Editing Guild (section)

=== Influence ===
[[File:Shoemaker Book of Trades.png|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Shoemaker]]s, 1568]]
Guilds are sometimes said to be the precursors of modern [[cartel]]s.<ref>Holm A. Leonhardt: ''Kartelltheorie und Internationale Beziehungen. Theoriegeschichtliche Studien'', Hildesheim&nbsp;2013, p.&nbsp;79.</ref> Guilds, however, can also be seen as a set of self-employed skilled craftsmen with ownership and control over the materials and tools they needed to produce their goods. Some argue that guilds operated more like [[cartels]] than they were like trade unions (Olson 1982). However, the journeymen organizations, which were at the time illegal,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bakliwal |first1=V.K. |title=Production and Operation Management |date=March 18, 2011|publisher=Pinnacle Technology, 2011 |isbn=9788189472733}}</ref> may have been influential.

The exclusive privilege of a guild to produce certain goods or provide certain services was similar in spirit and character to the original [[patent]] systems that surfaced in England in 1624. These systems played a role in ending the guilds' dominance, as [[trade secret]] methods were superseded by modern firms directly revealing their techniques, and counting on the state to enforce their legal [[monopoly]].

Some guild traditions still remain in a few handicrafts, in Europe especially among [[shoemaker]]s and [[barber]]s. These are, however, not very important economically except as reminders of the responsibilities of some trades toward the public.

Modern [[antitrust]] law could be said to derive in some ways from the original statutes by which the guilds were abolished in Europe.