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THE London Guilds or Livery
Companies are the oldest Craft and Merchant Guilds in Europe. According
to the Report of a Royal Commission that inquired into their condition
in 1534, they were in their original constitutions not so much trading
societies as trade societies, instituted for the purpose of protecting
the consumer or the employer against the incompetency or fraud of the
dealer or the artisan ; and also for protecting the workman trained to
his art, according to notions of early times, by preventing his being
undersold in the labour market by an unlimited number of competitors.
Further, the Companies acted as domestic tribunals—adjudicatina, or
rather arbitrating, between master and man and settling disputes. They
were also in the nature of benefit societies, from which the workmen, in
return for the contributions which they had made when in health and
vigour to the common stock of the Guild, might be relieved in sickness
or when disabled by the infirmities of old age. In all these respects
they formed a model after which the Guilds throughout England and
Scotland were formed.
The London Companies were
originally almost wholly Craft Guilds; and one of the most striking
features in their history is the mastery which at a very early period
they obtained in the municipality of the city. Even to this day the
Guilds of London possess more power and a greater control in the
municipal government than in any other city in the world. Two causes led
to this mastery. They were invested with the sole right of conferring
the freedom (in nearly all other places the granting of the freedom was
vested in the governing body or municipality) ; and they early became
possessed of great wealth, and, as a natural consequence, exercised a
powerful influence among the general body of citizens.
The London Guilds were
thus able to assert and maintain their independence to a far greater
extent than the Guilds throughout England and Scotland ; they preceded
the constitution of the city itself, and never Iost their original power
and influence. "England," says Brentano, "must be considered as the
birthplace of Guilds, and London, perhaps, as their cradle. At least
there is documentary evidence that the constitution of the city was
based upon a Guild." The London Guilds still retain much of their
predominance in regard to municipal afairs; and no small amount of their
present troubles is die to the fact of their having clung too
tenaciously to the ancient rights and privileges they possessed. They
have not been wise in their day and generation in yielding tip the
controlling power they exercised in connection with the government of
the city. They have stubbornly refused to conform to the reforming
spirit of the age; and there is now every probability that the hand of
reform will be applied more drastically than it would have been had they
been less tardy in reading the signs of the times. A keen struggle of a
double character seems to be impending. On the one side, the citizens of
London will make every effort to obtain as large a slice of the enormous
wealth of the Companies as they can; and, on the other, the London
Companies will struggle to retain as much of their ancient power and
influence as possible. Into these questions, however, we have no desire
to enter; it will be sufficient for our purpose to give a brief sketch
of those great companies with the view of assisting us to understand the
nature of the Guilds which were formed after the model of the early
London Guilds. It may be here noted that the name Livery Company was
adopted in consequence of the members of the governing bodies wearing
elaborate robes or livery, the members who were entitled to wear these
robes coming to be known as liverymen.
The Royal Commission
which was appointed in 1880, consisting of Lord Derby, the Duke of
Bedford, Lord Sherbrook, Lord Coleridge, Sir Richard Cross, Sir
Nathaniel Rothschild, Sir Sydney Waterlow, Alderman Cotton, Mr. Albert
Pell, Sir Henry James, Mr. J. B. Firth, and Mr. Thomas Burt, had
authority to enquire into the circumstances and dates of the foundation
of the Companies, the objects for which they were founded, arid how far
these objects had been carried into effect; and into any Acts of
Parliament, charters, trust deeds, decrees of Court, or other documents
founding, regulating, or affecting the said Companies. They were also
empowered to inquire into the constitution and governing bodies of the
Companies, and the mode of admission of freemen, liverymen, and other
members; to ascertain the extent and nature of the property of, or held
in trust for or by, the Companies, both real and personal, and the mode
in which the property is managed and the income is expended. The powers
of the Commission were fully exercised, and it is to the credit of the
Guilds that they loyally responded to the demand made upon them for
information, which they had hitherto been exceedingly jealous of
affording. Five huge blue books were filled with the results of the
labours of the Commission, containing a vast amount of interesting and
valuable historical matter.
There is a remarkable
blank in history respecting the period between what may be termed the
Roman London, and the London of the thirteenth century. An attempt has
been made to trace an unbroken connection between the two periods, but
the attempt has been only partially successful. It is only from the
rudimentary municipal constitution which Alfred planted that any
connection can be traced with the mediaeval and modern Corporations. We
have already referred to the Craft Guilds that were undoubtedly in
existence among the Romans themselves; but it is only from the
similarity of the Guilds known in the medieval period that we can even
assume that the Romans founded them in this country. There is no
positive trace of a connection between them, at least so far as London
is concerned, and great diversity of opinion exists among historians on
the point.
As the Craft Guilds and
Merchant Guilds were the germ of the municipalities of Europe, so were
they also the germ of the municipality of London. In Scotland the
connection maintained between the Guilds and public bodies was of a very
fragmentary character, and of slight account compared to what exists in
London. At the present day, notwithstanding the alterations which have
taken place on the constitution of the Companies of London, the body
known as the Common Hall, and which is composed of members of the Livery
Companies, continues jointly with the Court of Aldermen to elect the
Lord Mayor and certain other important civic functionaries; while for
five hundred years, up to the year 1835, membership of a City Company
was compulsory before full citizenship of the city of London could be
enjoyed. The difference in this respect between the London Guilds and
the Guilds in Scotland is very marked. The power of granting the freedom
was very early conferred on the Town Councils in Scotland; the Crafts
Guilds simply tested the qualifications of the applicants; but in London
the Guilds both tested the qualifications and granted the freedom.
