Gild Merchant

Gild Merchants or Guild Merchants were local merchant guilds in medieval England and Ireland. They acted as both a guild and a form of local government.

Rules established by merchant guilds were often incorporated into the municipal charters granted to market towns, with incorporated societies of merchants in each town or city holding exclusive rights of doing business there. In many cases they became the governing body of a town.^[1]

They were brought in by the Norman Conquest.^[2]. London also did not have a Gild Merchant as the whole civic body as the London Guilds collectively organised, regulated and protected trade within the City.^[3]

The Preston Guild Merchant is an example of a still existing Gilt Merchant although it no longer has governing functions.^[4]

The Dublin Guild Merchant was the first in precedence among the Dublin Guilds^[5] commanding 31 of the seats in the Dublin Corporation^[6] until it was abolished in the 1840s.^[7]