Excerpt from The Gild Merchant a Contribution to British Municipal History, Vol. 1 This book arose to some extent from the author's German doctoral dissertation, entitled 'Gilda Mercatoria' (Gottingen, 1883). The latter was based mainly on printed sources, and did not aim at exhausting the subject. The present work is based mainly on manuscript materials, and in it the author aspires to throw light on the development not merely of gilds but also of the municipal constitution. Much fresh and classified material illustrating general municipal history will be found in the text and footnotes. The shortcomings of many of the ordinary authorities on the history of gilds and boroughs are touched on in Vol. I. p. I, and in Appendix A. Appendix B (Anglo-Saxon Gilds) could not be dispensed with, inasmuch as many writers confuse Anglo-Saxon gilds with the Gild Merchant The Scotch Gild Merchant and the Continental Gild Merchant (App. D and F) require separate treatment, because their development was different from that of the corresponding English institution, although most writers fail to notice this distinction. Appendix C (The English Hanse) and Appendix E (Affiliation of Boroughs) will, it is hoped, be as welcome to Continental as to English historians. The list of authorities at the end of Vol. I. may be helpful to future investigators. I have almost ready for the press a comprehensive bibliography of British municipal history, comprising about 4000 titles, with a critical survey of the whole literature. Whether it will ever be printed, must probably depend upon the success of the present work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.