"JUST PRICE"
People in the Middle Ages did not believe in unrestricted competition. It was thought wrong for anyone to purchase goods outside of the regular market ("forestalling") or to purchase them in larger quantities than necessary ("engrossing"). A man ought not to charge for a thing more than it was worth, or to buy a thing cheap and sell it dear. The idea prevailed that goods should be sold at their "just price" which was not determined by supply and demand but by an estimate of the cost of the materials and the labor that went into their manufacture. Laws were often passed fixing this "just price," but it was as difficult then as now to prevent the "cornering of the market" by shrewd and unscrupulous traders.
FAIRS
Besides markets at frequent intervals, many towns held fairs once or twice a year. The fairs often lasted for a month or more. They were especially necessary in medieval Europe, because merchants did not keep large quantities or many kinds of goods on their shelves, nor could intending purchasers afford to travel far in search of what they wanted. The more important English fairs included those at Stourbridge near Cambridge, Winchester, St. Ives, and Boston. On the Continent fairs were numerous and in some places, such as Leipzig in Germany and Nijni-Novgorod in Russia, they are still kept up.
FAIRS AND COMMERCE
A fair gave opportunity for the sale of commodities brought from the most distant regions. Stourbridge Fair, for instance, attracted Venetians and Genoese with silk, pepper, and spices of the East, Flemings with fine cloths and linens, Spaniards with iron and wine, Norwegians with tar and pitch from their forests, and Baltic merchants with furs, amber, and salted fish. The fairs, by fostering commerce, helped to make the various European peoples better acquainted with one another.
[Illustration: Map, TRADE ROUTES BETWEEN NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPE IN
THE 13TH AND 14TH CENTURIES]
DECLINE OF COMMERCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Commerce in western Europe had almost disappeared as a result of the Germanic invasions and the establishment of feudalism. What little commercial intercourse there was encountered many obstacles. A merchant who went by land from country to country might expect to find bad roads, few bridges, and poor inns. Goods were transported on pack-horses instead of in wagons. Highway robbery was so common that travelers always carried arms and often united in bands for better protection. The feudal lords, often themselves not much more than highwaymen, demanded tolls at every bridge and ford and on every road. If the merchant proceeded by water, he must face, in addition to the ordinary hazards of wind and wave, the danger from the ill-lighted coasts and from attacks by pirates. No wonder commerce languished in the early Middle Ages and for a long time lay chiefly in the hands of Byzantines [14] and Arabs. [15]