Poulters Guild

Bonus points if you recognize the French root: the Worshipful Company of Poulters, created by royal charter in 1368, was responsible for the sale of poultry (i.e., chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese), as well as pigeons, swans, rabbits, and other small game, in the city of London. Why was this an important trade? Well, in the Middle Ages, no less than today, chickens and other fowl were an important part of the food supply, the absence of which could prompt grumblings or outright rebellion — which explains why, a century before the creation of the poulters' guild, King Edward I fixed the price of 22 types of fowl by royal decree. As is the case with many other London guilds, the records of the Worshipful Company of Poulters were destroyed in the great fire of 1666, an ironic fate for an organization devoted to the roasting of chickens.