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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7872693" data-attributes="member: 4937">The power of the Guild is coin. And a Guild typically trades coin for political power in the form of guaranteed monopolies, rights to regulate it's own affairs to ensure that monopoly persists, and guaranteed government contracts. In other words, the Guild offers politically powerful individuals a trade - we'll make you personally wealthy by filling up your coffers, if in exchange you help us squash competitors so that we can ensure we can keep ripping people off and so always have that money to spare.The Guild system ensured the prosperity of the newly created upper middle class of highly skilled craftsman, while breaking the backs of the peasantry with high priced goods that they could ill afford to pay. As with similar labor based monopolies, they can hold onto their power if and only if the quality of their labor really is vastly superior to any cheaper replacement.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7872693, member: 4937"] The power of the Guild is coin. And a Guild typically trades coin for political power in the form of guaranteed monopolies, rights to regulate it's own affairs to ensure that monopoly persists, and guaranteed government contracts. In other words, the Guild offers politically powerful individuals a trade - we'll make you personally wealthy by filling up your coffers, if in exchange you help us squash competitors so that we can ensure we can keep ripping people off and so always have that money to spare. The Guild system ensured the prosperity of the newly created upper middle class of highly skilled craftsman, while breaking the backs of the peasantry with high priced goods that they could ill afford to pay. As with similar labor based monopolies, they can hold onto their power if and only if the quality of their labor really is vastly superior to any cheaper replacement. [/QUOTE]

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