Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 8554180" data-attributes="member: 6779310">Don't forget that the standard of living is much lower. And that members of the guild may also be performing legitimate business.  The guild may also be the bank. Pawnbrokers would most likely be guildmembers.And that, when Italy cracked down on the Sicilian Mafia, the mafia membership swelled, not dropped... and became a US intelligence asset and support recipient from the OSS. The Egyptian crackdowns on the Islamic Brotherhood resulted in more such groups, and the Arab Spring revolutions.The various groups are still growing, even as the revolutions have been put down...Keep in mind that the big limit on thieves as a modern lifestyle is that they're selling stolen things to buy food.Medieval thieves are often just plain stealing food to eat... which makes the issue not how many people are in the town, but how many people the farmers feeding the town can feed... Protection rackets paid in food and shared to the guild; reduces two transactions.</blockquote>