Sworn Brothers

The medieval European craft guild was an economic entity, but its role was also social and religious. Guilds provided mutual security against poverty and misfortune by supplying work and charitable services for its members. Many offered care for the sick, injured, or aged, would arrange for burials, and paid for masses to be said for the departed. Aside from this insurance, pensions were paid to the elderly who could no longer work, or to their widows. Hospitality was extended to travelling brothers from allied craft guilds in other parts of the country. The guild was a centre of social life, whose members often ate and drank together and participated in sporting events, religious plays, music competitions, and civic feasts and processions. Officers of the guild collected dues and could fine members for absence from meetings, refusal to work, foul language and other indecent behaviour, for laziness, tardiness, or shoddy workmanship. It was a finable offence to take work away from, or slander the reputation of, a guild brother.

From the 14th century on, carpenters’ guilds became more stratified and controlled by a privileged, wealthier, and higher-status oligarchy, or ‘labour aristocracy’, to the disadvantage of the rank-and-file members. Class distinctions meant that, as John Harvey points out, “all men were no longer brothers”. Strict divisions were observed in the rights of masters, journeyman, apprentices, and outside labourers.  Master carpenters sought royal protection in the form of ordinances that could limit and fix the cost of labour and prevent outside contractors from stealing away workers and work. In return, the monarch collected tax revenue and military service from the populous city guilds. Under King Edward I of England (1272 to 1307), the Ordinance of Carpenters, Masons, Plasterers, Daubers, and Tylers imposed wage limits, restricted work to certain hours, days, and seasons, and stipulated how much food and ale could be allotted for each workday. These measures benefited the masters more than their men. The largest building contractors began to operate as capitalist entrepreneurs. Historically, the guilds are as much responsible for the modern corporate system as they are for the rise of trade unions.