These craftsmen formed themselves into guilds,
which sought charters to require all craftsmen to belong to the
guild of their craft, to have legal control of the craft work, and
be able to expel any craftsman for disobedience. These guilds were
composed of master craftsmen, their journeymen, and apprentices.
These guilds determined the wages and working conditions of the
craftsmen and petitioned the borough authorities for ordinances
restraining trade, for instance by controlling the admission of
outsiders to the craft, preventing foreigners from selling in the
town except at fairs, limiting purchases of raw materials to
suppliers within the town, forbidding night work, restricting the
number of apprentices to each master craftsmen, and requiring a
minimum number of years for apprenticeships. In return, these
guilds assured quality control. In some boroughs, they did work
for the town, such as maintaining certain defensive towers or
walls of the town near their respective wards. In some boroughs,
fines for infractions of these regulations were split between the
guild and the government.
In some towns, the merchant guilds attempted to directly regulate
the craft guilds. Crafts fought each other. There was a street
battle with much bloodshed between the goldsmiths and the
parmenters and between the tailors and the cordwainers in 1267 in
London. There was also a major fight between the goldsmiths and
the tailors in 1268.
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