Details

Ruler: The Guild Master
Seat: Usually a local guildhall

A guild is a chartered society of townsfolk engaged in the same (or related) craft or trade, who organize to the purpose of collective legal protection and control of their local monopoly. A guild limits the craft or trade to its members, protects trade secrets, and sponsors the development of new knowledge. The formation of guilds is usually governed by the town’s laws. Guilds in the same trade in neighboring towns may recognize each other’s rules and qualifications, although there is sometimes aggressive rivalry. Guilds are financed by dues, a small fraction of members’ incomes. A wealthy guild has a guildhall where the masters keep records and enjoy great dinners; smaller guilds meet in inns or taverns, or even at a guild-master’s home.

A guild can only exist when it has at least a half-dozen members, and will not be powerful unless it has dozens. Thus, small towns have few guilds, while the great cities have scores. This doesn’t mean that craftsmen in small towns are always guildless, but where a town might have a single Clothmen’s Guild, a metropolis has separate guilds for Spinners, Weavers, Tailors, Dyers, and Embroiderers. Guilds are most powerful in the free cities of Imperian kingdoms.

Perception

Guilds, in general, are seen by the common folk as just another version of nobility: unnecessarily wealthy, self-interested elites, who run everything, while performing charities and public works to appear benevolent. The guild members at the bottom see it as a necessary evil, while those at the top see it as the premiere source of success and power. The nobles see guilds as a nuisance, at best, and at worst, dangerous competition for power, and the subject of envy for their (usually) great wealth. Those that study economics recognize guilds as the unstable core of the growing economy—a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

Origin and History

After the fall of the Old Empire, and rise of the new independent kingdoms that resulted, the growing cash economy gave a tremendous stimulus to the rise of the middle classes. Where a craftsman might previously have worked exclusively for a landowner under a feudal arrangement in exchange for keep and lodging, now he could find a sufficient market for his goods in a nearby town, and earn enough money to support a comfortable lifestyle. Merchants thrived as the market economy began to mature, and long-distance trade along rivers and across the sea became profitable. It was against this background that the guild system arose. Guilds arose as associations for mutual support. They developed into regulatory bodies that held a monopoly on a trade or group of trades in their town, supervised training and apprenticeships, regulated standards, and generally furthered the interests of their members. In many towns it became impossible to do business without joining a guild.

Ranks and forms of address

These are typical of most such guilds, but not universal

Craft Guilds

• Guild Rank 5: (Master X) The Most Honourable X, Guild Master of the [Trades' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]
• Guild Rank 4: (Master X) The Honourable X, Councilman of the [Trades' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]
• Guild Rank 4: Master X, [Officer] of the [Trades' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]
• Guild Rank 3: Master X, Master[-Craftsman] of the [Trades' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]
• Guild Rank 1-2: X, Journeyman[-Craftsman] of the [Trades' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]
• Guild Rank 0: X, Apprentice[-Craftsman] of the [Trades' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]

Mercantile Guilds

• Guild Rank 5: (Master X) The Most Honourable X, Guild Master of the [Merchants' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]
• Guild Rank 4: (Master X) The Honourable X, Councilman of the [Merchants' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]
• Guild Rank 4: Master X, [Officer] of the [Merchants' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]
  • Clerk
• Guild Rank 3: Master X, Senior-[Merchant] of the [Merchants' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]
• Guild Rank 1-2: Master X, Free-[Merchant] of the [Merchants' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City] (an "ordinary" member, obtainable by patrimony or by apprenticeship (or sometimes, by purchase (AKA "redemption"), or by honour))
• Guild Rank 0: X, Apprentice-[Merchant] of the [Merchants' Guild/Company/&c.] of [City]

