Oldal 159 [159]
COMMERCE : [37
as would clothe all Europe. The
weavers were very powerful—too
powerful indeed—and measures
for repressing and dividing them
were taken as early as the reign
of King Henry II. They had
formed themselves into a guild
and were rich as well as powerful.
But the governing body was
richer, and John was very sus¬
ceptible to the influence of wealth.
In the reign of Henry III the
weavers guild had resolved itself
into its component parts, and we
have tailors, fullers, shearmen,
cloth workers, and other guilds,
VINTNERS HALL—ENTRANCE
of whom the tailors seem to have
been the most powerful. For some reason with which we are not
acquainted, they quar¬
relled with professors
of the great rival art of
the goldsmiths, and in
1226 a pitched battle
took place between 500
men of either side fully
armed. The tailors, it
would seem, occupied
the eastern part of the
city, while the gold¬
smiths flourished in the