Abstract
The fifty-fifth annual conference of the Socio-Economic Society was held on the 20th and 21st of September 1986 at Rikkyo (St. Paul's) University, Tokyo. A Synposium on "Town Communities and Guilds of Europe" was held on the second day under the joint chairmanship of Professor M. Uozumi and Mr. T.Kato. Professor K. Ugawa read the introductory paper; then followed by Professor H. Saito on the Italian case of Bologna, by Professor K. Takahashi on the French case of Paris, by Professor Y. Morita on the guild as a political institution in Swiss towns, by Professor K. Ogura on the German case of Frankfurt on Main and by Professor T. Sakata on the English case of York. Professors H. Wakita and Y. Shiba made short comments from their Japanese and Chinese experiences. It was one of the most lively symposiums of receut years. The main aim of the Symposium was to re-examine the political significance of guilds in relation to the town community from a new viewpoint, i. e. to re-evaluate the medieval towns as an institution of feudal society.
