Merchants' Guilds and Foreigners

Dragonlady

Dragonlady

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I'm looking for good resources on mediaeval guilds, or states run not by feudal overlords. Online articles, books, fact or well researched fiction. I have one character who's the illegitimate son of a feudal lord from a neighbouring country making his living in one dominated by guilds, and I had some sort of trading in mind, but need to do more research on how this would be possible. I had a q uick look for books, and just found expensive and academic looking tomes.
 
Thanks for the reference, Judge. I've got an essay on merchant guilds, but I've neglected the series as I'm bringing my current novel in to the finish line (two more days!). I'd be happy to respond to ad hoc questions here.

Let me start by answered unasked. :)

"...states not run by feudal overlords." There are examples for this. The most ready to hand would be the independent city-state. Venice, famously, but also Florence or Siena or Parma. A number of German cities were theoretically under the Emperor, but effectively they ruled themselves. Having your character head to an important, independent city would be natural and would afford all sorts of possibilities.

As for merchant guilds, those were not independent states in any sense. These guilds were very much part of the city in which they existed. In many cases, they formed a significant part of the ruling body. There's no such thing as a rural merchant guild, so you're pretty much back in the city again.

I'm trying to think of a third form. Several entities called themselves republics, but were really just a powerful town and the surrounding countryside. You could go with tribes, but tribes of any substance usually wind up making kings anyway. Cities are really the place to go, especially one that is rival or competitor to that king. The city might be technically subject but practically independent, with the king wanting to reassert control. Or the city could be a fully independent power with as many resources as the king has. Venice is the model here, which had a veritable empire in the eastern Mediterranean for a long while. But there are other fun examples. Rodez, where half the city was under the jurisdiction of the count, the other half the bishop. Made for interesting legal cases. Even more fun is Branschweig, which had seven (count 'em) jurisdictions, some overlapping. You probably don't want to wade into waters that deep.

Anyway, the door's open. Office hours are continuous.
 
Sounds fascinating @sknox ! Said foreigner is living in a city where the (as yet poorly fleshed out) guilds have influence, and is now a 30 something ish man of some means, I'm just trying to work out if he is a guild member, would his activities be tolerated if he wasn't , what he actually does and what the journey of a foreign youth with limited/not necessarily relevant education and skills would have been to get to his current comfortable state.

The nation is an empire that did have nobility, but when said foreigner moved there had just had a revolution. The city is the capital city of a province with some self governance, and hence i'm wanting to understand how such a state may function, I'll read up on Venice, thanks!
 
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Not quite a state, but the Hanseatic League was a confederation of Northern European guilds and cities in the Middle Ages. Several of the cities were 'free' cities, outside the direct control of the local lords. Others had lords who realised the tax benefits for themselves of increased business to their demesne. And the league spread out, to include ports in other realms with which they then created trading accords.

Think of it as a free movement and commerce sector, giving inroads into foreign markets far beyond where a small trader could usually do business -- shared storage, and shipping arranged by a guild could sell the goods, and make sure profits returned to the right hands (for a commission, obvs.). And junior family members might travel, create partnerships, even intermarry. Which meant there would always be people from foreign shores about.

The Wikipedia page is a start, perhaps, and has quite a few links and resources (Wikipedia is never a source in itself, but often has references, when it comes to history).

I've always found the Hanseatic League, and free ports interesting. Plus, Aberdeen and its shire (where I lived for many years) grew partly due to its involvement with the league.
 
I seem to recall that there is a good section on merchants and guilds in The Middle Ages, by Morris Bishop. It was many years ago that I read it, but I think I remember taking copious notes on that among other subjects. I just checked and it is available at Amazon US and UK, but you may also find it, as I did, at a public library.
 
My understanding is that a guild is a trading organisation, slightly but not entirely like a union, that controls the activities of a certain trade in a certain area. It could well set rules for who can join and what standards they might have to meet to trade, as well as looking after members who have fallen on hard times, policing and throwing out people who break the rules (probably not to the extent of jailing or killing them, as that's the job of the lord/authorities) and so on. Guild membership (maybe displaying a sign) would be a sign of quality for a trader. At least, in theory.

I could imagine a guild making rules that foreigners (or heathens, in medieval times) couldn't trade, for fear of putting locals out of work, or that they could only be dealt with in a certain way. But the guild wouldn't be able to go above whoever rules the country, although it could be very influential if rich and big enough.

A good book on all of this is A Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer. There's another book for the Elizabethan period, if you want something (very slightly) more up to date.
 
@Dragonlady, your fellow probably isn't going to be in a guild right away. He's not a citizen, and for the most part only citizens could be guild members. He could, however, be taken up by somone--that other character, for example--who is in a guild.

You did say he was "making his living" which sounds like he has a trade. Do you have any idea what it is? A simple peddler? Some craft such as shoe making or carpentry? Have you thought about having his skill be magic-related? He might be a natural at crafting magic gems or some such. He's been sort of freelancing his way around the country. He comes to this town and that other character spots a natural talent and says come with me boy, I'm gonna make you a star. Everyone could be so impressed, they waive the guild rules.

