Medieval Towns: Part Two

Continuing on from Thursday's work, I have today looked at how buying and selling was organised in towns, what craftmen made during the medieval period and how they were organised in guilds and what guilds were and what they involved.



How was buying and selling organised?
In most towns, markets were held two or three times a week. People came from nearby villages to sell good they had produced such as milk, eggs, meat and vegetables as well as other things such as knives, pots and pans etc.

On market days, traders setup stalls- some sold food, others sold clothes, shoes, gloves, pottery etc. In small towns traders setup their stall in the centre of the town whereas in larger towns different parts of the town were used by traders who were selling the same things.

As towns grew bigger some traders built shops and generally shops which were selling similar things would be placed together. For instance bakeries would be put on Baker Street and meat sellers would be placed on Butcher Corner.

Fairs were special occassions and were held only once or twice a year and might last as long as a fortnight. People came from all over the place to buy and sell, to be entertained, to eat and drink and to meet old friends. Jugglers, acrobats, fire eaters and musicians performed in the streets and plays were put on in the market place.


Merchants also came to the markets and brought with them goods from other parts of the country such as wool and exotic goods- fine silks and fur, expensive wines and spices.



What did craftsmen make during the medieval period and how were they organised?


Many of the goods sold at markets and fairs were produced by craftsmen. These goods were usually made by hand using tools such as chisels and hammers.


The bigger a town grew the more crafts there was.


Most craftsmen worked in small workshops which were usually in the centre of towns. There was a usually a master craftsmen, one or two journeymen (paid workers) and one or two apprentices who were trained by the master craftsmen. After seven years of training apprentices were given a test and if they passed they became a journeymen (only after another seven years of working as a journeymen could they become a master). Women were not allowed to join most guilds, since most trades were believed to be only the work of men.


The craftsmen sold their goods from a stall in front of the workshop.


In order to prevent craftsmen losing customers to others who sold cheaper but poorer quality goods, craftsmen formed themselves into clubs known as 'guilds'. This meant that only members were allowed to work at the crafts and guilds made rules about the price and quality of goods and the training and qualifications of members.


The guilds also used their wealth to do wonderful things for the towns. They put on feasts, processions and plays. Guilds also looked after their members when they were sick or too old to work: they ran homes for old people and paid funerals of poor guild members.


All guilds had a trademark of their own so that they could easily be identified.



Keeping people out of the towns


Medieval towns had a problem- the whole point of a town was to allow people to trade freely, many of these people would come from far away to trade but the townspeople were determined to keep some people out.


Therefore most medieval towns introduced walls round them to keep people out and to protect themselves safe from invaders. Furthermore a curfew bell was rang every evening and the town gates were closed and everyone had to go indoors at this point.



Next time I will look at how I will teach this information to students and bring together the whole topic of medieval towns.