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Rehabilitating the guilds: a reply

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  • SHEILAGH OGILVIE

Abstract

This article examines Epstein's attempt to rehabilitate pre‐modern craft guilds by criticizing my German case study. It demonstrates that his criticisms are baseless and his assertions about European guilds unsupported. Long survival does not establish the efficiency or aggregate economic benefits of any institution. Contrary to rehabilitation views, craft guilds adversely affected quality, skills, and innovation. Guild rent‐seeking imposed deadweight losses on the economy and generated no demonstrable positive externalities. Industry flourished where guilds decayed. Despite impairing efficiency, guilds persisted because they redistributed resources to powerful groups. The ‘rehabilitation’ view of guilds is theoretically contradictory and empirically untenable.

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  • Sheilagh Ogilvie, 2008. "Rehabilitating the guilds: a reply," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 61(1), pages 175-182, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:61:y:2008:i:1:p:175-182
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2007.00417.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sheilagh Ogilvie, 2007. "'Whatever Is, Is Right'?, Economic Institutions in Pre-Industrial Europe (Tawney Lecture 2006)," CESifo Working Paper Series 2066, CESifo.
    2. Ogilvie, Sheilagh, 2003. "A Bitter Living: Women, Markets, and Social Capital in Early Modern Germany," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198205548.
    3. Sheilagh Ogilvie, 2007. "‘Whatever is, is right’? Economic institutions in pre‐industrial Europe," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 60(4), pages 649-684, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Minns, Chris & Wallis, Patrick, 2009. "Rules and reality: quantifying the practice of apprenticeship in early modern Europe," Economic History Working Papers 27865, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    2. Boerner, Lars, 2016. "Medieval market making brokerage regulations in Central Western Europe, ca. 1250-1700," Economic History Working Papers 66834, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    3. Corriveau, Louis, 2021. "Technologies, Institutions, development and growth," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 159-164.
    4. Sheilagh Ogilvie, 2007. "'Whatever Is, Is Right'?, Economic Institutions in Pre-Industrial Europe (Tawney Lecture 2006)," CESifo Working Paper Series 2066, CESifo.
    5. Klaus Desmet & Avner Greif & Stephen L. Parente, 2020. "Spatial competition, innovation and institutions: the Industrial Revolution and the Great Divergence," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 1-35, March.
    6. Ogilvie, Sheilagh & Carus, A.W., 2014. "Institutions and Economic Growth in Historical Perspective," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 8, pages 403-513, Elsevier.
    7. Ruben Schalk, 2016. "Apprenticeships and craft guilds in the Netherlands, 1600–1900," Working Papers 0080, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.
    8. Sheilagh Ogilvie, 2014. "The Economics of Guilds," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 169-192, Fall.
    9. Erik Lindberg, 2009. "Club goods and inefficient institutions: why Danzig and Lübeck failed in the early modern period," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(3), pages 604-628, August.

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