In medieval times, in order to trade, you needed to find or use: 

• Strong ships

• Traders - people to do the actual trading

• Something to trade - everyone wanted luxury goods, but what did Western Europe have to offer in return?

• Storage - a safe place to store your goods

• Marketplace - a place to offer your goods for sale

The Marketplace: While lords and kings considered the problem of how to trade profitably, serfs and peasants acted. The roads were filled with traders carrying goods to market. The marketplace was a local affair. It was held each week. Local goods were traded. In the beginning, people bartered for goods. 

Trade Fairs: Soon a new kind of marketplace appears - the trade fair. A fair was a big deal. A fair might last for two weeks. To hold a fair, you needed a grant from the king or from the fief owner - you needed permission. 

Often there was a tax that sellers had to pay to the landowner or to the king to be able to sell their wares. Sellers were in effect renting a space at the trade fair for a two week period. People probably fussed about the tax, but they had to admit it was fair, and they paid it. That gave the landowners a new form of income. 

The fairs were held outside, open to the elements. Goods were displayed in the rain, snow, sleet, and mud. Sellers had no choice really. They had paid a fee. They needed to sell their goods.  

The fair attracted pickpockets and other petty thieves. Some sellers rented space in homes to protect their goods. Some slept near their goods to protect them. Some people spent the night in inns, sheltered from the weather. 

Fairs were noisy, dirty, exciting places. Musicians, jugglers, and entertainers worked the fair for the coins tossed at them. Sellers hawked their wares. Buyers bargained loudly. The people loved them.

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