November 14, Street Commerce Day
2023/11/14
- More than 50 years of history of markets in Madrid
- The first was El Rastro, the most popular open-air market in Madrid
Like every year, Street Commerce Day is celebrated on November 14 and this day or commerce in general cannot be understood without taking into account the oldest form of all, street commerce.
To identify the first forms of commerce we must travel to the first human civilizations: the Sumerians and the Egyptians. Both civilizations have something in common: they developed around rivers, in this case, the Euphrates and the Nile.
In these civilizations, markets and trade routes were established that allowed the exchange of products on the banks of the rivers, allowing certain materials and objects to arrive from one area to another. This is a fundamental advance for the construction and development of these civilizations, since they shared new materials, products and foods along the rivers that were not available locally.
Since at least the 1st century BC, trade networks were generated throughout Asia that allowed street vending throughout the Asian continent and the rest of the planet. These are the Silk Road, a term coined in the 19th century and the best known, and the Spice Route.
Currently, we live in a globalized world in which items travel with some ease from one place to another and their origin is on these first routes. The main difference is that, today, items are what travel, while in the last century BC it was traveling merchants who loaded and carried new products and inventions from one place to another. The first street vendors, often on foot, traveled vast distances to carry exotic and valuable products from one place to another.
Street Commerce Day also cannot be understood without the history of Madrid's markets , which have been a commercial attraction in the capital's neighborhoods for more than 50 years.
The history of Madrid markets begins with El Rastro, the most popular open-air market in Madrid. This market was born around 1740 around the Matadero de la Villa and which went up the Ribera de Curtidores slope in the emblematic neighborhood of Lavapiés.
El Rastro began as a semi-clandestine open-air commercial format in which mainly second-hand objects were sold. Its name “Rastro” comes from the blood stains left by the animals when they were dragged down the hill. In the first third of the 19th century, the Rastro began to consolidate itself as Madrid's street market, which operated without fail every Sunday.
The group of markets in the city of Madrid has its beginnings in the first third of the 19th century; it is from 1975 onwards that they find their greatest boom in the districts of Madrid.
Currently, 15 of the 21 districts of Madrid have a weekly market. Outdoor markets have evolved, opening up a greater variety of products such as food, especially fruits and vegetables.
These markets are listed on their own website and in the Madtreet mobile application.