[Sca-cooks] define" market"``

[Terry Decker]

The Medieval usage of market is the most common of modern usages, "a public 
gathering for buying and selling mechandise."  While markets were used to 
sell food stuffs from the country in town, they were not limited to that 
purpose.  The great fairs of Medieval Europe were market fairs where one 
could buy goods from all over Europe, food, textiles, spice, pins, pots, 
etc.  While livestock was sold at fairs, more livestock was sold to the city 
slaughterhouses.

Specialized markets (fish, meat, etc.) were opened in some towns to isolate 
noxious odors and provide general access to specialized services such as 
river piers.  Some of the market streets occurred because guilds tended to 
group into a single parish for mutual support centered around the church 
that served the guild members.

Boroughs are essentially townships.  They began in Medieval times as a group 
of fortified houses that were granted special rights and privileges. 
Modernly, they are municipal corporations with privileges such as self 
government or they are a district which sends a member to Parliment.

A bazaar is a market street of stalls and shops most commonly in the Middle 
East.  The word derives from Persian into the Italian "bazarro."  The 
earliest usage of the word in English I am aware of is from Haklyut in 1599.

Bear

> >From my understanding of market is that it is a place of food produce
> vendors and the non food vendor areas were called bazaars.
> In England there were specific places established for the "market" 
> (boroughs
> [?]) Fish market, meat market...
> Somewhat like Faire means that you have livestock present for buying and
> selling and the festival for celebration.
>
> What was the Medieval use of the term "market"?
>
> De
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Market derives from the Latin "mercatus" whose root, "merc-" means
> merchandise.  The mercatus was a public place for the buying and selling 
> of
> goods, usually trade of foodstuffs that could not be produced in town for
> goods that could not be produced in the country.  All Roman cities had an
> area that served as a market and the concept and terminology was 
> transferred
> into Roman Europe.
>
> The greatest of the Roman markets, the Mercatus Traiani, was completed 
> about
> 110 CE and is the first of the megamart super malls.
>
> http://www.roman-empire.net/tours/rome/trajans-market.html
>
> Bear