Part 1.
First, we must define what the feudal system was. It was sort of obligation between the peasants and who worked the land and the lords who possessed the land. Feudal lords were very wealthy powerful in the Middle Ages. Then, slowly towns began to break away and grew independent of the local Feudal lord. Guilds or unions settled in those towns and began to produce high-quality goods that made them very wealthy. Eventually, these guilds turned into what we know now as middle class. The labor force was then on demand and peasants moved to these towns and stopped trading their labor for food and protection with the lords. These weakened the power and influence of aristocracy and gave room to the rise of a wealthy middle class. Some of the towns which played a major role in the new economic system were Pisa, Venice, and Florence.
Part 2
We understand monopoly as the total control of the commercial market. Being that said, we can surely say that guilds were monopolies for the following reasons:
1) Guilds set restrictions to outsiders. Simply because outsiders were taken as a threat in terms of competition.
2) Guilds had little or none regulations. They used this advantage to advance their own interest.
