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TRADE AND MARKETS. 



instructive than the history of English fairs when the practice 

 was universal and the facts were significant. They begin at 

 a very remote time, and were probably instituted on 'those 

 border districts, which being no man's land, lay outside the 

 mark, and therefore were neutral territory, in which a special 

 jurisdiction, the court of pie-powder, had to be established. 

 Like other valuable privileges, they soon became a franchise, 

 and were a considerable source of revenue to those who could 

 appropriate the right of permitting a temporary occupancy. 

 After having served the most important ends, they have at last 

 become nothing but a scene of coarse and rude amusement, and 

 almost a nuisance. But the change is little more than a 

 generation old. 



