The Flemish Guilds
Above: a tapestry from Flanders, where the Weavers' Guilds were dominant in the city. Below are 2 of the original agreements with a guild, between the guild at St. Omer, and the Count of Flanders.
I, William, by the grace of God, Count of Flanders, not wishing to reject the petition of the citizens of St. Omer---especially as they have willingly received my petition about the consulate of Flanders, and because they have always been honest and faithful to me---grant them the laws written below, and command that those laws remain inviolate.
1. First that to every man I will show peace, and I will protect and defend them with good will just as I do my other men. And I grant that justice be done to all of them by my bailiffs, and I wish that they do justice to me also. I grant liberty to my bailiffs such as my other bailiffs have.
2. If any citizen of St. Omer lend money to any one, and the borrower freely acknowledge this in the presence of lawful men of that town and of his heirs, if the debt be unpaid on the agreed date, he or his goods may be detained until all be paid. If he be unwilling to pay, or deny the agreement, he shall be detained until he pay the debt if he be convicted on the testimony of two bailiffs or two sworn men.
5. All those who have their gild and belong to it, and who reside within the limits of the town, I make free of toll at the port of Dixmude and at the port of Gravelines; and throughout all the land of Flanders I make them free of sewerp. I grant them the toll which the people of Arras pay at Bapaume.
6. If any of them go to the land of the Emperor for trade, he shall not be forced to lose his gild by any of my people.
7. If it should happen that at any time I should acquire land outside of Flanders, or if a treaty of peace be made between me and my uncle, Henry, King of the English, I will cause them to be made free of all toll in the land acquired, or in the whole land of England, or I will make them free of all customs by the terms of such treaty.
9. All who dwell within the walls of St. Omer, or who dwell there in the future, I make free from cavagium, i.e., from head-tax, and from suit of court.
1l. Moreover they have asked the king of France and Ralph of Peronne that wherever they go in their lands they may be free of toll, transit dues, and passage; I wish this to be granted to them.
13. As I wish the citizens of Flanders to be free henceforward from all customs, I shall require from them no scot, or taille, or forced loan.
14. The thirty pounds a year I had from St. Omer and whatever I ought to have from there, I grant for the restoration of their damaged property, and for the maintenance of their gild. The burgesses shall see to it that there is good and stable coinage during my life whereby the town may be improved.
15. Since the guards who nightly watch the castle of St. Omer have had a fee decreed from of old to be in oats, cheeses, and goatskins, and since they have been accustomed to take bread and one or two denarii from every house unjustly on the feasts of St. Omer and St. Bertin and at the Nativity, or to take guarantees from the poor for these things, we decree that they shall not dare in the future to take anything above their stipend.
16. Whoever comes to Nieuport from any place shall have permission to come to St. Omer with his goods in whatever ship he pleases.
17. If I make peace with Stephen, Count of Boulogne, I shall make them free of toll and sewerp throughout all his lands and at Wissant.
18. I grant for their use the pasture in the wood near St. Omer, which is called Lo, and the marshes, meadows, whins and fallow lands, except the land of the lepers, just as it was in the time of Count Robert the Bearded.
19. I make free from all toll the houses which are in the care of the advocate of the Abbey of St. Bertin, namely, those which are inhabited. Each gives twelve denarii at the feast of St. Michael, twelve denarii as brotban, and twelve denarii as byrban. Those which are empty pay nothing.
25. The following have promised that this agreement shall be observed by all, and they have sealed their promise with an oath: Louis, King of the French; William, Count of Flanders; Ralph of Peronne, etc.
The Grant for the Guild Hall
The guild "halls" were not trivial, as can be seen in those which have survived, as above.
I, Theodore, by the grace of God, Count of Flanders, with the consent of my wife Sybil, and of my son Philip, have transferred to the citizens of St. Omer, to be held lawfully by them, the land in the market place on which the gild-hall of that town is situated, with its adjuncts and appendages, both of timber and of stone, and the right to hold a market in the hall or in its appendages. I have also granted this liberty to them, that if any one should come to that place, wheresoever he may have committed an offense, my judge shall not be allowed to arrest him in that hall. But he in whose custody the hall is, when he has been advised by the judge of the wrong done, should bring in the culprit, except he protect himself by bail, and should deliver him to the judge in the presence of two or more bailiffs. When the judge has him in his power he should deal with him according to the magnitude of his offense.
We have added this too, that a foreign merchant shall never sell or expose his merchandise for sale except in that hall or its appendages or in the open market. Burgesses alone may sell in the market, in the gild-hall, or, if they wish more, in their own houses.
Flemish towns & the medieval wool trade
Line of sand dunes after 9th century
Marshes at or below sea-level, gradually reclaimed
low land
higher land
The Guild Charter
Below is the Flemish Shearer's Guild Charter. As can be seen, a good deal of the charter is an attempt to eliminate competition, from outside as well as within. It's really not so very different from Corvallis merchants pressing for fees on itinerant salespeople, and the result is the same: Farmers' markets, malls in nearby municipalities, etc. In the case of the guilds, manufacturers simply established factories in peasant homes in the countryside, the 'cottage industries', to circumvent guild regulations in the towns.
Here is the Shearers' Charter, on which they were first founded. This is the first ordinance of the shearers, who were founded in the name of the Fraternity of God and St. Julien, with the agreement and consent of those who were at the time mayor and aldermen.
1. Whoever would engage in the trade of a shearer shall be in the Confraternity of St. Julien, and shall pay all the dues, and observe the decrees made by the brethren.
