Rather than conduct trade individually, 16th century merchants formed

Guilds

Explanation:

The person who trades in the commodities produced by other people is known as merchant.They have existed since ancient times and in sixteenth century Europe they were called Koopmen and Meerseniers.

Koopman were global traders and traded goods over long distances, they also offered credit and finance  services, while meerseniers were local traders.

Medieval merchants used to trade in wine, food, fine cloth, perfumes, spices, wine and furs. The merchants used  to conduct trade through guilds, Guilds were groups and association of craftsmen. The guilds used to focus on specific trade such as tanner's guild and candle makers guild.

They had very important role in society as they provided ways to learn and pass down trade skills from one generation to other. Members of a society could rise in society through hard work.

affirmative action refers to the policies that take gender, race, or ethnicity into account in order to promote equal opportunity.

employers subject to title vii are prohibited from taking race or sex into account in any employment decisions. aa is a penalty for having any job group substantially statistically "underutilized" in any race or either sex. the employer must take steps to eliminate the underutilization, then stop, ending its aa efforts

thomas jefferson is the answer