come to be called, not only received specific charters, but the king, having found that they were the main-spring of trades in his kingdom, resolved to raise them in public estimation, and became himself a member of the Company of Merchant Tailors, an example which the nobility were not slow to follow; and it is a despised Company that cannot now-a-days boast of many names of rank upon its rolls.

In the records of the thirty-sixth Parliament of Edward's reign, a petition from the commons is preserved, which shows not only how powerful these guilds had by that time become, but also that the evil of "trusts," recently so much lamented, is not of such modern origin as we may suppose. This petition recites that the Guild of Grocers had become so great and monopolistic as to threaten ruin to the numerous other fraternities that had now sprung up, and complains that they "engrossed all manner of merchandise vendible, suddenly raised the prices of such merchandise within the realm, and by ordinance made amongst themselves, in their own society, kept such merchandise in store to be sold at higher rates in times of dearth and scarcity."

From this time forward we find many records of charters granted to these companies, and the granting of such charters, for which the guilds were made to pay liberally, became a strictly business transaction, being one of the methods by which the sovereigns raised money for their numerous wars in France and Scotland. From 1280 to 1420, twelve companies were chartered; from 1420 to 1740, ten companies received charters; during the fourteen years of Elizabeth's reign, five companies were incorporated; and with the arrival of the poverty-stricken Stuarts, a shower of charters were granted, James granting seventeen and Charles twenty-two. With the expulsion of the Stuarts, however, the granting of charters practically ceased, only one having been issued since that time, and that one, appropriately enough, to the Fan Makers in the bric-à-brac age of Queen Anne.

Under the Restoration the guilds fared hard. The great fire of London destroyed their halls and warehouses. Charles's idiotic foreign policy, and the high-handed "quo warranto" proceedings which their wealth brought upon them, crippled their gains and liberties; and after the advent of the German dynasty, with its importation of the German aristocratic contempt for trade, the younger sons of nobles and country gentlemen ceased to enter mercantile pursuits.

But we find—and to their credit be it said—that the guilds have on the whole, and throughout their history, devoted themselves wisely to the promotion of public advantage, always standing shoulder to shoulder against every attempt at royal encroachment upon the freedom of the commoner, advancing wise measures for the government of the city and the undisturbed conduct of business, and taking all proper care that no member of their fraternity or any merchant of their trade should sell under weight or produce articles below a certain standard of quality.

The history of each of the companies is very similar. To briefly follow one of them, the Worshipful Company of Grocers, for example, let us quote the account recently given by Mr. Moore in the Century Magazine.

"On June 12, 1345," he writes,"a number of pepperers, as the grocers were then styled, met together at dinner by agreement at the town mansion of the Abbot of Bury in St. Mary Axe. They talked their common affairs over, and agreed to form themselves into a voluntary association to settle trade disputes, to help poor members, and to say prayers for the souls of the departed members. They took St. Anthony for their patron, elected two wardens to preside over them and a chaplain to pray for them. Ever since, they have met each year on St. Anthony's day and dined together, electing new wardens and crowning them with garlands. In 1427 they bought some land in Old Jewry, a street leading out of Cheapside, there built a hall, and there remain to this day. After their association had been in