4. Letter from the Lord Mayor of London in answer directed to the Keepers of the Fairs of Champagne [and Brie] dated 20 Aug. 1300.
To the discreet and honourable men, if it please their most dear friends, the lords Peter de Fremville, knight, and Robert de Champagne, Wardens of the fairs of Champagne and Brie for the illustrious King of France, Elias Russel, Mayor of London, and the Citizens of the same City, Greeting and continual increase of sincere affection with health. Whereas heretofore you wrote to us that we should compel the burgess Fuberti, Citizen of Florence, horse-dealer &c. [naming the others as before], as well by sale of their goods as by the seizing of their bodies and sending them to you, to render to Pucheus de Pré, formerly horse-dealer, Martin de Burgo novo, and other creditors in your said letters comprised, or to the bearer of the said letters, 1600 petits livres Tournois together with damages and expenses, and also amends of the Lord the King for default of the fairs; in which sum of money the said burgess and his associates, by their letters made in your fairs beforesaid, are bound by reasons of divers contracts between them had belonging to the year of Our Lord 1293; as in your letters thereupon to us directed more fully is contained: We, as much as in us lies, and as the customs and rights of the Realm of England permit us to do, willing to comply altogether with your prayers and requests, have made to come before us, in the presence of your servant the bearer of the presents, the said burgess and Nutus whom we found in our jurisdiction. Nevertheless we sequestered their goods in the presence of your servant putting upon them concerning the said debt, as is contained in your letters aforesaid. And your letters being heard and understood, the said traders (mercatores) asserted that they are not bound of right to answer to your said letters, because in your letters secondly to us directed (as you assert) it was contained that the said burgess and his associates before you in your fairs in the year of Our Lord 1292 bound themselves, upon which obligation they proffered a certain letter of satisfaction of the said debt, sealed with the seal of the fairs of Champagne and Brie. In which said letter it was contained that the said burgess before you compounded with the said Pucheus, to which composition he the said Pucheus assented; and in these your letters now to us directed it is contained that the said burgess and his associates in the year of Our Lord 1293 bound themselves before you in your fairs: at which writing we marvel. Moreover, at the time in which your said letters were directed unto us, our lord the illustrious King of England was in his war of Scotland with whom at present we have not been able to consult, nor are the said burgess and his associates of the liberty of our City of London: on which account, without the special mandate of our Lord the King of England we dared not move a hand toward the seizing of their bodies, or send the said burgess and others out of the Realm of England. Therefore we request and earnestly entreat your lordships that at present in this charge you will hold us excused from the actions abovesaid, and deign to write to our Lord the illustrious King of England upon the aforesaid debts and requests; and those things which shall be commanded us for the advantage of the said creditors, and for your good pleasure, we will dispatch without delay, and to the utmost of our power. Farewell in Him who is the salvation of all men. Given at London on Saturday next after the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the year of Our Lord 1300.
CHAPTER XX.
OTHER FAIRS OF FRANCE.
I have now to notice some of the other great fairs of France. And here it has to be remarked that while the later sovereigns—certainly down to Louis XV.—adopted the regulations already reviewed, for their model in the government of fairs, yet that there were some necessary deviations, according as time, place, and other circumstances demanded. The chief of these deviations will be noted in the following summary, wherein I review the provincial fairs first, and afterwards those in and around Paris.
Postlethwayt, in his “Dictionary of Trade,” from which some of the preceding and following details are drawn, remarks, not with entire clearness: “Though it be not essential to these meetings of traders to have comedians, rope-dancers, and the like, yet there are few considerable ones without enough of them; and, perhaps, is what greatly contributes to the trade of them—the nobility and country gentry greatly flocking to them, more for their diversion than what they buy there, which might be had, perhaps, better and cheaper at home. It is well known how the nobility of Languedoc flock to the fair of Beaucaire, and those of Normandy to that of Guibray; but it is nothing in comparison to the assembly of German princes and nobles at the three fairs of Leipzic, and the two of Frankfort-on-the-Main.” He was writing in the first half of the last century. Things are now much changed.
Beaucaire (in Languedoc).—An important town, whose manufactures consist of silks, red wines, taffetas, olive oil, and pottery. But its trade is chiefly due to its great fair, held annually between 1st and 28th July, the site extending from the Rhône to the base of the Castle Rock. This fair was established in 1217 by Raymond VI., Count of Toulouse, and was for many ages attended by merchants and manufacturers from all countries in Europe, and even from Persia and Armenia. Arthur Young visited it in 1788, and records (“Travels in France”) that the business transacted at it reached 10 million livres—£439,000. So late as 1833 it drew together 60,000 persons, and the amount of its transactions were stated to be 150 millions of francs—£6,000,000! This would appear to be an over-estimate.