what are the functions of trade guilds????

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Rosy answered this

Guilds were powerful associations of producers that trained craftspeople, maintained control over production, regulated competition and prices, and restricted the entry of new people into the trade. They had been granted the monopoly right to produce and trade in specific products by the rulers. It was therefore difficult for new merchants to set up business in towns.

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Rosy answered this

The guilds were an important part of city and town life. Guilds were

exclusive, regimented organizations;
created in part to preserve the rights and privileges of their members; and
separate and distinct from the civic governments, but since the functions and purposes of guild and civic government overlapped, it was not always easy to tell them apart, especially since many well-to-do guildsmen were prominent in civic government.

Two kinds of guilds were especially important to civic life--merchant guilds and craft guilds.

Parvathy Prakash answered this

an association of craftsmen or merchants formed for mutual aid and protection and for the furtherance of their professional interests. Guilds flourished in europe between the 11th and 16th centuries and formed an important part of the economic and social fabric in that era.

The medival guilds were generally one of two types:

merchant guilds or craft guilds.

Merchant guilds were associations of all or most of the merchants in a particular town or city; these men might be local or long-distance traders, wholesale or retail sellers, and might deal in various categories of goods.

craft guilds, on the other hand, were occupational associations that usually comprised all the artisans and craftsmen in a particular branch of industry or commerce. There were, for instance, guilds of weavers, dyers, and fullers in the wool trade and of masons and architects in the building trade; and there were guilds of painters, metalsmiths, blacksmiths, bakers, butchers, leatherworkers, soapmakers, and so on.

Guilds performed a variety of important functions in the local economy.

1. They established a monopoly of trade in their locality or within a particular branch of industry or commerce;

2.they set and maintained standards for the quality of goods and the integrity of trading practices in that industry;

3.they worked to maintain stable prices for their goods and commodities; and

4.they sought to control town or city governments in order to further the interests of the guild members and achieve their economic objectives

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Parvathy Prakash answered this

Merchants of Southern India formed Trade Guilds in order to organise and expand their trading activities. Trade guilds became channels through which Indian culture got exported to other lands.

From the 11th century to the 13th century, South-Indian trade in Southeast-Asia was dominated by the Cholas; and it replaced the Pallava influence of the previous centuries.

Some trade guilds were very powerful and decided the fortunes of the kingdom. One example is the trade guild of Nanadeshis who not only financed local development projects and temple-constructions but also lent money to the kings.

The rulers did their best to accommodate the guilds because of the benefit they derived from them.

Trade guilds employed troops, enjoyed immunities, and had international connections and thus constituted a state within a state.

Trade guilds were often independent bodies over which kings tried to exercise control; and sometimes failed. One such example relates to the bankers and money-changers of the Bahmani Kingdom who ignored all warnings and melted all new coins that fell into their hands and supplied the metal to the mints of Warangal and Vijayanagar.