European Guild System

Timeline

1. 1371–1374Florence · TuscanyOnly members of Florence's seven major guilds (Arti Maggiori) were eligible to hold municipal office; guild charters stipulated apprenticeship terms and product standards for wool textiles, banking, physicians, and other trades. In the 1370s, oligarchic families consolidated their rule through guild qualifications, giving the guilds a dual function of economic regulation and political gatekeeping.
2. 1378Florence · TuscanyThe 1378 revolt of Florence's wool combers (Ciompi) struck at the major guilds' monopoly; lower-ranking craftsmen briefly formed new guilds and took part in government. Though suppressed, the revolt exposed deep contradictions within the guild system between masters and hired workers, and between major and minor guilds, becoming a landmark in the history of European labor politics.
3. 1375–1380Bruges · FlandersMerchant guilds in Hanseatic cities such as Bruges and Lübeck controlled wool imports, cloth exports, and credit business, jointly setting market rules with the city councils. After the 1370 Treaty of Stralsund expanded Hanseatic merchants' privileges, the guild system became the standardized model of commercial governance in the Northern European–German trade network.