58 ON THE PROBABLE ORIGIN 
articles from distant countries, and diffuse them 
by inland traffic over the whole of Europe. 
Such an increase of wealth was inevitably 
followed by the desire first of liberty, then of 
power, in the inhabitants of the cities. The 
formation of the gilds of merchants and com- 
panies of lower tradesmen and artizans, was a 
most important step towards perfecting those 
municipal institutions, of which we have seen 
that the rudiments have been preserved from 
the Roman times. They are generally supposed 
to have originated at this time, and Hullmann 
(p. 322) assigns as the cause of the formation 
of gilds, the necessity which the merchants felt 
of having mercantile causes decided by more 
enlightened judges than the magistrates of the 
cities. Yet when we reflect how exactly the 
gilds and incorporation of trades and handicrafts 
correspond with the collegia of the Romans, 
which continued in vigour down to the over- 
throw of the empire, we shall think it not im- 
probable that they had existed, though in a de- 
pressed and languishing state, through the dark 
part of the Middle Ages. A capitularius of the 
merchants is mentioned in a document of the year 
953, in Fantuzzi Monum. Ravenn. i. 133. 149. 
and an incorporated company of fishermen in 
