Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/884

FAIR fiscation required the consent of five or six representatives of the merchant community at the fair. Ths effect of these great " free fairs" of England and the Continent on the development of society was indeed great. They helped to familiarize the western and northern countries with the banking and financial systems of the Lombards and Florentines, who resorted to them under the protection of the sovereign s "firm peace," and the ghostly terrors of the pope. They usually became the seat of foreign agencies. In the names of her streets Provins preserved the memory of her 12th century intercourse with the agents and mer chants of Germany and the Low Countries, and long before that time the Syrian traders at St Denys had established their powerful association in Paris. Like the church on the religious side, the free fairs on the commercial side evoked and cherished the international spirit. And during long ages, when commercial " protection " was regarded as indispensable to a nation s wealth, and the merchant was compelled to " fight his way through a wilderness of taxes," they were the sole and, so far as they went, the complete substitute for our modern free trade. Their privileges, however, were, from their very nature, destined to grow more oppressive and intolerable the more the towns were multiplied and the means of communication increased. The people of London were compelled to close their shops during the days when the abbot of Westminster s fair was open. But a more curious and complete instance of such an ecclesiastical monopoly was that of the St Giles s fair, at first granted for the customary three days, which were increased by Henry III. to sixteen. The -bishop of Winchester was, as we have seen, the lord of this fair. On the eve of St Giles s feast the magistrates of Winchester surrendered the keys of the city gates to the bishop, who then appointed his own mayor, bailiff, and coroner, to hold office until the close of the fair. During the same period, Winchester and Southampton also though it was then a thriving trading town were forbidden to transact their ordinary commercial business, except within the bishop s fair, or with his special permission. The bishop s officers were posted along the highways, with power to forfeit to his lordship all goods bought and sold within seven miles of the fair in whose centre stood " the pavilion," or bishop s court. It is clear, from the curious record of the Establishment and Expenses of the Household of Percy, fifth earl of Northumberland, that fairs were the chief centres of country traffic even as late as the 16th century. They began to decline rapidly after 1759, when good roads had been constructed and canal communication established between Liverpool and the towns of Yorkshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire. In the great towns their extinction was hastened in consequence of their evil effects on public morals. All the London fairs were abolished as public nuisances before 1855, the last year of the ever famous fair of St Bartholomew ; and the fairs of Paris were swept away in the storm of the Revolution. English Fairs and Markets. For the general reasons apparent from the preceding sketch, fairs in England, as in France and Germany, have very largely given way to markets for specialities. Even the live-stock market of the metropolis is being superseded by the dead-meat market, a change which has been encouraged by recent legislation on cattle disease, the movements of home stock, and the importation of foreign animals. Agricultural markets are also disappearing before the " agencies " and the corn exchanges in the principal towns, Still there are some considerable fairs yet remaining. Of the English fairs for live stock, those of Weyhill in Hampshire (October 10), St Faith s, near Norwich (October 17), as also several held at Devizes, Wiltshire, are among the largest in the kingdom. The first named stands next to none for its dis play of sheep ; whilst the second is the principal resort of the Scotch drovers and cattle-dealers, and supplies a large proportion of the fat stock required for the London market. Horncastle, Lincolnshire, is the largest horse fair in the kingdom, and is regularly visited by American and Con tinental dealers. The other leading horse fairs in England are Howden in Yorkshire (well known for its hunters), and Woolbridge (on Lady Day) for Suffolk horses. Exeter December fair has a large display of cattle, horses, and most kinds of commodities. Large numbers of Scotch cattle are also brought to the fairs of Market Harborough, Carlisle, and Ormskirk. Ipswich has a fair for lambs on 1st of August, and for butter and cheese on 1st of Septem ber. Gloucester fair is also famous for the last-named commodity. The guild or jubilee held at Preston, Lanca shire, every twentieth year, occurred last in 1862. Falkirk fair, or tryst, for cattle and sheep, is one of the largest in Scotland ; and Ballinasloe, Galway, holds a like position among Irish fairs. The Ballinasloe cattle are usually fed for a year in Leinster before they are considered fit for the Dublin or Liverpool markets. In 1790 there were 61,931 sheep and 8632 horned cattle exhibited at the fair, and for 1867 the returns, in the foregoing order, were 73,364 and 23,734. French Fairs. The most important is that of Beaucaire, once among the first in Europe. Its position on the Rhone (14 miles east of Nismes), and its connexion with the canals, still enable it to maintain a high rank among the Continen tal markets. It lasts from the 22d to the 28th July, and is visited by about 60,000 persons, from all parts of the Continent between Spain and the Levant; articles of all descriptions are sold at it. It is a rule that all bills due at this fair must be presented on the 27th and protested, if necessary, on the 28th. German Fairs. First, though no longer of world-wide importance, are those of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Frankfort- on-the-Oder, and Leipsic. Those of Frankfort-on-the-Maine begin on Easter Tuesday and on the nearest Monday to September 8 respectively, and their legal duration is three weeks, though the limit is regularly extended. The fairs of the second-named city are Reminiscere, February or March ; St Margaret, July ; St Martin, November. Or dinarily they last fifteen days, which is double the legal term. The greatest of the German fairs are those of Leipsic, whose display of books is famous all over the world. Its three fairs are dated January 1, Easter, Michaelmas. The Easter one is the book fair, which is attended by all the principal booksellers of Germany, and by many more from the adjoining countries. Most German publishers have agents at Leipsic. As many as 5000 new publications have been entered in a single Leipsic catalogue. As in the other instances given, the Leipsic fairs last for three weeks, or nearly thrice their allotted duration. Here no days of grace are allowed, and the holder of a bill must demand payment when due, and protest, if necessary, on the same day, otherwise he cannot proceed against either drawer or endorser. Russian Fairs. These are very numerous, the chief being those of Nijni Novgorod, of Irbit in Perm, Kharkoff (January and August). Poltava (August and February), Koreunais in Koursk, Ourloupinsknia in the Don Cossack country, Krolevetz in Tchernigoff, and a third fair held at Poltava on the feast of the Ascension. It is calculated that in 1851 the aggregate value of goods sold at the above named fairs amounted to nearly 120,000,000 silver roubles. The chief fair of Novgorod is attended by 100,000 to 130,000 persons from all parts of Asia and of eastern Europe. Thirty years ago the fair of Kiatcha, on the Russo- Chinese frontier, yielded one million sterling in revenue ;

but in 1867, according to Mr Lumley, secretary to the