To their members and their families.
Merchant guilds provided loans and aid to merchants and their families. A merchant guild was a group of workers in the same industry during the Middle Ages. Merchant guilds also helped with trade between other civilizations.
Craft guilds made items for the merchant guilds while the merchant sold the items.
Merchant Guilds
prices and working conditions
merchant guild would buy merch and then sell while craft guilds would sell the stuff they made i think...
Stonemason and Carpenter
At the beginning of the 17th century, the three main guilds in the context of European trade and commerce were typically the Merchant Guilds, Craft Guilds, and Religious Guilds. Merchant Guilds focused on trade and commerce, Craft Guilds represented various skilled trades and crafts, while Religious Guilds were associated with spiritual and charitable activities. These guilds often experienced divisions based on economic interests, political power, and social status, leading to conflicts and changes in their structures and influence.
The only difference was what they made or sold.
Among the oldest guilds were those for stone masons and glass makers. But there were guilds of all sorts, and in guild oriented cities, many or most jobs were involved in the guild structure. There were carpenters' guilds and bakers' guilds and cobblers' guilds. There were even guilds that were entirely female, such as the silk guilds of Paris and Cologne. In time, there were also merchant guilds, in addition to craft guilds. Please use the link below for more information.
Nearly every craft or trade that required any skill had a guild. There were stonemasons' guilds, silk workers' guilds, carpenters' guilds, jewelers' guilds, merchant guilds of all sorts, and many others. There is a link below to an article on medieval guilds.
Merchant Guilds a group of merchants. They became very powerful, making laws and rules for other merchants, causing individual trades to be endangered. This is what i THINK. so yeahh....
Merchant guilds dominated the economic and political life of medieval towns.