The European Guilds Book Launch

Thursday, 28 March, 2019

Princeton University Press, the Faculty of Economics and the Cambridge-INET Institute held an event to celebrate the publication of Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie's The European Guilds: An Economic Analysis book. The event took place on 14th March 2019 in the Old Combination Room, Trinity College. See a selection of photographs from the evening.

Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie

Guilds ruled many crafts and trades from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, and have always attracted debate and controversy. They were sometimes viewed as efficient institutions that guaranteed quality and skills. But they also excluded competitors, manipulated markets, and blocked innovations. Did the benefits of guilds outweigh their costs? Analyzing thousands of guilds that dominated European economies from 1000 to 1880, The European Guilds uses vivid examples and clear economic reasoning to answer that question.