Thursday, September 5, 2013
Guilds in Late Medieval Cities
So after reading the Human Odyssey, one line really stuck with me. "Craftsmen and merchants wanted to make even more money, so they tried to improve their products or sell something else no one else had." (Klee, Cribb, Holdren, 39). What interested me about this quote was the last part about selling something no one else had. As explained in the reading, the guild system was an association merchant and tradesmen organized that "set standards for their work and protected their interests." (40). In a guild, innovation was not allowed, yet these merchants were improving their products and creating things no one else sold. This leads me to believe that the rise of cities during the late medieval ages is what caused the guild system to die, as everyone just wanted to make as much money as possible. What do you guys think about this?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I like the idea of guilds, because they insure that everyone who enters a certain profession must produce work of a certain quality. Some people may take it for granted, but a huge city like Florence has many opportunities for everyone. However, where does it say that innovations weren't allowed in guilds? Guilds were innovations, and couldn't survive without producing innovations to keep them going. Second, where does it say that guilds died out in the Late Middle Ages? Guilds weren't really formed until the Italian renaissance, because the Middle Ages dealt more upon a feudal system and loyalty, not competition. Plus guilds are still around today in parts of Africa, Europe, and Asia in one way or another. Guilds exist in America in a different form... Unions. Otherwise, great work!
ReplyDeleteWe learned in World Civ last year in our Medieval unit that Guilds were not allowed to innovate. This was made abundantly clear in my class at least. Each member of the guild was required to make the same exact product, regardless of quality, and innovation would have simply caused competition within the guild. Also, guilds were very much a Medieval practice, and as our reading described, shops in the Renaissance were the complete opposite of a shop in a guild, doing anything to make money. So the reading suggests that as these cities grew, more shopkeepers decided to do new things, which is exactly what the guild system had tried to prevent from happening.
DeleteCould you give us the page, and actual quote where it says that innovation was not allowed??
ReplyDeleteI agree that the rise of cities and the fact that people wanted more money caused the guild system to end. I think that some of the guild rules became inapplicable. There were so many more sellers and buyers that it would be hard to make sure that everybody was following the guild rules. The sellers were also getting new and different things imported. I also think that people wanted change and they did not want to keep doing the same things.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Malick that this is why the guild system died and the reason behind all of this is money. Merchants were aware that guild sold one thing that was exactly the same. So I believe that they took the oppurtinty to be the first to sell both things people didn't have and I also think that they sold things of variety so that they could compete with not just one, but several guilds and I think this is why the guilds eventually did die off.
ReplyDelete