Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516

England’s markets and fairs underpinned one of the densest networks of trade in medieval Europe. The spread of those market institutions, which in England were well established by the eleventh century and then proliferated up to the fourteenth, is a key indicator of the development of a commercial society, and also throws light on patterns of settlement, economic specialisation, and the exercise of power. Yet no comprehensive catalogue of markets and fairs has been compiled. The project collected from various primary printed sources all evidence of enrolled grants and also identified prescriptive markets and fairs to create a gazetteer of markets and fairs for England and Wales up to 1516. This well-recorded set of markets and fairs provides an ideal test-bed for exploring more general issues concerning the interaction between public authority, law, and the growth (or otherwise) of trade. Such issues are currently of central importance for the study of society and economy in both the medieval and the modern world.