The heads of the guilds knew that the essential point was this sociological form; and, that if they once conceded it, the further extension of its contents depended only on the power relations and economic conditions of the moment. … The general content of this freedom of the whole is the subjection of the individual.

XREF: Connects to Simmel's broader sociology of forms and the tension between individual autonomy and collective structures, relevant to his analysis of social formations reshaping individual subjectivity.

Georg Simmel, The Sociology of Georg Simm…, loc. 6907