from them in pushing its trade and protecting it against the efforts of rivals. They included not only professional merchants, but all who bought and sold, including many artisans. Of the nine members who belonged to the Shrewsbury merchant gild in its earliest period two were fishermen and one was a butcher. =53. Position of the merchant gilds; their privilege of monopoly.=—These merchant gilds did not exist in all parts of Europe, and differed much from each other in the various regions where they did exist. In England, which we shall choose to illustrate their operation, they became regular parts of the town government. They were granted one most important privilege, the exclusive right of trading within the town. “Foreigners,” which meant at this period the people from any other town, whether English or not, were allowed to bring their wares to the town and to sell them wholesale, but they were forbidden to purchase wares which the townspeople wanted for themselves, and they were not allowed to keep shops and to sell retail. The gilds were not like modern “trusts,” for, in the first place, their membership was very broad, and, in the second, they were associations of men, not of capital, and there was no division of profits among the members. There was a strong feeling of solidarity among the members, however, and competition between them was discouraged. In some places there was a law that if a gildsman made a bargain for any ware another gildsman had the right to share in it if he gave security that he could pay for the portion he desired. =54. Development of manufactures in the towns; the common handicrafts.=—The growth of towns led, as has been said, to a specialization in manufactures which was impossible before. All the industries that had been carried on in villages were continued in towns by professional craftsmen, and new ones were added as the demand for them grew. There were from a dozen to a score of handicrafts which supported for centuries the staple manufacturing groups of the towns: butchers, bakers, brewers, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, coppersmiths, masons, carpenters, cabinet-makers, wheelwrights, skinners or furriers, tanners, shoemakers, saddlers and harness-makers, weavers, dyers, fullers, and tailors. Most of these terms will be familiar to the reader. Coppersmiths took the place of the modern tinsmiths before the introduction of tinned iron. Fullers improved the texture of cloth after it had been woven, by beating and washing it with fuller’s earth, a clay which absorbs the grease from the wool; the cloth loses in length and breadth but gains in body and thickness.