Guild

Merchant associations, known as guilds, became influential in towns. They regulated access to business and promoted their members’ interests. Their leaders could gain considerable local influence, so town society had its own hierarchy rather than being an equal community.

Spitalfields offered cheap housing, workshop space and an existing silk industry. Its position outside the City also meant that migrants were not subject to the City’s restrictive guild system. They could establish work more freely and develop their production methods.

A guild was an organisation that regulated a trade and defended its members’ interests. Native London weavers wanted immigrant cloth workers brought under their guild’s control. The Flemings instead defended a royal charter granted in 1352 that allowed them to work independently.

Trade guilds could press rulers to control foreign competitors. This was one route by which unofficial hostility influenced official policy.