Employers want to have skilled personnel and get good prices for their products; customers want to have guaranteed good quality; and employees want to have proper working conditions and provisions in the event of illness and old age. This was important to people in the Middle Ages, too. That is why fellow tradesmen formed artisan guilds, first in Italy but later elsewhere as well. The guilds drew up quality codes, regulated working hours, organised training programmes, and provided care arrangements for the sick and elderly. They also formed a political lobby to pressure the city administration into adopting favourable measures. A craftsman or trader began his career as an apprentice to a guild member, eventually becoming a journeyman (compagnon). Those aspiring to independence (a master) first had to prove their competence with a ‘master’s piece’. After this piece was approved and the guild dues were paid, they were welcomed as member of the guild. This was easier to achieve for the offspring of guild members than for outsiders, of course.

In Utrecht the first guilds emerged in the late thirteenth century. They quickly gained in influence and even acquired the right to elect the city council. One important duty of the Utrecht guilds was to guard the city wall. Each guild was responsible for a certain section of the wall between two towers. The Smeetoren (the tower of the smith’s guild) was one such tower. Of the 21 guilds in Utrecht, the smith’s guild was the wealthiest and most powerful. At the guild house it ran a care home for elderly members, named the Eloyen Gasthuis after their patron saint, Saint Eloy.

The guilds not only looked after their members during their life, but also after their death. A proper funeral was very important to people in those days. Guilds had their own funeral vaults and colleagues would carry the coffin, which was covered by a black pall and decorated with silver pins. The Centraal Museum possesses thirteen pall decorations of the porters’ and grain weighers’ guilds: they depict porters carrying sacks, grain measuring units and shovels. The role of the guilds changed after the Middle Ages. They lost their political influence and, with the Reformation, also their religious role. Their function as a trade organisation remained, but their closed character was increasingly criticised. Their attempt to fight off competition from fellow tradesmen from outside the city was especially frowned upon. The guilds were officially abolished at the start of the nineteenth century.

Guilds were associations formed by craftsmen and traders, such as smiths, bakers and carpenters. They took care of quality and price control, as well as pay and working conditions. They served as a social safety net in case of illness or old age. This care continued after death. Guilds had their own burial vaults and colleagues would carry the bier, covered with a black cloth. This pall was decorated with silver pins, which symbolized the trade of that particular guild. The Centraal Museum owns thirteen pall decorations of the Porters’ and Grain Weighers’ Guild: hauling porters, grain measures, and spades. They were made in 1611 and 1645 by an unknown silver smith.