_Attempted Limitation of the Commerce of Fairs._—1487. The Common Council of London, in order to oblige the people to resort to the City for their purchases, had made an ordinance that no citizen should carry goods for sale to any fair or market out of the city. The assortment of goods in London (says Macpherson) appears to have been so commanding that those interested in fairs of Salisbury, Bristol, Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham, Ely, Coventry, and other places, and also the people of the country in general, were alarmed, and represented to Parliament the destruction of the fairs, and the great hardship of being obliged to travel to London to procure chalices, books, vestments, and other church ornaments, and also victuals for the time of Lent, linen cloth, woollen cloth, brass, pewter, bedding, osmond, iron, flax, wax, and other necessaries. The London ordinance was thereupon annulled by Parliament; and the citizens were permitted to go with their goods to the fairs and markets in every part of England. (“Hist. of Com.” i. p. 708.) The act by which this was effected is 3 Hen. VII. c. 9—_Freemen of London may carry their wares to any Fairs or Markets_—which recites as follows: “Humbly showen and prayen unto your Highness, your true & faithful Commons of this your Realm of _England_, That where the Citizens & Freemen of the City of London have used out of time & mind to go, carry & lede their merchandise & ware unto all Fairs & markets at their Liberty of the sᵈ City; now of late time the Mayor, Aldermen, & Citizens of the City of _London_ have made & enacted an Ordinance within the same City, upon a great Pain, that no man that is a freeman or a Citizen of the sᵈ City shall go or come to any Fair or Market out of the same City of London, with any manner of ware or merchandise to sell or to barter, to this Intent, that all Buyers & merchants should resort to the sᵈ City to buy their ware & merchandises of the sᵈ Citizens & Freemen of London aforesaid, because of their singular Lucre & Avail; wʰ Ordinance, if it should hold as is before expressed, _shall be to the utter destruction of all other Fairs & markets within this your Realm_, wʰ God defend: for there be many fairs for the common weal of your said liege People, as at _Salisbury_, _Bristol_, _Oxenforth_, _Cambrigge_, _Netyngham_, _Ely_, _Coventre_, & at many other places _where Lords Spiritual, & Temporal, Abbots, Priors, Knights, Esquires, Gentlemen, & your said Commons of Every Country hath their common resort, to buy & purvey many things that be good & profitable_, as Ornaments of Holy Church, Chalice, Books, Vestments, & other ornaments of Holy Church aforesᵈ, & also for Household, as victual for the time of Lent, & other stuff, as Linnen Cloth, Woollen Cloth, Brass, Pewter, Bedding, Osmonde, Iron, Flax, & Wax, & many other necessary Things, the wʰ might not be forborn amongst your said liege People; but, by the sᵈ Ordinance every man willing to buy