Page "Guild" Paragraph 27

The medieval guild was established by charters or letters patent or similar authority by the city or the ruler and normally held a monopoly on trade in its craft within the city in which it operated: handicraft workers were forbidden by law to run any business if they were not members of a guild, and only masters were allowed to be members of a guild.

Before these privileges were legislated, these groups of handicraft workers were simply called ' handicraft associations '.