ABSTRACT
Moroccan medinas, like other Arab-Muslim cities, confirm the relationship and close association between warehouse trade (wholesale) and retail trade, both located in specialized markets. This chapter explores both the spatial allocation of retail trade based in souqs, and the provision of accommodation to travelling traders in foundouks (caravanserai). The foundouks’ functional activities extended to include shops for wholesale merchants, from which retail flow to specialized souqs was managed. Changes to traditional commercial structures, such as local goods being displaced by Chinese products, the replacement of caravan convoys with faster methods of transporting merchandise, endangered the role and place of both the souq and foundouk. Through this exploration of several medinas in Morocco, the historical association is revealed between retail and wholesale trade, and between souk and foundouk. It is also possible to see the logic and determinism of their interaction, and the socio-spatial consequences of the modern-day divorce between souk and foundouk. At the end of the chapter, the controversies surrounding the recently undertaken restoration and rehabilitation of these commercial establishments are discussed.
