Wijnkopersgilde van Utrecht, gildepenning van Jan Dircksen van Eede 1658

This is a silver guild badge made in 1630 for Jan Dircksen van Eede of the Utrecht Wine Merchant's Guild. It visualizes a fruitful grapevine and implies much can be gained in the wine trade. The Dutch Republic in the 17th century was famous for its trade guilds, a system of state sanctioned monopolies with strict membership criteria. Such associations controlled the quality of goods, set prices, and regulated competition in the market. They also helped their members accumulate capital. We know the Wine Merchant's Guild was an institution that shaped economic activity in Utrecht. This badge, with its heraldic imagery, testifies to the guild's legal authority. Guilds like this one were often closed to outsiders, so in effect, the wine trade was reserved for locals like Jan Dircksen van Eede. Historians often use documents like guild charters and municipal records to determine how these institutions functioned. These objects, like this guild badge, can tell us a great deal about early modern social and economic life.