page_title: Economy of Paris
section_title: Medieval Paris
hierarchical_section_title: Economy of Paris / Economic History of Paris / Medieval Paris
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Place du marché. Thomas III de Saluces, Le Chevalier errant, France (Paris), vers 1400-1405. Paris, BnF, département des Manuscrits, Français 12559, fol. 167 Русский: Рыночная площадь. Миниатюра "Le Chevalier errant", Франция, ок. 1400-1405. Paris, BnF, département des Manuscrits, Français 12559, fol. 167
context_page_description: The economy of Paris is based largely on services and commerce: of the 390,480 of its enterprises, 80.6 percent are engaged in commerce, transportation, and diverse services, 6.5 percent in construction, and just 3.8 percent in industry. Paris, including both the City of Paris and the Île-de-France region, is the most important center of economic activity in France, accounting for about thirty percent of the French GDP.
  The story is similar in the Paris Region, or Île-de-France, as a whole. 76.7 percent of enterprises are engaged in commerce and services, and 3.4 percent in industry. 59.5 percent of employees in the region are engaged in commerce, transport and diverse services, 26.9 percent in public administration, health and social services, 8.2 percent industry, and 5.2 percent in construction.
  The top ten French companies listed in the Fortune Global 500 for 2015 all have their headquarters in the Paris Region, nine within the City of Paris and one, Total S.A., in the Hauts-de-Seine Department, in the business district of La Defense. The fourth-largest company, Société Générale, has its registered headquarters in Paris and its operational offices in La Defense.
context_section_description: Commerce was also a major source of the wealth and influence of Paris in the Middle Ages.   In 1121, during the reign of Louis VI, the King accorded to the league of boatmen of Paris a fee of sixty centimes for each boatload of wine which arrived in the city during the harvest. In 1170, Louis VII extended the privileges of the river merchants even further; only the boatmen of Paris were allowed to conduct commerce on the river between the bridge of Mantes and the two bridges of Paris.  
  The large monasteries also played an important role in the growth of commerce in the Middle Ages by holding large fairs, which attracted merchants from as far away as Saxony and Italy.  The Abbey of Saint Denis had been holding a large annual fair since the seventh century; the fair of Saint-Mathias dated to the 8th century; The Lenit Fair appeared in the 10th century, and the Fair of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres began in the 12th century. 
  By the 15th century separate ports were established along the river for the delivery of wine, grain, plaster, paving stones, hay, fish, and charcoal.  Wood for cooking fires and heating was unloaded at one port, while wood for construction arrived at another.  The merchants engaged in each kind of commerce gathered around that port; in 1421, of the twenty-one wine merchants registered in Paris, eleven were located between the Pont Notre-Dame and the hotel Saint-Paul, the neighborhood where their port was located. 
  In the early Middle Ages, the principal market of Paris was located on the parvis, or square in front of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.  Other markets took place in the vicinity of the two bridges, the Grand Pont and the Petit Pont, while a smaller market called Palu or Palud, took place in the eastern neighborhood of the city. The most important market appeared in 1137 when Louis VI purchased a piece of land called Les Champeaux not far from the Place de Grève to create a grain market; over the course of the Middle Ages halls for meat, fish, fruits and vegetables and other food products were built around the grain market, and it became the main food market, and was known as Les Halles.  It continued to be the main produce market until the late 20th century, when it was transferred to Rungis in the Paris suburbs.  
  After the merchants, the second important business community in Paris were the artisans and craftsmen, who produced and sold goods of all kinds.  They were organized into guilds, or corporations, which had strict rules and regulations to protect their members against competition and unemployment.  The oldest four corporations were the drapiers, who made cloth; the merciers, who made and sold clothing, the epiciers, who sold food and spices, and the pelletiers, who made fur garments. but there were many more specialized professions, ranging from shoemakers and jewelers to those who made armor and swords. The guilds strictly limited the number of apprentices in each trade, and the number of years of apprenticeship.  Certain guilds tended to gather on the same streets, though this was not a strict rule.   The drapers had their shops on the rue de la Vielle-Draperie on the Ile de la Cité, while the Pelletiers were just north of them; the armorers north of the Châtelet fortress and east of rue saint-Denis.
  Money-changers were active in Paris since at least 1141; they knew the exact values of all the different silver and gold coins in circulation in Europe.  They had their establishments primarily on the Grand Pont, which became known as the pont aux Changeurs and then simply the Post au Change.  Tax Records show that in 1423 the money-changers were among the wealthiest persons in the city; of the twenty persons with the highest incomes, ten were money-changers, Between 1412 and 1450, four Changers occupied the position of Provost of the Merchants.  But by the end of the 15th century, the system of wealth had changed; the wealthiest Parisians were those who had bought land or positions in the royal administration and were close to the King. Some money-changers branched into a new tr
caption: A Paris market, from Le Chevalier Errant by Thomas de Saluces (about 1403)
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