ABSTRACT
The name “Guild” is taken from the Middle Ages. Throughout the mediæval period the predominant form of industrial organisation throughout the civilisation of Christendom was the Gild or Guild, an association of independent producers or merchants for the regulation of production or sale. The mediæval Gild was not indeed confined to industry: it was the common form of popular association in the mediæval town. There were Gilds for social and charitable, and for educational, as well as for industrial purposes; and every Gild, whatever its specific function, had a strong religious basis and an essentially religious form. This is not the place to enter into a discussion of the rise, organisation and decline of the mediæval system; but it is necessary to show, both what are the fundamental differences between mediæval Gilds and modern Guilds, 1 and what is the essential unity of idea between them.
