The Political Economy of European Craft Guilds: Power Relations and Economic Strategies of Merchants and Master Artisans in the Medieval and Early Modern Textile Industries

Abstract

early modern period.3 Since the 1990s, however, they have argued increasingly that craft guilds are more likely to have benefited the economy.4 But this revisionist thesis is not generally accepted.Some historians reject it, emphasizing that craft guilds were far from efficient institutional arrangements operating to the advantage of the pre-industrial economy.5 European craft guilds existed in many different forms and performed myriad functions, often simultaneously serving multiple objectives that might vary greatly over time as well.This would suggest that no single element should be considered in isolation.Still, the political economy of craft guilds has received little consideration thus far, particularly regarding the issue of whether these institutions promoted or impeded economic activity.Few authors have analysed the articulation of politico-institutional and socio-economic changes, even though such an approach is essential for examining the extent to which members of corporative organizations were in a position to meet new challenges (i.e. to launch entrepreneurial initiatives).The aim of this essay is to shed light on how power relationships on the one hand and economic strategies of merchants and master artisans on the other related to one another, with due consideration being given to Derek Keene's advice that it is better ''to focus on the nature of the power that was articulated through the different forms of association, which can be described as guilds than on the institution itself''.6 A comparative approach is necessary 3.Many historians have endorsed the views of Henri Pirenne, Histoire de Belgique, II, Du commencement du XIVe sie`cle a`la mort de Charles le Te´me´raire (Brussels, 1922), pp.436-438, and IV, La re´volution politique et religieuse (Brussels, 1919), p. 427.See the interesting remarks of Walter Prevenier, ''Henri Pirenne et les villes des anciens Pays-Bas au bas Moyen Age (XIVe-XVe sie `cles)'', in La fortune historiographique des the`ses d'Henri Pirenne.Actes du Colloque organise´a`l'occasion du cinquantenaire de la mort de l'historien belge par l'Institut des Hautes Etudes de Belgique (Archives et Bibliothe `ques de Belgique, special issue 28) (Brussels, 1986), pp.48-49.4. See inter alia James R. Farr, ''On the Shop Floor: Guilds, Artisans, and the European Market Economy, 1350-1750'', Journal of Early Modern History, 1 (1997), pp.24-54; Josef Ehmer, ''Traditionelles Denken und neue Fragestellungen zur Geschichte von Handwerk und Zunft'', in Friedrich Lenger (ed.), Handwerk, Hausindustrie und die historische Schule der Nationalo¨konomie.Wissenschafts-und gewerbegeschichtliche Perspektiven (Bielefeld,

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