<P> Guilds are sometimes said to be the precursors of modern trade unions . 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 . Guilds were more like cartels than they were like trade unions (Olson 1982). However, the journeymen organizations, which were at the time illegal, may have been influential . </P> <P> The exclusive privilege of a guild to produce certain goods or provide certain services was similar in spirit and character with 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 These systems played a role in ending the guilds' dominance, as trade secret methods were superseded by modern firms directly revealing their techniques, and counting on the state to enforce their legal monopoly . </P> <P> Some guild traditions still remain in a few handicrafts, in Europe especially among shoemakers and barbers . Some ritual traditions of the guilds were conserved in order organisations such as the Freemasons, allegedly deriving from the Masons Guild, and the Oddfellows, allegedly derived from various smaller guilds . These are, however, not very important economically except as reminders of the responsibilities of some trades toward the public . </P> <P> Modern antitrust law could be said to derive in some ways from the original statutes by which the guilds were abolished in Europe . </P>

Who helped establish the first national association to represent the dental profession