Once the principle of equality had been broken through to the extent that one member could have another labor for him and that he could select his sales market on the basis of his own personal capacity and energy, his knowledge of the market, and his assessment of its prospects, it was inevitable that just these personal attributes, once given the opportunity to unfold, would continue to develop, leading to an ever increasing specialization and individualization within the fellowship of the guild and, finally, to the dissolution of that fellowship.

XREF: Connects to broader economic history themes about how market individualism erodes collectivist institutions, paralleling later analyses of capitalism's emergence from feudal structures.

QUESTION: This suggests an inherent tension between egalitarian structures and individual ambition worth exploring further.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 598