Czech Republic Denmark In Denmark, the concept of the market town () emerged during the Iron Age. It is not known which was the first Danish market town, but
Hedeby (part of modern-day
Schleswig-Holstein) and
Ribe were among the first. As of 1801, there were 74 market towns in Denmark (for a full list, see
this table at Danish Wikipedia). The last town to gain market rights () was
Skjern in 1958. At the
municipal reform of 1970, market towns were merged with neighboring parishes, and the market towns lost their special status and privileges, though many still advertise themselves using the moniker of
købstad and hold
public markets on their historic
market squares. Markedsdag Torvet, 1897-98.jpg|
Market day on the
market square in
Ribe in
Jutland, 1897–98 Halmtorvet c. 1900.jpg|
Market day on the
Haymarket in
Copenhagen, 1900 Marked Sorø-Torv 1915.jpg|
Market day on the
market square in
Sorø on
Zealand, 1915 Bornholm - Aakirkeby - markedsdag2.jpg|
Public market on the historic
market square in
Aakirkeby on
Bornholm, 2010 Torvet i Koge 2015maj30 0208 (18130948529).jpg|
Public market on the historic
market square in
Køge on
Zealand, 2015 Vor Frue Kirke og torvet.jpg|
Public market on the historic
market square in
Svendborg on
Funen, 2019
German-language area The medieval right to hold markets () is reflected in the prefix
Markt of the names of many towns in
Austria and
Germany, for example,
Markt Berolzheim or
Marktbergel. Other terms used for market towns were
Flecken in northern Germany, or
Freiheit and
Wigbold in
Westphalia. Market rights were designated as long ago as during the
Carolingian Empire. Around 800,
Charlemagne granted the title of a market town to
Esslingen am Neckar. Conrad created a number of market towns in Saxony throughout the 11th century and did much to develop peaceful markets by granting a special 'peace' to merchants and a special and permanent 'peace' to market-places. With the rise of the territories, the ability to designate market towns was passed to the princes and dukes, as the basis of
German town law. The local ordinance status of a market town (
Marktgemeinde or
Markt) is perpetuated through the law of
Austria, the
German state of
Bavaria, and the
Italian province of
South Tyrol. Nevertheless, the title has no further legal significance, as it does not grant any privileges. File:Berlin Markthalle VI Seitenfassade.jpg|Market hall,
Invalidenstraße,
Berlin, Germany File:Weeze Marktplatz.jpg|Market place,
Weeze, Germany File:Markt Schmölln.JPG|Market place, with fountain,
Schmölln, Germany File:Floridsdorf about 1895.jpg|Market place,
Floridsdorf, Austria,
Hungary In Hungarian, the word for market town "mezőváros" means literally "pasture town" and implies that it was unfortified town: they were architecturally distinguishable from other towns by the lack of town walls. Most market towns were chartered in the 14th and 15th centuries and typically developed around 13th-century villages that had preceded them. A boom in the raising of livestock may have been a trigger for the upsurge in the number of market towns during that period. Archaeological studies suggest that the ground plans of such market towns had multiple streets and could also emerge from a group of villages or an earlier urban settlement in decline, or be created as a new urban centre. Frequently, they had limited privileges compared to
free royal cities. Their long-lasting feudal subordination to landowners or the church is also a crucial difference. The successors of these settlements usually have a distinguishable townscape. The absence of fortification walls, sparsely populated agglomerations, and their tight bonds with agricultural life allowed these towns to remain more vertical compared to civitates. The street-level urban structure varies depending on the era from which various parts of the city originate. Market towns were characterized as a transition between a village and a city, without a unified, definite city core. A high level of urban planning only marks an era starting from the 17th-18th centuries. This dating is partially related to the modernization and resettlement waves after the liberation of
Ottoman Hungary. File:Auf einem ungarischen Fruchtmarkt. Originalzeichnung von Wilhelm Hahn.png|Hungarian fruit market, original drawing by Wilhelm Hahn, 1868 File:MarketMiskolc1884.jpg|Main market street in
Miskolc, 1884 File:Nagykanizsa, Heti vásár 1901.jpg|Heti vásár (weekly market) at
Nagykanizsa, 1901
Iceland While
Iceland was under Danish rule, Danish merchants held a
monopoly on trade with Iceland until 1786. With the abolishment of the trading monopoly, six market town (
Icelandic kaupstaður) were founded around the country. All of them, except for
Reykjavík, would lose their market rights in 1836. New market towns would be designated by acts from in the 19th and 20th century. In the latter half of the 20th century, the special rights granted to market towns mostly involved a greater autonomy in fiscal matters and control over town planning, schooling and social care. Unlike rural municipalities, the market towns were not considered part of the
counties. The last town to be granted market rights was
Ólafsvík in 1983 and from that point there were 24 market towns until a municipal reform in 1986 essentially abolished the concept. Many of the existing market towns would continue to be named
kaupstaður even after the term lost any administrative meaning.
