Market place

“ In the central market-place the traveller found crowds of the country-people grouped round the market cross with their panniers of country produce, and the housekeepers of the town busily cheapening their goods. ”

“ They carried the stamp of their environment: a dusty market-place, in which things made by more adept hands and brains are passed from wholesale place to wholesale place with sorry bargaining on the odd halfpenny. ”

“ The nature of an ancient market of class (a) , whither a citizen, say of Athens, or his chief slave, proceeded daily to make household purchases, differs little from the group of shops visited by the wives of the less wealthy citizens of modern states. In many places abroad, and not a few in England, actual markets still exist. It may be said that the huge collections of shops, such as the various co-operative stores, are only a revival of the old “market-place,” with its shops or booths gathered round a central area, adapted to the needs of modern big cities. ”

“ This market is a real live place, with its crowds of dark-haired women and children, the former clad in white or brightly coloured dresses and wearing graceful mantillas or shawls of varied hues, squatting upon the ground, surrounded by a medley of wares in the shape of fruits, meats, sweets, and vegetables. ”

“ As large and populous as is the market, it is conducted with the greatest order. There is a particular place appropriated for the sale of each class of goods: thus in one place may be seen spinners offering their yarn to those who weave; in another, weavers offering their cloths; then those who sell iron-ware, sitting in their own quarters, and next to them the dealers in beads and other ornaments: here is the meat-market, and there the wood-market, and the clothing-market, and the place for the sale of live-stock, etc. etc. One man manages the entire affair with the greatest ease. ”

“ This want, then, creates a class of retail-traders in our State. Is not 'retailer' the term which is applied to those who sit in the market-place engaged in buying and selling, while those who wander from one city to another are called merchants? ”

“ There is much to see in a market-place on a market-day. If the market-day is Saturday, you will find the place thronged with people, especially at night; and even quite small towns are then so crowded that you wonder where the people come from.
8. Fairs, in the Middle Ages, provided for much of the wholesale trade of the country, and markets for the retail trade. The two were very much alike, and the rights to hold an annual fair and a weekly market mostly went together. ”

“ The progress of this market, from what it was once to what it is at present, was strongly indicative of several other curious changes which were taking place in the country. The first achievement of commerce is the establishment of a market. ”

“ TRADE AND COMMERCE MARKETS Nearly every town of any consequence had a weekly or semiweekly market, which was held in the market place or in the churchyard. Marketing often occurred on Sunday, in spite of many laws against this desecration of the day. Outsiders who brought cattle and farm produce for sale in the market were required to pay tolls, either to the town authorities or sometimes to a neighboring nobleman. ”

“ In the Place d’Armes of this town, a little decayed market is held, which seems to slip through the old gateway, like water, and go rippling down the hill, to mingle with the murmuring market in the lower town, and get lost in its movement and bustle. ”

“ MARKET, a public place in a city or town, where live cattle, provisions, or other commodities are exposed to sale.
In the country, each article sold in markets must be deposited in the usual place appointed for its sale; but, in London, every shop is a kind of open market. ”

“ These lots are desirable because of their proximity to the market-place and the great thoroughfares, and also for the superior advantages which they allow for the establishment of their darling object,—'a retail store.' Property of this description has of late years become much enhanced in value, and its value is still increasing solely from the annually increasing numbers and prosperity of this and the next grade. ”

“ Society thrives on trade simply because trade makes specialization possible, specialization increases output, and increased output reduces the cost in toil for the satisfactions men live by. That being so, the market place is a most humane institution. ”

“ You watch the markets and take advantage of every fall in prices. Perhaps there is a small telegram in an out of the way place in your morning newspaper, which intimates that there is going to be a large shipment to market of potatoes, peaches, cabbages and so on. ”

“ By and by, when everybody has found his place and settled down to stay, the home market of the producer will not be as good as it now is nor the prices so high. But by then he will have placed himself in comfort, and need not worry over market prices. ”

“ Origin of Products Offered.—The ordinary purchaser at a roadside market likes to think that he is buying products raised or processed on the place where they are sold, and believes that he is thereby securing fresher and better commodities in which the seller has had an interest from planting time to harvest. Certainly some of the commodities sold should come directly from the tract where the market is located, and visual evidence should be given of that fact. ”

“ The thoughtful man becomes a hermit in the thoroughfares of the market-place. ”

“ In this practice is found the origin of the market, a medieval institution of which more will be said later. A market was a place appointed by the government, where bargains could properly be made; and only small exchanges of household produce could be made outside it, in the open country. Beginning in the need that was felt to prevent thieving it developed as a public institution, which the people found it profitable to extend as a means of collecting tolls and of regulating internal trade.
35. Society organized to exist with the minimum of commerce ”

“ These markets are held in the open air, and almost everything that can be named is to be bought. Bread, meat, general provisions and stores, drugs, dyes, woollens, calicoes, and other stuffs of all kinds, pots, pans, and household implements, the stalls being all mixed up together, so that the market has a look as though the tradesmen of the town had emptied the contents of their shops out into the plaza. ”

“ Here good Father Anselmo, of the Ursulines, pours out a benediction upon the market and the awaiting people. When the gates are opened the police take their stations and the market is ready to receive the buyers and sellers of the day. Through the open portals into the market flows a stream of laughing, singing men and women. ”

“ No open market with benches where she can sit and talk with the market women under their red umbrellas, and watch the lads go by: covered, dull grey places are our American markets compared with the bazar appearance of the meat and vegetable markets of Europe. ”

