Extra Information & Clarifications Sources for all my videos are in the bibliography of my scripts all available to download for FREE on my Patreon. www.patreon.com/mlaser?filters[tag]=script Throughout history, guilds had many different names in both Latin and other languages. For example, In latin they were known as gild, collegium, ministerium, universitas, officium, magisterium, artificium, etc. In English you had gilds, crafts, liveries, brotherhoods, fraternities, mysteries, (many of these words derived from latin as well) etc. For simplicity sake I will only use the word guild in this video. 0:00 The manuscript pictures of cities in this video (like the animated picture at the start) come from the Cambridge version of the Nuremberg Chronicle. The manuscript picture of artisans in this video like tailors come from Chants royaux sur la Conception, couronnés au puy de Rouen de 1519 à 1528. Pictures coming from other manuscripts will be specified in this comment. 1:00 This was poorly worded. The Fall of 'Western' Rome 'coincided' with the beginnings of the migration period. 4:48 Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Français 2092 fol. 20v. 9:02 Even though extremely uncommon some guilds did not require apprenticeships. Some guilds you could just straight up join as a member without having been an apprentice. 13:54 You could, however, get another masters of the higher faculties, after completing a masters of the lower faculties. Think of it as a masters that you can get only ones you already have a masters. You basically become a master of masters. This doesn't give you a higher status in the guild, you're still a master, but it could help your social standing within the guild. This is why later the idea of a doctorate became a thing, in order to make things less complicated. 15:02 Abb. 17: Linhardt Sigel, Landauer Band I (1610), Seite 60v. 15:08 My mistake. Some European monarchies did regulate some consumable product standards in the middle ages but this was very minimal. 15:08 Abb. 8: Jorg Prewmaister, Mendel Band I (1437), Seite 60. 17:10 There is even a surviving document from a Lunenburg guild stating that all members must be ‘authentic, right, German, and not Slavic’. In France and Italy Moors, Berbers, and sub-saharan Africans were excluded from guild membership. A 16th century document from a Valencian cobblers guild stated that ‘[excluded are] mulattoes of the color of quince marmalade, because of the protests and disturbance which would result from the sight of such persons mingling with honorable and well dressed people’. Spanish guilds went even a step further and excluded everyone who did not have a certificate of ‘purity of blood’ stating they were 100% Spanish and nothing else. This increase in ethnic barriers to entry from the 16th century onwards is a great example of how ethnicity wasn’t seen as so important in the middle ages but became to increase in importance starting in the 16th century. Sources for all this are in the footnote of the script which you can download for free on my patreon. 17:21 This number includes the rare all female guilds of which we know of only 45 existing out of the c. 100,000 guilds that we know of existing. 50% of these female guilds were centred around some sort of textile/clothing occupation. 17:30 Women would often help their husbands in their work but they rarely were allowed to actually partake in the "work environment". i.e. No guild membership, no what was considered "proper work" (like hammering in smithies for example), only "supportive work" like working the bellows in smithies, stuff like that.

It would be so much cooler if my union would call itself the Janitors Guild a shield with a mop and broom on it perhaps a spray bottle where a helmet would go

I always find it somewhat amusing when people talk about *masterpieces* as works of mind-boggling, nearly unachievable quality, that only some few greatest creators created once in theirs lives. When the term originally ment a competent piece of work in given craft, required for a craftsman to make, to become a master in their guild. Technically all of the people with university master's degrees already made "masterpieces" when writing their thesis. I doubt that many of them would call them that. I certainly wouldn't. 😅

As soon as you said universities were guilds, I thought of bachelor and master degrees. That's pretty funny!

8:43 "you are indeed very skillful in your craft sir skywalker, but we cannot grant you the title of Master"

In germany the apprenticeship system also has the hirarchy of apprentice- journeyman - master.

I'd say that, much like a lot of things in history, guilds went from good to critical to a burden over time. Their greatest contribution in my mind was something not mentioned in this video - they provided a competing power to the nobles. While a guild may or may not have been influential enough to stop the most powerful dukes, it was more than enough to make most nobility think twice before crossing them. You can see this very clearly in the Villani chronicles where guilds have a major say in the affairs of northern Italy in a mostly equal standing with the nobility. While the guilds were hardly meritocratic, most of them at least had an idea that you only get to be in charge if you demonstrate some amount of competence, and that is quite the idea in the age of hereditary nobility.

I would love to see a follow up on this about the breakdown of the guild system in the early modern period. At best I've only heard other historians explain that the guilds were unable to enforce their privileges on an increasingly large number of "black market" craftsmen.

