Medieval Guilds : Did they make Europe a superpower?

:yt:Extra Information & Clarifications:yt: 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"

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

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”.

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.

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

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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

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 💯

Wake up babe new mlazerhistory video dropped

The connection with universities is really interesting

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