ABSTRACT
It is well known that the gilds were important cogs in the machinery of government from the early Middle Ages down to the eighteenth century. In London the public duties of the gilds and companies included the provision of men for the king's ships and the trained bands; the supply and storage of arms, equipment and gunpowder; and of corn against times of dearth. Moreover, each in its own field was expected to give expert technical advice on the drafting of commercial and industrial regulations, proclamations and Acts of Parliament, and to provide, on request, 'deputations' from among their senior and more respected members to help the customs officers. Since the central government, the municipal authorities and the gilds were, thus, partners in the business of governing the country, governmental regulation and control of industry and trade was not resented as oppressive interference, but accepted as a natural feature of the established order. In an age of high protective tariffs or total prohibitions on textiles and other important classes of imports, the senior members of the Weavers' Company were serving not only themselves, but the Government, when they helped to track down and identify smuggled goods which competed formidably with their own products. Public service and private interest were interwoven. On occasion the London Weavers co-operated with other companies having similar interests, such as the Company of Weavers of Canterbury, or the Gold and Silver Wire-Drawers, when H.M. Customs had seized quantities of prohibited foreign-made lace, fringes, brocades, and embroidery containing gold and silver thread. l
Appropriate action sometimes depended upon the initiative of the gilds. In the spring of 1612, for instance, the Weavers' Company appointed four liverymen 'to use their best means to treat with the rest of the Livery to contribute towards the charge of the suit to be prosecuted against such as illegally bring ribands, laces, girdles, corses and corses of tissues or points from beyond the sea' (contrary
to the statute 19 Henry VIII, c. 21) and to collect any money freely given by the commonalty and foreign brethren.