As a craftsman (bespoke shoemaker) connected to the Orthopaedic Shoemakers Guild (an "Innung" which is just a more modern word denoting a guild) in Germany and a former history teacher I can say with some assurance that a modern "guild", while not as intrusive as some medieval ones where, is still a profoundly medieval organisation, headed by an "Obermeister" ("Supreme Master" - sounds a bit cultish😂) and organising teaching seminars for members, running it's own trade schools and being strongly involved in setting the curriculum required to be mastered in order to be allowed the participation in a Journeyman examination which, also quite medieval, requires not only to pass an academic examination but also the creation of a journeyman piece ("Gesellenstück") in my case a bespoke pair of shoes made to certain standarts as well as befitting medicinal requirements (as well as being aesthetically pleasing) to be created within two strictly timed work days and under observation as well as subject to a closed evaluation by a commitee of masters. So... there still *are* these structures and they *do* create closed associations by definition. In other words: not really a thing of a distant past. Best regards Raoul G. Kunz

"People of the same trade seldom meet together even for merriment and diversion but the conversation ends at a conspiracy against the public." Civilization IV engraved that quote in my mind, first thing that popped into my mind at the start of the (excellent, as always) video.

The modern equivalent you could argue are professional organizations such as the American Medical Association or the ABA for law which the state has given a monopoly on who is allowed to practice within those professions and to set standards.

To this day, most barber shops does not work on Mondays because of the guilds.

I am from India and here we read about large Trade guilds from ancient times which often had members as far as South East Asia. Unfortunatley they all disappeared after the Turkic invasions of 12th Century.

"A faithful member of the merchant's guild."

Thank you. I'm a historian and I love learning from other historians. I was watching my favorite channel: oversimplified. He recommended you're channel. I'm happy when I find real history channels! So thank you and you earned a new follower 💯

The connection with universities is really interesting

Do you intend on making a video about early modern guilds and their eventual decline ?

Great video! I was originally under the impression that most of the urban population worked for some sort of guild, but you mentioned that that wasn't the case. How was the rest (the majority) of the urban population employed, then?

Love your video! Do you have any plans on making a video about glass industries in medieval Europe such as in Bohemia or Venice in the future? Would love to see you discussing it.

I found you because of oversimplifieds war of the bucket video where he mentioned you doing a ton of the research he used! I'm do glad to have discovered you!

Dude…the history of the university system arising out of the guild system was so enlightening. Lower levels of education were kind of tacked on and mostly copied and modified the university system…so all of that really does carry into the modern day in some form. Amazing amazing stuff man.

Wake up babe new mlazerhistory video dropped

This was super interesting and informative. Thanks for making it!

Babe wake up, M. Laser History posted a new video

As soon as you mentioned that Journeymen were also referred to as Bachelors, I was wondering if that's where the names of the degrees in higher education came from. Knowing that universities were once guilds explains a lot.

reading between the lines it also seems like another reason would be a good deal of old fashion extortion too. “If you dont join our guild, or you dont stop selling at a better price then us, or if you buy from someone else maybe someone will come over and break your workshop…. hypothetically of course”.

That is the first time I hear a comparisson between guilds and the University structure in the Middle Ages. Even though it does sound convincing, i'd still like to know, where you got that information. Also the Doctorate was implemented, if not directly in universities, in teaching institutions of the church. E.g. around 1373 John Wyclif was promoted to "Doctor Theologiae" at Cambridge. So I would love to see your sources for this.

The Order of the Seekers for Truth and Penitence is my favourite guild

Where the guilds a good thing or a bad thing? Well as in all a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B.

The system itself was good, there is a reason why some parts still survive to this day. The one negative flaw was the idea of having a legal monopoly, which is the root of problems such as limiting production and nepotism. Not making such arrangement legal at all (as it binds everyone to a contract they did not agreed to) would have pushed guilds toward even higher quality or cost-efficiency products, due to competition.

Very interesting, thank you! I love the idea of scissorsmiths, especially considering they were an ancient tool, quite the specialty.

I know you likely won't see this. But I check back here weekly looking for new videos! I only do that with a select few channels. Where I am chomping at the bit for a new video to drop!

Interesting on the edge they gave europe, it is worth noting similar organisations existed in china. For example the chinese for bank can be roughly translated to 'silver guild' due to their origins. Though perhaps as a wide spread due to the tendency of dynasties to run state workshops. Unfortunately I don't know as much as i'd like on guilds in east asia.

