ABSTRACT
The kernel of the antagonism, which did so much to sever the new towns from the past and to implant in them the germs of the future, seems to have been the vital matter of market control. In so far as the town was an economic group of traders and craftsmen, it naturally wished to secure a rate of exchange favourable to itself both with stranger merchants who visited its market and with the surrounding countryside. A lord of the manor, on the other hand, was interested mainly as a consumer. The purpose of a market for him was to bring within his reach numerous merchants with exotic wares which he could buy in exchange for the surplus products of his estate. The right of corporate responsibility which was thereby recognized gave to the town control over the market for its own ends.
