Editing Guild (section)

{{short description|Association of artisans or merchants}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Rembrandt - De Staalmeesters- het college van staalmeesters (waardijns) van het Amsterdamse lakenbereidersgilde - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Syndics of the Drapers' Guild|The Syndics of the Drapers' Guild]]'' by [[Rembrandt]], 1662]]

A '''guild''' ({{IPAc-en|ɡ|ɪ|l|d}} {{Respell|GILD}}) is an association of [[artisan]]s and [[merchant]]s who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a [[professional association]]. They sometimes depended on grants of [[letters patent]] from a [[monarch]] or other ruler to enforce the flow of trade to their self-employed members, and to retain ownership of tools and the supply of materials, but most were regulated by the [[local government]]. Guild members found guilty of cheating the public would be fined or banned from the guild. A lasting legacy of traditional guilds are the [[guildhall]]s constructed and used as guild meeting-places.

Typically the key "privilege" was that only guild members were allowed to sell their goods or practice their skill within the city. There might be controls on minimum or maximum prices, hours of trading, numbers of apprentices, and many other things. Critics argued that these rules reduced [[Free market|free competition]], but defenders maintained that they protected professional standards.<ref>{{Cite book| last1=Gies |first1=Joseph |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70662 |title=Life in a medieval city |last2=Gies |first2=Frances |date=1969 |publisher=Crowell |isbn=978-0-213-76379-4 |language=English |oclc=70662}}</ref>

An important result of the guild framework was the emergence of [[University|universities]] at [[University of Bologna|Bologna]] (established in 1088), [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] (at least since 1096) and [[University of Paris|Paris]] ({{Circa|1150}}); they originated as guilds of students (as at Bologna) or of [[Teacher|masters]] (as at Paris).<ref>
{{cite book
 |first= Hastings |last= Rashdall
 |title= The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages: Salerno. Bologna. Paris
 |url= https://archive.org/details/universitieseur01unkngoog
 |year= 1895 |publisher= Clarendon Press |pages= [https://archive.org/details/universitieseur01unkngoog/page/n163 150]
}}
</ref>