Abstract
The development of a dense network of formal markets authorized and supervised by central or local authorities
in late medieval northwestern Europe is closely related to the commercialization that characterized the
region in this era. Seen from the perspective of New Institutional Economics, these markets facilitated exchange
by reducing transaction costs in more than one way. Firstly, they lowered search costs by attracting concentrations
of buyers and sellers. Secondly, they reduced the security costs: as controlled environments for exchange
they offered protection to the person and property of buyers and sellers. The legal status of fairs in particular
facilitated contract enforcement, promoted a speedy adjudication of commercial conflicts and provided immunity
from arbitrary arrests. Finally, markets lowered information costs. They offered systems to promote
the transparency of price formation, varying from the regulation of food prices to prohibitions on speculation
and auctioning systems; they also allowed for better supervision of product quality, especially of perishable
foodstuffs; and they acted as focal points for systems for the control of weights and measures. Thus, late medieval
markets answered to what buyers and sellers required: they provided the basic conditions for accessible,
transparent and equitable exchange.
in late medieval northwestern Europe is closely related to the commercialization that characterized the
region in this era. Seen from the perspective of New Institutional Economics, these markets facilitated exchange
by reducing transaction costs in more than one way. Firstly, they lowered search costs by attracting concentrations
of buyers and sellers. Secondly, they reduced the security costs: as controlled environments for exchange
they offered protection to the person and property of buyers and sellers. The legal status of fairs in particular
facilitated contract enforcement, promoted a speedy adjudication of commercial conflicts and provided immunity
from arbitrary arrests. Finally, markets lowered information costs. They offered systems to promote
the transparency of price formation, varying from the regulation of food prices to prohibitions on speculation
and auctioning systems; they also allowed for better supervision of product quality, especially of perishable
foodstuffs; and they acted as focal points for systems for the control of weights and measures. Thus, late medieval
markets answered to what buyers and sellers required: they provided the basic conditions for accessible,
transparent and equitable exchange.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Weights and marketplaces from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern Period |
| Editors | Lorenz Rahmstorf, Edward Stratford |
| Place of Publication | Neumuenster |
| Publisher | Wachholtz Murmann Publishers |
| Pages | 311-322 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-3-529-03540-1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Keywords
- Middle Ages
- markets
- fairs
- transaction costs
- weights
- measures