There was enacted 2 Edwᵈ. III. c. 15. “No person shall keep a Fair longer than he ought to do,” which was as follows:
Item, it is established That it shall be commanded to all the sheriffs of England & elsewhere, where need shall require to cry and publish within Liberties & without, that all the Lords [of the soil] wʰ have Fairs, be it for yielding certain Ferm [Rent?] for the same to the King or otherwise, shall hold the same for the time that they ought to hold it, & no longer; that is to say, (1) such as have them by the King’s Charter granted them, for the time limited by the sᵈ Charters (2) and also they that have them without Charter, for the time that they ought to hold them of Right. (3) And that every Lord at the beginning of his Fair shall there do cry & publish how long the fair shall endure, to the intent that merchants shall not be at the same Fairs over the time so published, upon pain to be greviously punished towards the King (4) Nor the sᵈ Lords shall not hold them over the due Time upon pain to seize the Fairs into the King’s hands, there to remain till they have made a fine to the King for the offence, after it be duly found, that the Lords held the same Fairs longer than they ought, or that the merchants have sitten above the time so cried & published. See 1331.
1331. The 5 Edw. III. c. 5—“The Penalty if any do sell Ware at a Fair after it is ended” was as follows:
Item, Where it is contained in the statute made at Northampton [1328] ... that the Lords wʰ have Fairs by Charters or otherwise, shall hold them during the Time that they ought to do, & no longer upon Pain to seize such Fairs into the King’s hands (2) & that every Lord at the Beginning of his Fair shall proclaim how long the fair shall endure; (3) and in the same Statute is no certain punishment ordained against the merchants if they sell after the time, (4) it is accorded, That the sᵈ merchants after the sᵈ time shall close their Booths & Stalls without putting any manner of Ware or Merchandise to sell there. (5) And if it be found, that any merchant from henceforth sell any Ware or merchandise at the sᵈ Fairs after the sᵈ Time, such Merchant shall forfeit to me Lord the King the double value of that wʰ is sold (6) and every Man that will sue for our Lord the King, shall be received, & shall have the fourth part of that wʰ shall be lost at his suit.
Macpherson [“Hist. of Commerce”] commenting upon this act says Fairs were “the seats of most of the inland trade of the kingdom.”
1448. The 27 Henry VI. c. 5 was directed against “the scandal of holding Fairs & markets on Sundays & upon High Feast Days.” This practice had in earlier times been very general.
Attempted Limitation of the Commerce of Fairs.—1487. The Common Council of London, in order to oblige the people to resort to the City for their purchases, had made an ordinance that no citizen should carry goods for sale to any fair or market out of the city. The assortment of goods in London (says Macpherson) appears to have been so commanding that those interested in fairs of Salisbury, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham, Ely, Coventry, and other places, and also the people of the country in general, were alarmed, and represented to Parliament the destruction of the fairs, and the great hardship of being obliged to travel to London to procure chalices, books, vestments, and other church ornaments, and also victuals for the time of Lent, linen cloth, woollen cloth, brass, pewter, bedding, osmond, iron, flax, wax, and other necessaries. The London ordinance was thereupon annulled by Parliament; and the citizens were permitted to go with their goods to the fairs and markets in every part of England. (“Hist. of Com.” i. p. 708.)
The act by which this was effected is 3 Hen. VII. c. 9—Freemen of London may carry their wares to any Fairs or Markets—which recites as follows:
“Humbly showen and prayen unto your Highness, your true & faithful Commons of this your Realm of England, That where the Citizens & Freemen of the City of London have used out of time & mind to go, carry & lede their merchandise & ware unto all Fairs & markets at their Liberty of the sᵈ City; now of late time the Mayor, Aldermen, & Citizens of the City of London have made & enacted an Ordinance within the same City, upon a great Pain, that no man that is a freeman or a Citizen of the sᵈ City shall go or come to any Fair or Market out of the same City of London, with any manner of ware or merchandise to sell or to barter, to this Intent, that all Buyers & merchants should resort to the sᵈ City to buy their ware & merchandises of the sᵈ Citizens & Freemen of London aforesaid, because of their singular Lucre & Avail; wʰ Ordinance, if it should hold as is before expressed, shall be to the utter destruction of all other Fairs & markets within this your Realm, wʰ God defend: for there be many fairs for the common weal of your said liege People, as at Salisbury, Bristol, Oxenforth, Cambrigge, Netyngham, Ely, Coventre, & at many other places where Lords Spiritual, & Temporal, Abbots, Priors, Knights, Esquires, Gentlemen, & your said Commons of Every Country hath their common resort, to buy & purvey many things that be good & profitable, as Ornaments of Holy Church, Chalice, Books, Vestments, & other ornaments of Holy Church aforesᵈ, & also for Household, as victual for the time of Lent, & other stuff, as Linnen Cloth, Woollen Cloth, Brass, Pewter, Bedding, Osmonde, Iron, Flax, & Wax, & many other necessary Things, the wʰ might not be forborn amongst your said liege People; but, by the sᵈ Ordinance every man willing to buy any of the premisses, shall be courted to come to the sᵈ City of London, to their importable Costs & Charges, wʰ if the sᵈ act should endure, shall grow great hurt & prejudice to the common weal of this your Realm, & shall cause many pernicious strifes & debates between your said liege people, & the said Mayor, Aldermen & Citizens in time to come, by the making the sᵈ Ordinance, the wʰ is thought may not continue & stand with good charity, the premisses considered, wherefore it may please your said Highness most noble & abundant Grace, in consideration of the Hurt likely to grow of & by the premises, that it may be enacted: