The prevailing paradigm presumes that manufacturing guilds in medieval England monopolized markets for durable goods. 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,...

Section 1 substantiates my claims about reputations. Section 2 corroborates my claims about insurance. Section 3 describes craft guilds' structure and the legal environment in which guilds operated. Section 4 establishes my argument's conceptual framework.