12. Fairs lasted in some cases for only one day; in others for two, three, or more days, and sometimes as long as a fortnight, during which time, whether the inhabitants liked it or not, all trade had to be carried on only in the fair. That was one of the things which caused jealousy between the trading class and the religious houses, and often led to much ill-feeling and disorder.

13. Then, too, the king could grant to any person the right to go to any fair in the country without paying toll and duty. Of course those persons to whom the king granted this right had to pay him very heavily for this privilege, but you can see that it was quite worth their while. Foreign merchants and Jews [11] often had such privileges granted to them, and that partly accounts for the great dislike there was to these classes of people.

14. Many of the religious houses had entered into trade too, and very often the same privilege of putting their goods on the market was granted to them. Members of a religious house could often travel from place to place without having to pay tolls and duties which other folk had to pay. That might be quite right and reasonable when they were on some religious duty or errand of mercy, but when it was connected with buying and selling the goods produced or manufactured on the monastery lands it was "rather hard", as we should say, on the traders. The grievance grew up gradually, but it caused very often a bitter feeling between the towns and the religious houses in them.

Summary.—Fairs are usually now only for pleasure, though in many places, like Lincoln, Carlisle, and Barnet, they are important business meetings. The most important fair in the Middle Ages in England was at Stourbridge. It was a kind of Nijni-Novgorod.

The Fair was at first the "feast-day" of the parish church. It brought people together, and pedlars began to sell their goods on such occasions. Gradually the overlords regulated these meetings, and strangers had to pay toll. Kings granted the right to hold fairs to towns and religious houses, and the privilege was much sought after.

Freedom from paying tolls was also a privilege which the king could grant. It led in time to many squabbles between townsmen and the religious houses.

[CHAPTER XXXII]
MARKETS

1. One of the pleasantest sights, to a Londoner at any rate, is the market-place of an old-fashioned country town on a market-day. In many such towns the weekly market is held, in the open air, in the same place where it has been held for centuries. Probably none of the houses round the market square are as old as the market, but the buildings, altered and rebuilt as they have been, take us back several centuries, and speak of days long gone by.

2. A good many towns have built covered markets. Some of them are near the old market-place, but in other cases the market is now held in quite another part of the town. Cattle-markets, which used to be held in the open street in a busy thoroughfare, are now often held in places more suitable for that purpose some distance away from their old quarters.