Market town

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 All or part of this article may be confusing or unclear.
Please help clarify the article. Suggestions may be on the talk page. (December 2006)

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to hold markets. This distinguishes them from villages and cities. A town may be correctly described as a market town or as having market rights even if it no longer holds a market, provided the right to do so still exists. When the dutch hoe revolutionised agriculture in Europe, making crop production more efficient, it would be traded throughout the continent by the travelling market traders who were, doubtless, the reason why markets came to be held on different days of the week in each market town of a particular area.

Contents

[edit] England

In England, even up to the 19th century, the majority of people lived off the land, and relatively few in towns; therefore, farmers and their wives brought their produce to markets that were held after worship in the grounds of their church (it is believed that such markets were banned during the Reformation). Market Towns were an important feature of rural life, as some place names remind us: Market Drayton, Market Harborough, Chipping Norton and Chipping Sodbury — chipping being derived from a Saxon verb meaning to buy. The word "market" comes from the Latin "mercatus" which is also the root of "mercantile"; Market Towns were, in fact, mercantile towns.

Market towns often grew up close to fortified places, such as castles, in order to enjoy their protection, for example Framlingham in Suffolk. They tended to be located where transport was easiest: for example, at a crossroads or close to a river ford. When the railways came, market towns had priority and it appears to be unheard of for the station in a market town to be closed down, for example, under the Beeching axe. Hence, in Calderdale, West Yorkshire there are several market towns quite close together, if one goes by train; Halifax, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden where the Railway also owned all the even numbered buses.

There are instances of market towns making applications to the Monarch to close down the illegal market of another town because the Royal Charter is believed to have determined the distances between as one third/one third/one third - a third of the day to go to market, a third to sell one's wares - or to buy - and a third to travel home. Coastal market towns, such as Wisbech, often gave this distance the maritime title of "two leagues". The distances are still law in England today but other markets can be held provided that they are licenced by the holder of the Royal Charter which tends nowadays to be the local Town Council, failing that, a licence can be granted by the Monarch.

The most obvious feature of the traditional market town is a very wide main street or market place, with room for market stalls and booths to be set up on market days. A market cross often stood in the centre of the town, as a way of obtaining God's blessing on the trade. The cross was also a reminder "not to defraud by cheapening". This is universally taken to mean that market traders were dishonest, however, it is quite the reverse for it is a warning to townsfolk not to barter the traders so low as to make it not worth their while to return. The best remaining examples of market crosses in England are at Chichester and Malmesbury. In Scotland the crosses are called "mercat crosses". There would often be a market hall, with administrative quarters at first floor level, above the covered market. Market Towns with smaller status include Minchinhampton, Nailsworth and Painswick near Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Colchester claims to be England's oldest recorded market to close history.

A Market Town may or may not have rights concerning self-government, which is the usual meaning of "town". In England, towns with such rights are usually distinguished with the additional status of Borough. Although it is generally accepted that when a Town was granted a Market it, in effect, became a free person.

The National Federation of Market Traders (NFMT), situated in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, has 36,000 members and has close links with other market traders' federations throughout Europe. Many people believe that when buying in an English market they are taking a risk. This is not the case. All market customers have the same rights as they would when shopping with any other retailer and, therefore can buy with confidence.

[edit] German language area

The right to hold markets is similarly recollected in the names of many towns in Germany and Austria which have the prefix Markt, for example Markt Berolzheim or Marktbergel. Other terms used for market towns were Flecken in northern Germany or Wigbold in Westphalia. The status of market towns (Marktgemeinde, Market communities) is still in official use, but without legal significance in Bavaria, Austria, and Bolzano-Bozen (Italy).

[edit] Norway

In Norway the medieval market town (Norwegian kjøpstad from the old Norse kaupstaðr) is a Norwegian town which had been granted commerce privileges by the king or other authorities. The citizens in the town had a monopoly over the purchase and sale of wares and operation of other businesses, both in the town and in the surrounding district.

Market towns were first created in Norway in the 12th century to encourage businesses to be concentrated around specific towns. Import and export was to be conducted only through market towns to allow oversight on commerce and to simplify imposition of excise taxes and customs duties. It served to encourage growth in areas which had strategic significance, providing a local economic base for construction of fortifications and population for defense of the area. It also served to restrict Hanseatic League merchants from trading in areas other than those designated.

Norway included a subordinate category to the market town, the small seaport (Norwegian lossested or ladested), which was a port or harbor with a monopoly to import and export goods and materials in both the port and for a surrounding outlying district. Typically these were locations for exporting timber and importing grain and goods. Local farm goods and timber sales were all required to pass through merchants at either a small seaport or a market town prior to export. This incentivized local merchants to assure trading went through them, which was so effective in limiting unsupervised sales (smuggling) that customs revenues increased from <30% of the total tax revenues in 1600 to >50% of the total taxes by 1700.

Norwegian “market towns” died out and were replaced by free markets in the 1800s. After 1952 both the “small seaport” and the “market town” have simple town status.

[edit] Equivalents in other areas

The cadastral map of Polish market town Nowotaniec, 1852
The cadastral map of Polish market town Nowotaniec, 1852

[edit] References

A Revolution from Above; The Power State of 16th and 17th Century Scandinavia; Editor: Leon Jesperson; Odense University Press; Denmark; 2000