Historiography has traditionally argued that guilds were an exclusively male institution. Only men could be members. But new research refutes this. The shopkeepers' and resellers' guild was mixed for 145 years, between 1624 and 1768. There were master resellers, but what prompted the guild to accept them was not ideas we now consider modern or feminist, but rather the need to balance its books. Years later, women were once again barred from membership.