ABSTRACT
Historians have only recently come to focus on what was a key element of exchange operations and market growth. The issue of food quality has attracted researchers, particularly with respect to the interplay between public health concerns on one hand, and on the other hand references to honesty in transactions and the management of legal conflicts and violations stemming from fraud or adulteration of goods offered for sale. In the last analysis, this is the alternative to question the notion of quality. The first elements of an answer provided here have been formulated from the analysis of merchant accounts and correspondence recorded in the context of the research programme, Marprof. The second possibility was always to trade with the same partners those whose reputation was assured. The quality is regulated by the offer and demand on a market. The network of sleeping partners was the basis of a solution to the issue of quality.
