200 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL

An example of this correlation is manifest in the history
of the guilds. Originally the guild prescribed stringent
rules and required absolute uniformity of trade activities
on the part of all members. Later it became impossible
to maintain this condition of undifferentiated uniformity.
The master who had become prosperous refused to be
bound within the narrow limits of guild regulations. When
he finally secured the right to employ more journeymen
and to sell articles not manufactured in his own shop, there
resulted two important changes. On the one hand, the
originally homogeneous group of guild members differentiated
 into rich and poor, capitalists and workers, traders
and craftsmen, and the possibility of unfolding personal
characteristics led to an increased differentiation and specialization.
 On the other hand, there followed a great extension
 of the market and a great increase in the number of customers.
 The differentiation of the functions of merchant
and craftsman gave the former a greater freedom and permitted
 him an extension of business relations which had
been impossible under former conditions.
This division of labor which appears in correlation with
the extension of the group is not confined to the content
of the activity, but it also manifests itself in a sociological
direction. As long as a group is self-sufficient, there exists
at least this similarity, even in case of professional specialization,
 that the service of each individual is functionally
related to the group. This service has from the sociological
point of view a centripetal direction. When the group
ceases to be self-sufficient and begins to trade with other
groups, there occurs within the group a differentiation between
 those who work for internal consumption and those
who work for foreign trade.
The same correlation is manifest in numerous other developments
 and situations. With the decline of the feudal