The Champagne fairs were an annual cycle of trade fairs which flourished in different towns of the County of Champagne in Northeastern France in the 12th and 13th centuries, originating in local agricultural and stock fairs. Each fair lasted about two to three weeks. The Champagne fairs, sited on ancient land routes and largely self-regulated through the development of the Lex mercatoria ("merchant law"), became an important engine in the reviving economic history of medieval Europe, "veritable nerve centers" serving as a premier market for textiles, leather, fur, and spices. At their height, in the late 12th and the 13th century, the fairs linked the cloth-producing cities of the Low Countries with the Italian dyeing and exporting centers, with Genoa in the lead, dominating the commercial and banking relations operating at the frontier region between the north and the Mediterranean. The Champagne fairs were one of the earliest manifestations of a linked European economy, a characteristic of the High Middle Ages.
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👉 Champagne fairs in the context of County of Champagne
The County of Champagne (Latin: Comitatus Campaniensis; Old French: Conté de Champaigne) was a medieval territory and feudal principality in the Kingdom of France. It developed on the rich plains between Paris and the border of the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th century. It became an economic hub of northern France and an international trade center in part due to the trade fairs instituted by Count Theobald II, and steady land clearing led to economic and urban growth. Count Henry the Liberal established the city of Troyes as the county's capital and expanded the state. The court of Champagne under Count Henry and Countess Marie saw a proliferation of literary authors. In the 13th century, Count Theobald III, Countess Blanche, and Count Theobald IV oversaw a centralization of the state. The county is noted for its support to the crusades and monastic foundations, especially those of the Cistercians, which originated within its borders. From 1234 the count of Champagne was also the king of Navarre, and the marriage of Queen Joan I of Navarre with King Philip IV of France led to the county being absorbed into the royal domain of the kings of France in the 14th century.
Champagne fairs in the context of Emporium (antiquity)
An emporium refers to a trading post, factory, or market of classical antiquity, derived from ἐμπόριον empórion, which becomes emporium in Latin. The plural is emporia in both languages, although in Greek the plural undergoes a semantic shift towards 'merchandise'. Emporium is a term that has also been used to describe the centres of heightened trade during the Early Middle Ages.
Emporia varied greatly in their level of activity. Some seem to have functioned much like the permanent European trading colonies in China, India and Japan in the early modern period or those of the mediaeval Italian maritime republics in the Levant. Others were probably annual events for a few days or weeks like the medieval Champagne fairs or modern trade fairs.