The Guild Houses on the Grote Markt at Antwerp
Guild houses facing the city hall on Antwerp's Grote Markt. Crossbowmen, coopers, drapers and grocers each built on the main square, at their own expense, in sight of the magistrates — which is roughly where they stood in the government of the city as well.
A guild was never only a trade body. It set who could work, trained and licensed them, fixed quality and often price, ran a court for its own disputes, paid for funerals and altars, and in many towns held seats in the council. That is why the system took so long to dismantle: abolishing it meant abolishing the training, the welfare and the local government along with the price-fixing. See how guilds ran Europe's economy.
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