Gild Merchant

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.

This development was important in the medieval Kingdom of England where the Gild Merchant brought in by the Norman Conquest.^[1]. It was both a guild and a form of local government. Some, such as the Preston Guild Merchant, still retain significance. Another example is London's Guildhall became the seat of the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation, the world's oldest continuously elected local government,^[2] whose members to this day must be Freemen of the city.^[3]