The origin of Fairs, like that of many other ancient institutions, is involved in much obscurity. The almost universal belief is that they were associated with religious observances; or, as Mr. Morley poetically puts it: “the first fairs were formed by the gathering of worshippers and pilgrims about sacred places, and especially within or about the walls of abbeys and cathedrals, on the Feast days of the Saints enshrined therein.” The sacred building and its surroundings being too small to provide accommodation, tents were pitched; and as the resources of the district would no more suffice to victual than to lodge its throngs of visitors, stalls were set up by provision dealers; and later these were turned to more general purposes of trade. This incidental origin seems, in some cases, hardly sufficient to account for the results which followed; but then it has ever been the genius of commerce to follow close upon the wants of the people.

The establishment of fairs as a source of revenue to religious houses was probably a later development. The Church has always been keenly alive to its temporal interests. And while it was one of its principal functions to administer hospitality to the needy and decrepit, there was justice in drawing contributions from those who too soon might have to rely upon its bounty. Certain it is that nearly all the early charters which I shall have to notice in the progress of this work were shaped in view of granting tolls and revenue to the purposes of religion and charity.

The signification of the word Fair (French foire) is in the Latin forum a market-place, or feriæ holidays. But the German designation Messen seems still more significant, as being a word employed to denote the most solemn part of the Church service—the mass (Latin missa). The association of ideas here implied strengthens with every step of investigation. In the time of Constantine the Great (fourth century of Christian era) Jews, Gentiles, and Christians assembled in great numbers to perform their several rites about a tree reputed to be the oak mambre under which Abraham received the angels. At the same place, adds Zosimus, there came together many traders, both for sale and purchase of their wares. St. Basil, towards the close of the sixth century, complained (De Ascetisis) that his own Church was profaned by the public fairs held at the martyr’s shrines. While Michaud (“History of Crusades,” i., II) records that under the Fatimite Caliphs, in the eleventh century, a fair was held on Mount Calvary on the 15th September every year, in which were exchanged the productions of Europe for those of the East. Gibbon implies an earlier date, in stating that it was promoted by the frequent pilgrimages between the seventh and the eleventh centuries. This Fair was of special importance in the commerce of the Italians with the East. Vide Cunningham’s “Growth of English Industry and Commerce,” 1882, p. 120, n.

These notes are but preliminary and introductory: the inquiry has now to take a wider range.

Greece.—The association of commerce with religious observances seems indeed not to have originated in or with the Christian Church. It is supposed for instance that at the celebrated Greek games, such as those at Olympia, &c., trade was no entirely subordinate object; and this idea gains confirmation from various passages in the ancient classic authors. Cicero expressly states that even so early as the age of Pythagoras, a great number of people attended the religious games for the special purpose of trading. At Delphi, Nemæa, Delos, or the Isthmus of Corinth, a fair was held almost every year. The Amphyctionic fairs were held twice a year. In the time of Chrysostom, these fairs were infamously distinguished for a traffic in slaves, destined for public incontinence.[1] The Amphyctionic spring fair was held at Delphi, and the autumn fair at Thermopylæ: in fact at the same times that the deputies from the States of Greece formed the Amphyctionic Council—another proof that wherever large assemblies of people took place in Greece, for religious or political purposes, advantage was taken to carry on traffic. At the fairs of Thermopylæ medicinal herbs and roots, especially hellebore, were sold in large quantities.

It may be taken for granted that one principal reason why the religious games or the political assemblies of the States were fixed upon to hold the fairs was that during these, all hostilities were suspended: and every person might go with his merchandise in safety to them, even through an enemy’s country. The priests, so far from regarding these fairs as a profanation of the religious ceremonies, encouraged them; and the priests of Jupiter, in particular, advanced large sums on interest to such merchants as had good credit, but had not sufficient money with them, vide Stevenson’s “Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation and Commerce,” vol. 18 of Kerr’s “Travels,” 1824.

Early Eastern Nations.—By reference to “The Books of the Prophets,” we are enabled to realize the importance of the fairs in the ancient commerce of the great city of Tyre (probably B.C. 597-74) “the crowning city whose merchants were princes, whose traffickers the honourable of the earth” (Isaiah xxiii. 8). Thus in Ezekiel xxvii.:—

“12. Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin and lead, they traded in thy fairs....

“14. They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules....

“16. Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple and broidered work, and fine linen and coral and agate....

“19. Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market....

“22. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold....

“27. Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.”

The merchant traders mentioned here claim ancestry from families mentioned Genesis x. 3-7. The expression “they occupied” may be rendered “they inhabited.” In the same chapter, in alternate verses, there are many references to markets.

Rome.—It is asserted by learned writers (Fosbroke and others) that fairs, as such, took their origin in ancient Rome. Romulus, Servius, Tullius, and the Republic, at its commencement, are severally said to have instituted fairs, in order that the country people might come in every ninth day (nundinæ) to hear the laws proclaimed, or the decrees of the people delivered.[2] Other public business was transacted thereat. Booths, tents, and wooden stands for shows were always usual in such places. The fairs were frequently held in the public streets; and one of the most constant objects of sale or barter was that of indulgences! Dogs, and especially greyhounds, were sold at these Roman fairs. It is further said that the fairs were appointed to be held on Saints’ days in order that trade might attract those whom religion could not influence. The monasteries sold goods, probably such as their inmates and surrounding dependents could manufacture.

Courts for the purposes of adjudicating upon questions of dispute arising out of the dealings at the fairs were held alike in Greece and Rome; these being similar to the Piepowder Courts of the middle ages, and most likely their precursors. In time of war, fairs were guarded by soldiers, attempts at plunder being frequent. Bells were provided in fairs for the purpose of giving speedy alarm.

