Inter-relation between Institutionalization and Deinstitutionalization in the Medieval Market : a Case Study of Saint-Omer

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In this research, I consider the early urban regulation onto the market, particularly focused on the wine and fish market, through an urban legal register during the 13th century. Analyzing this source, the city well considered the real situation of commerce and imposed a minimum rule for a fair business. If the penalty against any infringement became more rigid than was previously stipulated, it is clear the city seemed only to sustain and improve the functions or "milieux" of market.As conclusion we have to explain these early regulations arranged by city government. We may do so in two different ways. First is an explanation by economist. Much of urban officers were themselves so great merchants that they had many interests in their own business. The staple-market institution was then confirmed as a "multiple punishment strategy" among merchants-governors of Saint-Omer, This explanation is just one by Avener Greif.Our second explanation can be done from a more historical point of views. This is our preparatory conclusion. The city government of the 13th century is a kind of newly emerging authorities. It had to care its own people. If it didn't restrict the commerce itself, it was decided to secure plenty of goods for its citizens. Both as dealer and as administrator, they knew both merits of commercial dynamics and demerits of the market principles. Commerce was dangerous as well as useful. They tamed the commercial movement in frame of market. Actively participated in administration of market, city government trained and shaped up the market as an institution highly organized. Then we might say also this commitment to the market could enforce the urban authorities quickly. And vice versa the urban market had irreversibly acquired its own "form", that we know now, owing to the medieval urban regulations.