Re: The cities of Sartar: income, troops.

From: Ian Cooper <ian_hammond_cooper_at_eakqyHEvDjXYDcjuR5YwiSfDWrC0ZVyYXm1gV_5VmGcH9bpfxwx50RR-2>
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 09:11:45 +0000 (GMT)

The first thing to understand about guilds is that they are a community and provide the usual benefits of such. Within towns the normal extended kinship relationships of clans break down as people find themselves living among strangers, sometimes far from their place of birth. A guild usually exists to provide people with the benefits of community (participation, protection, recognition etc.) without the requirement for blood ties. Membership is from participation in a shared occupation. Guild is one term; brotherhood and union are others; most refer to the same concept, a community of workers organized for mutual benefit.

Such associations are old and not confined to the middle ages. The earliest guilds may have formed in India around 3800BC - the shreni. We know that the Greeks had their koinon and the Romans had their collegia. In the 7th century Anglo-Saxon law codes there are reference to guilds. We have legal codes for frith guilds from the time of Canute. Guilds were prohibited by Carolingian emperors; but continued to thrive. It is an ancient aspect of (urban) life. Most of these guilds had a similar sort of structure with a leader and council and the body which elected them.

Second, urban environments in this period are not often centers of free trade. Most markets will be controlled by someone. The line between legitimate business and organized crime is fairly thin at this point.

IMG walk into Jonstown and start plying your trade and you will upset someone, because you may be taking their business away. They will ask for fees to work your patch, compensation for their loss of trade and tithes for you to ply your trade. They will be backed by fellow workers to enforce their demands. You will want protection from the street thugs who will otherwise demand you pay their 'protection'.

Most urban centers will have communities that provide mutual assistance and control markets. We might as well call these guilds, unions, and brotherhoods. These terms are accessible to most people. We want to avoid cod-fantasy guilds or WoW player guilds, but I don't think we need to start worrying unduly. Glorantha does not need new terms, but we should appreciate the diversity they imply.

IMG Sartarite cities do have guilds and brotherhoods and the artisan's guild is a voice on the city council. There are masters and apprentices, but the apprentices are usually family. IMG there are no journeymen, because journeymen emerge when there is a growing need for labour and I don't think Sartar is industrialized to that degree. Outside the towns, the guilds hold little or no sway - although the duck boatmen seek a return of their monopoly now that the Empire has gone. YGWV.  

Ian Cooper

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