It has been generally admitted that the Romans introduced the practice of holding fairs into the north of Europe. I think I shall make it abundantly clear that they introduced them into England.

Italy.—It is towards the close of the fifth century of the Christian era that we first find any authentic account of fairs specially designed as marts for commerce. Like many other incidents associated with the history of commerce, the first traces are found in Italy. The Western Roman Empire had become extinguished; but Italy had fallen into good hands. Theodoric the Chief or King of the Ostro-Goths had done much to revive its agriculture, and something for its commerce. Foreign merchants began to visit it again; and about A.D. 493 several fairs were appointed for the purpose of exchanging its redundant produce with the merchandise of other countries. Many rich Jew traders settled in Rome; and by means of these fairs a wide interchange of commodities was effected.

Germany.—We next turn to Germany. We know that the Emperor Charles the Great (Charlemagne) towards the close of the eighth century paid great attention to the commerce of western Europe—a fact indeed which seems difficult to be reconciled with the circumstance that he allowed the priests to make a canon declaring all interest for the use of money to be sinful! It may be that he yielded this point in the hope that commercial dealings would soon explode the fallacy. He recognized in fairs a means of exchange of commodities well suited to the times. The great fairs of his period were those of Aquisgranum (Aix la Chapelle) and of Troyes. These were frequented during his reign by traders from most parts of Europe. The weight used at the latter fair for dealings in coin—then often accepted by weight only on account of its battered condition—became adopted as the weight for bullion in all parts of Europe—the pound troy.

Flanders.—Our attention is next directed here. The woollen manufactures commenced probably in the latter half of the tenth century (960). At first the sales were mostly to the French, whose thrifty habits enabled them to purchase fine woollen cloths for wear. On account of the scarcity of coin the trade was mostly carried on by barter, to facilitate which Baldwin, Earl of Flanders—who seems to have exceeded most of the sovereigns of that period in desiring the real interest of himself and his subjects—set up weekly markets, and established regular fairs at Bruges, Courtray, Torhout and Mont-Casel, at all which he exempted the goods sold or exchanged from paying any duties on being brought in or carried out. The new trade was thus greatly extended, and it continued to flourish for several centuries—largely due to its being widely known through the fairs of Europe.

France.—Much of the European commerce of the middle ages was transacted at the celebrated fairs of Champagne and Brie. There the merchants of Italy, Spain and France congregated. From far distant climes the Genoese transported thither bales of goods; and busy traders came to meet in open market the infant efforts of Belgian manufacturers from Yprès, Douai, and Bruges. Burgundy sent cloth, Catalonia leather, and the Genoese and Florentines brought silks; while at all the seaports along their coasts vast cargoes were unshipped and placed on the backs of mules to wend their way to the place appointed for the fair.

These fairs would begin with the sale of cloth, perhaps for seventeen days; the cloth merchants would settle their accounts prior to the silk merchants entering upon their bargains. In the middle of it all the great cry “Ara” was raised, as a signal for the money-changers to take their seats, and for four weeks they sat for the benefit of the various nationalities who wished to realize their gains in their native coin.

After the conclusion of the fair a busy time of fifteen days was set apart for those who had not yet settled their accounts, and to rectify disputes; which time was extended in favour of the representatives of more distant people who wished to go home and return before finally completing their books. The Genoese bursar at these fairs had always a month allowed him before settling his accounts.

Bent (in his “Genoa: how the Republic Rose and Fell,” 1881) from whom we have drawn some of the preceding details says (p. 106) these fairs in southern France were not without their political significance. Besides bringing hither their merchandise, the Italian traders imported into these towns their spirit of independence and their love of republicanism. It was from the south of France that the seeds of liberty, equality, and fraternity spread northwards. No greater stronghold of the rights of the third estate existed than at Marseilles. To this day the influence of this fact is strong on the politics of France. And the principles inculcated by the independent traders of Italy took deep root here under the eyes of despotism, and found a truly favourable soil in which to develop. The French revolution, and the state of France as it is to-day, may owe their first source to these very times when a Genoese merchant would repair to these fairs, proud and boastful of his own freedom, of his vote in the General Council, and of a government which owned no royal master; and all this could be said with a sneer at the people over whom the banner of the lilies held despotic sway.

North of Europe.—Towards the close of the tenth century periodical public markets or fairs were established in the northern portions of Europe, and were used for a purpose altogether new in these higher latitudes, but arising out of the rapine and hostilities peculiar to the period. In several of the North German towns the merchandise brought to them consisted of slaves taken in the wars—many of which were believed to have been fermented for the simple purpose of carrying off captives. Helmold relates that he saw 7,000 Danish slaves at one time exposed for sale in the market at Mecklenberg. The common price of ordinary slaves of either sex was about a mark (or 8 oz.) of silver; but some female slaves for their beauty or qualifications were rated as high as three marks. (Vide Thorkelin’s “Essay on the Slave Trade,” pp. 4-9.)

We arrive at the close of the sixteenth century. The city of Antwerp had at this period arrived very nearly at the summit of its wealth and glory, which Anderson (“Hist. of Commerce,” ii., p. 25) considers it had acquired by two principal means:—

I. By the grants of free fairs for commerce, made formerly by the sovereigns of the Netherlands—two of which fairs lasted each time six weeks—whither merchants resorted from all parts of Christendom with their merchandise, custom free. At these fairs vast concerns were managed, not only in merchandise, but in bills of exchange with all parts of Europe.

II. It had become the entrepot of the commerce between the southern and northern ports of Europe, and especially of the Portuguese merchants. This drew the German and other merchants to settle there; and the merchants of Bruges largely removed thither after the Archduke Maximilian had (about 1499) reduced their city. The fairs were aided by, and themselves aided, this development.