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THE GUILDS

Both Ormeroid and Joseph Hemingway suggest that even before the Norman charters there was a Guild Mercatory, a brotherhood of Merchants, anybody not being a member of the guild not being allowed to trade or traffic in goods. There is no doubt that this was, certainly the intention of the Charters, they received all sums of money for custom and merchandise either by sea or by land, except at the fairs of Midsummer, Michaelmas and Martlemas. There were appointed two overseers from the citizens, these were greatly respected as officers of those privileges, the officers were eventually to become called leave - lookers answerable to the Mayor and forty common - council men .

The Guild system developed in many medieval towns to protect the interests of local trades, in most towns men had to become freemen before joining a guild . Guildsmen often took apprentices of around 14 years of age who were bound for seven years to learn the craft or trade, the trade of Chartered towns was closely watched over by the powerful Guilds. They settled all such matters as hours of work, and prices charged, the standard of quality, and the number of apprentices. Competition from outside was frowned upon and it was only on special occasions, such as fairs that outsiders who were not sworn freemen could trade without disturbance. A wooden hand was then hung out as a sign, such a hand used to hang from St.. Peters Church, by the Chester Cross, during the Summer and Autumn Fairs. The earliest guilds mentioned are the Tanners and Weavers in 1361. The most prosperous guilds were those that supplied food and drink, such as the bakers, butchers and brewers .

The first charter to grant collective privileges to a group of craftsmen was in 1370, when Edward the Black Prince made a grant to the Tawyers and Shoemakers, true gild charters do not occur until after 1500 .

The decline in membership sometimes reflected the general decline in a craft or trade, for example, weaving and tanning, The tailors in 1691 and the cordwainers in 1723, for example , claimed that their membership was already ' so numerous .... that a third part of them could scarcely subsist . ' In some cases , the assembly did not comply with the guild 's wishes . In 1718 , they agreed to admit a watchmaker against the wishes of the Goldsmiths ' Company on condition that he provided a new clock for St. Peters Church . In 1737, the assembly admonished the Bakers ' Company for ' unlawful combination in reducing their baking rate ' to the impoverishment of the city . ' In some instances , the companies took concerted action to protect their interests . At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Tanners ' Company enlisted the aid of Peter Shakerley, one of Chester's members of parliament, in their battle against leather duties and the export of oak bark for tanning to Ireland . The Brewers agreed to fix ale and beer prices in the 1760s and in 1784, The Skinners petitioned the members of parliament about the detrimental effect of the export of rabbits and hares on their trade . In the first half of the eighteenth century, guilds petitioned the assembly against admission to the freedom of the city but the overall decline was due to an increasing tendency to ignore their outdated restrictions on their trades .

Aspects of the Gild Merchant survived at Chester throughout the sixteenth century and this body consisted of all the freemen of the city . During the reign of Mary however a new merchant company was to be established in May 1554 consisting of merchants who traded with the continent and no member was to be allowed to practice a manual occupation or sell by retail. It was to be governed by a master and two wardens and received privileges similar to those granted to most trading companies.
Opposition to the new company came from the Mayor almost immediately , he wrote to the city's alderman who were in London asking them to put the case before the Lord Chancellor. They suggested that it altered the constitutional organisation of the city , merchants failed to obey the mayor and city councillors, they met together in previe councells to make ordinances to the derogation of the ancient grants and charters of the city .

The merchants were also said to compel others to swear on the vangelist, to keep their secrets, it was alleged that previously they had been allowed to trade overseas but could not now as they had to take a seven year apprenticeship to become a merchant. The merchants were accused further of forcing craftsmen and tradesmen to sell their wares to them fixing prices, and withholding goods from the market, and there was some doubt as to whether the system of common bargain was to be continued. Despite this opposition the charter was not revoked the city was not ruined and in the early part of her reign Elizabeth saw fit to renew the charter in 1559 stating that the Chester Merchants were not to interfere with the franchise of the Merchant Adventures Company, the two parties came together in the common cause this resulted in the rationalisation of the customs system where by Chester lost her old status as a palatinate port and was brought into the national customs system .
During the eighteenth century, the city companies or guilds lost their dominant influence on the city 's commercial life . Membership of most guilds declined .

The establishment of the Merchant Adventurers is a significant landmark. They traded in cloth, not in wool, and, unlike the Staplers, carried goods to any market, not only to the staple towns We gather that the English cloth trade had grown fast, for we hear of many different kinds of cloth, of an increase in the number of people engaged in the industry and, indeed, of the beginnings of something like an industrial life unconnected with rural pursuits. The old merchant gilds of the towns had played their part, but with the growth of trade and the development of a number of different industries they could no longer perform any useful function, and they had already given way to craft gilds, the object of which was to control and regulate one particular, trade, not trade in general. Before long these craft gilds began to show signs of that selfish and exclusive spirit which is the end of prosperity. They did all they could to keep trade in the hands of their own members, and to restrict their numbers. Gradually there is a hardening of class divisions: a tendency to keep journeymen in their places, and to prevent them from becoming masters. Again, we find organisatons of men who were not craftsmen but merchants or dealers, men who did not make but only bought sold. There was all through town life a process of change social relations and social organisation.


The origins of Chester Guild Merchant date back to the charter of Ranulf III Earl of Chester, a single representve for Chester's merchant community of 20 guilds or companies .

Bakers Company		Brewers Company		Company Butchers
Inn holders, cooks and Victuallers Company		Joiners Carvers and Turners Company		Saddlers and Curriers Company
Merchant Taylor Company		Weavers Company		Smiths, Cutlers and Plumbers Company
Cordwainers and Shoemakers Company		Drawers in Dee		Mason Company
Painters, Glaziers, Embroiderers and Stationers Company		Barber Surgeons Company		Bricklayers
Tanners Company		Coopers Company		Sadlers and Curriers
Cappers , Pinners , Wierdrawers and Linendrapers		Wet and Dry Glovers Company		Wrights and Slaters
Skinners and Feltmakers Company Tanners Company		Goldsmiths and Clock - makers

1623 October 17th Chester City Council Minutes
It was reported in a petition that several people who were not members of the Company of Tailors exercised this in the City in the liberties of the abbey to the prejudice of the company. It was ordered that the Dean and Prebends should be spoken to and that if they would not put a stop to it , then the Mayor and his brethren would do so by law .

1640 December 11th Chester City Council Minutes
The Company of Merchants were granted their petition that Ald. Thomas Throppe, one of the company, might be given leave to use the name of the mayor and Citizens in their petition to the King to obtain a new grant to export calf skins .