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,[1] originating in local agricultural and stock fairs. Each fair lasted about 2 to 3 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"[2] 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,[3][4][5] dominating the commercial and banking relations operating at the frontier region between the north and the Mediterranean.[citation needed] The Champagne fairs were one of the earliest manifestations of a linked European economy, a characteristic of the High Middle Ages.[6]
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