The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries were the golden age of the guilds. They were at the height of their power and influence at the period of the invention of printing. The sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries were a period of decline. At first the decline was slow. After the sixteenth century, however, the decline was rapid, and long before the end of the eighteenth century the guilds had lost practically all of their old-time power and influence. In some portions of Europe the old guild organization still exists, but its influence is very slight and its purposes are far different from those of the old organizations of the Middle Ages. This decline was the result of the changing economic conditions. One of the most important of these was the development of the modern type of production in factories using costly equipment and employing large numbers of men. The old type of production required little or no capital. There was practically no costly machinery. The work was done in the master workman’s house by himself, his sons, and apprentices. No expensive outlay for materials or plant was required. The journeyman required practically no capital for starting in business beyond his personal strength and skill. Printing was the first industry which could not be carried on under the old conditions. From the beginning the printer must have capital to supply type, presses, and other equipment, to purchase material, which was costly, and to maintain himself and those who were working with him while a long process was being brought to completion and the product marketed. In order to carry on the business to any advantage a considerable number of persons must be employed. Under these circumstances printing was necessarily from the beginning an enterprise which required the co-operation of capital and labor to an extent hitherto unknown. Another reason for the decline of the guilds may be found in the increasing power of the government and its progressive control of the citizen. The control and protection thus exercised by the government rendered the protection and control exercised by the guild over its members not only unnecessary but improper. While in some respects governmental control and the freedom of a well-organized system of courts did not protect the rights of the individual and insure the quality of product as effectively as the guilds had done, it was inevitable that particular regulations should give way to general regulation and that the individual should not only be taught but compelled to look to the state rather than to an association of individuals for the protection of his rights and the definition of his duties.