462 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



to the gild were forbidden to combine ; and there were dis 

 putes between gilds respecting the limits of their respective 

 businesses. 



Lastly, let us not omit to note that the original union 

 of industrial government and political government con 

 tinued to be variously shown. Only members of gilds were 

 freemen of the town, exercising the franchise. Leading offi 

 cers of the gilds continued to be the chief town-authorities. 

 And there were, in some cases, powers deputed to the gilds 

 by the municipality. 



793. The foregoing sketch of these local industrial in 

 stitutions, already involved, would have been much more 

 involved had it included descriptions of their many varieties ; 

 for in different places, at different times, under different 

 conditions, they have had characters more or less different. 

 Still more complex would have been the account if, instead 

 of limiting it mainly to English gilds, it had taken note of 

 gilds in adjacent countries. But the resulting conception 

 would have remained substantially the same. In France, 

 for example, the system had developed to the extent that 

 there were over 100 incorporated trades. In Paris they w r ere 

 so closely associated with the municipal government that in 

 the earliest times they had police-duties divided among 

 them, and in war-time had to perform garrison duties. As in 

 England, a trade could be carried on only after passing 

 through a regulated apprenticeship. A master might not 

 have more than one apprentice at a time. There were con 

 tests between gilds respecting the inclusion of this or that 

 kind of work in their respective businesses. 



Considered in its general character, the policy of gilds 

 implies that prevailing antagonism which characterized the 

 times to which they belonged. In less violent ways these 

 small groups sought to do that which the larger groups in 

 cluding them did in more violent ways. To preserve its 

 territory, or to get more territory, each nation carried on 



