Market day

[Frank Anthony]

To answer the subject of Roman market days, one would have to look at Roman documents, of which, I'm not familiar with any. However, the modern mind says they should be on different days, to avoid competition, but I don't think this to be the case. Major cities probably had smaller markets thought the week(or a permanent market), but most likely there was in fact, a "market day." While a variety of goods could be found at any market, most towns were famous for being production centers of specific goods. I don't believe someone going to the market would be like us today, expecting to get all they wanted from one weekly market, nor would someone selling, let's say cattle, would go to several markets thought the week(when selling his cows. When would he have the time to raise his cattle?) By having all markets on a specific day, you get customers who know what they want and go specifically for those items. If there are four towns in walking distance from me and I want to buy iron tools, I go to the town that specializes i iron tools this week. If I want to buy livestock, I go to a different town next week. Competition brings more people, which in turn, means it's easier to sell your wares.

It might be worth looking into the names of the days of the week. In Turkish, Pazar(bazaar in English) not only means "market" but is also Sunday. Sunday being 'market day'. Didn't Mercury have some relation to commerce. It could be that Mercurii could be a market day. One might have to research to see if records show most goods being sold then.

Markets and commerce are an interesting subject and it would be nice to find out more. These are just my thoughts on it but has anyone found any research papers on the subject.