Stranica 163 [163]
COMMERCE [41
Se ee together on certain days. These guilds
Oe tee by degrees lost their primitive character,
and became merged in the chartered
companies, some of which consisted of
the men of a single guild, some of two
or three. Finally, the guilds, which had
by that time become wholly religious,
were abolished by Act of Parliament in
1552, and their estates were either for¬
feited or were bought in by the com¬
panies. When people speak nowadays
of the " guilds,” meaning the companies,
they commit a complete anachronism.
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ENTRANCE TO MERCERS HALL, CHEAPSIDE
There is not a single guild now
in the city.
Edward III first chartered
companies, though as early as
the reign of Henry III the trade
guilds of the cappers, the parish
clerks, and the ‘‘burillers” or
cloth measurers, are said to have
been recognised in some way by
the king. The first charters of
Edward III were given to the
ee
goldsmiths, the linen-armourers,
d ai
whose company the king himself
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