Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionKropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Science
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Cooperation; Social groups; Social institutions
11. W. Stieda, "Hansische Vereinbarungen uber stadtisches Gewerbe im XIV
und XV Jahrhundert," in Hansische Geschichtsblatter, Jahrgang 1886, p.
121. Schonberg's Wirthschaftliche Bedeutung der Zunfte; also, partly,
Roscher.
12. See Toulmin Smith's deeply-felt remarks about the royal spoliation
of the guilds, in Miss Smith's Introduction to English Guilds. In France
the same royal spoliation and abolition of the guilds' jurisdiction was
begun from 1306, and the final blow was struck in 1382 (Fagniez, l.c.
pp. 52-54).
13. Adam Smith and his contemporaries knew well what they were
condemning when they wrote against the State interference in trade and
the trade monopolies of State creation. Unhappily, their followers, with
their hopeless superficiality, flung medieval guilds and State
interference into the same sack, making no distinction between a
Versailles edict and a guild ordinance. It hardly need be said that the
economists who have seriously studied the subject, like Schonberg (the
editor of the well-known course of Political Economy), never fell into
such an error. But, till lately, diffuse discussions of the above type
went on for economical "science."
14. In Florence the seven minor arts made their revolution in 1270-82,
and its results are fully described by Perrens (Histoire de Florence,
Paris, 1877, 3 vols.), and especially by Gino Capponi (Storia della
repubblica di Firenze, 2da edizione, 1876, i. 58-80; translated into
German). In Lyons, on the contrary, where the movement of the minor
crafts took place in 1402, the latter were defeated and lost the right
of themselves nominating their own judges. The two parties came
apparently to a compromise. In Rostock the same movement took place in
1313; in Zurich in 1336; in Bern in 1363; in Braunschweig in 1374, and
next year in Hamburg; in Lubeck in 1376-84; and so on. See Schmoller's
Strassburg zur Zeit der Zunftkampfe and Strassburg's Bluthe; Brentano's
Arbeitergilden der Gegenwart, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1871-72; Eb. Bain's
Merchant and Craft Guilds, Aberdeen, 1887, pp. 26-47, 75, etc. As to Mr.
Gross's opinion relative to the same struggles in England, see Mrs.
Green's remarks in her Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, ii. 190-217;
also the chapter on the Labour Question, and, in fact, the whole of this
extremely interesting volume. Brentano's views on the crafts' struggles,
expressed especially in iii. and iv. of his essay "On the History and
Development of Guilds," in Toulmin Smith's English Guilds remain
classical for the subject, and may be said to have been again and again
confirmed by subsequent research.
15. To give but one example--Cambrai made its first revolution in 907,
and, after three or four more revolts, it obtained its charter in 1076.
This charter was repealed twice (1107 and 1138), and twice obtained
again (in 1127 and 1180). Total, 223 years of struggles before
conquering the right to independence. Lyons--from 1195 to 1320.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account