| | Magdeburg rights - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05) |
 | | As with most medieval city laws, the Rights were primarily targeted at regulating trade to the benefit of the local merchants and artisans, who formed the most important part of the population of many such cities. |
 | | Jews and Germans were always competitors in those cities, and as the Jews lived under special privileges and were not considered a part of the native population, not only were they excluded from participating in the benefits of the Magdeburg law, but their condition usually was rendered worse wherever it was introduced. |
 | | External merchants coming into the city were not allowed to trade on their own, but instead forced to sell the goods they had brought into the city to local buyers, if any wished to buy them. |
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