Mutual Aid

with so much individuality that we distinguish, even now, between the different schools of Padua, Bassano, Treviso, Verona, and so on, although all these cities were under the sway of Venice, this was due⁠—J. Paul Richter remarks⁠—to the fact that the painters of each city belonged to a separate guild, friendly with the guilds of other towns, but leading a separate existence. The oldest guild-statute known is that of Verona, dating from 1303, but evidently copied from some much older statute. “Fraternal assistance in necessity of whatever kind,” “hospitality towards strangers, when passing through the town, as thus information may be obtained about matters which one may like to learn,” and “obligation of offering comfort in case of debility” are among the obligations of the members (Nineteenth Century, Nov. 1890, and Aug. 1892). ↩

The chief works on the artéls are named in the article “Russia” of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th edition, p. 84. ↩

See, for instance, the texts of the Cambridge guilds given by Toulmin Smith (English Guilds, London, 1870, pp. 274⁠–⁠276), from which it appears that the “generall and principall day” was the “eleccioun day;” or, Ch. M. Clode’s The Early History of the Guild of the Merchant Taylors, London, 1888, i, 45; and so on. For the renewal of allegiance, see the Jomsviking saga, mentioned in Pappenheim’s Altdänische Schutzgilden, Breslau, 1885, p. 67. It appears very probable that when the guilds began to be prosecuted, many of them inscribed in their statutes the meal day only, or their pious duties, and only alluded to the judicial function of the guild in vague words; but this function did not disappear till a very much later time. The question, “Who will be my judge?” has no meaning now, since the State has appropriated for its bureaucracy the organization of justice; but it was of primordial importance in medieval times, the more so as self-jurisdiction meant self-administration. It must also be remarked that the translation of the Saxon and Danish “guild-bretheren,” or “brodre,” by the Latin convivii must also have contributed to the above confusion. ↩

See the excellent remarks upon the frith guild by J. R. Green and Mrs. Green in The Conquest of England, London, 1883, pp. 229⁠–⁠230. ↩

See Appendix X. ↩

Recueil des ordonnances des rois de France, t. xii, 562; quoted by Aug. Thierry in Considérations sur l’histoire de France, p. 196, ed. 12mo. ↩

A. Luchaire, Les Communes françaises, pp, 45⁠–⁠46. ↩

Guilbert de Nogent, De vita sua, quoted by Luchaire, Les Communes françaises, p. 14. ↩

Lebret, Histoire de Venise, i, 393; also Marin, quoted by Leo and Botta in Histoire de l’Italie, French edition, 1844, t. i, 500. ↩

Dr. W. Arnold, Verfassungsgeschichte der deutschen Freistädte, 1854, Bd. ii, 227 seq.; Ennen, Geschichte der Stadt Köln, Bd. i, 228⁠–⁠229; also the documents published by Ennen and Eckert. ↩

Conquest of England, 1883, p. 453. ↩

Byelaeff, Russian History, vols. ii and iii. ↩

W. Gramich, Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte der Stadt Würzburg im 13. bis zum 15. Jahrhundert, Würzburg, 1882, p. 34. ↩

When a boat brought a cargo of coal to Würzburg, coal could only be sold in retail during the first eight days, each family being entitled to no more than fifty basketfuls. The remaining cargo could be sold wholesale, but the retailer was allowed to raise a zittlicher profit only, the unzittlicher, or dishonest profit, being strictly forbidden (Gramich, Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte der Stadt Würzburg im 13. bis zum 15. Jahrhundert, Würzburg, 1882). Same in London (Liber albus, quoted by Ochenkowski, p. 161), and, in fact, everywhere. ↩

See Fagniez, Études sur l’industrie et la classe industrielle à Paris au XIIIme et XIVme siècle, Paris, 1877, pp. 155 seq. It hardly need be added that the tax on bread, and on beer as well, was settled after careful experiments as to the quantity of bread and beer which could be obtained from a given amount of corn. The Amiens archives contain the minutes of such experiences (A. de Calonne, Vie Municipale pp. 77, 93). Also those of London (Ochenkowski, England’s wirthschaftliche Entwickelung, etc., Jena, 1879, p. 165). ↩

Ch. Gross, The Guild Merchant, Oxford, 1890, i, 135. His documents prove that this practice existed in Liverpool (ii, 148⁠–⁠150), Waterford in Ireland, Neath in Wales, and Linlithgow and Thurso in Scotland. Mr. Gross’s texts also show that the purchases were made for distribution, not only among the merchant burgesses, but “upon all citsains and commynalte” (p. 136, note), or, as the Thurso ordinance of the seventeenth century runs, to “make offer to the merchants, craftsmen, and inhabitants of the said burgh, that they may have their proportion of the same, according to their necessitys and ability.” ↩

The Early History of the Guild of Merchant Taylors, by Charles M. Clode, London, 1888, i, 361, appendix 10; also the following appendix which shows that the same purchases were made in 1546. ↩

Cibrario, Les conditions economiques de l’Italie au temps de Dante, Paris, 1865, p. 44. ↩

A. de Calonne, La vie municipale au XVme siècle dans le Nord de la France, Paris, 1880, pp. 12⁠–⁠16. In 1485