An agrarian economy dominated Europe during the stormy centuries after the demise of the Roman Empire, but in the 11th century, towns, trade, and industry began to grow—and with them, the guilds, which flourished until the 16th century. These workers’ associations carved for themselves a central place in medieval economic, political, religious, and social life, and managed, at least for a time, to maintain stability and quality in early forms of industry.
“Guilds had one essential purpose: protection against competition,” Paul Murray Kendall wrote in an essay in “The Age of Chivalry.” “Minute regulations, strictly enforced, laid down hours of work, prices, standards of quality, the number of apprentices and journeymen that a master might employ.” By maintaining standards of quality, rates of pay, workplace regulations, and limiting the possibility of competition, guilds aimed to form stable and just industries. “The ideal was stable conditions in a stable industry,” noted Henri Pirenne in “Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe.”
