240 THE PATH OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



The suppression of the truck system coincides 

 with the development of the clearing-house system. 



2. Corporations and syndicates. The radical 

 differences existing between the corporations of 

 former days and the greater part of modern pro- 

 fessional associations has already been pointed out. 

 The ecclesiastical associations, however, of the 

 present day are modelled as closely as possible 

 upon mediaeval institutions. It does not follow 

 that the last remaining vestiges of the latter have 

 been revived. There seems to be evidence that 

 quite the contrary has taken place. 



At Bruges no attempt was made by the founders 

 of the guild of ambachten to resuscitate such 

 mediaeval corporations as continue to exist in a 

 state of decline. 



At Iseghem, a small town in the west of 

 Flanders, we have already seen that the corpora- 

 tion of shoemakers was divided up into six or 

 seven guilds at the time of the Eevolution. An 

 attempt was made a few years ago to reconstruct 

 and modernize these guilds, but the scheme fell 

 through. A new corporation wholly disconnected 

 with the guilds of Saint Crispin, and with no 

 structural resemblance to them was established 

 instead. 1 



3. Archaic collectivism and modern collectivism. 

 Societies of the present day exhibit numerous 



1 Emile Vandervelde, Enquete sur les Associations professionelles 

 d'ouvriers el d 'artisans en Belgique, i., p. 17, Bruxelles, 1891. 



