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84 by European traders. The head of the gild was a very important person, who was practically the head of the town, presiding over the gild-hall or centre of commercial administration. He, too, had the organisation of the great markets and fairs which were such a feature of the thirteenth century. The fairs depended for their success on the local trade of each centre. Here, in wooden booths arranged on either side the narrow streets, the men from the neighbouring villages displayed their wares. All shops were closed for the two or three weeks of the fair, and merchants from all parts of England and Europe exchanged their goods. It was dangerous work getting to and from these fairs, for the merchant class were unpopular, and heartily despised by barons and nobles.

"Nobles and gentlemen," they were wont to say, "do not carry packs, nor go about trussed with bundles. It belongs to beggars to bear bag on back, and to burghers to bear purses." Indeed, the young nobles were not above plundering markets and fairs, or waylaying the heavily burdened merchant to deprive him of his goods.

Nevertheless, it is to the merchant class of