What features did the medieval merchants have?

Answer 1

I am not entirely sure what you mean (not facialfeatures, surely?).

Like every other aspect of life during the very long medieval period, the outward appearance of merchants changed considerably over the centuries, following current fashions for the wealthy peasant classes.

During the 12th century and into the 13th, merchants usually only had a first name (a Christian name), followed by a word that either meant "merchant" or described the goods they traded. In about 1200 in the city of Canterbury, Kent, there were living in the affluent High Street various men by the names of:

• Goldwin Mercier (mercier or mercer = merchant)
• Odo Spicier (a spice merchant)
• William Hering (a fish merchant)

Other such descriptions are "skinner" for a leather merchant, "vintner" for a wine merchant, "pepperer" for a pepper merchant, "draper" for a cloth merchant and so on - at this time these were not surnames, simply descriptive words for the man's trade.

At that time (around 1200) merchants would often wear a full-length wool gown (gonne or gonnele) lined with fur in the winter, expensive tan or black leather turnshoes decorated with fine silk embroidery, a cap or hat and gloves in cold weather.

This description would not apply to a merchant of the 14th century, since fashions changed.