In the London Guilds
there have always been three grades of membership—(1) simple membership,
the possession of the freedom which snakes a "freeman" or "freewoman;"
(2) membership of what is called "the livery;" and (3) a place on the
"court" or the governing body. The freedom of the Companies has been
obtainable in two ways—(1) by apprenticeship; and (2) by patrimony, the
latter anode accounting for the fact that so many of the freemen and
liverymen of London are not bona fide craftsmen. A system of
apprenticeship, however, was an essential element in the Guilds in their
earlier history. All apprentices had to serve with a freeman for a
period of seven years, at the end of which time they were admitted to
the freedom of the Company. The "liverymen" are simply a superior grade
of freemen, consisting (1) of craftsmen who are employers of labour, and
(2) persons of some wealth and position who have joined the Companies by
patrimony or by purchase, and who need not necessarily be craftsmen. The
number of liverymen is limited, an Act of the Court, dated 27th July,
1.697, being still in force, to the effect " that no person shall be
allowed to take upon himself the clothing of any of the 12 Companies
unless he have an estate of £1000; or of any of the inferior Companies
unless lie have an estate of £500." In some cases as much as £100 has to
be paid by an individual who is "called" to the livery. At the present
day a person joining one of the leading London Companies as a freeman by
purchase might, in his progress from the position of a mere freeman to
full membership, have to pay upwards of £800 in fees and fines. Apart
from their privileges and position in connection with the municipal
government of London, freemen and the widows and orphans of freemen are
entitled, in the case of poverty and in old age (1) to be received into
the almshouses of the Companies which have almshouses: and (2) to
pensions and casual relief out of the trust funds which have been left
to the Companies for that purpose. They are also relieved out of the
general income, i.e., that part of the Companies' income which is in the
eye of the law not trust income. Liverymen and their widows receive
pensions varying from £50 to £150 a year.
The Companies, while they
exercise a considerable amount of control in the municipal affairs of
London, have through their courts or governing bodies the entire control
of their own affairs, the appointment of their officials, the management
of their property, the admission to the freedom, livery, and court, the
administration of their charitable trusts, the appointment of incumbents
to the Companies' livings, and of the masters of their schools. Although
the municipality of London can now confer the freedom irrespective of
the Companies, the Corporation possesses a very slight, hardly more than
a nominal, control over the Companies. In short, they retain full
possession of, and control over, their enormous property, valued by the
Royal Commissioners several years ago at not less than fifteen millions
sterling, and which it was calculated would in the course of twenty
years be increased to twenty millions if the existing rate of
accumulation continued.
The London Guilds are at
present divided into two classes, namely, twelve Great Companies — the
Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Taylors,
Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Vintners, and Cloth Workers, and
sixty-two minor Companies; but some of the so-called minor Companies are
wealthier than their great neighbours. The total membership is only
something like 10,000, about 1500 of whom form the Courts of the
Companies. On an examination of the register for 1882 it was found that
"the liverymen, from whom the members of the Courts are selected, are a
body consisting of persons following professions, persons engaged in
commerce, or persons who have retired from business. A considerable
number are men of eminence; and many members of the House of Commons are
liverymen. The Aldermen who represent the City belong to the several
Coinpanies, and are Common Councilmen."
The admission by
patrimony has produced a most striking effect on the membership of the
liveries and the constitution of the courts. Where a family has
continued prosperous from generation to generation, and its members were
able to join the liveries, they very soon came to possess a position of
paramount influence. A remarkable instance of this is to be found in the
case of the Mercers' Company, the court of which is recruited from a
livery of 97, on which certain families are represented by as many as 9
or 10 members. Before leaving this part of the subject it may be of some
interest to state that the Royal Commission, to which reference has been
made, recommended that the State should intervene (1) for the purpose of
preventing the alienation of the property of the Companies; (2) securing
the permanent application of a considerable portion of the Corporation
income to useful purposes; and (3) declaring new trusts in cases in
which a better application of the trust income of the Companies has
become desirable.
The London Companies do
not now pretend to be bodies of craftsmen. One of their leading members,
Alderman Cotton, informed the Commission that for 400 years the larger
number of the members did not pretend to have followed the crafts of
their Companies; and from this fact he argues that "any forced
devolution of their funds in aid of such trades would be a gross
injustice." The corporate or non-trust income—that is, income apart from
revenue from bequests, and mortifications—amounts to about £600,00() per
annum, £175,000 of which is spent on "maintenance," £100,000 on
entertainments, and about £150,000 on benevolent objects. £40,000 a year
is paid to the members of the governing bodies as "court fees," and
£60,000 on salaries. The highest fee paid for attendance at a meeting is
five guineas, and the lowest half a guinea; and in some cases as much as
£300 a year is paid to one individual. The salaries are also on a
liberal scale. The clerks receive about £700 a year, and the higher
officials from £1500 to £2000. The entertainments given by the
Companies, and which cost £100,000 a year, are of two kinds—(1) banquets
to the liveries, and (2) dinner parties which take place on the days on
which the courts meet. In the larger Companies two or three of the
former kind are held annually, while numerous entertainments are given
to persons of eminence and royal personages both at home and from
abroad. In addition to the £150,000 spent out of the corporate revenue
on benevolent objects there is a trust revenue of about £200,000
available for similar purposes. Out of this large sum £85,000 is applied
for the relief of old and decayed members, about £1,000 less than is
spent on entertainments, and within £25,000 of what is required for
salaries. The Companies have been wisely bestirring themselves for some
time back in educational matters. They support between thirty and forty
schools, chiefly middle class and classical. The City and Guilds of
London Technical Institute is also supported by the Companies, and is
doing a large amount of good work in promoting technical education
throughout the kingdom. |