“ The market itself presents a beautiful scene. In the clear morning air of an autumn day the whole of the vast square is distinctly seen from one end to the other. The sky is red and golden with the newly-risen sun, and the rays falling on the fresh and vivid colors of the fruit and vegetables, brighten up the picture as with a coat of varnish. ”

“ There are many of our modern towns which have grown up in manufacturing districts, near great railway centres, or near docks and railway-stations, which have no market. Nearly all of our old towns, however small they may be, have, or at one time had, the right of holding markets.
10. Nobody can set up a stall in the market as he pleases. On the market-day you will see the beadle going about from stall to stall taking the toll from each stall-holder. ”

“ For instance, one can go to the trade centers for meats and vegetables, and purchase what he wishes or give his order. At the time corresponding to six o'clock of our time in the morning the meat and vegetable cars start on their respective routes, while the trade centers are open for personal callers. Marketing goes on at the market center while the cars are selling throughout the city. At nine o'clock the delivery cars leave the trade centers.
Similar to the manner of our world, each home is numbered in such a way that no two houses have the same designation. ”

“ The market has existed there from ancient times; and, no doubt, the fluttering of its cheap ribbons, its toys, and comestibles, have from age to age drawn thither the same crowd of purchasers which frequents its rows and alleys at this day. ”

“ Let him who has been familiar with your market for the last eight or ten years, compare its present abundant supplies of the finest fruits and vegetables, with the meager exhibition of former days; and, after all, let us be as sentimental as we will, a good market plays a very important part in the comedy of human happiness. Our merchants and mechanics too should remember, that these exhibitions are annually becoming more and more attractive, and that they are by no means inefficient in increasing the trade of the city. ”

“ Make a living? Yes. Vegetables? Of course. What are you going to do with them after you have grown them? Sell. Where?--Now listen. You must do as I did. Cut out the middle man. Sell directly to the consumer. Drum up your own market. Do you know what I saw from the car windows coming up the valley, only several miles from here? Hotels, springs, summer resorts, winter resorts--population, mouths, market. How is that market supplied? I looked in vain for truck gardens.--Billy, harness up your horses and be ready directly after dinner to take Saxon and me driving. ”

“ The main market is held in an open square, where the more common articles of coarse food, green corn, fruit, etc., and the light, strong, red earthen ware of the country are exposed for sale in the morning. ”

“ Some places had, and still have, more than one market a week. In many places the market has quite died out now, but in the early days one of the first steps of a "tun" towards becoming a "town" was to obtain the right to hold a market. ”

“ We enjoyed the confidence of the large importers and dealers and were in close touch with the consuming trade throughout the country. Our facilities for getting information as to stocks in the aggregate and individually were unequalled. The large consumers posted us in advance of what their requirements would be for certain periods. If the large city dealers were manipulating the market it was done through our office and we knew their plans. ”

“ Because they collect their stores from different quarters, in ignorance of the proceedings of one another, they have certain days set apart for holding a 251 kind of market, on which they meet together and take stock. What vast throngs are then to be seen hurrying together, what anxious enquiries appear to be made, and what earnest parleys are going on among them as they meet! We see even the very stones worn away by their footsteps, and roads beaten down by being the scene of their labors. ”

“ The location of the market has a great deal to do with its attractiveness. It is well to locate it a short distance from the house, so that it stands out as a market, and it should be placed back from the highway to permit motorists to drive off the highway in making stops for purchases. ”

“ Any live stock intended for a distant market was driven on foot across the country to its destination. Each town and city, therefore, drew almost exclusively for its supply from the immediately surrounding country. ”

“ Summary.—Markets in the open are often held on the same spots where they have been held for centuries. In some towns covered markets have been built, and more convenient cattle-markets. Different kinds of provisions are sold still in different parts of the market. In some places [Pg 128] the Market Cross is called the Butter Cross. Here public notices were given out, and ill-doers flogged, put in the stocks or pillory, or in the cage. Markets are still very popular, especially on Saturday nights. Stalls in a market have to be paid for, and the tolls are usually paid to the market beadle. ”

“ Certes I may speak of them right well as feeling the harm in that I am a buyer, nevertheless I speak generally in each of them.
To conclude therefore, in our markets all things are to be sold necessary for man’s use; and there is our provision made commonly for all the week ensuing. Therefore, as there are no great towns without one weekly market at least, so there are very few of them that have not one or two fairs or more within [Pg 42] the compass of the year, assigned unto them by the prince. ”

“ The market square is vast. It is wonderful the number of scenes enacting themselves at the same time. All the morning in another quarter men were trying on old hats and overcoats, and having the most amazing haggling over articles which are sold in London streets for a pot of ferns or a china butter-dish. ”

“ In balancing the various advantages offered by various sites for the establishment of a market, a preponderating advantage must always be a position lying in the midst [Pg 93] of several centres of production, and, since man is a land animal, these sites would normally lie inland. ”

“ The greater the number and revenue of the inhabitants of the town, the more extensive is the market which it affords to those of the country; and the more extensive that market, it is always the more advantageous to a great number. ”

“ Out of this necessity there have grown up a number of special organizations which exist for the special purpose of facilitating these readjustments. The market which brought the modern city into existence is one of these devices. More interesting, however, are the exchanges, particularly the stock exchange, and the board of trade, where prices are constantly being made in response to changes or rather the reports of changes in economic conditions all over the world. ”

“ Besides the great market, which gives its name to the dividing line of the city, and runs through its whole breadth, there are several others, less extensive perhaps, but all alike under cover, well adapted to the purpose, and boasting a due proportion of the abundance of good things, which, profusely displayed on all sides, give ready evidence of the agricultural wealth of the neighbourhood.
Numbers of the best market-farmers for vegetables, poultry, butter, &c. ”