Guilds of craftsmen in Merkinė in the 17th century

Abstract

On 7 December 1569, the town of Merkinė received the Magdeburg Law from the Grand Duke Žygimantas Augustas of Lithuania. The newly granted rights of municipality allowed the local craftsmen to set up their guilds. It is known that the guild of shoemakers was established there in 1614, that of curriers in 1618, that of tailors in 1639, that of merchants in 1650. There is a mention of the head of the guild of butchers dating from 1707, but the date of the establishement of this guild remains unknown. The ruler used to confirm the statutes of the newly established guilds; some statutes were reconfirmed upon new accession to the throne. This article discloses the hierarchical structure within the guilds by discussing the appropriate paragraphs of the statutes; also, it demonstrates the basic conditions within which the members of the guilds took part in the social life of the town and the state. The relations among different guilds of the town are also discussed. After the town had been ransacked by Muscovite troops in 1655, the guilds disappeared for long. Some sort of recovery is to be seen in that King Augustus II reconfirmed the statutes of shoemakers in 1718. On that occasion, the ruler had also to fordid the Jews from trading in the imported goods of this sort, as the craftsmen of Merkinė were too weak to survive in the face of this kind of rivalry.