Thank you for this video. This is the most comprehensive video on medieval guilds I have found on youtube. I've been studying them recently for various larps I'm doing. This and many of your other videos is extremely useful for this.

Funny that one of the first law of the Révolution was to get rid of the guilds/corporations (Loi Le Chapelier in 1791). Members of the Assembly were bourgeois who didn't really like workers associations...

Love this channel always a highlight to see an upload

One of the best videos I saw in a while. It's incredible. A very organic understanding of the growth of European society and hegemony.

Whether guilds were a good thing, or a bad thing, I do not know, but what I do know is that the guild of Millers was truly the best Guild. True Roman bread for true Romans.

its interesting to see how Unions and Company's basically evolved from the same source.

This was so educational. Bravo ... and thank you!

I feel like there are alot of things one might learn from how these guilds operated and how they could help improve our coorporate world today.

As for whether guilds were good or bad, the question is irrelevant. They were simply a reaction to growing wealth and power, and eventually wore out their usefulness and disappeared.

13:14 that blew my mind. Cool how the tradition has endured and evolved

Is the success of the guilds part of the reason for the Europeans outcompeting Mamluk industry in the mid 14th century. Resulting in the deindustrialization of the Levant for even simple things like paper or soap. As well as more complex industries like glass-making, sugar processing and textiles. All of which the middle east used to export. But now imported and deindustrialised

an excellent subject, thank you for enlightening us!

Excellent video! Thanks!

It seems to me that guilds never really disappeared, and they still exist, or were perhaps reinvented, and it's just that we call and understand them differently: as bodies enforcing trade and industry standards, and simultaneously as large corporations/conglomerates, or even co-ops, or conglomerates/fraternities of co-ops - sort of like industries regulating themselves. I frankly wouldn't mind if we brought them back more formally. Seems in some ways a better system.

Super interesting, great video.

I never knew that's where universities with their Bachelor's Degrees and Master's Degrees came from 🤯🤯🤯 You learn something new every day.

Brilliant - thanks!

Yaaay! Another m laser guild video!!!

Great video!

very interesting video, thank you for this.

I am in a fraternity and one of the first things they teach us is our roots on medieval guilds and how they worked

Thank you so much! I love the history of the economy.

Great video

Hell yeah, guild posting

Amazing!

Usually the guilds also were responsible for the defense of a town, each guild having to man and equip one tower of the city fortification at their costs. The city did not cash in taxes and than pay soldiers, it was all outsourced to the guilds. Maybe only a small core unit within the city were professional and paid soldiers. And if the guild is armed, you cannot install a tyranny and supress them. That's how democracy more and more evolved, at least on the town level, which was later the model to be expanded to the whole nation.

"Fod supply"

Cool to finally learn the full meaning of apprentice, journeyman and master. Does this imply that Santa's pop culture title as "master toymaker" was maybe originally used to infer that he was a master in the guild sense?

2:03 FOD SUPPLY! (dw it's English's fault for having two oo's)

yey new video!

In spite i'm mostly a determinist (let's say 75/25 geography and climate vs the rest) i say guilds are indeed important in the economic development of europe, without them trade and craft become less worth the risks and investment in a world were laws regarding those are as varied as the number of polities of the time. I believe we can see that when comparing places where their influence was heavily curtailed (not to mistake my point with places where they didn't develop or did so very sparsely) vs places in which they flourished. I'm not saying that they birth wasn't a given due to geography and technology but they could have easily been snuffed out way earlier and in much more places so their success wasn't so certain. In the end like most of the feudal structure they probably did overstay their welcome since posterior structures that were partly born from them like stock markets adapted better to the changes.

Except, the first University ever, the University of Bologna, was not a guild of masters, but rather an association of students.

Was it Henry I or Henry II that gave the London weavers their exclusive right? Because you used both in the video.

Adam Smith did not say trade associations should be prohibited, only that governments should not facilitate them since this would likely lead to an increase in prices.

Are you going to talk about your PhD in any of your videos? If not, I wonder what it is about. Also, what was it like applying for the PhD. Did you have to show that you had published papers or just the master’s thesis. What was the master’s thesis!

Such a cool video. Sounds to me like guilds were a good thing, until they weren't. They played a net positive role for social and economic progress through the positive attributes that you outline, which in that era, outweighed the negative. By the time we got the Adam Smith's era (and probably well before that, but I'm not equipped with the knowledge to discriminate such details), they had outlasted their utility, as Adam Smith pointed out. New ideas about how to organize the relationship between the state, society, and economic development were emerging, and guilds did not fit into this evolving framework. Just some thoughts sparked by watching this wonderful video. The main sort of thing it gets me thinking about is the evolving relationship between commercial/economic activity and state power.

