MARKETPLACE
- … And sold -
The Zoutleeuw cloths were not only intended to provide the local, urban population, since they were actively traded all over Western Europe. Duke Henry I of Brabant, for instance, granted the city in 1213 to organize an annual fair, which was an exceptional privilege only few cities were bestowed with. These fairs were commercial hubs and enticed a lot of merchants, stimulating local economy and generating considerable revenues through taxes. From the year 1383 the city council was even allowed to organize two four-day fairs a year, one in autumn and one around Whitsun. In addition, also weakly markets took place, supplying goods for daily city life. While the central square place is now known as the ‘grand market’, in the medieval period specific areas of the market were named after the products that were sold there: the Corn Market, the Cheese Market, the Fish Market, the Pig Parket and the Cotton Market.