Medieval market day: a lesson on guilds and trade

You will need

• Paper pennies: 10 for each student.
• Index cards for goods: each guild draws or writes its goods, one card per item.
• A sign for the market cross, and a table or two desks for each guild's stall.
• A few "short weight" cards for the market inspector to hand out.

Steps

• Explore (10 minutes). In pairs, students read the Market hall, Guild hall and Bakery pages and note one rule a medieval town had about trade.
• Form guilds (10 minutes). Groups of four or five choose a trade, such as bakers, weavers, smiths, potters or candle makers, and write three rules: one about quality, one about price, and one about who may join.
• Make goods (10 minutes). Each guild makes its goods cards and sets a fair price for each.
• Through the gate. Every trader pays one penny toll at the town gate to bring goods to market.
• Market day (15 minutes). Students take turns as traders and shoppers. A market inspector checks stalls and hands a "short weight" card to any trader who breaks a guild rule.
• Talk it over (10 minutes). Use the discussion questions below.

What students learn

• Why medieval towns had markets, fairs and gates with tolls.
• How guilds set prices and standards, and trained apprentices.
• Adding and subtracting with money, and what makes a price fair.
• How rules that protect shoppers today grew from old ideas like honest weights.

Questions for discussion

• Why did guilds set prices and check the quality of work?
• Whom did the guild rules help? Could they keep anyone out?
• Why did towns charge a toll at the gate? What did the money pay for?
• What rules protect shoppers today, and who checks them?

Questions students and teachers ask

Building pages to use with this guide

• Medieval KingdomMarket hallAn open hall on arches where traders sold their goods, with a meeting room upstairs.
• Medieval KingdomGuild hallThe meeting place of a guild, a group of craftsmen or merchants who set rules for their trade.
• Medieval KingdomBakeryA bakehouse with a big oven, where bread, the most important food of all, was baked every day.
• Medieval KingdomBlacksmithA forge where the smith heated iron until it glowed and hammered it into tools, nails and horseshoes.
• Medieval KingdomMarket crossA stone cross in the market square that marked where trading happened and reminded people to deal honestly.
• Medieval KingdomGatehouseA fortified gate between two towers, where guards decided who could come in and collected tolls.