46 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



tion was sparse, and intercourse between separate communities was 

 attended with great difficulty. It was therefore of very early, and 

 probably of Asiatic, origin. 



It has existed in India from a remote antiquity, and in other 

 parts of the east. It was found to be the established form of 

 commercial intercourse among tlie natives of Mexico and Peru, 

 when first visited by the Spaniards, fairs being held in all the 

 principal cities, the object and the manner of conducting them 

 differing in no material respect from those of the fairs of Europe 

 and of Asia. The largest was held in the great capital of Mexico. 

 " The city then," says Prescott, " swarmed with a motley crowd of 

 strangers, the causeways were thronged, and the lake was darken- 

 ed by the canoes of traders flocking to the great tangues.^' 



These institutions existed in Europe as early as the 7th century. 

 By the 12th they were widely diffused ; and the way in which they 

 came into existence there will serve to explain the manner of their 

 origin generally. 



From the 4th to the 8th century Europe was devastated by those 

 savage tribes which came pouring in from Asia, overthrowing not 

 only the Roman Empire, but sweeping away nearly every vestige 

 of the ancient civilization, and substituting in its stead their own 

 rude customs. A state of perpetual war existed for four centuries, 

 which broke up the established forms of society, destroyed com- 

 mercial intercourse, and brought about that state of semi-barbarism 

 familiarly known to us as the Dark Ages. In such a condition of 

 society, there was little necessity for, and scarcely' any means of 

 commercial intercourse. Security was to be found only in towns 

 or under the shelter of the castles of barons ; and travelling was 

 so rare, that people living in close proximity knew comparatively 

 nothing of each other. 



When at last the work of demolition was complete, a period of 

 rest and torpor succeeded, during which the seeds of a new civili- 

 zation were sown. Isolated communities were gradually cemented 

 into new nationalities, having new wants, and creating the neces- 

 sity for commercial intercourse. It was, however, beset with 

 obstacles. 



Travelling was not only difficult, but dangerous. The magnifi- 

 cent roads left by the Romans had either been broken up for mili- 

 tary purposes, or had fallen into decay. The habits which many 

 centuries of war had engendered begat the desire of living exclu- 

 sively by plunder ; and over every part of Europe bands of armed 

 robbers infested the public ways, so that nothing of bulk or value 

 could be carried without an armed force to protect it. When mer- 



