ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 49 



tenance of order. The Court was composed of men selected from 

 the principal merchants. It took cognizance of everything done 

 at the Fair; settled every dispute; and meted out to every 

 offender the punishment due to his offence. The proceedings were 

 ver}'- summary. Justice was administered upon the spot. Execu- 

 tion instantly followed the sentence ; and no lawyers were allowed 

 to appear before it. 



On the day appointed for holding the Fair, it was opened by 

 public proclamation, and closed on the day prescribed, in the same 

 manner — all trading before and after being strictly prohibited, un- 

 der penalties. Certain privileges or rights were established by 

 universal usage, and rigorously maintained in all countries. No 

 merchant could be arrested, either in his person or his goods, in 

 going to or coming from the Fair ; nor while there, unless for a 

 debt contracted, or which was made payable there. In what were 

 called Free Fairs, which were always the largest and most popular, 

 all customs upon goods were generally remitted. There was 

 another privilege, and a very iniportant one. In the Middle Ages 

 no one could follow any trading occupation, in any place, unless 

 he was a member of the corporation or Guild, having the exclusive 

 right to carry it on there. All trading and mechanical pursuits 

 were fettered by these local monopolies. But at the Fairs every 

 one was free to buy and sell. There was no restriction or exclu- 

 sive privilege: and it was this feature, carried out upon an ex- 

 tensive scale, that laid the foundation of that great principle which 

 is the life of modern commerce — freedom of trade. 



The number of persons collected together was, at times, immense ; 

 and the amount of business transacted enormous. Even as late as 

 the last century, the Fair of Beaucaire at Languedos, in the south 

 of France, was scarcely ever attended by less than 300,000 per- 

 sons. The dealers in particular commodities were always arranged 

 in separate streets, so that the purchaser could go at once to the 

 quarter that contained whatever there was of the commodity he 

 wished to buy. The wares were exhibited upon stalls, as is still the 

 custom in the East ; and a marked feature were the tables of the 

 moneychangers, an important vocation, for the coins of all nations 

 were brought there by traders from different parts of the world, 

 the marketable value of which was determined by these brokers, 

 who did a very active business, not only in the buying and selling 

 or changing of money, but also in loaning it to facilitate commer- 

 cial transactions. Indeed it is highly probable that man)'- of the 

 usages of modern commerce, the origin of which it is impossible 

 to trace, were first established by these early traffickers in exchange. 



[Am. Inst.] D 



