brotherhood and solidarity among the craftsmen, and with no intention of creating class distinctions; at Norwich all members of the craft gild "having the means were ordered to wear the appointed livery. "At this time", says the chronicler, speaking of the year 1319, "many of the people of the trades of London were arrayed in livery and a good time was about to begin "3. Among those in Chaucer's Prologue, who wended their way to Canterbury" the holy blissful martyr for to seek ", went An Haberdasher, and a Carpenter,

A Webbe (Weaver), a Dyer and a Tapicer,

And they were clothed all in one livery

Of a solemn and great fraternity".

Gradually, however, a distinction began to emerge between

1 Statutes, ii. 167.

2 Records of Norwich, ii. 285 (1449).

3 Riley, Chronicles of London, 253.

those who wore the livery, and those whose poverty excluded them from the ranks of the privileged body. The wealth of the liverymen enabled them to aspire to a position of greater prestige and dignity than had been enjoyed by the older bodies, and they sought an improved legal status by means of incorporation. This not only consolidated their social position, but conferred upon them the marks of a legal personality which could plead and be impleaded, hold property and have a common seal. At the same time it set the stamp of royal recognition upon their claims to control trade and industry. Many of the London companies first received their charters under Edward III. though the privilege of formal and complete incorporation was deferred to later reigns1. They availed themselves of the statute of 1363, by which traders were restricted to a single class of commodities, to obtain letters patent from the king which confirmed their monopoly of trade. Edward's favour was conciliated by a timely gift of money contributed by the different London companies: the Mercers, Fishmongers, Drapers and Skinners paid each £40; the Vintners £33:6:8; the Grocers £26:6:8; and the Goldsmiths and Tailors £20 each. Their history, of course, can be carried back to a much earlier period; thus the first charter granted to the Merchant Taylors was in 13263, and was subsequently confirmed in 13644, yet they were already in existence as a separate fraternity in 1267, when they were involved in a dispute with the Goldsmiths 5. Again, the Carpenters of London were not incorporated until 1477, though as early as 1333 they were already an organized association with their own "boke" of ordinances. The Pewterers were incorporated in 1473, but their ordinances date from 13487. When the crafts were reconstituted as chartered companies, it was inevitable that the control

1 Thus the Grocers were incorporated 1429, the Fishmongers 1433, the Drapers 1438, the Haberdashers 1448 (Letter Book K, 225-226, 330), the Leathersellers in 1444 (Black, 26).

Letter Book G, 172.