Con-artists or entrepreneurs? Fripperers and market space in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Paris

Medieval prohibitions abound against artisans selling stolen or bloodied goods, and refabricating used clothing to deceive customers. Such prohibitions have led scholars to suggest the secondhand trade in the Middle Ages was one of poverty or marginality. Yet, if we read trade regulations carefully and alongside other types of sources as well as consider the context of a late medieval economy undergirded by credit, a complex image of fripperers materialises. This was a trade populated by both men and women of various means vying with each other and other merchants and artisans for control of retail space. This paper works to uncover the economic and cultural standing of fripperers in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Paris and the commercial space of Les Halles.