Answer:
Merchants had formed guilds to benefit their members and serve their clients. Guilds helped establish trading territories. As feudal lords would grant them the right to regulate trade in specific urban centers or make their own urban center. The guilds paid taxes and helped raised armies for their lords.
Explanation:
Merchants formed guilds to benefit their members and to serve their clients. The first guilds were called confraternities, because they were considered brotherhoods. Take a closer look at the term confraternities. You may notice it contains the word fraternity. You have probably heard of fraternities at colleges and universities, which are examples of mutual benefit organizations that exist today. Members of confraternities during the Middle Ages worked together to secure their goods, wagons, horses, and other property. Early guilds also helped to establish trading territories. They obtained charters from feudal lords that granted them rights to regulate trade in a specific urban center or to start their own urban center in which to conduct business. These charters essentially made the guilds vassals. In return for the charters, the guilds paid taxes, helped raise armies, and provided other services for their lord. As a result, guilds—and merchants—became closely involved with their lords in the governance of medieval towns and cities.
