#middleages #medievalhistory #politicalscience #economy

Popular notions of the medieval guilds rests on the misconception that they formed cartels, monopolies, and oligopolies. Some have even gone so far as to suggest they were a medieval equivalent to licensing and regulatory authorities, or to labor unions. This misconception is an old one, with examples dating back to Adam Smith. Of course, Adam Smith was talking about guilds in his own time in 1776. As we should know, two institutions with the same name are not necessarily the same in function or purpose. The guilds are one example of an institution that underwent a substantial change through time. They went from free and voluntary associations of likeminded workers and craftsmen in Medieval times, to restrictive regulatory agencies under royal charter in Early Modern times.

This video was inspired by Shadiversity's video on guilds, where he repeats popular misconceptions despite aiming to debunk them.

Watch Shadiversity's video on guilds here:
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0:00 Introduction
1:34 Guilds and Brotherhoods
7:02 Cooperatives and Fraternities
21:36 Enhanced Market Power
27:08 The Early Modern Guild

Narrated by: VexilliferChuck

Status of other series:
The Body Politic: Script for Part 1 is almost done. It took and will still take hours of research and digestion.
EDIT 2011/07/19: The script is done. Waiting for Vexillum to finish recording.
The Great Famine: On hiatus.

Read the script:
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Odysee mirror:
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References Used:
Gimbel, J. (1977). The Medieval machine: The industrial revolution of the Middle Ages.
Kempin, F. G. (1960). Limited liability in historical perspective. American Business Law Association Bulletin, 4(1), 11-34.
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Lopez, R. S., & Lopez, R. S. (1976). The commercial revolution of the Middle Ages, 950-1350. Cambridge University Press.
Prak, M., Crowston, C. H., De Munck, B., Kissane, C., Minns, C., Schalk, R., & Wallis, P. (2020). Access to the trade: monopoly and mobility in European craft guilds in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Journal of Social History, 54(2), 421-452.
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Reynolds, S. (1984). Kingdoms and communities in Western Europe, 900-1300. Clarendon Press.
Richardson, G. (2001). A tale of two theories: monopolies and craft guilds in medieval England and modern imagination. Journal of the history of economic thought, 23(2), 217-242.
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Richardson, G. (2004). Guilds, laws, and markets for manufactured merchandise in late-medieval England. Explorations in economic history, 41(1), 1-25.
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Richardson, G. (2008). Brand names before the industrial revolution (No. w13930). National Bureau of Economic Research.
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Richardson, G., & McBride, M. (2009). Religion, longevity, and cooperation: The case of the craft guild. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 71(2), 172-186.
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Salvestrini, F. (2017). Fraternilies, guilds, social welfare, and art in Medieval and Renaissance Florence. In L'assistència a l'edat mitjana (pp. 153-168). Pagès editors.
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PS: I am aware of the spat between Stephan Epstein and Sheilagh Ogelvie. The latter can not satisfactorily defend her views, thus I have decided not to touch upon it here.

Middle Ages | Medieval History | Political Science | Economics

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