Toby gave a good summary. Guilds acted to protect the reputation of their trade (even of merchants), the quality of the work (by regulating raw materials used, the workers themselves, etc), and sometimes even to control prices (especially in times of economic dislocation). In addition, guilds had a social function--they were sometimes not much more than drinking clubs. Medieval European guilds had a religious function, donating to churches or funding a chapel. They took care of their own--the sick, the imprisoned, the unfortunate. That's all nice background, but not much direct opportunity for story telling. Oh, and political function as I said before, holding seats on the city council. Lots of room for drama there. There were even revolts by the lesser guilds against the greater guilds (see Ciompi Revolt in Florence).

But all that's just background. What craft or trade does your MC follow? Why is he wandering about, why isn't he settled somewhere? Why has he come to this town in particular?
 
Thanks @sknox ! Lots to think about. The issue is I hadn't thought about his trade before. He wasn't wandering about as such but left his country, to the North, to seek opportunity and escape his family. The city he's settled in, Calcina, is the capital of the nearest province of the country he's in, it's liberal and a trading centre, so a logical choice for him to end up settled in.

He will have a knowledge of horses from his family, but it might be hard for him to work with them as he can change into a (big) cat. Obvious 'hired help' jobs for him as a young lad would have been something to do with game, meat, fur etc. . So he's hired for manual work, perhaps even to act as a guard in cat form or keep predators away.It is discovered he actually has a brain and education, he ends up a trained wool merchant for example. He could be a member of the guild, or just a valued employee of his sponsor, either way would work for him having the freedom to go off on a journey needed in my WIP.

I've already introduced Calcinan Council politics in a small way as one of the Council members is murdered at the beginning and the other main protagonist is apprenticed to a council member from a trade guild. Guild involvement in said politics, potentially with this character's contentious status (either why is he permitted in the guild, or why is he permitted to be basically a practising merchant without being in the guild), could be a good backbone to a future story.
 
Being a merchant, especially one with less seniority, works perfectly to provide a reason for travel. Merchants had to bring their goods to other markets to sell, right? They might travel with the merchandise themselves, but wealthier merchants would stay home and send a representative, often a relative or long-time partner. They would hire teamsters to do the actual carrying, but there needed someone to represent the firm--make sure nothing got stolen, deal with paying fees and fares, do the transaction at the other end, and return with the dough without skimming (or make new purchases and return with those). Having someone who could handle the business *and* turn into a predator at need, would be a handy combo. You could have the travel take as long as the story needs, be as involved or easy, as the story needs.
 
I seem to recall that in some guilds, in some places, journeymen were expected to spend a year or so travelling from one town or city to another in order to increase their knowledge of the craft, before returning home to create their "master pieces" to demonstrate their skill, and thus ascend to the rank of master.

In such cases, the local branch of a guild would naturally be expected to provide any travelling journeyman from another branch with aid and instruction during his visit. Your character, if he had at some point received some instruction from a guild and acquired enough skill to fake having more, could possibly forge an introductory letter characterizing him as a journeyman during his year of travelling, and so gain an at least temporary place in a Calcinan guild. If that would work for your story. (Remember, communications would be poor, and the likelihood of his imposture being exposed if he is far from home would be relatively small.)
 
Teresa Edgerton, yep. In German it's the Wanderjahr (wander year), a lovely word that keeps making me think of Fred Savage. The home town would give a letter of introduction to the journeyman, which he could present to the guild at the next town. The forgery idea is a good one, but communication wasn't quite so poor--members of the same trade regularly corresponded. But that could add an element of risk--that employer B might happen to mention your name to employer A. Definitely room for some tension there.

People rarely use real, historical aspects of guilds. That's not a criticism, just an observation. But it does leave the door open for those who do the research to put some new wine into that old bottle. I mean, who would have thought to have a monk be a detective, before Ellis Peters did so? (yeah, ok, so, Chesterton, but he didn't go into the historical detail Peters did)
 
Fascinating reading. I guess that's where the term 'journeyman' comes from. Did merchants have apprentices and journeyman, or was it just craftsmen? The wanderjahr makes more sense for craftsmen. How old would a journeyman have been when doing this, late teens/early 20s?

I found something online about the history of York, where I live, and how most of the merchants exporting wool here at some points were foreign - so it wasn't York merchants exporting Yorkshire wool to the low countries, it was Dutch and German ones, which sometimes caused tension. I was trying to work out how they became accepted here and couldn't find anything concrete - I guess perhaps they were already established with a guild in their home country and could transfer membership somehow to an English guild?? It would add an extra dimension if my character (Rory)'s sponsor was from his come country, or his father was, but an established merchant, who therefore had sympathy with him. I like the idea of Rory's establishment with a Calcina merchant being because he made himself useful

The journey in my WIP is in hot pursuit of a murder, but taking or acquiring samples of wool or dyes for example could provide a good cover.
 
It might be (and this is a guess) that they're foreign merchants taking wool back to their own country (which would presumably be covered by foreign guilds and not English ones), rather than selling it in England. So essentially it's people from one country selling to another and there wouldn't be an issue of one country or guild stealing business from another. In that situation, they'd be accepted in the course of normal business.

Incidentally, among some woodworkers, there was a custom that an apprentice would make a box for his tools as a sort of coursework. Some of them were very impressive. It could be quite interesting if magicians in a guild had some equivalent.
 
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