Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/543

General Conditions in the Eighteenth Century 405 Budapest. There were as yet no steamships, railroads, or even factories supplied with machinery, so business was conducted upon a small scale, except at the great ports like London, Ant- werp, or Amsterdam, where goods coming and going to the col- onies in sailing vessels were brought together in great warehouses. 700. Survival of Medieval Guilds. The medieval guilds still controlled the making and selling of goods. A great part of the manufacturing still took place in little shops where the articles were offered for sale. Generally all those who owned the several shops carrying on a particular trade, such as tailoring, shoe- making, baking, tanning, bookbinding, hair cutting, or the mak- ing of candles, knives, hats, artificial flowers, swords, or wigs, were organized into a guild, the main object of which was to prevent all other citizens from making or selling the articles in which the members of the guild dealt (413). The guilds were confined, however, to the old established industries, and their seeming strength was really giving way before the entirely new conditions which had arisen. II. THE PRIVILEGED CLASSES : NOBILITY AND CLERGY 701. Privileges of the Nobility. Not only had the medieval manor and the medieval guilds maintained themselves down into the eighteenth century, but the successors of the feudal lords continued to exist as a showy and powerful class. They enjoyed various privileges and distinctions denied to the ordinary citizen, although they were, of course, shorn of the great power that the more important dukes and counts had formerly enjoyed. In the Middle Ages they ruled over vast tracts, could summon their vassals to assist them in their constant wars with their neighbors, and dared defy even the authority of the king himself ( 341 ff.). 702. Feudal Nobles brought under Royal Control. The Eng- lish, French, and Spanish kings had gradually subjugated the turbulent barons and brought the great fiefs directly under royal control. The monarchs met with such success. that in the eight- eenth century the nobles no longer held aloof but eagerly sought