lose of the period included in this
chapter they had become relatively inconspicuous and insignificant.

One striking evidence of their diminished strength, and apparently a
last effort to keep the gild organization in existence, is the curious
combination or consolidation of the companies under the influence of
the city governments. Numerous instances of the combination of several
trades are to be found in the records of every town, as for instance
the "company of goldsmiths and smiths and others their brethren," at
Hull in 1598, which consisted of goldsmiths, smiths, pewterers,
plumbers and glaziers, painters, cutlers, musicians, stationers and
bookbinders, and basket-makers. A more striking instance is to be
found in Ipswich in 1576, where the various occupations were all drawn
up into four companies, as follows: (1) The Mercers; including the
mariners, shipwrights, bookbinders, printers, fishmongers,
sword-setters, cooks, fletchers, arrowhead-makers, physicians,
hatters, cappers, mercers, merchants, and several others. (2) The
Drapers; including the joiners, carpenters, innholders, freemasons,
bricklayers, tilers, carriers, casket-makers, surgeons, clothiers, and
some others. (3) The Tailors; including the cutlers, smiths, barbers,
chandlers, pewterers, minstrels, peddlers, plumbers, pinners, millers,
millwrights, coopers, shearmen, glaziers, turners, tinkers, tailors,
and others. (4) The Shoemakers; including the curriers, collar-makers,
saddlers, pointers, cobblers, skinners, tanners, butchers, carters,
and laborers. Each of these four companies was to have an alderman and
two wardens, and all outsiders who came to the town and wished to set
up trade were to be placed by the town officials in one or the other
of the four companies. The basis of union in some of these
combinations was evidently the similarity of their occupations, as the
various workers in leather among the "Shoemakers." In other cases
there is no such similarity, and the only foundation that can be
surmised for the particular grouping is the contiguity of the streets
where the greatest number of particular artisans lived, or their
proportionate wealth. Later, this process reached its culmination in
such a case as that of Preston in 1628, where all the tradesmen of the
town were organized as one company or fraternity called "The Wardens
and Company of Drapers, Mercers, Grocers, Salters, Ironmongers, and
Haberdashers." The craft and trading gilds in