Fairs, past and present

by Cornelius Walford

Its franchises and privileges are, that all goods brought into the port of Dieppe during the fair, and there sold or bartered, are exempt from one moiety of duties inwards and outwards. And merchandise imported and not sold during the fair may be carried out free of customs.

Guibray (Lower Normandy).—A fair of very considerable importance, lasting from 10th to 25th August, was held here. Arthur Young, of agricultural fame, describes in his “Travels in France” (1788), a visit to it on 22nd August, and records as follows: “At this fair of Guibray merchandise is sold, they say, to the amount of six millions (£260,500) ... I found the quantity of English goods considerable, hard and queen’s ware; cloth and cottons. A doz. of common plain knives, 3 livres; and 4 livres for a French imitation, but much worse.” It was a feature of this fair that the resident gentry for long distances around came here to make their purchases.

Lyons.—It has been supposed that the ancient fairs of this city were founded on a special privilege granted by the Roman conquerors. They are four in number—the first is that of the Epiphany, which always begins in January, the Monday after the twelfth day; the second is Easter fair, beginning on St. Nisier’s day in April; the third in August, which begins on St. Dominick’s day in that month; and the fourth is the fair of All Saints, beginning on St. Hubert’s day, in November. The situation of this city, at the confluence of the Saône and the Rhône, render it unrivalled for the facilities of water carriage through some of the richest parts of France.

These fairs were of the highest mercantile repute, and at a very early period bills of exchange were brought into requisition in the adjustment of the accounts for merchandise purchased there. It seems also that bills resulting from commercial dealings in many other parts of Europe were made payable at the Lyons fairs.

Fixed days for payment followed each fair. The ceremonies attending these days were as follows: The chief magistrate came to the lodge of the Exchange, accompanied by his registrar and six syndics, viz., two French, two Italian, and two Swiss or Germans; and there, after a short discourse to the assistants, recommending probity in trade, and observance of the laws, customs, and usages of the place, the laws, customs, and usages were read in extenso; and the clerk drew up a process verbal of the opening of the “payment.” The next day they met at the City-hall, and by plurality of voices settle the course of exchange for all cities with which Lyons had any commercial correspondence. This custom prevailed for some centuries; and even when the strict regulations here described were frequently departed from, the regulations were capable of being enforced on appeal.

When bills were drawn to be paid at one of these appointed times at Lyons, which had not then begun, the drawer said “pay this my first of Exchange, &c., in the next Epiphany (or other) payment;” but if the payment had already begun, the bill had to be drawn payable “in this current or present payment of Epiphany” (or other term). The bills so drawn were to be accepted in the first six days of the payment they were made payable in; and the person on whom they were drawn was not obliged to declare whether he would or not accept until the sixth day. But after that day the bearer might protest them for non-acceptance, though he might detain them during the whole time of that “payment,” to see whether any one offered to discharge them. The protest, however, was immediately forwarded to the remitters; and if any one paid a bill in the time of the payment before the sixth day (or that being a feast day, the day following) it was at his own risk.

The bearers of bills not satisfied by the last day of any “payment” were to protest them on the third day after the payment finished, otherwise they lost their right as against the drawers; but if this were done in form, and in the time prescribed, the holder might afterwards refuse payment from any one that offered it, and take his reimbursement upon the drawer, alike for principal and charges. And the said holders of bills were obliged to take their reimbursement on the drawers or indorsers in a time limited, viz., for all bills drawn from any part of France, in two months; those which were from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Flanders, and England, in three months; and those which were drawn from Spain, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, and Denmark, in six months, to be counted from the date of the protest; or in default thereof they lost their rights against the drawers and indorsers. See Besançon.

The general reader must pardon these details, which are of commercial significance. It was customary at an early period to make the bills drawn from Amsterdam and elsewhere on the “payment” of Lyons, in “golden crowns of the sun;” but when this specie became decried in France, the usage of exchange came to be to draw for the payment of Lyons (as was practised in France generally), viz., in crowns of sixty sous, equal to the present English half-crown. These practices may be compared with the usages of Nuremburg, Frankfort, and Leipzig fairs.