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.
