Hermes was the god of commerce in Ancient Greece and the messenger of the gods. Legend said he had a pair of winged sandals that let him fly about as swiftly as thought.
People in the Middle Ages did not often travel long distances, not only because transportation and infrastructure were underdeveloped, but also because bandits ran rampant. For that reason, people usually traveled in groups, especially for pilgrimages, religious holidays, and festival celebrations. After mass ended, people would stroll around the church, and markets emerged. These gradually became regularly held fairs, and as cities developed and commerce prospered, some fairly large trade fairs gradually appeared.
In the early twelfth century, the Champagne Fairs were merely farmers' markets. Located in northeastern France, with Germany to the east and Flanders to the north, they stood at the "crossroads" between the Netherlands and Italy, and between France and Germany. Eastern goods from Italy and merchandise from Northern Europe converged there, making them one of Europe's commercial centers.
This had once been territory belonging to the Counts of Champagne. Commercial prosperity inevitably drew the attention of bandits, so to ensure the safety of merchants and travelers at the fairs, the Counts of Champagne used part of the market taxes paid by merchants to train soldiers. The Fourth Crusade had been led by a Count of Champagne.
Around 1278, Italian fleets had once bypassed the Champagne Fairs along the old trade routes and reached Bruges, but it was not until a century later that fixed routes from Genoa and Venice came into operation.
The Flanders War of 1302 and the Hundred Years' War, which began in 1337, both contributed to the decline of the Champagne Fairs. Yet what had a more far-reaching impact was the king's control over them. After joining with the pope