Guilds, laws, and markets for manufactured merchandise in late-medieval England q Gary Richardson * Department of Economics, 3151 Social Science Plaza, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-5100, USA Received 11 February 2002 Abstract The prevailing paradigm of medieval manufacturing presumes guilds monopolized markets for durable goods in late-medieval England. The sources of the monopolies are said to have been the charters of towns, charters of guilds, parliamentary statutes, and judicial precedents. This essay examines those sources, demonstrates they did not give guilds legal monopolies in the modern sense of the word, and replaces that erroneous assumption with an accurate de- scription of the legal institutions underlying markets for manufactures in medieval England. Ó 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Guild; Monopoly; Medieval; England; Manufacturing; Commerce; Patents The hardest work that lies ahead of gild historians is in studying the question of monopoly. Sylvia Thrupp, 1942. 1. Introduction Popular texts typically assert that guilds of manufacturers monopolized markets for durable goods during the later Middle Ages. Norman CantorÕs Medieval Reader q I thank my dissertation committee, my dissertation discussion group, two anonymous referees, and the editor of this journal for comments, advice, and encouragement. I thank the Social Science Research Council, University of California at Berkeley, Department of Demography, and the All-UC Group in Economic History for financial support. * Fax: 1-949-824-2182. E-mail address: garyr@uci.edu. 0014-4983/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0014-4983(03)00045-7 Explorations in Economic History 41 (2004) 1–25 www.elsevier.com/locate/eeh Explorations in Economic History