114 THE DERBY COMPANY OF MERCERS. 



custom prevailed amongst them, that if anyone brought neat's 

 leather, wool or woolfells into Derby to sell, and one of the Gild 

 placed his foot on the thing to be bought, no one but a member 

 of the Society would dare to buy it, nor would the merchant dare 

 to sell it save to a member, nor for a higher price than that which 

 the member of the Society offered.* The burgesses paid a fine of 

 forty marks, and Edward III. restored to them the various liberties 

 which he had questioned ; among them that of a Gild Merchant, 

 which was not to be used for the oppression of the people. 



According to Dr. Gross, the Gild Merchant consisted of 

 merchants and of artisans. About a century and a half after the 

 first mention of a Gild Merchant, craft gilds came into existence. 

 Each society consisted of workers in one branch of trade ; and as 

 labour became more subdivided, the number of these craft gilds 

 increased. As the master craftsmen became more influential, the 

 regulation of trade passed more and more into their hands, and 

 eventually the Gild Merchant was replaced by the aggregate of 

 craft societies. This change can be traced in various records ; 

 and in town charters the expression Gild Merchant disappeared, 

 and that of freeman or burgess was substituted. In Derby, for 

 example, the Charter of John (similar to that given to Nottingham) 

 confirmed to Derby a Gild Merchant, whilst in the Charter of 

 James it was ordered that no stranger should trade except at 

 markets and fairs ; and according to our present charter, granted 

 by Charles II. in 1680 (five years after the formation of the 

 Derby Company of Mercers), no person except a burgess or 

 freeman of the borough was to exercise any occupation or mystery, 

 or use any shop for the sale of merchandise in the borough, 

 unless at the marts and markets. 



The next step was the organization of the craft gilds into a 

 single society : as Dr. Gross says, " the parts into which the old 

 Gild Merchant had resolved itself were again fused into one body, 

 which occupied a place in the civic polity, similar in many 

 respects to that of the ancient Gild Merchant." 



* Rot. Chart. 138. " Placita de quo warranto, 158-160." An English 

 translation is given by Dr. Gross in his "Gild Merchant," Vol. I., pp. 40, 41. 

 The above is an abstract. 



