As David Andress observed, “unlicensed, free-for-all competition was the terror of the economic Old Regime, and the whole guild system functioned to keep it at bay.” The measures enacted by the National Assembly meant that the well-ordered, hierarchical world of corporations and commerce had been recast into an unregulated, egalitarian system based on occupational licenses.

More broadly, guilds had performed numerous functions, from guaranteeing the quality of bread and meat to assuring the technical competence of workers. It had not been the intention of the National Assembly to end oversight altogether and the d'Allarde law had not sought to do away with regulation of trades – its objective had been only to end guild administration. The subsequent abolition of all inspectorates, only days before the Assembly disbanded, inadvertently created confusion and disorder.

The Assembly had proceeded along a path of debate and experiment and acted on the basis of political and constitutional objectives rather than economic ones. This contingent, discrete approach meant that the Assembly did not implement, or even consider, a comprehensive alternative program when it abolished guilds, which induced the disarray that followed.