Practices

• Each guild pays the king an annual fee in exchange for the right to meet.
• In exchange for their privileges, guildsmen pay a membership fee to the guild, and subject themselves to the guild laws and customs.
• The guild has its own court where complaints and disputes are heard, and it is at meetings of the guild—commonly accompanied by formal feasts—that elections to guild positions are held.
• The guild represents its members to the government. It seeks exemption from tolls and tariffs, protection along dangerous trade routes, and reduced taxes. For leverage, it relies on its monopoly. A baron trying to fight a war without armorers soon realizes the wisdom in granting the guild’s demands!
• The guild provides for its members’ well-being. Guilds regulate apprenticeships (most go to members’ children), and make sure the trade is properly taught. Guild members are also provided with insurance; when they die, the guild takes care of their families. When shops or homes burn down, the guild pays for the rebuilding. When guild members become injured or ill, the guild hires healers. Some wealthy guilds even build hospitals, churches, and schools, or provide dowries for poor members’ daughters.
• A craft guild regulates the price and quality of goods or services, to ensure that its monopoly is not abusive to the point that the town demands its revocation. A guild “hallmark” on a product guarantees that it meets standards. The guild discourages its members from competing through bulk discounts or price-cutting, but encourages them to outdo each other in quality. The products of a guild’s master craftsmen are reliable, but often costly.
• A mercantile guild regulates trade within the town and its environs. It restricts trade with "strangers" (from other towns), who are only allowed to sell in the town through a "host," an assigned guild-member who takes a fee for the service. Ancillary workers in the town can work only for guild members, and preparatory work must be done in guild-specified locations. It punishes "forestalling"—selling outside the market or port to avoid taxes or fees. It lobbies—and sometimes engages in violence—to gain or enforce conditions favorable to the town's franchise and prevent encroachment by its neighbors.
• Mercantile guilds, generally, are authorized to hold weekly markets in the town square, or sometimes out of the local guildhall, along with one or two annual fairs open to "foreign" trade.

Notes

• A guild charter usually includes military service; members are expected to take up arms for the city's defense when called

Specific Guilds

• Temp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livery_company#List_of_companies_in_order_of_precedence
• [Certain trades were available in every town, also in the small ones, especially the food trade of the bakers and butchers. Also very frequently available trades were those of the weavers, the shoemakers and the tailors.]

Imperia

Major Craft Guilds

Major guilds are large and powerful enough that they tend to govern the cities they inhabit, almost a nation to themselves, or are spread out amongst many cities.

• Clothworkers' Guild (Sub: Dyers, Embroiderers, Furriers, Hosiers, Silkworkers, Tailors, Woolworkers)
• Builders' Guild (not restricted to any one locality; Sub: Masons, Sculptors)
• Shipwrights' Guild
• Smiths' Guild (Sub: Black/Ironsmiths, Bronzesmiths, Goldsmiths, Silversmiths)

Minor Craft Guilds

Minor guilds are represented in larger cities, but not in every city; some are more common than others.

• Alchemists' Guild
• Armorers' Guild
• Bakers' Guild
• Bookbinders' Guild
• Bowyers' Guild
• Brewers' Guild
• Carpenters' Guild
• Fishmongers' Guild
• Horse Breeders' Guild
• Miners' Guild
• Potters' Guild
• Leatherworkers' Guild (Sub: Tanners, Girdlers, Saddlers, Shoemakers)
• Weaponsmiths' Guild

Service Guilds

• Bards' Guild
• Clerks' Guild
• Healers' Guild (Sub: Apothecaries, Barbers)
• Moneychangers' Guild
• Lawyers' Guild

Dwarfmount

• Enchanters' Guild

Elfwood

• No "guilds" but some families specialize in a particular craft or trade

Rumor Has It…

• Many guilds meet behind closed doors to guard their "trade secrets," which inevitably leads to speculation about what exactly it is they're doing in there…

Behind the Scenes

• Mostly "historical": ideally, fewer of them, covering somewhat broader, "generic" categories of crafts/trades.
• The rank of "Craftsman" from DF17 is not included, as it is not a historical guild rank; instead, Status 1-2 are both "Journeyman"—call it "seniority"