Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/754

 738 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

The desire of the citizen body to retain the exclusive enjoy- ment of the town pri%-ileges explains the form of government of the mediaeval towns. It is but natural that those who had par- ticipated in the early struggles with the feudal lords should participate in the advantages accruing from the results of the conflict. In the early history of many of the towns the market rights furnished the economic basis for city growth. Equal participation in these advantages and political equality went hand in hand. The democratic movement of the Middle Ages was checked as soon as the original settlers or their descend- ants had established the rule of exclusive enjoyment. After the twelfth century distinct traces of a nascent oligarchy are to be seen, which became well marked at the beginning of the fourteenth. "The English borough in its first condition, and probably during a considerable part of the twelfth and thir- teenth centuries, realized the ideal of a true democratic commu- nity."' The forces that undermined the early democracy were twofold — first, the denial of equal economic opportunity to new- comers, which led to their political subordination ; second, the social ascendency of the more prosperous trades, which gave to certain classes the leadership in political affairs.

The first of these requires but little explanation, as the monopoly of economic and political privileges which the found- ers of the towns had secured for themselves was inherently inconsistent with the principles of democracy.

The second is closely connected with the growth of the guilds which were, at first, conglomerate associations of employ- ers and employes — the organization of producers as against consumers. Within each guild, rank was determined by indi- vidual skill and efficiency; inherited privileges were unknown. Democracy within the guild continued to exist long after democracy in town government had disappeared. The inti- mate relation between the guilds and the town government, which developed very gradually, was due to the fact that the main function of the public authority was to guard the eco- nomic privileges of the town and to further its industrial

■ Mrs. J. R. Green, Town Life in the Fifteenth Century.