Norway In
Norway, the medieval market town (
Norwegian:
kjøpstad and
kaupstad from the
Old Norse kaupstaðr) was a town which had been granted commerce privileges by the king or other authorities. The citizens in the town had a
monopoly over the purchase and sale of wares, and operation of other businesses, both in the town and in the surrounding district. Norway developed market towns at a much later period than other parts of Europe. The reasons for this late development are complex but include the sparse population, lack of urbanisation, no real manufacturing industries and no cash economy. The first market town was created in 11th century Norway, to encourage businesses to concentrate around specific towns. King Olaf established a market town at Bergen in the 11th century, and it soon became the residence of many wealthy families.
Import and
export was to be conducted only through market towns, to allow oversight of commerce and to simplify the imposition of
excise taxes and
customs duties. This practice served to encourage growth in areas which had strategic significance, providing a local economic base for the construction of
fortifications and sufficient population to defend the area. It also served to restrict
Hanseatic League merchants from trading in areas other than those designated. Norway included a subordinate category to the market town, the "small seaport" (
Norwegian lossested or
ladested), which was a port or harbor with a monopoly to import and export goods and materials in both the port and a surrounding outlying district. Typically, these were locations for exporting timber, and importing grain and goods. Local farm goods and timber sales were all required to pass through merchants at either a small seaport or a market town prior to export. This encouraged local merchants to ensure trading went through them, which was so effective in limiting unsupervised sales (
smuggling) that customs revenues increased from less than 30% of the total tax revenues in 1600 to more than 50% of the total taxes by 1700. Norwegian "market towns" died out and were replaced by free markets during the 19th century. After 1952, both the "small seaport" and the "market town" were relegated to simple town status. File:Fish market, Bergen, Norway (LOC).jpg|Fish market,
Bergen, Norway, c. 1890 File:Tollboden i Porsgrunn.jpeg|Market and customs house,
Porsgrunn, c. 1891-1910 File:Youngstorget Nytorvet med Møllergata 19 OB.F11527a.jpg|Market square, Youngstorget Nytorvet, c. 1915-20 File:Storfjord, Skibotn, Troms - Riksantikvaren-T441 01 0152.jpg|Norwegian market,
Skibotn in
Storfjord Municipality, Troms county, 1917 File:91 Trondheim, Torvet - no-nb digifoto 20150623 00200 bldsa PK16954.jpg|Norwegian Market, c. 1921-35 File:No-nb digibok 2012101006012 0047 1.jpg|Market (illustration), c. 1927 File:Roeros market.jpeg|
Traditional Winter market at
Røros, 2001 File:Tønsberg, Norway (5251993355).jpg|Market,
Tønsberg, Norway, 2010
Poland Miasteczko () was a historical type of
urban settlement similar to a market town in the former
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, often founded under
Magdeburg Law. Central
market squares with adjoining
tenements remain a common feature of medieval towns across Poland. After the
partitions of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the 18th-century, these settlements became widespread in the
Austrian,
German and
Russian Empires. The vast majority of
miasteczkos had significant or even predominant
Jewish populations; these are known in English under the
Yiddish term
shtetl.
