Fairs were instances where a market was held in a given city at periodic intervals and for set periods of time. During such times, buyers and sellers would do business together, articles would be exhibited for trade and auctions would sell articles for the purpose of charity. Livestock, poultry, dairy and farm products, and implements for agricultural use would be demonstrated in competitive exhibitions.
Famous medieval fairs took place in Beaucaire, Bordeaux, Troyes, Antwerp, Bruges, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Salamanca, Madrid and Novgorod. The system of troy weights for measuring gold and other valuable goods was derived from the fairs at Troyes in Frances.
The development of cities throughout the Renaissance period instituted the practice of selling and buying goods as a continuous activity, suspended during the Sabbath. This practice had long existed throughout Asia.
Every region has single or multiple markets within it that set the price of all the goods that are sold within the confines of that ‘market zone.’ Each location has a unique set of market prices depending on its location on the globe (the majority of places listed on the first three table pieces have such a price index, based upon that part of the world which has been
mapped.