The Newgate Market in York has a strong flavour
of a medieval marketplace, surrounded by merchants' houses and
inns, and with church towers rising in the background. Ironically,
this was not in fact one of the medieval marketplaces but was established
in 1955. In the Middle Ages goods were bought and sold in a number of
locations, but particularly the Thursday
Market, to the west (now St. Sampson's Square), and Pavement,
to the south -- the latter a street market, that spread out into
adjacent streets; due to post-medieval redevelopment, neither of
these now has much that brings to mind a medieval marketplace.
My first experience of the Newgate Market was on a late afternoon
in November when the marketplace was shrouded in mist,
creating a blurring effect which only made it easier to imagine how a
marketplace might have looked in the fifteenth century.
Markets and commercial privileges were fundamental features of towns
(although not exclusive to towns), and the development of trade was a major
factor in urbanization. The marketplace was a focal point, both
economically and socially, of – and often a fairly central space (as
in York) in – the town. It might take the form of a large open space,
or be held along one or more streets of the town. Often certain types of
goods were sold in particular, set locations; e.g. in York, meat was
sold by local butchers in the Shambles (just
off the modern Newgate Market), although it was also sold in the
Thursday Market, while fish and poultry was sold on the Ouse and Foss Bridges.
Some characteristics of the medieval market have lasted into the twentieth
century. The selling of goods from stalls, in the open air, was typical of
much medieval retailing; the stalls in the Newgate Market seem to have
about the same length and width dimensions sometimes found specified for
medieval stalls. Although craftsmen would have workshops in their
residences, most selling of goods was done from through the ground-floor
front windows of houses, from temporary stalls outside the houses, or
in a marketplace (or similar area designated for retailing). Over time
some of these stalls became more elaborate and permanent fixtures, and
evolved into the modern shop. This conversion process often meant that
parts of the original marketplace were lost to the structures in process
of becoming permanent buildings.
The public character of retailing was important, particularly since some
bargaining would be involved. The marketplace brought retailing into a
venue where both community and local authorities could see that trading
was conducted fairly, with goods (above all, foodstuffs) freely available
to all-comers, of a satisfactory quality, and offered at a fair price.
Ordinances were made to restrict or prohibit retailing in private places
or outside normal market hours. The purpose of the marketplace was also
to allow producers of goods to sell directly to the public, without
intervention of middlemen who might seek a profit by raising prices or
lowering quality or quantity. Thus a set of ordinances made by York's
government in 1301 included the specifications that:
Middlemen could not sell food or drink for higher than the price they
bought them from the producers.
Fishmongers should sell fish only in the public market designated
for this, holding none back for private sale in their own houses, nor should
they resell fish they had bought from others; fish was not to be sold
between the hours of Vespers and Prime.
Fixed prices were set for various goods and anyone selling at a higher
price would forfeit the merchandize.
Of course, the fact that such regulations were necessary is itself witness
to contrary practices; profiteering is innate to commercial activity and
was not to be controlled.
