Guilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution and have
always attracted debate and controversy. They were sometimes viewed as efficient institutions
that guaranteed quality and skills. But they also excluded competitors manipulated markets
and blocked innovations. Did the advantages of guilds outweigh their costs? Analyzing thousands
of guilds from 1000 to 1880 The European Guilds answers that question with vivid examples and
clear economic reasoning. Sheilagh Ogilvie features the voices of honourable guild masters
underpaid journeymen exploited apprentices shady officials and outraged customers and
follows the stories of the vile encroachers??women migrants Jews gypsies bastards and
others?desperate to work but hunted down by the guilds as illicit competitors.
