The Real Country: Market

Markets rose to become an important feature of many towns during the Middle Ages. Initially they provided the opportunity for farmers with excess to trade that for other produce or money, and for trades like bakers to ensure their supply of flour. By 1600, many across Europe were strictly regulated to prevent the involvement of intermediary traders, speculation and hoarding. In some, bells were rung to mark the start and end of trading, and doing deals outside that period was punishable by substantial fines. Both parties involved, producers and consumers, were keen to deal directly.

As some farms increased production to generate regular income from sales at market, samples of grain were brought for the buyer to inspect, and in larger towns and cities markets came to specialise in classes of produce, such as grain, fruit and vegetables, or meat. By the start of the nineteenth century, local laws and rules were relaxed to allow middlemen, dealers, who quickly became merchants, and often richer than either producer or consumer.

Smaller markets in towns remained more traditional, but most produce was then traded by increasingly affluent merchants in cities. In some European countries, the businesses of some merchants grew to enormous size, controlling commodity markets during the twentieth century.

Constant Troyon (1810–1865), On the Way to Market (1859), oil on canvas, 260.5 x 211 cm, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. Wikimedia Commons.

Constant Troyon’s magnificent On the Way to Market from 1859 shows a couple driving their few cattle and a flock of sheep, with wicker panniers being used to transport young lambs. Judging by the trees, this is set in the autumn, when their livestock were in peak condition.

Petrus van Schendel (1806–1870), Market by Candlelight (1865), oil on panel, 46 x 33 cm, location not known. Wikimedia Commons.

Petrus van Schendel’s Market by Candlelight from 1865 shows a town market in the late afternoon when the nights had drawn in. This young woman is selling small quantities of fruit and vegetables, probably from the family farm.

Léon Augustin Lhermitte (1844–1925), Apple Market, Landerneau, Brittany (c 1878), oil on canvas, 85.7 × 120 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA. Wikimedia Commons.

Smaller local markets were also dominated by seasonal produce. Léon Lhermitte brought this scene of an Apple Market, Landerneau, Brittany (c 1878) to life with his detailed realism. With a cart on the move in the background, and sellers ready with their scales, it shows the small-scale bustle of an otherwise quiet country town. Precious few men are in sight as these farmers’ wives sell small quantities of their fruit to locals.

Léon Augustin Lhermitte (1844–1925), Vegetable Market in St-Malo (1893), pastel, dimensions not known, Private collection. Wikimedia Commons.

Lhermitte’s later pastel of the Vegetable Market in St-Malo (1893) shows a wider range of farm produce, again largely being traded between women. Arcades like this were common alongside indoor markets selling anything from fish to crockery.

By this time, large cities such as Paris had famous markets.

Léon Augustin Lhermitte (1844–1925), Les Halles (1895), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Petit Palais, Paris. Wikimedia Commons.

This painting by Léon Lhermitte of Les Halles in 1895 shows the central market in Paris, described so well by Émile Zola in his novel Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris, 1873). This market is thought to have been founded in the eleventh century, and moved indoors into its halls in 1183. It grew steadily in size and importance as the main food market for Paris, and was housed in glass and iron in the 1850s. Most of its markets moved away in 1969, and the remains were demolished during the 1970s.

Larger markets gained their own indoor areas where regular traders could establish permanent stalls.

Harold Gilman (1876–1919), Leeds Market (c 1913), oil on canvas, 50.8 x 61 cm, The Tate Gallery (Presented by the Very Rev. E. Milner-White 1927), London. © The Tate Gallery and Photographic Rights © Tate (2016), CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported), https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gilman-leeds-market-n04273

Harold Gilman’s oil painting of Leeds Market, from about 1913, shows an everyday view of one of England’s northern cities. This building had only been constructed in 1901-04, and housed the fruit and vegetable stalls next to a grand central hall. This was a far cry from markets of just a few decades earlier, let alone those of the seventeenth century.