Miasteczkos had a special administrative status other than that of town or city.
United Kingdom and Ireland England and Wales , 1810 From the time of the Norman conquest, the right to award a
charter was generally seen to be a royal prerogative. However, the granting of charters was not systematically recorded until 1199. Once a charter was granted, it gave local lords the right to take tolls and also afforded the town some protection from rival markets. When a chartered market was granted for specific market days, a nearby rival market could not open on the same days. Across the boroughs of England, a network of chartered markets sprang up between the 12th and 16th centuries, giving consumers reasonable choice in the markets they preferred to patronise. Until about 1200, markets were often held on Sundays, the day when the community congregated in town to attend church. Some of the more ancient markets appear to have been held in churchyards. At the time of the Norman conquest, the majority of the population made their living through agriculture and livestock farming. Most lived on their farms, situated outside towns, and the town itself supported a relatively small population of permanent residents.
Farmers and their families brought their surplus produce to informal markets held on the grounds of their church after worship. By the 13th century, however, a movement against Sunday markets gathered momentum, and the market gradually moved to a site in town's centre and was held on a weekday. By the 15th century, towns were legally prohibited from holding markets in church-yards. , c. 1568 Archaeological evidence suggests that
Colchester is
England's oldest recorded market town, dating to at least the time of the
Roman occupation of Britain's southern regions. Another ancient market town is
Cirencester, which held a market in late Roman Britain. The term derived from markets and fairs first established in 13th century after the passage of
Magna Carta, and the first laws towards a
parlement. The
Provisions of Oxford of 1258 were only possible because of the foundation of a town and university at a crossing-place on the
River Thames up-river from
Runnymede, where it formed an
oxbow lake in the stream. Early patronage included Thomas Furnyvale, lord of
Hallamshire, who established a Fair and Market in 1232. Travelers were able to meet and trade wares in relative safety for a week of "fayres" at a location inside the town walls. The reign of
Henry III witnessed a spike in established market fairs. The defeat of
de Montfort increased the sample testing of markets by
Edward I the "lawgiver", who summoned the
Model Parliament in 1295 to perambulate the boundaries of forest and town. , 1815 Market towns grew up at centres of local activity and were an important feature of rural life and also became important centres of social life, as some place names suggest:
Market Drayton,
Market Harborough,
Market Rasen,
Market Deeping,
Market Weighton,
Chipping Norton,
Chipping Ongar, and
Chipping Sodbury chipping was derived from a
Saxon verb meaning "to buy". A major study carried out by the University of London found evidence for least 2,400 markets in English towns by 1516. The English system of charters established that a new market town could not be created within a certain travelling distance of an existing one. This limit was usually a day's worth of travelling (approximately ) to and from the market. If the travel time exceeded this standard, a new market town could be established in that locale. As a result of the limit, official market towns often petitioned the
monarch to close down illegal markets in other towns. These distances are still law in England today. Other markets can be held, provided they are licensed by the holder of the Royal Charter, which tends currently to be the local
town council. Failing that, the Crown can grant a licence. at
Devizes, a market town in
Wiltshire As the number of charters granted increased, competition between market towns also increased. In response to competitive pressures, towns invested in a reputation for quality produce, efficient market regulation and good amenities for visitors such as covered accommodation. By the thirteenth century, counties with important textile industries were investing in purpose built market halls for the sale of cloth. Specific market towns cultivated a reputation for high quality local goods. For example, London's
Blackwell Hall became a centre for cloth,
Bristol became associated with a particular type of cloth known as
Bristol red,
Stroud was known for producing fine woollen cloth, the village of
Worsted, near
North Walsham became synonymous with a type of yarn;
Banbury and
