Medieval Documents When Considering Historical Term Paper

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The second statute which serves to maintain the economic and political domination of women is the rule stating that women may not "dare or presume to take for spinning more than one ball of wool at one time," because this prevents any attempt on the part of female workers to stockpile or otherwise accumulate enough wool to sell or use it outside the established, guild-monitored economy ("Statutes of a wool guild," 1384, 106). Although this statute may have decreased the overall efficiency of the wool-spinning process by requiring women to go get a new ball of wool every time they finish, it also served to protect the guild from rebellion or discontent, because allowing women greater control over the process "might give rise to a strong organization of skilled craftsmen who would be much more difficult to control than" individual women, spinning one ball of wool at a time out of their homes (Belfanti, 2004, p. 579).

Thus, the most important effect of guild statutes is twofold, because it blends the economic with the social in such a way that two sets of independent but related standards are reinforced in order to maintain the power of a small group of guild masters. The statutes use gender bias as a way of protecting an unjust economic order, and that order in turn helps to reinforce this gender bias and disparity. Furthermore, coupled with the application of sumptuary laws regarding fashion and the purchasing of fabric, the guild statutes allow the guild to assert control over nearly every visible facet of everyday life. While the central intended audience was of course the guild members, because the statutes apply restrictions to those outside the guild as well, one may interpret them to simultaneously be a demonstration of power by the guild, as a means of showing both the general public and the laborers the true extent of the guild's power.

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Examining the statutes of a wool guild reveals the assumptions and biases of the ruling classes at a time when power was asserted not only through physical force but through the structuring of economic and social life in such a way that the everyday interactions of an entire city could be placed under the control of guild masters. While the documents may be challenging to the modern reader due to the necessary critical and interpretive work required to understand some of the statutes, reading them nonetheless helps the reader to understand some of the opinions and standards of the period in which they were written. While the most striking of these opinions is the view of women implied by the limitations placed upon them, overall the statutes reveal an attitude towards economic dominance and complete disregard for any in the lower classes that might suffer from this monopoly that is only rivaled by the most ardent capitalists of today.

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