<P> The guild was at the center of European handicraft organization into the 16th century . In France, a resurgence of the guilds in the second half of the 17th century is symptomatic of the monarchy's concerns to impose unity, control production and reap the benefits of transparent structure in the shape of more efficient taxation . </P> <P> The guilds were identified with organizations enjoying certain privileges (letters patent), usually issued by the king or state and overseen by local town business authorities (some kind of chamber of commerce). These were the predecessors of the modern patent and trademark system . The guilds also maintained funds in order to support infirm or elderly members, as well as widows and orphans of guild members, funeral benefits, and a' tramping' allowance for those needing to travel to find work . As the guild system of the City of London declined during the 17th century, the Livery Companies transformed into mutual assistance fraternities along such lines . </P> <P> European guilds imposed long standardized periods of apprenticeship, and made it difficult for those lacking the capital to set up for themselves or without the approval of their peers to gain access to materials or knowledge, or to sell into certain markets, an area that equally dominated the guilds' concerns . These are defining characteristics of mercantilism in economics, which dominated most European thinking about political economy until the rise of classical economics . </P> <P> The guild system survived the emergence of early capitalists, which began to divide guild members into "haves" and dependent "have - nots". The civil struggles that characterize the 14th - century towns and cities were struggles in part between the greater guilds and the lesser artisanal guilds, which depended on piecework . "In Florence, they were openly distinguished: the Arti maggiori and the Arti minori--already there was a popolo grasso and a popolo magro". Fiercer struggles were those between essentially conservative guilds and the merchant class, which increasingly came to control the means of production and the capital that could be ventured in expansive schemes, often under the rules of guilds of their own . German social historians trace the Zunftrevolution, the urban revolution of guildmembers against a controlling urban patriciate, sometimes reading into them, however, perceived foretastes of the class struggles of the 19th century . </P>

Who made up the middle ranks of society