Essex were strongly associated with cheeses. A study on the purchasing habits of the monks and other individuals in medieval England, suggests that consumers of the period were relatively discerning. Purchase decisions were based on purchase criteria such as consumers' perceptions of the range, quality, and price of goods. This informed decisions about where to make their purchases. , 1908 As traditional market towns developed, they featured a wide main street or central
market square. These provided room for people to set up stalls and booths on market days. Often the town erected a
market cross in the centre of the town, to obtain God's blessing on the trade. Notable examples of market crosses in
England are the
Chichester Cross,
Malmesbury Market Cross and Devizes, Wiltshire. Market towns often featured a
market hall, as well, with administrative or civic quarters on the upper floor, above a covered trading area. Market towns with smaller status include
Minchinhampton,
Nailsworth, and
Painswick near
Stroud, Gloucestershire. A "market town" may or may not have rights concerning self-government that are usually the legal basis for defining a "town". For instance,
Newport, Shropshire, is in the borough of
Telford and Wrekin but is separate from
Telford. In England, towns with such rights are usually distinguished with the additional status of
borough. It is generally accepted that, in these cases, when a town was granted a market, it gained the additional autonomy conferred to separate towns. Many of the early market towns have continued operations into recent times. For instance, Northampton market received its first charter in 1189 and markets are still held in the square to this day. The National Market Traders Federation, situated in
Barnsley,
South Yorkshire, has around 32,000 members and close links with market traders' federations throughout Europe. According to the
UK National Archives, there is no single register of modern entitlements to hold markets and fairs, although historical charters up to 1516 are listed in the
Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales. William Stow's 1722
Remarks on London includes "A List of all the Market Towns in England and Wales; with the Days of the Week whereon kept". File:Sketches in Wales - Holyhead market.jpeg|Holyhead market in Wales, woodcut, 1840 File:Birmingham Market Charters 1166 and 1189.jpg|
Birmingham Market Charters 1166 and 1189 File:Market cross, Lambourn - geograph.org.uk - 1652182.jpg|
Market cross,
Lambourn erected in 1446 File:Salisbury Market 20040724.jpg|
Salisbury chartered market File:Sedbergh charter market.jpg|
Sedbergh chartered market File:Market Square, Huntingdon - geograph.org.uk - 1429707.jpg|Market Square,
Huntingdon. File:Northampton Market Square Lights 9.jpg|
Northampton Market, established in around 1255 File:Altrincham, Charter Market - geograph.org.uk - 1313227.jpg|
Altrincham, Chartered Market File:Corner of the market square in Horncastle - geograph.org.uk - 1526435.jpg|Corner of the market square in
Horncastle, given its charter in the 13th century File:Farmers' market on Monnow Bridge - geograph.org.uk - 670778.jpg|Farmers' market on
Monnow Bridge, Wales, 2008
Ireland Market houses were a common feature across the
island of Ireland. These often arcaded buildings performed marketplace functions, frequently with a community space on the upper floor. The oldest surviving structures date from the mid-17th century.
Scotland In Scotland, borough markets were held weekly from an early stage. A King's market was held at
Roxburgh on a specific day from about the year 1171; a Thursday market was held at
Glasgow, a Saturday market at
Arbroath, and a Sunday market at
Brechin. In Scotland, market towns were often distinguished by their
mercat cross: a place where the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by a ruling authority (either royal, noble, or ecclesiastical). As in the rest of the UK, the area in which the cross was situated was almost always central: either in a square; or in a broad, main street. Towns which still have regular markets include:
Inverurie,
St Andrews,
Selkirk,
Wigtown,
Kelso, and
Cupar. Not all still possess their mercat cross (market cross). File:Kelso Farmers Market - geograph.org.uk - 1465782.jpg|
Kelso Farmers Market, Scotland with cobbled square in the foreground File:Plainstones - geograph.org.uk - 366901.jpg|Square in front of St Giles' Church, Elgin, is the site of a medieval market File:Orkney Auction Mart, Hatston Industrial Estate - geograph.org.uk - 235355.jpg|Orkney Auction Mart, Hatston Industrial Estate File:Weekly Farmers' Market at Castle Terrace - geograph.org.uk - 959626.jpg|Weekly Farmers' Market at Castle Terrace, Edinburgh == In art and literature ==