CONCLUSION.
While the presentation of the preceding details has been essential to
the plan of this work, I desire, by way of appropriate conclusion, to
estimate the influence of the fair upon the development of commerce in
England, and, in some degree, also in Europe. I find a most comprehensive
review of this character from the masterly pen of Prof. James E. Thorold
Rogers, M.A., in his great work, the “History of Agriculture and Prices
in England” (1866, vol. i. pp. 142-4).
After pointing out that the port of Lynn, with the rivers Ouse, and Cam,
were the means by which water-carriage was made available for goods—an
important point; indeed it may be regarded as certain that in the middle
ages and later, no great fair could be held far removed from water
communication—he proceeds:
The concourse must have been a singular medley. Besides the people who
poured forth from the great towns—from London, Norwich, Colchester,
Oxford, places in the beginning of the fourteenth century of great
comparative importance, and who gave their names, or, in case certain
branches of commerce had been planted in particular London streets, the
names of such streets, to the rows of booths in the three-weeks’ fair
of Stourbridge—there were, beyond doubt, the representatives of many
nations collected together to this great mart of medieval commerce. The
Jew, expelled from England, had given place to the Lombard exchanger. The
Venetian and Genoese merchant came with his precious stock of Eastern
produce, his Italian silks and velvets, his store of delicate glass.
The Flemish weaver was present with his linens of Liege and Ghent.
The Spaniard came with his stock of iron, the Norwegian with his tar
and pitch. The Gascon vine-grower was ready to trade in the produce
of his vineyard; and, more rarely, the richer growths of Spain, and,
still more rarely, the vintages of Greece were also supplied. The Hanse
towns sent furs and amber, and probably were the channel by which the
precious stones of the East were supplied through the markets of Moscow
and Novgorod. And perhaps by some of those unknown courses, the history
of which is lost, save by the relics which have occasionally been
discovered, the porcelain of the farthest East might have been seen in
some of the booths.
Blakeney, and Colchester, and Lynn, and perhaps Norwich, were filled
with foreign vessels, and busy with the transit of various produce; and
Eastern England grew rich under this confluence of trade. How keen
must have been the interest with which the franklin and bailiff, the
one trading on his own account, the other entrusted with his master’s
produce, witnessed the scene, talked of the wonderful world about them,
and discussed the politics of Europe!
To this great fair came, on the other hand, the woolpacks, which then
formed the riches of England and were the envy of outer nations. The
Cornish tin-mine sent its produce, stamped with the sign of the rich earl
who bought the throne of the German Empire, or of the warlike prince who
had won his spurs at Crecy, and captured the French king at Poitiers.
Thither came also salt from the springs of Worcestershire, as well as
that which had been gathered under the summer sun from the salterns of
the eastern coast. Here, too, might be found lead from the mines in
Derbyshire, and iron, either raw or manufactured, from the Sussex forges.
And besides these, there were great stores of those kinds of agricultural
produce which, even under the imperfect cultivation of the time, were
gathered in greater security, and therefore in greater plenty, than in
any other part of the world, except Flanders.
To regulate the currency, to secure the country against the loss of
specie, and more harmlessly to prevent the importation of spurious or
debased coin, the officers of the king’s exchange examined into the
mercantile transactions of the foreign traders. To form a ready remedy
against fraud, the mayor sat at his court “of the dusty feet;” a mixed
multitude were engaged in sale or purchase; the nobles securing such
articles of luxury as were offered them, or which law and custom assigned
to their rank—their rich robes of peace, their armour from Milan, their
war horses from Spain. The franklin came for materials for his farm, and
furniture for his house; sometimes even to buy rams in order to improve
the breed of his flock. The bailiffs of college and monastery were busy
in the purchase of clothing. And on holidays and Sundays, some canon,
deputed from the neighbouring priory, said mass and preached in the booth
assigned for religious worship.
This is certainly a not over-coloured picture of the past of this once
mighty fair. Mr. Cunningham, in his most excellent work, “The Growth of
English Industry and Commerce” (1882, Cambridge University Press, p.
164), says:—“By far the greater part of the commerce of this country
was carried on at such fairs; and _Sturbridge_ Fair was one of the most
important in the whole kingdom, rivalling it was said the great fair of
Nijni Novgorod, as a gathering of world-wide fame.” And he adds by way of
note:—“In the eighteenth century it continued to be a most important mart
for all sorts of manufactured goods, as well as for horses, wool, and
hops.”
[Illustration]
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR.