From the 12th century the life of European merchants is inextricably linked with fairs - annual auctions, which brought together merchants from different countries. In the XIII century. the most famous fairs were held in French Champagne. In the XVI century. famous Lyon fairs. Merchants were attracted to London by the fair dedicated to the feast of St. Bartholomew, and to Venice by the Ascension Fair. Here, merchants sold their goods and made purchases, learned about prices in different countries, exchanged coins of one country for money from another with money changers (future bankers), made deals and founded companies. What was not sold at the fair! Here is a list of purchases that one noble person ordered to be made at the Lyon Fair: “... spices, sweets, sugar, a barrel of malvasia, a bale of almonds, the same amount of rice and Marseille figs, a lot of salted fish for Lent - tuna, cod, dolphins and anchovies, saffron, three reams of thin white paper, 60 pounds of Parisian linen, braid, ribbon, needles, mirrors, collars for greyhounds, gloves for falconry ... ”Having finished all business, the merchant could rest: jugglers entertained the people at the fair and dancers, itinerant musicians and actors. There were fireworks and illuminations.
There were many educated people among the merchants. A merchant seriously counting on success had to know literacy and counting, foreign languages, have an idea about the laws and customs of other countries, and understand jurisprudence and maritime affairs. It is no coincidence that in the XIII-XIV centuries. Western European merchants created their own special, so-called guild schools. Being actively engaged in trade, merchants unwittingly helped the development of various sciences, especially geography. Almost all the first travelers were merchants. The Venetian Marco Polo, who traveled for many years in China and Central Asia, described his impressions in a book that was published in Europe in many languages. The Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin, the first European to visit India, left the most interesting notes - "Journey Beyond the Three Seas".
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By the late Middle Ages, trade began to be closely intertwined with financial and industrial activities. Many merchants, money changers, usurers have accumulated large sums of money. Often they opened the first bank offices, took money for safekeeping, issued loans, and through their agents transferred money to interested merchants from one country to another. The first banks arose in the cities of Northern Italy - in Lombardy. (Today, the word “pawnshop”, which refers to a modern credit institution, reminds of this.) Commercial and financial transactions began to be carefully drawn up, bills (written promissory notes) came into use. A wealthy merchant could not tremble on a ship or in a wagon, but avoid a tedious journey by staying in his office, from where he led his agents in several cities.
An enterprising merchant brings from afar or buys some raw materials (for example, wool) from local peasants and distributes them to artisans for processing. Having received the finished product (for example, fabrics), the merchant puts it on sale. Craftsmen, receiving raw materials and wages from the merchant-entrepreneur, gradually turn into hired workers, the merchant is more and more like a bourgeois. This is how scattered manufactory (because the workers are not concentrated in one room) is formed - the first capitalist enterprise.
At the same time, merchant guilds are being supplanted by trading companies - special organizations of merchants. Companies were also created in order to trade with the least risk. If a ship for the transport of goods was hired by several merchants together, then in the event of a shipwreck, the losses were laid out equally and were tolerable for each partner. Unlike guilds, companies were small in number and were created for a certain, sometimes short time.
The very first trading companies appeared in Italian cities (Genoa, Venice, Florence, etc.) as early as the 16th century. and consisted of only two people. A merchant or banker (often it was one person), the owner of money capital or a ship remained in his homeland, and the merchant-navigator transported and sold goods in a foreign land. 3/4 of the profit received went to the owner of the capital, and the merchant-navigator, who sometimes risked his life, could count on only 1/4 of it. If the capital was contributed by both partners, then the profits were divided in proportion to the contributions. Later, the number of companions increased. Often they were representatives of related families. Thanks to their large monetary funds, companies were included in banking operations, in industrial production.
