Quotation from: Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period

Written by: Paul Lacroix


Fairs multiplied in the centre and in the south of France simultaneously.
Those of Puy-en-Velay, now the capital of the Haute-Loire, are looked upon
as the most ancient, and they preserved their old reputation and attracted
a considerable concourse of people, which was also increased by the
pilgrimages then made to Notre-Dame du Puy. These fairs, which were more
of a religious than of a commercial character, were then of less
importance as regards trade than those held at Beaucaire. This town rose
to great repute in the thirteenth century, and, with the Lyons market,
became at that time the largest centre of commerce in the southern
provinces. Placed at the junction of the Saone and the Rhone, Lyons owed
its commercial development to the proximity of Marseilles and the towns of
Italy. Its four annual fairs were always much frequented, and when the
kings of France transferred to it the privileges of the fairs of
Champagne, and transplanted to within its walls the silk manufactories
formerly established at Tours, Lyons really became the second city of
France.

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