The word is still in use
In Catalan it’s gremi, and it isn’t a museum piece. You’ll find it on trade bodies across Catalonia today — the Gremi de Garatges, the Gremi de Telecomunicacions. The silversmiths had one in Tarragona and another in Reus.
We chose the English word because English is the language of the table. The idea behind it is local.
What they were
The medieval ones began as religious brotherhoods, for a plain reason: there was no freedom of association at the time, and that was the only way people were permitted to organise at all. What they became were associations of independent tradespeople who set their own standards, argued for their shared interests, and looked after each other when someone fell ill or died.
That last part is the part usually forgotten. A guild was a mutual aid society before it was anything commercial.
What we take
People who work on their own account.A guild was never for employees. Neither is this.
Admission rather than an open door.Not to be exclusive — because a group that anyone can join is a group nobody belongs to.
Practical help between members.In ordinary life rather than in business. Who to call, where to go, who can pick up a child at short notice.
One place.A guild belonged to a city, never to an industry. Ours belongs to this province.
What we leave
When gremis were rebuilt in Catalan towns last century, it was done deliberately without the monopolistic, controlling character of the old ones. We’re not taking that part either.
No say over who may work. No masters and apprentices. No standards to enforce — everyone here answers to their own clients, and that’s where it should stay.
Why the name at all
Tarraco was a port before it was anything else, and port cities were always full of people who had arrived from somewhere and made a living. That much hasn’t changed.
The word is old. The reason for it isn’t.