fjt_07794 - CORPORATIONS Communauté des doreurs argenteurs ciseleurs 1765

CORPORATIONS

In Rome, artisan groups existed: forming a college under the protection of a deity, with a house and a common fund. In medieval Europe, probably from religious brotherhoods were formed between economic groupings called Hanse merchants or ghilde. With the development of trade, the craftsmen organized in body or professional communities that grouped all those employed in the same profession: masters, journeymen or apprentices. To enter the body, it was necessary to "swear" the trade. In addition, there existed free trades that could be enjoyed by all. Each body was headed by a collegial body responsible for enforcing the rules of trade, to protect the business from the competition and lead the fraternal benefit society. At the end of the seventeenth century, the king began to sell as hereditary offices as a juror and corporate trustees which provoked serious financial difficulties at a time when corporations are met in addition to more new economic development requirements Industry and business concentration. This is also in England that corporations disappeared spontaneously because of the industrial revolution. Corporations will be deleted in France in 1791 by the Constituent Assembly.