The town's river link to the surrounding agricultural land, and good road
connections to London in the south meant Cambridge has historically served as
an important regional trading post. King Henry I granted Cambridge a monopoly
on river trade, enabling this area of the economy to flourish. The town market
provided for trade in a wide variety of goods and annual trading fairs such as
Stourbridge Fair and Midsummer Fair were visited by merchants from across the
country. The river was described in an account of 1748 as being "often so
full of [merchant boats] that the navigation thereof is stopped for some
time". For
