A Tale of Two Theories: Monopolies and Craft Guilds in Medieval England and Modern Imagination

@article{Richardson2001ATO,
  title={A Tale of Two Theories: Monopolies and Craft Guilds in Medieval England and Modern Imagination},
  author={Gary A. Richardson},
  journal={Journal of the History of Economic Thought},
  year={2001},
  volume={23},
  pages={217 - 242}
}
  • Gary A. Richardson
  • Published 1 June 2001
  • Economics, History
  • Journal of the History of Economic Thought
Popular texts typically assert that guilds of craftsmen “monopolized” markets in medieval England. Norman Cantor's Medieval Reader declares “craft guilds' … main purpose and activity was narrow regulation of industrial productivity in order to restrain competition” (Cantor 1994, p. 278). Douglass North's Structure and Change in Economic History asserts “… guilds organized to protect local artisans … [and their strength] in preserving local monopolies against encroachment from outside… 
View on Cambridge Press
socsci.uci.edu
80 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
2
Background Citations
17

80 Citations

Access to the Trade: Monopoly and Mobility in European Craft Guilds in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

One of the standard objections against guilds in the premodern world has been their exclusiveness. Guilds have been portrayed as providing unfair advantages to the children of established masters and…

Religion and Economic Organization : The Rise and Decline of the Medieval English Craft Guilds

Scholars have debated the manner in which religious beliefs influence economic organization. This paper examines a particular case–the craft guilds of medieval England–to show how religious doctrines…

Craft Guilds and Christianity The Impact of Changes in Religious Doctrines on the Prevalence of Craft Guilds in the Late-Medieval Low Countries

This study provides a first empirical test of the link between craft guilds and religious traditions such as the belief in purgatory put forth by Richardson and McBride (2009). For this purpose, we…

Guilds, laws, and markets for manufactured merchandise in late-medieval England

Craft Guilds in the Pre-Modern Economy: A Discussion

This article challenges the view, voiced especially by S. Ogilvie, that the revisionist interpretation of the history of craft guilds is wide of the mark. The paper suggests that Ogilvie…

Craft Guilds in the Pre-Modern Economy: A Discussion

This article challenges the view, voiced especially by S. Ogilvie, that the revisionist interpretation of the history of craft guilds is wide of the mark. The paper suggests that Ogilvie…

Rational-Choice Analysis Craft Guilds and Christianity in Late-Medieval England: A

In late-medieval England, craft guilds simultaneously pursued piety and profit. Why did guilds pursue those seemingly unrelated goals? What were the consequences of that combination? Theories of…

Christianity and Craft Guilds in Late Medieval England: A Rational Choice Analysis

In late-medieval England, craft guilds simultaneously pursued piety and profit. Why did guilds pursue those seemingly unrelated goals? What were the consequences of that combination? Theories of…

“The guild […] manufactures nothing, nor produces any artifact”: Barcelona's Seven Maritime Cargo Handling Guilds, c.1760–1840

Abstract By studying the guilds of the seven maritime cargo handling trades of Barcelona, this paper aims to contribute to the relatively limited, but growing scholarship of port labour during the…

Hegemony and Protectionism in Bologna’s Meat Trade:The Role of Visual Imagery in Reputation Management

During the Renaissance, visual images were legitimate and authoritative sources of information that influenced behavior and directed public opinion. Against a background of political and religious…
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 150 REFERENCES

The rise and economic behaviour of medieval craft guilds an economic-theoretical interpretation

Abstract The city-based craft guild organization was the specific form of pre-capitalist industrial organization in Western Europe from the 12th century up to the middle of the 19th century, when the…

A new theory of guilds and european economic development

Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade

Henri Pirenne is best known for his provocative argument - known as the "Pirenne thesis" and familiar to all students of medieval Europe - that it was not the invasion of the Germanic tribes that…

Medieval Economic Competition

Nineteenth-century romanticism and the hardships of capitalist individualism have caused scholars to emphasize collectivistic social and economic institutions i n the Middle Ages. Carried to extremes…

Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism : a popular outline

The concept of imperialism lies at the heart of Marxist analysis and debate. This text offers a prescient analysis of a world shaken by competitive instability, war and crisis, dominated by…

The Commercialisation of English Society, 1000-1500

The Commercialisation of English Society offers an interpretation of social and economic change in England over five centuries. By 1500 English livelihoods depended more upon money and commercial…

The Fourteenth Century 1307-1399.

The fourteenth century in England was a turbulent, complex age: two of the century's monarchs were murdered by rivals, nearly half the population of England was wiped out by the Black Death and the…

Textiles, towns and trade : essays in the economic history of late-medieval England and the Low Countries

Textile technology in the Middle Ages textile workers in the Middle Ages wool-price schedules and the qualities of English wools in the later Middle Ages, c. 1270-1499 the 1357 wool-price schedule…

Trades and crafts in medieval manuscripts

This is a book for readers who are interested in the art and the social history of the Middle Ages. Illuminated manuscripts of that period are a primary source of information about the way in which…

Economic and social history of medieval Europe

Introduction Chpt. 1: The Revival of Commerce i. The Meditteranean ii. The North Sea and the Baltic iii. The Revival of Commerce Chpt. 2: The Towns i. The Revival of Urban Life ii. Merchants and the…
...