carders known as Ciompi () and other non-guilded workers who rose up to demand a voice in the commune's ordering in addition to enacting debt and tax reforms. The revolt was an outburst of proletariat unrest in the city of Florence that began in June 1378 and consisted of three phases ending in August of the same year. It was the result of a power struggle between Florence's ruling elites, the established artisan guilds of Florence, and Sotto posti (or un-guilded) which included the Ciompi; mainly a group of low-wage textile workers employed in Florence's thriving wool industry. At its height, this trade sold fabrics throughout Italy as well as overseas and employed up to a third of Florence's population. Many of the issues leading to the revolt of the Ciompi involved the politics and relations between guild and non-guild members, as well as the ruling elites of the city (the Signoria). Guild members and the guild system were important aspects of Florence's politics by 1378, where they acted as political intermediaries between the individuals in their guild and the state. Guilds enforced industrial, fiscal, and monetary policy which benefited their trades and the lives of their workers in addition to representing them politically, regulating their industries, and controlling who could become a member. As mentioned previously the guild system involved a hierarchy between the seven major and fourteen minor guild associations; the former represented those who had become a class of prosperous cloth merchants and bankers/financiers, and the latter consisting of various artisans, craftsmen and skilled labourers including, but not limited to, shoemakers, tailors and wine merchants. The 21 guilds, however, did not include the whole of Florence's working population and many people were excluded from the system, thus limiting their protection from exploitation and ability to be involved in city politics. Few of those in the textile industry, including the Ciompi wool workers, were eligible for guild membership, with around only 200 of the approximately 14,000 people in wool manufacture qualifying, and the remainder named the Sotto posti who were designated ineligible for entry to the guild system or for creating a guild for their own benefit. The exclusion of the Ciompi from this system reinforced unequal power relations within the city, reducing the rights and protections available for these workers unlike those assigned to members in other guilds. It was a highly unequal society allowing Florence's wool