They forestalled and regrated with impunity.

They assumed the chief rights in the municipal lands, in many cases imposed duties at their own caprice, and turned guild privileges and rights of citizenship into a source of profit for themselves.

Their bailiffs in the country districts forming part of their territory were often more voracious in their treatment of the peasants than even the nobles themselves.

The accounts of income and expenditure were kept in the loosest manner, and embezzlement clumsily concealed was the rule rather than the exception.
The opposition of the non-privileged citizens, usually led by the wealthier guildsmen not belonging to the aristocratic class, operated through the guilds and through the open assembly of the citizens.

It had already frequently succeeded in establishing a representation of the general body of the guildsmen in a so-called Great Council (_Grosser Rath_), and in addition, as already said, in ousting the "honorables" from some of the public functions.