334 Tradesman and Merchant — Commercial Population 



for butter at Ipswich; for cheese at Atherston and Chipping-Norton, 

 etc.i 



The medieval fairs were important events. They represent the 

 occasion of greatest freedom known in medieval economy. In 

 towns, where gild control of trade so dominated economic life at other 

 times, during fair time exchanges and sales might be freely carried on 

 among all the inhabitants, whether gildsmen or not, and strangers 

 and travelling merchants were welcomed for their wares. The pres- 

 ence of chapmen and traders gave the countrymen new opportunities 

 of selling their surplus local produce and of buying goods manufactured 

 outside their neighborhood.- 



The weekly markets were as widely dispersed as the market towns 

 and their number exceeded the number of the latter, some towns 

 having special markets for particular things. London had about 

 thirty-five public markets besides the many coal-wharves which 

 amounted to markets, though not pubHc.^ Market privileges were 

 granted bv the crown to indi\iduals. The period from 1200 to 1500 

 covered their most rapid development. Between the dates 1199 and 

 1483 over 2800 grants of markets and fairs were made and a majority 

 of these during the first seventy-four years.** The total number of 

 market towns in England and Wales in 1720 was reported at 758; 

 and in 1741 at 786.' This averaged 16 per county. At the first date 

 there were about 1,300,000 houses in England and Wales," conse- 

 quently each market town supplied on an average 1700 houses or 

 8500 people (a]lo^^'ing, as usual in that period, five persons to the 

 house). These numbers must be considered only as approximations. 



The markets, like the fairs, specialized in certain commodities, and 

 soon became famous for their wares. The cloth market at Leeds has 

 been mentioned;^ other cloth markets of wide local importance were 



> An extensive list of fairs is given in the Atlas Mar. et Com., 1728, 112; a weekly 

 list was published in Owen's Week!}' Chronicle, 1758, giving location, dates, and 

 goods handled. The most general work on the subject is the large report by the 

 Market Rights and Tolls Commission. 



2 See V. C. H., Hants, V, 417. 



3 See lists in Defoe, Tour, II, 172; Maitland, London, II, 728. 

 ^ Rew, 46. 



* Smith, JMemoirs of Wool, II, 399; the latter nvmaber is gotten by summ.ation 

 of the towTis per county as given by Ogilby, Br. Dep. (In 1676 there were 641, 

 according to Speed, 6.) 



^ By a like computation from Ogilby's data. 



• A traveller in 1777 remarked that "at Leeds the clothing trade . . . may 

 be seen in all its glory," attesting the fact that the market was maintaining it.self 

 in the throes of the Industrial Revolution. Mavor, Br. Tours, II, 245. 



