Charter fair
A charter fair in
Origins
In
Rise of the chartered fair in England
In England, fairs began to develop in the early Norman period, reaching their heyday in the 13th century.
Between the 12th and 15th centuries, the number of markets and fairs across England burgeoned. Although the terms "fair" and "market" were often used synonymously, key differences distinguished them. Markets were held daily in the more populous towns and cities or weekly in rural districts, and sold fresh produce and necessities, while fairs operated on a periodic cycle, and were almost always associated with a religious festival.[10] Fairs were associated with high value goods and non-perishables such as farm tools, homewares, furniture, rugs and ceramics.[11] Although a fair's primary purpose was trade, it typically included some elements of entertainment, such as dance, music or tournaments.[12] By 1516, England had some 2,464 markets and 2,767 fairs while Wales had 138 markets and 166 fairs.[13] Both fairs and markets were important centres of social life in medieval society.[14]
Towns such as Boston, Winchester, Stamford and St Ives acquired royal charters to hold huge, extended events focusing on the international markets.[15] The major fairs had formed a set sequence by the mid-13th century, with the Stamford fair in Lent, St Ives at Easter, Boston in July, Winchester in September and Northampton in November.[16] Secondary chartered fairs, such as those at Stourbridge, Bury St Edmunds, King's Lynn, Oxford and Westminster filled the gaps in between, although Stourbridge fair would grow to be the biggest fair in Europe towards the end of the medieval period.[17] Many of these fairs would have been small in comparison to the largest European international fairs, but still involved international contracts and advance selling on a significant scale.[18]
These "great fairs" could be huge events; St Ives' Great Fair drew merchants from
Decline of the fair system
Towards the end of the medieval period, the position of fairs began to decline. One important shift was that the major merchants, particularly in London, began to establish commercial primacy by the 14th century over the larger magnate customers; rather than the magnate buying from a chartered fair, they would buy from the merchant. As an example of this shift, the household accounts of
See also
- Artisanal food
- Bazaar
- Carnival
- Charter
- Charter Stones
- Costermonger
- Dudsday traditional Scottish festival day
- Festival
- Hawker
- History of marketing
- Kermesse (festival) - A Dutch festival or fair
- List of Renaissance fairs
- Market town
- Marketing
- Market (place)
- Market hall
- Merchant
- Parish festival
- Peddler
- Retail
- Souk or souq
- Street vendor
- Town privileges
- Whitsun - traditional English day of fairs/festivals
Select list of chartered fairs in the United Kingdom
- Appleby Horse Fair
- Baldock Charter Fair
- Bampton Fair, Devon
- Barnet Fair also see Barnet Market
- Bartholomew Fair, London
- Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire
- Beverley town fair, Yorkshire
- Banagher Horse Fair, Ireland
- Brigg Horse fair, North Lincolnshire
- Glasgow Fair
- Godiva Festival - formerly Trinity Great Fair, Coventry
- Haslemere Charter Fair, Surrey
- Hull Fair (travelling fair)
- St Lawrence Fair, Hurstpierpoint, West, Sussex
- Ickleton Priory Annual Fair, Cambridgeshire
- Ilkeston Charter Fair, Derbyshire
- Lenton Fair, Nottinghamshire
- Loughborough § Loughborough Charter Fair, Loughborough, Leicestershire
- Midsummer Common -location of Midsummer Fair, Cambridge
- Nottingham Goose Fair, Nottinghamshire
- Petersfield Fair, Hampshire
- Petworth Fair, Sussex
- Rothwell Fair
- St James Fair, Bristol
- Scarborough Fair (fair)
- Stamford Mid Lent Fair
- Stourbridge fair
- Stow Fair, Lincolnshire
- Summercourt fair
- Tewkesbury Mop Fair
- Thrapston Charter Fair, Northamptonshire
- Wickham Horse Fair
Bibliography
- Abulafia, David. (ed) 1999 The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 1198-c. 1300. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Barron, Caroline. (2005) London in the Later Middle Ages: Government and People 1200-1500. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Blair, John and Nigel Ramsay. (eds) (2001) English Medieval Industries: Craftsmen, Techniques, Products. London: Hambledon Press.
- Danziger, Danny and John Gillingham. (2003) 1215: The Year of Magna Carta. London: Coronet Books.
- Dyer, Christopher. (2009) Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain, 850 - 1520. London: Yale University Press.
- Harding, Alan. (1997) England in the Thirteenth century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Myers, A. R. (1978) England in the Late Middle Ages. London: Penguin Books.
- Raban, Sandra. (2000) England under Edward I and Edward II, 1259-1327. Oxford: Blackwell.
- Reyerson, Kathryn L. Commerce and communications. in Abulafia (ed) 1999.
References
- ^ Reyerson, p.67.
- ^ Harding, p.110.
- ^ Reyerson, p.67.
- ^ Dyer, p.209.
- ^ Danziger and Gillingham, p.65.
- ^ Danziger and Gillingham, p.65.
- ^ Dyer, p.192; Harding, p.109.
- ^ Danziger and Gillingham, p.65.
- ^ Reyerson, p.67.
- ^ Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516, The List and Index Society, no. 32, 2003, <Online: http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/gaz/gazweb2.html>
- ^ Casson, M. and Lee, J., "The Origin and Development of Markets: A Business History Perspective," Business History Review, Vol 85, Spring, 2011, pp 9–37.
- ^ Nicholas, D.M., The Growth of the Medieval City: From Late Antiquity to the Early Fourteenth Century, Oxon, Routledge, 2014, p. 182
- ^ Samantha Letters, Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516, Centre for Metropolitan History, 2000,http://www.history.ac.uk/cmh/gaz/gazweb2.html
- ^ Millar, F., "The World of the Golden Ass," Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 71, 1981, pp. 63-7
- ^ Danziger and Gillingham, p.65.
- ^ Dyer, p.209.
- ^ Dyer, p.209; Blair and Ramsay, p.xxiv.
- ^ Harding, p.110.
- ^ Danziger and Gillingham, p.65.
- ^ Dyer, p.209.
- ^ Harding, p.112.
- ^ Raban, p.50.
- ^ Myers, pp.161-4; Raban, p.50.
- ^ Barron, p.78.
- ^ Dyer, pp319-20.
- ^ Blair and Ramsay, p.xxiv.