The Worshipful Company of Carmen is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Carmen, or drivers of carts, organised into a fraternity in 1517. However, they were not empowered to regulate themselves, that task being done by the Woodmongers' Company. The Carmen separated and formed their own fellowship in 1668, but were unsuccessful in gaining the power to regulate carmen, until the Woodmongers became defunct in 1746. The Carmen did not acquire a Royal Charter until 1946.
Now carts have been rendered obsolete by cars, the Carmen remain as a charitable and ceremonial institution. The Carmen participate in the ceremony of Cart Marking, which originated in the rule that no cart could ply for hire unless licensed by the Carmen. Presently, the ceremony involves cars, rather than carts, and involves those who wish to voluntarily take part, regardless of whether they wish to ply for hire or not.
The Carmen's Company ranks seventy-seventh in the order of precedence for Livery Companies. Its motto is Scite, Cite, Certo Latin for Skilfully, Swiftly, Surely.
External link
The Carmen's Company (http://www.thecarmen.co.uk/)
The Marketors' Company is the 90th in the City of London Roll of 103 Livery Companies.
Twenty-five 'Modern' Livery Companies have been created since 1926, a gap of 400 years since the previous Company, the Carmen, was granted its charter in 1517.
All of the Modern Livery Companies are directly concerned with maintaining high standards in a particular craft or profession, as well as supporting the City's traditions and contributing generously to charitable causes, hospitals and schools.
The 107 Livery Companies are trade associations based in the City of London, each known as the WorshipfulCompany of the relevant trade or profession.
The Livery Companies originally developed as guilds and were responsible for the regulation of their trades, controlling, for instance, wages and labour conditions.
Among the earliest companies known to have possessed halls were the Merchant Taylors and Goldsmiths in the 14th century, but neither theirs nor other companies' original halls remain; the few survivors of the Great Fire were destroyed, along with many reconstructed ones, during the Blitz.
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