Nearly every town of any consequence had a weekly or
semiweekly market, which was held in the market place or in the churchyard.
Marketing often occurred on Sunday, in spite of many laws against this
desecration of the day. Outsiders who brought cattle and farm produce for sale
in the market were required to pay tolls, either to the town authorities or
sometimes to a neighboring nobleman. These market dues still survive in the
"octroi" collected at the gates of some European cities.
"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.
