LIVERY, originally the provision of food, clothing, &c., to household servants. The word is an adaptation of the Anglo-French _livrée_, from _livrer_, to deliver (Late Lat. _liberare_, to set free, to serve, to give freely), in the special sense of distributing. In the sense of a fixed allowance of provender for horses, it survives now only in "livery-stable," _i.e_. an establishment where horses and carriages are kept or let out for hire. From the meaning of provision of food and clothing the word is applied to a uniform worn by the retainers and servants of a household. In the 15th century in England a badge, collar or other insignia, the "livery," was worn by all those who pledged themselves to support one of the great barons in return for his promise of "maintenance," i.e. of protection against enemies; thus arose the custom of "livery and maintenance," suppressed by Henry VII. The members of the London city companies wore a distinctive costume or "livery," whence the term "livery companies." In law, the term "livery" means "delivery," the legal handing of property into the possession of another; for "livery of seisin" see FEOFFMENT. LIVERY COMPANIES, the name given to particular companies or societies in the city of London. They belong to a class of institutions which at one time were universal in Europe. In most other countries they have disappeared; in England, while their functions have wholly changed, the organization remains. The origin of the city companies is to be found in the craftgilds of the middle ages. The absence of a strong central authority accounts for the tendency of confederation in the beginning of modern societies. Artificial groups, formed in imitation of the family, discharged the duties which the family was no longer able, and the state was not yet able, to undertake. The inhabitants of towns were forced into the societies known as gild-merchants, which in course of time monopolized the municipal government, became exclusive, and so caused the growth of similar societies among excluded citizens. The craftgilds were such societies, composed of handicraftsmen, which entered upon a struggle with the earlier gilds and finally defeated them. The circumstances and results of the struggle were of much the same character in England and on the continent. In London the victory of the crafts is decisively marked by the ordinance of the time of Edward II., which required every citizen to be a member of some trade or mystery, and by another ordinance in 1375 which transferred the right of election of corporate officers (including members of parliament) from the ward-representatives to the trading companies. Henceforward, and for many years, the companies engrossed political and municipal power in the city of London.