CHAPTER III.
EARLY REGULATIONS AFFECTING FAIRS—ENGLAND.
It has been attributed to Alfred the Great that amongst the many wise and beneficial measures he took for the advancement of this kingdom, was the establishment of fairs and markets. I have already shown that this is not quite so; but certain it is that the first general measures for the regulation of commerce in England, are dated back to his reign. Hence it was then provided that alien merchants should come only to the “four fairs,” and should not remain in England more than forty days. This was in the latter half of the ninth century. But I have already shown that fairs were held in other parts of Europe, and in Asia, centuries earlier than this date. The point of importance in the regulation of Alfred is that foreign merchants were permitted by royal authority to attend these English fairs.
King Ethelred II. (end of tenth and commencement of eleventh centuries) proclaimed that the ships of merchants, or of enemies from the high seas, coming with goods into any port should be at peace. The principle here enunciated, of commerce being deemed an act of peace, is believed to be of high antiquity in Great Britain; but whether it originated here is by no means clear, nor is it material to determine. At later periods the practice has not been continuously upheld.
Henry I. granted to the citizens of London (inter alia) that they should be free throughout England and the sea ports from toll, passage through towns, ports, gates, and bridges; and lestage, or a toll paid for freedom to sell at Fairs.
Magna Charta (1215).—The demand of the Barons presented to King John embodied the following: “That merchants shall have safety to go and come, buy and sell, without any evil tolls, but by antient and honest customs.” In the completed Charter the actual grant took the following shape:
All merchants shall have safety and security in coming into England and going out of England, and in staying and in travelling through England, as well by land as by water, to buy and sell without any unjust exactions, according to ancient and right customs, excepting in time of war, and if they be of a country at war against us: and if such are found in our land at the beginning of a war, they shall be apprehended without injury of their bodies and goods until it be known to us, or to our Chief Justiciary, how the merchants of our country are treated who are found in the country at war against us; if ours be in safety there, the others shall be in safety in our land.
The doctrine of international reciprocity is here very clearly stated.