GILD REGULATION. 455 



&quot; As long as each village was hostile to every other, defended from 

 the predatory incursions of neighbours, not by any respect for the 

 property of others but by the wide extent of its own waste [the sur 

 rounding wild tract], regular trade would seem to be impossible.&quot; 

 And how well established was this diffused enmity is implied 

 by the fact that, just as the other savages above referred to, 

 had neutral meeting places for the occasional exchange of 

 commodities; so the Anglo-Saxons had boundary stones 

 within the waste lands, or &quot; marks,&quot; separating their settle 

 ments, at which they met to trade. 



This early state, during which inter-village relations were 

 swayed by sentiments like those which now sway inter 

 national relations, long continued, and left its traces in the 

 intercourse between groups after large places had grown up. 

 In another county a trader had no better status than if he 

 belonged to another country. As Cunningham says, &quot; the 

 Norwich merchant who visited London was as much of a 

 foreigner there as a man from Bruges or Rouen.&quot; One con 

 sequence was that transactions with outsiders were mu 

 nicipally administered. 



&quot;The town itself (communitas) was the organ by which payments to 

 or from the merchant of another place might be adjusted ; it was by 

 suing the community that the creditor could reach a defaulting debtor 

 at a distance.&quot; 



This condition of things had for its natural concomitant a 

 practical identity of the gild organization with the municipal 

 organization. The earliest gilds cnighten gilds as exist 

 ing in Canterbury (where the gild is described as &quot; cnights 

 of Canterbury, or ceapmann guild &quot;), Winchester, London, 

 and Cambridge were in large measure agencies for local 

 government. &quot; In many cases the inhabitants of the town 

 and the inhabitants of the guild were practically coextensive 

 bodies; &quot; and by the charter of Edward IV, the city-fran 

 chise was practically limited to the members of the trades 

 and mysteries. In further evidence may be named the regu 

 lations of the Cambridge gild which &quot; were less concerned 

 with the recovery of property than with enforcing due 

 129 