Well...in many languages guildhall would be pronounced willed all. Word magic

Holy shit? I thought this day would never come!

It really depends on what product the guild was making. For example, clothes, a necessary good in Europe. If a guild had a monopoly on clothes in some big city and decided to decrease production of normal clothes and put their efforts towards luxury clothing that would be really really bad, since they'd be taking more money from people who need that money to live in the form of more expensive clothing. If a guild focused, for example, on wine then decreasing production wouldn't really matter, as they'd just be taking more money from people who already have a lot of it, and giving it to people who'll probably use it more productively than the people buying wine themselves.

Do you have any interest in doing a video on the Ciompi revolt? It's a fascinating bit of guild history.

A video on an obscure topic of European politics. Yeah baby, let’s go

Ain't no party like a Weavers Guild party!

To me, I say without enough of an academic background and a Scandinavian bias, Guilds seem like precursors to both large conglomerates of corporations and worker unions. The first of which I dislike, and the latter I like a lot. Also regarding the latter I see the likeness of the large guilds covering a variety of similar professions as umbrella organisations for smaller ones resonate with the large unions doing the same thing for smaller unions in my country (SE).

Please make a video on the Inca Empire

@MLaserHistory 2;15 you miss an 'O' in Food (in the video Fod)

Man, I am so happy you made this video. Had a conversation with my brother (another fan of history) about why Europe became so dominant specifically in terms of military technology, when it did, and I proposed that the reason was how simultaneously divided and interconnected medieval Europe was, with feudal systems playing alongside guilds within countless borders that were under the rules of different levels or rulers, basically an ideal scenario for experimentation. Long conversation short though, I don't see why India didn't see the same benefits as Europe, as they seem to me to have had all the same starting points: large population, wealthy, guilds (though less than in Europe), a feudal structure, strong religious institutions, etc. The only possible reasons I can think of is that Christianity might have had some natural expansionist drives which Hinduism and Buddhism does not share, or that the caste system had a stronger hold on India which strangled social mobility. Not an expert on the topic, would love to hear your input!

17:46 are you member of the Sarcasm Guild

Ck3 needs guilds

That's not a guild that's job!

guilds facilitating information: the guilds were charging for the privilege, and limiting who got to learn and who was allowed to teach ; apprenticeship was paid, not free, and lasted far longer than it was needed to learn the trade Europe developed and stopped being a backwater for the Middle East when the guild monopolies were broken or ignored, such as when in the Netherlands lumber mills were set up outside the influence of the guilds.

Un video sobre el comercio medieval.....por favor

So High Medieval Guilds were kind of like companies, but also like labour unions for the well off?

what is your favourit fod? 2:07

12:11 What about Adventurer guild? 😩

Guilds aren't no different than companies today and modern day guilds were be good for the people

Master status should solely be skill based. Meritocracy rules.

How enforced were the rules concerning familial ties and ethnic membership? According to the paper "Access to the Trade: Monopoly and Mobility in European Craft Guilds in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries" (you can google the paper, it's free on the internet), in the majority of guilds between 1600 to 1800, only a minority of masters were the kin of masters or from the local area. In the majority of guilds surveyed, the majority of masters were outsiders (not related through blood ties with local masters or from the local area). This would not make any sense if the rules concerning familial ties and ethnic membership were enforced stringently. I suspect that in practice most guilds made exceptions most of the time and that the rules for who could be a master were mostly just guidelines. It seems that the only real limitation was the need to submit a masterwork - any other requirement could be waved by the guild for practicality sake.

Neat

2:03 increasing fod supply

Oh that’s why head of colleges are still called masters, interesting

I think its fair to say that Guilds created the urban middle class in the first place that it then safeguarded.

You mentioned how some people consider the guild system to be one of the main reasons for europe becoming more economically advanced compared to the rest of the world. But why didn't guilds exist in those places then? It seems to me that guilds are an inevitable product of urbanisation, so they should have existed in other places as well. Did guilds exist in other places but with different powers and rights compared to those in europe?

That was interesting. So guilds we’re basically Union/corporations like entities

How’s Cambridge going?

Buying the king for 16 pounds is impressive

Guild payments in an agreement would be taxes or licensing fees and not bribes.

Where are all the Mages guild, Thief Guild and even the Dark Brotherhood?? What alternative history is this?