principal routes for Italian wares coming to the Champagne fairs, which fell from 17.2
bales per day in 1286 to only 11.6 bales per day for the 1022 days following 30
November 1294.84 A final quantitative indication is the hostel-rent paid by German
merchants to the fair-authorities for the St Remy fair in Troyes, which was 35 livres in
1285, 70 livres in 1286, but only 10 livres in 1320.85
The quantitative findings are also consistent with qualitative evidence reflecting a
contemporary perception in the period 1310-15 that the Champagne fairs had recently
declined. A document dated c. 1310 points out how severely the tax yield of the
Champagne fairs had fallen compared to a period before the existence of certain
named taxes which we know from outside evidence to have been introduced in 1292-
6.86 In a document dated c. 1315-22, the Champagne fair-wardens and French
merchants propose reforms that might halt the fairs’ serious decline.87 Together, these
various quantitative and qualitative sources support the view that trade at the
Champagne fairs was rising up to 1296, but underwent a severe decline thereafter.
Why did the Champagne fairs decline? Bautier advances two main explanations. First,
he argues that gold began to replace silver as the basis of international trade at the end
of the thirteenth century, causing fluctuations in these metals’ relative value and
harmful repercussions for money-changing and foreign exchange at the Champagne
fairs.88 But as Munro points out, the significant fluctuations in the relative values of
gold and silver occurred too late to explain the decline of the Champagne fairs. The
value of gold relative to silver peaked in 1330-2 and then fell sharply as a result of
sudden increases in Sudanese and Hungarian gold supplies on western European
markets.89 Fluctuations in the relative value of gold and silver cannot explain why the
decline of the fairs had become marked by 1315.
84 Own calculations, based on Schulte (1900), 164-5. Lacking disaggregated figures for the 1022 days
following 30 November 1294, we cannot judge when the worst decline occurred, and thus whether 1297
was the key date for this southern trade as it was for the trade from Flanders.
85 Schulte (1900), 165-6.
86 Bourquelot (1865), II:199 with n. 1.
87 Bourquelot (1865), II:306; Thomas (1977), 438.
88 Bautier (1953), 143-4.
89 Munro (2001), 419.
17
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