What Lessons for Economic Development Can We Draw from the Champagne Fairs?



provided by repeated jurisdictional rivalries between town courts and the princely
prévots and fair-wardens, some serious enough to come to the Grand Jours de
Troyes.47 The mayoral courts held frequent sittings - sometimes as many as 46
sessions annually - and had strong incentives to offer attractive judicial services to
foreign merchants since court fees were the communes’ sole regular source of

48
revenues.

The church provided an additional set of public law-courts offering contract
enforcement to merchants at the fairs.49 A charter of 1153 granted the Priory of St
Ayoul high and low justice over the entire town and lordship of Provins for the first
seven days of the annual autumn fair, suspending all other jurisdictions (both princely
and municipal), and ordering the counts’ officials to swear obedience to the priory
during the seven days of its fair-jurisdiction.50 The priory’s tribunal, manned by a
bailiff, his deputy, a public prosecutor, and a clerk of the court, held daily sittings in a
chamber in the monastery buildings and was known for the swiftness of its judgments
and the modesty of its fees. Superficially, this jurisdiction might seem unimportant,
since it lasted only a week and excluded the fair’s core sales period. But the
commercial and judicial activities of the Champagne fairs operated continuously
throughout the year, so the priory’s tribunal could judge any business left over from
previous fairs.51 Certainly, the priory’s tribunal was popular among merchants and
enjoyed such a volume of business that it customarily prolonged its sittings up to
midnight on the final day of its jurisdiction, before the princely jurisdiction took over
the next morning. The priory’s jurisdiction at the Provins autumn fair was repeatedly
confirmed by rulers of Champagne over the centuries.52

A second ecclesiastical tribunal was provided by the abbey of St Pierre, which
exercised jurisdiction during the three days of cloth-selling at the Lagny fairs held
each January.53 During these three days, the abbots’ bailiff judged all conflicts

47 Arbois de Jubainville and Pigeotte (1859-66), VI:104; Bourquelot (1865), I:210, II:196; Terrasse
(2005), 45, 57, 61-3, 69-70, 77-9, 164, 192, 215, 219, 232.

48 Terrasse (2005), 70, 211, 227.

49 Goldschmidt (1891), 229-30; Bassermann (1911), 4-5; Davidsohn (1896-1901), 8-9; Bautier (1953),
123-4; Terrasse (2005), 78.

50 Bourquelot (1839-40), I:117-19, 210, 408; Alengry (1915), 114.

51 Bautier (1953), 113.

52 Bourquelot (1839-40), I:117-19; Alengry (1915), 114.

53 Bourquelot (1865), II:24-5; Alengry (1915), 113.



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