Apseldian Guild Alliance

Most Scarterran nations have some formal trade guilds and in most nations of a certain size, the trade guilds often meet with each other and sometimes work together.
The stated purpose of nearly every guild is to maintain standards for their craft or profession and set a standard for the quality of their goods.  This is true whether we are talking about a blacksmiths 'guild, bakers' guild, carpenters' guild, etc.
Guilds can operate like cartels making it hard for new tradesmen in their industries to enter without their permission.  Sometimes this is about things like trade standards or reputation but more often than not there is an element of greed here.  If the guild can control who does or not practice certain trades they can set prices.  If the guild has enough influence to sway princes or in Apseldia's case to sway the Council, then they can influence the creation of laws regulating their trade.
Apart from the entertainers guild and the wizard's guild, all of Apseldia's trade guild are part of the Guild Alliance.  Their leaders have secret meetings and discuss meetings before council votes, so they are all or at least mostly on the same page for guild relevant issues.  If a member of the Blacksmith Guild suggests something in the Council meeting is all but assured that the Bakers' Guild, Carpenters' Guild, Brewers' Guild, and all the others will agree with his proposal and the whole lot of them will vote as a single bloc.

This practice ruffles some feathers with other citizens of Apseldia, but what really bothers people is that attendance for Council meetings is sporadic for most Apseldians and fairly consistent for the Guild Alliance.  The guilds like to push through guild friendly votes during Council Meetings with unusually low attendance which most find more than a little underhanded.
A few Apseldians have suggested that Council meetings be suspended during harvest and planting time, but the guilds (and more than a few other people) have stated that to call fewer Council meetings would be a betrayal of Apseldia's founding principles.

Type

Financial, Merchant League