2. That is to say: first, that whoever is a master shearer shall pay 14 solidi to the Fraternity. And there may not be more than one master shearer working in a house. And he shall be a master shearer all the year, and have arms for the need of the town.
3. And a journeyman shall pay 5 solidi to the Fraternity.
4. And whoever wishes to learn the trade shall be the son of a burgess or he shall live in the town for a year and a day; and he shall serve three years to learn this trade.
5. And he shall give to his master 3 muids for his bed and board; and he ought to bring the first muid to his master at the beginning of his apprenticeship, and another muid a year from that day, and a third muid at the beginning of the third year.
6. And no one may be a master of this trade of shearer if he has not lived a year and a day in the town, in order that it may be known whether or not he comes from a good place.
8. And if masters, or journeymen, or apprentices, stay in the town to do their work they owe 40 solidi, if they have done this without the permission of the aldermen of Arras.
9. And whoever does work on Saturday afternoon, or on the Eve of the Feast of Our Lady, or after Vespers on the Eve of the Feast of St. Julien, and completes the day by working, shall pay, if he be a master, I2 denarii, and if he be a journeyman, 6 denarii. And whoever works in the four days of Christmas, or in the eight days of Easter, or in the eight days of Pentecost, owes 5 solidi.
11. And an apprentice owes to the Fraternity for his apprenticeship 5 solidi.
12. And whoever puts the cloth of another in pledge shall pay 10 solidi to the Fraternity, and he shall not work at the trade for a year and a day.
13. And whoever does work in defiance of the mayor and aldermen shall pay 5 solidi.
14. And if a master flee outside the town with another's cloth and a journeyman aids him to flee, if he does not tell the mayor and aldermen, the master shall pay 20 solidi to the Fraternity and the journeyman 10 solidi: and they shall not work at the trade for a year and a day.
16. And those who are fed at the expense of the city shall be put to work first. And he who slights them for strangers owes 5 solidi: but if the stranger be put to work he cannot be removed as long as the master wishes to keep him.... And when a master does not work hard he pays 5 solidi, and a journeyman 2 solidi.
18. And after the half year the mayor and aldermen shall fix such wages as he ought to have.
19. And whatever journeyman shall carry off from his master, or from his fellow man, or from a burgess of the town, anything for which complaint is made, shall pay 5 solidi.
20. And whoever maligns the mayor and aldermen, that is while on the business of the Fraternity, shall pay 5 solidi.
22. And no one who is not a shearer may be a master, in order that the work may be done in the best way, and no draper may cut cloth in his house, if it be not his own work, except he be a shearer, because drapers cannot be masters.
23. And if a draper or a merchant has work to do in his house, he may take such workmen as he wishes into his house, so long as the work be done in his house. And he who infringes this shall give 5 solidi to the Fraternity.
25. And each master ought to have his arms when he is summoned. And if he has not he should pay 20 solidi.
26-30. [Other army regulations.]
31. And whatever brother has finished cloth in his house and does not inform the mayor and aldermen, and it be found in his house, whatever he may say, shall forfeit 10 solidi to the Fraternity.
32. And if a master does not give a journeyman such wage as is his due, then he shall pay 5 solidi.
33. And he who overlooks the forfeits of this Fraternity, if he does not wish to pay them when the mayor and aldermen summon him either for the army or the district, then he owes 10 solidi, and he
shall not work at the trade until he has paid. Every forfeit of 5 solidi, and the fines which the mayor and aldermen command, shall be written down. All the fines of the Fraternity ought to go for the purchase of arms and for the needs of the Fraternity.
34. And whatever brother of this Fraternity shall betray his confrere for others shall not work at the trade for a year and a day.
35. And whatever brother of this Fraternity perjures himself shall not work at the trade for forty days. And if he does so he shall pay 10 solidi if he be a master, but if he be a journeyman let him pay 5 solidi.
36. And should a master of this Fraternity die and leave a male heir he may learn the trade anywhere where there is no apprentice.
37. And no apprentice shall cut to the selvage for half a year, and this is to obtain good work. And no master or journeyman may cut by himself because no one can measure cloth well alone. And whoever infringes this rule shall pay 5 solidi to the Fraternity for each offense.
38. Any brother whatsoever who lays hands on, or does wrong to, the mayor and aldermen of this Fraternity, as long as they work for the city and the Fraternity, shall not work at his trade in the city for a year and a day. And if he should do so, let him be banished from the town for a year and a day, saving the appeal to Monseigneur the King and his Castellan.
39. And the brethren of this Fraternity, and the mayor and aldermen shall not forbid any brother to give law and do right and justice to all when it is demanded of them, or when some one claims from them. And he who infringes this shall not have the help of the aldermen at all.
Note about 'shearers': Wool was washed in lye to remove grease, then dried, beaten, combed and carded. It was then spun into yarn and woven. The fuller (or Walker) rubbed fuller's earth into the resulting woollen cloth, then soaked it in a trough, trampling it to work the earth well into the wool. The wet wool was stretched on tenterhooks on a frame to dry. A Shearer finished the cloth by raising the nap with teasels while it is still damp and by shearing it when dry with great flat shears, three or four feet long. The finest cloth is shorn and reshorn a number of times. The cloth was then brushed, pressed and folded.
Note on the Guilds:The Plague, cottage industries, the perpetual silting of the Flemish ports and the Hundred Years War together destroyed the Flemish guilds.
