But at the Norman Conquest the commercial tendency had become universal.

The name given to the united brotherhood in a borough is in almost every case no longer that of the "town-gild," but of the "merchant-gild." [Sidenote: Emancipation of Towns] This social change in the character of the townsmen produced important results in the character of their municipal institutions.

In becoming a merchant-gild the body of citizens who formed the "town" enlarged their powers of civic legislation by applying them to the control of their internal trade.

It became their special business to obtain from the crown or from their lords wider commercial privileges, rights of coinage, grants of fairs, and exemption from tolls, while within the town itself they framed regulations as to the sale and quality of goods, the control of markets, and the recovery of debts.

It was only by slow and difficult advances that each step in this securing of privilege was won.